Recently, to lift my spirits before having another surgery, I adopted another chihuahua from Joy's Homegrown Chihuahuas.  Teeya, who was born on May 15th, is the pretty little blue fawn pup shipped all the way from Florida that I got.  Joy shipped her here to Texas, made sure she had her first shots and in general made sure the transaction went very smoothly.

Miyu is the little black calico kitten playing with Teeya.  We are not exactly sure how old she is, but she was probably born about the same time as Teeya.  We got her the end of May, making her less than two weeks old, but with her eyes open.

In this picture, Miyu has stolen Teeya's squeaky toy.  The two think they are sisters and play all the time (and fight all the time, just like siblings).  Both of them have been a real joy to bring into our family.

Teeya and Miyu

...not because I am having overwhelming problems or something, just because I have been superstitious that if I posted something good, it will be like I dropped a mirror and will have seven years bad luck.

Not to say that everything is perfect--my back is out, we had a hurricane (Ike), and one of my dogs killed a kitten.

But my back is about to be fixed. Ike blew down a bunch of branches and knocked out electricity--but we had a small generator, just large enough to run an AC and a portable DVD player to keep me entertained.  The dog that killed the kitten was turned over to the Huntsville animal shelter, and was adopted out two days later (hopefully to a family that doesn't have cats).

The positive aspects of our lives far outweigh the negatives.  Ronald is working for a seafood restaurant and making more money than he ever has.  We bought a small plot of land near Lake Livingston so we could take advantage of their boat ramp to go sailing again.  Both of us are developing hobbies together that we never thought of before.  We are making positive plans for our future.

So, for the first time in at least a decade, I feel at peace with myself.  I don't want this to end.  Which is why it may have looked like I have abandoned my site--but I was just waiting.  Waiting to be sure that my peace was real.  Now I feel the wait is over.

Alyssa, my daughter who is in the Army, is home on leave.  She absolutely did not want me to rehome the pups before Christmas because she was worried they would become "Christmas puppies", i.e. dumped a week later.  So I will start my little rehoming project this week, for a few of the puppies (I am keeping several).

Puppies never make good surprise presents.  The only time a person should get a puppy as a present is when they have asked for one, are aware of what they would have to do to take care of one, are willing to commit to taking care of the young pup, and love the little monster. 

Because for the first few months, that pup will be a monster.  A real monster.  The puppy will chew up everything, shit on your floors, piss on your Persian carpets, eat your favorite book, tear up that dissertation you worked on for a year, ruin the power cord to your laptop, and make a playtoy out of your iPod. The puppy may make you pretty miserable.  This is a temporary state, and will end when the puppy becomes a dog. 

What they bring to you is joy and love and happiness that will last for years.  But since most people don't seem to know how to handle those things, they focus on the negative temporary effects that even human toddlers go through.  If they could only see that back some decades ago they were the ones chewing on the furniture, maybe they wouldn't be dumping that puppy at the pound a week after Christmas....