The Ecstasy and the Agony

So, as I alluded to briefly, Blaine and I are in the initial stages of getting a new dog for our family. Actually, we're in the initial stages of getting our backyard fenced, which was criteria number one before getting a new pet. At least I *think* we're getting our backyard fenced. The fence guy showed up last week and put in a bunch of steel posts, then disappeared. I know the posts have to "set up" in the concrete, or some other such technical term, but it's been six days now and we've not seen hide nor hair of the fence guy since that first day. I'd almost worry we've been victimized by some sort of insidious fence scam, but guess what? We haven't paid them anything yet! So ha-ha, free steel fence posts for us if they never come back!

Ok, back to the topic at hand.

With the general belief that we would be getting a fence soon, Blaine started looking for dogs in the paper a few weeks ago. Remember, the plan originally was one hunting dog, and one pound pup. And with duck season only a few short months away, the hunting dog comes first. He found an local AKC litter of golden retrievers that sounded promising and called the dog's owner to set up an appointment for later this week to look at them.

Fast forward to this morning. The house phone rings and I hear Kendrie answer it. Then I hear her tentatively say, "Yes ... really???" Then she comes running to give me the phone, screaming at the top of her lungs ... "Mom! Mom!!! It's the dog lady --- IT'S THE DOG LADY! She says we get our new dog tomorrow morning --- WE'RE GETTING OUR NEW DOG FROM THE DOG LADY TOMORROW MORNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!" and then she pretty much falls on the floor and starts rolling around in her excitement, squealing and hyperventilating with happiness.

I take the phone from Kendrie ..... "Um, hello?", I ask, thinking perhaps she needs to change our time to meet the dog, or ... well ... something.

And I hear a lady on the other end of the phone, obviously bemused, obviously taken aback by Kendrie's pure-joy-hysterical-ness on the other end of the phone. "Yeah, I'm not the dog lady. I'm calling from the hospital, and need to confirm a pet scan for Blaine in the morning ...." and her voice sort of trails off, like she's not quite sure what *my* reaction might be.

Poor Kendrie. Some misunderstandings are more disappointing than others.