The rain finally stopped and the lake in my yard drained (mostly) away, so my dad and I did some concrete work on the kennel. (Actually my dad did most of it; mostly I either held a board so he could shape it, or I shoveled concrete.) It was not a pleasant day though--cold and overcast and windy and raw. Weatherman said the wind chill was 38F. Bleh! I had on my thermal undies, sweatshirt, my outdoor-mucking-around heavy jacket, and I was still pretty darn chilly. I'm quite ready for it to warm the hell up.

But I think we got a fair amount accomplished. The concrete is formed all around the edges, so now we just have to pour the middle sections. I don't know if it's going to be much warmer tomorrow, but it is at least supposed to be sunny.

I put in a call to a woman who does animal care and who works with a local no-kill shelter. Tomorrow is the "deadline" that I figured on for giving up on getting the other dog, so I decided I'd start putting out feelers. I didn't get a chance to talk to her though; I kept getting her machine, and I hate leaving messages with requests for callbacks during my work week, since I go to bed so early and I hate being woken up in the middle of my night. I'll try again tomorrow though, and will probably also hit the city shelter.

I'm feeling better about losing out on the other dog. Oh, I still wish I'd been able to get her, but just seeing her and making that decision to take her was the trigger for me to decided that yes, I did want to get a dog. Kismet, in its own twisted way, I suppose.