A couple of folks have asked about the new puppy (which I needed like I need another hole in my head) so here’s the story.

First, though, a little back story. The Dudes are these two little reddish colored Terriers/Chihuahua/Dachshund sort of whatever dogs that my friend Cindy Ford used to come across on her morning hikes. They were running around, terrorizing the neighborhood near a very busy intersection.

She would see them each morning and, after talking to a woman who lived in that area, discovered that they were strays. She told me about them and we figured we could maybe go get them and take them to the shelter where they could find a home. Well, that didn’t work out so hot. The economy around here is so bad, folks are letting go of their pets faster than the Republicans can plunder the treasury. So, in the end, they became ours.

Fast forward a few months, our situation here goes to hell in a hand basket, Cindy returns to California and I start house-sitting for a friend with the intention of heading back to California myself as soon as I am able to swing it financially.

Fast forward a few more months. The Dudes are like wind-up toys and need at least four walks a day to run down their mainsprings. A good thing, I suppose, as otherwise I wouldn’t get a bit of exercise. I have certain routes I take them on, routes that don’t have other dogs on them. The Dudes seem to think they are bigger than they are and will try to mix it up with anything smaller than a horse.

Back around the end of November, we were out on one of our little jaunts and at about the midway point of our walk, they started doing their damnedest to drag me off to the side of the road. I followed their lead and they started snuffling around in the weeds and uncovered what I at first thought was a dead puppy. Man, it was messed up: a skeleton with skin as white as the sand around here and very little hair. I tried to pull the Dudes away but they were insistent on checking out their find.

Then the little pup opened his eyes.

Flipped me right out. And the look in those deep brown eyes; like, hi, sorry to bother you but I’ve found this little place in the sun and I’m just going to lay here and die, thanks for stopping by, see you on the other side.

What could I do?

I picked him up and took him home. Took him to the vet the next day, something I couldn’t really afford but couldn’t really afford not to do. Call it Karma points. Maybe in my next life I’ll be one of those billionaires the Republicans are always sucking up to. Wait, no, please, not that. I’d rather come back as a cockroach.

Since then I’ve been bathing him every two days with oatmeal shampoo followed by a hydrogen peroxide/diatomaceous earth rinse for his skin condition. He hates the hell out of it but, such is life.

He’s eating. He no longer looks like a skeleton and his hair is growing back. One day, he will be at least 4 times the size of the Dudes. I will try to find him a home but I have a bad feeling he may have already found one.

He’s also, no doubt, going to hate me one day for putting up this photo of him.