house and dog sitting

one of the biggest "prices to pay" for moving to bishkek is leaving our dogs behind. as mentioned previously, we have two of the world's greatest dogs (seriously... they were voted the world's greatest dogs on an online poll!). molly is 15 and is at the stage of her life where she only wants peace and quiet and the occasional rub behind the ear. she was an outside dog most of her life and only made the transition inside the past year when we adopted her from jen's dad. as a result of having been outside most of her life... she now HATES being outside. bathroom breaks consist of only going outside to the edge of the sidewalk. no more grass or nature for her! boone is going on eight and is an amazing dog who is still in puppy mode. he needs to play and run and cuddle all day every day. he climbs trees, rides in a trailer behind our bikes, and helps old women cross streets. they are both really, really good stuff. they are our kids.

the only saving grace to our leaving is having someone who is going to love them and take care of them while we are gone. our friend richard, one of my staff at the university of houston, is going to house and dog sit while we are on our "honeymoon". he has watched the kids before and is very much a dog person. we also have a good group of friends (april and nick, mark and emily) who will be able to help and and love on them while we are gone.

so i guess this is a little blog prayer that boone and molly are happy and healthy while we are gone. here is hoping that molly never has to go outside unless she wants to. here is hoping that boone gets lots of time running at the park. here is hoping that molly always gets the last bite of dinner off of the table. here is hoping that boone gets to crawl into bed around 400am every morning and cuddle. here is hoping that molly stays in good health and that her hips don't bother her too much. here is hoping that boone stops being scared of toaster oven dings and the elevator dings he hears on television shows. and here is a thanks to our friends who will take care of them!

richard


april and nick


jenny with emily


mark