Winter Wonderland

Sweet time with family and friends in a green, wet place known as Oregon. The Iowa Dogs are back in Iowa enjoying a winter wonderland. A very sweet human type is staying at the house attending to their every need.

Note: Vegas recently emailed me to let me know she is VERY worried about the human providing care in Iowa. The human built a temporary shelter for a CAT that was suffering in the cold and snow. I responded that all animals need a warm place to land and that said human was a Rescuer, just like Vegas. Vegas was concerned that I had been drinking too much eggnog and did I not hear her say CAT?

Update on Black Dog aka Sadie: Sadie arrived with tape worms and ear infections and an unquenchable thirst to love and cuddle us. She is a non alpha like Vegas. After two months, they are beginning to play with each other as Vegas is coming to terms with the fact that Black Dog might be here to stay. When chasing down a tennis ball with Vegas, I imagine them saying,

"You take the ball"

"No, no you take it, I couldn't"

"No really - you have it".

As a result, most tennis balls are thrown and not retrieved.

She has very good manners and will sit and stay and sometimes shake a paw. She prefers laps to blankets and sofas to floors, like most good dogs. She goes crazy for car rides and dog walks. When she sits and looks up at you with her big brown eyes, her tail wags from the middle of the tail to the tip, like the Disney dogs on Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

At Christmas Eve services in a small quaint church in Oregon, the pastor invited us to come up and light a candle for people who we lost this year or who we were missing this Christmas. I thought that was such a wonderful blessing - to acknowledge the love and light of the people who were not with us. I stood up and walked to the front of the church and waited to put a candle in the little box of sand. When I got to the front, I lit two candles and said a prayer of thanks for my dear friend Harold and for my beautiful blond dog, Molly. I knew God would honor the candle I placed for my dog, amongst the candles for the people because God spelled backwards is dog which is proof positive that God is a dog God.

Molly stayed with me for that entire service and when I went to kneel at the front of the church to thank God for baby Jesus, both Molly and my brother Scott joined me, one on each side. It was a beautiful Christmas moment of love I will never forget.