Meet Annabel!

     We got a puppy!  She is a 6 month old basset hound and she is absolutely adorable.  She is an amazingly well-behaved dog.  We just got her 2 nights ago so we're still working things out.  Like where to sleep, for example.  She didn't want to sleep in our room the first night.  We thought she would howl if we put her outside so we tried letting her sleep in a kennel in our bedroom.  She howled in the kennel.  So we put her in a kennel in the garage and shoved Charlie in it with her to keep her company. (The family who gave her to us told us that she was used to sleeping in a kennel at night with her parents.)  She still howled.  We finally just put her outside with the other dogs and she was fine and didn't cry and we slept great.  Yesterday morning we went to the Kiwanis walk-a-thon followed by the family fun fair at Leroy Jackson Park.  We brought Annabel with us and she was basically showered with attention by us all day long.  When bed time came around last night we put her out with the dogs.  She started crying and howling.  So Daren brought her in and put her in the kennel in our bedroom where she happily slept all night long.  I think she likes us. :)
     When she came to us her name was Bailey.  Bailey is an adorable name for a dog and really seemed to fit her.  In fact, when I posted her picture on facebook, two of my friends either knew a dog or owned a dog named Bailey that looked exactly like her!  But that's not why we changed her name.  We just thought it would be far too confusing for her to have her name rhyme with Haylee.  But the kids loved the name Bailey and didn't want to change it.  Even Haylee assured us that she didn't mind that their names rhymed.  But yesterday afternoon I was looking for name ideas on the internet and I read about a basset named Annabel.  The names Annie and Belle had both come up at some point in our name discussions but neither of them had stuck out to us.  I was having a hard time changing her name because I knew I wouldn't be satisfied unless we found something just as cute or cuter than Bailey.  And Annabel was just adorable!  So I mentioned it to Daren and he instantly said he loved it.  So he went out and talked to the kids to see what they thought of the name.  I knew it was a hit because I could hear them calling to her, "Annabel!  Annie!"  So she will be called Annabel and Annie for sure, and maybe even sometimes Belle or Belly.  And Belly sounds a lot like Bailey.

P.S.  Cute pictures of the walk-a-thon and fun fair coming soon.