I got a dog.  I'd been thinking about getting one for a while.  I ended up going to the animal shelter here in Cheyenne and found this little guy.

 At the shelter he was known as "Singer".  They found him on the street about a month earlier. No ID or anything, so they knew very little about him.  They think he is an Australian Shepherd Mix and they think he is about three years old.  I think he's a little younger than that, but still a pretty mature dog. 

 This was him sitting in the back of the truck on our ride home. 

 I got him a little bed.  He would sleep on it for a little bit.  As soon as he thought I was asleep he would come jump up on my bed. I didn't really mind until he has an accident.  One night he was fussing around trying to wake me up.  I didn't respond.  And then I heard a sound that should only occur on top on a porcelain bowl...my dog had just let go a massive diarrhea on my carpet. In hindsight, I figured he had tried to tell me something was wrong and that he needed out, but it was 2 in the morning.  So shame on me. 

I made some changes.  We made sure to take him out one last time before bed time to take care of business and then he started making it through the night a lot better.  Then a few days later, it happened again.  Only this time, he didn't make the commotion to wake me up.  I wake up in the morning and he had poo'ed semi-circle of diarrhea around my bed.  Luckily, Dan has a Hoover carpet cleaner.  I grabbed it out of the garage and went to town.  

But that was the last draw, something had to change.  That's when I decided to try a pet carrier (kennel).  I had read a lot of stuff online that said a lot of dogs are very receptive to them.  Having never owned a dog before that seemed a little hard to imagine that a creature that loves the outdoors that much would be comfortable and happy in such a small confined space.  But I wasn't going to let a dog poop inside my house anymore and I wanted to try one last thing before banishing him to the outside kennel.  So I bought a pet carrier and it was an instant success. 

Our daily routine now is something like this:
I wake up and let him out of the pet carrier.  We go outside for a quick potty and the get him some breakfast.  He Stays confined to my room (which is pretty well dog proofed) while I'm showering and getting ready in the morning.  While I cook and eat breakfast, he just chills out.  Before I leave for work I take him out to the outside kennel.  When I get home from work I go get him (unless one of my roommates already has) and we play in the yard for a little bit.  Around 6 to 7 I'll feed him dinner and we hang out till bed time.  I'll usually give him a few snuggles before bed and then its off to his bed in the pet carrier where I lock him up for the night.  If he has to go while I'm sleeping, this forces him to wake me up.  Its worked out very well and we're getting into a pretty good routine. 

He's a big time snuggle buddy.  A very affectionate dog.   After hanging out with him for a week, we decided to call him Pippen, like the Hobbit in The Lord of the Rings. 

 Zeb and I took some pics of his first bath.  He does not like getting baths.  And he looks kind of scrawny when he's wet. 

 Wet and clean dog. 

 We made a trip to Ryan's.  He loves playing in the snow.  We had a few additional lessons learned.  On the way to Ryan's, I learned that Pippen rides in the pet carrier for road trips.  I learned this when he poo'ed on my suitcase in the back of the truck.  To say I was mad is an understatement.  Another lesson learned from the Idaho trip is that Pippen has some serious guard dog tendencies.  I heard him bark for the first time at Ryan's.  As the week pressed on he got worse about barking at anyone that came near Ryan's house.  Luckily, I don't have any real close neighbors so his barking is fairly well limited. 

One of the missionaries living with us described Pippen as the most affectionate dog he has ever seen.  Which given how I am with dogs probably makes him the perfect dog for me.  He will frequently come sit right next to you and plop his head down on your lap. 

He is a very intelligent dog.  I think that was one of the things that attracted me to him at the shelter.  I played with a few other dogs, and they just ran around mindlessly when I played with them.  With Pippen, he was running around very excited, but there was also some interaction with him.  About two weeks ago, I decided to start training him a little bit.  At Craig's recommendation, I tried using treats and overwhelming praise to get him to do tricks.  In less than two weeks, I have got him to respond to "sit", "shake hands", and "lay".  I'm trying to think what the next trick will be.  I should probably teach him to fetch since he would really love that game, but I can't get him to bite anything... and I'm not sure I want to introduce that behavior :-).

Someday, I hope you'll all get to meet him.