Care and Meadow

Katie and I were reading a book this evening when Meadow's dog sitter called. We've sent Meadow to Lori's house for every vacation possible over the past 4 years (especially since Oct '04 when our neighbor Judy moved). Turns out that Lori is having surgery and has to cancel our upcoming reservation. Oh no! I'm so sorry that Lori needs surgery and I would that it's serious because I think she would have said if it weren't. And she's such a great dog sitter, I can't imagine that she would cancel unless she absolutely had to. But it makes me realize just how dependent we are on this one woman to care for our much loved canine child. Lori lives in the suburbs, and sending Meadow there was sending her on a "real" vacation. She plays with Lori's dog Krissy and runs around in her fenced-in backyard. I like to think that the time she spends may somewhat make up for the urban part of Urban Meadow; she gets a real suburban dog's life, complete with occasional ticks (which we don't mind because we know it comes with the territory). Although don't get me wrong, I am a big proponent of urban dog life, it's just that the urban dogs with the toddler siblings that get a little "rewed" as Meadow would say. Meadow had it great before Katie was born and her pal Kobi still has it great - he has older siblings.

But where do you find care for your dog with little notice for a busy time?

Not only did this remind me on our reliance on Lori, but it also reminded me that if it's not one child, it's the other...

We have somewhat narrow parameters for dog care. We want her in a home, because that's what she's used to. And, since we don't live in a house, this means the dogsitter has to board in their house. This is more rare than you'd think in the suburbs. I know a few people in the city who take dogs in, but we really want her to have the suburban "advantages" as long as she's away. Anyway, after a few phone calls, Meadow has an "interview" tomorrow with a woman in NJ. I'm not getting my hopes up because the woman says she's psychic and it sounds like she has cats (Meadow hasn't ever really been around cats), but we'll see.

The photo is Meadow at about 3-months-old. This was 2 months before we got our digital camera so we don't have too many photos from those days to post. She was pretty cute.