Kooky karma, for sure.

When T and I met, we each had a golden mutt, Jack (his) and Douce(mine).

In December 01, Jack's back legs had gone entirely and he was a shell of his former self so with great sadness, we had to put him down. Then, last September, Douce was also in terrible physical pain and would just glower (or whimper) at us which we interpreted as just get me the fuck out of this place already. So we did. And, as much as we wanted to get a new puppy, we both now worked the corporate grind and felt it wasn't fair to bring home a new puppy and leave it alone all day.

Then, on the first of November, our company had a lay-off due to the unspeakable incompetence of the senior staff who had driven the once very profitable organization into the ground (So what else do you do but cut all the good people to keep on the idiots?) T got hit. It was horrible, horrible, horrible and I was gutted. But once the first wave of shock wore off, I came home one day and said, well, the bad news is, you don't have a job but the good news is, now you can have a puppy!

I had been scanning at petfinder.com and had found a sweet little lab mutt. The pup (and his sister) had been rescued from a crack house in Toledo, OH (who knew they had crack in Ohio?--my illusions about mid-western purity have been shattered). Anyway, we got him on a plane to us and picked him up the second week of December. He had no name so we named him Oliver for the best friend of T's who drowned when he was 12. Ollie was very shy the first night we got him home.

But pretty soon, he started feeling right at home.

By then, I was hooked on petfinder.com and had found another yellow lab mutt (this time on the NH seacoast) and decided we had to have him. Henry already had his name so we kept it.

Though we didn't realize it at first, Henry had been badly abused. He wouldn't cuddle or snuggle (if I held him on my lap waves of shudders and panic rolled over his little body--adrenalin coursing through him). He adored Ollie and would only go to Ollie who was a wonderful big brother and gave Henry lots of love and security. (Note the protective arm over the shoulder).

Now, Henry is a thriving, happy puppy who loves to cuddle and play. Today, our best estimate for ages are 6 months for Ollie and 4 months for Henry. We don't know how big they're gonna get. But we're loving every minute of it. And, it turns out getting puppies is a great salve for the wounds of a corporate layoff--- T has gone back into freelance work and has a full client portfolio. Gets to call his own hours AND have puppies. Life does work out. Who knew?

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