Thanks for all the enthusiasm over our adoption of Archie. He is a good dog, but unfortunately, he is not our good dog. In short, MacIntosh was going to kill him. Tosh went from bemused to irritated to outright hostile and aggressive in a week - the wrong direction (and he’s never been dog-aggressive before [...]

A few years ago, Mom got us a non-squeaky toy called "Heave a Beaver."  (No.  Just no.  Don’t go there.)  MacIntosh loftily disdained it, deeming it unworthy of his teeth.
Archie, however - Arch thinks this toy is primo, settling down with it for a good five minutes and giving me a much-needed respite from active [...]

Yeah, we went with "Archie."
He’s cute.

Also, "Bwuh?"

And active.

We love him.  Thanks for the input on his name…

…We have been approved as the new owners of this guy:

So, here’s the question: what should his final name be? We had thought "Archie," but we’re not sure. John’s kind of keen on something that reflects either his color or the star on his chest. So, we’ve come up with a [...]

So let’s take it as read that John and I are certifiably crazy, shall we?  It’ll make everything from here on out a lot easier.
Meet Archie*:

* No, we’re not sure if that’s his final name. We’re also not sure if we’re getting him. He’s a Montgomery County Humane Society rescue dog - [...]

Mom and I were talking about "our" words a while back.  It’s something Elizabeth Gilbert talks about in Eat Pray Love - if I recall correctly, she has a friend who believes that every city and every person has a word that describes them or sums them up.  It’s "their" word.  Mom asked me what [...]

Robynn has promised some 4theanimals dosh, so here’s my first YouTube effort to say “thanks!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYZYpWq9M6U

1. Thank you, Marilee, for being the first contributor to the Poplar Springs 5k fund! Her donation coincided with a particularly fortuitous afternoon’s snaps of the Smith household animals, so here’s a photographic “thank you” from those worthies:

2. Thanks to: a.) the fact that my husband actually reads the Birchmere’s occasional missives, b.) my [...]

I mentioned in my last post that I had been watching a lot of Dog Whisperer.  I always hate it when I jump on a bandwagon - I tend to object on principle to buying wholesale into someone else’s world-view.  I also get a little irritated with the people who breathlessly gasp about Cesar Millan’s [...]

Still not 100% in the old “healthy” column, but getting back a bit. I do, however, have some cute photos of my friends Miklos’ and Michelle’s first-born (second-born is due next month). Martin was terrifically intrigued by all our critters, though he was leery of Tosh at first.  He spread toddler cheer [...]