Meet Izzy.

Soooo...I've been thinking about a dog for awhile. I usually get my fix with our friends' dog, but I haven't seen her in awhile, and I don't know that it would help. So I started looking at the dreaded Petfinder, with very specific specifications. There were a couple I wanted to look at in another county about a half hour away. I figured the kids would enjoy checking them out.

There was one in particular that stood out to me online, so I went looking for her when we first got there. An employee asked what we were looking for and directed us to another dog, which was sweet, but just not much of a connection with her.

So I asked about the one I'd been looking at. He brought her in to the run area and she immediately ran to us and just soaked up every ounce of attention we would give her. He asked if we wanted to take her home, and I hesitated. We'd only come to look. As I debated in my head, she just sat calmly on our laps, and I took the plunge...

Brooklyn declared her name "Isabella", so we went with Izzy. She is a border collie mix who is extremely sweet, very mellow, very quiet (the only time I've heard her is the one howl the first night and the whispers of whimpers when she's happy to see us...or when Russ went running without her the first morning).

She is SO good with the kids, but loves to snuggle up with me (as you can see in the photo above--the only way I can get a close-up photo when I'm around is to push her back a bit, lol). She loved the kids and I, but it didn't even occur to me that she may not feel the same about Russ. When they first met, it was obvious she was a bit intimidated, it made me wonder about her past. Also, while we were walking her, she saw an oncoming car and freaked. Hmmm.

The poor girl was also covered in fleas and ticks, so we're working on getting rid of those. Although she's pretty reserved, she's definitely opening up a bit more.

Brooklyn in particular adores her and will spend hours outside with her in the backyard. I was nervous about how Izzy would react to the chickens, but she didn't even look twice at them. She checked them out for a minute, but then kept looking around. She sleeps in the garage at night for now, but spends most of her time looking in the back door at us.

I think she's going to be a fantastic family dog, and am glad we could give her a home and she could give us the perks of having a family pet.