I sat in the same spot for three days and watched TV.

Whiskey.

On Thursday of last week, the hubs and I flew to Houston.

Layover.  I've never seen a Blue Moon can.

After landing, we took a cab ride to an off-site car rental place (cheaper) and picked up our little weird-smelling rental.  I asked the attendant if he could recommend a Mexican restaurant and off we went to gorge on our favorite food.

I had to get a new enchilada, because they used beef in the red sauce.  :(

Watermelonnnnn.

We AirBNB'd a place to stay in downtown Houston, which felt like it was meant to be when I saw the decor.

This horsie.

After resting for a little bit, we headed to Karbach Brewery to take a tour.  We like beer.  But I gotta admit, maybe it's the Georgian in me, but I feel like Terrapin does a better job with less.

Dogs.  Not horses.  Not humans.  But also cats, because hoarder.

The hubs is in love with German Shepherds.  I am in love with every dog, regardless of breed, but I'm particular about the method of acquisition.  I have nothing against anyone who researches a breed, finds a reputable breeder who improves upon it (brachycephalic dogs, anyone?), and supports that breeder with money.  I do have issues with pet shops, puppy mills, and backyard breeders.  And I think the first option should always be adoption - private adoption, rescue adoption, don't care.

So about six months ago, we started casually looking for a canicorn.  A GSD that would be good with cats and the best bitches, have relatively clean hips and elbows, and, in theory, be young/healthy enough to go to the barn with me.  I checked every GSD that came through our local humane society.  I contacted rescues.  I branched into Belgian Malinois, because I like them and convinced D that they were suitable (every K9 cop you speak with will tell you otherwise).  I checked Craig's List and actually had a meet-and-greet scheduled before they cancelled.

At this point, I started looking at breeders, too.

And then I finally found her.



I immediately filled out the application and received confirmation that they had gotten it.  Then we had a hurricane.  And I waited.  And waited.  Roughly two weeks after I applied and a week after the hurricane, I emailed and asked for a status update.  Two days later, I got a call back and we scheduled a home visit.

"Mom, I loves her."

Now that it's official! #birgettethegsd #gsd #rescue

A video posted by bekaburke (@bekaburke) on Oct 19, 2016 at 4:43pm PDT

This was my first time working with a grassroots rescue and I was really surprised at the involvement of the foster.  When D and I fostered the litter of kittens, we returned them to the humane society and they handled the adoption.  But, here, the foster was the one to call me.  The foster made all the arrangements, inspected my yard, answered my questions, arranged the adoption.  And cried when handing the leash over.

The complication to this was that D never got to meet her prior to my adopting her.  He saw video.  He heard my accounts.  And he trusted me.  The fine print on her ad said that she was fearful of men, so when the time came to actually pick her up, I went alone.

And I brought home a dog that was the polar opposite of the one I had met a few days prior.  She was fearful.  Doorways made her nervous.  The backyard was frightening.  But she immediately loved D and loved food, so we've worked through everything slowly.  She's bright and silly and appreciates a good face rub.


We named her Birgette (beer-get), which is German for Bridget, and has an extra "te" for my original old lady, Scarlette.  She has absolutely blossomed in the past week.  She's got a couple health problems that we're getting checked out today and we're not a hundred percent sure about her age (5-7, is the guess), but even if she doesn't have every quality that we wanted, she's perfect.  She's absolutely perfect.

A video posted by bekaburke (@bekaburke) on Oct 22, 2016 at 7:43pm PDT

I spent a lot of time on roads this weekend.

I rode Archie on Friday night and he was the same old champ.  Less springy to throw himself immediately into the canter, but no worries.  He held the trot nicely and did all the little things I asked.

On Saturday, the hubs made us protein pancakes (he's the better pancake maker) and then we headed out to the gym to both get in a quick upper body workout.  I absolutely love our gym time together and am glad we snuck that one session in before...


We went downtown to do our first 5k together.  We've been running together at nights for the past few weeks and he's been running on his own at the gym.  So, pretty ready.  What we weren't ready for was running in the mid-day heat.  We derped that one pretty badly.  I encouraged him to go at his own pace and he darted off while I struggled through the three miles.  I've been pretty proud of myself for not breaking during competitions (except to get water), but this was the exception.  I was barf-hot.  At least it was a gorgeous run!

So handsome.  So hard not to push over the random chick staring at him.

After the run, we continued the festivities.  The primary reason that I was eager to involve D in this run was because it was the Craft Brew Run, so there was able sampling of amazing (and not-so-amazing) beers.  I found a few new favorites and we just had a great time.

Where have you been all my life?

After lunch and a nap, it was off to the barn to ride Archie and Big G.  Both boys were great.  I was super impressed with Archie because we came across a guy with his dog on the trail (his wife boards with us) and Archie just went into hyper-aware mode and not oh-shit mode.  Poor dog belly crawled by us.


Sunday, my sunburnt self drove up to Augusta.  My brother was on furlough from rehab (baby-steps for reintroduction to society?) and my mom asked me to drive him back, since it was kinda-sorta on the way.  Brother and I spent time with my mom and her husband, then had lunch with a few of his friends before swinging by to see my dad and heading back out of town.  We did stop to see my last project at the job I'd held in Augusta before moving to Savannah - the organization of the book store for our ginormous Goodwill campus.  Many books were bought.

Laughing because I asked him to lean forward so my head didn't look so big.

Loved this.

His girlfriend.

It was comforting to spend time with my brother, now, now that his brain is clearing.  I was lamenting the radio stations in Augusta and it went something like this:

Me:  There are like 47 Christian stations, 22 country stations..
Him:  You're exaggerating.
Me:  It's called hyperbole.
Him:  But your hyperbole makes Augusta sound like an actual city.

We could not have had that conversation a year ago.  It was also great to return him to his facility, to actually see it, because he took so much pride in it.  There was a group of young men sitting at a picnic table, smoking, and they all shouted his last name when he opened his car door and then embraced him.  Everyone was so happy to see him.  They helped him carry in his bags and asked about his weekend and then immediately went into rehab-mode, laying out the plan to check his bags and proctor his drug test, all while he was telling me good bye.

Part of the dirt road to his facility.

I spent the next two hours driving through the Georgia countryside, just happy.