What's her name

This is our newly adopted dog (not a foster but a keeper). She was a stray that someone took to a local shelter. Nobody came to claim her and she was up for adoption. I'm not quite sure why I decided to adopt, as it goes against my experiences and my own belief that one should get to know a dog before agreeing to live with them. That's why I was fostering in the first place. In spite of my own best judgement I moved ahead with adoption. We did meet Monica (the name the shelter gave her) once in a park. We asked Ben, Laura and Abi to come too as we wanted to see how she would do with everyone. She did fine but was more interested in the park than us. Is this good reason to adopt? No, but still I forged ahead. We agreed to take her but asked if her foster home would keep her an additional week while we went on vacation. They graciously agreed. It was actually a good time for her to recuperate from being spayed.

It's been a week since we brought her home. She moped around all week-end, piddled in the house 3 times, jumped on the bed and furniture and growled when we scolded her. I began to think I had made an awful mistake. Her only redeeming point was that she was gentle with Abi and didn't mind at all when Abi gave her a hug. Even so, I was ready to take her back. It was Larry who encouraged me to give her some time (the tables were turned from our normal "who has more patience" roles).

I'm glad we waited as she has improved immensely. No more "accidents" in the house, no more growling, very few furniture violations. She really is trying to please and she's does love to snuggle. I'm actually beginning to like her very much.

Larry has built a doggy yard so she can be outside some during the day (though she seems to bark constantly when outside). She isn't fond at all of the crate (yet).

Her foster home thought she was a PBGV (Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen) so we thought we'd call her Phoebe. But now, after consulting some PBGV owners we've decided she's just a terrier mix - maybe some Llaso Apso and Schnauzer and who knows what all else. Now we're rethinking her name and haven't decided anything. Thumper is a possibility as she thumps her tail rather soundly when wagging. That's just one idea. Abi pronounces Phoebe as Reebee. Maybe that's what we'll call her. Who knows what will stick.

Vacation

Last week, Larry and I had a week's vacation. We revisited a couple capitol buildings (NC because we couldn't remember it and VA because we remember it fondly.)

We stayed at Shenandoah Crossing, a resort outside of Charlottesville, VA (near Gordonsville). It's a horse ranch setting but my visions of having ready access to the horses was just a dream.

We did ride one day and enjoyed it, even though it was

one of those follow-the-leader type rides at a very slow pace.

Larry rode the paint and I rode the mule that you can sort of see

on the left hand side of the photo.

We were only a few miles from James Monroe's house (our 4th President) which is called Montpelier. It's fun to visit historical places such as these.

So , for as much for our own memories as for your info, here are

some photos.

Abi - the budding photographer

Abi is quite the photographer. No joke. She took these first two photos! The last two photos we took of her (as if you couldn't tell). Just so you know, Addie - the white dog in the photo - was a foster dog who is no longer living with us.

We said good-bye to Addie yesterday. I wish I could say she was adopted but she wasn't. Rather, we're going on vacation in a couple weeks and took advantage of some transports of other dogs that happen to be converging in Chattanooga. Addie is transferring to another foster home in the Atlanta area where she'll expand her horizons some more.

She made tons of progress while she was with us. She made many people friends and even got used to Abi. (Imagine the confusion of having Addie and Abi in the same room. I think they would both get confused when talking to either of them.) Here, Abi is taking a picture of me taking a picture of them.

We'll miss our little Addie but we're looking forward to fostering others. Instead of sticking to Eskies, I am going to work with a local all breed rescue. For Larry's sake we're going to try to stick to breeds that shed less. (Addie shed profusely.)