Things are crazy busy from now until the college's commencement ceremony next Saturday. So sometimes I just need a picture of a creature that's really got life figured out.

After some frustration on Monday morning, I was finally able to sign a ridiculous number of documents, securing a structure to serve as home in Asheville. Anyone who's ever been part of a house purchase knows that you sign your arm numb during the closing process. Multiply that by three and that's what I had to do as I was signing (using power of attorney) for my wonderful co-buyer who is remaining in eff-ell-ay until she gets a job up here.

The house is very empty right now, and I'm primarily setting up in one of the upstairs bedrooms. It looks a little like a flophouse in here, with a lone air mattress on the floor and my laptop set up on a cardboard box. But at least I've managed to work with the local phone company to get a DSL line set-up, thereby freeing me from the potential wrath of the new neighbors whose wireless I've been pilfering throughout the week.

I'm not sure what the dogs are making of things. Radley's been on one of the hunger strikes he embarks upon when he's most uncertain. He sits by his full food dish for hours, growling at any other canines who are naturally curious about that spare chow. I think he's waiting for his other human to come home. He feels very strongly about the whole family being together at mealtimes. He's a traditionalist, that neurotic little dog of ours.

They've also been greatly enjoying the new smells and have been extensively checking out the backyard. They've even been more proactive than me about meeting the new neighbors.

My friend ccyl (who's an stellar theologian, by the way) once noted that she mostly peruses this space for the occasional dog picture. With that in mind, here's three images from yesterday's long roadtrip:

( bark bark bark )

Driving through the remnants of a tropical storm, it takes ten hours to get from Orlando to Asheville. Driving with three dogs, it takes eleven hours.

Launched at 8:30 this morning from the house in "unincorporated Seminole County" with the new city of residence as the target. The little(ish) Toyota was loaded down with a few meager belongings and three pooches artfully spaced apart to minimize territorial sniping that could be, shall we say, disruptive to the driver. Nola and Maxie were on either side of the backseat, held in place by their harnesses and dog seatbelts with a big box in between them. Radley got to ride shotgun. Maxie was ideal, settling down right away. Nola whined and yipped until we hit the interstate. Radley, with an endless capacity to dredge up anxiety in such situations, engaged in frenzied panting until Daytona (54.3 miles) and didn't completely give up and start sleeping until Jacksonville (141 miles).

Nola, while not house-trained, is apparently (and thankfully) car-trained, and proved to be the most reliable at determining when a stop was needed. She also demonstrated that her vaunted escape artist skills are still intact (when she was a wee puppy, it took us two attempts to get a crate she couldn't climb out of) by either chewing through or breaking her seatbelt somewhere around Columbia, SC. Maxie was the beneficiary, riding unrestrained the rest of the way. She settled right down and stayed put, at least until we got to the hotel, when charging into the front seat seemed appropriate to her.

I will say that the iPod was a godsend (or, rather, a greatfriendssend for this trip. As much as I loved it before, driving that far with only barks for conversation immediately propels the device into the echelon of the invaluable. I'm also pleased it managed to find the one Kiss offering nestled in the forest of 5400 songs to shuffle up and play when I crossed into South Carolina, home state to the greatest coffeehouse franchise of all time.

Meanwhile, my usual traveling companion wore herself out today getting our house ready to be scrubbed clean by professionals and put up for sale (with some emergency help from whiskeyson I hear--thanks).

With any luck, I'll sign the papers to close on the new Asheville house tomorrow (we've been beset by stupid little setbacks that put the actual timing of the close in doubt) and be settled in there with my sad little air mattress by this time tomorrow night.

The new gig starts Tuesday.

These here are crazy times.

Three weeks in and the household is starting to settle into a new state of normalcy. The new puppy, who we've named Nola, is rambunctious and a little crazy, just like a puppy should be. After some time to come to the realization that this new furry creature was destined to be a permanent addition, the other two pooches have determined new approaches to their interactions with Nola. After extreme levels of skepticism, Radley has decided that Nola is worth spending some time with, and they've spent time each day running through the house or wrestling on the bed. On the other hand, Maxie has chosen to largely ignore Nola, offering nary a glance as the puppy bounds around crazily around her. Happily, this is precisely what we had hoped for. Nola was largely brought in to keep Radley company.

There have been some other challenges with Nola. She enjoys chewing on things she's not supposed to like wire wastebaskets, wooden furniture and any item that can be labeled "footwear." Playing with humans can sometimes lead to her launching herself right at the head with her razor-sharp little teeth bared, making her look a little like the nasty little mouth on the tip of the alien's tongue in the Alien movies. These a pretty typical puppy issues, but we've largely been spared them with out other dogs so we're not certain that we're taking the right approaches to stopping these behaviors.

All in all, things are going very well. With that, I'll close with a sort of cryptic image!

So here's how this happened.

We've been talking about it for quite some time. We were hoping bringing a new puppy in might change some of the canine dynamic in our house in a positive way. Our dogs Radley and Maxie have brokered a certain understanding, but they're not exactly pals and certainly not playmates. Maxie is happy as can be with her tennis ball and a human to provide food at specifically set times. Radley, despite his extraordinary lack of social skills, has often seemed like he could use someone to bond with and run around the house. We're set against pet stores, much preferring rescue organizations. Problem there is that they rarely have small dogs. Puppies are even more uncommon. We've checked periodically and even came relatively close to adopting that elusive third dog at a Petsmart showcase of needy barkers once.

This past Saturday, we were both getting our haircuts at the same hoity-toity salon and there was a steady stream of people coming through the doors raving about the adorable puppies a couple storefronts down at one of those upscale pet supply shops. We went over to see for ourselves. I've already shared the end result of that sidetrip.

As noted, Radley is very skittish, highly suspicious of any sentient creatures other than the three he's been living with for the past two to three years, and integrating a new dog into a household with well-established pack rules is a challenge under the best of circumstances, so we've got a long, challenging trip ahead of us. There have been some pretty bad moments thus far, but a couple hopeful ones, as well.

Right now the three dogs have worked out a fragile peace.



We'll see what the weeks ahead bring.

(By the way, our coffee table isn't usually that messy. I guess it's appropriate that both a coffee cup and a Chuck Taylor tennis shoe are represented. It proves it's actually where I live.)

Well, we've been talking about this for a long time...



Three dogs doesn't seem unreasonable, does it?