Appalachain Thanksgiving

We had a great opportunity to travel out to Murphy, NC (Adrian's hometown) for Thanksgiving this year. Norfolk Christian's school schedule was such that there was some extra time that allowed for us to get out there without it being too compressed. So we headed west on Tuesday afternoon and got there without any difficulty. We are so blessed that the girls are amazing travelers. They sit very patiently for all those (10-11) hours. Typically, we stop for a long meal and let the girls play. It really helps. Our time in Murphy was--as always--very quiet and peaceful. There really is nothing to do so it is a very restful time and we love going out there. The girls have so much fun with much room to run and climb on the hills. The mornings were very cold but each day warmed up and was sunny and beautiful. We took walks down to the tressel bridge on the old train tracks that run (literally) right out of Sandra's yard. We played at the park and of course ate a lovely meal on Thursday. On Saturday mid-morning we headed back to Chesapeake. The best gift was that Adrian's grandfather, Mike, came down from Ohio to spend the holiday with all of us. It was a treasure as Mike is 92 now and we try to see him at least once a year. This usually happens at Christmas when we travel to Ohio, but this year Adrian is having shoulder surgery to repair damage resulting from a lifetime of sports. That is scheduled for Dec. 19 and we will not be going anywhere after that. The only surprising event came about 30 minutes before we left for home. It was then that we decided to bring a puppy that had been hanging around Sandra's house for three days back home with us.

So here's that story. On Thanksgiving the puppy followed Avril home as she walked up to Sandra's house. He'd been down the hill at another home and Avril assumed that was his home. She tried to return him, but no one was there. So it stuck around in Sandra's yard all day and was still there Friday morning. By late Friday afternoon Sandra had spoken to everyone nearby and all had assumed that it was someone else's puppy. He had a collar and looked in good condition. But no one had any idea of where he belonged. The thinking became that maybe he'd been abandoned. This is particularly amazing because this is a Rotweiller, not a mutt. Clearly, someone had paid good money for this dog. Perhaps an Atlanta family lost him. In Murphy though there is not a lot hope at the animal shelter. It's just different than the city. Regardless, it was heartbreaking to think of this tiny puppy left to survive on his own in the mountains. It may seem that all the while we were thinking about keeping him, but that really isn't the case. We don't want a puppy right now. That is not a responsiblity we're interested in. However, Sandra was also leaving on Saturday about hour after we left and after that the puppy was completely alone. Had she been staying, it would have not been an issue to leave him. She would've found someone to adopt the dog. We just felt like we could find a good home for the puppy so a few minutes before leaving we decided to take him with us. We stopped at Wal-mart (there is one there now) on the way out and got a little crate and bag of food. It'd certainly been a while since he had slept anywhere warm or eaten. We dreaded the thought of traveling with a dog in holiday traffic. But he seemed so happy to be somewhere warm and soft, that he never made a sound--for 11 hours! He was amazing. We couldn't believe it. We kept saying that he was making a strong case for getting a good home. On Sunday we took him over to my mom and Ron's house to see if they would like to keep him. He has been there this week and they will let us know by early next week what their decision is. If they choose not to keep him, we'll keep looking. He's a good dog. We all very quickly became attached. I hope we can find him a loving family. I'll let you know.

p.s. I know these pictures are small. If you double click on them, they will open up to a larger image.