Home comes Happy!

We have been telling the girls for over a year that when we moved they could get a dog. Their dreams of a dog turned into getting an entire farm! They were then talking about cats, rabbits, chickens, and a horse. We decided to start with a dog. We moved November 20th so naturally they thought we should go get a dog on the 21st! We then told them once we were settled we could get a dog. We are still not completely settled but I wasn't sure how much longer we could put them off without making ourselves look like liars. So like everything else we do...last minute and spur of the moment we decided to go look at one of the shelters on Saturday. We got there at 4:45 and the lady told us they stop showing dogs at 5:30 and there was a chance we may not get in. We knew the girls would hate us if we left, so we thought it was better to chance it, and if the lady told us to leave they could hate her instead! She was nice enough to stay a few minutes late and we got to meet a 1 year old lab/retriever/collie mix named Happy. She seemed good with the kids, even Jalen. After hearing how she was rescued from being an outside neglected dog that was not given food or water and forced to stay outside in below freezing temperatures we decided she needed a home and ours was as good as any. The lady asked if we would come back the next day since she had already stayed late. You should have seen the girls faces...total devastation! Of course we said yes so we went back on Sunday at noon to bring Happy home with us. As we were loading him in the car Happy slipped out of his collar and went running down the busy street...cars slamming on their brakes, everyone in the shelter running out to help chase down the dog and the girls screaming and crying from the backseat. I just hope this wasn't a glimpse of things to come! The lady afterwards mentioned that he may be a "flight risk"...really?! So...here we are with 5 acres and Jamie and I are taking turns in the pouring down rain to take Happy on his walks. Our plan of making the girls do all that work went out the door when we realized Happy has the ability to take them on walks...he is way to powerful for them to handle. I am hoping some training will help with that...and staying in our yard but guess who gets to be in charge of that?! Somehow no matter how hard you try to give your kids responsibilities it always ends up in more work for yourself. We are very happy with Happy..haha...he seems to be a good dog and will find a special place in our family.