Happy Birthday, Part II

How did Trooper come into our lives?

I had been looking on Petfinder for many months. I'd wanted a doggie for a long time, but we were worried about how much it would cost, etc. Then, one day in April of last year, I searched for Australian Shepherds in our zipcode. And Trooper's mugshot was the first dog to come up. When Jim came home from work, I said, look at this dog. Usually, he'd say, that's cute, but we should wait. Well, when he saw Trooper's picture, he said, why don't you call about him. I did. The foster mom said he'd be at PetSmart on Sunday at 1pm, but that another man had called about him, so he'd have first dibs. Jim and I arrived at PetSmart at 12:45 and waited. And finally Trooper walked in. A little girl was walking him and he just trotted right in. I introduced myself and he was so happy. I sat and petted his dirty lil self. His foster mom told us that if the other man didn't come by 1:15, he was ours. So we walked around the shopping plaza and came back. Jim said he was ready to bribe her for him! But alas, he was ours. We took him home that day! His foster mom teared up. She'd said her husband had wanted Trooper, but they already had too many dogs. And that's how we met our little love.

We took Troop to the dog park and gave him some salmon for dinner. He LOVED it! He has been playing with his antler nonstop. Sometimes he randomly runs up to it and pounces on it, like he's hunting an elk.

I was able to ride my bike today. In fact, we didn't turn on the Yaris once. The sun felt so good. The sun is up by 6am and it's not dark until after 8pm here. So nice to have spring here!

Oh, and here's the salmon I'm making for us. Panko crusted. (No panko for Trooper!) I'll let you know how it is!