Life Changes

So I met Carmen at the Humane Society, we did some paperwork, a chip was implanted in our dog's neck, and I was sent to Wal-Mart for a crate. We assembled  the crate in our bedroom, fed our new dog, took her for a walk and played with her  for while before bedtime. Everything but the crate was purchased at Pet Smart   in Erie earlier that day by Carmen, in anticipation of my acceptance of our new dog.

The next thing we needed was a barrier to contain her in the living room/kitchen area. Then another to keep her from going upstairs where the kitties were hiding... then another to keep her out of the foyer where the shoes, boots and other unauthorized dog toys are kept. Suddenly, pretty much anywhere we wanted to go, we were stepping over a barrier - and so were the cats. We bought another crate for the church office so Carmen could fulfill her dream of a church dog, and another barrier to keep her in the office without closing the door.

Early on, we discovered that long walks were required to help her be a good dog during the long days in the office. It was during an early one of these walks that she was named. Carmen was walking her in the pouring rain and thought,"It's going to take a lot of grit and grace to raise this puppy." As anticipated, I do the long walks, at least twice and often three times a day.

The cats pretty much lived upstairs for the first weeks. Lucia got over her fear and began hanging out downstairs more and more, and soon we realized that she actually enjoyed having Grace in the house. Lucia enticed Grace to play, and even rubbed on her affectionately during calmer moments.

The addition of one little bassador has completely changed the life of every mammal in the house. She makes us all crazy sometimes, but we love her in spite of it - all but Remus J. Lupin, of course. He is not amused.