The Pups

First, there was Gwen......



























Let me introduce you to my family. They may be less than 30lbs, carry a ton of weight in fur, eat garbage and plants, and leave paw prints on the front of your pants, but they are spectacular.

The oldest girl is Gwen. She is 5 years old, a beagle, the smallest of the brood. Quiet and chill this one loves to just be relaxed; though she is the fastest and best runner of the three. Her and I spent 2 years together before the addition of Kerry or any other siblings, and she is superb at being my partner in crime. She goes everywhere with me. Her only trouble is she gets carsick and throws up at the side of the road every once in awhile.

Unfortunately the other night Arlyn was in town from AZ and we were having a girly nail polish, chatting, shopping, chocolate martini night. Kerry of course joined us; he always fits right in. Since we were all absorbed in our chatting, nail polishing and video gaming, no one noticed that Gwen had decided to drink Kerry's entire martini. We spent about 4 minutes speculating which pup it was until we saw Gwen walk around the living room at a slant and then lay on the couch with her eyes spinning. She was fine, lesson learned without any terrible outcome, but this morning I think we both looked at eachother (after I relished in the fact that I had not killed my dog) and were feeling pretty similar. Needless to say, I dumped the rest of the martini mix and will not be drinking again for a few weeks! (and NEITHER WILL GWEN).

Mabel was the next addition; she is 1 year old now and is growing into a beautiful mature terror! She has calmed down a ton since her early months but she will always be the mischevious one. She has 2 seperate collars to help her learn the proper behaviors; with these aides she is an angel. Sweet as they come. Her favorite activity is to sit on your chest and just stare into your eyes. When she was young she would accidentally step on her ears they were so large. We had an incident with her as well. She had decided to climb into my bedside drawer and grab the bottle of Tylenol PM that I keep there as an occasional sleep aid and proceed to

tear apart the bottle and lick/eat all the contents. I got a call at work from frantic Kerry asking me what we should do. I raced home while Kerry transported her to the vet, knowing that Tylenol is completely toxic to humans and animals. By the time I got to Manchester the vet had already succesfully pumped her stomach once. They brought the contents to me and I unfortunately had to confirm that yes, all the colorful fabric WAS my thongs, three seperate pairs to be exact. They didnt find any pills, but she went through the treatment just in case and came home that night with a collar on for labs to be rechecked the following day. Everything turned out fine, and I moved my Tylenol. And my underwear.

Dogs make great companions for when you want to sit around knitting to keep warm during the winter. They all snuggle together and with us, and love nothing more than a warm lap. Most of the time they are trying to finagle their way onto our bed. They are great to sleep with but just take up too much room!

Our last little baby is Simon. Hes also a beagle. The vet thinks he is also pure beagle. We will never really know about all three of them since they were all rescued. He is an active 5 month old but certainly not as troublesome as Mabel was at that age. He loves to snuggle and sit with me. He is a special boy. We chose him because

we had fostered a puppy that we we fell in love with and tried desperately to keep; he looks exactly like that other puppy. I searched and searched for him, and when I found him I was determined to convince Kerry

he was going to be ours. Kerry did not agree at first, but was gracious enough to drive the hour and a half away to see him. Once he laid eyes on Simon he was convinced. "I told you so ;)" Kerry

was convinced he had "googily eyes". Poor kid, he didnt have a chance once Simon came into the picture, googily eyes or not! (His eyes are normal by the way, no googily to them). We had a foster dog for a few months named Houndsley and Simon used to ride Houndsleys back everywhere around the house. He also was so little that he used to search Houndsleys belly for nipples to suckle. Poor guy, he was fresh off the boat from the most traumatic upbringing in south carolina, had no meat to his bones and no family to speak of, and here was this month old puppy trying to milk him. We got a kick out of it! We thought three might be pushing it but its really not that much harder than two. The two younger ones keep eachother occupied so that Gwen can have her alone time. There are enough dogs to go around. And they will be old enough that we can have children and they will just want to lay around and chill someday :)

They each have their own personalities and quirks. All three and I can go running together now without any trouble. The two trouble makers are hitched together and Gwen, the princess, gets her own leash. Simon likes to run for longer distances than Mabel at this point -- all three of us have to drag her through the last quarter of a four mile run. Gwen learned how to swim last summer with Ker's dad CB, I cant wait to throw all three in this summer.