the ramble

Deep breath. Big smile. I am in Chicago for the night!

This, of course, means antics with Roommate #1 and probably with Friends of Roommate #1 and Boyfriend of Roommate #1 (whom I will rename for blog purposes once I have met him).

For now, until Roommate #1 comes home from work, I am in a coffee shop near her house, taking a breather. I was responding to work emails, but since A) things seem to fall apart when I’m not there, B) this makes me feel frustrated and sad and C) I can’t get in touch with anyone I need, I have given up on said emails. And now I’ll just wait for my CD to call me back and save the day. I won’t go any further into my frustration except to say: unreliable people suck.

Enough of that though. I failed at good attitude-ness last week, but perhaps I don’t have to fail this week, right? So, onto fantastic and fabulous and wonderful subjects–I’m in Chicago!

Thing one: Roommate #1 is my favorite. And, obviously, things that are my favorite are also things that make me unendingly happy. So I will buy her pizza and shriek a lot when I see her. This is my grand master plan.

Thing two: you know what else makes me happy? Puppies. So I’m going to go look at pictures of them. Pictures of adoptable ones of them. Because Luna needs a friend. She is so much happier when there is someone to play with and, while I try, I can’t always play (sorry, Luna, momma has to bring home the bacon…and eggs…and sausage links…). But another puppy! They could always play!

I was going to wait until I move to start looking for dogs, but I am starting to think that there’s no time like the present. Sometimes it takes a while to find the perfect rescue–particularly if you’re looking for certain breeds (read: hypo-allergenic, non-shedding puppies)–so there’s no harm in starting the quest now.

Speaking of the quest, I put my name down at the local animal shelter for any schnauzers that might happen to grace their facility. Schnauzers are a rare one for animal shelters, so I thought it’d be a few months of waiting. At least. Particularly since I want the dog to still be relatively young, so that it can romp with the Lun-ster.

But, no. I got a call the next day. Crazy craziness.

We went down to the shelter and met her and she was darling. Darling in an I-need-to-save-you type way, that is. So if any of you are looking for a Schnauzer (or just a good dog) in Denver, you should go adopt her.

They were calling her Fussy (but who knows what her name is, since she was found and has no known history) and she’s 1/4 of her body weight overweight. Imagine having an extra fourth on you: what would that be? 25 extra lbs? 50 extra lbs? That’s a lot to carry around.

And the poor thing was waddling and wheezing and it was so sad. The good news is that she’s young–only six years old-ish–so once she loses the weight, she still has the chance to live a long and lovely puppy life. But for now she has trouble getting around.

Which brings me to a rant: don’t get a dog if you are going to ignore it. Okay? Thanks.

In the end, the two concerns/deal breakers for me were:

A) the dog was a barker. And that’s the one dog behavioral problem that I have a hard time reacting reasonably to (thank God, Luna isn’t a big barker) and

B) I assume she’d be good for a romp once she lost the weight, but I can’t be sure. And a big part of this (in addition to being because I love puppies and having a dog has been the best thing that’s happened to me since meeting Roommate #1, whom I’ve decided is my healthy relationship, by which all men will be judged) is for Luna to have a reasonably similar energy level dog to play with while I’m doing things like buying groceries and working from home and such.

So, if anyone knows someone looking for a darling, easy-going dog who needs a little TLC in the form of daily walks, stop by the Dumb Friends League in Denver. And if anyone knows of a non-barking Schnauzer, please do tell.