my narnia-deprived childhood erased

Everyone has a streak of defiance built into their genetic code that comes out during their childhood & adolescence: disregarding the rules, breaking curfew, testing to see if the stove really is as hot as they (they being those parental people) say it is. You catch my drift. 

I was always an annoying stickler for the rules. I mean lame (still am, but I embrace it as part of my identity ;)). I never intentionally did anything wrong (other than that one time around the age of 7, I accidentally took a Lisa Frank heart stamp ring that probably cost $.50. But being too scared to tell my dad, I just coolly walked out of Montgomery Mall, looking back every other second to make sure security wasn't running after me. I never stole again. I petrified myself without needing the parental punishment, not that they ever knew it happened until probably now... But I've digressed). 

I was a boring kid.

My streak of defiance came in the things I read. Code word: nerd. I wore big ole Disney princess glasses & had a bob; there wasn't much else for me to go on. So when it came time for the cereal box panorama book report, about a third of the grade read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I just couldn't bear to be a part of such a popular movement. I had to be edgy. I read Gary Paulsen's The Haymeadow, mainly because my cool older brother suggested it, but in that pathetic moment of defiance, my entire childhood missed out on the wonder of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series.

So at the grand old age of 24, I finally read them. I could feel the 8-year-old me shaking her head in shame for waiting so long. While definitely children's stories, I loved the variety of plots and characters & the way that Lewis laid out Christian themes for his younger audience, especially in the last two he wrote, The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle. (Side bar: without a doubt I fall on the side that favors reading the books in the order he wrote them rather than the chronological order of the story). Plus, no lie, I have often thought of God as a Lion, so getting attached to Aslan took all of a second. 

I finished TLB late Monday night, and now I feel I must graduate to C.S. Lewis for Adults (did I not mention that I have never read anything by him? It's a bit sad, I know), starting with Mere Christianity, per my husband's request, and then The Screwtape Letters. It's turning into a C.S. Lewis fan party over here, and I just can't help it.


A few semi-related book suggestions:

+ If you love Harry Potter & the stories of Narnia (& possibly LOTR? I've never read them but I could see the connection) and wouldn't mind discovering a similar magical world story but on the darker side, you should read Lev Grossman's The Magicians. You'll see a lot of similarities between the way the story is set up, but all-in-all it's a good read (& it'll quench your need for a new realm to explore). My dad sent it to me as a surprise when I was in college, and it quickly became Priority No. 1, which at the time wasn't so great for my course load, but should convince you of how captivating it can be. 

+ To make my reading list even longer, I noticed while linking Grossman's book above that he wrote another a year ago that totally flew under my radar and must be read. Thank you weirdly wired brain for connecting dots that only you care about.

+ I also recently inhaled J.K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith's The Cuckoo's Calling, and loved it. If you're the type of person who enjoys a good murder mystery (similar to Sherlock Holmes' style), then this is the contemporary version for you. Also, can we talk about how she continues to create wonderfully in-depth characters & stories? Just incredible. Can't wait for Galbraith to write the next one.

remember the time... {vol. V}

{lately}

+ we ran a "fast mile" together {fast for pitiful me & slow for husmate the pacer} & then split up for our own paced mile. Husmate ran his best time in a few years {that cause of lengthened time was thanks mainly to moi & the beginning/duration of our relationship} while I huffed it out on my own. Just call us the tortoise & hare team from here on out...

+ Monarch the Mouse made his fifth cameo in this little condo of ours, & husmate was in the room AND STILL DIDN'T SEE HIM. But it's okay. I'm not hallucinating...

+ pretty sure the woman at the post office thinks I'm a bit weird for knowing about a new release of stamps that apparently hadn't made it to her branch yet... & that she had never heard of. I definitely blushed a little as we went through all the flowery stamps that she had to offer, none of which looked anything like the seed packet stamps I've been sorta coveting. #nerdalert

+ we walked to Trader Joe's for cookie dough & milk... & got called out by the cashier on it. "Will that be all for you?" "Yep, just those two..." [chuckles at us] "So y'all walked down here for cookies & milk?" We're just revolutionizing dessert over here at the Berry residence.

