While We Are Out

Hi, all. By the time you read this, I'll be on my way to see my mother in Gettysburg, PA. I've tried to plan ahead to have posts for you during the week I'm away. 

This image made me smile. 

Not only is it colorful and playful, but it reminds me of a story about my Roma. When I got her from the Austin Humane Society (best birthday present ever), her name was Chardonnay. Seriously. Chardonnay was one tough customer and a runner (in fact, a roamer). Any time she got out of the house, a ramshackle thing one block from I-35 to the east and Airport Blvd. to the west, she'd be out of sight before I could yell the whole name—"CHAR-DON-NAY!!!!!"—not that she listened anyway.

So her name had to be changed. My boyfriend and I had recently visited Rome, and we remembered seeing the statue of the Capitoline wolf, the she-wolf who suckled the twin babies, Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of the Eternal City. Chardonnay, who had recently weaned puppies herself and was much slimmer and shaggier than her current hoary old self, looked remarkably like the wolf. See for yourself:

And thus, Chardonnay became Roma. And they lived happily ever after. The end.

--z

Art sources: Wine poster from http://dreamdogsart.typepad.com/art/2009/04/dog-art-today-mutt-lynch-winery-wine-label-contest-announced.html

Capitoline wolf from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitoline_Wolf