C'est la vie...

Okay, so the girls only party is wed the 21st.

on Wed the 28th we are having a Johnny Dipp fondue party!!!
woot!
7pm at my place! come play!!!

Or I would walk 8.

Made a weekend resolution to put as little time in the car as possible between Friday night and Monday morning and stuck to it. Slept in late on Sat and decided that instead of driving the 4 miles into town and then coming home to run, I would walk to do my errands. Other than having to make extremely important strategic decisions at the store - you realize that you really only need to lug toilet paper and gatorade home - and wondering if buying RJ an herb garden in a bucket was such a great idea after all, it's a fun, if inefficient way to get things done. i spent some time on the phone and spent a lot of time just enjoying the day.

There was no reason or way for me to really rush, so I turned down the side street to visit Smith's Fort Plantation - http://www.apva.org/smithsfort/ - found a store that looks like my apartment on steroids where a woman handpaints furniture and sells all other kinds of frou - http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp960221/02200059.htm - and met a couple of hippies who opened a youth center and coffee shop in the storefront rooms of their apartment building to foster a sense of community in the area - http://thecentersurry.com/ - and bought herbs at the garden store to make the aforementioned portable italian herb garden for RJ's cooking.

For the record, the fort is just a 10-foot long, 2 foot high hump in the woods by the river. the sign declaring it the oldest British fort in VA, ca. 1609 is much taller, but it's a nice walk through the woods to the river.

I went strawberry picking after my 4 hour jaunt and took the 2nd successful phone call from Australia for the week while I picked strawberries. the first week they were ripe and sweet, but the heavy rain and weird weather led to lots of swollen vaguely slimy ones, so the picking took a while and most of the berries were sliced and stirred into cake and frosting - not sweet enough to snack on.

other weekend highlights included an inadvertent, but successful, crashing of boy's night during which there was dancing - dancing may by my Most. favorite. activity. - and a Sunday date where we took the ferry to town, ate an amazing albeit ridiculously expensive dinner at the Corner Pocket and thoroughly enjoyed Iron Man.

Tonight Janine's first Community Hafla at Art6 is going down and I promised I'd help her by brining the cd player. There will be live drummers, but she encouraged people to bring their own music too! I'll be heading over after jogging and a supply stop at home if anyone wants to join!

The resolution was a good one - the commute this morning was so much easier. Hooray for a low-car diet!

or Va Beach could be slated for 50 degree days and clouds for the weekend. I think i'll take my chances in w'burg instead. just gotta avoid the mother's day/graduation crowds and i'll be fine. at least i know i can jog the parkway and hang at the riverbeach!

was looking up mpg of certain cars and came across this. someone made big money tailoring this description...

Pontiac Grand Prix is the extrovert in GM's mid-size family, a sinewy body in a sleeveless T-shirt, flaunting a style inspired by NASCAR. The Grand Prix name may refer to European road racing, but the Pontiac Grand Prix is as American as a hot dog at the speedway on Saturday night. Fortunately, the Grand Prix can back its styling braggadocio with plenty of driving excitement, thanks to a thoroughly modern platform, powerful engines, great brakes and excellent handling. The GTP version, in particular, puts enough horsepower through the front wheels to keep drivers interested and alert. Yet its price is impressively modest, compared to an imported sport sedan.

http://www.carsdirect.com/2002/pontiac/grand_prix

bc what says sleek and sexy like NASCAR?!?

yay! bone density scans are so immediately satisfying.

went for scan. scan completed. healthy bones! results discussed. hip = normal, spine = high/normal. back at work.

continuing w/ supplements and weight bearing exercise, although today i get to swim b/c it's rainy and i've skipped swimming for too long. maybe i'll make it my lunch activity. i'm trying not to skip lunch in the hopes of leaving early any more b/c it just never works out. i just end up working the extra hour and feeling too tired to cope.

yay BONES!!! yay skeleton! yay skeleton dance!

