12/12/12 Commemorated! For, Like, The Next 15 Years...

So, it was about noon today, 12:00pm on 12/12/12, that I remembered - TODAY IS AN EPICALLY AWESOME and once-in-a-lifetime date!  I HAD to do something!!

I immediately called Mark at work to let him know of this critical emergency situation, and as I was talking to him and Googling "cool stuff to do on 12/12/12" I realized that at the KEY TIME on this date - 12:12 on 12/12/12 - we were talking about what to DO on 12/12/12.  Drat!  But we still had time to do SOMETHING even if we missed the magic hour and minute....

Buy 12 things for each kid?  Too expensive.  And darnit, our kids are already so spoiled that we've instituted a "no-screen" and 4-present limit this Christmas (and only one of those four is a "fun" present - yes, we're very scroogey parents this year, determined to reform our whiny whitebread suburban kids).

Give the kids each 12 bucks and take 'em on a shopping spree at the Dollar Store?  Possibly, but it'd just be buying cheapo lame-o toys that'd be broken and thrown away on 12/13/12.

Bake them 12 cookies each?  Ummmm, heck no.  Terrible idea. Too much sugar in late afternoon.  I know some charitable-minded people were baking 3 sets of a dozen cookies to give away to 3 families, but let's be real - 3 dozen cookies ain't leavin' my house (or hips) alive.

WHAT TO DO !  WHAT TO DO!!   Eeeeeeeeek....

And then I had a flash of inspiration!  Wouldn't it be fabulous to get a new pet and then name it Twelve?  YES! And then we'd have a long-term, commemorative reminder of 12/12/12 instead of just a one-day thing.  Brilliant, I yam!

Mark then (very lamely) suggested 12 new fish.  But every time we get new fish they get eaten by Hoover (a gigantic black so-ugly-he's-not-even-remotely-cute pleckosomething...) .  Which Mark knows.  Which is why he suggested that.  How rotten is that!

My entire life I've had little raggedy white hairy dogs.  My beloved Bichon, Casey, who we had for 15 years, passed away about 3 years ago and I've missed Casey himself of course, but also missed just having a little white hairy dog in my life.

My Caseylein

From time to time I scour Craigslist or the SPCA website or Bichon Rescue groups to see if there's a little Bichon that needs a home.  I'm totally against buying pets because there are just too many mixed breeds (that are WONDERFUL) that need homes.  Anyway, another little raggedy white hairy dog just never showed up.  Sadness continued to haunt my footsteps...

Okay, but seriously, I would send Mark photos of cute little white dogs from time to time, or put them on his desk, and every time I'd see one on the street I'd shriek and beg him to steal it from the owner for me. (I won't buy a purebred but I have no qualms about stealing one.)

While I was Googling hairy white dogs as fast as I could, Mark spotted a little teeny ad for a little teeny Maltese Bichon puppy!  The owner texted me this photo (an Amish couple that texts - who knew?), and look at the photo title - 12/12/12/14:12!  Coolness! 

After that photo, I was hurrying out of my pajamas, Mark was leaving work early, we were picking up kids early from school, throwing together towels and leashes and collars and driving an hour out to Waterloo to pick up MY NEW PRECIOUS!  I know, I know, I was supposed to do something for 12/12/12 for my kid gang, but hey, they were happy to get to play their DSs mid-week (DS videogame time is typically only on Friday nights) and eat potato chips on the drive, and that was commemoration enough for them.

So, introducing...... Wolfgang Ritchie!  Wolfie for short.  Derived from the German word for twelve which is "zwölf."  Yeah yeah, it's a stretch, but it works!  And I know that when you read above that I was going to name a pet Twelve, you thought that was dumb, right?!?  And it kinda was.  Wolfgang is much cooler.

Wolfie looks like a mini-Casey, grubby mouth and all.

And technically, we did have a "pet opening."  A few months ago, we had to put Chili (another 15-year pet for us) to sleep.  Sadly, Chili was old and ornery and never did like Tiki, our 2-year old lonely lab.

Chili.  Ornery but awesomely so.  Animals with attitudes are the BEST!

So of course, Tiki is OVERJOYED.  She believes that Wolfie is HER Precious. 

Finally, here's the sun setting on 12/12/12 with me and my little Wolfgang Wolfie Zwolfie.  12/12/12 commemorated in the nick of time!  Whew!