Old Friends, Hairy and Otherwise, Return

Two days ago, I optimistically reported that I thought that Higgins' "test placement" must be going very well, since I had heard nothing from the woman who took him.

Well. I spoke too soon.

I had a call from her over the weekend, saying that after a week, her dog still was not bonding with Higgins, that the dog still barked whenever Higgins got near. She herself loved Higgins and had even taken him to work with her, where he behaved very well, but her husband was now thinking he didn't really want a second dog, so she was going to be bringing him back.

We made arrangements to have her drop him off in the late afternoon because we had plans in the middle of the day.

Walt's old college buddy, Jim and his wife Ann were going to be driving through town on their way from Lake Tahoe to San Francisco, where they would be flying back to Maryland and had called to ask if we wanted to meet for brunch.

We had a delightful visit over pasta at Caffe Italia here in Davis, where we occupied a booth for about 2 hours, while patrons came and went and the wait staff climbed all over us taking down Halloween decorations.

We guessed that had been about ten years since Walt and Joe had seen each other (though I saw Joe and his wife a year ago, while they were in California for their son's ordination and Walt was in London). They are such lovely, gracious people and I always enjoy our brief meetings.

We stayed so long at the restaurant that the woman who was returning Higgins actually called as we were leaving. I didn't realize it was so late.

Walt dropped me off at home and went off to work on the set he's helping to build right now. I waited for Higgins, who arrived very shortly after I got home again.

The woman who dropped him off stayed for 20-30 minutes, playing with the dogs and watching Higgins reunite with his siblings again. There were some squabbles and some minor territorial challenges, but basically they all seemed happy to see each other again.

After she left, I took them all out to the back yard, where they exploded into a flurry of hairy masses chasing each other around and around and around.

Lizzie seemed to vacillate between wanting to being one of the gang and wanting to exert her superiority over the smaller guys. I just LOVE the look on Higgins' face in this picture:

For the moment, Higgins is back home again. I hesitate to be optimistic, but last night all three puppies slept all night cuddled up next to each other. Nobody demanded to be in my lap with Dexter, and even when I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, they sat up and looked at me, but immediately went back to sleep as soon as I returned. I hardly dare hope that this will be how things will go now that Higgins is back, but I sure appreciated the sleep last night!