Meet Molly

Meet Molly, our new pet, a standard poodle. We found her last weekend at the Houston Humane Society. She's a little over one year old and is a mess of matted hair and bones -- not much meat on her. It breaks all of our hearts to feel her bony skeleton underneath all of that fluffy matted hair.

Our 13 year old toy poodle Skipper mostly ignores her. To be fair, he is a little anxious around Molly, but that's his nature anyway. We expected nothing more from him. Rest assured, he's getting plenty of attention. All in all, we're enjoying the relatively easy transition of adding a new family member to the Hazel house.

In every way, Molly seems to be Skipper's opposite. There's the obvious -- she's black and he's white. She's huge and Skipper's tiny. She's hairy and he's bald. She's young. He's old. But also, she's relaxed and Skipper is perky and nervous. She's peacefully quiet and Skipper demands to be heard and seen. She stands patiently to be brushed and Skipper endures being brushed, snapping generously if we displease him. She gobbles her food and drink while Skipper plays with his food, throwing it around and picking at his food one piece at a time. Molly is sweetly submissive. Skipper is the classic alpha dog, very dominant. She can go up and down stairs with ease. Poor Skipper can't.

We're all glad she's home.