Happy Birthday, Michael

Michael and I have been together nearly 30 years.  Most of those years we have had dogs.  When our last dog died two years ago, we decided we needed a break from the responsibility and expense of pet ownership.  I could tell Michael missed Lucy and Shadow and realized how much he had doted on them, especially Shadow, who was “his” dog.  We have had two sets of dogs in our life together, both pairs of sisters.

Bella and Kali

When I saw these faces on Petfinder last week, it was the beginning of the end of our childless lives.  Yesterday we adopted these two sisters and named them Kali and Bella.  Kali is Hawaiian for “black” and Bella means “beautiful” in Italian.

Funny how time distorts our memories.  The last 36 hours have reminded us why they are called “puppies”!  Despite trying the crate training method, we have had more than a couple of accidents, of course.  As we put them in their crate for the evening after our first round of training lessons, we both sighed and shook our heads, but agreed that we are glad we did this and that it feels like a good match.

Our cat, Jackson, was raised by dogs, but he is not so sure about puppies either.  Fortunately he hasn’t freaked out as much as I feared he might, but he hasn’t interacted with them yet either.

Meanwhile, I have now been motivated to finish fencing in the back yard.  Lovely project to be undertaking in Kansas City in November!

Oh… and Michael’s birthday is this Friday.  Happy Birthday sweetheart!

(Updated)

Michael with our previous dogs, Lucy and Shadow, a few years ago

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