Since you asked...

We had sort of been kicking around the idea of getting a dog. Vaguely. Non-commitally. Uninspiredly.

Then, Jackson had to go and rebuild all our gates last weekend. Dog-proofed 'em while he was at it. Put springs on 'em so the kid with zero short term memory that lives at our house would not let an animal out every time she went through the gate and forgot to close it behind her.

Naturally, the yard was screaming for occupancy at this point.

As for Jackson, he is a semi-reformed pet rescuer. When he worked in Big Flat City he often spent his lunch hour hanging out at the humane society and he always adopted the sick, infirm or socially challenged animals because he felt soooo sorry for them. He's such a marshmallow!

We had sort of planned on adopting a puppy from someone he knows at work, as soon as the puppies were weaned. But on Sunday, Jackson had a relapse. He noticed cars at the local Humane Society when he drove past on his way to the grocery store. They were closed, but he stopped anyway and gave 'em his own puppy dog eyes. They let him in to look at the animals.

He came home empty handed, believe it or not. But he convinced Katie and I we needed to go look at the puppies on Monday after work. Granted, he didn't have to work very hard to convince us. Trust me when I tell you there was no way on God's green earth that Jackson was coming home empty handed a second time.

Katie named her Zoe. She's a some kind of a German Shepard mix. She likes cat food, rawhide and ankle biting. Her talent is crossing the living room floor without falling on her face more than once and she feels like global warming is the most significant challenge facing the next generation.