putting the knit in shizknitz

 Oh, how life has been good lately.  2 weeks into the new job and all is going well, we’ve unpacked to a point we can begin normal life again, hosted a BBQ on Fri, got a fabulous pedicure today, eyebrows threaded, hair appt in a few hours and of course… our new baby Bella!

The first week we arrived and had no furniture (and I wasn’t working yet) I started looking at some of the pet rescue sites in the Bay Area.. there were so many, but I was looking for something specific - pom mix, young, female.  I came across her photo on Smiley Dog Rescue and was absolutely intrigued.  They were having adoption events that very weekend and despite poor T and his horribly infected eyes, I went.  I fell in love with her that instant and wanted to take her home right away.  Patience, patience.. she had broken her leg while in foster care (she’s an escape artist - she managed to jump out a window) and thus has to have a cast for several more weeks.  Until then, we cannot officially adopt her, and thus a “foster to adopt” program.  We had someone from the organization come out to check out our place (despite the unopened boxes, she was gracious enough to know that we were good dog loving people) and little less than a week later, voila!  I picked her up on Thursday night and she’s been here with us now since.  She seems to be good with potty training, only a few accidents which is to be expected, but she’s been really, really good and a fast learner.  The cast doesn’t slow her down either - she kuh-klunks around the house, as much as we try to keep her quiet and calm.  Oh!  How I love having a pet around again…. the simple joys of life!

BTW, my parents don’t know that I got her yet so please don’t mention it to them (it’ll be a surprise on their next visit)!!!

The other night, I dreamed of Mia. In my dream I had just found out that I had lost her, it was strange because it was reliving those emotions all over again, then all of a sudden she was there and someone was telling me that she was allright. I got to pet and hug her for awhile… then I woke up.

It was sad, because I still miss her dearly (I have yet to give away anything of hers, and I still find her food and fur in random corners of the apt). But it was almost like she was telling me that she was okay…

I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately, but I guess you knew that. Most recently your daddy and I were laughing about what you would be doing if you were here with us as we were wrapping things on the floor last night. You would of course walk right into the middle of what we were doing, sit (in your lazy style with one leg sticking out), start breathing through your mouth with your tongue slightly sticking out of your mouth. It always made you look like you were smiling. Then you would close your mouth and begin to start trying to lick our hands, something you so love to do. You might even try to sit on our laps, although you were always a little too big to be a lap dog.

You were my baby for almost 5 years. I’ve gone through so much - good, fun, sad, pain, frustration, smiles, love - and you’ve always been there for me. You greet me when I come home from a long day at the office or school and lately you began to give me these “hugs” with your two front paws on me and licking my neck. Sometimes you get so overly excited that you would jump on your hind legs and quickly move your two front paws, almost as to catch an invisible fly. You would chew up the strangest things - my shorts, my underwear, the pine needles from the christmas tree and lick my Dr Scholl’s sandals. It was a challenge to get you to “sit” for a walk, a crackup to see you twist your head when we said “ooooouuuuut???” and all other words that sounded like it (pout, shout, tout, etc). I loved how you would visit me upstairs as I sat at my desk, for a quick hug or to eat popcorn off the floor, and I will miss seeing you at bedtime get your running start, jumping into your bed and pushing all of the blankets about.

You were so gentle, and sweet - the brown fuzzy pomeranian that was love at first sight when I first saw you at that shelter. You’ve taught me more about life - how to love unconditionally, how to care for regularly, how to be patient, and how to walk at all hours of the day. I am desperately trying to remember my last vision of you, I remember I left for Argentina without taking a good long last look at you. That day was after weeks of pure craziness with school, and I only hope that I gave you the love and time that you so deserved.

If only I could have one more walk with you.
If only I could have one more hug with you.
If only I could have one more …. see you’ve taught me another life lesson.

I miss you Chia Mia. Mommy’s heart aches for you.

This will be my last post under the category “The Pet”.

Mia likes to swim. In fact, she has webbed paws. I’ve joked that I would like to get her a pool to swim in, however in an apartment in LA the only place we could put it would be in our living room. Someone was crazy enough to actually do it.

BJ finally had her last shot and was able to have a “play date” with Mia this weekend. She’s got so much young pup energy that Mia really couldn’t keep up, er, didn’t want to deal with her. BJ was adorable when the playfulness didn’t work, she would walk up to Mia slowly, then start giving her kisses, to which Mia would turn her head away with a look that said “what the heck?!” only when I said “Mia, want to go OUT?” did she start to jump around which really got BJ excited…

On another strange note about Mia… she LOVES car rides. A month or so ago she went through a phase where she insisted on going in through the garage after her walks. She then would stop at each car in the garage until she got to our cars, and would put her brakes on. She wanted to go on a car ride. Once, T gave in and we drove around the block, to which she seemed to be happy. She jumped out of the car and obediently went home. Another time we tried to trick her by getting IN the car, and getting out a few minutes later, but she didn’t buy that. Tonight, I finally remembered my radio code on my car which enabled me to FINALLY test iCruze which I got installed a few days ago. Well, we all got in the car to test it - but she certainly didn’t want to get out. In fact, I got out of the car to get her out when she jumped to the drivers seat (away from us) and laid down. She wasn’t going to move. Miss Thang was lucky that I had a new toy to play with, as she got her car ride around the block.

I can’t believe its been 2 weeks since Nancy and I picked up BJ in Stockton. T and I were lucky enough to have an opportunity to pet-sit for her this afternoon. I think she’s gotten bigger - she’s approx 12 weeks old now. She pounces like a cat, likes to eat bird crap, and run around the couch. She’s been doing really well with her pee-pad training, her mommy and auntie are quite proud! It was so different taking BJ “out” from our Mia, she doesn’t necessarily want to go out, and most of the time she lounges around and stretches and enjoys the sunshine than sniff around. Post-walk, she decided to cram herself into a little nook on the couch - we were cracking up!