t W h: Piper, our new dog

We spent all of our time last weekend with this sweet girl:

This adorable Brittany Spaniel showed up on my in-laws door step two weeks ago, has not wandered off, and has not been claimed. She wasn't wearing a collar and she looked pretty healthy. I took her into the vet on Friday to see if she had a microchip or signs of being spayed, which might indicate that she had an owner that was probably looking for her. She was clear of both, and she checked out to be very healthy. She has a slight case of hookworm, as many strays do, but that's easy to clear up (just 3 days of meds). We had assumed that she was still in the 'puppy stages' due to her temperament, but the vet said she's likely between 2-5. She informed me that most Brittanys have a lot of energy! She also told me that she's heard of cases where Brittanys will stray from their masters while trying to pick up smells. The hunters will get frustrated that the dog doesn't return timely, as trained, and 'give up' on them. Sad! If that's the case and she's a wanderer, I need to get a chip in her and a tag for her new collar soon!

I told the vet that we intended to keep her since she'd been with us for two weeks without anyone responding to ads or posting 'lost' ads. I had her groomed and vaccinated, and then our family officially named her Piper. We had a laundry list of names that we liked, but because we're 'sharing custody' of her with my in-laws (the ones with the nice big yard, which we are missing), we all needed to come to an agreement. 'Piper' is cute and very fitting of her peppy personality.

On Saturday, we made several trips to PetCo and Big Lots. We wanted to see how she would act inside our home. We got a puppy gate, a bed, and some toys. She was super excited all day, running all over the apartment. It was a lot to handle. Occasionally she'd settle down for a few minutes and use her bed:

We gated her off in the kitchen overnight, and she did pretty well. Our overall takeaway from the experience is that she is predominately an outside dog (needing to be with Harrison's parents until we eventually get our home in the country), but we can have play dates and sleepovers with her a few times a month :)
We miss her :(

Monday was my dad's 60th BIRTHDAY! My mom did something special to his tool truck without him knowing. People were honking at him all morning:

Hope you had a great birthday, Dad. We're all looking forward to getting together very soon in Atlanta to celebrate BIG!

On another note, I took a few pictures of where I work, since Harrison wonders what Union Springs/my office is like.

Here's the quaint little town of Union Springs, AL:

The office (bad photo):

Office entrance:

I love the waiting area:

My office:

I need to dig out all of my books that are still in storage (in-laws' house) and stock them in my bookcase. That's a bust of Hippocrates (the father of Western medicine) on the shelf. Can you guess who might've gifted that to me?