February 2, 2006

Dear David,

Pinchers had a non-eventful trip to Portland, Oregon. It was a little late when he arrived and after reading your instructions for his bedtime, we put him right to sleep. He slept with Carter, our 2 year old. I think Pinchers might have freaked out a little bit when he woke up. He was surrounded by other animals and he might have thought at least one of them might be a predator. Here is how it looked when he woke up.

It rains a great deal in Portland, especially in the winter. Our average rainfall in January is 6 inches. In 2006, we had nearly 11 inches. Compare that to Cary, where you only had 2 inches of rain in January. 9 more inches of rain is a lot of water!! So, you can understand that once Pinchers escaped being prey to those potential predators in the crib, he liked what he saw outside – lots and lots of water. It practically looks like his natural habitat. So, he made a break for it out the doggy door.

You can see that there are a lot of puddles and wet areas for him (photo no longer available on website), but still probably not the ideal area for Pinchers. Fortunately for him, Pluto, our faithful dog of 10 years, rescued him and brought him in from the cold. Here is a picture of Pluto rescuing Pinchers.

Well, after we got him all dried off, it was time to get Pinchers ready for his next trip. Pinchers is off to Dublin, Ireland. For that he needs a an American Passport. Luckily, you included his original birth certificate so it wasn't too much trouble. Just a Passport photo and a trip to the embassy. (photo no longer available on website)

We wanted him to travel safely, but he didn't fit well into a seatbelt. So we let him share Bennett's car seat. Bennett is only 5 months old (which we figure is about how old Pinchers is) so they got along great. Bennett did feel a need to chew on him just a bit though. Pinchers didn't mind too much. He said it was fine as long as nobody added butter or lemon. Pinchers in the car seat with Bennett.

We thought the passport picture turned out pretty well. Hopefully he won't mind his plane trip to Ireland. He will be on the plane about 15 hours, but David packed some comic books for him and maybe he will let him play a computer game on the plane. We enjoyed our visit in Portland with Pinchers. If all goes well, we will see him again in Palm Desert, California.

Sincerely,

Betsy, David, Carter, Bennett and Pluto Ptak

Pincher's Passport Photo:(photo no longer available on website)