So, we have a new member of the Harkness-Uszkalo family... For the rest of the entry, I'm handing the reigns over to Kirsten...

Ok, let me preface by saying despite my father's suspicions, I am not nesting. My biological clock is not ticking, and my eggs are turning to dust, and I don't fancy motherhood any time soon.

All that being said, I decided I wanted a puppy. Any more than two cats makes you a crazy person, but two cats and a dog is well within the realm of logic. So Darren and I have been checking out dogs on the SPCA website lately. I wanted a chihuahua or a pomeranian, neither of which shows up very often at the SPCA, and both of which have been poo-pooed by everyone I know.

This morning, however, I saw the cutest dog on earth - a one month old puppy named Olivia, and amid a stomp-dance of "PUPPY! PUPPY! PUPPY!", I pushed Darren down the stairs and out the door in search of said dog.

Needless to say, we were 5 minutes late for the SPCA's opening, and some beatnik stole our dog. However, waiting for the beatnik to make up his mind, I espied this dog - a 5 year old golden retriever. Cute, gentle, not barking, and thought "What the hell, let's have a look at her." An hour later, having suffered from four brain embolisms and a cerebral hemmorage, I finally got to see the dog. She was really cute and nice, and gave us kisses, and we liked her a lot.

We also looked at a german shephard/bull mastif puppy, which although equally cute, was a) a puppy puppy and not a grown dog, and b) could grow up to a possible 135 pounds. I do not fancy having a dog as heavy as I am.

So, long story short, we decided to adopt said dog. Bigger than the pomeranian I had wanted, but at full size a nice size dog.

After a hair-raising trip to Costco to buy dog food and treats, we stopped off at PetSmart to get a pooper-scooper and the lady there told me that, in fact, I did not have a grown dog. That Cayce (pronounced "case") is in fact only about 6 months old, and will get at least a third bigger! Curse that piece of paper at the SPCA!

Needless to say we already love the dog, who is being continually put in her place by Heidegger, and since we still have trace residue of dog vomit in our car, we feel pretty much like parents.