{auld lang syne}

+ husmate stuck around after Bulldog Bash our senior year in college & helped his then over-involved girlfriend pick up trash along her route in the Cotton District so that she {& her best friend, Sarah, & their SA committee} could get to bed earlier than 4 am. Proof #48 then that he was a keeper :)

remember the time... {vol. IV}

I mean really, can tulips be any more beautiful? Such simplicity & no thorns to speak of, truly the best flower out there, or so I think anyway ;)

{lately}

+ husmate told me before he went to bed one night that he had a "fun" surprise for me in his lunch container, & little ole me, hoping the fun surprise would be some sort of chocolate dessert item, unzipped it to find around 30 barely used ziplocs from all the turkey wraps he took to work {& all I heard was snickering coming from our bedroom?}. That, sir, was NOT the fun surprise I was hoping for. I think you owe me a cookie. 

+ we discovered just how incredible it is to start our runs from Gravelly Point Park & run towards the District? We ran until we reached the Arlington Memorial Bridge & looked to our right & spotted our memorial friends, Washington & Lincoln, from across the river. I don't know if our views while running could get any better... & to top it off, we turned around in time to throw the frisbee at the park as the planes took off over our heads & the sun set around us. Terrific end to a weekday. 

+ we started quoting Gus & Shawn on the reg from Psych? Personal favorite: when they mock Simon Baker on The Mentalist. Truly some of the hardest laughter & quickest one-liners we've had in this beauty of a marriage. It's even funnier when our friends, Emily & Josh, join along. You know that's right.

+ we came across our favorite Old Town pup to date, the ever curious Fenway, who got so easily distracted during her walk with her owner that they got separated by a quarter of a mile. I suppose I can understand what the distraction was: a bright orange ball lodged in the rocks of the Oronocco Bay Park is totally more important to pay attention to than one's owner. But I hope I never forget that Fenway's hilarious owner called her from afar, yelling, "Come here ya, idiot!" in a lighthearted voice & Fenway looked up with a look of "Oh! Whoops. I'm coming! I'm coming!" and bounded on to catch up with her. Now that's a true understanding between master & dog right there. 


{auld lang syne}

+ husmate delivered that awesome proposal? Yeah, you still have a reserve of brownie points from it. ;)

+ when late April would mean chaco weather, shorts season, & the occasional sunburned nose? We aren't quite there yet, but honestly I can handle long sleeve t-shirts, jeans, & fleece pullovers this late in the game so long as the triple digit degree days are limited. I drink too little of water & have too thick of wavy/curly hair to enjoy the weather that is overly hot & humid summer days.

by the numbers, vol. II {first anniversary edition}

Top picture: cropped, Photography by the Robertsons; Bottom Row: some of our paper anniversary gifts 

{roof over our heads}

the travel time (in hours) between where we were married & where we live now: 13

the number of places we've called home in 12 months: 2

the number of times our GPS had no idea where our first place was: everytime

^^the pains of living in a newly developed land^^

the number of miles separating those two places: 45

the number of square feet we lost in the move: 90

the number of ways the second place is still better than the first: probably 73

^^other than the lack of bunnies on our runs now^^

the number of times we've said we never want to move from Old Town: 265

the first time we both knew we were deeply in love with our city: last night

{adventures}

the number of trip adventures we've had near & far: 15

the number of trips we're planning/going on soon: 4 {Gettysburg, Columbus, OH, Seagrove Beach, & Boston}

the number of pups we almost adopted: 3

the number of pups we've actually owned: 2 {sweet Riley & spunky Scout}

the number of pups we have now: 0

the amount of puppy fever we fight because we know it's not the right time for us yet: a lot

the number of times a week we miss our spunky Scout {& gentle Riley, too}: at least 3

the current puppy breeds we're swooning over: 5 {GSP, Westie, Beagle, Vizsla, & Lab}  

the number of times we've talked about running a half marathon in our relationship: 7

the only times we were really serious about it: the first & seventh

the number of runs we've gone on in the past 9 days: 7 {we're making progress now that it's spring} 

the number of planned runs we have once we can run 5+ miles: 4

{facts of the past year}

the number of months between the first time I tried to make spaghetti & the second: 6

the number of months we went without pictures in our picture frames: 10

the number of churches we've visited or will visit soon trying to find our home: 9

^^but I think we're getting close, thankfully!^^

the number of times Kat has seen Monarch the Mouse in the dead of night: 4

 the number of times husmate has: 0

the number of times Kat has had to look up specialty stain solutions for husmate's shirts: 8

the number of times husmate has taken over the entire bed & couldn't be moved: at least 20

the number of times we've dropped the resident charade & resembled tourists when sirens are heard/dark vehicles go by/streets are closed off: everytime

the number of things Kat would never had admitted to trying & liking if husmate didn't test it first: 14 {I'm finally growing up parents!}

the number of times we belted out lines from "We are the Champions" yesterday: 5

the number of years we've been married: 1 & a day :)

here we go, round two!

a postcard from paris

Perhaps it's because we're almost two weeks away from passing our first milestone as a married couple {woohoo one year anniversary!}, but I couldn't help but think back to the way our little relationship started. 

See back in the day, husmate & I would hang out with a ginormous group of friends over at a lovely place called the Purple House on a regular basis. This group of friends was so large that it would take over the living room {sofa, loveseats, floor, stools, etc.} and it was pretty hard to actually know everyone really well {to the point that husmate & I pretty much knew each other's names}. In this group, husmate was sort of in the inner circle and I, being a semi-newbie, pretty much existed on the fringe {hello Peanut Gallery co-member, Kelsey!}. So yeah, basically he was the cool nice guy & I was the sassy & sarcastic know-it-all.

But as coincidence would have it, one day {about this time three years ago} the Peanut Gallery got to be too much to handle for everyone else {picture us as a funnier version of the old men commentators on the Muppets except that we laughed... A LOT}, and Kelsey & I were told we had to separate ourselves. Sad face emoticon. But that coincidence forced me to sit next to {you guessed it} the cool nice guy. 

So the cool nice guy, being nice {duh, it's in his personality}, leaned over & tried to start a conversation so that me & my blushing cheeks would stop being so ridiculously red {I get embarrassed easily folks- one of the things that husmate loves to this day}. He really was very sweet, and somehow it came up that he was traveling to Paris that summer. Well, lo and behold, that is a subject in which my nerd status comes out. Come to find out, this kid was going with no clue of ANYTHING about Paris: history, museums, churches, Versailles, anything. So I took it upon myself to help him out a little {because holy croissant he was going in blind!} & proposed that I would create him an itinerary of sorts to help him & his friend out on their journey. 

That little itinerary turned into eight pages single-spaced of nerd adoration of Paris & everything that this envious know-it-all had ever dreamed of seeing there. eight pages, you guys. You can bet that those cheeks were on Super Blush Mode when I sent it to him, too- SO EMBARRASSED. But because he was the cool nice guy, he didn't make fun of me in a mean way, but was instead appreciative & amused that I would take so much effort on something for a guy I barely knew. I, myself, was equally amused with this behavior & thought that was that.

Except it wasn't. And when he sent me a postcard from Paris that summer {in French, mind you}, I got a few butterflies. So I guess my nerd moment had its consequences {just like his did when he recited pi that day}. 

I did marry him after all. 

a very happy birthday to one of the best of friends

To the loud girl two doors down in Griffis Hall,

Thank you for being the first friend I made at college. Despite our terrible first impressions of each other {you the loud & annoying girl on the hall, me the shy & snobby bookworm}, we still managed to form an incredible friendship that I am blessed by everyday. Thanks to you, I actually developed a love for Mississippi State that finally put to rest my childhood adoration of Auburn {that first picture was from freshman year, give me credit...}, learned the proper way to perform a pageant walk/turn on stage {at 3 am in the dorm hall, making us both the loud girls on the second floor of Griffis}, found a friend who would side on the greatness of Harry Potter over Twilight any day, interviewed for one of the greatest groups I have ever been a part of- Alumni Delegates, created the best wake-up alarm game ever: peekaboo! - the many faces that could haunt the first few seconds of your day {as well as the many adventures we had on that dying inflatable twin-sized mattress}, discovered that there's more to college than good grades & studying even though we spent the majority of our college life in Mitchell Memorial Library, survived Dr. Mead's Organic Chem I & II classes relatively unscathed, realized that medical school was never meant for either one of us, & came out of my shy shell to become who I am today. Even in college I knew that our friendship was going to be one of the great ones because we never considered each other our competition in class but rather our cheerleader in life. I am so thankful for you, and even though we're separated by 985 miles {I looked it up, some bookworm habits never die}, I still feel like if we both walked into Mitchell Memorial right now we could pick up where we left off & procrastinate on our studying by talking for hours :)

happy birthday, sweet Sarah! you, my friend, are one of the greats of my life.


love,
the shy bookworm hiding behind her desk, waiting for you to barge in & ask your question about our class assignment

ode to the muggliest of muggles

It's sad, sad day indeed for HP fans. The actor portraying the uncle we all loved to hate has passed away. Richard Griffiths played Vernon Dursley to a T. So perfect, so horribly mean. And so in memory of his passing, let's recap a few of the best Uncle Vernon moments.

+ Uncle Vernon being so hell-bent on Harry not receiving his Hogwarts acceptance letter that he gets a little crazy toting the family all over England trying to lose their trail so the owls can't find them. Eventually ends up in the middle of nowhere (seriously) & is miffed when Hagrid still shows up with an envelope addressed to a Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. & who can forget when Hagrid gave Dudley a pig tail when Uncle Vernon called Dumbledore a "crackpot old fool" who would teach Harry magic tricks? Such a gleeful moment.

+ The time that Harry neglected to tell the Dursleys that he couldn't do magic outside of school & Dobby dropped a giant pudding on Vernon's prospective big fish-client's wife.... resulting in a reprimand via owl. Uncle Vernon was none too pleased about that & locked Harry up (bars on the windows & everything) for what would have been life had it not been for the Weasley boys and their flying car. Oh, and Vernon & the gang tried to pull Harry back through the window & failed {The look on their faces must have been priceless...}.

+ Harry's somewhat accidental, somewhat totally intentional balloon blow-up of Vernon's sister Marge after she insulted the heck out of Harry's parents {quite a temper that one}. Such a satisfying scene...

+ When Uncle Vernon was sent a letter saying he was nominated for maintaining a perfect lawn... except it was a fake & a cover for Harry to be picked up by the Order. Bet Uncle V wasn't a happy camper on the way home...

+ When Dumbledore's surprise visit to the Dursleys started with this exchange:

"I don't mean to be rude --" Uncle Vernon began, in a tone that threatened rudeness in every syllable.

"-- yet, sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often," Dumbledore finished the sentence gravely. "Best to say nothing at all, my dear man."

- HP & the Half Blood Prince

+ And as a parting note, when the Dursleys are going into hiding {from Voldemort}, Harry & Uncle Vernon exchange a particularly touching goodbye:

"Perhaps we should wait outside in the hall, Dedalus," murmured Hestia. She clearly felt that it would be tactless for them to remain in the room while Harry and the Dursleys exchanged loving, possibly tearful farewells.

"There's no need," Harry muttered, but Uncle Vernon made any further explanation unnecessary by saying loudly,

"Well, this is good-bye then, boy."

He swung his right arm upward to shake Harry's hand, but at the last moment seemed unable to face it, and merely closed his fist and began swinging it backward and forward like a metronome."

-HP & the Deathly Hallows

Farewell our muggle friend. Thank you for all your comedic wit, & allowing us HP fans to love you by hating your character. 

remember the time... {vol. III}

{lately}

+ Husmate & I have formed a new couple crush on our newlywed friends, Emily & Josh. To the extent that my early-to-bed-early-to-rise husband couldn't tear himself away from a weekday game night of Monopoly with those two that almost lasted until midnight. And for the record, Emily may seem friendly and polite but she's ruthless when it comes to her ownership of Boardwalk & Park Place {& the three or four houses she built there, bankrupting us all}.

+ Many thanks to the trail for introducing another animal that I had to stop & stare at while on a run {while all the fast people passed me & wondered what that crazy girl was up to}. Meet our newest neighbors: the muskrats, who sadly are not river otters, like I had hoped they would be. {muskrats, you otter be otters if you want more friends...} Also, I am officially not the slowest person running the trail these days. Three cheers to me for passing at least a few others {while the rest continue to sprint past in their beast modes}... 

Picture cred to wikipedia, the ever trustworthy source

+ The wriggly, shadowy creature that resides in our apartment has been spotted again. Again he was spotted by me, and again husmate didn't see him the next morning anywhere. But I stand by what I saw, and I am not making it up. I have now resorted to calling him Lizard and trying to coax him out at night before husmate goes to sleep {Yeah, now you know I'm occasionally weird}.

{auld lang syne}

+ Husmate & I got married 11 months ago today. Where did the time go? 

the cameron: a ghost of a dream

For about two hours yesterday, husmate and I were living in a beautiful dream of home ownership. 

It was a blissful dream full of mortgage payments and manageable HOA fees. A brand new condominium that would have been all ours. Never before lived in {heck, not even built yet}. Five blocks from the metro station. A newborn residence project right in the heart of the booming Old Town North. We would even be able to decide a few of the details. Some were standard, like hardwood floors, marble countertops, & spacious closet space. And you know, a heart can soar or break over the size of closet space in big city dwelling {I kid you not, my southern friends}. This apartment would have even met the ever-elusive LEED standards. A dream, I tell you, a fantastic dream!

But then we awoke from this dream, just like we tend to do. Slowly, like the grains of sand trickling from an hourglass, the tiny flashes of details vanished {like furniture arrangements & paint colors}, and eventually all we were left with was the ghost of a floor plan. 

The time isn't right for us to own a place yet. But one day... Until then I'll just live in my imagination and consider adding an addendum to the section in Ecclesiastes about time:

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

{a time to buy and a time to rent}

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Upon reflection, buy vs. rent is probably a bit worldly for such a meaningful section, but I think it goes a step further on the whole "search and give up" bit. Regardless, it is not time. But I know that the Lord's plan will reveal itself to us when it is time, and what a sweet time that will be.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;

yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I know that there is nothing better for men

than to be happy and do good while they live.

That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--

this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:11-13

*for reference, a 650-750 square-foot apartment around here goes for the same cost as a two-story brick house in our home states. I kid you not. 

& in case you missed last week:

remember the time...

late night ramblings: a society too big for its britches

note to self 

recipe for the BEST chocolate chip cookies

remember the time... {vol. II}

{lately}

+ After deciding I wanted to buy a hula hoop (yes, you read that correctly), we drove to the store and searched all over; the only ones we could find had a super cool feature of lighting up... I'm so mature. The looks we got as we tested out what size hula hoop was appropriate was the highlight of my day, as well as the inevitable giggling that I couldn't stifle. Don't forget the embarrassment we attempted to avoid when one of our neighbors was outside upon our arrival home and we left the glittery turquoise hula hoop in the car... "by accident."

+ After seeing all the running warriors around us in Alexandria conquering the freezing cold, we worked up the courage to go together one afternoon. We were very convincing up until the wind became so brutal on our warm down that we promptly turned around and cut our walk short by a mile or more... Our southern blood has ruined us. 

+ Before leaving for work one morning, husmate kissed me goodbye on my forehead while I was asleep and apparently I kissed the air in reaction. Smoooch! And then giggled when he laughed at me. And was asleep the whole time. Deep sleeper over here, guys.

+ For two months, we both thought that the spare set of keys to my car (aka husmate's set) was lost forever and that he had misplaced them/fell out of his pocket on a walk to Old Town... And then they reappeared one morning... in the pocket of one of wifey's peacoats. Whoops, my bad. Sorry husmate for giving you the blame! You can have full key privileges again #wifeyfail

+ I saw a shadowy creature scurry around our apartment late one night, and I woke up a groggy husmate to search under the refrigerator/oven/couch/desk for it. He's such a sport, even though I think he thinks I'm crazy considering he never found the speedy 4" monster... And he wasn't even fully awake in his search & destroy mission.

{auld lang syne}

+ We both verbally agreed to sign up for a half marathon together during our dating days, annnnnndddd wifey dropped the ball and missed the deadline (after husmate reminded wifey 7 x 70 times to sign up). Husmate was left to suffer through a half marathon solo (& underprepared, also due to wifey's fault ;) ). Well the time has come that due to marriage & not being allowed to squirm out of it, we will both be signing up for one again this year. Now just to decide on which one to run?

+ The day after we got engaged in DC, the weather was so. dang. windy. that when we walked to revisit our bench we had to lean into the wind just so we could keep moving forward {for once, I'm not exaggerating because that was the day the National Christmas tree fell over}. Lately the wind around here has been pretty sassy, but so far no fallen trees (of course, there's no replacement Christmas tree currently to fight the bully of the breeze either).

& in case you missed last week:

be still

letters of the nonsensical variety

remember the time... {vol. I}

{lately}

+ Saturday midday rolls around, and it occurs to husmate & I that we don't know where his apartment keys are. We check his jeans, jacket, & and the bowl that sits on our dresser holding all his miscellaneous stuff... which turns up nothing. On a whim I tell him to check our door... wellwouldn'tyaknowit? FYI, we haven't used that door since 5 pm the previous day... Glad we have such trustworthy neighbors. Oh, and that we're brilliant and on top of things 24/7.

+ While mindlessly perusing IKEA and all its Swedish cleverness, I look over & catch husmate setting all the kitchen timers to go off in ten minutes time. We're talking at least 15-20 of those annoyingly high pitched things. I. am. mortified. I stomp off as fast as I can in any direction away from the ticking time bombs as to distance myself from any ensuing embarrassment. Meanwhile, husmate creates a stake-out one section over so as to witness the cacophony of sounds and the innocent victims who will undoubtably be confused by all the commotion. I married a forever 9 year old. I am convinced of it.

