Meet Peluche!

What a whirlwind life can be. But we can live in peace in the midst of it.

Last Thursday, our connections took us from Penang Malaysia, to Singapore, to Bangkok Thailand, to Los Angeles. When we landed in Los Angeles, we had the fun of getting to stay the night at my brother's place and to spend a few precious hours with him. It was great. On Friday morning we caught the first flight for Denver and landed at 10:30am. Our friend picked us up and we got home at noon, showered, unloaded, reloaded, and were back in the car at 1pm to drive down to just north of Colorado Springs where I had a wedding rehearsal to catch. Saturday, I had the honor to be a bridesmaid in a dear, dear friend's wedding. It was worth the rush home to be there as they exchanged wedding vows. Saturday night, we drove back home and really unloaded, with the comment "I never want to unpack again."

Sunday morning, we enjoyed a beautiful day in Colorado - the smells, the sights, the snow. All of it. I love this place. In the morning, we took a walk in our neighborhood park and, after many weeks of discussion, came to the conclusion: we'd get a dog in the next couple of weeks. We had in mind a couple of breeds, made some phone calls to potential options, but we really wanted to adopt from a dog rescue/shelter. After fostering for a lab rescue for the last 2 years, we realize how many dogs are put under simply because they become lost, their owners lose their homes, or other reasons that aren't their fault. All that said, we walked into the Longmont Humane Society "just to look", and 4 hours later brought home our own dog.

So, without further ado: Meet Peluche ("Che" for short)!

Peluche (pronounced pay-loo-chay) is the Spanish word for "plush/teddy" as used in the word "teddy-bear" (oso de peluche). His nickname is "Che", after the Argentine revolutionary who (although at times misguided) fought for the rights of the poor in many Latin American countries. He's reported to have said: "Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.” Peluche is a leonberger/golden retriever/chow-chow mix, 55 lbs, 4 years old, and in his first two days with us he's behaving like a champ. We think someone in Wyoming must be crying to have lost him - we can't imagine a more perfect gentleman.

Our favorite Che traits after the first 48 hours:
- He's a beautiful runner - able to change pace to be a great running partner for both of us
- He has a double coat, with a brilliant gold undercoat that glows in the Colorado sun and acts like gold highlights to his black coat
- He is gentle - he's never jumped, lets babies pull themselves to their feet by his hair, lets us man-handle him in the bathtub, welcomes strangers into the house with a quiet tail-wag, has yet to bark, and is just all around mellow
- When he needs to be let out, he stands by the door and nudges the doorknob with his nose and looks at us; simply repeating until we finally take care of him (and fortunately he has a bladder of steel because his new family needs some training)
- He loves car-rides, fetching, being pet, and sleeping

Our least favorite Che trait:
- He appears to be a picky eater. After standing in a semi-shocked state in the Walmart dog-food aisle (how to decide?!), we decided to go cheap because, after all, how can we guess if he'll like the food or not until we try. Start cheap and work our way up was our solution.

You may wonder why we got a dog at this time in our life. Well, after much prayer and contemplation we finally decided that as much as we may try to know and plan our future, there are so many shifting parts that it's impossible to absolutely know anything. But God knows the future and if we need to go somewhere where Peluche can't follow, God will provide a way for him and us. (And, quite frankly, dogs only have so long at shelters before they are euthanized and we can offer a home to one of these to prevent that.) And for the trips in the coming years where we need to be gone for a few weeks at a time, we have had generous friends and family who have offered to dog-sit for us. We believe that God provided Peluche for us - he brings a peace to our spirits, motivates consistent exercise for our bodies, and laughter to our hearts and faces. We really think Peluche is a gift - he spent 3 weeks in the shelter and we can't imagine why no-one took him home unless he was kept just for us :).

Welcome home Peluche!