Archive for the ‘puppy love’ Category
warmest holiday wishes
May your holidays be full of love,
and quiet moments to reflect on all that is good in the world.
Wishing you all the very best this holiday season–
why not start with a little Harry Connick Jr.’s When My Heart Finds Christmas?
Snow in Calabria!
“Amò! Guarda la neve!”
“Honey! Look at the snow!”
P opened the balcony shutters this morning and found that it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas–we got snooooooooow!
Don’t you just love how at the bottom, the land around the olive trees is all green but then by the time your eyes reach the sky, everything turns all white?
Oh that Mother Nature . . . .
So, yes, it’s just a dusting, but it’s actually visible from my house; usually you have have to go farther up into the mountains before you hit the white stuff.
A lot of people don’t know this, but there’s actually some great skiing in Calabria (they tell me; I’m not a skier) in the Sila Mountains where you’ll find the Sila National Park.
And yes, I know a lot of you are having blizzard or blizzard-like conditions right now, so this may not seem exciting (by the way, I do hope you’re all safe and not throwing out your back shoveling), but for someone like me who despite now living in southern Italy grew up with
snow days
and school delays
and watching flakes fall in complete silence
and flapping my arms and legs to make snow angels
and sipping hot chocolate with marshmallow
while wet gloves, hats, scarves sizzle
and dry on the radiator
even a simple dusting can make my entire winter.
I love snow!
It’s still raining and cold cold cold, but no worries, because I have a lot of this in store today (much like yesterday):
But I won’t be lonely. Besides the pooches and remaining pups, I’ll have P around as he’s been enlisted to help (official nutcracker and crusher), and also this guy and his heavenly voice:
Don’t worry, I’ll also make time to take Stella’s cue and find a nice lap by the fire.
Buona domenica!
letting go
And so the process of letting go of the puppies has begun.
As of Tuesday night, I was going to post “And then there were five”:
Tuesday evening, a lovely young couple from the village took home this little guy:
Yes, that’s my lap he’s on there.
No word on a name yet, but I know he’ll be happy because they are both big dog lovers–the girl actually called me to ask if she could come and get their puppy sooner than planned because she was exploding with excitement, having prepared his bed and toys already.
Then last night, I delivered one of my very favorite little ones to Rosa, an extremely caring woman who lives next door to P’s house, the one we’ll be moving into at some point–which means it’s only a matter of time before I see Lila (pronounced LEE-la) every single day when I go out on the balcony:
Lila is extremely shy at first, but quite playful when she gets comfortable; I sent this precious puppy off with a stuffed gingerbread toy because she loved carrying it around even though it was bigger than her.
I didn’t want to give her to a family with kids who would drive her crazy, so when Rosa stopped me and asked me if we still had puppies the other day (as a matter of fact, there was still one remaining who wasn’t spoken for), I was over the moon happy to say yes–and I knew immediately which of the darling pups she should have.
As I sat with Rosa last night as Lila got used to her, she told me how she raised her last dog from a puppy with a bottle–for two years. A little spoiling is never a bad thing, right?
It was funny, actually, because when I got home, P told me essentially all the same stories that Rosa had told me about her love of animals, how she adored her dog, etc. I hadn’t realized before just how close to his neighbors P had been at one point. Very cute.
I’m so happy that these two have gone to wonderful homes, and I can’t wait to run into them in the village.
So who will be next? This cutie perhaps?
No, letting them go isn’t easy for me. Yes, tears have been shed.
And I’m afraid more are on the way with four puppies still left. . . .
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[tags]puppies[/tags]
puppies in residence
Back by popular demand–puppies!
Well the little ones aren’t so little anymore. Indeed, they’ll be seven weeks old on Saturday, which means they are only a week away from being adopted out.
Sniff sniff.
We have found homes for five of the six, at least on the future caretakers’ words. One of these is so excited that she’s been asking me for a couple weeks already when she can come and take hers (one of the two that look like Stella). I’m staying firm on the eight-week mark though, so she’ll just have to wait until next weekend.
I haven’t posted photos, but the pups have been staying in what P calls their “residence” (seriously, in English but with an Italian accent) that I whipped up for them one afternoon. They have specified places to eat, sleep, play, and do the other stuff they need to do, and they’re getting increasingly better at understanding which are which. This helps with housebreaking in their new homes, they say, so I thought it was worth a try.
Here are five of them (the fifth is a blur behind the two up on the mini-wall) wondering why I chose the sixth to let out of the residence to play with Mamma and me. They all get their turns, of course, but not all at once. That’d be crazy.
And here is the chosen one of the moment in an intimate scene with Stella. Yes I played with this a bit in Photoshop. Could’ve played for a lot longer, but alas, life calls.
Wouldn’t you love a painting like this?
Happy Love Thursday everyone!
And hug a puppy if you can. If not, I’ve got it covered.
P.S. Don’t forget to head over to Shelley’s place for today’s Dolce Italiano Contest recipe, Chocolate and Tangerine Semifreddo. Looks *fabulous*!
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[tags] puppies, love thursday[/tags]
little weaners
Ladies and gentlemen, we have weaning!
The puppies are already 5 weeks old! Can you believe it?
They actually started the Big Wean five days ago and *all* took to it immediately. They still want their doggie mamma, of course, but now they also yipyipyip for me when I come into the room.
Ain’t nothing like puppy yips.
Today I’m thankful for:
Everything going smoothly so far with the puppies. I had read all the scary stuff about what *could* go wrong, and I have to admit I was more than a bit nervous when it all started really happening.
As neither P nor I have ever done this before, I count us very lucky that the first five weeks have fallen into place nearly by themselves.
It’s a lot of work to be sure, but the excited cries when they see me, those adorable eyes staring up at me, the puppy growls and barks while playing with one another, the quiet moments of fuzzy belly-stroking–they make it more than worth it.
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[tags]puppies, weaning puppies, nablopomo, 30 days of thanks[/tags]
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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