to let Isabel ride in the backseat with me on the loooong drive home?

Aw, but don’t she look happy. . . ?

She didn’t like sitting back there in doggy prison. I am such a sucker for sweet puppy eyes.

Unfortunately, she got so matted on this trip that the groomer wants to shave her! Poor girl. Hubby says no, he’ll de-matt her. What fun. She’s a happy girl, matted or not.

Here you get a bit of an idea of why the groomer is less than pleased with us. Our ragamuffin:

I know, I’m such a weirdo, posting over and over about the Tibet situation, including gruesome photos, and then it’s all about my dog. Such is life, eh?

Took these today. I love the accidental artsiness of the second (and the sexy ear flop over the eye—she looks très mysterious). Isabel is six months old. Ain’t she perty? 

And doggy dignity:

I got to do this meme last week and then Scout tagged Isabel, so she gets to do her first meme.

Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

1.  I don’t like to be alone. At all. I don’t understand why they leave me when they know I want to come have fun too. I know they go to the park without me and run and play in the snow. I cry in my crate for a long time when they go.

2.  I like to harass Buddy and be mean to him. I don’t know why; I can’t seem to help myself. Once, he got so mad he actually growled at me.

3.  I’ve learned how to go up and down the steep basement stairs. I’m very proud of myself. (Buddy can’t do it—nyah, nyah, nyah.)

4.  I have never chewed up anything I wasn’t supposed to. I know that’s what my toys are for. This flabbergasts my people.

5.  Number four is true with the exception of . . . people’s hands. Isn’t that what they’re for? I’m teething for goodness sake.

6.  I like to lay on my back. So I look goofy when I do it—why should I care? Maybe people could learn something from me. Be yourself and don’t worry about what people think!

Isabel isn’t tagging anyone, but if you want to do it, please do!

Rules:

- Link to the person who tagged you.
- Post the rules on your blog.
- Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
- Tag six people and at the end of your post, link to their blogs.
- Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I thought, I wish Isabel were grown up.

I thought it because of those darn crocodile teeth. I don’t wish she were grown up, I really don’t. She is beautiful even when she bites like a crocodile.

I like to take photos of us in Photobooth every once in a while. The first is almost two months ago and the second is today. Do you think she’s grown at all?

I like the colored pencil effect—it makes me look better. Oh not that I care about how I look, not at all. 

Happy New Year to all dogs and people!!!

It turns out that Isabel, the canine arrested in the notorious Gift Box Bump, is soon to be released on a technicality.

Here is a photo taken just after her lawyer gave her the news.

In an exclusive interview, she pointed a paw at Buddy, her canine companion. Apparently, in recent weeks the two have experienced a falling out (not related to shedding).

Here they are, caught by a security camera in the aftermath of a beef heist last month:

Isabel is known to be ruthless with her victims, as evidenced by this recent photo (Mr. Lizard is still in a coma):

The technicality that allows Isabel to walk? Age. She is reportedly only sixteen weeks old. The D.A. pushed hard to try her as an adult, but the judge disagreed, saying, “Sixteen weeks? An adult? You have got to be kidding me.”

Judge Maya is known to be tough as nails so her decision has led to speculation. Is bribery involved?

You may have noticed: It’s snowing on this blog.

Are these not the most beautiful eyes you have ever seen?

Tagged three times recently and what a sluggard, I haven’t managed any of them—busy, actually—working on that interbeing post at gartenfische and finding all kinds of cool, cool images and articles on the Internet (plus the usual life stuff). My mind is whirling. I apologize, friends, for my uncooperativity/invisibility. I’m writing up the most recent meme, that came from Jan, because it’s freshest in my mind and it’s short and I’ll never catch up with all the reading I have to do (your blogs!) if I write all three.

First let me say that memes like this are difficult for me because I seem to have the memory of a goldfish. But I’ll do my best. . . .

Name five of your favorite all time gifts, either given or gotten.

First of all, there was the beautiful meal-gift that I wrote about recently at gartenfische. That was such a beautiful gift because it was unexpected and he got nothing in return, not even a thank you. But I decided I want this meme to be about family, so I want to mention that one, but it’s not one of the five (well, actually . . . sigh. . . six).

1. For P’s last birthday (a month ago). Truly a gift that I was able to give this gift. She has touched our lives so deeply, and turned out to be a gift as much for me as for him. Click on the photo for a bigger view—if she’s not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen, you’re not allowed to say it (and yes, she needs a haircut, we haven’t found a groomer yet).

2. The gorgeous homemade cards and jewelry that my daughter has given me over the years. I can’t express how much they mean to me (and no, I am NOT saying that because you’re reading this, J). Besides the fact that they really are beautiful, how great is it that she, who is busy, busy, busy, takes the time to hand make gifts?

3. Blue, the German Shepherd my mom got me when I was around seven or eight, who I trained and loved with all my heart (but this beautiful gift was also taken from me when my mom decided to move into an apartment and gave her away—this was the first time my heart was truly broken).

4. My dad’s stopwatch, from his days of high school athletics, that he gave me when I was a teenager. My dad used to do this thing where he’d give a gift and then say it belonged to the house (bizarre?)—which meant that it wasn’t really mine to keep (he did this with a stereo, a t.v., an electric piano). It turns out that these weren’t really great gifts, anyway—the best one was something that was meaningful to him and came out of his personal history.

5. The gifts that P buys me, because it makes me feel incredibly loved that he spends the time and energy to find things that he knows I’ll love. He may wait ’til the last minute, but he doesn’t run out and pick up just anything. Always thougthful, always from the heart, always beautiful.

6. Okay, I’m cheating again, but I can’t leave out my grandfather, who gave me so many gifts. He was the most generous person I’ve ever met. About seven years ago, he paid for me to have laser surgery on my extremely, extremely near-sighted eyes. This photo was taken at his surprise 80th birthday party. He died two years later.

This post made me cry! Didn’t expect that. It also brought home how most gifts really aren’t memorable—when we run out and pluck something off a shelf, it’s not often a heart-gift, it’s just a thing. It also makes me realize that I can’t think of any really worthwhile gifts that I have given, other than number 1. That’s sad.

In our family, some of us don’t buy Christmas gifts for one another anymore, we donate to an organization that we know that person will find meaningful. I like this.

I’m not tagging, but if any of you want to do this, please do, I think it’s a lovely meme (it’s a gratefulness meme!).

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I’ve been enjoying Sufjan Stevens Chrismas music thanks to the cranky hooker—I mean cranky hausfrau. (Husband likes it, too—especially Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing—which surprised me, because I thought he was just tolerating it.)