The Amazing Boris and Natasha

No.... we weren't even gonna have a dog again. Nope, nope, nope. After Queenie, who ran away on the first day of school because she did * not* want to be treated for fleas and she had decided that we'weren't *really* her family anyway, and Molly, who dug under the fence, jumped over the fence, pushed through the gate to go out and bother the kids at the school across the street (which we cannot figure out because she didn't care for kids at all anyway...), we decided we weren't gonna try it again.

Besides, we travel a lot, and when we are here, we are busy-busy crazy-busy, so we don't have time for a dog. Dogs are pack animals, and it's really unfair to leave them alone all the time.

At the beginning of June, Bill comes to me and says,

"There's a guy at work who's got some puppies...."

Now I know this drill, we're gonna talk about it *again*...

And Bill will give me the spiel about how good it is for kids to have a dog, which I know very well because I grew up with pets (he didn't by the way...too many siblings :o)

But we all know who is gonna do the lion's share of taking care of the dog now, don't we?

So I ask, "What kind are they?"

He replies, "Labrador and Dalmatian mix."

"Oh Good!, I exclaim, "Stupid AND crazy!"


So now, Bill starts to look sad.... and we as a family are about to be traveling 4 out of the next 6 weeks - a fabulous time to take on a dog, dontcha think?


So I say, "If the guy still has 'em after we get back, we'll see."

At that point, I was quite sure we would be dog owners by July...

So we get back, and after Bill goes back to work the first day, he comes home, and tells me, "He's still got the dogs...."

So we talk for a while, and I assert that I need to check out the puppies by myself, before the kids see them. With the last dog, I knew within 15 minutes that dog was not gonna work out with our family, but the kids were with us, and by then it was a lost cause.


When I went to meet the puppies, I drove into the yard. There they were, all four of them....and they didn't bark.

I met Jessika, the daughter of Bill's colleague who had rescued the dogs from the mother who had killed off some of the rest of the litter. She had taken excellent care of them, and had named them all. I hung around and got licked, sniffed, cuddled and wagged to death for about 20 minutes by four very cute dogs! They were almost 5 months old and pretty big already. Instead of stupid and crazy, they were calm and intelligent (or as intelligent as half-Labradors can possibly be).


So, Spirit told me on the way home that we need to take two dogs, not just one. As littermates, they'd already grown attached to each other, and I didn't want them to get bored. Dalmatians are chewers and we surely didn't need much more of that!

We wanted to give them new names, and we learned that Dalmatia is a region in Russia, so we decided to give them Russian names. We looked on the Web, and found 2 that I liked.

After we got them home, I realized that the names we had chosen didn't really suit the dogs....

Will said, "Well, I like the name 'Boris' for the boy...."

So I said, "What about Boris and Natasha?"

We already have an enormous and elderly cat named "Bluto" for the brainless villain from the old "Popeye" cartoons...

And so there ya go...

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