the Dalaverse

I've been incommunicado the past couple of days on account of being occupied with dogs. We're looking for a dog to adopt. My mother is being uncooperative, but I don't really give a flying fuck what she thinks at this point. She is and always has been the victim of her own story; this is no different. According to my mother, hers is the only grief that is real and relevant (read: visible), she is the only one who ever cared for the dogs, and we could have done more for Hershey -- and by 'we' she means my father and me.

This is hardly unexpected behavior, but it's still deeply upsetting, and so I'm completely ignoring her when she says she only wants a female dog, because I think it's ridiculous. She refuses to consider getting a male dog, even though I've used the example of Rocky, one of the sweetest and friendliest dogs ever, to argue against her vague point that female dogs are easier to get along with. Her real reason is because Hershey was female; she would also like a dachshund because she thought Hershey looked like a dachshund, a dog the same size as Hershey, with the same coloring -- essentially she wants Hershey and that isn't going to happen. She's threatened to call whatever agency we go through and tell them that she doesn't want the dog if the one we choose is male. Look, I understand that she would prefer a female dog (even though she sat here with us and looked at Petfinder while we picked out male as well as female dogs). But if we find a really good dog that's a perfect match for our family and it just so happens to be male...it's insane.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Anyway, today I'm driving over to Bowie to see one of the dogs we applied for (which is, incidentally, a female, but that's neither here nor there). I don't think we've gone about this the right way; all of our previous pets came from relatives and we've never adopted from a shelter or an agency. I sent out e-mails about eight or nine dogs, and now it seems like we want to adopt ALL of them. I feel awful telling these people that we're not in fact interested anymore.

I've been working at the earthquake fic, but I seem to have hit a wall. Jack is being rather close-mouthed. Jack Sparrow, of all people!