Our New Dog

We got a new dog! Well, she's not really a brand new dog, we've had her for about seven years now, but the kids were all convinced we'd traded our old one in for a new and improved model. This story would be 10 times funnier if I had taken a pre-picture of our poor, neglected pooch. She's a schnauzer, and this breed of dog is supposed to be groomed and clipped about every six weeks. Well, with our busy schedule we just kept forgetting to take her, or we'd make an appointment, and a kid would get sick, etc. So, her hair got so long, that she had a serious problem due to the long hair, and I'm not going to go into any details, but my heroic husband had to "take care" of the problem and he had to take a shower afterwards.

She looked like a dark gray mop with dreadlocks. The hair on her face was covering her eyes, which caused other problems. She had sticks, leaves, and burrs stuck to her, and had stopped trying to chew them out. It was bad.

So while I took J.D. to the doctor (for another double ear infection), my mom took Button, oh, that's the name of our scruffy mess, to the groomer's. When she emerged later that afternoon, I was shocked to see that an actual purebred schnauzer existed under that mass of thatched fur.
She looked beautiful, and more importantly, very different from the way she'd looked only six hours earlier.

She looked so different in fact, that when the babies woke up from their naps, and went outside to wander around, they didn't recognize her. They were totally thrown off by this new dog in our yard. G started screaming and crying and saying "doge, doge, doge!" Which is her way of saying "there's a scary dog"!!! J.D. just totally avoided her but kept staring at her, like, "I think I know you, but you're like twice as small as you used to be, and you have eyes?"

Look how regal Button is sitting here. She is so proud, she actually sat still to let me take this picture. It's really amazing how much more attention a beautiful animal gets over an ugly, stinky one. Sadly, this is probably true of the human world as well. Our society places so much value on beauty and physical appearance. Anyway, I digress...

The girls were thrilled with the new Button. I mean, she's adorable now. She had the night of her life, receiving treats, pets, hugs, and tummy scratches all night long. Not once did somebody pull on her long hair or tug her beard, she lived the life of a loved, clean, treasured family pet.