More about raven

(Disclaimer--non-animal people will not enjoy this post.)

I think that is must be true what "they" say about a dog being man's (or woman's) best friend. I LOVE my dog. I'm am not one of those dog-people who dress up their dogs. raven does have some sweaters but that is only because she is a short-haired Chihuahua living in a cold-winter climate. OK--she has a sweatshirt too, which my roommate told me makes her look like she is in some sort of rogue puppy gang:

Today, and not for the first time, I realized how much raven means to me. As I mentioned before, I got raven from an animal adoption agency in Texas. I grew up with dogs and knew that, when I moved out on my own, I would want to have one as a pet. Nothing at all against large dogs, but I am a small dog person. I never even considered a Chihuahua, though, because everyone always said bad things about them. Noisy, close resemblance to a rodent, yappy, you get the picture.

As my mom and I were looking around at all the dogs that were available that day, I happened to look over and see a little black Chihuahua sleeping soundly in a cage in between two very noisy dogs. She looked so sweet and docile that I had to go over and ask about her. I was informed by the gentleman who was fostering her that she was a very well behaved dog who got along famously with the other dogs that he had. I asked to please see her out of her cage.

They led my mom and I back to a corner of the store where they had a few chairs set up and brought her over to me. There was a ridiculously large rope tied around her petite little neck. He sat her on my lap and she looked up at me. She has this way of cocking her head to one side like she is listening to what I say. I asked her if she wanted to come home with me. She turned around in my lap a few times and then laid down, put her tiny little chin in the crook of my elbow and let out a sigh that seemed to say, "Finally! I found someone who will adore me like I should be adored." That was the day she melted my heart for the first time.

I have never regretted, not once, paying money for her. She brings such happiness into my life. There are days when I wish she could talk to me, although there are days when I am thankful that she can't! :) She does smile at me, though, and I love when she does that.

I went with my roommate to the vet today. She had to take her cat of 17 years to be euthanized today. I am not a cat-lover by any means, but I cried. I cried because my roommate is so sad. I cried because I know that one day, that will be me. I will have to make the decision to end raven's suffering. I had a person ask me one time, "What will you do when raven dies?" I couldn't even answer her because it isn't something that I really want to think about. I know it will happen but somehow, if I don't think about it, maybe I can pretend that it won't. Instead, I will think about this:



and this:




and this:

Because that is what makes me happy.