Carbon

A couple months ago Shannon asked if I wanted to go for a road trip.  This is not a typical last minute offer, so I was suspicious.

Our boys had been begging for a dog.  I had told Shan that's all I wanted for my birthday, knowing he would be more likely to buy one for me than for them.  We had been haunting the local animal shelter, but Shannon had threatened divorce if we arrived home with some random mongrel.  While I realized it was an empty threat, he knows me and how I can cave when the kids really want something and he wanted me to know he was serious ;o)

So while we looked at every mutt at the pound, Shannon was researching breeders, finding a yellow lab he liked and that was fully trained.  While I loved the idea of a dog, he knew my follow-through with training would be terrible and we'd have a renegade on our hands.  We headed to Idaho late that Saturday, arriving home the next night with Carbon. 

He has been an awesome addition to the family.  And the training......worth his weight in gold!  He's so smart and shows such a natural aptitude towards birds that I'm even thinking it may be fun to begin bird hunting.  Shannon probably wasn't banking on a bird hunting wife! But certainly he'd be a willing hunting partner.    

We wound our way through a magnificent mountain pass into a remote area of Idaho.

No cell reception for a day was a blessing of its own. 

Carbon is thinking, "WHAT happened to my simple little life? These kids! There's so many!"

But they all soon became fast friends ~
When Max needs a snuggle, we can find him in the laundry room
with his blankie and Carbon.  
It's ridiculous.

Whenever we're hiking, Carbon is racing from boy to boy, 

occasionally rousing a grouse from the underbrush.  

Dom has big plans of finding a female and starting a 'dog farm'....

not something Shannon is super excited about.