Believe me, I wanted to say no.

All the reasons why it wasn’t a good idea were swirling in my head. We didn’t need another mouth to feed. We didn’t have the time. We’re not home a lot. It was going to interfere with our schedule.

But there was my son, with big tears filling his eyes, tugging on LaDonna’s arm to pull us toward the car and begging me to say yes.

So I said yes. And now we have a new member of the family.

We had gone to Grant’s basketball game on Saturday and outside the gym one of the families of the opposing team (that we know well since Grant and Hunter played football together this past year) was out front with a van full of puppies to give away. I managed to herd everyone into the gym without a problem, but couldn’t get everyone past the van on the way out without stopping. And once we held her, it was all over. She was coming home with us.

Lucy (named by Grant after the character in The Chronicles of Narnia) is an Australian Shepherd and Labrador mix, a very interesting combination of breeds that from all accounts go well together. Sheps are high intelligent herders, easily trained and very loyal. Labs, of course, are much the same, with a very even temperament that goes well with families.

So far, she has been a pretty good puppy. We’re not quite sure how old she is, but she has probably just been weaned. She is very sweet and loves to cuddle and will fall asleep on your chest. Unfortunately, she won’t stay asleep. The first two nights have been adventures as she wakes up every couple of hours needing to either go to the bathroom or wanting to play. At two in the morning, neither is very much fun.

But those are just some of the growing pains. We’re still trying to figure out how she will fit into our schedule and how we are going to make it all work. We’ll do it, though, because she is part of the family now.

So I have a feeling that this won’t be the last post about this little girl. So say, “Hi,” everyone, to Lucy.