Recovering with a Dose of Honey

I'm sitting in bed today with my laptop, sick with a fever and flu with a respiratory component that prompted the doctor to prescribe the same inhaler used for swine flu. So it's not a pretty picture. The one positive aspect is having Honey cuddled up next to me. She's the puppy we rescued on the Saturday before Easter. (Actually, I had wanted to name her Easter, but my husband Andy and son J.D. vetoed the name -- even though Sheryl Crow used it in a song.)

We weren't sure what kind of dog she was when J.D. brought her home from the streets of Phoenix, where he found her hiding by a busy road, injured, sick and dirty. The Phoenix animal control wouldn't take the dog that day -- and the Humane Society here was closed on Easter Sunday. I decided to house train Honey, in case we decided to keep her. Even if we didn't, it would have made her a much more appealing dog for adoption. The training took five days. After a week of checking newspaper listings and Craigslist for lost dogs, it appeared no one was looking for her.

When I took Honey for her shots and exam, Dr. Tammy Pauletto took one look at her and said, "She's got angel wings!" I hadn't noticed really, but the white markings on her back behind her front legs do resemble wings. That clinched it for me -- how could I send her away? Honey is an Australian Cattle Dog or Heeler, possibly mixed with a yellow Labrador Retriever. Unlike most Heelers, she's neither red nor blue, but completely golden yellow. She especially looks like a little angel when she's sleeping and staying out of trouble.

Having a puppy has kept me running for the past three weeks. It's like having a toddler in the house who tries to get into everything and will eat anything. We have a routine finally, and she's starting to get easier to handle. Although we never officially said "she's staying," once I had a tag made for her collar with her name and our address and phone number, it became clear that I had no intention of giving her up. Andy is still set on getting a Golden Retriever, but we did plan to have two dogs -- it's just that one landed in our lives unexpectedly, like a little gift with angel wings, watching over us as we watch over her.