Bailey is said to be a hound mix, but really looks like a black lab. But strangely, he has a black tongue We were told he was about 7 months old when we took him home, so he would be almost 9 months old now.

We took Bailey home on the afternoon of January 2nd, and were very excited to have such a wonderful addition to our family. Bailey got a little car sick on the way home, but we soon got him home and he was fine. Initially, the biggest challenge we had was getting him to come into the house! He loves our back yard, and when we first let him out there he didn't want to come inside, I guess because he had never really BEEN inside of a house before. So initially we had his blanket laying inside by the back sliding glass door, and that's where he stayed for a couple of hours. I went up and bought him a nice big Pillow bed and he liked sleeping on it, up until the day he chewed all the stuffing out of it while we were at work:). After that we let him sleep on some older bed pillows, but later he chewed up one of those too:) So now, he sleeps on a couple of blankets. We will get him a new bed once this chewing phase is over.

Bailey is such a happy and goofy puppy, and always makes us smile and laugh! The funny thing is that we wanted a big dog that would bark and scare away intruders (were there ever to be any), and we got Bailey who is the gentlest dog I've ever personally seen. He is so loving and loves to snuggle and cuddle with us, and sleeps on our bed with us at night. He gets along great with our 6 year old Oliver, and we have never had any concerns about Bailey being around Oliver. Oliver has really taken to him, and Bailey to Oliver (Bailey lays in Olivers room until Oliver goes to sleep every night).

Bailey is definitely still a puppy, and still has lots to learn--one day he was in the back yard and was running back and forth (he loves to run) doing big circles, and all of the sudden sees me watching him and heads for the house at full speed. The only problem was, the sliding glass door was SHUT and Bailey ran into the door! But he was okay and I think he learned the lesson that it's better if the door is OPEN before he tries to come inside:)

As I said before, Bailey loves to run!!! Lucky for him (and us), we have a dog park about a block from our house and we take him a few times a week--once it stays light outside longer, I will probably take him after work every night. We take him on the small dog side right now, because there are more aggressive dogs on the big dog side, and Bailey is pretty timid at this point. So he loves to go in and run around and play chase with the smaller dogs. But as he gets older and less timid we will eventually transfer over to the big dog side.

Bailey has learned to play fetch--originally he would run and get the toy when we threw it, but would then just run away. Now though, we have trained him to actually bring the toy back to us, and he loves to play and play and play. He has also learned to shake, and we are currently working on the "other paw" command.

We have bought Bailey A LOT of toys, but I don't really think he has a favorite. Well, actually I just bought him a new toy last night and it's designed so you can put a dog treat inside of it, which encourages him to chew on it. He seems to like it a lot.

At first, Bailey would wake us up every night at around 3 AM, and I would get up and go let him out. But now, he is good at sleeping through the night. But I can always look forward to big doggy kisses whenever he is ready to go out in the morning! :)

When we first adopted Bailey, he was very skinny--I believe he was 30 pounds. We just had our first vet appointment at Boyette Animal Hospital on Saturday, and he is now 41 pounds!! When we first got him home, I would fill his bowl and begin to zip the dog food back closed, and before I could finish closing it his bowl would be empty!! He was so hungry. But after a few days his appetite settled down and now the food sits in the bowl for a little while. We definitely don't want him to get fat though, so we monitor how much we feed him and try to follow the instructions on the food bag based on his weight.

I want to let you all know that Bailey is exactly the dog that we always imagined having. It is impossible NOT to love him, and he is just so good! He has never even gone potty in the house, except for one time, and that was our fault because we forgot to let him out. He pretty much potty trained himself, which was a great relief to Josee and I. But he is so full of love and we all love him so very much and feel so lucky to have gotten him. And I honestly feel like he was very lucky in getting US:) Josee and I both love dogs in general, and Bailey is honestly one of the sweetest most loving dogs I have ever seen or been around.

Josee and I want to say thank you for the work that you do there, and for taking such great care of our boy up until he became our boy. I will be bringing him in Thursday to get neutered, so you all will get to see how healthy and handsome he looks. I have included some pictures of him per your request.

Again, thanks to all of you at CARE for the great work that you do for these wonderful animals, and for us!!!

Kelly and Josee