Sunday, March 21, 2010

the freezing of hell

This post is mainly for family and friends that know me well. Those that know I have held fast on not having a dog for 18.75 years of marriage. But sometimes circumstances go beyond our control. Sometimes we do things we think we will never do.

Some people have long thought I don't like animals. I do (I had two dogs for 14 of my first 23 years of life and a rabbit for the past 5). They are just more responsibility and work (thinking about those 14 years plus the current 5) on top of everything else. I never saw the payoff. My perspective has changed lately. In large part because I am putting hope that an always happy, always glad to see you creature in our house will provide us all with a little picker upper.

After about 34 hours of this experiment, it seems to be working. Here is Mr. pickerupper himself. Meet Shafer Blitz Lingenfelter, a 14 week old German Shorthaired Pointer. He is 19lbs. now and will grow up to be the size of a small lab, 60-80lbs. You are probably lumping me into the extreme dog loving category because he has a first, middle and last name. Don't. He gets the full name treatment because on his paperwork it said we could use up to 50 letters. We only used half of what they allow. Seemed like a waste to not use a lot of the spaces we were paying for with the registration.

You'll look at some of these photos and think I have sold out and the dog is a person to me because you see him on a couch. Nope. He has to reside on the ground except for the two red couches. No getting on our beds, it's a crate for sleeping and when we leave the house.

As you can see, I have some issues about having a dog. Seems like a simple thing. Josh even mentioned to me today that until yesterday, he was the only person he knows who doesn't have a dog. So why is it such a big thing for me??? I don't know. But now we do and here he is.


He came to us well on his way to being house broken. He already knows some commands and seems to be a fast learner. He doesn't bark for the most part. He loves everyone he meets and promises to one day be an accomplished runner (hopefully Pam's future running partner). He has made friends with our rabbit. He points at it. I expected our rabbit to be afraid of him, possibly hastening his passing on to the great rodent cage in the sky, but no such luck.


The verdict is still out, but I really do hope this works.
Family...you do know that if you click on these pictures they get bigger, right?


There is actually a short video below. Click on that little play button down there.


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