our furry, four-legged baby

this post is dedicated to piper, our crazy 2 and a half year old mutt.

we adopted piper back in october 2007, and she's kept us on our toes ever since she came home with us. we found her on petfinder, a site that allows you to search for animals at different rescue organizations and shelters -- if you're looking for a pet, check it out! we found out that she and her littermates would be at a local adoption fair and when we went to the fair, peter reminded me, "now, we're just going to look, okay?" but when we saw her, we knew she'd be coming home with us...how could we say "no" to this face?:



it's definitely been an adventure keeping up with piper and in some ways, it's given us some good parenting practice, especially in the area of patience. she's currently in the running for worst dog of the year (mostly by piper's own self-nomination) and she seems to have a pretty good grasp on the lead. in the past few months alone, she's torn up our carpet (although, peter will admit that this was his fault), chewed up our guest parking pass, eaten 4 books (2 of which were library books), eaten a leather journal, and here's the kicker...she ate the lenses out of peter's glasses!!! kandy, our old family dog that we had while i was in high school and college, was so meek and mild-mannered and often tried to pass herself off as the third daughter. so, before piper, when people told me their dogs "ate" things, i thought, "naw, they didn't really *eat* it, they just chewed it." but, as the owner of her royal craziness, i can tell you honestly and truly that dogs really *do* EAT normally inedible objects...i have seen the remnants in the number 2s to prove it! gross, i know.

but, as crazy and weird as she is, we love her and she has added a lot of fun and energy to our life. please don't think all she does is drive us crazy and that dogs are not worth having because they totally are! she makes us laugh, she loves us, and it is always nice to come home to another being that is so, so happy to see you, no matter how long you've been gone. :) she's actually really great with kids, and we are excited to see how she will interact with our new little one when he or she comes home. i just hope and pray that she does not try to eat the baby.

i'll leave you with some pictures of the pipe...as you can see, we have a lot of fun with her, especially when we (okay, I) make her pose for ridiculous pictures...heehee.

piper as "hairy potter"


piper, la belle


reading the economist...


swimming at the dog park


and finally, with her bff, scout...doesn't this look like a picture of racial harmony? :)