Can you belive this was April?

This is a shot of our home on the morning of April 19. Over the past ten or fifteen years it has been unusual to get snow for more than two or three days per winter and that, usually in January. This year we had several times of three or four inches of snow and then in April we have had three or four days as shown in the picture above. This has definitely been a colder winter and spring than usual.

Busy busy busy and our dogs

Life has not been boring of late.  That's for sure. The last two posts on this blog have been sadly neglected with my not having posted most of the pictures of Mum with comments and the post about the Cheethirala visit not getting any pictures.  I hope to get back to those soon.  We have had our challenges in our business and are coming out smelling like a rose rather than like doggy poopoo as Emmie might say.  

Teri has been taking knitting lessons to learn how to knit socks.  I find it absolutely fascinating and don't even begin to understand how it is done.  The crochet blankets she makes are always getting better and more complicated and she loves to give them away to others, spreading the love she puts in them with every knit or pearl.  (I think those might be the right words.) 

I have been invited and accepted into the TVartists, (Tualitin Valley) association and am now displaying my art in the downtown Hillsboro Gallery.  That's kind of fun. I am currently looking into using a printer who will do the printing for me.  They will then do the multiple prints I need for sale without my taking all the time to print them on my own machine.  Besides my Epson Pro 4800 is currently on the fritz.  I have a guy looking at it who will let me know if it will cost an arm and a leg or just an arm to fix.  

Over this past year or so we have had the receptionist at my office watch our cute little dog Kiwi while we travel.  She had truly bonded with both Angie and her husband who began to ask when they could have Kiwi come back to visit.  They loved to take her hiking to the top of Multnomah Falls and other places.  Kiwi would come back dirty but very happy.  I had been taking Kiwi to work with me two or three days per week making it a very familiar second home for her with Angie as her favorite Auntie.  Kiwi though remained very afraid of all the other people there of which there are many.  So as things progressed it became apparent that Kiwi had bonded with Angie very well. At work if Angie and I were walking down the hall Kiwi would be with us and as I went one way and Angie the other, guess which one of us she would follow.  Broke my heart.  We let Angie take Kiwi home for longer stints until it became clear that is where Kiwi preferred to be so we transferred ownership of Kiwi to her new Mommie.  Kiwi comes back to visit and we get pictures in emails of her.  

Now on to our new puppy Sophia.  She is truly the dog Teri has been longing for over the past fifteen years of our marriage.  The only itty-bitty thing Teri would prefer would be if Sophie could be a miniature but I think she is a perfect size.  Baring any crazy things such as her deciding that the carpet is the the best place to poop or that all the wires in the house are chew toys she looks like a good long term companion.  She did chew through one computer power cord but only the once as a little puppy. House training was the easiest I have ever experienced. At this point she is the easiest dog we have ever had to train and we haven't even really tried to train.  She just learns by wanting to know what we want, doing all she can to please us.  

There are those who feel that our going through four or five dogs in fifteen years is irresponsible. Oh well.  To each their own way of feeling.  Just to give my personal feelings, wrong or right. (Can't be wrong or right though cause they are feelings.) Our first dog Misty was a great little dog and had a great personality with whom it was so much fun to go boating.  I really would have preferred that we had kept her even though I think Schnauzers are one the strangest looking breeds going.  There are certainly worse.  Wiener dogs are near the bottom of the totem pole.  (My opinion. If you love those little long, short legged cigars with beady eyes I am happy for you.) Then there is the bull dog!  Good thing there is somebody to love all God's little strange critters.  Back to Misty.  She was truly a great little dog but we had our Great Dane disaster. A great idea that turned out bad all the way around.  I loved Sequoia and still miss her but she was the ruination of Misty and our cat of that time.  I still feel guilty about that since it was me who so much wanted a Great Dane, having had one in my younger adult years. That dog, Tasha, was the best I had ever had. We made what turned out to be the worst possible choice in that we gave Misty and the cat away in the attempt to keep the Dane.  That simply did not work out so we found a new home for Sequoia that turned into another sad story.  So we were without a dog and I believed I really was done.  Finally we found little Kiwi who we really enjoyed despite all her weirdness.  The very best thing about Kiwi was how she was with little kids.  Our grandkids loved to push, pull, jump on and just plain rough-house with her. The strangest thing about her is that she was afraid of just about everything else including a cardboard box.  If I ever wanted to keep Kiwi out of a certain part of the house I only had to put a cardboard box or the vacuum cleaner in the doorway and she would not venture past. Then we visited our friends Allen and Char in Calgary who have the best little dogs, a pair of Caviler King Charles Spaniels.   Teri fell in love with them and began a quest to learn more about them.  As she learned more she knew this was probably the dog for her.  She found  a reputable breeder not far from our home, went to visit them and chose a beautiful little dog, Sophia who we call Sophie.  We hoped that Kiwi would get along with her and in time we thought it would work out fine.  At fist Kiwi acted like we had brought the bubonic plague into our home.  Gradually Kiwi warmed up to Sophie even allowing her to cuddle up and sleep with her from time to time.  However it never developed into a friendship with Kiwi just being tolerant of the little pest.  When the opportunity to allow Kiwi to live with Angie came up we had many long and hard thoughts, considerations, and misgivings about the situation.  As it turned out our choice was the best of all scenarios with Kiwi where she is the happiest and Teri having a dog that is truly her match.  There are some that would have me feel guilty about letting Kiwi go but all I can say is I believe we did the right thing and I have no misgivings about it.