Monkey Thoughts

Two weeks ago, the husband and I were out to breakfast and I mentioned how I just want to look at dogs afterwards. He was all for it and started constructing fantasies of us surprising the kids with a dog, so I stressed again- I just wanted to look. We had entertained the thought of getting a dog, but having grown up with dogs and therefore enjoying the ease of care that having a cat requires I wasn't overly eager to take on that commitment. We drove out to the local SPCA to look at the dogs up for adoption. One in particular caught my eye. She was a lab/retriever mix and seemed really happy to see us, but her kennel-mate snapped at her and she retreated away from the fence to mope. I went to the counter to get more info on her, just out of curiosity, and was told that she was about a year old, housebroken, good with kids, good with other animals- and she had been adopted TWICE by the same woman (and subsequently returned each time). The reasoning was that she was "wild". Of course, having grown up with as many as six dogs at any given time, I was accustomed to all sorts of temperaments as well as some training, so the wildness didn't phase me. After much discussion, we decided we couldn't let this poor dog spend another night in the pound and decided to adopt her. She has been so loving and goofy, and reminds me a LOT of a previous dog I had as a teen. Sure, she gets overly excited and needs some leash training, but nothing so horrible that it couldn't be overcome with some training.
Anyway...here is the newest member of the family, our dog Bella: