Meet Dash

When I was off in Colorado Springs singing with my women's barbershop chorus the first weekend of May, Ryan and the boys went to an adoption event hosted by the Idaho Humane Society. (Sabrina stayed home to do homework.) And they brought home a dog. It was to be a surprise for me.

That is the way I like to tell the story. It sounds more incredulous that my husband would adopt a dog while I was out of town. And it really did happen that way, except I encouraged it a little.

Ryan has been wanting a dog of our own ever since we finished caring for Toto (Ryan's parent's dog) in 2012. But I was not interested in getting one at that time because we were expecting Beatrix. Then we watched Toto again in the summer of 2013 and Ryan really enjoyed having her follow him around when working outside. So we started (halfheartedly) looking for dogs online.

We knew we wanted a small dog that would be good with children. The majority of the small dogs listed on the Humane Society website were Chihuahua mixes, Jack Russell Terrier mixes and Pit Bull Terrier mixes - none of the breeds we were interested in. We also looked into Westie puppies, Cocker Spaniel puppies and Cockerpoo puppies, but I really wasn't interested in spending that much money and doing all the necessary training.

The week I was preparing to travel to Colorado Springs, I saw an article in the news (digital version on my Kindle Fire) about 90 small breed dogs being flown in from California that would be available for adoption that weekend. I told Ryan about it and sent him a link to the article saying that there may be a dog that would be a more desirable breed for us. So he went and picked out Nelson, who is a Cairn Terrier mix from Orange County, California born in April 2010. I don't like my animals to have human names, so we had a naming contest at home with votes for Sobaka, Skitters and Snowy. Skitters got the most votes, but I wasn't a fan. Then Sabrina looked up skitters in the thesaurus, found Dash listed and the name stuck.

Except Leo had a setback after we took Dash to see "the dog doctor who is not a dog" about Kennel Cough. We went to the Humane Society clinic and according to their records his name is Nelson so that is what the staff called him, so then Leo wanted to return to calling him Nelson. We have since decided he can be Dash Nelson and Leo is the only one who uses his full name.

Dash doesn't bark a lot. He does whine though, so if you ask Beatrix what a dog says (if she answers) she whines like Dash. He obviously wants to live indoors, but that isn't going to happen. He sits completely still when getting a bath. But if he sees a leash, he jumps around like crazy. So much that it is really hard to get the leash attached to his collar. He was trained to stand and beg. And he prefers the females in our family to the males.

I can call on the Power of God

This morning Roderic got to go to the dentist to have two teeth filled. We found out yesterday at his semi-annual dental cleaning that he has 4 cavities.  All on his left side, two upper and two lower. Two permament and two baby.

As I was telling him what to expect as we were driving to the appointment, I could tell he was starting to get nervous. The great unknown of having your mouth made numb and all. When we parked, I asked him if he'd like to say a prayer before going into the dentist office. He said yes. I asked if he would say it or if he'd like me to pray. He designated me. And so I prayed. Asking for the Comforter to be with Roderic throughout the procedure and in the lingering numbness afterwards. Asking for the Spirit to guide the dentist's hands. What a rush of the Spirit of God was felt in our minivan. It was amazing.