Sat., Oct. 20

Wow, it was an early morning. 5:30am. We got to the resort at Casa Grande about 8:45 and enjoyed an absolutely LOVELY morning/early afternoon with Tucson and Casa Grande church ladies. Wow, I learned a LOT, too!! The theme: "The Bride of Christ". It is invigorating to have one's eyes opened to new concepts and/or illustrations!! Awesome.

The rest of the afternoon was spent transitioning to be the possible new adoptive home to a one-year-old German Shepherd. I know ... don't freak out on me. (sigh)

It seems Jeremy and I have come full-circle in pets, now that we have a reincarnated Freeloader and a reincarnated Koda. hm...

Jeremy finally has his two dogs.... [His 'American Dream' comes together more by the day.] Our next door neighbors have had a dog stolen from their gated, locked back yard; two days ago they killed a snake; upon returning home yesterday after a few hours in town they found their back screen door off its runner. That doesn't happen by accident. At our old house five miles from here, in the span of six months we experienced a stolen vehicle and a deadly shooting on our street. Point: We absolutely live in a very dangerous part of this dangerous city. A German Shepherd is probably one of the least-expensive home security arrangements out there. Kiana is a currently-un'fixed' female, full-bred German Shepherd who is house broken, came with her own crate, and was "free to good home" - b/c the owners experienced a landlord change and a new no-dog policy. She is really good with humans, not yet so good with new little dogs. So it is complicated right now. Also complicating the matter is that those same next door neighbors, whom we like so much (Antonio & Theresa - read them in Spanish! "ahn-TOE-neeo y (and) Tay-RRRAY-suh") are interested in being the owners of this dog. [Jeremy offered her to them last night when he first heard of her, but then we got to thinking about the pros and cons of adopting her into our home if Antonio & Theresa decide not to take her.]

Pros:

• security
• fun
• education/experience for the children
• EXERCISE ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER for Jeremy
• major easy-conversation piece for especially Jeremy to strike up conversations with people with whom he otherwise might not be able to even get a foot in the door, relationally.

Cons:

• Trickiness in getting her to get along with Jabba (but since he's going to be a completely, 100% outside dog that's not quite as tricky as it sounds)
• affording her food (less expensive now than if we'd had to feed her all last year)
• hospitality (shouldn't really matter, since she's going to be an outside dog)
• more training to do, and
• more poop-picking up to do ... both of which there are FIVE OF US with which to help out!!

SO ANYWAY. We will see if we get to keep her, and how it goes. We've already decided that since Jabba the Mutt has already proven himself to be a wonderfully-pleasant pet, if one or the other has to go it will be Kiana.

Supper, showers, LSU game, bed.

Pictures tomorrow.