http://www.livevideo.com/video/5BFD92E695AA4F9CB7E8E966C6F35782/The+Skeleton+Dance.aspx

after driving more than 800 miles to get to the 1-95 turn-off on saturday, i have put more than 700 miles on my car. i hit the odometer to reset when i had to count miles for the most tormented "1 1/2 unpaved lanes of where the hell is google maps taking me when i coulda just stayed on the highway?" route to rj's that made his tiny dot on the map feel like broadway, and it passed 700 this morning.

i seriously need to get outta my car...

to celebrate this aspiration, i will not be going much of anywhere this weekend. the current plan is to pyo strawberries on friday afternoon and camp out w/ rj for the night. i wanna make strawberry cakes and pies. rj will be entertaining himself with his new xbox or wowing w/ his bro.

rj bought an xbox yesterday and only had time to die twice in the new gta before he slipped in to bed and i didn't get back from dc until close to 1am. things to remember - may is the month of highway repair in va. you will sit, on the highway, for hours. i figured out that looping around richmond and driving farther to rj's actually got me off of 95 and outta my car faster.

he works sat, so i am thinking the beach - esp b/c va beach will be hosting the caribbean music festival.

http://www.beachstreetusa.com/beachstreetusa_web_site_029.htm

rj is only 2 hours from the beach, so i can be camped out on a spot there early. haven't been yet but i already bought some spf 80. going to print out the dirctions that avoid the tunnel and 64...right now.

quote of the day -

"For lack of a better phrase, you can't swing a dead cat into VDPES without hitting CWA."

Surely, that can't be the BEST PHRASE YOU HAVE.

so, i wonder if they sorted out the initial 'no' resumes before they sent this out or if everyone got one...

I am the Legal Assistant to The Honorable Gabrielle Kirk McDonald at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal. Thank you for applying for the Legal Assistant position. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the position will not be filled according to the schedule originally anticipated. Consequently, Judge McDonald will not hire a new Legal Assistant at this time. We will retain the application materials sent by all applicants and review them when Judge McDonald selects a new Legal Assistant.

ps - what's with the supertrampy clothes being offered in the margins of lj? plugging away at this demurrer.

Okay google, just when I have decided that you reading my email is just creepier than I want to deal with, you send me this link:

http://www.timelessmessage.com

Give the gift named "most romantic gift" on oprah!

I don't watch oprah and if I wanted to send someone a message in a bottle i would write and mail my own, maybe packing a wine bottle in a box. i remember sending Cake a message in a plastic bottle once w/ M. we aged paper, crisping up the edges, added sand and shells, and wrote w/ red ink claiming to be marrooned on a desert island.

Anyway, I clicked b/c otherwise i might get this demurrer done on time and not stress myself out but it's easier to waste time. would it really would it be monday if i stayed on track?

You should too, and you should click directly to the "messages" "love and relationships" and "break-ups" which you have to trust me is much more entertaining than either "brother" or "christmas." there's also "bitter disappointment" but there aren't many options for that one.

There are 23 break-up bottle messages. they all go along the lines of "you suck," "i will survive," and "it was nice - sometimes," and the all-pervasive "it's not you, it's me" in sappy drivvle.

Here's my thought on the break-up bottle. i understand the bottle as consolation prize. "sorry i dumped you, i still think you're great and i'm sorry you're hurt" is a nice sentiment, but if you want to be spiteful and get the last word in - why pay 50 bucks? that person just dumped your ass or you dumped them b/c it wasn't working. you are no longer under any obligation to spend money on them and odds are that they will be hurt and angry that you are lecturing them IF THEY CARE AT ALL. the message may capture your feelings, but it won't speak to theirs.

unless you just CAN't RESIST saying this:

If you can just turn
And walk away
And feel there's nothing more
You need to say
And you do not feel a tearing
In your Heart

If you can so easily
Forget about me
And all the things
I tried to be
Then I guess there was really no reason
For you to stay
(neener neener)

get an old beer bottle and crack it over your ex-sweetie's skull or something. mail a bottle full of something rancid. let it go and keep the money for a massage or a pair of break up shoes.


okay, back to work Al and stop reading my mail, google!

