Hello "Gumbo"

Sutherlan has been wanting a puppy for a long time now and we finally surprised her with one on Wednesday. The picture above is her first time seeing him. Brandon let him run into the house and surprise her! She was so excited and I think a little startled!! She then told Brandon, "You got me a puppy!!" "I finally got a puppy". We had told her that we would keep "Speedy" until we got a puppy and when we let Speedy go, she was really upset. We found this little guy from a breeder in Perry. Brandon liked the name "Gumbo", but we wanted to let Dylan see him first before we named him. When Dylan came home from school, he was so excited. He was a little nervous to touch the puppy at first (he's not much of a dog person), but said he was not afraid of this puppy because it was his puppy and he couldn't be afraid of his puppy. Both the kids are in love with him (me too) already! I think he really likes Brandon too. He gets so excited when Brandon comes into the room and follows him around the house.

I took him to the vet yesterday to get him checked out and he weighs 4lbs. He goes back to the vet on November 7th for his third round of shots. The breeder had already started paper and crate training him, but unfortunately he has NOT been using the paper. He is sleeping in his crate at night great! He whines for just a few minutes and then we don't hear from him until morning when we get up. He is very playful and loving! We think he is very happy to be here with us!! We all decided together that "Gumbo" was the perfect name for him!

Saying Goodbye to "Speedy"

It has been so long since I have posted anything that a lot of you probably didn't even know we had a pet turtle for a while. Our neighbor found this little turtle in his backyard (well, actually his dogs did) and he brought him over to see if we wanted to keep him. The kids decided to name him Speedy (we weren't sure if it was a boy or girl, but we called it a he). We looked up turtles on the internet and how to care for them. Sutherlan loved him! Unfortunately, Speedy began trying to escape his cage because it was clear and he would spend hours climbing the sides. We felt so bad for him that we decided he would be best in our backyard behind the fence where there are woods and water. We decided to set Speedy free today and although it was hard for Sutherlan and I to see him go (because we had become so attached to him), we felt he would be happier in his natural habitat. You never know, Speedy might just hang around out back, but I bet he will be happier there and not in a little plastic cage!

We will miss you, Speedy!!!