Little Carrie

It turns out that Cary is not a boy, he's a girl. So I've spelled his name 'Carrie', which is more girl-like. S/he's also much smaller than I thought she would be - 5.09 kilograms, or just over 11 pounds.

Even though she looks sad, she is definitely not. If you're looking for a happy, trouble-free little dog, this is a good one. As long as you don't want her to be beautiful and look like a girl.

Carrie is just learning English, and she gets her commands mixed up. For example, 'Sit!' means 'Bounce!'; 'Off!' means 'Bounce!'; and 'Down!' means 'Bounce! Bounce!' But she does recognize the universal 'CH!' sound, which makes her stop whatever she's doing and drop to the floor.

Her three favorite activities are (in this order): snacks, walks and snuggling. She follows her human from room to room all day long. At each stop, she curls up and goes to sleep - on the floor if necessary, and in your lap if possible.

This morning I thought I would be Cool Dog Woman and remove the four ticks who traveled with her from Cabo. I read the instructions and sterilized my tweezers.

You are supposed to squeeze and pull ever so gently until the tick gives up and lets go of the dog. Sounds easy, right? Well, it is, but only until the tick beside the tick you're squeezing moves. Then you have to not throw the dog and the ticks across the room and the contents of your stomach up.

So off to the vet we went, and now Carrie is tick-free.