It's been about a month and I realize that while we don't have huge events to immortalize, there have been plenty of little things happening around here:
In October, Topher finished up his first soccer season. The hornets finished strong with a 5-1 season (although technically you aren't supposed to keep score. Shhhh.)
It was an up-and-down season for Topher. He actually made three goals this year, although I would say they were right-time-right-place scores. He had some trouble with the noise since they played indoors, so his earplugs were a constant. But overall he did great, and he's excited to try soccer again next year as well as basketball.
Turning five means another cleaning at the dentist. He does so great there, and I love how relaxed he is in this picture. It helps that the TV above him is on the Disney channel. They keep trying to take bite wings but his mouth is still too little. Once again the dentist reported no "sugar bugs" and all is well.
We still miss Sassy. I mean, obviously we will always miss Sassy. Sometimes I still can't stand that she isn't here. But we realize that our family doesn't feel right without a dog, so we have been searching, and researching, and discussing, and debating. We would love to rescue a dog from a shelter, and we did try, in fact, to do just that. For a couple days this little face went everywhere with me:
She really was a perfect little dog. She was quiet and cuddly, house-trained and crate-trained, great in the car and fun to have around.
Until she tried to kill our cat.
It was a total Jekyll and Hyde situation. She was perfect, perfect, perfect, then ATTACK THE CAT. Squash was traumatized, nothing we did seemed to ease the CHASE AND KILL instinct, and with some regret but mostly relief we took her back to her foster family.
And that's when we decided that maybe a puppy would be a better solution for our family. After Sassy's "puppyhood" we vowed never to have a puppy again (and she wasn't even that bad!) But looking back we wonder now if the reason we loved her so, the reason we were so bonded to her, was that we had been with her since the beginning.
So we went to the library and hauled home several dog breed books. We looked at big dogs, small dogs, shaggy dogs, beefy dogs, frail dogs, yippy dogs, serious dogs, silly dogs, and everything in between.
And in the end it was Topher who planted his digit on the page and said, "This is the dog I want."
His finger was jammed against a picture of a Boston Terrier.
And the more research we do, the happier we are with his choice. It's smallish, needs no grooming, happy, fun, friendly, cute, clownish, snuffly, smart, generally healthy, and lives a long life.
So now we are on the hunt for our very own Boston. A new family member to love almost (but never quite) as much as we loved Sassy. We are hopeful that there will be a December litter within driving distance so that we can bring home a Christmas puppy. So very 'Lady & the Tramp' of us, I know.
I am staying busy with the young women at church, TJ has come upon a busier time at work, and we are hopefully going to buy a second-hand treadmill from one of his co-workers so we can stay in shape over the long, long winter.
Topher is having a great year at Preschool and he is excited about the approaching winter (I am more excited myself now that TJ climbed up on the roof to clean the chimney and we have a pile of wood in the garage ready to burn in the fireplace. Mmmmm.)
And that's about it for the Clark household.
Hope everyone is doing well and getting excited about the holidays!
Love,
KC
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