September 9, 2009

See How Much I Love Nigella?


I spent yesterday evening sewing a dog bed. WHAT! What? You say! Why were you sewing a dog bed Gillian, don't you have a cat? Well yes, yes I do. I have the greatest cat ever. And as of ten am today, we also have a dog.

The dog thing has been floating around for about six months. Mostly it has consisted of me suggesting it and Will nay-saying it. And then suddenly a few weeks ago he did a total turn around and just said "ok, I think we should." I'm not sure what changed his mind. Maybe the large yard we are now proud owners of, maybe it was our boy coming home from spending time at the grandparents house with full blown, seven year old boy dog fever, who knows. I'm not arguing.

We had planned to get a puppy in November. I had researched the breed, a Springer Spaniel, and spent a week and a half emailing every breeder withing three hundred miles. I talked to everyone I could find about getting the right dog (as opposed to the dog we had before, have you read Marley and Me? Well, that's pretty much what we had, no wonder it's been awhile since we were dog owners!) Late last week a breeder contacted me saying that one of his former dogs had had a litter in June and the mother was just the kind of dog we were looking for. Bingo. The only problem was that the puppy was ready now.

No time like the present, right?

So last night I made a dog bed, and this morning I drove a ridiculous distance (I wont even tell you how far, let's just say it was a loooong drive to get there and back in one day) to pick up our dog. But she was worth it. She sat quietly all the way home and has been (knock on wood) a very well behaved little girl.

As she is sweet and pretty and a little plump (in a good way!) and has long, gorgeous brown curls, we've named her Nigella, after my favorite cookbook author. When we told Evelyn her name she responded with "My Jelly" so now she is Jelly, our Jelly.

Now let's see if I can get anything at all done with a puppy running loose in the house!