Marvelous Miss Millie

              On June 26, 2019, a young babe was born. She was one of 10 babies born to “Korie” aka Caprock Barefoot in the Park. On August 21st, we made the drive to Houston to pick up our sweet new baby, already christened Millie. Of course Grace went with us to make sure that we picked out the correct puppy. It was to be her sister so she knew exactly which one it should be.

            To be continued…I am still working on the story of our family’s recent adventures, but am behind the eight ball due to lack of sleep because of aforementioned puppy. I did want to share some pictures though so please enjoy.

            ….and over a month later, I have still not “continued.” You would think that sans job, I would have all of this extra time to just sit and write story after story about Millie’s adventures, but frankly, I’m just exhausted. Anyone who has known Grace over the past two and a half years will know that she was not always easy as pie (I don’t know that I agree with that colloquialism…pie is not just super easy to make, especially if you make the crust and eating pie, while most delicious, can do a doozy to your mental balance if you have any sort of disordered eating). Anyway, we had our challenges with Grace, but I was working and I left most of those challenges on the floor for Bill to clean up.

            So then along comes Millie. As you can see from the pictures, she is probably the cutest thing ever. This has a lot to do with why she is still alive. We looked up her name and it means “industrious.” She also has a tag on her collar that says “Trouble Maker.” Both of these are incredibly accurate adjectives for our Millie. She is very busy, all the time, making a LOT of trouble.

            Probably her foulest habit is the poop eating. Her own poop. I actually throw up in my mouth a little bit every time I notice she’s done it. Once, during a dinner party, we noticed Millie running around the house with what looked like a cigar sticking out of her mouth. It was not a cigar. It was a dried up turd. Grace never, ever did this.

             Grace did not bark until she was six months old. Millie seems to have learned this skill at a younger age and she will NOT let us forget it. She loves barking to tell us she is not being treated fairly and we must give her treats.

            We no longer have rolls of toilet paper or boxes of Kleenex sitting out in the bathroom. You know…where they should be sitting out. We have to hide them. Otherwise, shredded tissue ends up all over the house. It’s actually not just Millie. She is just the instigator. Grace never would have done this on her own.

            Millie is a counter surfer. We were used to that with Grace (i.e. the beef tenderloin incident of 2018), but Millie seems to have started early. She pulls everything down from counters and tables. I once caught her running around with a bag full of apples. She has no shame. She just thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to jump up and take whatever she wants. I guess when you are cute, you can do that.

            Millie peed at Nordstrom. I don’t even know how to begin explaining the pain and humiliation of our own child soiling the sacred grounds of Nordstrom. It is the mother ship after all.

            Now to the good stuff…Grace ADORES Millie and vice versa. They have been the best of friends since day one. Although there was some question of our sanity when we decided to get a second dog, we just really felt like Grace wanted her own little pal to hang out with. They are like Frick and Frack or Click and Clack. There is no jealousy or ego. They share, they compromise. They could teach politicians a thing or two (or three or four thousand…).

            Millie doesn’t bite as much as Grace did and she is more of a snuggler. She also comes when she is called (when she wants to of course). The three times Grace  “escaped,” she was halfway across the county before we managed to trick her into thinking we would give her a 16 ounce ribeye if she came back.

            We have discovered that two Golden Retrievers bring smiles to just about everyone (except for that weird lady on our walks that absolutely hates everything and everyone). Children love Grace and Millie and the giggles are infectious. Only one child started screaming and crying when she saw them, but I have to think something was really wrong with that little humanoid and her parents. I know some of our visitors get a little intimidated by the zealousness of the girls, but they really do bring a lot of love to our household. There is no greater joy than to see Millie curl up in Grace’s tail for an afternoon nap. In these crazy times we are in, I would highly recommend the addition of a couple of Goldens to every family. You won’t regret it (well, not after a few months anyway).