It was a year ago in January that I made the decision to have my darling little Corky put to sleep.  She was 11 years old, and was truly a wonderful dog.

She weighed 7 pounds at her highest weight.  She seemed to understand almost everything we'd say to her.  In the mornings, when I got up, she would run to the bathroom first because she knew that's where I was headed.  We could leave her alone for the entire day; she didn't make any messes of any kind.  She loved to play and she was so pretty!  She was the ideal lap dog.  She'd jump up and flop down on the left side of the chair, then look back at me as if to say, "give me a little more room, would ya?"

Well, she was gone for nearly a year and I had just about decided I would never get another dog.  I knew it wasn't a good time when I had hip surgery.  But lo and behold, Bill presented me with a pretty little pup, with Susan's help.  He said later he had no choice.  I got weepy once in a while missing Corky, so his interpretation was that I was "always crying."  Not True!  But I still miss her now.  The other reason he gave was that our kids "would not leave me alone."  That Is True.  One or the other would call and tell us about puppies or dogs they had seen advertised.  So finally he gave in.

After much deliberation, I named her Sugar Plum.  She is a rascal!  She's funny, playful, loves to race through the house in a big loop through the hall, bedrooms and living room.  She is very "bitey" though, so we are working diligently on that bad habit.  She also chews carpet edges and many other things.  She sometimes follows me when I use the cane, biting the cane at every step.  She's getting pretty good about not making a mess in the house, but she wakes us up quite early.  For a while she would bark through the night and every morning there would be a mess in her kennel.  Then we started getting up through the night to let her out.  Now I get up with her--it was mostly around 5 in the morning, but yesterday it was 6--that was much better.
Last night was off-schedule since we were out for several hours till 10 p.m., so I can't count that.

I believe Sugar Plum is going to be a very good doggie when we get through this puppy stage, but she can drive us crazy right now with her antics, especially when she's barking relentlessly through the night.  She's in here with me now, chewing on her rawhide bone.  Corky never had so many toys, but she didn't need them like Sugar Plum does.

At first Bill took total care of her, and they really bonded.  Then he got mad at having to clean her kennel every day and didn't want much to do with her.  As I was more able to bend over to feed her, etc. I took over most of her care and we got to be better friends.  It didn't help when I couldn't bend far enough to pick her up, so I was glad when I improved enough to hold her more.  Now she's better behaved and Bill has forgiven her for her earlier trespasses. 
I pray and ask God to help her to be a good dog.  Since I believe He's the One who provided her, I also know I can ask His help for her to grow to be a sweet and respectably calm dog.  ( that doesn't make messes indoors)

That's Sugar Plum with me on my bio picture.  Isn't she cute?

I hope you didn't think this was boring.  It's my life.  Woof!