Introducing Cocoa! Short for Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows, aka Cocoa Pup.
She is about 9 months old and supposedly is a greyhound/border collie mix. Super unusual coloring, she has a gray-brown sable coat and white markings -- sort of like a ferret or a badger. And she has one eye that is partially blue and it gives her a bit of a crazy-eye look, lol.
I sent DH to the local shelter last weekend to meet a couple of dogs that I had stopped by to visit, and they were both adopted but she was new. He was smitten right away. I took a bit more convincing, hoping that someone else in the family would validate my super-young-pup leanings, but now I'm glad we didn't go that route b/c oh my gosh, she is plenty puppy-ish (but sleeps through the night).
She is incredibly sweet. And timid/skittish. She was surrendered in August, so she has spent about half her life in shelters at this point and was transferred in from a more rural VA county -- she clearly had no idea what a TV was, how to do stairs, squeaky toys startle her ... she is scared of just about everything but people and other dogs. She adores people, though, and that is a damn good place to start. I think she is going to be a great dog once we get her settled and more confident. But OMG, she is a chewer and completely NOT house trained, lol. So we have a lot to work on, but she is eager to please and compliant, at least so far. When the puppiness comes through she is the cutest and happiest thing!
I knew we were a dog household, but I didn't realize just how much we were a doesn't-feel-complete-without-a-dog household until Sonny was gone. She is completely different from both our previous dogs, but it feels good (a little bittersweet, because it makes me and DH remember and reminisce more about the early days with both Sonny and Shiloh) to be starting this journey again.