Introducing: Rachsie

I wouldn't consider myself a movie buff. I'm not very well-versed in pop culture. And I don't have the ability to watch a film once and start quoting lines from it. However, I do have a few favorite cinematic narratives that I watch over and over - often tied to the holidays. Every year on the day after Thanksgiving we watch White Christmas while putting up the tree and on quiet Easter afternoons we watch The Sound of Music. It's the latter film that offers a valuable piece of wisdom I often turn to in life: when God closes a door somewhere he opens a window. After Emma died I assumed that God had implemented this plan backwards and that Red Rocket had jumped through the window just as Emma was headed for the door. But now I have discovered that God's door-and-window plan is more complex than presented in The Sound of Music.

I received a frantic phone call from my neighbor ten days ago. A sweet dachshund needed to be rescued from a home where she was no longer welcome; since I "rescue dogs" would I be willing to take her? I must admit, I paused. I had just lost Emma. I wasn't ready. Would I be betraying Emma's memory by so quickly adopting another dog? Could I love another dog after the pain of Emma's loss? I agreed, hesitantly, to take the dog in for a few days for a test run. While I may have been hesitant about opening my heart to another dog, Red Rocket wasn't. This sweet, petite little girl pranced right into our house and Red Rocket fell in love. Her name is Roxie but I re-spelled it "Rachsie" as in "Dachsund." She was duly delivered to Dr. Olson for annual shots and a spay operation and she has settled in as if she's been here her whole life. We're her fourth home. My dear, departed best-friend Michael's lucky number was four - I think it's going to be Rachsie's lucky number as well.