Oh, if I had a hammer...

Listening to the hubs working on our front gate.  We had taken it off when Schultz passed, as it's much easier to get a wheel barrow through, and just the general bother.  But a little over a week ago, we decided to bring another dog into our lives.

Gypsy, the red heeler and who knows what mix. 
We got a DNA test and the results should arrive in a couple weeks.

To that end, I drove down to a shelter in Phoenix, intending to meet a 5 month old puppy there.  It just wasn't to be, for several reasons, and I probably should have just come on back up.  But I made the "mistake" of looking around, and I met Gypsy.  The shelter does as well as they can, given the lack of funding so many of these places work through, but they just about told me whatever I wanted to hear to get a dog out the door.  Gypsy was "good with cats, dogs, and kids" and "lived in a house her whole two years". Well, to start with, her paper work says she's three years, not two.  And she's a red heeler mix, not an aussie mix. 

Well, I did test her with a cat--unfortunately it was a mascot shelter cat who was afraid of nothing, and when Gypsy went nose to nose with him, of course he didn't run.  So she didn't chase.  Until I got her home to our two cats--who definitely run.  Enter prey drive. 

But she's smart as she can be, and in less than two weeks, she's learned (mostly) that chasing the cats is verboten, and that she need not be afraid of men.  She is potty trained--not a single accident since she came to live with us.  She sleeps peacefully in her crate by the bed each night.

So Phil and I no longer wonder what idiocy it was, me bringing her home, and we are all learning that we have a lot of fun hiking and training to do in our future.  We have lots of work to do on manners and socializing--she's still skittish at Home Depot, etc., and we've yet to test the dog park.  But our lives are full of dogness again, and we needed that so much. 

We don't even mind the dog hair.

Her Other favorite human.

Most of the time, she really is as innocent as she looks.

And when she's really tired in the evenings, the cats get all brave and join the fun.

A quarter of a century!

That's how long he's put up with me.  Hard to believe, but some people are just a little crazy, right?  He is the stereotypical Man's Man in that it doesn't occur to him that the wife wants more than the anniversary dinner out for the Big Silver, but once I suggested that his life would be a nicer one if he did plan something, he went right to work.  Ha!  Our night out was on Whiskey Row, in Downtown Prescott, AZ (just up the road), a historical town and one of the oldest in Arizona.  Wyatt Earp and his lot hung out there, stayed in the same hotels and gambled and drank along the same short stretch of the downtown, across from the courthouse.

It was funny, because despite his plans, lots of things refused to work out--mostly owing to our ridiculously early body clocks--we're up at 4:30 and asleep before 9 if we're lucky.  So the schedules of shops and galleries opening and closing threw us off a lot, and many of our plans fell through.  But somehow, we had a fabulously fun second honeymoon in spite of it--laughing and cutting up together the way we did on our first one.  Isn't it odd how a plan can come together in spite of us?

I think I'll keep him for another twenty five. 

Ode to a fine little gentleman...

Born September 5, 2005--he actually didn't have any papers, and bringing him home at 7 weeks was more like a rescue mission than a purchase.  I didn't know she was a puppy mill until I'd seen him, and then I had to save him.  He had mites, worms, and was leaky on one end, but we got him fixed up in short order. 

He spent 13 years with us, traveled a lot--good car dog once he understood thumping us on the arm w/ a paw won't make the ride shorter.  He had his own SCA Medieval Tabbard for events.  We hiked miles together, took so many walks, and he never spent one night without either the hubs or I or both.  I worked from home his whole life, so he was pretty spoiled and very loved.  One lady said, "He has a very polite tongue."  He did--he was never one to jump in your face and start licking, but he would give a hello lick to your hand. 

My son reminded me of a game we played with him early on.  As a puppy, he was meeting our small grandchildren (baby & toddler), and I told my son he wouldn't mess with the babies' toys.  To prove it, we put one of Schultz's toys at the bottom of a pile of baby toys, and Schultz dug through, got his, and lay down with it.  Smart little guy--potty trained at 10 wks because we had a bell on the door.  This worked until he figured he could get some Out Time if he rang it, pee-time or not. 

I won't wail and carry on after today, but I know you all have and love pets, so you understand.  My cats keep looking for him.  I am fairly sure I'm a better person for having loved this dog.