A Reunion of Pastries

In February, I posted an article called “Life with Luna” on the website for the TAILS Humane Society where I adopted my dog. I was trying to track down the whereabouts of her siblings: Fritter, Crumpet, and Waffle. Yes, all breakfast foods, including our Crepe, which my husband and I renamed Luna.

I was excited to hear back from Lane, the TAILS PR committee chairperson. She found the story interesting enough to help me by contacting the other dogs’ families and letting them know of my search.

A couple days later, I received an email from a family who had adopted Waffle. Soon we were exchanging pictures of our dogs, including a great one of Waffle (now Piper Mae) in her ballerina tutu for Halloween.

Piper

Next we got word from the adopter of Crumpet, who was renamed Grommet. He was also doing well, give or take a chewed cell phone or shoe.

After learning about their new lives, I decided to organize a Pastry Reunion. I invited the other two families for a dog playdate. While the plans were being set, another family contacted me, telling me they saw my TAILS article and had adopted Croissant (now Peanut) from a PetSmart store. I didn’t even know there was a Croissant! She quickly got an invitation to the reunion.

I emailed TAILS asking how many were in the litter—obviously not the four I had originally thought. It turns out there were seven “baked goods” altogether: Fritter, Crumpet, Waffle, Crepe, Croissant, Muffin, and Pancake.

Although the reunion was only one day away at that point, I asked Lane if she could call the families of Pancake and Muffin and pass on my information. Within hours, Muffin’s mom called me. She would bring over Sadie (formerly Muffin) the following day for the party.

The next morning, Luna, my husband and I impatiently awaited the arrival of Luna’s sisters (Grommet couldn’t make it), setting up—what else—but pastries for the humans and bakery-style dog biscuits for the four-legged gals.

And what a party it was! The girls got along wonderfully with one another—chasing each other around for hours while us humans caught up on similarities and differences of the litter. It was wonderful to find out what each dog was up to and to see that they all went to good homes. More than one of us had thought about going back to TAILS and adopting a second one from the litter but found out they had all already been adopted.



After our reunion, Muffin/Sadie’s family said they were interested in a second reunion, possibly for the dogs’ June birthday (hopefully the “guys” can make, it too), and Croissant/Peanut’s family has set up a website to share photos of the reunion and home life.

Now if we can only track down Pancake and Fritter, our entourage of pastries would be complete…

A special thanks to Lane at the DeKalb TAILS Human Society for helping track down the families. You can learn more about TAILS at http://www.tailshumanesociety.org/.

Luna after the party

Through the Eyes of a Dog

Casualties of Luna

As I prepare my dinner, Luna, as usual, looks on eagerly. As I'd like to think she's watching intently to be able to some day surprise me by making my chicken casserole recipe from memory, there is a chance she's hoping I drop scraps that she can snarf up. Today, she was extra fascinated with what I was throwing away in the garbage can. As I tossed a bit of enchilada away, she ran over to try to peek inside. Same with the leftover pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving. That made me think--what does she think the garbage can is for? I doubt she knows it's a bin for refuse. The following is an account of what I believe are Luna's definitions for items in my house:

Kitchen garbage can: a large serving bowl filled with a mixture of lots of tasty morsels, all mixed together. A melting pot, if you will of the day's meals. A little hard to reach the food, but in a year or so, it shouldn't be a problem.

Wooden furniture: today I learned that wood makes a great between-meal snack. After getting a nice chunk off a table, something called Bitter Apple was sprayed on it, which ended up not tasting so bad.

The words "Luna, come in the house!": this is usually said with lots of enthusiasm. I have no idea what it means, but the more I run around, the more my owners shout it out, so it must mean I'm doing something good.

Grass: An outdoor treat. I'm very good at pulling it up from the roots.

Ladybugs: Great to watch, terrific to eat.

Stuffed toys: Cotton stuffing wrapped in a tough outer coating. I have gotten good at getting to the goods inside. I'm down to ripping them open within 5 minutes.

My Newest Office Mate

Presenting Luna Miel--my on-task manager.

My husband and I adopted Luna from a DeKalb shelter after seeing her picture on petfinder.com. Having a puppy in the house is like having a newborn baby. My life schedule was put on hold as I needed to be sure I was home to take Luna out every three hours and was pulled every which way as she chased any squirrel we saw on our "walk."

Luna has been a lot of fun, though. She loves to run and hop around the yard, crawl all over us, and play with her toys. She doesn't care if I wear sweatpants all day, "forget" to put on my makeup, or decide to sit at my computer eating a whole bag of candy corn.

But Luna still needs to be watched any time she's out of her kennel, which is how she got assigned the role as my on-task office manager. Often she choses to fall asleep right by my feet as I'm writing. At first this was annoying; if I got up to eat or procrastinate, she would follow me. I was forced to sit there and work if I wanted her to stay asleep and out of trouble. That's when I realized I was actually getting writing done. Regardless to whether I wanted to get up and abandon my computer, it was easier just to sit there and type.

So, two months later, I have a completed novel--a novel that had been stuck in a drawer for a couple of months before I got her. I have no choice than to thank my silly four-legged friend. So, writer friends: are you having trouble sitting down and writing? Adopt a puppy! :)

For those folks that are serious as to wanting to adopt an animal, petfinder.com is a great resource. Something I learned later, however, is that you really should talk with an expert about what kind of dog would be good with your family dynamic.