Topo!

I would like to introduce the newest member of our family, Topo, pronounced Toe Poe, as in Topographic Map.

Here is a long story with a happy ending. Since the hike with Nelius, Tyler has been wanting to replace Issy with a new hiking partner (a tough task since she such a great hiking partner). Tyler has been visiting the humane society on a regular basis and had our friend who works there keeping an eye out for a dog that would make a good hiker. Tyler went into the shelter in north Phoenix early this week to check out a couple candidates in the "Hospital Kennels" (which means they had just come in to the shelter, and weren't available for adoption, or for the public to see). In the hospital kennel Tyler spotted a 2 month old Border Collie puppy that had come in as a stray. It looked perfect, but he wanted to check the other shelter first.

Fast forward two days. Tyler went into the south Phoenix shelter and found another dog that seemed like a perfect fit. We even went through the dog introductions with this candidate. Over a night of "thinking about it", we went in yesterday morning to pick up our new dog. To our surprise and disappointment it had been adopted the night before while we were "thinking about it". Unbelievable. The lady at the front, who knew Tyler from his frequent visits said there were 7 more dogs coming in from North Phoenix any minute and that we were welcome to wait for them and see if any of those appealed to us.

Claire spotted him first, and said she thought she might have a winner. When I walked up to the kennel I couldn't believe it. There staring back at me was the 2 month old Border Collie I had seen a few days earlier at the other shelter. He had just come off the truck from the North Phoenix shelter and they hadn't even posted his paperwork yet. It was meant to be.

We adopted him yesterday from the Humane Society. We made his birthday March 23, 08 but he could be anywhere from 2-3 months old. His paper work said "dog came to house, could not keep, friendly with dogs, cats and children". He slept in the kennel last night and didn't have one accident or make one peep!

Now it's time to strap a back pack on him and get him into hiking mode!