Sunday, October 26, 2008

The morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball

What a roller coaster ride this past week has been! I returned to work Monday and it was full throttle all week. Midweek, the aides determined that Mom had "plateau -ed" - no regress nor progress. So it was time to move her to a nursing home, which they did on Friday. My Tampa kid came home for the weekend, my niece from Orlando came down, and I had a nice visit Thursday evening with my two daughters (21 & 19) and two nieces (25 & 21). We made strawberry margheritas and nachos, looked at old pictures and laughed so hard we cried! When I returned to work Friday after a late lunch, my desktop computer was completely different from when I had left it - (Mark in IT was installing a DVD software) icons that I'd never seen before and files I had placed on my desktop just that morning were gone. I tried to open Outlook and it started taking me through reconfiguration. I knew that wasn't right, so I decided to restart. When it booted back up, my password was incorrect. I looked around for IT and couldn't find him, so I went back to my office and fired up the laptop... couldn't get on the internet and couldn't access most of the network files. I muttered a few four-letter words and walked in to the break room and pulled out the daily newspaper. I rarely read the newspaper, but when I do, I always scan the classifieds for weimaraner pups for sale - so rarely do you see ads for them. Lo and behold! Weim pups for sale, $650. I tore out the ad, put it in my dayplanner and went back to work. Friday evening, I spent several hours reading everything you ever needed to know about weimaraners and about training a puppy. Mind you, I've raised several puppies over the years - all labs - and I've read everything about weimaraners over and again. Then I pulled out the ad I'd clipped earlier and called the number.Saturday morning, my daughters and I drove to NW Cape Coral and bought a beautiful, 10 week old, blue female weimaraner. My life will not be the same. We brought her home, and since I had to go to Naples to co-sign on an auto loan for Sarah, Lauren agreed to stay and "puppy-sit".  The car thing took longer than I hoped, and I kept thinking about Gracie and noticed that across the street from the auto dealership was PETCO (Where the pets-go). When Sarah drove off in her Honda Element, I headed to PetCo.  I bought a kennel. (Vets and experts all say that's the best way to housetrain a new pup) I bought her brand of food, I bought chew toys, a stainless steel double feeding dish,  a bright blue collar and leash.  (ching-ching!!) When I got home, Lauren was sitting on the couch, with Gracie sleeping right next to her! (Lauren! I don't want her on the couch!! I know, but she's so little! she's not hurting anything!) Sheeshe....Gracie doesn't want any part of the kennel. Don't force her, experts say. Dogs like to have their own "den", experts say.  Well, I guess Gracie never read that stuff, or experts don't know Gracie.  She ended up in my bed last night (I know, I know...). This morning we went for a brief walk.  She's wonderful at following close at my heels.  She is not used to wearing a collar, and frequently scratches at it, but the leash?  NO WAY.  She just stands her ground, or sits down.   I have alot of work to do!  How I'm ever going to be able to go to work tomorrow morning is going to be quite a challenge, indeed.  But Gracie will be a wonderful companion.  It really is wonderful to see my dreams come true.  I made a point to speak of that to my daughters, so they will know that dreams really do come true, and to never lose faith or stop dreaming.  Lauren commented something about "Mom finally got her weimaraner!" to her friend, and I just smiled a knowing smile!

1 comment:

LeAnn said...

Hi Michelle!

Great to hear your "voice" I'm really happy you've got your dream dog! Gracie is such a pretty name!
Your tone sounds good. I'm happy to hear that I've been thinking of you.
The idea of Gracie not liking her kennel cracked me up. I have three dogs. We tried kennel training 2 of them and ...I know this is a function of OUR personalities, the dogs could have been kennel trained I am sure, but we could not stand it. The crying! They sleep on the bed and pretty much wherever else they want. But I like them snuggling with me if truth be known. If you don;t like it you need to be firm and consistent about it early. I hope you'll post a pic of you and Gracie!Wishing you the best thoughts, LeAnn