The winner of today’s photography challenge are the two younger dogs: Rolex (our box mix puppy), and Magnet (my brother’s dog).

Magnet has been an off and on presence in the house, since my brother lives a couple of hours away and they don’t make it back that often (I mean who really wants to do a four-hour round trip drive constantly?). But since she is basically a year older than Rolex, that makes her the beta of the house (Boozer is the alpha, and when Magnet isn’t around—she is alpha and beta rolled into one). Problem is that the youngest wants to play almost constantly during the day and it wears on the other two dogs (especially her methods of playing).

I’ve realized a few things over the past couple of months—I would love to get another dog, but until I have a solid plan in place for my future that has to be on hold. The second thing is that the overly playful puppy is going to be needing to learn how to walk on a leash—she does okay for a short distance, but when I took her for one walk around the block it was total chaos—so there is that training that needs to happen. It is something to look towards when the temperatures cool, and I don’t have to worry about heat stroke for either of us.

I’ve also decided that once things are in order and I move—a kitten first (since Pancakes doesn’t care for either of the younger dogs right now), and once that helps settle her in, maybe a puppy or an slightly older dog (say no more than three or four).

I know that Chewi and the others are watching from the rainbow bridge, and happy that we’ve moved on from mourning and brought another dog into the household.