Lord Manning of Copper Hills

Big news for our family. I don't know if I remembered to tell anyone that we moved, but we did. To Heber and we love it. (Reed doesn't mind the commute, and I can still see my big brother Richard almost every day, which is vital since he is my anchor to reality...my serene and strong example of unconditional love, patience, kindness and understanding...in short, he keeps me sane)!

Conditions of our move: Only a 20 gallon aquarium, so we need to down size. No dogs or cats, so we had to find our doggy a new home. No trampolines, so ours has moved into storage in the garage.

These are all things I can learn to live with. (Laying in the sun on the trampoline will be very missed. My bathing suit collection will go to waste and I'm sure I'll be lazy about my stomach control now that It'll never see the light of day).

Manny...the AKC knows him as Lord Manning of Copper Hills...has gone to live with my good friend Kimmie and her family. Her husband liked him immediately, so did her daughters. (After some initial panic that one of them might be very allergic to him, turned out she had pneumonia, it wasn't the dog at all, they are happy with him). He is the first dog that hasn't tried to eat their Pomeranian and they love that. (Eli, giant sweet heart of a man, like Reed but Navajo, not German, wants to get rid of the little dog now and just have Manny. Bless them all, Manny is happy)!

Manny...it turned out to be a lot harder to give him up than I anticipated. I cried just as hard as when I had to have my Schindler (my first and favorite Rottweiler) put to sleep. Kimmie smiles at my pathetic effort not to tear up when I visit. I miss him. I miss him 'protecting' me from scary cartoon animals on tv. (You've never seen Brother Bear or Over the Hedge until you've seen it with a pug jumping and growling ferociously at the tv. He is also very vocal about animal planet). I miss him climbing under the covers at night and snuggling up against my back to keep watch. I miss him greeting the kids when they return home from school, and how he runs in circles in the yard, barking at the sky, making sure the aliens know not to land in our yard. (Because only dogs can see the real ones).

The kids did a lot better than I'd anticipated. Crystal, of course, was dramatic and over did it, until I reminded her that she didn't have an audience so she could stop or stay in her room...not another peep from her. The boys were sad, some tears, but they all cheered up when Kimmie told them they can visit whenever they want.

Is there something broken in me that I can get so worked up over my dog, but I look forward to the bus coming in the morning for my kids?...maybe I missed my calling. Perhaps I'd have been a bigger success rescuing critters rather than butting heads with 14 and 13 year old boys.

Maybe if I'd trained my kids as well as the dogs...