Bazinga!

Say hello to the newest member of our family, Sheldon Cooper! 

It's hard to give a size reference on him, except to say that he weighs probably 1-2lbs and is 99.9% hair. We bought him the smallest harness they had at Petco and it is still way too big on him. I can't wait to give him a bath to see what he looks like without all that fluff!

Shane's mom, Debbie, has a Maltese and a Maltizu (Maltese and Shih Tzu mix) and when they had puppies, I knew I had to figure out a way to talk Shane into letting us get one! Debbie had found homes for three of the four puppies, so on our last trip to Knoxville, we decided at the last minute to take the remaining puppy home with us. Had to keep him in the family :)

Anyways, Sheldon is currently about three months old. If you are my friend on Facebook, you may remember this album of the puppies at only four weeks old: 

And no, I don't know which one is Sheldon.

Now if you're wondering why that name sounds so familiar, it's probably because you're a huge nerd like us and love the show The Big Bang Theory.

 A pretty good likeness, don't you think?

Shane was actually the one to name Sheldon. Since we named our other dog, Charlie, after a favorite TV show character, it only seemed right to continue the trend. (Let's hope we find another way to choose names by the time we have real children!)

Charlie with his namesake, Charlie Pace from Lost. 

Besides their abilities to pose similarly, our dogs share a lot of personality traits with their TV counterparts, which was completely and totally coincidental.

Charlie is a very sweet and loyal person (or dog), and would do anything for a friend. (keep in mind I've only seen Lost up to season 3...)

Sheldon on the other hand is sometimes obnoxious and can be a little bit of a pain in the a**, like when he is being a know-it-all (or chewing on Charlie's tail), but is still completely endearing, and somehow you seem to overlook all the annoying parts and focus on the good. 

Charlie and Sheldon don't really get along like I expected, which might have something to do with the whole "chewing on Charlie's tail" thing. I must admit though, my hopes were a bit high (I had visions of the two of them being inseparable, cuddling at night on Charlie's big Wall-E pillow). Charlie has taken the typical big brother approach to all of this, feeling like he is being replaced, etc. Sheldon is a little ball of fur and energy, and wants to go go go all the time. This drives Charlie crazy, since he is used to acting like a cat and taking naps 20 hours of the day. Sheldon also has the tendency to steal whatever toy Charlie is playing with, which is usually followed by a bark-off. But we're hoping that after some of the puppy playfulness wears off, Sheldon will chill out and they will be best puppy friends, or whatever you call it. 

This is what they do most of the time right now: 

But sometimes, if you're lucky and sneak up on them quick enough, you can catch them pretending like they like each other:

So for now, Sheldon will just have to chill out on his own little Wall-E bed (made from the leftovers from Charlie's bed) which is a little bit too small, but that's okay because he'll probably just rip a hole in it and chew up the stuffing anyways. 

Charlie will just have to enjoy hiding in the closet under all the hanging clothes (his most favorite place to be) or chilling out on the couch or bed, since those are the two places Sheldon can't reach on his own.

And maybe, just maybe, someday...

...they just might sit like this for more than two seconds, without Shane having to wrangle them :)