I'm sure by now most of you have either read or heard me say, "I have a new puppy!" But just in case you haven't, I'd love to introduce you to her!

First, the quick story:

As many of you know, I have a crush on George Washington, and I often joke that I was Martha's rival in another life. I just find George and American history in general to be very fascinating… so when I stumbled on a litter of English Springer Spaniels that were all named after the Founding Fathers and their wives, well what could I do? Who could blame me for what happened next? And the funny thing was, I didn't even choose one for its name – I simply clicked on the one I thought was the cutest…

So we waited and waited until she was able to leave her mama, and then the day finally came when Sophie and I could drive to South Dakota to pick her up. What an exciting day that was! She was the tiniest, sweetest little thing, and Sophie and I were instantly smitten.

Bath time wasn't her favorite thing to experience…

And neither were car rides, although she's more comfortable with them now…

It's interesting to me how many different looks she has. Sometimes she looks like a different dog altogether, depending on what mood she's in!

And the car ride again…

When she could still fit in it, she loved guarding her toys by sleeping in her toybox.

Her registered name is Meadowland's First Lady Martha. Although she doesn't much act like a first lady most days.

But she's my girl.

Lots of you have asked how the Yorkie and Tasha are getting along with her.. The Yorkie is managing to maintain her alpha status when Martha is sleeping, and Tasha does a good job of mothering her. But mostly they live peacably with her, when she's not getting on their nerves. 🙂

At 8 weeks…

At 14 weeks…

And that's my Martha. Thank you for stopping by to meet her!

Earlier in the summer, I noticed Tilly caught in a stare at something outside of the porch window. I didn't pay much attention to it, but after a few minutes, baby Effy had joined her, and they were both just staring… and staring… Turns out they were quite enchanted with Fritz, the ground squirrel that hides in our downspout.

Hello, Fritz! My, my, my, how thin you are! I'm sorry I didn't plant any pumpkins for you to engorge yourself on this year, you varminty gourd-glutton. Oh how sad that day was… late September, and my pumpkins were growing up to be bountiful tablescape decorations…  One morning, I made my walkabout to admire them in the early dew, and there they were, in all their drawn-and-quartered doom:

Death by Fritzing.

I was very tempted just then to let the girls out to play.

But of course, I didn't.

Goodbye, little Fritz. We'll see you again in the spring, I'm sure, nibbling on all of my new green shoots, you ingluvious flower-fiend.

(Despite his destructive tendencies, he is an awfully cute little thing, and I do smile every time I hear him scurrying up the downspout to hide when I walk by.)

ETA: I've gotten quite a few emails and comments about this little guy! He is technically a Thirteen Stripe Ground Squirrel, and is also called a Striped Gopher. 🙂

It had been bugging me for a while that Tilly-Roux needed a friend.

"Cats don't need friends," Big Papa would say. "Tilly loves being an only cat."

But I couldn't leave well enough alone. It matters not that I'm terribly allergic to cats. I decided that if I loved one cat as much as I love Tilly-Roux, then surely Tilly-Roux would love a little friend just as much.

On Black Friday, Sophie and Bre and I headed out to PetSmart to view the cats from the humane society that were up for adoption. I wasn't completely sure I would be bringing home a cat with me, but I wanted to look anyway. Right away we spotted the most precious long-haired black male kitten, whose littermates had all been adopted earlier that day. He was the only one left.

Sophie pleaded with me to adopt him on the spot, but since I didn't want to make any snap decisions, I decided to wait and sleep on it, and see how I felt about it the next morning.

The next morning came, and the very first thing I thought was this: "Oh no! I really hope no one adopted my baby black kitten! Tilly needs him! And surely Big Papa is tired of being the only male in the house!"

So I grabbed Sophie and Bre and we headed back to to PetsMart. I was trying very hard not to get my hopes up about his still being there, and I thought Sophie would burst into tears at the thought of someone else adopting him. But there he was… all 1.8 pounds of him.

And so we brought him home.

Fezziwig is very loved.

And he gets more than his fair share of treats.

This is what he looks like after a long nap, which makes me laugh…

And when I'm doing laundry, he likes to sit quietly and observe.

We weren't sure what we wanted to name him, and my vote for Tuppence wasn't well-received. I just love the line that Jim Carrey's Scrooge says in A Christmas Carol.. "Tuppence is tuppence," when he steals the coins from Marley's corpse in the beginning of the movie. They didn't mind if I wanted to name him Tuppence; they just couldn't seem to remember it. They would say, "Well hello, little… umm… Tipsy? Tellulah? Tallboy?"

We put his collar on him, and it jingled, so I suggested we name him Jingle. Everyone liked that, so we called him Jingle for a few hours.

But he wasn't a Jingle to me, so I thought some more.

He was also Darth for about a half-hour, thanks to this face:

I also thought about naming him Black Friday.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that since I was in such a holiday spirit and I couldn't stop singing the theme song from A Christmas Carol, then it had to be a Dickens character from that movie. Ebenezer was too harsh… Marley made me think of a big yellow Labrador… Tiny Tim reminded me of that awful Tiptoe Through the Tulips song…

Fezziwig! That's what he was. A Fezziwig. But mostly we call him Fezz.

Here is the very first photo we took of him in the room at PetSmart; I asked one of the girls to snap a picture of him to send to Sabrina (she was working and couldn't be with us), and when I saw it, I knew immediately that I could NOT send it to Sabrina, or she'd think I'd lost my mind.

Although this pose certainly could have earned him a moniker like Scrooge.

And that's how this sweet little boy came to live with us. (Thank goodness Tilly-Roux can't blog about it.) I hope you're all enjoying your week! I'll see you soon!