One thing's sure and nothing's surer

The rich get richer and the poor get—children.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

OK, so we're definitely not rich and, therefore, can't get richer (I mean who can in this economy?!)...so we're doing what ol'F. Scott said and getting a child!

But not a human child...

A super, wonderful, cute-as-all-get-out, one-year-old-dog child. I may be a little biased, but I think he's totally awesome.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you our new part-beagle, part-(some-type-of) terrier mutt:

GATSBY LeBLANC



We're getting him from the Wake County Animal Shelter and we get to bring him home next Thursday. On Wednesday, he's getting neutered (poor guy!). He's a total bundle of fun. He loves to play and sniff about, but he also seems to be pretty good at laying down and chilling. The only time he really barked was when all of the other dogs were going crazy because we were giving him attention.

His original owners had to give him up because they couldn't afford to keep him any longer! :-( They also gave him the lame name Baileys (like the adult beverage), but he didn't really seem to recognize it today, so we're renaming him.

He's getting a new lease on life and a brand new name to go along with it. :-)

He actually attached to us pretty quickly today—he started jumping around like crazy to keep our attention when we had to leave...it was really sad. I was pretty much fighting back tears (I think it even choked Brian up a little). But we're soooo super excited to bring him home on Thursday. So excited, in fact, that we went PetSmart and got him hooked up with all the essentials. I'm sure he'll be the most spoiled dog on the planet.

A few more pictures from today and his animal shelter "mug" shots:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Gatsby

And, yes, he's named after the book because it's the greatest book ever written; I couldn't name my first-born son Gatsby; and we're English nerds.