MckPrayers

One of my friends from The Knot and The Nest, Jessica, alerted me to the story of Baby Stellan today, via her Facebook status. I just spent my entire lunch hour reading about this incredible family and their unyielding faith in the presence of such struggles and adversity. Please click on the link below to read about MckMama and her family, and make sure you take time to read the story of Stellan, the courageous 4-month old baby with a scary heart condition:

Perfectly Marvelous

The news of Natasha Richardson's tragic and unnecessary death had really been on my heart and mind today. What a beautiful and talented woman she was, and one of the few in Hollywood who had a marriage people could look up to. Below is a clip of Natasha as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret.

Rest in peace, Natasha.

Carmen, je t'aime!

Everybody, meet Carmen. Carmen, meet everybody.

Obviously, we kept the dog.

We did put up lots of a few "Found Puppy" signs and we DID take her to the vet so that we could have her scanned for a microchip (none were found, btw, but they DID find fleas, ticks and worms. Yay.). So, she's been ours for just over a week now.

Operaboy has been FANTASTIC with her, since he's home during the day. The result of which is that she loves him more than she loves me, but that's okay. She snuggles with Mommy on the weekends while Daddy sleeps in.

Right now we're in the middle of potty training and crate training, neither of which are easy OR fun. She kept me up, whining, until 3:30am on Monday night, so yesterday was a very bleary-eyed day for me. We also think she was a bit mad at us on Monday night. She fought us tooth and nail on her last dose of worming medication (nummy!) and peed in the house 3 times that day (for which she was promptly taken outside and left there while we cleaned up), AND we put her in her crate alone for the first time in the living room while we slept. Ack. I was ready to punt her across the street by yesterday morning.

However, yesterday was a VERY good day. No messes in the house, she went on a walk with us on her new leash, and she stayed in the crate for a few hours at a time during the day yesterday so that she could get acclimated to it. No whining last night from what I've heard anyway (I crashed at 9pm after going all day on 4 hours sleep yesterday). She's being VERY good. Operaboy said she even hung out in her crate (with the door open) for a few hours yesterday evening while he worked on his opera.

Which brings me to her name...

Operaboy is preparing for and learning three opera choruses right now in preparation for his upcoming gig with Ft. Worth Opera. One of them happens to be Bizet's Carmen. He was working on this opera when we found the puppy, AND she's kind of a little gypsy (since we found her wandering) AND we've always wanted to pick an operatic or musical name for our first pet. Thus she was christened Carmen.

NOT Sarah Brightman, as my friend Justin so strongly recommended, though he continues to call her that.

So, I guess we expanded our family before we were ready, but we're blessed nonetheless. Let's hope this trend DOES NOT continue, if you get my drift.

But really...how could we say no to that face?

Found a puppy!

This morning as Operaboy and I were leaving the house, we noticed we had a visitor!

Operaboy kept looking over at our hedges near the gate to the backyard with a funny look on his face, and I said "What are you doing? Let's go!" Finally he said, "Do you hear that?" I stopped and I heard what he was talking about...our hedges were rustling. Suddenly a sweet little puppy face popped out!

She had burrowed herself way back into our hedges. She went right back in and came out on the other side and made her way toward me cautiously (and I her in the same fashion). She looked very wobbly, which implied either fear or youth (or both) to me. She wasn't wearing a collar or tags, either. :( I had to go to work, and as we were driving away she backed herself back into the hedge (very odd behavior).

When Operaboy got home, he got in G-mail chat and told me that he'd let her in the house (ack!) and that she was passed out watching ESPN. Haha! Those are the pictures above. She was very sweet to him and not bitey or aggressive at all. I told him to let her outside and go get her some food, at least until we can put up some flyers and/or call the newspaper.

I'll take some better pictures of her face tonight to make the flyers, but we think she might have a little pit bull in her, and maybe some beagle, based on her eyes, coloring, and ears. Who knows, though. This is bad...I want her! I am already thinking of names for her, which I really shouldn't do b/c I'll just get attached!

Part of me is hoping that nobody will claim her! One of the LAST things we need right now is a puppy, but she did find our house, so who knows! I'll update when I can...