Will it stop... ever?

The rain.

Oh. My. Gawd.

The rain.

It keeps coming and coming and coming! I've given up on my arena. It is completely overgrown with weeds... Furry Husband called our neighbor Jack who does some land prep work. Hopefully Jack can come over with his tractor and spray super kill weed killer on my arena. When it dies, he'll come over and harrow the sand so I can have my lovely riding place again.

IF it ever dries out that is.

It's raining right now and I'm tellin' you guys, my mood just gets sad when it is so gloomy and rainy all the time and it prevents me from riding my horses. I NEED to ride my horses..... they are my fix.... they bring me joy and peace to the innermost of my Shanster self!

I have some news... we are getting a dog.

It's all very odd how it happened and Furry Husband and I thought it was all just a little too easy and a little too coincidental for us to ignore so we are going with it. It doesn't mean I can't still mourn the loss of my big, dog, Booker that was my boy. In fact I had a bad Booker day Saturday and spent the afternoon wandering around the house sniffling and remembering him and bawling my little eyes out.

Nothing I can do. He is gone and I just miss him. Simple as that. One day I will have memories that will bring me laughter vs. tears and I know this.

Anyway - I'd been interested in English Cocker Spaniels. Back when I had my very first dog, Osti, in the early 90's, I was in an obedience class with a woman who had two of them. I really liked them and I've always sorta just liked them.

When Booker died, I started researching the breed to take my mind off of Booker. My wonderful, dog-loving pal, Heather e-mailed me to say that the English Cocker Spaniel Specialty was going on that weekend at the event center near my house. Specialty shows are BIG shows for a particular breed and people come from EVERYWHERE to participate. It'd be a good place to see a good representation of the breed, to meet people who own them and talk to breeders etc.

I wasn't gonna go. Then I couldn't get a hold of my girlfriend, Big M, who I was going to spend the afternoon with and Furry Husband was out of town ... so what the heck I thought. I'll just go and hope I don't run into any Gordon Setters, cuz if I see a big, goofy, happy, Gordon I will lose it in front of God and everyone.

I didn't see any Gordons (shew!). I did see A LOT of English Cockers. I kept quiet and watched because I wasn't sure of myself and I didn't want to be seen as "fresh meat" to any rabid English Cocker Spaniel lovers.

A woman stood next to me with her young dog and she was talking to him, I turned to look and caught her eye. We said hello. I asked to pet her dog.... I was loving on this 8 mos old black and white speckled/spotted English Cocker Spaniel and we continued to talk.

Turns out she has his brother at home and he needs to be placed.

Oh - no. I couldn't. It's just too soon. But I took her card and continued to talk to her about the breed and love on this little dog.

When Furry Husband came home from his trip I showed him pictures I took of the dogs and I told him about this woman and the dog at her house needing a home. We both agreed it was just too soon.

And then we'd bring it up and touch on it in conversation... and we'd ruminate about it.... and bring it up again and talk about it.... slept on it... talked about it some more.

Finally Furry Husband said, "Why don't you e-mail that woman and ask her for some more information and some pictures?"

He is a nicely bred dog, he is crate trained, potty trained, he was raised with children, he gets a long well with other dogs, he travels well, he's had all his health checks for hips, eyes, kidneys and they have a friend who lives in Livermore who will be showing in their neck of the woods July 17th and who can bring this little dog back to Colorado on her way home. They'll have him neutered for us and microchipped and the only stipulation is that if he doesn't work out and for any reason we don't want him any more, they want him back.

Oh. This dog has a short toe. The pinky toe on his left front foot just stopped growing and it's shorter than the rest of his toes. And y'all know I have those funny, deformed little toes right? That sorta sealed the deal. I think Furry Husband fell on the floor convulsively laughing when I told him about the short toe on the dog. "He's just like you honey!"

The dog's registered name is Cimarron Toast. They've been calling him Toasty. We will call him Toe for short.

Things just fell into place and while I sure miss Booker, I think it will be nice to have a young dog to bring some laughter and a little more love into our lives.

Toe will come to us the week of July 20.

Introducing Toe from Oklaholma: