The only REAL animal in this zoo

It occurs to me that I have never written about our beloved Doggie.
(She told me she's feeling neglected.)
She's a cute and cuddly beast.
My father-in-law calls her "Killer." HA.
She's anything but.

And, I know... it seems like a really boring dog name.
Well, here's the history:

I clearly remember driving down the 101 freeway with Bill back in 2001 when we first starting dating, probably listening to the local R&B station when the following exchange occurred:

J: If we ever have a dog, we should name it after a rap star, just to mix things up.

B: Yeah, like "Notorious D.O.G." We could call it "Doggie Smalls" for short.

J: And then our next dog could be Tupac, or Snoop.

So, the backstory comes to light-- Doggie is actually "Notorious D.O.G.", but only about 11% of the circle of our friends and family even get it. Which makes it even funnier to us. We're just weird like that, I guess.


This is her tough gangsta look that says "What you lookin' at, fo?"

Doggie loves to run. And since we live in southern California (i.e. NO BACKYARD), she sometimes gets creative about making room to run. She is pretty much a master escape artist. She has made her way through our wooden fence (granted, it's pretty rotten at the base) too many times to count. And I have become acquainted with FAR TOO MANY neighbors upon receiving the "Um, I think I have your dog..." phone call at various hours of the day.

running at the dog park

Alas, we have now resorted to keeping her on a leash in the backyard. I know, cruel and unusual punishment. It's a long leash. Which you would think would make it better, but in actuality, it just allows her to get wrapped around every shrub, bush, tree, patio cover post, etc. that exists in the backyard.

She chases and/or barks at every animal that traipses through the backyard. And we have A LOT of squirrels. Entire extended families of squirrels.

So this morning, I let her out for her daily morning jaunt. Things got crazy with feeding children, changing diapers, etc.-- typical life stuff-- and I kind of forgot about her in the backyard. No biggie. She's on a leash, right?

I hear this yelping/barking that is typical of Doggie when she's discovered some sort of animal intruder (i.e. squirrel). Very high pitched, super annoying. I was caught of up doing other things and kind of tunned it out. After about ten minutes, I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

She had gotten herself all tangled up around a tree (shocking!) and was positioned right between two sprinklers, which had been pelting her from both sides. She was soaking wet, cold, MUDDY, and stuck. Poor thing. But kind of funny. :)

She wanted nothing more than to bolt into the house and shake. Not on your life, kid.
I untangled her and banished her to the sunny patio until she dried.

She seems no worse for the wear. And I think this was the easiest bath I've ever given her.