So most summers I sell houses, my husband keeps a refinery from blowing up, we walk our dogs and we ride our bikes frequently. June dealt us a couple of blows from which we’re still reeling. Our son was diagnosed with Stage 1 testicular cancer & had the infected teste removed (in a  4- day span from his having “pain” to having 1 testicle removed). ITen  days laterwe lost our older (very nearly 12 years of age) dog, to a very random lung disease. And a week after we lost him we found and brought home a new Schipperke puppy. Oliver, our 10 yr. old Schip, was having none of the puppy’s antics; he was the canine version of “Get off my lawn, kid” for 6 days.

Teddy the pup figured out how to manipulate the dog door the second day home, and the stairs the day after. The next day he escaped from his kitchen pen (it’s tile and easily cleaned) and ran a few steps up, then decided to take 2 steps down. He missed his mark, tumbled, yelped. Oliver woke up and recognized our new pack member. They’re almost inseparable, but Oliver  wants time-out more than Teddy does. They’re seriously cute playing together. Oliver has a tender side we never saw before.  Watching Oliver progress from wannabe #1 dog to top dog has been interesting. And watching Teddy grow from “Hey, I’m new here!” to knowing how to ask Oliver and us to play with him, has been illuminating. When we let him play with Oliver outside his kitchen compound, he runs to the back door when he needs to go. And he and Oliver go out and pee. It’s a good thing. We’re chuffed by how well Oliver and Teddy get along, as well as how they interact.

So we had some bad news and then some good news. Our son’s cancer hasn’t spread and he qualified for MediCal. We have a new puppy to train (so much work…good thing we’re doing this together). Daughter has her hammock-cat and we look forwarding to  visiting them and meeting that cat.  I have much for which to be grateful, and I am.

We gave up our vacation and annual trip to Texas to see my MIL and other in-laws and friends to contribute to our son’s GoFundMe (we gave outside the app, as did others, and I appreciate all who generously gave). And now that we have a new puppy we tag-team and our time together is precious. Chris is taking vacation days to bond with Teddy. I know it’s temporary.

Thankfully, we coordinated our nap times, and it was a good day.