It was perfect. We had been sort of thinking about getting a dog. My sister's Jack Russel Terrier, Daisy, who has an incredibly sweet disposition, had a puppy. The puppy was a Jack Russell/mini-Australian Shepherd (I love shepherds) mix and she won't get very big, perfect for a city dog. My sister works magic with animals and to get a puppy raised by her from one of the sweetest dogs ever was a real and rare gift. The fact that I am not working right now means I have the time to spend with a puppy. The timing is perfect!
I met Poppy when she was only one week old. She was born on a horse farm about two hours north of Pittsburgh, a couple of weeks before Christmas. When I saw her, she didn't even have her eyes open!
Horse Farm where Poppy was born.
Poppy and her mother, Daisy.
Poppy at one week old!
My sister kept her to do some training and also we wanted to be back from our vacation in Mexico before getting a puppy. We named her Poppy after meeting her on a video skype call. We decided to stay with the tradition of a flower name (since her mother is Daisy) and Poppy was the first name that came up and it just kind of stuck. After waiting weeks, she finally arrived by airplane yesterday! It was pouring rain and foggy in San Francisco which caused an hour and a half delay and poor little Poppy had to make a layover in Minneapolis, but she arrived in good spirits! When I got her out of her crate at the cargo area of the airport she just wanted to play.
At the pet supply store they told me she would probably want to sleep a lot after such a long journey. That has not been the case with Poppy. She wants to play ALL THE TIME. She follows me or Paul around wherever we go. When she does finally stop playing she likes to lay down by you and put her head on your feet.
Paul holding Poppy!
Poppy is ridiculously cute. Here is a video I took about ten minutes after getting her home from the airport when she went crazy after we gave her her first toy.
She has already brought a lot of smiling to our house!
One Friday night, our plane took off from the San Francisco International Airport. Amongst other things, this particular flight was the start of a vacation from the doom and gloom of San Francisco summers. Fog is rarely my friend as I blame it for making things cold, dreary and chasing away Summer. As our plane lifted off over the San Francisco Bay, my window seat provided me views of the Bay Area that I rarely get to see. We ascended through the patchy fog over crowded hills sparkling with amber lights. On the horizon was the two day waning Full Moon, abnormally large and orange and spectacular. The large amount of moonlight washed the area in a dusk that seemed never ending, making the fog white and confusing the landscape with what looked like puffy white day clouds in a darkening night. The bright amber lights, in concentrated brightness over large parking lots and other unidentified clusters added an effect I had never seen before - fog glowing from beneath.
Normally, we are trapped in the wet, soupy mess on ground in and below the fog. From above, the fog took shapes that looked more like real clouds and yet, they were dispersing a human-made light almost unnatural and fictional. We were still in the "Electronic Devices Must Be Turned Off" mode or I would have taken a picture. So I etched it in my mind to save only as a memory. It was a world I had not seen, foreign clouds, earth below, moon large and lovely. Above, it is beautiful and wondrous and new. I am glad for this new perspective.
