I gotta dog

I adopted a dog last Wednesday. She was a stray some coworkers found wandering up and down the street where I work. They were going to take her to the animal shelter, but my ole' bleeding heart just buckled under, and I took her home instead.

I took her to the vet to get her shots and be checked out. That's when the bad-news started flowing in. First of all, she has heart-worms. Not a bad case of them. Treatable. But it will end up costing me a few fishbones (dinero) and a long month of treatments in which time I can't let her out of my site. She has to be, in the words of the vet, a "couch potato" for the whole 30 days of the treatment. She can only go out to do her business, and only on a leash. I don't really know all the ins and outs .... the vet explained it to me best she could, but I know I'm not looking forward to it. She is a very rambunctious dog. It will be hard to keep her down. Her treatments start next Monday.

I named her Gracie, in honor of a good friend who passed away this year. His name was Tim and he was a true animal lover. He had a house full of dogs and cats. He had a very beloved cat named Gracie, so I kinda was thinking about him when I named her that.

The other bad news, is she's in heat. Never been spayed. The vet won't spay her until the heart-worm treatments are finished. So I have to tough out the rest of her cycle. Which means following her around the house cleaning up after her. Grrrooooaaaaaaaan.

My mom is beside herself. She thinks I have taken on way too much responsibility and have spent too much money on the dog. I say, I needed a project. A project with a face! I had forgotten what it's like to come home and have someone meet me at the door full of joy and kisses!

Pets just offer so much unconditional love, don't they? It's a shame that we as humans don't pay more attention to the lessons they can teach us.

Hopefully Gracie will be with me for years to come and will be a joy in my life!