Images of the Day, January 19: Home from the hospital.

I've discovered that having a puppy is eerily similar to having a newborn in your home. Only it's a little bit harder since you don't have the whole diaper option.

This photo was taken exactly four minutes after I walked into my office at Grady. I had spent that morning at the vet with Willow and rushed home to get him some exercise and a walk before going to work. I wondered why my tootsies felt so toasty as I strolled in from the parking garage. Turns out the Ugg boots that I'd walked the pup in were still on my feet which, if you know my feelings on professional attire in the hospital, was an epic fail.

Errrr yeah.

Praise the heavens, Jesus and the Grady gods that I wasn't seeing patients. I was, however, meeting with both a medical student and a resident which still made it no bueno. Fortunately, I was able to slide out of the office building quickly and stop by my house on the way to the med school for my afternoon teaching.

The point of all of this is, again, that having a puppy is really akin to having a baby. Not just the time commitment but the whole baby brain and jacked up attire thing, too.

Yup.

Oh. Here's Willow at his first veterinarian appointment. My sister-in-law Fran is his doctor which makes me happy in the deepest parts of my soul. Even my brother (who is also a vet and her vet school classmate) says his wife is the best vet in town. So yeah, it was a no brainer when she said she'd agree to see about her little furry nephew.

Willow made a lot of friends on this day. And apparently that's a good thing since, according to all of the random dog books I've been downloading on my Kindle, you want to have them meet some insane number of people per week. This day really made up for some of the others, man.

Oh, I think other dogs are included in that somewhere.

Anywho. Not only was it his first time meeting Frannie, he also got to meet Fran's sweet french bulldog, Frankie. Isaiah reminded me that they are technically cousins. So, yeah. Willow met his cousin.

That evening, my small group advisees from small group Delta came over to help socialize our pup. Turns out that the majority of them have the dog gene with the exception of one extreme anti-dog gene who agreed to check me out later.

The kids loved introducing Willow to the group. I was reminded of just how much I love each and every one of these really special people. It was so sweet of them to come over together like that.

Despite my Ugg boot catastrophe, sleep deprivation, and scrambling to do a million things at once, this was a good day. It was a day filled with smiling faces, meaningful connections, and love which, if you ask me, are the very best kind.

Yeah.

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Happy Tuesday. From the lady with the autosomal recessive dog gene that's trying it's best to be expressed.