We Have Named The Change Jack

So many changes are taking place here at The Rocking Pony Palace. It seems as though everything is being shaken up, rethought, and molded into something else altogether. And shockingly, while I'm living through these changes, it didn't occur to me that our life six months from now will look nothing like our life did six months ago until a friend pointed it out. It's the incurable happy in me that makes me always see the positive. Changes aren't always bad things.

One of the changes we're making involves the kennel. Truly, there's barely an area in our life that isn't touched by these wide-sweeping changes. My beloved corgis are on a short leash here. As are the Cavaliers and our Boston. For various reasons, 3 of our 5 girls need to be retired within the year, and a 4th one just isn't being productive. At all. Finding ourselves faced with replacing nearly all of our dogs in one fell swoop, we decided it was a good time to just make an entire breed exchange. Our corgis shed like, well, corgis, and we cannot keep them in the house with us because of the family members suffering from dog allergies. The dander given off by a corgi will, at times, render a family member unable to breathe. Therefore, my beloved but hairy dogs are outside dogs. I hate this. (A lot.) I have guilt. (Much of it.) So I rotate those girls in and out frequently, trying to give each one the love it needs while trying desperately to minimize the hair and maximize the air quality.

So within a year, we plan to no longer have corgis (my heart cries a little when I think of this), and our Cavvies and the Boston will also be re-homed. We are replacing these girls with French Bulldogs. And these dear frenchies will be in the house with us. All of them. And by "all," I mean just 4. Okay, to you it may not be "just 4," but to us, it's almost half what we've got going on now. And it'll be nice. It'll be nice to have just 4 dogs, and it'll be nice to have my 4 dogs inside with me every single day.

Today, the change has begun. Today, we purchased a French Bulldog. He is the beginning of new things here, but he doesn't know that. He knows that we love him dearly, he knows that our house is full of fun, he knows that the stuffed squirrel wearing a helmet and squeaks is his, but he has no clue what he represents. There are high hopes and a big future pinned on our wee boy, but tonight we focused on the important things. On his first night at his new home, he learned that his name is Jack, and he learned to play fetch.

Meet Jack.