dog dog dog dog dog dog DOG

I have been working at patience around getting a new dog, and I think it's been quite healthy to take these several months "off." When it started looking like May or June would be a great time, I spent some hours (ok, days) looking up dog breeds and thinking about what kind of dog would really be great for me.

On Sunday, as we were driving to a lunch up in Napa, I told my sister that I'd finally figured out what to go look for:

• could go hiking with me


• loves water (Silver Lake beckons and Austin has tons of great water spots for dogs and their people)
  
• great personality like a labrador


• an adult but not senior (since I've just been through a couple of senior dogs and would love to have a dog for longer this time)


• big enough to be slightly a deterrent to a would-be burglar


• uber-dog friendly so I could bring him/her to doggie day care while I am at work and so I can enjoy all the social niceties of Point Isabel and other great dog parks.
  
  So I get done with this whole laundry list and my sister slowly says,
  
  "Well... we were trying not to tell you about this dog."
  

(See Clare's story.)

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Did you read Clare's blog about Tallulah? What a very nice post.

Now Lulu dog - isn't she gorgeous? Aren't I lucky? Can't wait to get up to Oregon and see her in person. I feel enormously blessed that Clare and Brian are the people taking this dog on - I know Lulu will get a great jumpstart on training and get a big (much-needed) dose of lovin' from those two.

Current plan is that I'm going to head up to their farm on May 15. I haven't seen the farm yet, so that too is pretty exciting. I can't believe how many critters they have going on. I set up several days off so I can get Lulu and I all sorted.