Coco's First Night

Coco's ours. Actually, I think we're his. He arrived about 6:45 this evening. A little initial confusion, nervousness, etc. when the adoption lady left. Sarah was worried about how long it might take him to bond with us. Days? Weeks?

Bond? More like a Vulcan mind-meld. After less than five hours. He's sleeping next to her in her bed. And revenge for all those nights when she'd come into our bed because of a thunderstorm or whatever: he's crowding her, chasing rabbits ("Dad, do their legs move in their sleep?") etc. He disdains his doggie bed: he wants direct human contact. She went to bed at 10 (late for most nine year olds but actually early for nightowl Sarah).

These two are already best friends. I don't know what happens when she goes to school and Tam and I go to work tomorrow.

His photos don't do him justice. He's a beautiful shade of reddish brown, velvety coat. A bit scrawny — wasn't apparently raised very comfortably, but he and his brother were dropped off at a shelter in Charlottesville. (The Northern Virginia foster group we got him from referred to this as "southwestern Virginia," which would make the folks in Blacksburg or Bristol laugh, but then lots of northern Virginians don't venture south of Charlottesville.)

Oops. He just got up. We thought he needed to go potty, but he rejected going outside, using a training pad, or using a newspaper. Maybe he wanted something else. We're still in the adjustment stage.

Meet Coco: Coming Soon to the Dunn Family

It's awfully late, but this needs to be posted.

Meet Coco. Actually, at the moment his name is Kokomo, but as soon as he joins our family, hopefully as early as Tuesday, it will be shortened and the spelling changed to Coco. The sounds should be close enough and he may not have had the name Kokomo long (they say he doesn't seem to respond particularly to it in his foster home), and dachshunds are notoriously sloppy about spelling anyway, so I don't think he'll mind.

He's a year-and-a-half old male dachshund, who with his brother Bosco was left at a shelter when his owner could no longer care for them. He and his brother snap at each other so separating them doesn't seem to be an issue.

We still need to have a home visit by the adoption folks, but if all goes well they'll leave him with us Tuesday in all likelihood.

We have been moving towards dog adoption all year, and are determined to take the plunge; we've met a lot of nice shelter and rescue dogs as we prepared, but today meaning Saturday as it's after midnight), actually going to consider a dog we'd seen online who didn't show up, we met Coco instead. Sarah was swept off her feet, and I, having had a dachshund from the third grade till grad school I think it was, was also delighted.

The wonderful news was muddied a little by a flat tire which, with a hernia, I can't change. We called road service and the guy we use couldn't break loose one of the lug nuts, so we had to tow the van from the outer suburbs to our neighborhood repair folks, but by 10 pm we had it up and running, at some expense, not counting the expense of a new family member.

More about Coco, and more pictures, when he joins us. With luck we'll have him Tuesday night. If it takes any longer, I believe Sarah will probably explode.

Sarah's Tennis Trophy

Sarah played tennis for Corpus Christi school this fall and is very proud of the tennis trophy she received at the end of season party tonight. For video of the pizza party and trophy presentation, those with access to our YouTube account can find it there (later tonight: It's uploading now).