Dot and Dash

Regrets.  I have many.  It's true.

One big regret is not having taken more pictures of Dot when she was a puppy.  Especially when she was a little, bitty brand new puppy.  I didn't take a lot of digital pictures then and the few that I did take were lost when an old hard drive crashed.  I literally have no pictures of Dot during her first year.  It makes me sad because she was such a cute, cute, cute little Dotopotamus.  100% mutt.  To this day I change my mind daily when trying to figure out her dominant breed.  Sometimes I think schnauzer, sometimes poodle, sometimes dachshund.  I suspect a real Heinz 57 blend of everything.

It was December 2003.  I was finally ready for my own dog and I was looking hard for her at all of the area animal shelters and pounds around Austin.  I wasn't sure what kind of dog I wanted, but I knew that would be revealed in due time.

Christmas that year was rare because all of my family was together at the Last Stop.  Matt and Shana were there and Mason was 8 months old.  On December 22 we all went together and visited a few different shelters in the small towns around Eastland.

Needless to say,  some of these small town shelters are a bit grim.  Old, cramped, depressing.  Lots of big dogs - basically your pit bull mix.  Sad.  This was the case when we arrived at the Brownwood shelter, about 40 miles from Eastland.

Unrelated side note, I LOVE BROWNWOOD.  Home of Underwoods Barbecue.  THE quintessential cafeteria that can instantly transport me back to childhood when I was visiting my grandparents in Eastland and we would drive here to eat ribs and  peach cobbler.

So, there I was, alone in the Brownwood shelter trying to convince myself that the sickly, sad looking little white dog with the drippy eyes that I was petting might be my girl when I heard the rest of the family around the corner in a commotion.  My brother Matt came jogging back to me and said, "We found her.  We found your dog."

Sure enough.  I rounded that corner and there was 3-month old, 7-pound Dot in my sister-in-law Shana's arms.  Weirdly, I didn't even really spend time with her at that point.  I just knew in my heart by looking at her that she my dog and I had to get her adopted right that minute or someone else might beat me to it.  So Dad and I hot footed it up front and completed the paper work and paid the $25 adoption fee.  When all of that was complete, I came back around and that's when I really held Dot for the first time.  She made little baby Mason giggle and I knew that was a good sign.

The thing  about Dot that was so funny was her high energy personality.  You could tell that she was a little bit wild, with one paw over on the crazy side, but she was so adorable.  She didn't look sad or abandoned or concerned about a thing.  She just wagged her tale and had that "come on, let's play!" look about her.  I took her home that night and the rest, as they say, is history. 

That was seven years ago this December.

So where is the regret? 

Well, Dot had a brother there in the pound with her.  Another 3 month old little dude that looked almost exactly like Dot except he had longer legs, so he was a little bit taller.  But super cute and just as playful.  However, at that time I knew I wanted a female and it just wasn't in my realm of possibility to get two dogs.  Today?  Heck yes, I'm a seasoned dog owner who loves the little buggers like crazy and I would have snapped them both up right away.  But I couldn't do it then.

So we left "Dash" (that's what I would have named him...Dash) behind and I just crossed my fingers that some other person or family would come along and adopt him.  I honestly have wondered over the last seven years what might have become of that little guy.

WELL TODAY I FOUND OUT! 

Check out this coupon advertisement I received in the mail today from Pottery Barn! 

Can you believe how much this dude looks like Dot?  The only difference is he has a longer beard.  I keep Dot's face trimmed shorter so she'll look a little bit more like a girl, but this big daddy has a beard and I THINK IT'S DASH!

Well Dash has done alright for himself, hasn't he?  Since he left Brownwood with that fancy couple from California, Dash has obviously moved up in the world and now works in the big leagues for Pottery Barn!  He poses sweetly on fleece blankets on distressed leather chairs by the fire!  I bet he gets a great employee discount, too!

When I saw this, I had to waive it around a little bit and ask Dot WHAT UP?  Why couldn't this be you?  Why don't you get out there and get a high-profile job?  Why aren't you selling fleece blankets and distressed leather chairs?  You need to get a j-o-b little mama!  You owe me $25!

I figure if Dash can do it, Dot can too.

Ah, well.  It's just nice to know that little Dash made good.

And besides.  Dot is too preoccupied to work at the moment.  She is STILL confused by that strange little hole in the door going to the garage in our new house.  She sits and ponders it deeply.  She knows it somehow has something to do with her, but she just can't quite figure it out.  Which is probably a good thing because should the light bulb ever go on and she actually try to get through that doggy door I highly suspect she would high center and be stuck like a cork in a bottle.

That's my girl!