The Morning After...

Another day at the shop... I love it here! Last night we had a live jazz band that filled the house. Well sorta... There were over 30 people here. That is a lot for this shop! but according to the permit and the fire department a full house is 72. We would all have to be standing and facing in the same direction to get that many people in here I think. Anyway, this place absolutely rocks when music is going! It is a total blast!
I have a guy who says he sounds like a country Dillon, coming in on Saturday. Wierd guy, wants to do a sound check a couple hours before singing. It's a coffeehouse for goodness sake... but I dont know much about music and well he does... I bow to his expertise.
Anyway, with the jazz group last night i was really hopping and I am pooped today. I brought my little dog in to the shop today since she is kind of lonely at home. Before you go off on me let me say... my little dog is a Japanese Chin and is the cutest little dog around. She is also a very fiesty mean dog that likes nothing more than to look really cute so people will reach out and pet her and then she snaps at them! Fortunately she doesnt have many teeth and now she is almost totally blind. She is mostly comfortable at home where she knows where everything is. But I brought a little pillow that she sleeps on and for the most part she is comfortable. She isnt so sure about having strange people talking in her surroundings and not knowing who they are. We will see how she does though. She may be coming to the shop with me more often if she likes it here.
Dixie is the only dog I have ever felt I needed to apologize for.... daily! She is about 4 .5 pounds and is about the most worthless dog I have ever met. And I picked her out!

About 10 years ago Dan and I had a Shitzu. We got her from the humane society and when we got her she was 10 years old. She was a really sweet dog and Dan and I both really loved her. When she turned 13 she started having siezures. Not often just once in a rare while but I took her to the vet and he put her on phenobarb. She did fine for about 1 year and then the siezures came back and became worse. So I ran her to a different vet who did a blood workup and checked her over really well. After a brief time he told us that she had congestive Heart Failure and he gave us some heart medication and still the phenobarb. She did fine for about 6 more months and then she started to really go down hill ... We took her to the vet and he told us that she was failing. I could not stand the thought of having her put to sleep and took her home and cried. Three days later we made an emergency visit to the vet and we finally had her put to sleep.
I had been working out of the house when we lost our shitzu and after a few weeks discovered how much I missed her companionship. So, I went looking for a new shitzu. There were none to be found unless I wanted to pay a small fortune for one. So I started looking on the net .. first for shitzus in our area, then for small dogs. Up comes Dixie. She was a resident at a no kill facility. I wrote to them expressing my interest and the manager of the establishment wrote back with a form. The form was 10 pages long. I think it would have been easier to adopt a child! I filled out the form and faxed in to them but because the process was taking so long I grew concerned that Dixie was having to stay in a kennel when another person could have her and take her home so I e-mailed the manager and told her that if a good owner did present themselves while I was waiting for approval to adopt her then please let her go to that home. I hated the idea that Dixie was in a kennel longer than she had to be. Both of my other dogs had come from the humane society and neither of them ate while they were there. The manager wrote back and said that this was not a problem and that I needed to come meet Dixie. Seems she had had 10 visits so far from prospective owners/ownees and she had bitten every single one of them. I looked at Dan.. Dan looked at me and we agreed we would go see her the next day. So Dan and I drove to Arlington and met Dixie. She was playing with the managers dog and having fun and of course I was excited and tried to stop her from playing when Dixie bit me! It was love at first sight (at least for me) I wrote the check out and got in the car and the manager put Dixie in my lap. And she bit me again.
Just a few notes at this time.. First, Dan and I really had not come prepared to pick Dixie up that evening so we drove the Fiero. Now if you know a Fiero, you know that it is only a two seater and there was no room for Dixie anywhere except my lap. Second, Dixie is missing most of her teeth so when she bit it was more gumming but she does have a couple teeth and when they hit it hurts. Third, I love fiesty animals... always have.. they survive longer and live better.
Anyway we are driving down the road with this little fireball in my lap when Dan and I realize we hadnt had dinner yet and it was going on 7:00PM. So we pulled into the A&W and that is when Dixie realized how much she loved Dan. She had her first hambuger with us and has been our best friend every since that day. She still bites our sons and any one else (especially teens) but she loves us and only bites when we are playing and she gets a little aggressive.
So that is the story of how we got Dixie. I am sorry I bored you with her story but at least she didnt bite you! R