Hmmm … let me see.  Spent the day at the library with the kiddo yesterday.  Got a good bit done.  Made a quick side-trip to Tuesday Morning.  They  had Breyer model horses in their inventory and my girl had to see what they had.  $20 later there’s another addition to her ever growing herd … LOL

Today I measured windows for a possible client, went to lunch with my guy and our girl … this evening our photography class met at the college to take advantage of the light from the setting sun.  At lunch, we ran into one of my instructors and he was taken by my girl’s HUGE blue eyes.  So he told me I should bring her along to model for us.  This tickled her immensely.  She enjoyed being the focal point of 20+ budding photographers and handled it quite well, posing as our teachers asked.  Here are three photos I took of my girl, plus one of a fountain near the entry of the college.  I’m fairly pleased with the photos that I took, but I am VERY excited that my instructor is going to give me a CD of photos HE took of my daughter.  I saw some of them on the preview window of his camera and they ARE fantastic.  Someone made a crack about free photos and he quickly set them straight, saying, “They’re not free, she worked for them!”  I appreciated that HE appreciated Jami’s efforts to do what they asked.  She’s only 12 and she listened very carefully as they told her to “tilt your head this way … now move your chin a tiny bit to the left.  Good, okay now, look over this way …”

It’s not easy, and I was very proud of her.  Eddie’s photos of her are incredible.  I may post one or two of them here, with proper credit of course, for your enjoyment.

Have a good one –

Oh, and “P.S.” — I’ve decided that my instructors are actually pretty nice guys.  I don’t know what happened there at the beginning … if I just needed time to get to know them better or what, but I’m actually growing somewhat fond of them … LOL

the third lady who was interested in giving our Willie-man a home felt really badly about having to back out of the arrangement.  I was trying to tell her that it was okay, not to worry about it.  I emailed her that we were going to try to figure out a way to make things work better around here with four dogs.  I planned to save enough money to get Willie neutered and purchase some chain link fencing so the dogs would have a larger area out back to run and play.

She offered to let me go through her to get him neutered.  You see, she has a deal with a vet — he takes care of all her foster animals at a discounted rate, since she has so many at any given time while she works on adopting them out.  Well, instead of having to pay $250 to our vet to have the little mister neutered (and have a couple of extra teeth removed while he’s under for the surgery), it will only cost $60 if I take her up on her offer.   Then I can apply the $190 that’s left over towards fencing.  Cool beans, huh?

I will deliver him to her house tomorrow evening and pick him up on Wednesday afternoon.  What a sweet lady.  She also gave me a tip for getting him completely housebroken.  Belly bands.  As soon as he’s healed up from this surgery, we are going to get some of those and see if that will help us get him completely trained.  I’ve always thought that people who dressed their critters were a little flaky, but if this belly band thing will work, hey, I’m all for trying it.  I think what’s so exasperating is that he doesn’t do it all the time.  Just every once in a while.  I want to get him where he doesn’t do it at all, except outside where he’s supposed to!  Wonder if we could use the little princess panties on the girlie dogs for the same purpose?

I know … too much information … 

Without seeking it out, we had another “possible home” for Willie … literally 30 seconds before we planned to leave to take him to their house, they called and said they just weren’t ready for another dog.  (They have three dogs, one of whom is in the last stages of leukemia and whose age prevents medical treatment.)  We looked at each other, shook our heads and said, “Three strikes … we’re keeping you, boy!”

I may be a little slow, but I’m not stupid.  That dog is meant to stay with us. 

we are going to keep him.  I just can’t go through that again.  We are looking at solutions to the issues four dogs present … chain link fence, doggie door, and one of those anti-bark collars that mists a citronella-based deterrent when they bark.  (We think that we’ve been “pegging” the wrong dog for barking … we thought Willie was doing most of it, but we’ve discovered that Jami’s five month old chorkie has a very deep bark and may be the instigator to some of the “symphonies” that we’ve been “enjoying”.)  Also, everyone but our Golden Retriever will be scheduled for surgery (spaying, neutering) as soon as fiscally possible in hopes that that will help, too.

