thanksgiving

we finally got our tickets for thanksgiving to fly back to florida to see family. everyone but dan & jenn and their two. that sucks. but i'm excited to see everyone else. but...bummer news is that it is going to cost us as much to get both me & paul there as it will to get just tatum there. so unfortunately, she's going to have to stay back at grandma & grandpa's kennel. poor baby. she LOVES to go see uncle buddy and miss cookie at their kennel but uncle buddy and miss cookie don't quite share her sentiments about the time together. i've mentioned tatum's exuberance for life before right? well older dogs don't necessarily feel the way she does. i hope it's a good week. i will miss her SO much. i hate leaving her behind and being with out her.
we have realized she speaks more english than we realized. now when you say "you gotta potty?" sometimes you get nothing. but if you follow that up with "do you have to poop?" you get a quick yes-bark. yesterday i was talking to her and she was barking back and i was saying responses like "really?" bark "all of this today?" bark "my goodness what happened next?" bark bark "and then what did you say?" bark. but when i said "no!" as if in disbelief she gave me the sideways glance as if to say "i'm sorry, i thought you were following." and i realized my "no!" as if in disbelief sounds to her just like my "no!" of don't you do that again. so we resumed the conversation of "and how did you feel about that?" bark "my goodness really?" bark bark. she's so dang cute.