Carly Cakes.

Dear Junebug,

When Lola passed away your Daddy and I were devastated. Someday you'll understand how special the unconditional love of a dog is for a human being. We rescued Lola when she was 9 months old because her owner had died and she had no one to care for her. I couldn't help but feel like there was another rottweiler out there that needed to be saved so I went looking on the Los Angeles Rottweiler Rescue website. I realized finding a dog that fit our household was not going to be easy. We have you now and that makes the dynamic of our home a lot different than when we got Lola. We spent 2 years training Lola and breaking her of some bad habits. When she was a puppy I think people hit her in the face and it made her scared of a lot of things. Anyway - all the dogs on the website had "issues" so I decided to fill out an application requesting a puppy figuring it would take months maybe years to find just the right rottweiler to fill this void in our home and in our hearts. Daddy was shocked that I had done that and told me he wasn't ready but within a week he realized it was too hard not having a doggie around so we prayed and hoped. One week later I got an email from the rescue, someone called "grandmadoggie", saying they got our application and loved it. They had a 16 month old puppy that was not advertised on the website. She had just been given up by her family because they were a victim of the economic crisis and were forced out of their home. They could no longer care for their dog. Grandmadoggie explained that the reason they called is that this dog had been raised with 5 children between the ages of 5 months and 5 years and would be safe to be with you. The dog sounded perfect! Then she said she had one warning... she said the dog wasn't "pretty". I told her that wasn't important to us and that we'd drive out to see her. So we packed up the car and our family of 3 took the long drive out to Yucaipa (don't ask me where that is). When we got there we were blown away - she was BEAUTIFUL! We named her Carly Cakes and just like that we became a family of four again. Carly loves you and gives you kisses every day. At first you were shocked and cried... Lola was never affectionate like that so I'm sure it was different. But now you love it and pet her and scream and screech at her all day long. I love that you and Carly will get to grow up together. Carly is 90 pounds of crazy, dumb, silly puppy and she's causing lots of havoc around here but pretty soon she'll calm down and Mommy and Daddy will get some sanity. She's not much of a guard dog either but for some reason I feel safer with her around and I know when she's laying in the doorway of your nursery like Lola used to, you feel it too.

XO

Mommy