the ocean

We are dog people. Growing up, my family always had beagles, all of whom were slightly insane. They tended to be incredibly sweet until food showed up, at which point they would rip your throat out for a shot at a Lean Cuisine. They were also not necessarily the smartest, although they could devise elaborate schemes to trick you into walking away from a hot dog for long enough to disappear it. And Ian and I have continued this trend into adulthood with the incomparable Aubrey, who can pull off a novelty dog t-shirt like nobody's business, but will strictly cut off cuddle time at the ten minutes per night she has allocated to it in her brain. 

So we have been looking to add to our beagle mafia, which has turned out to be harder than one might expect. We had to requalify for our rescue organization, which involved an interview and a home visit. We passed with only minor notes about the relative accessibility of our trash cans (fair), but still kept missing out on adoption candidates because we were unable to drop everything and drive to pick them up in other states on a weekday. So when Dolly showed up on the website, Ian agreed to make a trip to Michigan on a Tuesday afternoon, and I only partially suspect that he was motivated by a hope of passing a Hardee's on the way.

Regardless, our lives have been forever changed. She's adorable and very, very sweet and cuddly. She is also, unfortunately, quite vocal, and the advice to "just ignore it so you don't end up rewarding the behavior" gets pretty hard to follow after a good ten minutes or so of rapid fire barking. Also, the first three nights or so she simply would not sleep. She wanted to roam the house endlessly, no doubt to plan a complex, Oceans-style heist. We then got her to sleep, but only by taking turns sleeping next to her on the floor. (I ended up buying a camping mattress specific to this purpose.) But as of late last week, we are successfully back in the bed! She wakes up and demands breakfast at 6:30 every morning, but it is progress. And really, when you've got a face like hers, you can get by with anything. Just ask early-zeros Mischa Barton.