my handsome little devil

i love gandalf. he is filled with personality, both shining from within and forced upon him through our imaginations.

we adopted him at petsmart about 4 1/2 years ago. the german woman that worked for the adoption agency warned us that he was "very vambunctious." we didn't see it. he was just sitting in his cage, staring at us. waiting to pee. he was about 2, 2 1/2, and we couldn't fathom why he hadn't been able to stay in a home. we talked about it for about 5 minutes and decided he was ours. with his beard and bushy eye brows, gandalf just seemed the appropriate name.

he was perfect during the drive home. he curled up in the floor in the backseat and fell asleep. he crawled around a little, but had a great temperament. we walked in the front door and let him run around some. he pooped in the dining room. he was home.

while he does have the occasional bouts of mischief, yelling, and escaping, he's turned out to be such a delight, and rarely vambunctious. some people would argue that his lack of vambunctiousness is caused from the loss of his manhood 3 days before we got him. i would argue that it's because no one could ever love him like we do.

he is the perfect blend of independence and deep devotion. he is so happy to see us when we walk in the door, even if we only walked to the car and back. when he wakes up in the morning he does breathing checks to make sure we're alive until we speak. when we say good morning the wiggles begin and he gives me earlicks. he's just precious.

if we could get him to keep his mouth shut at 2 o'clock in the morning when he hears something, and if we could keep him from bolting the second the door opens, and if we could somehow persuade him to stop journaling (i finally threw the book away after the 5th time i pulled it out of the pool), he would do no wrong.

also love how his personality changes based on his hair length. he's so cute when he's shaggy. his long eyebrows emphasize every movement and give him so much character for everything he does. and then the second he leaves from getting his haircut, he becomes regal and sophisticated again. it's amazing. he just carries himself differently and doesn't allow himself to stoop to a lower level.

he's such a handsome little devil.