. . . in the distant, early morning . . .

Today I went to check out Brooke and see how she interacted with Elka.  To be quite honestly I chickened out.  I’m not ready at this point in my life to take on a dog with such strong stigma attached to it.  A pit bull can’t attend daycare around here - my two favored daycares won’t take her and that gives me a problem both for daycare and boarding.

There is also stigma attached, and renting becomes harder.  When I sell this house - likely within the lifespan of this dog - I may need to rent and renting with a pit is nearly impossible in some areas.

So I didn’t go with Brooke.  We headed down to Family Dogs New Life to look at two dogs: Tarvin and Jacob.  Tarvin was in the process of being adopted so we decided to see Jacob.  Jacob is a chow mix, 5 months old, and completely gorgeous.

Well, about 15 minutes later we decided to walk Elka and Jacob together.  They walked fine together, though it was pure chaos. Elka needs a refresher on leash training and Jacob never learned.

About 30 minutes later I handed over a check and we left with Jacob.  On the way home we stopped at PetSmart for a new collar and an appropriately sized bed for his crate.  Then we came home and they spent about the next 30 minutes going flat out around my yard chasing.  Then they wrestled.  Then they cuddled.

I don’t like the name Jacob for my dog, so we spent a few hours discussing options and his new name is Alistare.  Yes, I deliberately mis-spelled it.  Alistair it the typical spelling but I prefer the cute joke of “All I Stare” though I dropped that extra “l” to make the pronunciation more obvious.

So right now Alistare is snuggled on the couch asleep and Elka is snuggled at my couch asleep.  He’s a pretty mellow puppy though he sure can play!  And he already barks at strangers.  Elka’s dream playmate and my dream dog, all in one.

Oh, and he appears to have no interest at all in Mali, for which I’m sure she’ll be eternally (un)grateful.

Happiness is a puppy.

-Lisa, on January 2, 2010 at 5:55 pm .::. Comment (0)

Chris’ visit has been going very well, and it’s certainly felt good to have a week off.

Chris put together some shelving for me and helped me organize the garage, and we’re going to put up another shelving unit as well.  I got one for the attic as well.

We also spent a day visiting dog shelters.  We went and met a dog that I’d had my eyes on for awhile but he was just a bit rough for Elka and didn’t listen to her very well Unexpectedly I fell in love with Brooke, a 2 month old pit bull.  This poses some problems as far as daycare/boarding - daycares won’t take pits.  I’m taking Elka to meet Brooke tomorrow.  If that goes well I’ll have a hard decision to make.  She’s an awesome puppy though.

Either way I’m looking for a mellow puppy that is good with cats, and I’m trying not to worry about breed, gender, size with a focus on “the best personality”.  If pits didn’t have the lack of daycare/boarding options (or I was married! ha) then the “pit bull” portion wouldn’t be an issue.  But I do travel for work a few times a year and I need a place I trust where I can put the pooches.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow when Elka meets Brooke.

Other than that just relaxing, getting some house-stuff done and enjoying Chris’ visit and the time off.  Hopefully I’ll find that perfect second dog, whether that is Brooke or another dog.  We’ll see!

And Happy 2010 to everyone.

-Lisa, on January 1, 2010 at 11:00 am .::. Comment (0)

It’s my birthday.  As of 6:50am (9:50am ET) I was born.  Since I was born in NY, we’ll go with that as the official time.

That was in 1976.  I’ll leave the math up to you.

Back in the day (when I was 13 or so) I imagined that by now I’d be married with kids.  I’m not married and I have Mali and Elka to keep me company.  I’m happy about where I am.  I had friends that had no family around for the holiday that were depressed they’d be alone on Christmas but for me, I was right where I wanted to be: at Hondo Dog Park with Elka.

In all seriousness being single agrees with me.  I don’t like sharing space and I get crabby about having to live on someone else’s schedule. I don’t share my bed well, especially, and I have very set ideas about how my animals should be treated, as well as how my house, and of course, how I should be treated.

Of course, I also don’t leave my house, so meeting someone to attempt to date would be a pretty difficult thing anyway.

Perhaps in the New Year I’ll try to expand my horizons and see if I can meet someone.  But I’m happy where I am and not particularly feeling any sort of “biological clock” ticking.  I do sometimes think it would be nice to have a partner, but most of the time I’m blissfully happy with just me and my girls.  And “sometimes” is not enough motivation to kick me into gear to get into the “dating” world.

But we’ll see.  What I can say is that this year has been an incredible year and I’m happy with where I am.  I’m hope the coming year will also shape up nicely.

-Lisa, on December 27, 2009 at 8:50 am .::. Comment (0)