Sophie

Say hello to the newest member of our happy new little family in Decatur, IL: This is Sophie, a 10-week-old Lhasa Apso puppy Karen drove 90 minutes into the country to acquire Monday night. (And if I think I already live in the country, you can only imagine where Karen ended up having to go!)

We promised the twins, Emma and Madison, that we would get a puppy for the household after Karen and I moved and got settled in. (That's Emma's right hand hovering affectionately in the photograph.) And although we are faaarrrrr from settled in, we realized after making a few preliminary calls that the cool puppies tend to be snatched up quickly once ads are placed in the newspaper. He who hesitates has an empty leash. So once we saw the classified for home-raised Lhasa Apsos, we leaped into action like the A-Team.

Our new addition had to be a puppy, too; we didn't want to have to deal with an older dog's bad habits. If our dog's going to have any bad habits, by gum, she's going to get them from us!

You can only imagine the response when Karen arrived home with this little hairball in her arms. "Is that our puppy?" Maddie squealed with delight. After watching the whole family, including my mother- and father-in-law, interact with her, I have no doubt Sophie will be the most loved and attended-to puppy in all of central Illinois, if not the nation.

For her part, Sophie was very slow to warm to us. Karen was told that she didn't have a lot of interaction with people because she had been promised to a family member who eventually decided against taking her. (How can that be?) I got to thinking how extraordinarily traumatic this whole experience must be for a dog. One second you're hangin' in the barn with Moms and the rest of the litter, not a care in the world, and the next you're swept up by some stranger, tossed into the back seat of a car and driven away to parts unknown. It's a doggie kidnapping!

She was shy, and I'm betting she was terrified. But the girls couldn't keep their hands off her, of course. And I actually saw the bonding moment when, while in Madison's arms, Sophie realized we weren't holding her for ransom and might actually be OK people. Her tiny tail began wagging, her tongue slithered out into licking position and her chubby little bod began waddling with a lilt in her step.

We all need those bonding moments, when it suddenly hits us that we are loved, we are protected, and none of the people surrounding us are going to let anything cause us harm. Welcome home, Sophie.