srnity: yes on everything you said,lol!!! The one thing tho that I REALLY need to point out is the dominance thing that you mentioned,and the fact that Jim says he will be getting a puppy.....the most dominate dog as a pup may well grow up to be a bit more submissive then you would think (that is the case with my Damien) and a pup that was EXTREMELY submissive (that would be my Niki) might well grow up to surprise the crap out of you and BECOME dominate!! D was dominate as a pup,pretty laid back now..and Niki,well I picked her BECAUSE she was very submissive to Damien,which was wonderful because at that time he was still pretty dominate...as she gets older she is becoming extremely dominate..so much in fact that she is challanging D for the dom statues between the 2 of them

 Maybe,Jim would consider an older or 1 or 2 years old that maybe had come from a cat family?? not all dogs are strays,alot do have a history.