Hattie Mae and her Pack are our September 2, 2012 Pups of the Week

They say you don’t recognize a good thing until it is gone.  Even if the being gone is only for a short amount of time, your heart aches, you pant more, you lose your appetite.  Absence makes the heart grow weary.

This week we have been without the wit and wisdom of Hattie Mae, Jackie Lynn, Fella and Smartie and it has been a hard week.  Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if we knew they were away on vacation somewhere without the Internet, like the North Pole, but when it’s a vacation we know it will end soon.  When someone is hurt or injured and the return date is open ended it is so much harder.

None of us ever want to be put in a kennel when our families go away, but when our parents can’t take care of us because of illness we don’t know if we will ever escape this dark, dank place it’s so much worse.  And that’s where we are with the Hattie Mae clan.  In a dark, dank place.

Hattie Mae is the shining light of our group.  She is our everything diva.  She’s hard when we need a laugh and soft when we need a tender touch.  She’s the lollipop all lollipops want to be and the lollipop that the boys wish they didn’t have their nuts chopped off over.  And Jackie, who is learning so much from her, and Smartie and Fella are missed so much as well.

Many of you don’t remember life without Hattie Mae.  We first met her in the early days of DS.  But there were some mean dogs there and Hattie beat a hasty retreat.  When we took a short stop at a Ning site she joined then the bad dogs showed up again and she, and soon the rest of us, were gone.  When we started TB we tried and tried to get her to come here but she said that she was done with social networking.  Thankfully we wore her down and since then she has been  our ray of sunshine.

We have been lucky enough to get brief blogs from her keeping us informed of what is going on with her Mom.  Also there was the terrible scare when Lou ee thought he had stuffed her in a bag and killed her but like most celebrity death reports this one was a hoax.  Now if we can only get Lou ee to come out of hiding.
So we are hoping that Hattie’s Mom’s arm heals soon and we can have her back every day.  We need her sunshine in our lives.

If I haven’t conveyed it well enough let me just say Hattie, we are naming you and your clan Pups of the Week because we love all of you and we miss your witty quips, your kind words, your fabulous pictures, and the joy you fill our lives with.

Hopefully your Mom will be better soon.  Love to you all.

(A quick note on a sad subject.  Jack from Australia went to the Bridge this week.  He has been a TB member for some time but has not posted in a year.  Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.)

Jackie Lynn is our July 31, 2011 Pup of the Week

What do you have to do to become a Tanner Brigade Pup of the Week?  Occasionally all you have to do is show up.

But when the showing up requires the coordinated efforts of several volunteers, a long car ride with your mates, and when you arrive at your forever home you meet the most flamboyant, funny, fabulous family on the Brigade, you move directly to the head of the class.

So we are very proud to announce our July 31, 2011 Pup of the Week:  Jackie Lynn.

When judging who we should give the most prestigious award in all of Pup blogging to we look to see who has become the center of the water dish conversation at the Brigade.  Since the brink of the weekend nothing was more important to us dogs and our slope noses, not the silly debt ceiling debate, not the baseball trade deadline, or football free agency, then how to get Jackie Lynn home.

Jackie Lynn began the week as one of Bit Bit's puppies so she was already family, but when we learned she was going to become Hattie Mae's sister, her apprentice, the next in line to the throne, and the title Diva of the Brigade, we knew this was something special indeed.  This was like Kate Middleton's chariot ride to Westminster Abbey, if she started the trip in Berlin and had to spend the entire time squished in the back of the chariot in a cage with Pippa.  For the men, we will pause, as you enjoy that mental picture.

Okay, back to the blog fellas.  A special thank you to the wonderful woman who organized Jackie Lynn's trip: Martha Chandler.  While us pups are the Lord's angels on this Earth, sometimes humans aide us in our mission, to bring love and joy to those we love to serve, our people. So let me say thank you to Martha, the pups whose transport you arranged will bring their humans such love and comfort that there is no way to repay your efforts.  Thank you.

Jackie Lynn's new parents did a leg of this run, taking them to their home in Virginia.  Hattie Mae let us know they were leaving and she asked for us to pray for their safe travel because it was a long trip, it would be late at night, she loves her parents very much, and her Mommy hid the key to her closet.  So she asked us to pray for safe travel and they did.

Late at night the Hattie Mae mobile pulled into the driveway and Jackie Lynn was home.  Hattie Mae was so happy to see her. A little sister is what she always dreamed of, someone to teach all her fashion secrets to.  Smartie and Fella said "Oh man, another one," but they knew their Mom and Dad loved Jackie Lynn and they would too, or at least tolerate her. 

Once she arrived home everyone rushed to Hattie's blog to see pictures of our new friend and learn more about her.  She looks so precious we all fell in love with her.  (I think some of the boys did so in a Biblical way.)

And finally there is the name.  Jackie Lynn.  There is no greater tribute to a person then to name your dog after them.  And there is no more deserving person to have a dog named after them then Saffron's and Sage'a late Mom, Jackie Pool.  Another human who recognized that we're angels caring for you humans, she devoted so much time and effort to us, until the Lord called her home, probably to take an important role in overlooking us universally.

It would mean so much to her to know that Hattie's new sister was named after her.   And now, whenever she looks into her new pup's dark, soulful eyes, she will think of her deeply soulful friend.

In the story of the life of Jackie Pool, this would be the last chapter, her friend Darla, sitting with a pup named Jackie on her lap, loving her like she loved the original Jackie.

Welcome to the family Jackie, yours, and ours, with dozens of members who love you deeply.

You will never be alone again.