The Hollis family GREW!

Before the rumors start flying, let me clarifying that our family is not growing by the addition of a human baby!

Two weeks ago, our family expanded with the addition of a new little fur baby!

We hadn't planned on getting a new dog anytime soon. We knew eventually we wanted a new puppy, but we figured it would be awhile before we got another one. This summer, Kevin has been away at Airman Leadership School in Montgomery, AL. He was about 2 hours away from us. Part of his class they had to do a service project, so his class went to Pet Smart to help out on a Saturday while the humane society brought pets in for adoption. It gave him serious puppy fever, and I won't lie, seeing the pics of all the pets made me want a puppy BAD. Kevin was convinced he was going to bring a puppy home that night (since he could come home on weekends), but I told him that was just too far to bring a dog back.

So to lift his spirits, I got online and started looking at the local shelters to see if I could find a puppy.

Then I saw him. I came across this site for the Birmingham Area Adoption & Rescue Center (BAARC). They had a litter of pups up for adoption that were only 6 weeks old. Someone found them abadoned in some hedges by an apartment complex. I immediately called Kevin and told him to go straight to the shelter when he left Pet Smart. We got there literally 5 minutes before they closed.. and we ended up coming home with a puppy.

Introducing....

DUKE! (Short for Marmaduke)

Sir Duke is part collie and husky. He is such a beautiful dog! I cannot wait to see what he looks like when he is full grown! This picture was taken just last night. He has def grown in the past 2 weeks. He was so small and fragile when we adopted him. Adopting a rescue dog is nothing like going to the pet store and buying a dog. Duke was a street puppy so he needed a lot of TLC when he came to our family. He was completely infested with ticks and fleas. He was only 6 weeks old so he was still too small for flea and tick medicine.. so we had to keep bathing him in dawn dishsoap (to drown the fleas) and then brush him and pick anything off of him. We spent about 4 hours rebathing and picking at him. A couple days later, the in store vet at Pet Smart recommended a medicine that was good for a dog so small, although we were sure by then we had gotten everything off him. He also became very sick shortly after coming to us. He ended up going for an emergency visit to the vet where they discovered he had a severe case of worms. Now after two weeks, Mr Duke is finally putting some meat on his lil bones!

 This is Duke a few days after he joined our family. He was such a sluggish little dog... which is no suprise because of how sick he was

Duke the night he came to join our family!

He loves Rosalie! They are constantly together and he loves to follow her everywhere!

All three of my kids!