And My Other Brother Darryl....

As you all know, we are losing Maybelle (Another Loss Coming....).  She is doing remarkably well, considering.  We've discovered that elevating her food and water bowls to just above chest height allows her to swallow, so we've halted the weight loss.  We don't let her eat any crunchy food, so the bleeding has decreased.  But in medicine we have a saying:  "All bleeding stops eventually."  If the cancer itself doesn't make it impossible for her to breathe or swallow, she'll get too weak from the blood loss to function.  Either way, we lose.  But for now, she appears energetic (if somewhat slower than a few months ago) and happy, so we are riding it out.

But.

One of the things I love best about my hubby is that he loves 100%.  (I'm not a fan of saying "110%" or some higher number - it's horse pucky. 100% is the total, the max, all in, no holds barred full on cannonball love).  So when Maybelle dies, it's going to be 100% grief.  (This, by the way, is true for both of us, but by nature and by training I have a certain ability to be able to both feel it and, I don't know, observe it?)

Part of my reason for getting Maybelle in the first place is because Simon is an old little man.  I expected her to outlast him, and having a 'back up' dog in place in advance of his sad demise seemed prudent, since I was reasonably certain that Hubby, like his Dad before him, would not want to look for a new dog after the death of his beloved old man.

I mean, who could?  Look at this thing:

But Maybelle hit me hard in the heart.  I haven't loved a dog like this, maybe, never.  Maybe even including Lady, my dachshund from my childhood.  And why not?  This face:

So, applying my own logic too my own sad heart, I've been, once again, cheating on my dogs and looking at doggie porn online.  There are SO many homeless dogs!  I decided that I wanted a hound. Something about Maybelle just twists me, so I thought maybe having a similar face would help.  I applied at a couple of local hound rescue places for a couple of sweet looking dogs (neither TOO similar to Maybelle in looks, but adorable nonetheless).  After weeks of no replies at all, I spotted a Redbone Coonhound that looked so much like her that I clicked on her image and sent an email for Maggie.  I got a response within hours, asking for me to fill out their application, which I did.  They accepted our application within a few more hours, and then asked, "How do you plan to get her?"

Umm, oops!  Lynchburg, Virginia, you say?  

Well.

Babygirl had her new doctor's appointment scheduled for Tuesday, and it was on the border of Delaware and PA.  I looked at the map, and it was already more than 1/3 of the way to Lynchburg.  So.....we went.  Curlygirl kept Simon, we took the truck, Maybelle and Babygirl and headed south.  We arrived yesterday and met Miss Maggie, and discovered a couple of things.  

Maybelle cannot possible be a purebred Redbone.  She was nearly half again as big as Maggie.  There probably is some bloodhound hiding in there.  And we discovered that, as beautiful as Maggie is, and as much like Maybelle as she looks, she didn't touch our hearts at all.  Not one of us felt that pull.  

But sleeping quietly in a kennel nearby....

...was this handsome man.  His name is Larry.  He's four.  He was billed as being "good on a leash" (and if by "good on a leash" you mean "willing to stand perfectly still and not move unless you drag him" he's AWESOME on a leash LOL) and he is housebroken.  All three of us simply decided that no matter what pretty face we thought we were chasing, this was the one we had truly come for.  

So in 48 hours we went through 6 states and the District of Columbia, up and over the Blue Ridge and got us a dog.  

And SHAME on the local rescue groups who STILL have not contacted us.  Given how low the fees are in VA to adopt ($75 compared to $250 here) we broke even with travel, gas, overnight camping and a meal at Buffalo Wild Wings.

DeeDee