The Flying Underwear Sisters

Post-Adoption updates are not usually as entertaining as the following, but then nothing about Nora's adoption (fka Nativity) has been usual. Chuckle along... kag

Okay, Friends and Relations,

We're headin' up the backstretch in our first week with 5 kilos of Mighty (Little) Dog. We wanted an older Cairn terrier female to put the "fear of dog" into Bree, our year-and-a-half Cairn/Bichon mix. "Be careful what you wish for;" we got the older Cairn female...

Here is where we have to make a plug for the kind and efficient folks at the Colonel Potter Cairn Rescue Network (say that quickly five times). And here is their website: http://www.cairnrescue.com/ ; I double-dog dare you to look! We must give special thanks to her foster parents in Wisconsin, Bob and Kay, who did such a great job of restoring her to health and showing her how to be a Good Dog (hey, where's the timid and gentle one you promised us???) "The Dog Formerly Named Nativity" also won a Free Week at Winter Camp with Mary, Mike, Jessica, Max, and Lola, compliments of Minnesota Winter. When we picked Nora up in Council Bluffs, she had accumulated so much schwag; food, toys, and biscuits from Winter Camp, plus a collar, tags, leash, harness, and a handmade blankie from the CPCRN "blankie aunties." Somewhere along the way, she also picked up a whole 'nother attitude about My Role as a Cairn Princess (think Princess Leia in Star Wars). We had to push and shove just to get her ego through the front door.

Adjustment to our household came slowly; about ten seconds. Wheee Haaa! Nora has spent the whole week regressing with Bree--we now have TWO "puppies" who spend every waking moment following us around, play-fighting, fight-playing, and stealing every item of clothing not locked away in a drawer. What are mere hangers and laundry baskets to the Flying Underwear Sisters!

We had hoped that a refined older lady dog would treat Francois/Frankie with the respect a mature Bichon gentleman deserves. ("Whoa, dude, now you've got to share Richard's lap with two Celtic Women. Bummer," sez Pixel, the dog next door.) Frank is somehow bearing up under the sorrow of not having his front leg gnawed on by Bree forty-two times a day, which is what she did before Nora. NEWS FLASH--Bree and Nora were rolling along wreaking havoc about 30 seconds ago, and they intruded on Monsieur 's personal space. Wow, I never heard a chien swear in French before! Suddenly it is ver', ver' quiet, no?

Nora is quite bright, we're almost trained already. Doors seem not to be an issue unless, "I don' wanna' cause it's cold out." She'll join the pack heading outdoors, and, oops, rethink about two inches from the door. She dances gaily away, "Come and get me; I'm cuuuute." Because you don't want to heat the entire state of Colorado, you shoo the other two out and steam toward her, "I'm not gonna let this little squirt make a fool of me THIS time!" Not in the least worried about your blood pressure, she flops onto her back and wiggles, "See my tummy? It's cuuuute, too..." Okay, how can one resist a little doglet who spent the first four years of her life popping out puppies in a little tiny cage? (Nora, 243; Sigrid, ZIP) So you kootchy her tummy, scoop her up, she licks your face while you hug her, and out she goes, while Bree and Frankie just roll their eyes...

Despite the civil unrest she has incited, Nora is learning Doggly Duties pretty well. Accidents are few, she's a good walker on a leash, she is a quiet sleeper, and she has made her peace with our six-pack; "What cats? Do you see cats? I don't see cats. No cats here!" When a cat-and-dog pile accretes, as it often does on a sunny spot on the floor, she is surprised to awaken and find one of those... those... not-dogs snuggled over, under, or around her.

Just as our children learned all their bad habits from one another, and certainly not from their parental units, we are waiting in apprehension until the FUSisters compare notes on one another's jumping abilities. Bree learned to jump straight up on her hind legs, about 2.5 feet off the ground, so that she can guilt us into letting her inside. She can do this for ten minutes--maybe more--we're softies and let her in. Our new four-letter-word-for-a-dog acquired a skill set with Mary and Mike at Winter Camp. It is reported - and we haven't been daft enough to experiment - that Nora can clear a child gate with the greatest of ease. What if the two of 'em compare notes? Remember those poodles on the Ed Sullivan Show? One would jump off a ladder, land on the end of a teeter-totter, bouncing the dog on the other end up into the air and through a hoop? And we only have six-foot fences...

Attached is a rogue's gallery; front row, left to right: Frankie, Bree, and Nora. Second row: Favorite husband

Hope your week was as joyful!
Richard and Sigrid