meet Riley Knox

So it was a big day-- on the way back from spring break at the coast... we got a new dog! (picture)  Riley is about 2 years old, she was found as a stray and kept in a garage for a year, then she was found by a rescue group... and now she has a home!  Riley is part golden retriever and part basset hound.  So she has the personality of a golden, and the appropriate-for-my-folks size of a basset, somewhat.
Now this is so cool for many reasons.
1.  It's the ideal situation for me: mostly, I'll get the fun bits of dog ownership, and the folks get all the maintenance.  That's exactly why I've been a volunteer at the humane society for years.  Going forward, she may spend a few nights a week at my place.
2.  I've never had a dog before. (well, I still don't now, but she may end up at my place some nights in the future)
3.  It's already obvious her personality is awesome-- very laid-back and mellow.
4.  THE BIG ONE: a large part of why we all wanted a golden was this story.  The hero of that tale is a golden.  And to make the next chapter of that story, we are going to try like heck to train Riley as a therapy dog (after we've owned her the prerequisite 3 months), which after only a few hours I can tell she will almost certainly excel at.  Ultimately, my dream is to take Riley the therapy dog into hospitals, where 1) a doggy, yay! & 2) -I- can be a source of hope that though things may look bad right now, with never-ending hard work, they very well might turn out OK.  Nothing guarantees that hard work equals things coming out OK, but continual hard work is the first step on the path to things coming out OK.  I'm living proof.

Off-topic, I want to be the most non-competitive person in the world.