My Birthday!

Today was such a good day. But let me start off by telling you what happened this morning at work.

I was paged overhead to go to the front desk. Since I was in the middle of doing something, I figured it could wait a minute. Then the activities director came to me and said I needed to get up there immediately because it was an irate family that demanded to speak with the social worker on south (me...duh!). I told her she's the best at BS'ing that I know of, and she said she couldn't make them happy. So then my boss, Linda, said she would go with me. She was walking beside me and said she had my back, but it would be good training experience for me. I told her that since she's about 3' tall, she should go in front of me and I'd have HER back. :)

I rounded the corner to the lobby, and the irate family members were actually my mom and step-dad! They drove over from Omak to take me to lunch. :) What a nice surprise!! So, they went and picked up Madeleine and then met me at Moon's Mongolian Grill (yummy!!). They were also happy to have some of my friends from work come along, since we had all just discussed minutes earlier where we were going for lunch for my birthday. So, we all had fun.

Then, I got back from lunch and all of the dept heads were sent home early to keep the hours down. So, I had a short day at work. :) I went shopping with the gift card that mom and Mike gave me. Oh, and I came home and changed into my cozy new hooded sweatshirt they got me with a picture of Shaggy on it. I love it!!



These are some pictures of Shaggy. Not the one on my sweatshirt, as I have to scan it into the computer, but this is what my Shagamuffins looks like. :)

The picture of my sweatshirt is of him with snow all over his face. Apparently he has taken a liking to burying his head in the snow for a few seconds, and then when he pops back up he has snow all over his face.

Shaggy is by far my favorite animal I've ever owned. Of course I LOVE all of my animals that I've ever had, but there's a connection between us. A quick history on how he came into my life...

When I was a senior in high school I bought a chihuahua from the pet store in Omak. I named him Ralph and he had a spiked collar. :) I even had my senior pictures taken with him. He followed me everywhere! A few months after I got him he became really ill, so I took him to the vet who said he had a viral infection in his stomach. After much treatment in a few short weeks, Ralph died, which broke my heart. I later found out from the vet that the whole litter that he came from had the same infection, and only one was known to have survived longer than Ralph.

My parents knew how heart broken I was over losing Ralph, so when my mom heard an ad for a found dog on Party Line in Omak (classifieds on the radio where people call in to report their ad), she went and looked at him. She said she knew instantly she needed to bring him home to me. So when she opened the front door, Shaggy came barreling through the house, ran straight to my room, jumped on my bed, and started licking my face and giving me kisses! He and I were obviously destined to be together!

We are absolutely inseparable when I go home to Omak. We lay on the floor together and just snuggle, and he lets out big sighs in my ear, licks my face, then lays his head back down. :) When it comes time to leave for Spokane, he refuses to come out and give me love, so I have to go fish him out from behind the couch and snuggle with him before we leave. :)

Since Shaggy is getting pretty old now (somewhere between 15 and 18), my mom thought it would be a good idea to get me a sweatshirt with his picture on it. You can bet I'll be wearing this until it's no longer recognizable!! I love my Shags!