the pigeon wants a puppy

Dec and I have been discussing for months how lonely Puppy seems to be. You know, because we don't shower her with the nonstop love and devotion she seems to expect. We figured, then, that after we got the fence in the backyard this summer, we would look at finding her a playmate. We figured a Boxer mix of some type would be good for her because it would be about the same size and boxers are pretty.

Then we stopped in at Petco last weekend while we were running an errand at Bed Bath. And there was this boxer there. But she wasn't available for adoption. Regardless, we would had a lovely little chat with the gal there from the Utah Humane Society.

For kicks, we got online Monday night to see what dogs the Humane Society had. And we saw a couple that we had to check out. One was a boxer pit mix. The other was a lab pit mix, who, in the pictures, looked just like Puppy. So we went to visit them. As we approached the cage for the boxer, we realized that this was not the dog for us, considering that she was jumping, well, higher than my head.

But the other . . . Well, she was outside in a kennel, and she seemed nice enough, so we got Puppy out of the car and let them play together for a bit. And by play, I mean that we put them in the same kennel where Puppy ignored the other dog so she could sniff out every nook and cranny of the kennel. The other dog, on the other hand, followed Puppy around.

We slept on this for a couple nights. I mean, the dogs look good together. Same height but slightly different shading. Paws and snout are different. My hang-up was, well, the new dog's nipples. You see, she recently weaned puppies, so they were enlarged for nursing. And now they're kinda sorta saggy. And since I'm not one for breasts in the first place . . .

But we went back last night. They played a little bit longer. This time, by play I mean they actually interacted with one another. And it seemed to go well. So I filled out paperwork while Dec watched them play.

And we brought Puppy II home. Right now, we have her on trial, which I like since we want to make sure Puppy and Puppy II actually get along. Last night was pretty good. They played and played and played. Their favorite game is Dominatrix, so we're considering renaming Puppy II Eleka.

This morning, however, Puppy's eyes seemed to say What is she still doing here? And Puppy II exhibited a great deal of anxiety when Dec and then I left for work. All seems to be well now.

And since they'll play Tug-o-Rope with each other, it means I no longer have to.