We thrive with five!

We have added a new member to our family, and his name is Owen. Last night my husband and I drove to Greensboro to the Guilford County Animal Shelter and met Jordan. There were so many other dogs at this shelter, but he stood out from all the others.

Jordan was taken in by the shelter in July of 2008, but he is only 11 months old. He spent 8.5 months at the shelter, almost his entire life! The people that worked and volunteered at the shelter were so excited that he was going home with us. They had wonderful things to say about him, and we could not believe that he had not been adopted sooner.

We saw Jordan online this past weekend. We loved his look (he reminds us of Omie) and the way the shelter described his personality. The only reason he was not adopted is because he is shy and wary of new people. This did not bother us in the least as we could understand why the little guy might be afraid of new people after such a life.

So, we fell in love with him at first sight and brought him home. We both knew that he was not going to be "Jordan". The name just didn't fit him, but it took us over an hour to come up with the right name. I came up with Ripley, and really liked it, though it didn't seem perfect. We were tentatively calling him Riply and still trying to brainstorm for new names when Zach suggested Owen. I told him that I liked it, but that I wanted to think about it. It only took me about five minutes to realize that our new pup was completely Owen. There could not be a more perfect name. My husband pulled the name up from when we had to read A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving in an English class we shared. Owen Meany was a small, odd character, and it fit.

Owen's cute little profile.

The deer in the headlights look, and those ears! :)

He has stolen my heart.

Owen's ears are huge, and we love them. He is only 20 lbs, less than half of Omie's weight. When Omie went to the vet yesterday, she weighed in at 41 lbs. She was only 33 lbs when we adopted her. Somehow Penny has lost a pound since we adopted her, and is now 32.5 lbs. Owen is our new little peanut, but we plan to put some meat on his bones, he's just too skinny. He is almost Omie's personal "Mini Me".

Omie had never looked fat until now.

Our family count is now at seven - we two, and five furry kids!