Je suis, par ailleurs, de l’avis de la dame ci-dessus : tu es une bonne amie Alison. Je te dois beaucoup.

Dis, ton gros Hollandais d’amour, lui, il veut pas t’accompagner ?

Philosophically, if the wealthy do it just to be benevolent, I will take all comers. I don’t care why they do it, just that they do. Their money feeds, supports and shelters the disadvantaged just as readily as mine.

And I’d be your date any day if we can hold hands. Smoochies!

The problem is Poupoune, who we fervently hope will be long-lived, both absolutely (many many more years) and relatively (longer than us). We’ve asked her, and she’s not giving up her own name even though she’s deaf and isn’t using it any more, and even though having two similar dog names is likely to be confusing to the new dog. She’s just dog-in-the-baptismal-registry-ish that way.

We’ll figure something out.

And yes, she’s full size! A little bigger, even. She has all her adult teeth and she isn’t skinny like an adolescent just coming out of a growth spurt, so we know she’s full-grown. And she’s got a bit of a pot-belly, probably from being shut-in and not walked where she was before. So she should actually lose weight once we get her.