Why I Oughta...

It has been over a year since I shared a post about our little Lizzie .  She's still little.  At least...quite a bit smaller than what I remember Maisy being when she was around.   We lost Maisy in the Summer of 2016, so we're coming up on four years of her not being around our family.  It also means that this Summer will be four years since Lizzie joined our family .  She's, ummm, NOT Maisy.  But, she is family.  And that means that she's around with ALL OF US during the whole social distancing period.  I found her the other day up on this bench - where she sits often - enjoying the day's sun.  Everyone copes with quarantine differently, right? 

15 years ago, I took a shot. And it *was* this/close to Valentine's Day.  Ballsy move - as they say. We were just puppies then.  It worked out beyond my wildest dreams.  To mark the time that has gone by, here's a flashback to a less partisan time when (then) Republicans and Democrats could get along. That Maisy was soommmme dog.  She endorsed us in the mailer above - which was kind of her.  Everybody liked her.  Not like Lizzie .

It was back in May that we lost our dear girl Maisy just shy of her 11th birthday.  I still miss her dearly.  And we kinda tried to fill the void by bringing home a goldfish from RibFest .  BTW...that fish is still alive and well!  And the whole burden of cleaning the bowl has been pretty easy thus far.  Installed a filter, change out like 1/4 to 1/3rd of the water about once every ten days and the thing stays clean. Anyway...back to dogs.  Our dear Maisy was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.  And she was.the.best.dog.ever.  First dogs often are, aren't they?   I've talked with a few people and they all say the same thing:  that first dog that couples often get BEFORE they have kids has a special relationship and bond with the family.  They're just different.  Sure, second dogs are great and they're also special.  But just about everybody that I've talked to has said the same thing:  it just isn't the same. And ...

Now that you've properly been introduced to our dog, it is time to tell a little story about her personality/smarts. Last week, we came home to find our air conditioner had stopped working.  (No...it wasn't the storm that flooded the Palmer Underpass, it was a different one.)  Well....actually, it was the furnace fan that failed (again) that caused the problem.  We were getting cold, conditioned air, but it wasn't going anywhere because the fan couldn't push it anywhere. Our house is set up like a traditional bungalow - 2 bedrooms upstairs and 2 bedrooms downstairs.  Normally, we sleep upstairs along with the Babe and Maisy sleeps in her bed in my office (one of the bedrooms downstairs).  The A/C had failed earlier in the summer, so we had borrowed a window unit from my folks.  Fortunately, that happened to still be in our basement.  After a bit of consultation with my dad, we settled on putting the window unit in our dining room - which would (hop...