I have come to the conclusion that my least favorite thing is missing phone calls from Australia. It's not my most hated event in the world, but it rankles me in a way that I cannot tolerate.

I drove through the 3 minute dead spot on highway 10 and on the other side my phone cheerily told me i had a message and missed a call...from australia. glar!!!

Other than just being too long to be in any single chair, the drive w/ honey was awesome. spent lots of time on the phone w/ K and honey was great in the car. she was so happy! it was hard to leave her at b's but will see her at the end of the month and i'm so excited that she's in a good place w/ her needs met and someone who will take good care.

So if you are bored on Sunday and want to call me, I'll be on the highway for an estimated 9 hours and 4 minutes according to Google Maps. That's right, I'll be taking my first roadtrip with Honey!!!

The proposed itinerary is to drive to L's bro's house to pick her up, then head to mom and dad's for early mother's day and to meet the fam, then to B's before he leaves for his soccer game and then back to rj's where I will seek blessed sleeeeeep.

I'm seriously glad that I discovered books on tape and that L found water-free spray-on shampoo for dogs b/c 4 and 1/2 hours is a looong time to be stuck in a car w/ nothing good on the radio and a dog who is not allowed to bathe until her stitches are out.

So, saturday after work I'm loading up on all the things she'll need. any suggestions on toys that are good for a car-ride with a dog?

I need to remember advice that i give my girlfriends. if you can't tell the person you're dating a simple truth, then there is something wrong. there was no reason to keep a secret, but i was so worried that he would be unhappy with me. i just don't give the boy enough credit sometimes and i worry that it's some kind of baggage. I don't tell people all of my plans because it is exhausting for everyone and there are too many options, but at some point you have to tell the people you're closest to more than you post on your LJ.

I got to RJ's late last night after waiting for the ferry for half an hour. I thought Jamestown was on the :00 side, but is actually the :30 side, so I sat with a pizza cooling in the backseat while I waited - realizing that i was breaking my promise to come over early enough to hang out. I wouldn't be across the river until close to 10 and although I would have food, it wouldn't be the same as time together.

I pulled up into the driveway and got the welcome home feeling that i get when he remembers to leave the light on for me and went in - i must i have looked exhausted because he just wrapped me up in a hug and ushered me into the living room where he set up drinks.

i hadn't told him all of the fenagling I'd done or how i'd been tracking Honey down and trying to find her to make her mine, and had told some of my friends that I was worried about how he'd take the news.

So let me just state for the record that he's wonderful. I started with, 'you remember the dog?' and went from there. He hugged me and said, of COURSE i went and got her - i obviously loved that dog. he would have let her stay at his place, but it was not okay with the neighbor and the neighbor works with the landlord, but he was impressed with all of the people i had contacted to help me take care of honey and was glad that i wasn't going to try to keep her at my apartment. he joked that between the bees, the condemned balcony, and the horrible staff, bad things were bound to happen.

Honey, in the meantime has gained weight in the past 10 days. she is still stick-thin and starved looking, but she is fatter!!! you can see between all of her ribs, but not as far down into them and she refused a peanutbutter cookie i made her. no thanks, she said, there will likely be food later and this is not my favorite. hooray! she was so hungry last time that she was trying to eat garbage! deworming will probably help more than anything. she is with L today and going to the vet. I take her to B's on sunday and have to work out where he will take her to have her stitches out.

i want to go workout, but i think i'll skip the gym tonight to go spend some time with rj. maybe we can walk down the river and watch the sunset over the water.

thanks to Deniece Williams for the tagline - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peNZVndJX1E.

"hey corinne! i'm glad i got to see you yesterday! sorry i bit your finger, it was a total accident! :)"

1. yay i have a dog! also yay!

