July 19- Afton!

I gotta admit, this was a difficult photo to work from, as it pixillated horribly when I tried to get it in closer.  So this is what I was able to come up with, and I hope it gives the sense of a delighted dog bouncing about in White Bear Lake~

And here is what the delightful Mary Jane has to honestly say about the enthusiastic Afton!  (You can tell writing is one of Mary Jane's loves...)

"Afton is a rescue dog of uncertain parentage.  Her jowls say schnauzer.  Her tail is a furry curl.  Her fuzzy back legs make her look like she’s wearing pajama bottoms. That, and her neck’s wooly cowl suggest that a husky might have been part of the mix.

Afton is my daughter Ellen’s dog.  We got her when Ellen was a ninth-grader.  Afton would wake Ellen up for school.  On those mornings when big tests loomed or a paper was due, I’d put a red bow around Afton’s neck before I sent her in to Ellen’s room.  “Oh, she is sooo cute!” Ellen would say.  Ellen never said that to me when I woke her up.

Ellen went off to Panama for a service trip one summer, to Portugal as an exchange student and now to Washington D.C. for college.  Afton stays with me, enthroned on the leather couch. Wherever Ellen’s life takes her, she’s always eager for a puppy report.  “Thank goodness for Skype,” says Ellen. “Afton is just no good on the phone.”

I am not a dog person. The unauthorized adoption of a dog was a minor factor in the break-up of my marriage.  I’ve put everything I had into raising three kids and keeping a complicated household humming along, mostly on my own.  I nearly made it through their raising-up with pets no more demanding than guinea pigs.  I was a complete fool to take on a dog so late in the game.

Foolish undertakings do bring silly satisfactions.  I love my kids. I love my mate. I do not love my dog. However, I am very, very fond of her and deeply grateful for the joy Afton brings to my nearest and dearest."