Piggy has had almost a year and a half as an only dog, and she's been spoiled rotten.
Up until a few months ago, it hurt too much to think about "replacing" our eldest kid. Then, one day The Hubbs and I looked at each other and both admitted we couldn't stop thinking about getting Pig a new companion.
On July 4th, we adopted a sweet little seven-month-old American Staffordshire terrier. We named her Liberty Louise - Libby Lou for short. We fell hard and fast. And then, about two days after the adoption, there was an incident. My heart cracked in two and I sobbed uncontrollably when Grumma and I returned her to the shelter.
Fast forward to Halloween. I had been browsing the shelter's web site periodically, and there was a pup who had caught my interest a couple of weeks before. She would be available on Halloween, and she was on my mind. They called her Ingrid, and her brother was named Bogart.
After planning to sleep in and have a lazy morning, The Hubbs and I both happened to wake up at 7:00. I asked if he wanted to meet her. After just a little bit of hemming and hawing, we decided we'd try.
We carted the whole family down to the shelter again and entered with the bar set low. Our name was the first to be called, and we were the only ones on the list who were there to see Ingrid when the shelter opened.
We walked into the puppy room and locked eyes with the cutest little thing in the place. I picked her up. She snuggled in and kissed me. I asked The Hubbs if he wanted to hold her, and she reached for him as I handed her over.
The first time they went nose to nose, she and Piggy trembled together. It was loud and chaotic, and these two immediately seemed to be kindred spirits.
All five of us went outside to get better acquainted in the light rain. The Princess regarded this tiny little thing and gave almost no reaction one way or the other. It's always so hard to tell with her. She's always had big dogs in her life, and she tends to ignore them for the most part. We figured it was a good sign that she was not showing any signs of agitation.
We were hooked.
The shelter is forty-five minutes from home. Two hours after leaving the house as a four-person family, we returned home with our newly added fifth member.
She is about eleven weeks old, and the consensus is that she's probably a Jack Russell terrier mix of some sort.
But Ingrid just didn't strike us as a fitting name for this sweet little thing.
World, meet Eleanor, also affectionately known as Ellie Ellie Smelly Belly.
We took her trick-or-treating with her human sister who dressed up as a puppy. We walked, we played, we met lots of new people, smelled lots of new smells, and melted lots of hearts.
We dressed up as Piggy.
We bonded.
We proved that The Princess is not always indifferent to dogs, and we bonded some more.
We became the little spoon.
And we took a picture that tugs the heartstrings. If you know us in real life, you'll understand why immediately. This is amazingly similar to one of our favorite pictures of Bubbles and Piggy when Piggy was about this age.
We've played and slept and melted hearts. We've shown how easy and right it can be.
We've become family.
