We've been thinking about getting a second dog for a while. We obviously love Maggie a lot; she's a great dog and she brings us lots of happiness. But after thinking about it for several months, we determined that we have room for a second one, and we had plenty of love to go around.

We decided that we'd try to adopt a rescue Boxer. Boxers are lots of fun in pairs; they actually box each other, living up to the name. And it's really sad that people don't care for their dogs like they should. Dogs shouldn't have to be neglected, mistreated, hurt, or killed because people are too stupid to know what kind of a commitment a dog is and are too irresponsible to live up to the commitment once they've made it.

Oops, I don't mean to preach...

So the plan has been to find a female non-puppy Boxer we might want to adopt, have her stay with us for a week to see if she can stand Maggie's energetic playfulness, and see how it goes.

On Tuesday, we got a call from Sherri from Boxer Rescue, who told us that a new Boxer had just been taken in by their group. The dog was getting spayed that afternoon, but we could go by the vet and have a look at her before she went to her foster home.

She'd had her surgery before we got there, and she was still pretty drugged up. But a few things were obvious:

• She's a little Boxer. Maybe 50 pounds, kinda short legs, not very long.
• Her face looks a lot like Maggie's.
• She's had a litter of puppies, probably not long ago.

We learned that her name is Pearl and that she'd been turned in at the city shelter. Her owner had moved and gave her to his brother, who then decided that he didn't really want a dog anyway. At least he didn't abandon her.

must...stay....off.....soapbox......

So, we called Sherri and told her we wanted to do a week trial with Pearl. We were able to pick her up Wednesday afternoon.

At first, Pearl wasn't very active. I think it was the shock of the shelter, then the surgery, then the new place. But over the next two days, we were able to see that she's a wonderful dog.

She loves to cuddle and is always ready to give sugar (i.e. "doggie kisses"), and she enjoys playing with Maggie. They like to play fight, play tug with the rope bone, chase each other around the yard, and squabble over who gets to play with any given toy. She's got a big bark for a little girl, and she has plenty of drool available, but she's a real sweetheart.

After the weekend, we decided we wanted to keep her!

There's some paperwork to do, some additional dog stuff to buy, and we'll be taking her to our vet for the New Patient Visit, but Pearl now has a home.

This means I now have at least twice the material for my obsessive discussions of our dog(s). I mean, just look at this picture:



There's plenty to be happy about there...