Jake Chambers of Richmond

Jake is a delight to be around. He is so, well, ENTHUSIASTIC about life. I guess that comes from being a dog, though I’m extremely prejudiced and think that he’s got an exceptionally great demeanor, even for a dog. I think he’s really happy to be here. Dwight’s happy about it too.

He stretches a lot, which makes me think he’s still growing. I think he’s a lot younger than we initially thought.

We got him this big silky pillow at Wal-Mart and he really likes to sit on it.

And sleep on it.

I know it’s stupid, but I can’t help but think about the fact that Jake had this whole other life before we met him, and that he can’t just tell us about it. I mean, we can speculate till the cows come home, but we don’t know for sure. And never will. Take that, Control Freak Tendencies. I have a couple possible pasts in mind:

1) He was a farm dog. The favorite of the litter, he would ride around in the truck with the kindly old farmer. He slept in the barn at night and chased all the barn cats. One tragic day the farmer died, and his closest kin came to settle the affairs of the farm. Unfortunately for Jake, the closest kin was the farmer’s city-slickin’ son who closed down the farm and took all the animals to the closest animal control facility. There Jake sat for days and days, confused and hurt by the heartbreaking turn of events. The Henrico Humane Society picked him up, took him to the vet, and then put him out on display in front of the Petco, hoping that a nice family would take him home. Enter Dwight and me, who met him and wanted to take him home. The rest is history (that we’re making right now).

2) He was part of a puppy farm (illegal puppy breeding factory things). He escaped, was caught on the road, hoping to catch a ride with a nice trucker or bus driver. He got picked up by Amelia County animal control, and the rest follows.

3) He was traveling around Amelia County, searching for intellegent life. He heard a human coming, and quickly morphed into dog form, when he was picked up and the rest follows as above. He has since decided that he likes to be in dog form, and will stay that way until the Mothership appears.

No matter what the circumstances, I’m glad he’s here. Plus, he does this funny burrowing-wiggling around thing:

He’s not weird. Not at all.

Time to Expand the Family

Internet, meet Jake.

We will be fostering Jake starting tomorrow. We met him at Petco, at a Humane Society adoption drive. Nobody knows where he came from, how old he is, or what his story is, but we already know that he doesn’t know basic commands and he just wants to be hugged. A lot.

We will likely adopt him, but since he was so new to the shelter they wanted us to foster first. I am deeply smitten, so you’ll probably be hearing a lot about him in the weeks to come.

Backlog of Stuff

I keep thinking, “Hey I need to blog about this” about stuff and then I don’t. I know it’s certainly not breaking anyone’s heart and nobody is checking every day to see if I’ve dropped any more pearls of wisdom on this website. I shall continue nonetheless.

What’s been new lately? Still slowing losing my job. I love the lady I’m working for now – she’s brilliant and hilarious and I respect the crap out of her, so that’s really nice. It’s interesting and horribly depressing watching a company go through everything this company has been through. It’s also pretty weird to be the person who helps the CEO get ready to leave the company forever. I will remember this time forever – the sad parts and how much I’m learning about how bankruptcies work and how the morale is dipping into the very pits of despair. I try to stay cheerful through it all and make myself as useful as possible.

I’m going to start a blog documenting the progress of the Enbrel (the psoriasis medicine I’m starting this week). It will prove helpful to me in keeping me aware of how the medicine is actually performing, and maybe it will be helpful to other people out there (since there are, after all, 125 million people int he world with psoriasis) who are considering this expensive and kind of risky therapy. I’ll provide a link for it here (after it’s up) in case you’re interested in reading it.

I promised an Emma update a while ago, but wanted to double check that it was OK to post video. Turns out I have carte blanche, so submitted for your enjoyment, here is Emma singing her favorite song from The Little Mermaid:

Hands down, the cutest kid ever. We had a really nice time hanging out with her and her parents – we don’t get to see her mamma as often (she works a LOT and just finished college) so it was nice to just have some dinner and watch a movie. We watched Sleeping Beauty, which is probably my favorite pre-Disney Renaissance flick. And, best Disney villian ever. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I also made a kick-ass pork tenderloin. I will post the recipe soon.