not a cat

Blackadder: It's taken me seven years, and it's perfect. "Edmund: A Butler's Tale." A giant roller coaster of a novel in four hundred sizzling chapters. A searing indictment of domestic servitude in the eighteenth century, with some hot gypsies thrown in. My magnum opus, Baldrick. Everybody has one novel in them, and this is mine.

Baldrick: And *this* is mine (takes a small piece of paper from the front of his trousers). My magnificent octopus.

Blackadder: (takes it) This is your novel, Baldrick? (unfolds it)

Baldrick: Yeah -- I can't stand long books.

Blackadder: (reads) "Once upon a time, there was a lovely little sausage called `Baldrick', and it lived happily ever after."

Baldrick: It's semi-autobiographical.

And this, we are hoping, will be the semi-autobiography of our own new little sausage called 'Baldrick'. (At least, this is the name that is on trial - to see if we get embarrassed by yelling "Come here Baldrick!" in the city park.)

That's right, we have acquired an AKC Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppy. Perhaps renting Blackadder from Netflix is really to blame for the making of this momentous decision because after watching it I mentioned casually to Clay: "Maybe we should get a little sausage dog and I could name him Baldrick". Made even more perfect by the fact that Baldrick's occupation in Blackadder III is as Edmund Blackadder's "dogsbody". And he helped Blackadder re-write the dictionary by defining dog (see blog title). At any rate, I checked out a couple books on dog breeds at the library a few days later and immersed myself in them. Limited to the small dog category due to apartment regulations we concluded that corgis were the breed for us. Supposed to have the "large dog personality" in a small dog body, smart, trainable, kid-friendly, energetic but not requiring much more than a daily walk and play, affectionate....we'll be finding out if all these traits are true pretty soon. I found this particular corgi via an online advertisement in Seattle, WA. The breeder said the puppies were raised with kids and other pets and the little male was very playful. I've been told that all puppies are cute, but we were pretty smitten with the picture and description of this little guy. And of course he's even more adorable in person.

The breeder met us halfway in Centralia, WA last night. He (the puppy) is extremely friendly, outgoing, and affectionate. Not a big fan of his collar but seems to like everything else in his new family pretty well. Immediately after getting home he was running around the house, curiously approaching the cat, and testing out all the dog, kid, and cat toys alike. Poor Peshewa is in shock that we would bring such a clown into the house. She's become extremely affectionate and insecure. But I think she's also curious enough (and young enough) that they will eventually become friends. Or at least tolerate each other. All in all we're very pleased with our new buddy and I'm getting a training course in having two "kids" to constantly keep an eye on. Margaret loves him and they're already sharing toys and chasing each other around. I have to keep an eye on Baldrick because he is obsessed with licking her face. Today starts the house-training process...So we have a rather full apartment right now. But the more the merrier right? At least to a certain degree. And I think we're at that certain degree for our current residence - full, busy and happy. But not too chaotic...yet. =)