xtcian

YAY! Puppies = win. Lily and Lucy (good name for a kids' book, no?) will be BFF. Lily is as adorable as Lucy is gorgeous. They need their own TV series, I swear. (Surely you guys can arrange that!)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been secretly wondering when you folks would get a new puppy!! Chopes would be proud.

Lily is precious. Congratulations on your fur child.

Great decision, dog-lovers. We had a beloved Australian Shepherd for years--Shep (creative name huh?). Awesome breed.

Congratulations! I love the look on Lucy's face. You can see the love shining out of those precious eyes. Yea!!

Hang in there baby!

Simply put: dogs rule.

Hey! Cute dog - she looks just like Dooce's Coco. Hope y'all have fun with her. I'm impressed with your willingness to get a dog, especially given your bicoastal lifestyle. :)

Ian! OMFG!! A black-tri Mini Aussie? I'm hyperventilating with approval. My three Australian Shepherd god-dogs (who you've all met), Marlo, Eliot (also a mini), and Mina, also approve.

I'll take this opportunity to also thank you, Tessa, and Lucy for my awesome birthday present -- I can hardly believe that the Lucy in that photo is the same as the one pictured here.

Gosh, this blog perhaps excites me more than it should. I may have a problem; nonetheless, I cannot wait to meet Lily.

Sort of along the lines of Tanya's comment - how does having a puppy work with a bicoastal lifestyle? I want to get a puppy for my little girl, but we seem to have so many other impediments to travel, I am nervous to add another one.

It seems pretty clear the impact Obama's victory is going to have on the dog population in America: a puppy for every family!

Congratulations!

Well, emma and Tanya:

http://urlizer.com/00/2358/

Aw, that's fantastic. Always a good thing to have a dog as part of the family.

Just pick your shoes up off the floor for the next two years and hide your underwear.

Regarding Obama...I do hope some people adopt a dog from a shelter rather than buying whatever expensive breed or hybrid the Obamas buy. (And yes, one of their daughters is allergic so they have an excuse...but so many sweet dogs are languishing in shelters.

CM, I feel the same way about adopting pets rather than buying them. But it's not for sure yet whether the Obamas will buy or adopt a puppy. Many rescue groups specialize in certain breeds, for whom they find new homes after removing animals from puppy/kitty mills and abusive situations. I hope the Obamas adopt from the rescue group of a hypoallergenic breed and kick-start an adoption trend.

(Somebody pinch me! It doesn't feel real yet to write about the Obamas as First-Family-Elect. January 20 can't come soon enough!)

Hey, coincidence: Here's what showed up in my Daily Puppy e-mail today --

http://www.dailypuppy.com/puppies/Sadie-the-Australian-Shepherd_2008-11-10

Talk about cute.

Sorry to go off topic – I love puppies — but I've been away and missed the chance last week to congratulate XTCian-ers. Presumably your faith in America has been restored. I'll catch up on old entries soon. I hope I'm wrong about Obama and that he will turn out to be a good president. I'll still oppose his social_ist policies, of course, but it's nice to see the other half happy and optimistic for a change. McCain was a poor candidate, no doubt.

The bright side of the election for me – aside from the fact that good news will now start appearing in the papers and on tv – is that it is now undeniable that we made racial progress in the last few decades. A lot more than many believed as recently as last week. I remember a conversation I had with a friend about 5 or 6 years ago where I suggested that the civil rights battles had largely been won. I thought there was little anti-black bias among the population in general (or at least no more than there was anti-white bias among blacks). My friend was apoplectic. Said I was delusional. He thought we lived in a racist society only marginally better than the 60s. It was only better hidden now, he told me.

President Obama destroys that canard, doesn't he? I think we were probably at this point sometime during the 80s. One could argue that the country was anxious to elect a black president (Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were implausible candidates for reasons having nothing to do with race) and Obama benefited from his color. After all, there is no way a white first-term senator with Obama's paper thin resume and essentially no accomplishments other than talking about himself would have been nominated for president let alone elected.

