A Living Gift

Yesterday, Curtis took me down to Phoenix to purchase my Christmas gift.  He bought me (and himself) an adorable little dachshund black and tan puppy.  Fifteen years ago tomorrow he gave me a wonderful red dachshund we named Maxwell.  Max was a great dog and just filled the bill for loving and keeping us company as our children grew to adulthood and left.  He even kept his esteemed status as our dog child after the grandchildren came.  But alas, last Christmas while we were in Austin, TX with my dad, sister and her family, he developed congestive heart failure and we grieved greatly as we put him down on Dec. 29, 2007.  All year every time we saw a mini dachshund like Max we grieved again but remembered all the good times we had with him.  He was a super companion that stood loyally with us as we fought the cancer Curtis had in the mid 90's and made the move from suburban dog to savvy city dweller when we relocated to San Francisco, CA.  As Christmas neared my heart really began to ache for another such companion for us.  So after perusing the pet classifieds all fall we found him in Phoenix, AZ just as we found Maxwell.  So the miniature dachshund with the giant name of Ezekiel came to live with us as of yesterday.  We will call him Zeke with the possible exceptions of when he "misbehaves" and at that such time he will most likely again be called the full moniker of Ezekiel.  He is napping next to me on the sofa as I write this posting.  He is full of energy for about 45 minutes then "needs" a little down time.  He will be 2 months old on Christmas Eve and has been introduced to our other children via the web cam.  Of course, no gift at Christmas can come anywhere near the gift we all received that first Christmas so long ago, but he is a special one in his own right.  So, thank you, Curtis, for this terrific gift of love.