A fine specimen

Just thought I'd put up another Shih-tzu pic. Drake says I'm not allowed to put tiny hats on our dog. Even cowboy hats. He ruins all the fun.

Puppies!

Do you see those sweet little blobs next to this cute dog (and the little one in front buried in the neck?) One of them may soon be an addition to the Dantzler family.

One of my wonderful students brought her Shih-tzu to school one day and I fell in love. I know that it is totally cliche to be a voice teacher with a shih-tzu, but I can't help it. We'd better start accumulating turbans, bangles, large sunglasses and the other necessary accoutrements. She left Romeo (the father of these sweet puppies) with me for the afternoon, and I held him and every time someone sang a high note he would pop his head up and look over the piano. I was gleeful. When she came back to pick him up at the end of school, she said "maybe if our dogs have puppies again you can have one!"

I didn't think about it too much (and by that I mean that I read all I could about Shih-tzu's online and re-watched Best in Show for the thousandth time, and visit Shih-tzu puppies often at pet stores.) But then! While I was still in Charlotte, Drake came back to Austin and ran into her at school, and she told me that they were having puppies and were saving me one to have of my very own!!! Drake responded with slightly less glee than I did. I think he said, and I quote, "A Shih-tzu isn't very much of a dog... what do they even eat?" We have since found that they eat dog food, like normal dogs, but that it is best to give them spring water, since they are very sensitive.

So now the eternal question. Am I allowed to have a dog? I've been able to care for plants, and that's worked out well, but a dog is something else entirely. Drake and I are both a little clumsy.... what if we crush it accidentally?? Drake says that you don't accidentally crush dogs that you love, that you always are subconsciously aware of where they are. I asked him the same would apply to humans, since he proportedly loves me, and is constantly stepping on me and crushing me. He said that if I were a puppy that I would yelp and then he wouldn't step on me. I do yelp, but he says I "don't really mean it."

But accidental death aside. We don't even know where we're going to live as of July 1st. Are you allowed to have a dog if you don't know where you're going to live? What if we end up in NYC, or what if we both get singing jobs that take us away at the same time? I have to say that I am looking forward to getting a little carrier purse for it....

Should Drake and Alta get a sweet little dog of their very own to love?

Check one.
Yes
No

The World's Ugliest Dog Contest

Last night, Amy and I watched the World's Ugliest Dog Contest on Animal Planet, expecting to see some ugly-cute dogs, maybe some droolers, you know. What we saw will haunt my thoughts and dreams for the rest of time.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet SAM!!!

Look away if you can, but you will continue to come back to this picture and to send it to your friends until it becomes a part of your subconscious, and that's when Sam will begin to take over your life.

You'll be enjoying a cup of coffee tomorrow morning and you'll have to look "just one more time." You'll find yourself plunging the depths of his one cloudy eye searching in vain for its pupil. You will wonder whether the discolorations are freckles or warts. You'll ask yourself if perhaps his owners filed his teeth down in order to prepare them for more attractive porcelain veneers.

Then you'll do some research. You'll find out that Sam is a purebred. That's right, a purebred. He looks like that on purpose. You'll think to yourself what is the purpose of the Chinese Crested Hairless??? Lap dog? Guard Dog? Further research will uncover that "The ancient Aztecs kept them as bedwarmers and, believe it or not, did eat them. The Chinese trading ships stopped along Africa on their routes, and it was there that they picked up these dogs because they were excellent ratters for aboard their ships. The stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee, used to breed them."

So, there you have it. These dogs are good for "ratting," bedwarming, and eating. Good luck EVER sleeping again.

You know you want to see more....