He came and sat with me for a good while this morning.  I don’t think he was mistreated while he was gone, but I think he was wondering, “Why do I keep going for these long car rides with strangers?” 

And thank you to everyone whose comments have been such a comfort and encouragement.  I really appreciate your friendship.

Well, we drove him up to meet his new family and they were surprised at how big he is.  I made it clear in my emails that he was a standard size Yorkie, not one of those “handbag” puppies that are so popular as accessories rather than living, breathing members of the family.  Anyway, after some discussion they decided to go ahead and take him with the understanding that they would give him a month …

I should have never let them take him.

Not two hours after we parted paths, she called and asked if she could bring him back in the morning because he’s just a good bit larger than what they were wanting.  They’ve talked about it and decided that they should really start with a puppy and one that won’t be more than 5 or 6 lbs. at most full grown.  She apologized plenty and said how sorry she was …

I’m trying very hard not to be angry with her … or myself for letting him go with her to begin with.  At the first sign of reservation, I should have put the brakes on and said, “Maybe this is not a good idea for your family or Willie.”

Stupid me.

I have the name and number of a lady who has a rescue shelter, but I’m not quite sure of the details yet.  I need to get more information regarding the shelter’s policies and procedures.  Or else I need to put an ad in the paper that says, “Purebred standard Yorkshire Terrier — $250”  For some reason people seem to put more value on an animal they have to pay for.  I don’t know.  I just want him to have a family that will love him.  Because he is an awesome dog.

our Yorkshire Terrier goes to his new home.  We really have too many dogs (four currently) and it’s somewhat irresponsible to keep that many when we find it hard to give them all the attention they need.  So I sent out an email to a bunch of my friends and my shutter installer’s wife happened to mention our little man to a friend of hers at work.  Single mom, teenage daughter … I think this is a match made in heaven.  The mom tells me her daughter wasn’t this excited at Christmas.  She has already bought him a new crate (we don’t have a spare to send with him) … they asked all the right questions:  what does he like to eat, please send a picture of the crate he sleeps in so we can get him the same kind, does he like treats, what kind … Mom is taking off Monday and Tuesday from work to spend the day with him and get him used to his new home.  Daughter’s boyfriend works at Petsmart and she’s been asking him for all kinds of information …

I love the little guy, but he would make the transition the easiest of our pooches, and these folks sound like they will give him the love and attention he needs.  They know that he will need to be “retrained” since the move may result in some housebreaking “backsliding” and they are okay with that.  Their house has stained concrete floors, except for two bedrooms, so she said accidents will be easy to clean up while he’s figuring things out.  This was really important to me … that they are patient.  See, we found what we thought was going to be a good home for him, but he had two accidents in less than two days and they brought him back.  Even after we made it clear that it might happen.  I’m glad they brought him back, because I think this family will love him much more.

This is going to be quick, as I have to meet some folks at 9:00 a.m. this morning.  Our photography instructor gave us a heads-up on an upcoming assignment … portraits.  We have to do some portrait shots (after some additional instruction this next week).  At first I thought, great!  Because my girl is a bit of a ham and very photogenic.  No problem getting her to pose as needed.

Until Mr. Man said, “Your model must be 18 years or older …)

ARGH!

He said, “Kids are easy and in addition, you can’t be objective about your own kid or grandkid …”

Well, I’m not sure I agree with him, because I’ve tossed plenty of substandard shots of my girl, even though she is the most beautiful child I’ve ever seen.  I think I can tell a good shot and a not-so good shot.  LOL  But I do see what he’s saying.  So I woke up this morning after dreaming a good part of the night, “What sucker can I get to help me out with this assignment????”

Here’s a heart-breaking article by Ann Coulter.  Give it a read and let me know if you agree.