And then there was Winter...

Winter was the first of our dogs I named. These photos were taken at the office terrace in August 2010, a couple of days after she showed up there. Later I was to identify her as a Corgi mix--short, powerful legs, elongated body, a passion for chasing anything that moves (or flies, especially), eyes so expressive sometimes I think she's half human. 

She was bald from the waist down. Some kind of flea allergy, probably. But she was sweet, needy in the way smaller dogs are. Attention, attention, attention--she can't get enough. She came home on September 13, two days before our Sept 15--Mexican Independence--party, barely enough time to get her bearings, to make friends with the other three. But at the party she behaved perfectly.

She's got character; of all our dogs (until the puppies came), she's the only one who ever bit someone. She doesn't like strangers, she doesn't like the gardener, she doesn't like workers that come to fix the roof or an electrical line or a busted pipe or the cable. She doesn't like bicycles. She doesn't like children.

The intention--as always--was to get her healthy and then find a home for her. But one gets attached. And Winter isn't an easy dog. She's better off here, where we love her in spite of, where she's never punished but rather gets a good talking-to.

(Literally: I hold her face in both hands and explain why it's unacceptable for her to eat the others' food, or to bully another dog away from my petting hand, or bite the gardener. The effectiveness of these measures is subject for another post.)

Yes, Winter is better off here. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.