Is it a sin....?

To covet thy neighbor's dog?

Meet my sponsor's new puppy Luna (short for lunatic)

 Taken on her first hike with Auntie RBR. Some say "Auntie", some say "puppynapper". Toe-may-toe, Toe-mah-toe. 

 Luna is an 8-month old, terrier mix puppy that my sponsor adopted from NARF (Nike Animal Rescue Foundation). She is stubborn, crazy, destructive, and I am totally and completely IN. LOVE. WITH. HER.

Couldn't you just die of the cuteness? Yes, I am holding a dog snack above her nose, but I prefer to think she would look just as adoringly at me without it.

My sponsor lost Roadie, her 11 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback mix, about 4 months ago when he suddenly went into liver failure, stopped eating and had to be euthanized. Not to speak ill of the dead, and if you have read this blog you know that animals are very important to me, I love them all, but her dog, ....

was a seriously dangerous, NUT JOB.

Let's just say, that if anyone less kind, loving, and compassionate than my sponsor owned him he would have been guarding the gates of hell a LONG time ago.  In the interest of fairness, she has been my sponsor for almost 20 years now, I imagine if I had not also found her, you could say the very same thing about me.

My sponsor picked up Roadie (on the road, hence the name. Plus her husband is in a band. I know, I rolled my eyes too at the "coolness") as a lost 4 month old puppy. She was headed out of town for the weekend, so she asked me to take care of him for a few days. In that time I could tell that Roadie, even as a young puppy, had some dominance and aggression issues and I warned her that it was imperative that he be trained and socialized or he would be a problem. As it turned out, I was right. REALLY right.

Boston Terrier doing his best Anthony Hopkins. Priceless. Difference is Roadie was almost 100 pounds of psychopathic pooch.

My sponsor grew up on a farm where you let dogs, be dogs and she did not really see the importance of training. She also thought I was a bit obsessive about training with Lucy and that Lucy was overly controlled by me.

Not to be snarky, but I can have people over to my house and I am reasonably confident my dog will not rip their throats out if they make eye contact with her. If that is "overly controlled" I am ok with that.

 OK, fine, maybe she is a wee bit 'overly controlled.'

Anyhoo.... my sponsor wanted to avoid having that type of dog in her home for the next 11 years, so I was THRILLED that when she was ready to adopt she told me repeatedly that she would listen to anything I said and wanted me to help her pick her new dog.

Enter, Luna

We met her at a pet fair and she was the perfect dog for my sponsor and her family and ...

...for me. *sigh*

Before our hike we did a short walk at the park with Ms. Lucy (At 13 years young, Lucy is not much of a hiker anymore, but she was a BEAST in her day) and Luna was a perfect respectful young lady. She could blend right in to the family.

See?! She loves me!

Like the wingman that watches his buddy leave with the hot girl he spotted first and chatted up while screening for signs of excess emotional baggage or Fatal Attraction tendencies, I must sit idly by and watch MY dog go to puppy class with my sponsor. 

I have a full blown case of puppy fever.

 Hubby says, 'no', but this ain't my first rodeo. Stay tuned.