And the surprise is. . .

Bella

Two weeks ago Mom rescued a shih tzu. She wanted to surprise us with her new friend by just showing up in North Carolina with her. (If you read my previous post, you will note that I guessed a puppy. Mom's response. . ."well, she is not a puppy." I feel like I nailed that one!) Anyway, Bella is as sweet as can be. Very friendly. Loves to be loved. Plays with toys. Loves other dogs and kids. We all agree she will make a great addition to Mom and Dad's life.

The vet thinks she is about a year to a year and a half. Bless her heart, she is skinny (you can feel all of her bones when you pet her) and was neglected. In the past few weeks she has gotten her shots, spade and scratched by a cat. We are certain Mom will have her nursed back to health in no time. She has her first grooming appointment on Dec 28 and hopefully it won't be too scary for her, but as you can see from the photo above she needs it.

The Boden kids love her.

Griffin doesn't think she was a good surprise at all and he was a little miffed that Grandma showed up with her.

Bella on the other hand thinks Griffin is awesome. She follows him around, plays with his toys, eats his food, sleeps on his perch and tries her best to inch toward him when he is sleeping so that she can sleep by him. He, of course, has to get up and move when she gets to close (grumpy boy. . .his person tells him to be sweet . . .but he's not obeying). There have been a few moments when he has played with her. We hope those moments will increase as the week progresses.

Sweet surprises are best.