A Dog Named Jasper...

...or Jack. The above-30 folks in our household call him Jasper. The younger-than-10 group calls him Jack. So we said his name could be Jasper Jack Fisher, but Josiah corrected us by saying that his name is Jasper but his nickname is Jack. When we asked Josiah why he wanted to call him Jack, he said earnestly, "Because I've always wanted a friend named Jack!" :)

So...who is he? And what is he doing in our house?

He is a completely adorable puppy that Jeff brought home this evening. I saw Jeff walking up the steps from the garage with something in his arms--something strange, something different than what he normally carries. It took a few seconds for me to realize what it might be--and then, all dinner preparations were ceased as I quickly went over and sat on the floor, joined by the boys, to hold and cuddle and pet this beautiful little creature--so soft and shiny!

We had "talked" about getting another dog, our discussion being spurred by the fact that our 10-doors-up neighbor's dog had puppies (11 of them--can you imagine?!) and we could have one if we wanted it. But I didn't realize we were really getting one...and that we were getting it TODAY! It would be a little like Jeff coming home after work one day and finding me holding a child--our new child. "Well, dear, we talked about adopting a child. Here he is!" ;)

I never know what Jeff is going to do. He keeps me on my toes. He's very good for me. And this has happened before--in fact, the day we got our other dog, Molly, was very similar to this one, except that he called from work that January (2006) day and said, "What would you think if we got a dog?"

"Well, OK, that would be nice. Maybe when it's spring..."

"Great, I'll bring her home."

Um, thanks for the advance warning. ;)

Anyway, Jasper is the sweetest puppy--much, much calmer than Molly was as a puppy (although she was very sweet, too!). He's shy and a bit of a scaredy cat--rather, scaredy dog. Our Plan A for getting another dog was to have him in the pasture with Molly, but it seems like it will take some time for the dogs to get used to each other. Plus, Jasper is small enough to slip through the fence easily, so we don't want to put him up there now. For tonight, he's snoozing on our porch, after having spent some time indoors this evening. I always said that I never wanted an indoor dog, but I don't know. He sure is a sweetheart... :)