Chrome saves a puppy!

We're driving to AT's house on Christmas Eve for dinner (awesome dinner), and Angel and I spied a basset hound wandering around on a busy road. Never mind that we have three dogs in the car already (two freakin' out, and one passed out), we belt out a u-turn, and check the pooch out.

He's shivering, but otherwise looks ok. He immediately stopped to look at me, and came when I called to him. The second any proximity was established, his tail starts going fast enough to whip cream. Cold as he is, he sits down, and looks at me with those mournful basset hound eyes. His tag reads "Capone" and a Florida phone number.

After several attempts at the phone number (can't be completed as dialed, not available, etc), we decide to load him into the car (we're 5 minutes from AT's), and figure it out there (I don't like hanging out on the side of busy roads. That's a place people die).

We get to AT's, and everyone is already there, including Lizard's big dog, Adam. Adam is a very nice dog, once he is willing to get to know you. Before then, he comes off as a pretty aggressive puppy. We're bringing our three dogs in, Capone, and Adam's already there. Top it off with AT's two cats... It's a lot to ask.

But this is why I love my family. I walked in, leaving Angel in the car to tend to the animals, an explained what's going on. No hesitation, no questions, nothing, just a "Bring him in, we'll figure it out".

So in we troop. Four dogs, and a quick snag of the Cr-48 (AT's internet can be spotty, and I just don't have time to troubleshoot it). Within seconds, Angel is pulling up local animal hospitals (to check Capone for an RFID tag), and we're calling them. Being Christmas Eve evening, we're not getting any success. Then she's pulling up the local police non-emergency number. They advise us to call the animal shelter (but we didn't get their number). Again, the Chrome-Book is there in a flash, getting us the animal shelter's number. I get on the phone with them, and they dispatch an officer to come get the little guy.

The Cr-48 didn't do anything that another laptop couldn't have done. Well, except all of the searches and interactions were performed by someone completely naive to the system. And the fact that we had anywhere internet helped. No, what made it cool was that it was the right tool at the time. We probably had half a dozen laptops at the dinner, but this was the one we grabbed.

Of course, it happened so fast, we didn't think to snap a picture of Capone.... grrrr

Puppy time!

So, this is Ruffian (Ruff for short. He's barked at his name a couple of times now. Really, really cute).
As I said before, he's a Christmas gift from Angel, and he came a little early (about 5 days early) so that we could try to get him settled before the chaos of Christmas (whether we can pull that off is another story).

A puppy for Christmas... I thought this was the coolest gift I'd get, by far. Then my parents called last night, and just blew me away. They're getting me very nice pet insurance for the little guy. OK, maybe it's not as cool as the puppy (Chicken and Egg problem here), but it's incredibly thoughtful, and massively contributive (does that construction work?) towards the epic puppy coolness.

I was blown away. Very blown away. Like "Dust in my eyes, and kinda choking me" kind of way. Even more so, because I was looking at VPI's website that morning, and trying to figure out how to get the pet insurance thing to happen with my budget. It wasn't a question of not doing it (I'm that idiot that will run back into the burning building for the dog. You read about them in the newspaper and think "What an idiot, it's just a dog). I was just going to be stretched to do it.

Actually, that's really not true. I could have gotten him some basic coverage for just $20. I could do that. That's us eating ramen noodles two more times a month, but I knew I wanted more than just basic coverage.

Awesome job, Mom and Pop. And one of those gifts that I'll be thanking you for continuously.