When i called my dad to tel him about it, he went immediaetly into "dogs are a big responsibility" mode and asked where I would put it when I was travelling. don't worry dad, i'll work it out.

i realized though, that he hadn't heard the whole story - i only told my mom about it on sunday b/c i was trying to figure out the arrangements before i made any big decisions or talked it up a lot. that seems to be my general mo for the fam.

2. got a pair of clippers last night and gave rj a haircut in his living room. he felt nervous because i was 'having way too much fun' and seemed 'much too excited about the new activity,' but in the end he was pleased with the result and said that if lawyering didn't work out i could look into working at a barbershop.

I told him that the process reminded me of backleading someone through a new dance step. he knew what it was supposed to feel like, but couldn't do my part. He could tell me if the way i held the clippers felt familiar, but hadn't given a haircut before and i was trying something entirely new.

3. in my Honey-based excitement I didn't mention the party - but it was lots and lots of fun and fun to hang out with everyone. Sim and Emily came up from Edenton and Carrie came down from DC on Friday night to help prep, cook, and make tissue paper roses for the festivities. I had to work Sat, but Emily cleaned the kitchen and everyone helped get the food ready in time.

I baked gluten-free cake - more like a moist cookie or a torte than a fluffy cake - and carrie made chocolate stripe ganache sauce for one while emily fanned strawberries to put in the cream cheese icing for the other. we made artichoke dip, cheesey salsa dip, and sweet cream cheese dip. Sim set out the fruit and veggies and arranged the crackers while i made falafel and baked the salmon cakes. andy brought a box of chicken and all the sides, so we divided all of the food into a meat table and a vegetarian table.

janine's car broke down and she had to split before Rosemary got there, so cass, essie, and i performed a bellygram for her birthday before we brought out the cakes. most of the ellman's girls made it over to play, essie brought a posse, and jules drove in from the east.

after cake, the party split up for salsa dancing, pubbing, and chilling at the house. i gave sim and em the bed and crashed out in the living room with carrie and jules. sunday morning i took carrie to the train station and went in to work. emily came in and we looked at different dance dresses as options for bridesmaid's gowns. i offered to help cook the food for the wedding and already invited carrie to be my date.

4. job interview opportunities have started cropping up. here is a really personal one:

This will confirm your interview with hiring management at Big Company. We are looking forward to your visit!

You will be interviewing for a Attorney position in our CLC Corp Law Department. Your interview is scheduled for:

Date: 5/13/2008
Time: 11:00AM
Location: 5285 SHAWNEE RD. SUITE 110, ALEXANDRIA, VA 22312

Enter though the {enter building name} Visitor's Entrance and ask for {enter name}. Please bring a photo I.D. with you to obtain a visitor's badge. Your itinerary is as follows:

Time:
Event:

Time:
Event:

Sincerely,
Guy who didn't tell you what building or who to ask for when you get there or to fill in or delete the blank intinerary slots.

It just doesn't compare to the manner or efforts made by C&W. I feel like they want me and want to know my name. I have not confused any of their emails with spam.

5. yay i have a dog!

yay honney!!!!

She got her! She adopted her! YAY!

Honey will have to be spayed and then kept overnight, so she can be picked up on Wednesday! YAYAYAYAAYAYAYAYAAYAYAYAYAYAAYAYAY! L will keep her at her bro's house this week and bring her on Saturday, then I can take her to B's. i'm so excited!

The world's most complicated dog adoption may be underway!!!

Last week B agreed to foster Honey in his backyard if I could get her. He lives in a house with a fenced-in backyard and is willing and able to keep her through the summer. He'll be travelling in July, but my sister will be close by then for class and I can buzz down to visit on weekends.

I called the E-Vet on Saturday and they told me that Honey had been deticked, dewormed, and rid of a lot of nasties before being deemed healthy enough to go to the SPCA. I called the SPCA to discuss the adoption process and figure out if I could just pay over the phone, but learned that the person in whose house she is staying would have to come in person to adopt her. Not that B isn't a great friend, but that's asking a lot.

