Playmate coming

Starskey - you really need to come home soon!   There is a playmate for you who is coming to live with us.  Somebody needs to teach him the ropes (cat secrets and bell ringing) and tell him what he will get in trouble for - like getting in the road or following Dufus......

He is younger then you but he is about your size.  He is a lab mix too so you will have a lot in common.  Is it okay if he uses your bed and chews on your toys until you get home?  Then you can decide what gets shared and what doesn't.....but you will need to share Dad and me.  I'll put Care Bear up - he is your bed partner after all.

NO - I have not given up hope that you will come home.  Hope is what I am hanging on to more then anything now.  Everyone has looked so hard and kept looking for you for so long that we are all sure that someone has picked you up and taken you somewhere.  That should mean that you are being taken care of and for that I will have to be grateful.  We still pray everyday that we will get a call or an email from one of the many places you are listed as lost - or from someone who has seen you......WE HAVE NOT GIVEN UP HOPE!

You are loved and always will be......you were our first baby and we learned so much from you about raising a baby and about loving someone with a blank slate for us to write on.  You taught us a lot about ourselves as well - and about our true beliefs and abilities to deal with things as they came along.  Yeah - I would do a few things differently if I could do them over - but not a lot.  There would be a fence - and there will be now.  Official dog training might be a good plan too.

Hey - we did pretty well without that all but if there had been a fence - you would not be gone because you would never be outside the fence unless we were with you.  You trusted us to take care of you and love you and you rewarded us with your love and your respect.  You walked beside me (except on timber adventures), you brought the ball back when I threw it for you, you sat when told, you waited when asked, you shook hands when a hand was offered and accepted treats with great gratitude.  You stayed off the upholstered furniture but found that padded lawn chairs were pretty comfortable outside and that pillows on the floor were good inside - as long as they were close to us or in front of the fireplace.  You never jumped on anybody!!!!  You sat and waited for them to offer a pat on the head or a shake.  You were a good boy in the car (except for the phone book thing) and you did enjoy your rides!

See - there is a lot you need to help teach this new guy - and especially about ringing the bell.  You don't want Midnight to upstage you on that one!  He already did it to me - but you were a lot smaller then and this new fella isn't that small.  Midnight might not be much help this time.

He doesn't have a forever name yet.  They call him Dwight now - but that just doesn't seem to fit.  Should he be Hutch?  You'd need to come home for sure then because Starskey and Hutch are a team!!!  I get to go pick him up this afternoon but I couldn't do it without first telling you about him.

You disappeared after the first big snow fall in December - and he will come after the last crazy snow fall in April....a little over 1 year since you came to live with us.  There is something strange about that but I don't know if it is a good strange or a bad strange.....

I have been going to the Humane Society almost every week and meeting a lot of cool cats and wonderful dogs but couldn't bring myself to pick one yet.  Two weeks ago I went over and took my paperwork for them to hold until I had a name to fill in.  I kinda thought I would bring home a beagel guy that Phillip fell in love with - so he had a home and Phillip could come see him a lot, but when I got there he had already been adopted....but he did come to Forest City so maybe we'll be able to find him and visit him.

I went and looked at all the puppies....and all my other friends.  I do have favorites and some of them were gone (a good thing). There were a couple of other dogs on my mind but I still didn't think there was a perfect one.  When I got ready to leave - I put Dwight's name on my application.....I don't know why - something just told me to write his name down.  They called last week and said he could be mine - so last Saturday I went and spent some special time with him.  He is a really okay dude!  You will like him!   Some things are just meant to happen the way that they do - and I think this might be one of them......

He is not house trained - so thank you for house training me!  I know how to do that now!  I have a new timer even.  He is getting adult dog teeth so thank you for teaching me to have lots of chewy toys and bones on hand - it saves on the furniture!  I put a new gate up to the back room so the cat food is safe - thanks for teaching me that trick too.  He is going to need lots of exercise (besides potty walks) so thank you for leaving the tennis balls here. 

He is going to need a playmate.  I know Dufus will be here - that is the reason I need a fence.  He can play with Dufus inside the fence but Dufus will teach him bad things like roaming.  You need to come home and be his house and yard playmate and best buddy.  Nothing would make me happier then to give you to each other...............

Starskey - come home!  There is training to do and playing too!  

Gee - I wonder what the cats are going to think of this????  I think the gate to the back room tipped them off that something was happening.  This could get exciting and scary!  Come on home and tell them everything will be okay!