I have two exciting announcements to make!

First, I cut my hair. It is short. As short as I've ever had it. Apparently short hair is not in style now, as I could find no pictures of models or actresses with short hair. The only photo I found in a magazine was of Melissa Etheridge with her short 'do, so I took that to my stylist and got my hair cut! I'm still getting used to it, but Colin thinks it is cute. We'll have to take a picture to post.

The second announcement is that we got a new dog! Colin and I were at the shelter on Friday, cuddling the cats, and in the small dog/puppy cages sat a small terrier mix. He was sitting very quietly and shaking. So I went into the cage and sat down and was able to coax him onto my lap. And I looked up at Colin and said "I think I found our next pet". That is the problem with volunteering at the shelter - this is the fourth animal we've brought home! "Pico", as we're calling him, was dropped off at the shelter because his owner died and there was no family to take him. I think a neighbor dropped him off. He looks like a schnauzer mix and is black with a scruffy coat that needs to be trimmed. He has his balls, which have got to go. We're taking him back tomorrow to get fixed, then he'll come home for good.

We did have a major snafu with him yesterday, though. He got out of the house and ran away! Colin followed him to the neighbor's yard, but they have 5 acres with lots of heavy manzanita and brush, so we weren't able to catch him there. We spent an hour and a half looking for him in the cold rain (along with our houseguests - very, very kind of them!), and stopped when it got dark. We put calls out to our neighbors but highly doubted that anyone would be able to catch him if they saw him. Finally at 9 p.m., he came to the back door, sopping wet and shivering with cold. He wanted to come in but was scared. I opened the door and he ran away, so I went to get a bowl of food to put out there and when I opened the door again I realized he was still on the back porch. I was able to coax him inside and we dried him off with a towel, and haven't let him out of our sight since. This morning we combed the burrs out of his hair and have just been trying to get him more comfortable and settled. Bless Barley, Kenya, and Little Man, as they have been very welcoming of him and not aggressive at all. He's very timid and submissive, but he seems to like our gentle attention and petting. I'm hoping once he gets snipped he'll be less likely to wander. We also have the invisible fence and need to get him a collar and train him.

We did get a couple pictures and hopefully Colin will be kind enough to post them here.

Gotta go to the barn and tuck the horses in. And I also have to take little Pico out because he is farting and it stinks!!!
- posted by Susan @ 9:22 PM