My mom called and asked about moving plans for Danville, then shared that she and my dad had decided that I should get a dog. I told her that I think I might have found one, and told her all about Honey. My parents were thinking of something bigger, but anything that will be protective and could go hiking with me would please them.

L got in touch about a dance class on Saturday and mentioned that she had worked at that SPCA and that I should get a move on if I wanted to get Honey back. She said that she could use her brother's address and go spring Honey out of jail for me TODAY so that she could have a yard and a house to play in all week before L came by on Saturday.

She is there now, trying to pick Honey out of the different Beagle mixes. I described her as best I could, including the rip in her ear and the white nailbeds, but L is only going to get her if she can be sure of getting the right one. I told her that if she got the 'wrong' dog i would obviously keep and love it, but I really want Honey. I told her that if she got the wrong one, I would have another chance to get her on my own, and then I'd have a matched set a la Williamsburg.

Honey is estimated to be about 8 years old. I think that makes her less adoptable b/c my sister says if the dog is not a puppy and less than 10, they usually say 2 because people don't favor the older ones.

So if the afternoon goes as expected, I'll have a dog in competent foster care at the coast for a week and with B for the summer. I'm excited!!

Spam
1. Google mail puts advertising that relates to the contents of your email on the page each time. Although it is an effective if super creepy method of advertising in many cases (it's nice to know that if I get invited to the Beach party, Google knows where I can find a bathing suit, but jeez google don't read my mail it creeps me out), the Spam box always gives you these really helpful spam recipes. I don't eat spam and don't have any plans to do so, but the recipes often sound like upscale concoctions.

Today, there was one for Gingered Spam Salad and I clicked on it. It contains:

1/4 c Finely chopped ginger root
1 ea Small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 ts Garlic powder
1/4 c Freshly squeezed lime juice
Zest of 1 lime
1/2 ts Oriental dried chili powder
1/4 c Chopped cilantro leaves
8 ea Cherry tomatoes
Thai bird peppers and
Cilantro sprigs to garnish

and of course, a can of spam.

What the hell is wrong with you if you can afford fresh cilantro, ginger root, and thai bird peppers and then put them on your SPAM?!?

Buy a mushroom, or some chickpeas, or some tofu, which goes through an equally transforming set of invasive processes to gain the shape of it's container but at least you know where it came from and was before the company squeezed it in there.

2. Micheal Jackson was just paged into the courtroom. I'm sure it's just some guy who happens to have a very famous, but otherwise v. generic name.

Micheal Vick's attorneys are here all the time between his contract disputes and dog-fighting charges, but he never comes.

Ry and I often joke about the sleep ninjas. They are responsible for about 3/4 of our missed telephone calls for one another. "Sorry I missed your call this morning, the sleep ninjas got me. I don't even know when they snuck up." I have this lousy habit of crashing out and being mostly unroustable.

The ninjas got me on Tuesday and I crashed out hard. I heard the phone ringing in the night and answered it and apparently had half a conversation with Maile about Honey. She understood how I felt because the more involved you get with a problem the more responsible you feel for the outcome, even if there is nothing more you can do.

She told me about her long weekend trip and how autumn was coming to Australia and where they were going - i think the beach? maybe a concert? She was really nice and wonderful and kept trying to engage me in a real conversation, but I must have just grunted and murmured responses to her because she finally said, well i guess we'll catch up on the net. I think I told her yeah I'd call her back in the morning and then she was gone.

I fell asleep for about ten minutes before my brain screamed me awake awake awake AWAKE AWAKE. she's calling from AUSTRALIA for the first time since Christmas, you missed her last call, and you can't call her back. what a goon!

I had a whole list of things I wanted to talk to her about, but my sleep-soaked brain could not dredge them up from the dark pit of snooze.

1) I haven't been able to eat the veggemite Jem sent yet b/c the color scares me and when i tried to dip my finger into it like peanut butter was surprised to find that it is solid.

