An Anniversary...

One year ago today I was living with my good friend, Matthew at the infamous Manzanita House in Bend, Oregon. I was still working for the High Desert Museum as a Living History Dramatic Interpreter. I played on two separate softball teams...and was overall having the time of my life. I was surrounded by some really good friends, a great church, and the amazing outdoors of Central Oregon...however, I had been seeking out one thing to add to my life...a dog.

I have always been a dog lover, something my Grandma Spears had instilled in me from a young age. Growing up I had two dogs, Buddy (a miniature dachshund, a gift from grandma) and then there was Gen. Pickett (a mixed up pup, a gift from mom and dad)...these dogs had short lives with me, not from a lack of love or care...my parents were teachers and animals don't last long when a student goes bad. Anyway, now that I had been living on my own for sometime I had always wanted to be in a situation to have a dog in my life once again.

So last spring I started doing some research to find a dog that I could not only have at home but a dog that could come out to work on the "ranch" we had at the museum. I aided my buddy Matt in installing a dog kennel/run at the Manzanita House...Matt had a Boxer/Mastiff mix, named Zeke and we wanted to build a run that Zeke and the other dogs that came over to the house could use. The plan was once I had found a dog I wanted and the Dog Run was complete I could go and get one.

For several weeks I went to the Humane Society of Central Oregon and walked through the several rows of dog and puppy kennels looking for the right one. At one point I found a dog that I thought would be perfect...and Matt agreed. However, we didn't have enough time on that particular day to do all the adoption stuff, so we agreed to come back in on Monday morning...the lady assured me that the dog would not be adopted out by then. Well sure enough we go back and the dog had been adopted. I was a little disheartened to say the least. Several more weeks went by with no luck on finding that "perfect dog." Then one day I just stopped in at the Humane Society on a whim...didn't think I would find anything, just wanted to see the dogs and that's when I saw this little puppy:

I first snapped this photo with my camera and sent it off to Matt almost immediately telling him I was pretty sure this was the dog for me and that I wanted to see what he thought. Matt and I both thought it was a little ironic this puppy looked like a miniature of his dog, Zeke. Well, we filled out the paper work over the next couple of days...and on June 30, 2007 we walked in and adopted the dog the Humane Society of Central Oregon called "Sweetie" before we had left her name had been of course changed to Portia, after the heroine from Shakespeare's MERCHANT OF VENICE.

We don't live in Central Oregon or even Oregon anymore...there is a new job, new life, and new friends here in the Tidewater of Virginia. But my dog and I are in it together, and save for a small ear infection she is as perfect as they come. So, we are off to the park after a long day at the vet...to celebrate Portia's one year of freedom from the pound...here's to many more ahead!