Well, yesterday afternoon, we added a new fur-baby to our family! Meet Sukashi "Kashi" Suramono:

Yes, it's another Shiba Inu :) She's three years old, and was free from an ad on CraigsList. Her former family is relocating and they just couldn't keep her with their time constraints. It was very hard for them to give her up, but I think they know she will get lots of love and attention at her new home.

We drove to Dallas yesterday morning to meet a friend/business partner of Nick's, and then on the way home, we picked Kashi up. She was really great in the car, and slept a good chunk of the way. When we arrived home, we introduced her to Sookie first while on a walk, then introduced her to Godric while on a walk. There were a few huffs and puffs, but they all settled down after dinner and went to sleep.

This morning, I took Kashi on a walk by herself, and then we spent a couple hours on the floor with the dogs, taking them off their leashes and letting them get to know each other. Kashi is trying to establish her place in the pack, and has snarled a few times at Godric and Sookie. Surprisingly, and thankfully, Godric has done REALLY well. He's snarled back, but there's been no fighting. Sookie just wants to play and keeps booty-bumping Kashi  :)

It'll probably take a week for the three of them to adjust to a pack order, but I am encouraged by the progress made today. Godric and Sookie are doing really well, and Kashi will be fine once she establishes her place.

One of the benefits of having a Nook is "Free Fridays" in the eBook store. This past Friday, the free eBook offering was a novel titled "Listen", by Rene Gutteridge.

The premise of the novel is this: Marlo is a small town where nothing newsworthy ever really happens. That is, until a website called ListenToYourself pops up in cyberspace with transcriptions of various conversations from the Marlo townsfolk; private conversations. Suspicion and mistrust begins to breed amongst the citizens of Marlo, and violence and condemnation erupt amongst even the closest of friends and the sanest of people.

The moral of the story is simple: "Be careful, little mouth, what you say."

This book can make the reader really squirm in their seats. We're all guilty of gossip, even vile gossip. One can easily see a bit of themselves in some of the characters, as they say or react to things in the same way we might, especially as a woman.

We've all heard the grade-school rhyme: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me."

How untrue!

How often have you felt hurt when you overhear a conversation in which you are not being mentioned in a positive manner? Sure, you can sniff your nose, hold your head high, and pretend that "words can never hurt you", but you know and I know that you're lying to yourself. It hurts, even if just a little.

How often have you said something about someone else, and once it got back to them, you really regretted it? Then, you've not only hurt someone else, you've also hurt yourself and your relationship with that person.

How often have you heard of someone who let the words of others eat at them, only to lash out with hurtful words of their own? Recently, several authors have been in the news for writing scathing blog posts in response to less-than-glowing reviews of their books. These same authors have now severely handicapped their chances of future agent representations, publishing contracts, and readers.

How much more peaceful would the world be if we learned how to "tame the tongue"? How much unnecessary conflict and heartache would we avoid?

This book, despite its obvious religious undertones, serves as a good reminder to be mindful of what I say - and of what I write.