New Puppy!

Yesterday we had to take our sweet Gwinnie to the vet for her shots.  She was excited to get out of the house and go somewhere in the car, and she was excited to be at the vet, where there were so many smells!  Oh, the smells!

It was fairly uneventful: she barely felt the shots, and the only cautionary note was her weight, which has been going steadily up since Sissy left us for the big ranch in the sky.  Poor, sad, lethargic Gwinnie. She has mourned her companion, and has been sorely needing a friend!

Well, in a serendipitous turn of events, our visit to the vet led us to an ad for a 3 year old female Rottweiler, spayed and vaccinated, in need of a home.  The listing said she was possessive about her food, and hated cats, but otherwise was gentle and loving, and a great watch dog.  Laurent and Geneva were with me at the office, and were overjoyed (as was I) with the idea.  We immediately texted Paul and told him the GREAT news.  He was predictably resistant at first; but before long he texted back and said we should go ahead and see if we could get the dog.

We got the number and called to set up a meet and greet, and this morning, we drove way to the south end of town, almost to the mountains, and met her and her caretaker, Kathy.  It was clear Kathy had loved her dearly since rescuing her from the pound earlier this summer, and hated to give her up.  The only difficulty was her large family of cats, with which drove the dog to crazy-town.  Kathy hated to have her living outside (to protect the cats), and thus reluctantly sought a new home. We were just delighted with her sweet temperament, and with many promises to take good care and post pictures from time to time, we thanked Kathy for letting us welcome her to our family, loaded the eager pup into the van, and headed home.

Because she had been living outside, she needed a bath in a big way, a good brushing, a de-ticking session, and then a flea and tick treatment.  THEN she could come in the house and really get acquainted with everyone.  She and Gwinnie have been mostly cordial, with just a couple of spats.  In an interesting turn of events, the new dog appears to be more dominant than Gwinnie… we’ll see how that unfolds, but I think they will eventually get on fine.  We have a handy water spray bottle in case they fuss at each other, we make sure she eats inside the kennel so she will not feel anxious about her food.  It looks like she is a little taller than Gwinnie, and is going to grow much broader and heavier as she matures.

Anyway, we love her and think she’s gorgeous, and are especially thankful for a friend for Gwin-Gwin. I know she’s going to be a dynamite watch dog – that Rottweiler bark really resounds throughout our tiled house! 🙂

This evening we convened a family meeting for the purpose of naming the new dog.  There were suggestions both frivolous and literary:

• Dido
• Ruby
• Juliet
• Iota
• Nano
• Delta
• Boopsie
• Bitsy
• Buffy
• Fifi
• Beatrice 
• Hero
• Tic Tac
• Juno

We were completely stalled on all of these, with each person’s favorite being shouted down by the rest. (I was in favor of Ruby or Juliet.)  After supper, Paul went for his walk, and when he came back he had come up with a new list to add to the mix.  Earlier, I had vetoed using any Saint names for a dog, with which he agreed; however, he said, that didn’t mean we couldn’t use the name of a heretic! And with that, he began listing off possibilities:

• Waldo (Waldensians)
• Mani (Manicheans)
• Nestorius (Nestorians)
• Albi (Albigenses)
• Theodotus (Monarchians)

Of course, as always when we start talking church history, this was lots of fun… in the final round, the winning name turned out to be Albi (because that whole story is just so fascinating!).  So it is settled – our doggies are Gwinnie and Albi.  🙂

UPDATE:::

My husband reminded me that I was unclear above — Albi is the city in the south of France where the heresy flourished, not the name of a heretic, as the others are. So, like our daughter Geneva, this pup is named after a city.

• ← Jovi
• Fun with Jovi →