Duck (comma) dog

Duck:
I broke into the confit for lunch. I had a duck leg, reheated til the skin was crispy and served over risotto. I have no plating or food photography skills whatsoever, so just pretend it looked like this, but over risotto instead of veggies. It tasted heavenly.

Dog:
This morning, I took Cersei to the vet for her heartworm blood test and rabies shot.

She weighs seventy-one pounds.


I am really having a hard time with this. I've had her for just over one year. Intellectually, I know she's grown up, but I am still emotionally sure that she's a small dog. Well, not a small-yappy-dog, but a small Lab. I can still remember the first time I picked her up, little squirmy blue-eyed blonde puppy. She couldn't have weighed 10 lbs.

Here she is, exactly one year ago:


You can see part of her first collar in that picture. IME, the earlier you put a collar on a dog the easier it is for the dog to get used to it, so I got her a collar the night I got her. It was a CAT COLLAR from Walmart. I couldn't resist a sparkly blue-and-silver collar with a bell. The bell was really useful; if she went jingling off behind the furniture she was probably looking for a good corner to pee in.

I'd just put my old Lab to sleep. Literally, just; I think I'd buried Linux the day before. I still had a truly ADHD Lab mix named Jaime, and I did not want another dog, especially not another Lab. Especially not another Lab puppy! But my friend wanted me to go with her to drop something off with some rednecks we knew from the barn. They lived in a trailer park on the highway, five kids and a constantly rotating assortment of cats, dogs, rabbits, fish, horses, etc. Lately the dogs had been dying cause one of the puppies had parvo, but nobody had the money for them vaccines and there's always another dog comin along from somewhere.

So we went to see the rednecks, and one of the kids came running up to me holding an exhausted-looking little yellow puppy. "LOOK WHAT I GOT!" he yelled.

My broken heart melted a little. "Can I hold her?"

He handed the puppy over. She didn't squirm or fuss at all; she just looked at me and sighed and melted into sleep in my arms.

I looked at his momma. I looked at the puppy. I knew I was about to say something stupid, but the puppy squirmed a bit to get more comfortable in my arms and I looked back up at the momma and said "You know, if you decide you don't want another puppy... I could take her."

The momma was delighted. "Take her, take her! God knows I don't need another puppy." We chatted for a while and I got the backstory on the puppy - the family had gone to a horse show in Tipton County the night before, and some woman there tried to give her FIVE puppies, one for each kid. She'd held the line at one puppy, and the kids picked out the one with the liver nose and pale eyeliner. I complimented the kids on choosing a beautiful puppy, promised that they could play with her any time they wanted at the barn, and walked out the door with a "what the fuck have I done" feeling.

I got her a collar that night. Her name, of course, was Cersei. Jaime and Cersei are evil blonde twins in George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series.

She was so tiny. How could a tiny puppy like that have grown up to be 71 pounds of muscle?

She's a fantastic buddy. Best possible dog. Here's to about 15 more wonderful years with the world's best dog!