Jon was given a one-pound box of See's Candies today at work. See's Candies are not easy to come by around here. You have to drive two hours to get to the nearest store. Anyway, he brought them home to share with me — he was even letting me have my pick since it's my birthday tomorrow. We ate several pieces and then I took a small nibble out of each piece to see which ones I wanted to eat later and which ones Jon could have. (Aren't I nice?)

I left the opened box on my side table in my room. Later while we were eating dinner I noticed our small dog Ralph was missing. I found him on our bed, chocolate covering our quilts and his face and only one piece of chocolate left in the box.

I'm ashamed to say my first thought was, "I can't believe he ate the See's Candies before I could eat my favorite pieces." I then quickly turned my thoughts to my dog's health.

Ralph is only about 20 pounds and I knew the chocolate would make him very sick. I promptly grabbed the hydrogen peroxide and we made Ralph drink a bit to induce vomiting. Jon says he lives up to his name — he promptly threw up (even one whole chocolate was expelled) and we gave him a bath.  He seemed to be doing better and about an hour later he threw up again. Not just a little, but copious amounts of chocolate, nougat, nut and caramel vomit. Half of this ended up on our Chocolate Lab Lulu's back. (She was laying on the floor under the couch.) The irony is not lost on me.

Now we have two very clean dogs and a lot of dirty laundry. The two dogs are now sitting in their kennels looking very forlorn.

The kids got a new sister this last weekend — a chocolate lab. We adopted a lab this weekend from the local shelter. She is only a year old, and we named her Lulu. She really is a great dog. We have not been eager to get another dog since Dot died. I mean, how can you replace perfection in a pet?

But, we are soon to move into a bigger house, and we decided it was time. My mom was here visiting for the week so she went with us, and I have to say, it was love at first sight — on both sides. Lulu seems to adore everyone.

When the girls left the house this morning she stood at the window for quite a while waiting for them to come back. Jon finally had to distract her with a decapitated stuffed animal.

We are fortunate to have found such a loving, well-behaved dog. It's nice to have a pet in the house again. Nothing against our leopard gecko Calvin, but a dog is bit more snuggly.