Our new addition

Mrs. Kwazy and I regrettably had to put our dog down last fall. She was loving little Shit-tzu the wife brought with her into our relationship. She was about twelve, and had a wonderful life until old age caught up with her. Now that several months have passed, we came to the decision we're ready for another dog.

We've been hitting the area humane societies for the past few weeks, and today found our new buddy. He is a 10 month old mixed lab breed, chocolate in color, but with longer than typical fur. We're scheduled to adopt him tomorrow at noon providing our application is approved. He seems perfect. Very friendly, but not a jumper or a humper. Gentle, but affectionate. He's going to be a big boy...already about 65 pounds. I've been kicking myself in the butt for the past three hours for not snapping a picture with my phone.

He has been named Marshall by the kennel staff, but as that's the wife's step dad’s name, we'll probably be changing it (he only had it for ten days anyway). That brings us to question #1:

Is Pavlov too cliché of a name for a dog? Our other ideas are AaCL (pronounced Axel...Almost a Chocolate Lab) and Guiseppe...Joe for short (our tomcat is named Luigi, Lou for short).

Second question is if anyone has any advice for bringing a large, adopted dog into a home...it's both welcome and appreciated. I've previously had a German Shepard, so I've experience with large dogs. That said, this one is much younger, but of a good temperament. I want to make sure that it's transition is as smooth as possible. The above-mentioned rather dominant and clawed cat is my biggest worry.

On a sadder note, the shelter we're adopting from has 13 pitbulls in need of homes. Authorities in the county two Northeast of us broke up a large dogfighting organization last month. All of the fighting dogs we're deemed too dangerous and had to be euthanized. The 13 at the shelter represent the 16 "bait" dogs used to train the fighters (three have already been adopted). I desperately wanted to adopt one, but our relatives threatened a boycott of our house if we did. Instead, we sponsored one of the dogs for guaranteed and paid adoption. Hopefully, most of the remainders will find homes. However, the cards are stacked against them.

The guy that ran the ring is in jail and facing up to twenty years. Hopefully, he'll serve at least some of it. I would gladly let him off the hook for the time if I could have him in a private room for ten minutes with a pair of lineman's pliers.

Anyway, happy thoughts! I'll post pics tomorrow!