The Pensieve

This marks the first entry in the Pensieve in over two (or is it three?) years. I find it hard to believe it is that long, not just because of our tendency to become enamored with an idea only to abandon it in favor of the next shiny object that comes along. No, we are quite a peace with that fair weathered friend aspect of our personality, what we are more surprised about it that in this digital consumerist age, we can actually use this now borderline archaic version of Wordpress to publish our dreams and schemes. Shouldn’t it have withered away like Windows 97, COBOL, and Beta max? I would at least expect a two year list of updates that I needed to make it work again, but here I am typing away unmolested. Amazing.

Things have happened as they tend to do in two years, and to document them all would be ridiculous (if amusing). We have purchased a house, got new jobs, and obtained the penultimate in life goals: a puppy! We greeted the latest member of our family a couple weeks ago in upstate New York, where he resided in Malone Animal Shelter. He was 8 weeks old and one of three in his litter. He was the last one left unadopted. We named him Merlin for all the right reasons.

He is a Husky Lab mix (supposedly). His phenotype expressed itself as having the frizzy fur of a Husky. The black color is all Lab with the Husky markings of white paws and chest, as well as a streak across his face and a dipped tail, that curves, arches, droops and straightens with amazing expressiveness.  The Husky is further shown by a pink and black nose, but has the soft eyes and webbed toes of a Lab. We are eagerly awaiting which personality traits will be shown dominant. So far he seems to have a tendency to retrieve, but he is easily distracted. Huskies are horrible retrievers and tend to run flat out in straight lines often for miles over fences and small children before realizing that they are alone. He is still unsure what to make of water, so it is unclear if the Husky’s fear or the Lab’s love is dominant. We of course want to put those webbed feet to work, because there is nothing so amusing as a dog flailing and huffing in the water.

The cats still make their frustration known whenever possible by hissing and swiping at him. Camilla has made sport of sitting outside his crate and growling for hours on end. Our original dream of cats curling up with dog on a cool winter’s night is becoming more and more unlikely, but we remain hopeful. And we have a hefty supply of Benedryl to force the outcome if necessary.

I’m about to hit Publish and we will see if this jalopy still works.