Thomas Times Online

On Thursday evening, April 5th, Sarah arrived from Covenant…at church…in the middle of our Maundy Thursday meal and service…with a puppy…who immediately became the center of attention for the few moments before Sarah took him outside to find a place to tie him up. Said puppy was Serena’s birthday present. Serena took one look at him and named him Copper.

We’ve been used to Ginny’s Border Collie/Australian Shepherd, high-energy behavior. Copper is her perfect foil — loafy, floppy, and loving to just sit on your lap. Ginny rarely barks; Copper does. (I think there is definitely some hound in him, to judge from his bark). Ginny jumps up on you in her enthusiasm; Copper gets in front of your legs to make you stop and pet him, and almost trips you! Sarah says he is a lab mix. I say he is hound mixed with St. Bernard. Look at those paws! He’s going to be ENORMOUS!

In spite of his size, though, Copper is a big marshmallow — so soft and floppy and huggable!

The first night, he growled at Ginny, so Serena let him spend the night in the back vestibule to recuperate from his stressful day of travel and new surroundings. At 6 the next morn, we were awakened by mournful barks and yowls (the hound-dog type). So, he spent the first day or 2 inside the dog pen, getting acquainted with Ginny through the fence. They were fine playing together through the fence, or when Copper had his back to something. When out in the yard, however, Ginny would race around with excitement, and come back to bowl Copper over like Hobbes does to Calvin in the comic strip. Pretty soon, Copper began to hold his own, though. At the end of a week, Ginny is calmer, and they play together quite well. My yard is starting to suffer from Copper’s digging, and he is quite interested in the chickens and the peacocks. Lots of training is in order! Here’s a photo of Copper and Ginny getting acquainted.

Most pets, since their life-span is much smaller than ours, are beings that pass through our lives. They come, they stay and enrich our lives for awhile, then they go — die, sold, given away, etc. We have had 2 such passages in the last few weeks.

The first, a sad passage, was our website-famous, dog-chasing cat, Murgatroyd, who so recently delighted our reader’s in Ted’s hilarious rendition of him chasing Ginny. Murgatroyd is often waiting on the drive (near a door) when someone comes home, in hopes of slipping in for another few bites of food, or just schmoozing around in the kitchen, usually in the rag barrel. He was always quick to hop out of the way of any vehicle, and go to wait by the door. This night, however, as Ted came back late from his parents’ house, for some reason, Murgle failed to move. Ted paused in his jeep, then proceeded to park, assuming Murgatroyd had gotten out of the way. He hadn’t. The small bump that Ted felt was him running over Murgatroyd and crushing him. Needless to say, Ted felt crushed, himself. I haven’t seen him that upset in awhile. Death produces stronger reactions in all of us now, I think, because we’ve experienced Andrew’s tragic death. It just resonates in a deeper way. Anyway, if I can figure out what setting to change so my pictures aren’t tiny, I’ll put in my favorite picture of Murgatroyd.

The second passage was actually a very positive one. Lydia decided she needed to sell her horse, Nino (That’s actually spelled n-i-enye-o, a spanish spelling pronounced neenyo), since she was leaving in June for SPEAC school and then college. The couple who bought him already have at least one Paso Fino horse. They are really horse people — I mean, the lady’s horse lies down and puts its head in her lap if she sits down to read outside! Nino had to pass the “kiss test” (submitting to having his head held and being kissed on the nose), and the “stand still test” (not walking off when she laid down and lounged around on top of his back). He will receive some much-needed training, get lots of attention, and best of all from his perspective, I think, have some horse buddies to stay with. (Nino ran around and whinnied plaintively for several days after Starbuck died.) Lydia spent a little time grooming Nino and having me take pictures of them before the new owners came to pick him up. They anticipated having a problem getting him to go into a horse trailer, so they brought another horse to help him feel comfortable. When he was led up to the trailer, he took one look and said to himself, “Horse? Food? All right!” Zoom, he went into the trailer!

O.K., down 2 pets, but stay tuned for another addition. On Thursday, Sarah is bringing a mixed lab puppy to Serena to be a companion for Ginny. We’ll have a report on that in an upcoming post.