Say hello to our new girl! We have been wanting a dog for a while, but with all the work on the house and feeling like we needed a bit of down time, we thought we would wait a bit. Then the stars, as they often do, had other ideas. I saw her sweet face online (L.O.L.A.’s Rescue) and that was that. We submitted our paperwork about ten days ago, and she came home with us yesterday.

Her first two years could hardly be called wonderful. She was found sick and alone, emaciated and pregnant in Gallup, New Mexico (of course our girl would be from NM) late last year. Despite this, she is a lover! Sweet and cuddly and, not surprisingly, based on her history, quite an eater, gobbling each morsel like it may be her last. We are so happy to have her here with us and look with delight upon our future together.

Now to her name, because you know it’s not just a name: Juniper, for the hubster and I hiking and gathering berries, fragrant and sweet with our love of the West. Beulah, strange and old fashioned, I know, but you’ll be converted to it’s wonder, I hope, upon reading this passage from John Bunyan’s A Pilgrim’s Progress:

Now I saw in my dream, that, by this time, the pilgrims were got over the Enchanted Ground, and entering in the country of Beulah, whose air was very sweet and pleasant; the way lying directly through it, they solaced themselves there for a season. Yea, here they heard continually the singing of birds and saw every day the flowers appear in the earth, and heard the voice of the turtle in the land.

In this country the sun shines night and day: wherefore this was beyond the Valley of the Shadow of Death; and also out of the reach of Giant Despair; neither could they from this place so much as see Doubting Castle. Here they were within sight of the City they were going to, also here met them some of the inhabitants thereof; for in this land the Shining Ones commonly walked, because it was upon the borders of heaven.

And I feel, too, like our Paris and Milo are meowing their approval down from kitty heaven. They have a new sister!

Juniper Beulah. Juni B. when we want to mix it up.