The Glaciers Are Melting! The Glaciers Are Melting!

I promise this isn't a post about global warming. 

Let's take a trip down memory lane, back a few months to the beginning of May.  Actually, this story starts back in June of 2010, when we lost our long-time kitty, Boo, at the ripe old cat-age of 17.  Since then, the kids have been petitioning for a new furry family member of practically any type or variety, but there were two things working against them - one, I had promised many, many years ago that when we became pet-free, that Jerry could have a dog, and two, Jerry and I were enjoying being pet-responsibility free at that moment. 

Eventually, I was ready for a new fur-friend, but Jerry was not.  I threatened that if he didn't pick a dog out soon, I would just show up one day with two kittens, but I think he knew I wouldn't press the issue too hard.  At some point though, I tired of the near constant requests for a pet, and so after the first year my response to the "when can we get a dog" question became a standard, "ask your dad".  As the school year wore on it became a matter of finding a good time to go to the shelter.  We made it to May, and Jerry was beginning to show signs of relenting.  We had set a weekend to go to the shelter, and then Maggie came down with pneumonia.  She missed the entire week of school before we were supposed to go look for a dog, and wasn't entirely recovered by that Saturday, so we had to tell the girls that nope, that wasn't going to be the weekend we looked for a dog either.  Maggie was in a tizzy, and in her pre-teen angsty way she declared,

Glaciers will melt and mountains will rise and I'll still be sick, and we still won't have a dog!   

as she turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.  Have I mentioned lately how pre-teen-ness has affected our household?  No?  I'm sure it will come up soon, but back to my story. . .

So, eventually Maggie recovered, then Gracie got pneumonia, then we went to Texas to kick off the summer, and then, finally, we had another weekend with nothing special scheduled, so we headed off to the shelter to look at dogs! 

And we didn't find one that clicked. 

But the next week the girls and I met Oreo, a 13-month old border collie mix. 

"Click!" 

Did you hear it?  So the following weekend we took Jerry to meet her at the kennel where she was being fostered, and he liked her too!  So, now we have a dog! 

Meet Oreo: