Three weeks ago my friend from down the street and I were out at an old abandoned house that burnt down 50 years ago. Our purpose for this outing was to dig up some iris, daffodils, lilac, rose, and any other plants that looked interesting. The woman who used to live here was an avid gardener. No, we weren't stealing (if it's abandoned it's not stealing... right???). We were relocating neglected and abused plants to a location where they would be loved and cared for. Now, doesn't that sound much better than stealing? Funny thing is, I had called Jamie and asked her if she'd rather go up to Nashville and watch the fashion show of scantily clad firemen at the Southern Women's Show. Nope, she wasn't in the mood to watch half-nekked firemen. What woman in her right mind isn't in the mood for that???
Anyhow, God must have been watching & laughing at what was about to happen next. My consequence for absconding with those plants. In the middle of our digging, two puppies clambered over the disintegrating rock wall and came running toward us. They were only about 2 1/2 months old and so hungry/thirsty that they were trying to eat the cactus plants growing around us. So, of course, being the softy that I am - I scooped them up with the intention of figuring out where they belonged. The nearest place was an old lumber mill, so that's where we went first. And that's where finding two adorable fluffy puppies became a pretty big problem. The guy at the mill informed us that he'd watched someone dump the puppies off earlier that day. He had tried to catch both the asshole who did this as well as the puppies and wasn't successful at either. I could almost hear God laughing at me. Jamie keeping the puppies was out of the question due to her two dogs - both of them are extremely intolerant of other dogs (they can't even be around each other). And as you'll recall, I've got three dogs at my house. So we sat there on Jamie's deck watching the puppies play in the front yard (after giving them water and food) wondering what in the world we were going to do. I made sure to point out to her that we COULD HAVE BEEN WATCHING HALF NEKKED FIREMEN!
The puppies were obviously part Chow Chow - so absolutely no way would we take them to the pound (the Chow would make them unadoptable). Luck happened to walk by in the form of Jamie's new neighbors across the street. They have three kids & no dog. Now they have a dog and very happy children. Which left Jamie and I with one dog too many (well, it's better than two). It was getting late, so I took the little guy home and put him in the spare kennel for the night. After a week of looking for a home for him, one of my neighbors agreed to take him for a few days on a trial basis. A week went by & my neighbor brought him back - just not ready to deal with a puppy. So, it's been a third week since then and Maks (he had to have a name) is still at my house. He's decided he lives here & judging from the lack of other homes for him, I guess he's right. At this point he's part of the family and has even earned himself a nickname: Monkey Maks - he sounds like a monkey when he's playing. Gabriel is overjoyed at having a playmate and the boys are the bestest of buddies. Lilly Ann likes playing with him too & really likes that he helps entertain Gabe when she wants a break. Sarah just doesn't care as long as she gets left alone - kind of sucks to be an old lady with all of these young things running around. Here are some pictures of Maks - he's the cutest baby!
