The other woman

Her name is Anja, and some days she spends more time with my husband than I do. Lee is a dog lover, and he really loves this dog. They've spent countless hours together the last four years, time spent in training, searching cars, and just driving around the desert in his truck. While they're driving he talks to her, he may or may not change the lyrics of songs so they're about her, and he loves rewarding her with a hamburger when she catches a drug load. They're kind of best buds. Lee recently applied for and got a different position at work. One that will mean some changes for our family, most of them good. He was excited and ready to face those changes, but pretty devastated that he would have to give Anja up. She has a couple years of work left in her, and she's good at what she does. I'm not really a dog lover, but even my cold heart was sad at the thought of her going to another handler. She's been around since Mitchell was 18 months old. All three of the boys have grown up with her, she was Sam's first word, and currently Luke's favorite playmate. Then yesterday Lee got the best news he's heard in a while. In a fairly unprecedented move, the powers that be agreed to let him retire her early and keep her. You should have seen his face, like a 5 year old on Christmas. It was kinda cute. So she has a week of work left and then she becomes our dog, and we can actually take her for walks and whatnot. In celebration I got her a pink collar, she's the only one around here I can buy pink stuff for.