Smith Soup has a new ingredient!

We've named her Holly. She is a West Highland White Terrier, she's almost 2, she was orphaned a year ago, and needed to be re-homed by the family who took her a year ago. Enter my browsing on "Free cycle " looking for oh, goats, furniture, you-name-it and there it was : an ad for this dog. Charlie and I had been talking about "Westies" just a few days ago and I'd said that I really liked them and maybe ... if.... ever again we got a dog, I'd think about this breed. The lady had posted very early in the day and I didn't see the post til pretty late Sunday night. At noon Monday she phoned me to talk about the dog. There had been a lot of responders...always are for a free Registered dog, but she wanted a REAL family who would love the dog. She'd narrowed her choice down to another lady and us. By the end of our phone time, she was asking if she might bring Maggie out to us that evening , maybe she " spend the night so we could check each other out, " like that....

Well Maggie was not the name we'd have given her, and it wasn't the name on her registration papers either, so we all talked about names that fit her AND us, and happily landed on "Holly". All our other animals have flower names and with Christmas right around the corner, it seemed to fit just right. She seems to like it and to respond to it so I guess we did OK!
She is spunky, I don't think she knows she is a very small dog and she has already shown the kitties that she will not be intimidated by any of them. They have backed off already. All of the children seem to like her quite well. I talked to my husband( who is out of town for refinery TURN AROUND... a huge annual refinery assessment and repair event) about finding the dog, about the over night trial, and he just laughed that we had only talked about this a few days ago and NOW here was The Dog, and a freebie at that. He is going to like her with her all-over-the place personality. Except for one very early-on run -in with the kitties which resulted in the kitties scaring a bathroom experience out of her, Holly has proven to be very house broken.

Due to an allergic reaction to flea meds the other family shaved her pretty short and raggedly shorn. In a few months she will look like she is supposed to. Right now she is not quite as pretty as she will be ,but she IS very pretty!!! With the temperatures right now Holly has been quite cold when going outside, so she came to us with a wardrobe of sweaters and jackets. After a good rub down with some heavy duty scalp moisturizer, we dressed her in one of her sweaters. Some might groan. Until maybe 7 P M two nights ago, I too was a dressed-dog groaner. Now I am thinking it's just cute . HELP HELP HELP! This might indicate that I am losing some firm grip on things but I assure you I am NOT! For this chapter in our lives, she is the right size indoor dog for us. Despite her possible need for clothing, she is no wimp and I am not a wimpy dog owner .

If my 'puter were not freezing every time I try to upload a photo, I'd be sharing photos now. A dying 'puter is no fun, as many of you already know. I was able to upload this one photo before things froze up on me and I was not able to upload any more.

I didn't think it would be too very long after we lost Aslan that someone would be thinking about a new family dog. I probably knew that it might be, WOULD be... ME. I was right. Looking at Holly right now, sound asleep on the sofa next to Jael after having had several great runs with Naomi earlier, I'm sure we made a good decision.