What a day....

Bowie & her crate, originally uploaded by ScottyJ.

Today is our first day as a dog-having family. Fargo would come visit for a while but he was always 'my' dog or 'Laurel's' dog. I had resisted getting another dog for months for specious reasons. I didn't want to replace Fargo, and I didn't think our landlady would go for it. Once I sat down and really thought about my reasons for stonewalling Zelia's many, varied, impassioned pleas for a dog, I realized I was wrong. So I started perusing various dog agencies, and got the approval from our landlady. Yesterday I stopped by the Sonoma County Animal Shelter on my way home and the pretty dog in the photo caught my eye. She was really perky, engaging and funny in the cage, but her larger brother kept hogging all the limelight. But I only had eyes for . Once I got a chance to visit with her, it was clear that she was very very submissive, but people oriented and sweet. So I brought Meredith to meet her, and we slept on the idea.

Today, it still seemed right, we knew we would have some challenges. She's a border collie mix and has had a seemingly tough life so far, but the bones are there for a great dog.

I'll write more about her first day home (it's been filled with little triumphs, and interesting observations) but I'm recovering from teh flu, and it's been a BIG day. So I'll leave with this for now:

Her name is no longer Coco (she wasn't very attached to it) and it is now Bowie. She went from being scared of her crate to settling down in it with almost no coaxing from me in about 4 hours. She's very gentle and sweet. Zelia, who had been spending the day at a friends house broke out in tears when she saw Bowie. And later ran down the street yelling "Attention everyone! Today I got a dog!!!!"