Of Hamsters and Such

The boys trying to keep cool in the sprinklers.

Our family - taken in front of our house in May.

We have lost our hamsters. Josh's hamster, Obadiah escaped out of his cage on a few days ago. We looked high and low for that hamster (he did this about a month ago, also, on a Sunday morning. But after looking for a while, we finally found him). All to no avail. But we found him early yesterday morning. We had a big box fan in front of our room trying to keep cool while sleeping. At 5 am, Jeremy and I woke up with a start. We had heard a loud thump. We finally found the cause of the sound. Obadiah had found a hole in the fan into which he climbed in, and was hit by the fan and knocked to the side of it. Poor Obadiah is no more. Josh was so sad, but we told him that next time we go into town, we will buy him another one. Then later yesterday morning, Robby tells me that his hamster, Ginger, is also missing now, too. We haven't found her yet either. But Jeremy was smart enough to cover up the hole in the fan so that she wouldn't meet the same fate as Obadiah.

We are planning on getting a dog soon. A woman in our church told Jeremy about a week ago that she thought we should have a dog. She made us aware of the cougars in the area, and thought that it would be better to have a dog to help protect our kids when they go out to play. So we thought that maybe that was a smart idea. However, now we are trying to figure out what kind of dog would be best for our family. We found a border collie puppy on Craig's list, but now hear that maybe they're not the best with kids. So I thought if anyone out there can tell me what they think of particular breeds as far as kids go, that would be wonderful. Does anyone have a preference about what kinds are better than others?