Sweet Darling Baby Boy

      Someone wrote in to complain that this blog contains way too many words.  Well. . .I love words,  and you're lucky I'm restricting myself to English!  For example, yesterday I learned a great Spanish phrase used to express the idea that you may not be fluent but can speak well enough to understand and to answer back, even though your answer may sound like that of a four-year-old: "Me defiendo bastante bien."  It literally translates to "I defend myself well enough," but in Spanish it sounds cooler and more casual.  What it pretty much means is : I get by.
     And I do.  A year ago I was frantically preparing to bring Ivy home, reading dog books like mad, buying crates and leashes and collars and searching for a vet who wasn't a shot salesman disguised as a vet.  Long road, that one.  I turned forty-three, flew from Austin to Albuquerque to pick up my sweet girl, suffered the nightmare flight home and embarked on the life I'm in now, the best life I have ever lived.  I'm glad I never had a dog before Ivy, but that's a story for another day.
     I didn't know that a sweet funny dear boy Aussie would join us six months later, but what do I know?  My dogs don't need words.  They need clear body language, a happy spirit flowing out of me, a warning look now and then, and an expression on my face that is the equivalent of an embrace.  In honor of them, I'll stop now.