She's here!

The newest member of our family has arrived!

No, not Dan's little brother or sister. Our new puppy, Annie.

Look at all those adorable puppies!

After reading my column in the Dairy Star about losing Rosco, we got an email from another couple who loves animals. Mark and Michele wrote to express their sympathy and, in one of the kindest gestures we've ever received, offered us pick of the litter from their Australian Shepherd, Duchess.

At first, after Rosco's death, we thought we were just going to not have a dog. But as time passed we realized how much we missed his constant companionship, his "something's in the yard" and "there's a cow out" barks, and the importance of his job in keeping the cats out of the barn. So we took Mark and Michele up on their offer.

Dan was in heaven.

The puppies were born on November 4. We made the arrangements to pick one out last week. Talk about a tough decision.

This little girl is the one who stole our hearts.

We ended up picking one of the tri-color puppies. She was the first one who came up to Dan when I put him in their pen. She was also very calm.

Annie has now wiggled her way into our hearts and quickly erased any hesitation we had about getting another dog.