Beautiful, Downtown Idaho

It's Fourth of July weekend, which for my family means lots of making of food and lots of running around.  There's the annual parade-watching and bbq with my cousins, dinner (more bbq, and baby I loves me some potato chips) with my in-laws followed by fireworks, and then a family reunion the next day.  Yep, busy times, but fun.  Boy is asleep on the couch now, all tuckered out from running amok with a squirt gun for six hours.

But before all these fun things I was in Twin Falls with my mom and dad, hanging out and, yes, talking about books.  I did a signing at the Twin Falls Barnes & Noble, which was very fun.  I stayed for hours longer than normal, because every time I thought, "Okay, it's slowing down, it's time to go," someone cool would come in to talk to me.  YAY!  And then I did writing workshop with some homeschoolers.  I have to say: homeschoolers=well behaved!  My goodness!  They wrote down everything I said, they never had to be shushed, it was . . . kinda weird, honestly.  :)  They were a good group, though, and I fully expect some great books out of these kids in the future.

But.

Pippin.

Yes, THE Pippin.  Star of Dragon Slippers. 

For those of you who don't know, Pippin is really my dog or, to be more exact, my oldest child.  She's freakishly intelligent and exhibits alarmingly human personality traits.

And, while I was in Twin Falls, she walked out the front door of my parents' house and got lost.  Her collar tag only had her name and our phone number, sans area code, so there was no way for someone to contact us if they found her.  We searched for her until one o'clock in the morning, then finally went to bed.  No one slept: a five pound dog lost in a strange town?!  Where was she?  At seven am I got up and started calling the sheriff again, while my mom put up posters in an ever-widening circle around her neighborhood. 

And then, at eight thirty, someone called to say that the night before they had caught my little darling right as she was about to dart across a busy street five blocks from my parents' house!  They'd tried the number on her collar, and when it didn't work they turned her over to the humane society!  I think this man thought I was crazy: I was crying and screaming with excitement into the phone.  When the shelter opened at ten we were right there, scooped her up, paid her bail, and took her straight to PetSmart to buy dog shampoo and a collar tag that has our phone number (with area code) AND complete address on it!

I just hope I never lose a child, because losing the dog was the worst thing I've ever been through!