Christmas, Part Two: The Dog

Hey, people everywhere! Christmas has certainly struck, hasn't it? Well, everywhere except here. Still no sign of snow (though all signs at my house point to allergies- hooray). But who cares? This has been one of the best weeks I've had in a long time. I spent most of today making snowflakes out of coffee filters, which are now hanging on my bedroom ceiling- if the weather won't appease my wishes, at least I can make it snow inside. :)

Oh yeah, and.... I HAVE A NEW DOG!!

We found him at the animal shelter this weekend when we dropped off some donations. He's a shaggy little mutt, but so cute. He's part terrior, part Shih Tzu, has a nasty ear infection that we've been treating, and is blind in one eye. But who cares? He's MINE, even if he has to crash at my Grandma's next weekend when we visit Mom's family in Arkansas.

We named him Bulka- Mom picked it. Originally, I wanted to name him Shaggy, or Rags, or something lame like that. But we decided on Bulka, which is the name of a toy dog in a play my sister's going to be in called The Velveteen Rabbit. I doubt it will be much like the book, since in there they don't have names. My sister's best friend is playing Bulka, who is excitable and prone to fainting- the character, not the friend. My sister will be playing a wind-up toy mouse, creatively named: Mouse. Hooray.

Having a new dog is kind of hard, however cute and sweet and wonderful he is- although that makes up for it. I have to take him on a walk every day, but it's harder with two dogs at once, because the get tangled up and try to race each other and stuff. Oh, and then there's my other dog, Mocha, the one I've had since middle school. She's feeling a little betrayed at the moment.

See, Mocha is a great dog. She absolutely adores people of all kinds. But she's terrified of most animals- particularly of her own species. Every time we watch a relative's when they go out of town, it's always an adjustment for her, and she usually spends the whole time in my closet or behind the couch.

Now, that's all well and good, but this is different. Bulka is a permanent guest, and he's sleeping in Mocha's usual hide-out: My Room. So, when she found out she had no safe house, she wilted. I put her on the couch before turning to the bathroom to assist my father in scrubbing Bulka clean. Her eyes watched me soulfully as if to say, "Et tu, Brute?"

Ah, well. At least she has Dad.

Bulka, I have discovered, has excellent taste in literature. We're working on A Christmas Carol in honor of the season, and then we're going to start him on the Bunnicula series. Incidentally, I tried him out on passages from different books. I get the vibe that he likes Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's stuff best. He likes Dickens too, but the Tolstoy made him sleepy. He sneezed politely for Tolkien. I haven't tried him on anything else, though. I was thinking Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan. Who knows? Maybe we'll even be brave and break out Le Morte D'Arthur.

So, that's my Christmas thus far. Much Much More on Sunday when we get back from Christmas in Arkansas- Stay tuned, boys and girls!

~Sarah

                                          This is Bulka! Cute, right?