Greetings, friends.

I leave tomorrow morning for another training in Tanzania, but before I do, I thought I’d update you on a bit of family news. We have a new member of our family, and we are all so excited about him.

His name is Loki (former owners chose name from Norse god of mischief, but he’s not much calmer than his name would suggest), and we’ve been waiting for the right time to add a dog to our family. Now is the right time, and he is receiving no shortage of love and attention.

We heard about him from a friend of a friend, he’s three years old, very well-behaved, and is a mixture of retriever, shepherd, collie, mastiff, and some other things. He loves to play fetch, and sleeps with the boys at night.

At first we were concerned because Alyssa was a bit afraid of him. We were hoping for a small to medium sized dog. But many things fell into place with Loki, and now Alyssa and Loki are great friends.

We think it’s very good for the kids to love an animal, and to learn responsibility in caring for a dog. So far (three days in), they are up for the task. Hopefully we’ll be able to work together to train him more and he’ll have a good life with our family for many years.