Winky Vs Willow

This sweet girl is Winky. In August when my heart was broken, I was certain that what I needed was a puppy. I knew that a puppy would not take the place of all the things I had lost, but I also knew it would be something to focus my love and attention on, and something that would love me back. One cloudy day, Cheryl and I went to the dog pound to find me a puppy. It was overwhelming. Dogs, dogs, dogs, and the barking was deafening. We went back and forth and up and down, and narrowed it down to a few, then narrowed down to a couple. Winky, so named for her endearing wink, had a yellow tag on her name tag meaning that she had been there too long and would be put down that week. Her little bio sketch said that she was about 6 months old, was as big as she was going to get, never barked, and liked to play in the baby pool. What's not to love about that? Cheryl chose Winky when I could not decide. We took her out to the yard to visit with her a bit to see if we were a good fit, and she was just lovely. When we went in to fill out our adoption papers I learned that she had been picked up off the street on the same day my dad had died, and I knew she was meant to be ours and that she was going to be good medicine for me.
She took to us quite well and had no trouble relaxing in her new home. Somehow over the first few days without even realizing it was happening, she became Shameka's dog. I renamed her Willow, a more suitable name for such a sweet genteel girl. We did notice the big paws, we did notice the excess skin waiting to be filled, we did notice that she did in fact bark and barked a lot........and Willow took on a whole new persona...
She barked, she grew, she hates water and won't even go out in the rain unless we put an umbrella over her. Even at her "puppy" size, she was tall enough to stand up to the counter and serve herself whatever she might find, assuming it was for her. Things like bread and fruit soon turned to dishwater and a rack of ribs. We got smarter in the kitchen, but she seemed to outwit us in the rest of the house. I mean, who knew she would like retainers so much (has eaten 2 of those, one for each girl)? Or Shawn's glasses, crunched beyond recognition? Kendra's library book? Or last nights' snack......Shameka's cell phone...

One thing to note; she did and does indeed take my mind off the other cares of the world as I am constantly trying to stay one step ahead of her path of destruction.
***** Who the heck knows why some of these words are blue and underlined, but I'm way too tired to care.*******