Adding to the family

Right now, there are four people who live in our house (me, Mr. LT, Burger, and Zippy) and two dogs who have become outdoor/garage dogs since we've lived in Southern California.

I always think that the outdoor/garage dogs thing makes them sound neglected. Which they aren't. My "office" is in the garage/workshop area, and Mr. LT spends a considerable amount of time being a guy in the garage/workshop. Zippy is outside so much of the time it's insane. So the dogs usually have people around to keep them company. And to lean on - our dogs find that putting their chin on our legs while panting slightly (to better share their oh-so-lovely breath) is an entertaining way to spend some time each day.

Our two dogs are Sandy, a neurotic seven year old lab/shepherd mix who was apparently abused before we got her when she was seven months old. Her tail had been broken, and she was (and is) a very shy, sort of socially awkward dog. She does not like baseball caps or blue coveralls on people and will bark at anyone who dares to wear such things. Shelby is our three year old chocolate lab - we picked her up duing the short time when we lived in Arkansas. She is still quite the sweet puppy, although she's long since outgrown our laps.

Because things aren't busy enough for us, or something, we're getting a third dog. Natalie says her name is Cocoa (she's the chocolate baby in the above photo), the rest of us are still debating names. I do think she'll end up being Cocoa, but I think that's a dorky name for some reason. I want to name her Nadia, Rufus, or Spike. Cocoa is a result of Mr. LT's peanut butter experiment earlier this summer

(hmmm... reviewing that post, I note that I didn't mention the peanut butter that was, um, used as incentive to hook the dogs up. So yeah.) - nine puppies resulted from that union, and Cocoa was the second born. The photos here were taken about a week and a half ago, and I think the puppies have doubled in size since then - they now easily jump over the wall keeping them in in these photos. Thank heaven our neighbor was smart enough to add the hinged part or there'd be puppies everywhere all the time!