Doggie Update

I got kind of a pang when I wrote the title of this entry. In the past, I always wrote about dogs in the title to signal Diane that there would be cute pictures of dogs in the entry. She always liked the dog entries best and I almost always heard from her after I wrote about the dogs, especially if there were cute puppies involved.

So now I'm writing "doggie updates" mostly for me, I guess.

We are down to "only" four dogs. That includes Sheila and Lizzie, of course.

Polly, bless her, is still here.

She has now been here almost eight months, long enough to become the alpha dog around here. Sheila lets her, though Sheila knows that she is the one who is really in charge. Polly lives to be with me. Whenever I walk anywhere, she bounces like a ball, jumping up against the back of my knees, hoping I'll sit down. When I sit down, she instantly leaps in my lap, snuggles under my armpit and is asleep in seconds.

I really love this little dog, but I hope she's not too upset when I turn her over to a new family some day. I can't have a yappy dog permanently. For all the bundle of love that she is, she is also fiercely territorial. Everything is fine with everybody, 2 and 4-legged who live here, but any noise outside send her barrelling out of here at top speed, yapping her fool head off. I don't have to do much to get her to stop, though. All I have to do is open the back door and she comes racing inside. I love the sight of her bounding like a jackrabbit over the tall grass trying to get in here.

She actually may have a forever home. A woman who worked with her at the beginning of the year has expressed interest in adopting her, but won't be able to take her until September.

Cappuccino ("Cappy") arrived while we were in Russia and Ashley says the house became "chihuahua rescue."

He's a 10 month old puppy who is the world's sweetest thing. He and Polly are good friends, but he's not yappy. I rarely hear him bark at all. When Polly goes racing off into the living room or back yard, Cappy is happy to just continue cuddling in my lap. Of the two, he is definitely the more appealing pet.

The two of them spend most of the day lounging in my chair, waiting for me to join them.

Over in Australia, things aren't that much different for Peggy and the Uralla Wildlife Sanctuary, the kangaroo rescue organization with which she works.

Those little orphans form close friendships too.

(Do check out that Uralla site...Peggy has just added new photos and some of them are just priceless...like this one....)

We are both, in our corners of the world, helping to save the world, one puppy/joey at a time, I guess.