The rumors are true...

we have a dog.  I always had a dog growing up and so did Rick.  But, we have never lived in a place where we could have a dog through all of our years of medical school and renting, etc.  Plus, everyone always says how hard it is to have a dog--like having another child.  So for years I have just kept telling the kids we'd get a dog when we owned a house or when we got a fence.  Now we have both and i was out of excuses.  So, here he is.  His name is Hooee.

I know that is a weird name, but when we lived in Kirksville Summer wanted a dog and of course we told her NO.  So, she made up an imaginary pet dog.  She didn't say much about it after a  while, but the next year she went to school and told everyone that she had a dog.  When we went in to talk to the teacher at conference time, the teacher asked us about our dog and what kind it was.  We told her that we didn't have a dog.  She said that Summer always talked about her dog named Hooee.  So, we always said that if we got a dog it would be named Hooee.  

Hooee is a Portuguese Water Dog.  He will get to be about 50 lbs.  His hair will be wavy/curly and he won't shed.  He has a little white patch on his chest and one of his paws is white.  His toes are webbed and his tail is really thick and was once used like a rudder in the water.  These dogs were almost extinct in the 1970's.  Someone in Britain found out about them and started breeding them.  They sent one to New York and now they are making a comeback.  They were used along the coast of Portugal to help herd fish into the nets of the seamen.  They would also relay messages back and forth between the fishing ships.  One of the other dogs in the litter is going to Florida to be a Therapy Dog.  PWD are used a lot in research including the University of Utah.