Meet The Talented Mr. Ripley

July brought a big week for our family pets.

First off our fish Donald was finally upgraded from a bowl to a tank! He is so incredibly happy and can't seem to get enough swimming. Donald was a fish given to us about a year and a half ago from Landon's brother Steven and his wife Lindsay. They were moving to Boise and didn't want to have to move the fish that far, so we took him. We expected him to be like every other gold fish we have ever had and die within the first few weeks, but not Donald (formerly named Spike by Steven...Ellen changed it.) He has lived and thrived in our home, and we have really come to like him.

He truly is a beautiful fish with his long tail. He just swims and swims in his new home and seems very happy to be out of the bowl. We are happy to not have to change his water quite as often. Yippee for not as much fish poopy water!

The same week that Donald got upgraded we also brought in another member of the family.

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Landon has wanted a dog for a long time now. (Really since we had to put Cider down three years ago.) He has been pestering and I kept putting him off. We had finally decided that we would start looking this summer. Landon thought he wanted a puppy from a litter, but I knew that would cost an arm and a leg. We decided to check with the shelter just in case, and boy are we glad we did.

We were able to find The Talented Mr. Ripley, Rip for short. (His name is a hale to the movie "Orange County" not the movie with the same name. Long story if you want to ask me about it some time, but if you have seen "Orange County" it will make more sense.)

He is a 10 month old chocolate lab that won us over almost immediately. He is so docile, which I liked, yet still fun to play with and he trains soooooo easily. Seriously he catches on to things quickly. We are so excited to have him a part of our family!