Meet Baxter.

We learned a valuable lesson last week:  You snooze, you lose.  The lovely Jasmine was adopted right out from under our noses whilst the kiddos were lemonade-standing for her adoption fee.

Clutching a jam jar of hard-won cash, we took our business elsewhere, to the Elbrook Humane Society. 

Once there, we spent two hours meeting and greeting the various pups who were available.

Our initial choice, Liberty, was a little too-tightly wound for our laid-back bunch.  We were tempted by Chopin, a super-chilled 4-month-old shepherd-hound mix who was great with kids and partially housetrained.  But Baxter stole our hearts, and joined the family yesterday afternoon.

He has delightful manners and a marvelous smile.  

Our new little guy is a beagle-lab mix, and he's four months old.  He has an insatiable penchant for eating grass and lounging on the couch.

We attempted to rename him, but couldn't find a single thing that appealed to us all. (Huge surprise, yes?)  In desperation, we each put a favorite name into a hat and had Shani choose one.  When she pulled out "Darcy," there was a unanimous decision to revert to Baxter. (And I actually liked Darcy.  But, hey---gotta keep the kids happy, right?)

Our jam jar is empty, but our hearts are full. 

(Did that make you gag a little?  It made me gag a little, but I couldn't resist.)