Okay, well... she's not
that dirty (she had a bath on Sunday) and she's not
that little (almost 40 pounds!), so I guess she's our clean, medium-sized secret...
Meet Rita, or Bunny, or BunnyRita. We're not entirely sure what her name is yet, but I think it's Rita (short for Rosarita, the beach she was found on). Although her nickname is Bunny (because she runs like a jack rabbit, plus it was Kathryn Hepburn's librarian character's name in
Desk Set, plus bunnies and bunny ears, especially, are kind of a running thing on Tripawds... I wanted her real name to just be Bunny, but I don't think Mike can picture himself standing there at Fiesta Island yelling, "Bunny!" It's not muy macho.)
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| I think she likes it here. |
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| She likes Fiesta Island too! |
Yes, it is crazy-soon to have a new puppy. And we totally did NOT
intend to bring a new dog home yet - but... here's what happened. The
Saturday after we lost Abby, we were sitting outside watching the
sunset. The ocean was the calmest I've ever seen it since we moved here -
like a glassy lake as far as the eye could see toward the horizon. Mike
asked Abby and Bailey (our previous pup for those of you that don't
know) to send us a sign that they'd met up and were together. Well, I
was sitting there with my iPad, and I went on PetFinder - seriously I
don't know why because we really really really didn't intend to get a
new dog for a while - and I typed "female beagle" in the search with
our zip code, and "Peaches" (as she was known) pops up on the first page
of results. We couldn't stop looking at her! She looked so much like a
combination of Bailey and Abby! She has Bailey's body, with Abby's ears
and eyes (even a bit of the same eyeliner look like Abby had). If Bailey
and Abby had a puppy (through immaculate conception or
in vitro or whatever, since they were both girls...) the result would be this little girl.
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| In fact, she likes F.I. a lot! |
The next few days we couldn't stop looking at her picture. I thought
Mike would be the voice of reason, but no. He told me to fill out the
online application. We did and were able to go meet her this past
Saturday, Jan. 21. We brought her home and she's been pretty much a
model pup ever since - doesn't jump up, barely barks, sleeps in Abby's bed like a good girl until we are ready to get up. She's just super sweet!
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| BunnyRita! |
So, here's the deal. She's a beagle-shepherd mix (obviously); she's
estimated to be 7 or 8 months old. We got her from the Baja Animal
Sanctuary (technically she's not ours yet... They have to come do a home
inspection on Feb 4. I'm fairly certain we'll pass...). I can't believe she was at the shelter 2 months, because she's so darn cute. I think she was waiting for us...
She's so funny as well -
we thought it would be nice to have a chowhound again (what with the
beagle in her) after Abby and her fussy supermodel picky-eater ways, but
no... She's not a real chowhound either. She's not as picky as Abby
was, but she doesn't exactly wolf down her food, and she turns her nose
up at lots of things, like popcorn! Even Abby liked popcorn! Also, Bailey had no back dewclaws, Abby had both of hers - well, Rita has
one back dew claw. I think she really is a mix of our two girls.
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| She met Ab's best friend, Dakota... |
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| They already love each other! BFFs! |
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| (This does look like love, right?) |
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| Today, right after leaving Dakota's... |
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| (And this too? Pretty certain that's love!) |
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Our hearts are still in a thousand jigsaw puzzle pieces from losing Abby, but I think this little girl will help start fitting the pieces back together.
