Today is March 25^th.

Have you noticed?

For the small few of you which may not remember, March 25^th marks a milestone for those of us here at TharpSter.Org.

Reflecting back on this time last year, a cloud of sadness hovered over the TharpSter compound, its Board of Directors, the CFO, and even the TreadMill.  Hope, the pit bull we had rescued a few months before had disappeared in early March.

We don’t know how she had gotten out.  We had combed the neighborhood.  We had hung posters.  We continued to check on line for hope that a lost dog had been found.

And then, we placed an ad on Craigslist.

It turned out that the Craigslist ad was the kicker.  After spending the previous days ferreting out empty leads, and email landed in my in-box with the claim that Hope had been found within a matter of miles of the compound.

Shortly after receiving the note, a call came in from the vet.  The person who had found her had delivered Hope to the vet.  We only had one vehicle at the time, and the CFO had taken it to work that day.  Did I mention that I was in the middle of a staycation at the time?  As such, I didn’t initially need the truck that day.

Once the vet verified that it was Hope, I immediately hoofed it over to their office to pick up our missing dog.  Fortunately the office is only about a mile away, so it wasn’t a major undertaking to get there.

And there she was.

Just a few days before, I had written an article about our other dog and her obsession with squirrels.   Upon returning home with Hope, I took to the PC and wrote a piece on her return.  I published it, announced it on the Facebook fan page for this site, and sent a note to a few people at work who were emotionally invested in the matter.

My son had received a text from the CFO about it.  He in turn sent me a text from the middle of class asking about Hope.  Fortunately, he didn’t get his phone taken away for committing a school district no-no.  Since she didn’t have a phone yet, my daughter didn’t find out about the days events until she walked through the door and got mauled by the brindle beast who was glad to see her.

That wasn’t all though.  Readership on the blog announcing Hope’s return blew up and secured March 25, 2010 as the absolute busiest day which TharpSter.Org had ever enjoyed.

Since then, a few subtle changes have been made here at the compound to insure we don’t go through those 20 agonizing days again.  Hope has been through obedience class…..twice.  A virtual moat has been installed around the compound which keeps both Faith and Hope here at home.  A muffin policy has been implemented in the pantry.  Drunken, accidental intruders and solicitors have been dispensed from the front door.  Email notifications pining about the fluffiness of stuffed unicorns have been suppressed.  If you aren’t familiar with these events, you can read about them here.

Sad to say, probably more frustrating, Hope has taken on the same obsession with squirrels that Faith has.  This morning and every other day, the two girls stand vigilantly at the window looking into the back yard on attentive guard for something to go yelp at.  The neighbors love that.

Over the last several days of my 3^rd Annual March Staycation, the dogs have taken a good 45 minutes out of their busy morning of trash talking squirrels and snoozing on the couch to play a spirited game of canine grab-ass.

Some things haven’t changed though.  Hopes flatulence, much like that of my son, can clear a room.  Just about every night, she provides proof to us that the human olfactory nerves can still detect canine halitosis, even when the human attached to said nerve is in deep REM.

All in all, we still continue to thank the Lord for putting that dog in our lives not once, but twice.  We’ve never regretted for one moment the prospect of taking her in, and we look forward to many joyful years to come with her.