+ We went from having one Victorian chair & a coffee table in our den to adding a big ole comfy couch, a reading chair, & a side table in the course of a day. And we hung pictures?! It's as if we finally moved in two months later.

{auld lang syne}

+ So in order to move to Alexandria, husmate & I puffed out our chests & decided to move ourselves in a u-haul. We are adults, hear us roar. So everything's going great, and we're in the process of moving our old couch onto the truck. After walking backwards up the u-haul ramp, husmate is trying to be all Superman-like by opening the door while maintaining his hold on the couch. Andddddd he falls off the ramp. It is both slightly frightening & hilarious at the same time, but I am proud to say I was concerned for his safety wayyyy before I started laughing. The best part? The couch ripped his jeans from his belt loop all the way to his knee, and the rest of his pants had already been packed.

+ It was something of a joke back then, but I think husmate's friend, Dr. Nic, might have been right: Nic said that I would fall in love with husmate due to the fact that he could recite pi to the 50th decimal place. Said it had something to do with my nerdy behavior (Cue my inevitable blushing cheeks). But I did later that year. Hook, line, and sinker, and I suppose it might have stemmed from that little comment.

a rock, a hard place, & a broken heart

In short, this is a bittersweet post. Let me preface what I'm about to tell you by saying that I never in a million years thought that what has happened is something I would ever do. Which has led me to know that I have always judged people in the past for doing so, but the question remains which is the lesser of two evils?

After a tremendously hard week and a lot of tears shed (we're talking break-up tears here, people), we came to the conclusion that Scout would never be fully happy with us as her parents. Our beautiful and rambunctious Scout was the alpha of her litter in an alpha-type breed, and it became hard to ignore that we were never going to be able to give her the adequate amount of exercise to ever satisfy her needs. That puppy is quite the titan and can already handle several miles of walking at 8 weeks and still have plenty of energy to go on more. The honest truth is that it wasn't going to be fair to her to live in a 650 square foot apartment and never have the opportunity of having the life she deserved: running rampant on lots of land and investigating to her heart's desire all that nature has to offer. 

To set the story straight, we would never do something that would be a disservice to Scout. Even though she was only here for a week, she's left quite a void in our hearts. But she has now happily returned to her mama and the rest of her littermates, and I pray that she finds a loving home that will give her everything she needs.

In the short time she was here, she left us with plenty of funny and sweet memories:

+ her adorable bouncing and bumbling puppy run to jump in a giant pile of leaves

+ her incredible intelligence in learning the commands of sit, stand, off, take it, and here all in the course of 10 minutes (seriously), as well as knowing her name, Scout, almost from the start

+ her sweet puppy stretches after waking up from a nap and that anteater length tongue that came out in her yawns

+ her relentless confidence in meeting any and every person or dog she came across, including a ferocious German Shepherd puppy and a very large pitt mix dog. She never got scared even though she was pawed and barked at pretty hard (if I were her that little bob of a tail would have tucked between my legs and I would have scampered off). And when I say every person, I mean every person. In the course of 9 days, she met almost 40 people 

+ the way she ran around the apartment investigating while chewing her rawhide bone (quite the multitasker, that one)

+ her tendency to sit patiently at your feet (for a few seconds, mind you) and stare up at you as if she were waiting for the next item of business
+ her consistent and obvious distaste for my Uggs, which apparently are hated more by dogs than by humans (I didn't think that was possible). I'm guessing she thought my feet were part sheep.
+ every. single. time. we came back from being outside she would stop climbing the stairs midway to look at herself in the hallway mirror. She knew she was cute. This would usually cause husmate and I to hum "You're so vain..." while she stared at herself for a few seconds
+ one night at 3 am, husmate took Scout out to go potty. He got locked out of the building... without a phone. Together they walked in the 20 degree weather to a hotel a quarter mile away to call me. Let's just say both husmate and Scout were shivering with cold from that botched mission. And did I mention Scout hated cold weather since her fur is so thin? Yeah... The little diva was NOT a happy camper when she got back inside.

As for us, I think it's safe to say that it's not in the cards for us to have a dog right now. One day in our future we'll have the ability to love and care for some little (or not so little) ball of fur, but not today. 

Scout, we love and miss you. We hope you have a long and happy life and become the great dog we know you will be.