Ooooh Boy...

So, I told myself I was going to wait until May. In fact, I promised myself I would wait until May. But seriously, who was I kidding? I've been online perusing the rescue sites for months for another dog. I gave myself lots of reasons why it would be better to wait until the end of the year, but I've now found a solution to each of those problems. It comes down to...once you have one, how much more trouble is two?

-It's more expensive: food and vet bills double. For food, I just have to suck it up and spend more. Vet bills, luckily, are practically non existent since I work part time at the vet and get a very very good deal. Other than those two big ones, there are small expenses like extra collars, leashes, toys - but I already spend way too much on those and have tons of extras.
Oh - I just remembered that agility is the other big expense. I think each dog would only get to go once every other week, because it would just be too expensive to double the agility cost. That isn't too bad though since I have weaves, targets, jumps and a tunnel in the yard.

-It takes more time - but only in some ways. Two dogs do interact with each other a lot, and do tire each other out a bit. Training time is doubled, but at this point with Abby we mostly work on practicing the commands that she knows throughout the day (while on walks, while playing fetch, etc.). During the time set aside for training, I've run out of tricks to teach! No, I know that isn't true, there are always more tricks to teach, but I have been teaching her lately to ride a skateboard. Some people say I have a bit too much time on my hands when they see that one ;) So what I'm getting at is that Abby is at a point where she doesn't need formal training sessions during the day, so I have that time to devote to training a new dog from scratch.
The other time consuming activity is walks, possibly. This would depend on what the other dog is like. There would be the possibility that I would have to take each dog on a separate walk on weekday mornings, which would mean getting up at least half an hour earlier. Hopefully, though, I could manage them together on the field after a few weeks. Weekends aren't a problem because we usually drive to our doggy activities anyway.

And now, introducing....Joey:

"Date: 10-01-2006 Dog Id: JOEY Gender: M Age: 1 yr - 2 yrs

We are not sure if Joey is a border collie or a border collie mix, but we do know he has a border collie's energy level...medium to high. Joey is just a little over one year old and is good with other dogs, okay with most cats and adores his people. Joey has a docked tail and only weighs about 30 pounds which makes him a very compact little dog! He loves to go places with you, is house trained and crate trained. This is a very smart dog that learns quickly and would be great at agility or flyball and has shown an interest in sheep as well. "

He is just too freaking adorable! I keep going back to his picture because he reminds me so much of Abby! There is something in his face and his expression (plus he's her size and has a docked tail). I started emailing his foster mom, and I'm going to talk to her on the phone tonight or tomorrow. If he does sound right, I might go meet him during reading week.

This is, of course, a huge decision. I can't be my normal impulsive self, which is exceedingly difficult. This Joey dog just sounds so great...