Ten-Finger Exercises

I am a dog person

Just what have I been doing other than reading blogs and writing? Looking for a new dog. The humane societies all over the country have their dogs advertised. Just go to petfinder.com and enter the kind of pet, the age, size, etc., and your zip code, and there you'll find pages of pictures.

I wasn't really quite ready to get a new one-- in fact, I haven't done it yet. But I've been looking. And I've already discovered that the perfect one who was listed yesterday has been adopted by today. So I've made a few actual visits.

The first was to what was billed as a standard poodle, but was a much smaller poodle-ish looking new mom who had been a stray for some time. She was thin and her coat was sparse. She pawed and pawed, and no amount of attention seemed to be enough. So I asked the attendant if she could show me the puppies. She brought in two of the four. One looked just like her mother, the other had thick, long, straight hair. Both were very cute, but of course that was all the mama dog was really interested in, licking the puppies.

Today I went to look at a spaniel and a boxer. The spaniel was going blind. She wanted to stay with the attendant. The boxer, a 2 year old male, was small, slightly thin but healthy, very friendly, not aggressive. He strained at the leash and will have to be taught better manners about that (which I'm not very good at.) I really liked him though. He has a silly name for a boxer, Chico. Sounds like a chihuahua to me. He did respond to the name though, so renaming him might mean finding something similar. Cheeks would do. He has great cheeks.

I found the Lhasa on craigslist, and he lives a few miles from my house. His owner just went into a wheel chair permanently and couldn't take care of him. This cute little darling has a silly name too, Bubba, which he doesn't seem to pay much attention to. He's a year old, very friendly and interested in everything. The lady who is selling him for the owner brought him to my house. He gave everything the once over, including the cat who he spotted but ignored. She hid in the corner with the hair on her back up a little but didn't run away. Bubba was leash trained to some extent. That is, unlike another Lhasa at the same house, he did trot around with it on, rather than sit down and have to be dragged.

Bill has to work the county fair tonight, to fill in for someone who's sick. He said he'd told someone we'd have a dog by tonight, which surprised me. Obviously I've been looking, but I didn't intend to get one without him meeting it and liking it too. Now, however, since he's not home tonight, maybe I'll just get them both! But not till next week because I'll be gone for the weekend. The boxer will have to be neutered first anyway-- standard animal shelter practice. And the lady with the lhasa, whose name sounded like "Wren" on the phone message but was really "Rin," said she'd be glad to keep him over the weekend.

I may bring the boxer home tomorrow night to see if he gets along with the cat at all.

Aren't they cute boys?

Now, help me find some better names!