My Aunt Sara is truly gifted when it comes to choosing toys for me. Here I am trying to play with my new toy, when we get interrupted. On this video you’ll hear an insistent yowl followed by the entry of our ditzy housemate, Creampuff.
Luckily my mom’s camera ran out of battery life. This was getting a little soppy.
When Cathy saw me on the Petfinder website, my name was Sarah. She has a human friend in Tucson named Sarah. And frankly, I don’t look like a Sarah. So she immediately named me Gracie.
I am named after Amazing Gracie, a book by Dan Dye, the founder of Three Dog Bakery. When their dog refused to eat commercial food, Dan Dye and his friends learned to cook a new kind of dog biscuit — and created an empire. Cathy loved the book — a warmly satisfying saga of dogs, serendipity and life success. And she loves the stores.
“Gracie,” she tells me, “you are named after a dog who made her owner a millionaire. And I expect you to live up to your name.”
That’s a lot of pressure to put on a dog. Here’s a photo of me, obviously stressed out by all that pressure.
Hello World,
My name is Gracie, a/k/a Amazing Gracie, a/k/a Princes Gracie.
I live in an apartment in Seattle with my mom, Cathy, and two cats. Cathy adopted me on January 2, 2006. I was hanging out in a foster home in Whatcom County, living the rural life of a country dog. One day my foster mom loaded me into a car and I found myself heading south to the Big City of Seattle.
As soon as I saw Cathy’s apartment, I knew I’d struck gold. Cathy’s living room has two cat beds and a huge dog crate. She doesn’t care about having nice furniture – just presentable in the style of Aging Graduate Student. This was going to be great. I picked out “my” corner of the couch on the first day.
“Gracie, you sleep here,” Cathy said the first night, pointing to the crate. She tossed in a big rubber kong toy with peanut butter. It was heaven.
“No dogs on the bed,” Cathy said firmly. “No dogs on the sofa.”
I just smiled and smacked my lips on the peanut butter. I could tell: Cathy would be easy to train.