2) other little stuff. just wanting to reconnect.


oh well.
Stoopid ninjas.

I went for a jog at RJ’s on Saturday and was found by the sweetest dog. She scampered up all ribs and jagged little hip bones with tight stretched skin around her deep hungry eyes. She was silent and friendly and covered in ticks so thick they felt like fish scales in her ears. She padded up to me and sat at my feet. She was pretty and well-mannered, with a little foxhound face and a patient gaze.

Hey honey, what are you doing here? You look hungry.

And that was that. She was Honey and she was coming with me. I walk/jogged home and she walked before and behind me and sniffed everything on the ground. She wandered up to a man working in his yard and I asked him if he knew her. She might have come from the trailer down the road, but he usually kept his dogs a little fatter than her. Ugh- so sad.

We got back to RJ's and I fed her the sausages that we had deemed too long in the fridge for us to eat. She wouldn’t slow down her gobbling pace and I didn’t want her to hurt herself, so I waited 20 minutes. Then I made her a can of chicken noodle soup. Then cookies. Then milk. Then lunch meat. Then scrambled eggs. She ate really gingerly out of my hands but everything else she inhaled. I told RJ that she’d followed me home and he gave a mock exasperated sigh – I’ve only been here two weeks. This is only your second trip out of the house unsupervised and you’re already bringing home strays. But he sat on the stone bench and hated people who abuse and abandon animals while I made her a cushion out of the old couch cover and pulled ticks out of her eyelids and ears between feeding sessions.

We think someone rode the ferry over from Williamsburg and dumped her off in the road. Maybe she jumped out of a car window. Maybe she wandered off from home and couldn’t find her way home. Those would be nice maybes.

She was smart and sweet and snuffed around the yard. She was unsure of the cushion until I lifted her up and sat her on it. Then she curled up and slept while I drowned tick after tick in a half-empty beer bottle. There were too many to burn. I worked carefully to be sure to grab them at the head and not squeeze – I didn't want to give her blood poisoning. I washed her face with vanilla sugar shampoo. I started washing her front legs but then got worried that she’d get cold at night. I switched to rubbing her down with a towel until the night was completely dark and she drifted off. RJ sat and talked with me while I rubbed and rubbed her. We made plans for where she could stay while I fattened her up. Maybe the shed? But he was worried about leaving the shed open and if she got sick in there the landlady would kill him. The last tenants trashed the place and she had made the NO DOG rule entirely clear.

A fat raindrop splashed on my arm. Then one landed next to RJ, sitting in the porch light watching me and Honey. We decided to put the cushion under the picnic table and he built a tent over it with a tarp and the leftover paving stones. I put out water and gave her more milk-soaked bread. I showed her the cushion and petted her while she curled up on it. Then we went in out of the rain.

Kelly called and I think she could hear that I was in love already. We talked about petsmart and the vet and what to feed her and how often and all the rest. I dreamed about being hungry and being lost and being found.

In the morning, I went out to find her and she was gone. The cushion was rumpled and had stayed dry. RJ smiled that she would be back. She knew what side her bread was buttered on. She trotted into view and I made her eggs for breakfast. RJ came in to announce that the neighbor had come over and had a man-to-man with him. He had said that the dog was sick and that we had until Monday morning to get rid of it before he called the pound. The guy has two really little kids and the dog was running loose, so I can’t blame him for being nervous.

I put my gym towels in a box and picked Honey up as carefully as I could. Her bones stuck out so much under her skin that it looked like she would cut herself on them from the inside out. I packed a little bag of lunch meat and bacon to lure her into the box, but this plan failed as she smelled it in my other hand and flung herself at the edge of the box. I gave up, giving her all the meat at once and throwing the bag from the car into the driveway to keep her from slurping down the greasy plastic.

