My therapist...

I heard about this article from a friend and just had to share. It's about a soldier with PTSD who credits his pound puppy with saving his life during a period of deep depression:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/racked-by-ptsd-a-veteran-finds-calm-in-a-pound-pup-named-cheyenne/2011/06/16/AGLiYIeH_story.html

I know what that solider means. My therapist has a wet nose and a wagging tail. She always listens and never talks back. She even makes house calls!

Ella's walks

Ella can finally go for walks again! To celebrate, we went walking in New Town twice this weekend, as well as getting re-introduced to our favorite neighborhood walks. Thanks to our friend Maria for sharing this picture of Ella in her pink harness, basking in the sunlight on a walk.

To celebrate the simple pleasure of walks, we read Susan Meddaugh's Martha Walks the Dog yesterday. In this hilarious book, Martha the dog gets the power of speech by eating alphabet soup. Martha decides to take herself for a walk, and talks to neighbors and other dogs along the way. The illustrations and text of the book are adorable, with Martha showing wit and intelligence through her doggy speech. My favorite line in this book is Martha's response to being called a "good dog" by someone on the sidewalk. Of course, Martha replies "What other kind of dog is there?" Martha might be a good dog, but I think my Ella is the best dog!

Mom goes on vacation and Ella goes swimming

Happy Independence Day! We are enjoying our day off by sleeping late and generally being lazy today. I just got back from a week-long vacation in Texas, so I'm still catching up on sleep and trying to relax before going back to work tomorrow. It's going to be rough! I had a wonderful time visiting my college girlfriends in Texas, but missed Ella dearly. She stayed with Neillee and Dustin and had a lovely time without me. She's feeling much better and finished taking her painkillers this morning. Hopefully the vet will have good news about her condition when we go for our appointment on Wednesday. Yesterday, Ella and I went to Neillee's house on the river, and Ella (sort of) went swimming. She gets in the water about chest high before she decides that she's had enough. She did enjoy sniffing, rolling in the sand, and digging some major holes on the beach, though. Overall, we've had a wonderful week of vacation in the water- I'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow morning. I hope all of you have a wonderful 4th of July- eat a hot dog for Ella :-)