adding to the pack...?

I'm sitting here on our couch with three puppies snugged around me. Liza's to my left, all stretched out; Loki's on my right, leaning in, slowly sliding down as his eyelids droop into sleep; and Lilly, of course, is flopped across my lap with her stubby legs stuck out straight, taking up as much space as possible.

Here they are, claiming the couch as their own, Liza curled up on a pillow, and
Loki and Lilly staring at the camera like, "Wut? We're just chillin'. NBD."

More typically they are all snuggled together under the blankets, on top of my legs.
Classic end of day situation.

Three dogs is a lot of work, especially as those in our pack can be a little temperamental when on leashes (meaning we have to avoid pretty much everything on our twice-daily walks around the neighborhood). Fortunately most of our neighbors are older and while there seem to be a lot of dogs in the area, none seem to be on our same walk schedule.

Braeden and I have spoken quite often about adding another dog (every time he sees a cute dog on the internet, for example), but we recently decided that three dogs is really all we can handle. Between Liza's toy and leash aggression, Lilly's crazy energy, and Loki's need to be with you as much as possible, they can be a lot to handle. (And this is coming from the puppy parent who never walks all three by herself.)

And yet, we're thinking of upsetting our delicate balance and adding a fourth dog. We met this sweet little old man at the animal center yesterday.

Look at that smile! Doesn't he kind of look like a little fox?

His name is Trapper and he's a 13 year old Pomeranian mix. He's shaved down because when they found him as a stray his fur was all matted. They also had to pull most of his teeth since they were rotted so now he can only eat soft food. They think he's a bit hard of hearing and might be going a little blind, too. He's got arthritis and would need some medicine for that, as well as regular exercise to keep his joints as healthy as possible. He'd also need regular grooming, something we've successfully avoided with our short-haired dogs so far. He's 25 pounds and would need to slim down to a healthier weight, which, sadly, shouldn't be too hard with his now-missing teeth.

He would be a lot of work. And he's definitely a lot different than any of our other dogs. A part of me thinks that we would be foolish to take him in to our home and mess with the good stuff we've got going. But a bigger part of me thinks that we would be good for him and he would be good for us. His mellow nature and sweet disposition could be just what we need...