A dog to the mix

We fostered a beagle yesterday.
For a month or so, we've been toying with the idea of getting a dog. Doing the rounds of the SPCA and other adoption agencies, we found that dogs are (a) expensive and (b) rarely ideal companions for a toddler. The closest we came to adopting, oddly enough, was a massive German Shepherd named Papa Buddy, who we discovered at the SPCA down the street. He is 75 lbs. overweight and 8 years old. Despite his very passive - and somewhat depressed - personality, PB presented too big a risk due to the size of his jaws. Even though he was so gentle, he could easily take Hadley's head off with one gulp. Yikes.
Alicia enthusiastically sent applications to all sorts of agencies and the one that got back to us first was a Beagle Rescue organisation. Instead of paying the adoption fee, we decided on fostering first, to see how it goes.

Her name is Chloe. She's pretty Beagle-y, but very good-natured and is calm around Hadley. Hadley, in turn, is being pretty good to Chloe. I think there's always the risk of toddlers pulling dog ears or jumping on them. Hadley's not physical in that way, though she may develop those instincts soon enough. Instead she talks to Chloe (Bow-Wow) and follows her around. Of course, Hadley's fascinated with the elements of Chloe's relationship to us that mimic her own: Bow-Wow Poop, Bow-Wow Food and Bow-Wow Cuddles. These are all words she uses. She can say 'dog' if she really wants to, but prefers her own words instead. Just like she says 'beer' instead of 'water', or makes a gutteral sound (ungh-gngh) instead of saying 'book'.

I worry that Hadley, or we, may get too attached to Chloe and then lose her in an adoption. But this seemed like the wisest way to go about introducing a dog into the family. It's too bad the cats aren't nearly as stoked about Bow-Wow.