Meet Zoey...

Yes, we did it again. The spontaneous decision to bring home a dog. I admit this has not worked out well for us in the past. This is due to a pretty big deal breaker...I don't like animals. However, the other three members of my family LOVE animals. I am outnumbered and do not want to pass my phobias on to my girls, so we've been gearing up for a pet for awhile.

After a delicious lunch at Red Lobster with my family and mom-in-law on Valentine's day, Olivia suggested we go to the pet store to "browse." In the little glass room was the cutest little puppy I'd ever seen. I know, even I thought the dog was cute! We were doomed. I actually held her and, what can I say, I fell in love! My mother-in-law just laughed at me because I was HOLDING a dog! The girls were ecstatic that their mom was getting along with any animal, so they jumped at the opportunity and began to beg. However, they had another type of small dog at their other location, so Michael insisted that we go look at him first. He was NOT cute. I was back to my original "YUCK!" mode. The girls were near tears as we got back in the car and Michael and I discussed waiting for a pet until summer.

There had been another couple seriously looking at our future pet, and they had been due to come back in our absence. So, Olivia, desperate to prey upon my weakness for that particular pup, suggested that we go back and if she was there, it was meant to be ~ if not, we'd wait. For some stupid reason, we agreed to her proposal. (She'll be a wonderful member of my debate team later due to her talent for persuasion.)

The rest is obvious. The dog came home with us after I spent the rest of MY Christmas gift money (I was hoping for a Juicy Couture handbag :) on our new baby. The car ride home was spent choosing a perfect name and we settled on Izzabella/Izzy. This was her name for nearly two days, until my sister came to meet her and was VERY disappointed that we had named our dog what she hoped to name a future daughter. I'd been there before when my brother named his dog Abby, and we all know that I DID have that future daughter, so he changed his dog's name to Ellie. So, after another HUGE debate session with suggestions from Michael that included: Wart, Taco, Cat, Gravy, Bird, and other lovely words...it came down to Lucie or Zoey. We tried Lucie for an hour and then settled on Zoey.

She is doing awesome with potty training, only two accidents that were really our fault for not paying attention to her cues. I am determined to make this work for my girls...and I actually love this little baby puppy! (I know, it's really weird!)