Just a quick note. This is the first post I have made from my new server. I need to test it out. I hope you get the e-mail to announce this post. And if you could, please help me find out if the comments work. So if you get this post, either comment or send me a quick e-mail or text and let me know you got the notification and that you could see the post...

Now on to the reason for celebration today. Today is Keeley's Gotcha Day. If you don't know what that is, (I didn't until about two months ago) that is the day we Got her or in the case of talking to her, it's her Gotcha Day.

A year ago today we woke up expecting to rehome this wonderful dog. But that almost didn't happen. We woke up fully expecting to pick her up at 2:00 that afternoon. Around noon, while we were eating lunch, my phone rang. We knew it was bad news. It was her original owner, calling to say that they had thought it over and they just couldn't part with her. We were crushed. We had met her earlier in the week and fallen in love at first sight.

We sat and were sad for about 20 minutes and then the phone rang again. It was her owner. He said, "Please come and get her. We want to keep her but we just can't and we know she will have a wonderful home with you. But please get her fast before we change our mind again." We have never driven so fast to North Seattle as we did that day. We grabbed her and all her stuff and she has been ours ever since. I took the photo above on that day when we got her home and took her out to run in the backyard.

Since that day it has been one of the best experiences of our lives. We had both always been dog people but somehow, at our age, it is different. We have more time with her because we are home all the time. It has been tough finding a dog sitter and we were lucky enough that our daughters were willing to take her when we went to Africa and later on our Columbia River cruise. Other than that, we have been with her every day.

She is quite the dog. Kathleen ran her DNA and found that she is about 30% pit bull terrier, 20% Chow, 20% American eskimo. The rest is what they call "super mutt." We don't care what she is, we just love her. She was briefly trained to be an emotional support dog and we can see the results of that. If there is ever any tension in the house (me getting mad at my computer, etc.) she is right there in my face to give me kisses and calm me down. She even has four unprintable words you can say to her at any time that will get her to jump into your lap and comfort you.

She has developed a wonderful daily routine. She gets up with me at 4:30, sleeps on the couch while I ride my bike, helps me wake up her "mommy" and then it's breakfast, playing, lunch, naps. walk, treats, dinner and finally bedtime snack before jumping up on my bed for a good night talk. Then she is off to her own bed for a good night's sleep.

Just for fun, I ran up a Photos movie of all the videos and pics we have taken of her this year. One of those videos that Apple's Photos app, just creates. And here it is, just for you. You might have to watch it on YouTube until I can figure out why it won't show up here. Just click the link below or here.

https://youtu.be/h-ojZmOJx_k?si=BmjMHcny4TMpDaW3

There is nothing like owning a dog. They are the best.

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.  - Josh Billings