Luna

This is a picture of Luna, Trudy's best-friend. Luna belongs to our wonderful neighbors, Steve and Monika, who'se backyard is connected to ours. Before we went to Lake City in September, Monika came over to tell me that Luna had kidney disease. She could take Luna to the vet hospital so they could do surgery, but she was told that the surgery might not work, and Luna would have to spend a week in the hospital. Monika chose to keep Luna at home rather than go through that. I just got off the phone with Monika, and she informed that Luna hadn't eaten in 3 days and had started to sleep out in the garage. Luna is such a sweet dog, and I am so sad that she won't be over in our yard anymore barking at all the dogs with Trudy.

Football's Biggest Fan

It's getting really chilly outdoors which means warm clothes and good football weather. Chris has been playing flag football with the Sandians every Saturday that we're in town. On Friday Trudy and I made the trip to my parents--Chris would come later when he got off work. Chris plays football in a park very close to their house so we planned on spending the night. It had been cold Friday morning, so I put Trudy's pink sweater on her since she loves spending the morning outside barking at who knows what. She arrived at Grammy and Granpa's (I can see Carrie rolling her eyes at their names) with the sweater on when a brilliant thought struck me. Chris would so appreciate Trudy wearing that pink sweater to his football game. But, even more than that, he would love having his jersey number on the back of her sweater. My parents very much approved of this idea, and we immediately set forth in finding black tape to make the number on the back of the sweater. My mom taped it up perfectly, and we set it aside for its grand entrance the next morning.

As Chris was getting ready for his game the next morning, I snuck Trudy in the bedroom and put her little jersey on. We let her walk around and stayed in another room until Chris spied her. We heard the "oh no!" immediately. The sweater, needless to say, did not stay on. It is so much fun to brighten the day of the person you most love. : )

Hail Hath Fury

We spent a wonderful weekend with Nick & Jenny as our guests. Chris had his long weekend, so we ate at Los Compadres (yum!), and then went on a hike near Truchas, New Mexico. It was one of the prettiest hikes I've been on in N.M, very lush and green and humid. We followed a stream for about 3 miles to two small lakes that were absolutely gorgeous. There is a reason, however, they say to try to make it to the lakes by noon to avoid the mountain showers. Not only did we get showered upon, we were pelted with hail and had to seek cover. Poor Trudy was with us, and our fearless leader throughout the whole hike, dug a hole under a tree and curled up in a little ball and whined. We made it back down the mountain in record time by running. It was bound to happen sometime as Chris and I always get caught in the rain and end up running miles back to the car...I fell and decided to check out what road rash feels like (not good). I got pretty banged up and asked Chris if I could tell people it was a bicycle accident rather than a walking accident. Somehow that doesn't sound quite as goofy. He told me next time I could wear a helmet. Thank you, honey. So very helpful.

Trudy Puts the "No" in Nose.

It's the beginning of a new season...time for Trudy to get injured yet again. In case you are keeping track, this will be number 4 in the 5 1/2 months that we've had her. I'm not sure who suffers the most when she hurts, but I suspect it is me since she seems fine the next day.

This newest injury (following the attack by two dogs in Madrid resulting in 10 stitches, the cut on her side from the gate, and the scraggly black dog that jumped our fence and took a chunk of her behind with him) was actually caused by her bestfriend and neighbor, Luna. Poor Luna, she was chewing a bone, and Trudy felt like she should share. I wasn't far away when I heard Trudy cry out. It was so awful, she looked like someone who had been punched in the nose. I picked her up and noticed that a good chunk of the side of her nose was missing. My poor, sweet baby, she went next door after I checked her out, went right up to Luna and licked her. I wonder if they make humans that sweet? I had to leave my sweet girl with her sweet daddy for my trip to Tracey's wedding. I hope they're taking care of each other.

Trudy

If you've ever come to visit us then you've probably met our sweet girl, Trudy. You've probably also experienced Chris's resignation regarding Trudy and my adoration. Now, granted, Trudy isn't the prettiest dog, but she is, quite possibly, the sweetest. We rescued her from the pound the day we closed on our house. When Chris finally said we could go pick out a dog, I told him I wanted one with a Benji face. That wasn't really his cup of tea. But, I approached her at the pound and her rear end was wiggling so ecstatically that I pointed to her and said, "Chris, look at this one!" He glanced at her, shook his head, and said she was the ugliest dog he'd ever seen. "But, go touch her, look how sweet she is." He wouldn't even look at her again. We left the Humane Society without a dog that day. But I just wouldn't shut up about the "dog with the rear end." The next week, Chris took me back to the pound with the intention of looking again; this time I stayed in the car because I cried for two days after we left for all the poor dogs that needed homes. Chris came out to the car to get me and said, "I found one!" Of course it was our Trudy. On the way home we decided on her name. Chris said that she was so ugly she should be named Gertrude. Gertrude is a big name, so it evolved to Trudy Lou. I have lots of stories about our girl, so beware!