Sparky; the Dog.

How the kids ever convinced us to buy a dog is beyond me.  But I ran them up north past Oakland to buy it, and bought the crate for the dog on the way home, and now we are a dog family.

Cleaning the kids' room reminded me how destructive the little dog was when he was more puppyish.  Legless barbies and other chewed toys.  He had his own chew toys, but they were never good enough for him.  You wouldn't belief how many bottle nipples and binkies we had to replace because the the little terror.  It seemed if the fell on the floor, they were chewed. He seems to have gotten past that stage.  Maybe that's because we decided he was an outside dog.

But now there's the mess outside.  He was a tendency to get into the trash (which we put outside because the the one-ear-old terror inside.  His favorite thing to chew it seems are bad diapers.  I hate having to pick up trash all around the house, but I do it all the same.  This week we may have found an answer.  We have brought the big trash can that goes to the road right outside the back door, and everything goes directly into it.

And then there's the dog getting away if he wants.  It's hard to let him out to play, because he will take off down the street, having gotten through the front fence.

He does have some redeeming factors.  He is a cute little guy, and man can he run and jump.  He loves to run around the front yard, chasing a ball.  And he can jump a lot higher than you would think.