Our New Farm Dog!

Meet Dexter.  Isn't he adorable?  I am admittedly not a dog person.  But, just look at that face? 

We toyed with naming him "Ocho" since he is our 8th attempt at having a dog in our 11 years of marriage.  It's true, we've not always had the best luck with dogs.  This is why until last Thursday, we had all kinds of animals running around here and not a single dog.  Dexter, so far though, has been the perfect dog.

He runs around the yard, keeping stride with Girl 2. Sleeps (but doesn't poop) on the porch (not on my outdoor bed).  Stays out of my garden.  Rarely barks.  Doesn't pester the other animals.  Doesn't chew things up or drag them around the yard. 

I should probably stop with the list, or I may discover him missing from the backyard.

Anyway, he turned up at PawPaw's house last week, and they couldn't run him off.  He doesn't belong to any of their neighbors.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for a rescue!

Now, for those of you who may judge us because of our 7 previous dog attempts  (e.g.  Jenny.  Justin.), let me quickly catalog and attempt to explain them here.

1.  Oxford, the Basset Hound puppy.  We bought him as newlyweds living in an apartment in Hot Springs just after we graduated from college.  Turns out that our landlord had a "No Dogs" policy.  Oops.

2.  Kate, the Dachshund.  We bought Kate soon after we moved to New Orleans.  Kate ate her own poo.  That really should be enough explanation, but we put up with her until Girl 1 was born and Kate was chewing on Girl 1's baby toys with that nasty poo-eating mouth.  Our priorities had changed, and she had to go.

3.  Rugby, the Dachshund.  We bought Rugby to keep Kate company in New Orleans.  He was the dumbest dog I ever met.  He would repeatedly fall off the porch because he forgot where the steps were.  When Kate left, Rugby left, too.  Don't judge -- they went to a good home.

4.  Sunny, the yellow Labrador.  John's parents used to breed Labs.  Sunny was a puppy from the last litter John's mom helped birth.  She came to live with us shortly after we moved back to Arkansas -- Girl 1 was 2-years-old.  Sunny was an adorable little terror of a puppy.  As an example of her antics, she once tore a hose into such small pieces that we only ever found a few pieces of it.  The rest were ripped so small that they just blended in with the grass.  She is still around but lives at my father-in-law's house.

5.  Sherman, the French Bulldog who needed a home.  He came home with us for a weekend as a trial.  Because of his breathing problems, he really needed to be an inside dog, and we just weren't prepared to have a dog in the house, so he went to another home after our weekend trial run was over.

6. Daisy Dog.  Daisy was a shelter dog who had been badlly abused.  We got her as a playmate for the girls when they were 3 and 5 years old.  Daisy was terrified of us.  We gave it a year, but she never warmed up to us.  We couldn't physically catch her.  She was basically a wild animal in our backyard.  We couldn't catch her to give her flea and tick treatments.  She tore my garden up by the roots, and I couldn't put her in the pen to keep her out of it because I couldn't catch her.  She ended up going back where she came from.

7.  Daisy Dos.  We tried again.  I guess we just didn't learn our lesson.  Daisy Dos came from Melbourne's foster care program for dogs.  Little Boy was newly adopted at the time and had come from a foster home with dogs.  We thought we would try again, so we brought Daisy Dos home on trial basis only.  She jumped up on the kids and knocked them down so much that they were afraid to go into the backyard to play.  She went back into foster care.

So, Dexter makes #8.  I'm hopeful that this sweet dog will work out for us.   :)

For those who think we just can't handle animals, I would mention that our chickens and goats are probably the most spoiled farm animals around.  Additionally, I offer this sweet kitty in our defense. We got Aslan when we'd only been married a couple of weeks and still lived in an on-campus apartment (that did not allow cats -- please don't tell).  She is very old and losing her hearing now, but she still lives on/under our front porch.  :)