Zoe

An early birthday present for Hope - her very own, REAL doggy.

Hope has become quite the lil momma over the last 72-ish hours. She holds Zoe almost constantly and carries her around like a baby. It reminds me of the relationship I had with Pepper Sr. when I was about Hope's age.

{Love the boots.}

Before we got Zoe, I told Hope that she would have to take the puppy to go potty and clean up after her and feed and play with her. Of course she agreed. She has held up her end surprisingly well. I thought for sure she would disregard what ever instruction I may have given to her before the puppy and just assume that "mom would handle it". However, she's taken ownership quite nicely, and I see some pride in her eyes as she takes care of her puppy. If only she was old enough I could hand off the night time puppy responsibility to her. That would be great.

Zoe is wonderfully patient and rolls over on her back when she sees Hope coming like she knows she's about to be picked up. She is playful, but not overwhelmingly so and she is small enough that she can't knock the girls over.

Ever since "the incident" several years ago, involving a puppy, Hope's ear, and a few stitches...*sigh*...Hope has been a little skittish around dogs. I was concerned that she might be too scared of any dog that we adopt and it would take some time for her to get used to it, but she took to Zoe right away.

One of Zoe's favorite things to do is chase the kids around the backyard. At first Eden was scared, but then she realized they were playing and couldn't stop giggling.

Zoe likes to bury her nose in the grass and pull clumps of it out at the roots. The kids think this is rather silly, but I think I may teach her to weed the garden. :)

Eden picked some flower weeds for the dog. I think she might have eaten the top off one. Zoe...not Eden.

Zoe enjoys being outside but isn't out for long before looking for shade to rest in. The trampoline is the perfect place. Also perfect cause the kids like to play under there already.

She's a snugly little thing. On the way home from picking her up she sat in Noah's lap and fell asleep while Hope sang her a lullaby. So far she has been sleeping with me at night, simply because I am not used to waking up several times during the night anymore and I don't want her whining to wake Ben and the kids. The good news is that Eden slept with me for at least the first year and a half of her life so I am accustomed to sleeping with little wiggly beings. I'm devising a plan on getting Zoe to sleep in her kennel throughout the night though. I just have to psych myself up to lose some sleep or perhaps sleep on the couch for a few nights. Hm, why did we get a dog again???

Originally we were looking to get a Border Collie. After a couple weeks of looking they just seemed too expensive and we were worried about their herding instincts especially around Miss Chevious who could actually use some herding. Anyway, I finally found this little puppy. The mother is a husky mix and the father is a chihuahua/dachshund mix. Ben wasn't thrilled with the idea of a small breed dog, but I think after seeing Hope with her he is more than fine with it.

She has multi-colored eyes. One of them is mostly blue with a brown spot on the bottom and the other is half green/brown half blue. It is a little weird, but also pretty cool. I've never seen a dog with multi-colored eyes before. Hopefully, it isn't something to be worried about.

Noah lovingly gave Zoe one of his stuffed animals to use as a chew toy. She also likes to chew on our carpet and anything else that might be lying on the floor. So are the puppy days, I suppose. On the other hand, Muffin has barely shown his face since Zoe's arrival. Guess we'll have to work on that.