Here's the newest member of our household! Sugar is a small, very sweet dog that was rescued from a shelter by my friend C's mother, probably about eight years ago. The dreadful scar on her back is where some lowlife apparently poured some sort of acid on her. Amazingly, she is a friendly, trusting dog, and is well-behaved. C's mom has Alzheimer's and is in a nursing home, and C and her family have been keeping Sugar for four or five years now. They already had another dog, and for various reasons keeping two dogs has been a financial hardship. Back when Amie was still living I told C we would be willing to take Sugar some day. Well, after Amie died we got Riley...then we got Lena...and I felt more and more like I had made a promise I wasn't keeping, to one of my oldest friends (we go back to the late '70's).
The Scientist and I have been talking about maybe getting a second dog, and I made the big mistake of going on my favorite cattle dog rescue site, looking at all the available heelers, and getting really interested in several. But the issue of Sugar kept nagging at me, and last weekend I called C and said, let's try it. So Sugar and her paraphrenalia arrived on Monday night. Riley grouched and grumped a few times at first, but they have been coexisting peacefully since then.
No, she's not a heeler, but she's a sweet girl who needs us. On her head she has a horrid cyst or tumor of some sort, which is coming off tomorrow. Sugar is a Velcro girl who follows me all over the house, and is picking up on our household routines very well. She just wants to love and be loved. That, we can manage.
