Spring day in January...

... and that is perfectly fine with me. Today was a glorious day, warm and sunny, and just so very nice. Went for a walk this afternoon with three friends on the road here... and it may as well have been an April afternoon. The weather wizards are promising another blast of cold air for tomorrow night, though... but we won't think about that just yet. (Says Scarlet.)

As I type, our cat Sweet Pea is on my lap, resting his head on my left arm. Ever since I moved my laptop from the second floor sitting room to the first floor breakfast room, I have yet to sit here by myself and type. As soon as I sit in this chair, Sweet Pea comes running from wherever he is and jumps on my lap. He is enthralled by the computer screen... especially when I look through pictures on Pinterest. Sweet Pea is also enthralled by just about anyone's lap... he is a cuddling-up cat if ever there was one, and has been since the day we found him. Truly a Romeo of  a cat.

Last night, my husband happened upon a little dog on one of the rescue sites he looks at from time to time. The two-yr-old dog is a Tibetan Spaniel mix... as cute as can be, of course... and after reading the history of that particular breed of dog, we were both interested and intrigued. Centuries ago, pure-bred Tibetan Spaniels were raised by Buddhist monks-- not for profit, though... the monks gave away the puppies as 'gifts of treasure' to people they held in high esteem. These dogs were raised to be lap-dogs, very friendly and smart, easy to train, and surely easy to spoil.

I had just recently finished reading "The Dalai Lama's Cat" -- a wonderful book that I suggested my husband read as well, being that he has done a lot of reading on Buddhist traditions and lifestyles. We both looked at the pictures and the video posted on the web-site about this particular dog that is up for adoption, and we agreed that we could give that little spaniel a good home. And then I quickly went downstairs to get my laptop from the breakfast room, brought it upstairs to the bedroom, and I was sitting there reading everything about the breed, and searching for every picture I could possibly find.

So there we were... my husband in his office reading about that rescue site, and I was in the bedroom reading about Tibetan Spaniels and telling my husband all the most important points about the breed.

"It's a sign! It's a sign!".... I called out to my husband.
"And what sign is that?".... he wanted to know.
"The 'sign' is that you're reading a book about the Dalai Lama's cat and you find a Tibetan Spaniel dog that needs a forever home."
"That's not exactly a sign," he said.

Ten minutes later, my husband calls out to me from his office:  "Do you know what we could name that little dog?  Doggie Lama! "

My husband sent an eMail to the rescue organization last night.... told them we were interested in getting more information about that particular dog, and gave them our phone number. As I type, it's just after 7:30 in the evening... no one has called us back.  My husband has decided that he would wait another hour, and then get in touch with the woman who has been fostering that little dog.

I've been searching for pictures of Tibetan Spaniel-mix puppies and dogs, and posting them to my Pinterest page. All of them, whether pure-bred or mixed, are just so darn cute.

This afternoon just after lunch-time, I got a text message from our young friend Miss C......... "There are sure a lot of puppy pics on your Pinterest page.... what's going on up there!?"

I called C back, told her about the little dog, and eMailed the link with the dog's photo and video. She was so excited that I could hear her jumping up and down over the phone.  I also told C not to get too excited just yet.... we're just in the 'talking stage' about this little dog.

Sure is a cute little dog..... and I don't think I'd really want to name her "Doggie Lama," as my husband suggested. She would need a cute little girl's name.... something to fit her personality. But we'll get to the naming bridge when it's time.