Thank you guys! And a Moose portrait...

I just want to thank those of you reading this blog.  It means a lot to me that you all continue to come back to read my words - it's keeping me writing and thinking and creating, which has kept me from screaming at times the past few weeks. 

But anyway...  I was going to write something deadly serious about how I'm starting to feel like a bit of a Jerry Springer panelist whenever I meet someone new who hears my story and says something like "oh, how awful!  I don't think I could handle that".  But frankly, I just don't have the fortitude for that tonight.  So, instead, you get a word portrait of my boy.

Moose.  My little Teutonic terriorist.  He came into my life 9 or so years ago, smuggled into Oregon from the Utah Dachshund Rescue Society (aka my Aunt Sherri).  He was originally named Peter the Great, Junior (son of Peter the Great and Lady Zelda the III), but really... look at this face:

Not the face of an aristocrat

 So he became Moose.  Our little bruiser (literally - trust me, when he lands on you from full flight, you feel every ounce of that 17 pounds.)

He has certain self-appointed duties, like every dog.  His main job, of course, is to guard the house with ruthless determination and efficiency.  There's not a Fed-Ex or UPS guy in Portland who doesn't know his battle cry (sometimes the battle cry emits from under a blanket on his mom's lap, but it's a battle cry nonetheless).  He's a Hoover like no other - the first human word he recognized was "Ooops".  He also makes laps during the night, just to make sure everything is going smoothly - around midnight (and two, and four), he'll struggle out from under the blankets, roam the house, checking there's no raccoons that have snuck into the house (they're tricky, you know), and then whine at the bottom of the ramp until I move over and let him back up on the bed. 

I'll write more about him later (you really can't stop me - he's my boy!), but for tonight, again, thank you all.  You're helping me with one of my bucket list items, and I appreciate the heck out of it.