We were too anxious, in my opinion, since Obama is not the moderate he pretended to be during the campaign. We were duped, in a way. I would've preferred a black *conservative* president, of course, but I admit it would've been with much the same sentiment as liberals had in electing Obama. At any rate, it's nice to put the past behind us. The racial grievance industry is going out of business. Or am I being delusional?

I second Lyle - almost every well known breed has a rescue organization you can search for online. My Mom has adopted through the Boston Terrier rescue organization a few times. However, it's hard to get a puppy that way. Also hard to get them from shelters as shelters are usually full of older and bigger dogs around here.
Would love to see the puppy mills and puppies sold at pet stores outlawed!

Matt - I wondered where you went! Glad to know you didn't drop off the planet. As for your comment about anti-black bias, yes, you are delusional. But so was I until a few months ago. I, too, thought that we as a nation had moved on and were far more color-blind than we used to be. Then I went to an excellent race-awareness class - sponsored by my very traditional public utility employer - and it totally opened my eyes. The presenter was not an angry black man raging against the machine. The class used facts and U.S. census data and statistics and tapped into participants' experiences to highlight how very, very far we still need to go. One telling moment came when we heard from our black participants talking about profiling. They ranged in age from 21 (fresh-faced female graduate of Spelman from a well-to-do Atlanta family) to a near retiree with a high school diploma. Every single one had a story to tell about being pulled over by a cop for no apparent reason (the Spelman grad said that the cop questioned her for driving such a nice car - her grandmother's that she let her drive to a bridal shower). These were not stories about their friend or cousin or grandfather - they were personal accounts. And, working in a very rural small town in NC, I can tell you from first-hand experience that we have a loooooonnnng way to go still.

As for Obama. While it is historic that we have finally elected a black president, I do not in any way believe that his race was the reason he was elected. Clearly you have been on vacation and away from any news source, because your assertion that he wouldn't be there if he were white has been well-covered and debunked over and over. That argument is standard Republican talking points from before the primaries. The reason Obama was elected is because America's reputation is in the toilet, along with the economy, and the people are sick of the status quo. Obama represents hope and change. He is eloquent, inspirational, diplomatic, fair and REASONABLE, and folks are sick of the fear-mongering the other side has pounded out year after year. Eight years of misery is one hell of a motivational, get-out-the-vote tactic. Y'all had your chance, you sucked at it, and now it's time to move on.

(sorry, Matt. I'm in a bad mood today - I know I'm coming off all defensive and bitchy. Thanks for being my punching bag.)

Matt - One bright side of the election for me is that I may no longer be paying your salary.

The Helms/Atwater/Rove-style demonization of black people that worked so well in electoral politics over the last half-century seems to have run out of gas. Racial grievance industry out of business, indeed... or McCain had too much class and self-respect to yell "Jeremiah Wright" over and over.

You moving to Canada anyway, Gadfly? ;)

No worries, Tanya. Punch away. I'm in a strangely good mood for the dire straits we may all be in. Seriously, you don't appear to be differentiating between "debunk" and "disagree" or "anecdotal" and "empirical." I think the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of my hypothesis. By the way, look at that chart Ian posted the other day about Democrats/Republicans. Notice the cycles?

Here's wishing Obama well and that he's as wise as you say he is.

With apologies to Bob Dylan:

Come conservative pundits
Throughout the land
Don't criticize
What you can't understand
The White House and Congress
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
We'll be buildin' a new one
If you can, lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin.

Matt, you're handling Obama's win a lot more graciously and rationally than I would have if McCain had won. Props!

Hey, since this comments section is already blending the issues of pets and politics, see http://marbury.typepad.com/marbury/2008/11/fear-the-puppy.html to read how William Kristol (a.k.a. Palin's biggest fan) interpreted Obama's puppy comments as a bad sign for conservatives.