Feelings and Doggos

The weekend after Aiden died, Alex talked about her non-stop.  Then on Monday, we started taking care of our neighbors' dog.  On that day, all talk of Aiden stopped, and he only talked about the neighbors' dog.  On Wednesday, we were walking the dog, and I asked him how he was feeling about everything with Aiden.  He looked at me like I was the dumbest person residing on Earth and said, "I am really really sad."  I took a breath to stop the tears and explained that I wasn't sure since he wasn't talking about her at all anymore so I wanted to check with him.  He replied with, "Well, I just realized I don't need to make other people sad with my sad stuff."  Then no amount of breathing was going to stop the tears.  I gently told him that was very kind, but to please remember he can always talk to Travis and me no matter what.  And in true Alex form, he brought levity to the situation by saying, "Besides...it's more fun to talk about a dog that's alive."

When we got back to the house, I asked him what he was thinking about getting a new dog.  Not shockingly, he was still very much in favor.  And when I asked what he thought about the timing of said new dog, I was informed the sooner the better.  So I showed him a couple dogs I had spotted on Petfinder.com.  And theeeeeennnnnn, this happened:

Allow me to introduce Lulu.  I have decided her full name is Lucille Julius.  Alex insists her middle name needs to be "Sweet."  Given her demeanor, I'm having a hard time disagreeing.  Welcome to the family Lulu.