I’ve been listening to a book on CD with the most resonant and smooth-voiced reader. Honey konked out while I rubbed her head and pulled off the occasional loose tick while we drove to and waited for the ferry to Williamsburg. A woman on the ferry knocked on my window and asked if I had a sheltie puppy in the box, but I told her it was a stray that I had found and was taking to the Petsmart vet for a check up and a tick dip. When she got a good look at Honey, the woman’s curious smile melted into a caring frown. Such a sweet girl and so thin …

At Petsmart, the vet clinic was closed for Sunday and the groomers only gave flea dip, not a tick bath. They did have a free lead, which was great because I couldn’t manage the soggy cardboard box any more and I was scared to carry her too far for fear of hurting her. I bought some canned food and called the emergency vet. Honey gobbled down a can in the parking lot while little old ladies said things like “I’d love to fatten you up so fast, poor thing” and "don't feed her too fast, she'll throw up in your car," but none of them needed a dog. RJ called and we decided that whatever happened he should tell his neighbor that the dog was gone and wouldn’t be back, so he didn’t need to worry about his kids or calling animal control or RJ's Landlord.

The Emergency Vet was in Newport News, so we hopped back on the highway and Honey slept on the towel – as sprawled out as she could be in the seat while I rubbed her. She looked content. Starving, but content.

When we arrived at the vet a brusque woman shoved a clipboard at me saying "it will be $130 for the initial check-up and then we’ll call you for charges if it needs anything." If I wanted to drop It off as a Good Samaritan they would treat It and then call the SPCA to come and get It. Would I like to pay or leave her there?

I started to cry. It happens sometimes, you cry. It’s silly, but I just wanted someone to care about this dog. Someone who could do something more than think of other foods in the house that a dog might eat and drown handfuls of ticks in beer. The world is full of bigger problems, but this one mattered to me. The man I’d spoken to on the phone came over and smiled at me. He told me that I could leave my name and number and if the owner wasn’t found I could list myself as interested in adopting the dog. “But we ARE obligated to try to find the owner,” said the woman. Yay! if she has an owner that would be awesome. I just don’t want you to put this dog down today because no one will take her.

I looked at Honey, looking up at me. I looked at the miniature whippet that had just come in, looking smooth and sleek and fatter than Honey with it's bizarre little wasp waist and I cried some more. Tiny grayhounds should look emaciated and ghostly, not like the hale and hearty viking of the canine kingdom.

So I left her. The vet would know what to do. To see if she would be okay, if she just needs to eat herself silly and sleep somewhere warm and safe and dry. They could put her on a high calorie diet with the right vitamins without worrying about hurting her stomach or making her sick. They could give her a little space to sleep in without the threat of rain or being shooed off by a nervous neighbor. They would scan to see if she had a microchip and an owner and a home.

If they call me, I’m not sure what I can do. She could live in my apartment and then when I move to Danville I could find a bigger place, or maybe I could foster her. But is that silly? I had a week with Dee in my house and 3 flights of stairs and being locked up all day was hard on her. she was sad and wouldn't eat after a few days. She’s a dog, not a cat and she’ll need a certain amount of attention. I’m allergic. On the plus side, she’ll have access to cheap vet care through my sister, and she seems to like riding in the car okay. I would worry that mom and dad’s dogs would be too aggressive when I went home for the weekends. I would have to find someone to take care of her when I travel. Is it selfish to justify that my care would be better than starving on the banks of the river and looking up hopefully at every boxy SUV that drives by? It's not better than a family with little kids. She loves little kids, that's what made the neighbor so nervous.

The dream of taking her back to RJ’s and maybe setting up a lead line and an igloo across the back of the property can’t come true because of RJ’s neighbor, who already complained, and who works with the Landlord’s husband.

Maybe she could live at Bob’s in the country. Or with Keith at Virginia Beach if I sponsored all of the food and supplies for her. But with those options it makes more sense to leave her at the humane society and let someone see her, fall in love with her, and adopt her. I can make a donation, see if she isn’t adopted at the end of the summer and take her with me. She's loving and sweet and easygoing and trusting.

Does anybody need a dog? I know a really great one!