Shalom

You know, I’m all for spontaneity, but only in small, non life altering doses.   Yeah, so that didn’t work so well for me this past weekend.

On Saturday we decided to go to a horse show in the town where my brother and niece live.  We thought it would be a nice family day together, and it was!  The weather was perfect, and the three girls had  a blast together.

The horses were gorgeous and the costume category was a scream, LOVED the Mad Hatter!

And then I walked away for a few minutes and came back to find THIS…

Yeah, well.  The short version of the story, this guy showed the girls a puppy, a FOR SALE puppy that happened to have 5 siblings.  So we took the pup back to the owner and asked the price.  It was too much, and I didn’t have any money (seriously I spent my cash on lunch).  The girls had robbed their piggy banks in hopes of finding a super concession stand…so I counted the money they had brought.  Combined it was $30….considerably less than the man was asking for the pups.  But me, not wanting to be the bad guy told the girls that if he’d take their $30 they could have the pup.  You see where this is going, don’t you?

They asked for the deal, the man declined and I was eager to go back to watching the horses…far far away from the pups.  So I said “ok girls, the man said no, so lets go.”   It was then that Olivia, my complacent, non confrontational child said “I don’t care!  My sister and I only have $30 and we are going to buy that puppy!”.  The crowd snickered and I was about to scold Olivia for being rude when this man says “Well then little girl, I guess you just bought at $30 pup.”

WHAT???  Did he NOT see me shaking my head NO behind them when they asked?  Does he not know that I’m NOT an animal person?  Why of all days does Olivia pick NOW to be assertive???  Seriously??

A dog of course needs a good name when it’s added to the family (ahem).  I told the girls they needed to pick a name that would reflect the behavior they want in the dog.  So Olivia said “I know, PEACE….no wait, that’s what my name means.”   I offered “Shalom” as it means the God kind of peace – nothing broken, nothing missing peace.   It was  a hit.

So here we are with a beagle/blue tick mixed dog. Did I mention that this is the most laid back, PEACEFUL and calm puppy I’ve ever seen?  He was house broken the first day, with no accidents.  Too bad his bladder is the size of a grape and must be emptied every 2-3 hours at night, but I guess you can’t have everything.  By all appearances, the girls are thrilled, wouldn’t you say?