Heart Of My Heart

Valentine's Day I got a text message from my niece that was this picture of these guys.

Lisa and her husband have two beautiful golden retrievers, but their first babies were doxies. Two  little girls named Madison and Sadie. They both lived long doggie lives, but that just never seems long enough.

Lisa loves her new big dogs, but has wanted another dachshund. Valentine's night, Steve showed up, not with flowers and candy, but with these new babies.

It was love at first site, as is appropriate for Valentine's Day, right?

The only problem was that they were supposed to fly out of Birmingham Thursday for a long weekend in Florida. The plan was already that they would come down with their girls and spend the night with me Wednesday night. Anyone who knows me has no doubt that I was going to offer to keep these new babies. I mean, they had just left their momma. They just couldn't go to a vet for boarding.

They all arrived last night and the fun began. My friend Katie is dog sitting her sister's beagle, Layla. She grabbed up Jake (her brown pit) and Layla and came to meet the babies too.

It was really funny to watch how dogs react to puppies. Either they run from them and want nothing to do with them (Jake, Sam and Sister fall into that category), or they are obsessed with them. Roscoe and Layla loved them and seemed to be interested in taking care of them. I set up a little playpen type area with one of the gates that I have here. Every time I looked around, Roscoe and gone into the gate, or was patrolling it, making sure that the babies didn't come through the rails and get stuck or run away.

The baby boys arrived with no names. When I started calling them Rufus and Rex, Lisa decided that she should pick names quickly, or it would be settled by the time they got back. Thank goodness Ronald and Reagan were eliminated, as were Jeb and George. I suggested the previous Rufus and Rex, and Frick and Frack. Other names were Cain and Able, Romulus and Remus, Galahad and Lancelot. (Yeah, I was the only one that liked most of those.) Steve wanted to name one Melvin. (And y'all thought my names were bad.)

Lisa really liked the name Blue for this guy. He has the most striking blue eyes. I think the spelling is still up for debate, but the name has stuck.

That left this one.  See those little front legs? They reminded me on a famous singer and producer, but Lisa didn't really like calling him Cee Lo.

Orange didn't really work (blue and orange ... Auburn's colors). Aubie wasn't right either. Tiger was met with silence. There was a brief discussion on changing Blue to War and this guy becoming Eagle, but that was gone as fast as it was mentioned.

Finally I suggested Covey, for my grandfather (her great grandfather). When I said that, Lisa said ... what do you think about Bailey. We all looked at each other, and then at that face. Bailey seemed to work.

So welcome to the family Bailey and Blue. We're happy to have you.

 You are our Valentines.