Sir Basil Diego, The Most Handsome Pup Alive

We got the best puppy ever!!!!!!!

On Friday, our new friend, Jess, who lives across the hall and loooooves animals, took Dave and me to the North Shore Animal League in Long Island. We spent all afternoon there, walking past cages full of dogs, our hearts breaking that we couldn't take every one (one day when I have a big farm). We got a few out, holding them and petting them, not completely sure about any of them yet. Then as Dave walked past a cage with a pup labeled "terrier," the little guy stuck his paw out and touched Dave's shoulder. Out of all the dogs, he was the only one not barking his head off. So Dave stopped and pet him but I was thinking terriers were too crazy for us. Dave walked away to check out another dog, and the "terrier" started barking. So, Dave turned around and looked at him, and the pup stopped and stared adoringly straight at Dave. Obviously we got him out, but when we put him in the area where people play with dogs, he went CRAZY. Now we know the spazzing out was because he absolutely loves other dogs and there were three near him, so he was really wanting to play (and there were lots of people, which he also likes, so it was just too much stimulation). But we didn't know that then, and I was instantly like, "He's too much." Dave picked him up to carry him back to the cage, and as soon as the dog was in Dave's arms, he chilled out and laid his head onto Dave's chest. Then I thought, wait a minute. Dave handed him over and right when he settled into my arms, he nuzzled his little head into my neck and that was it. We cuddled him for the next half hour, anxiously filling out paperwork and waiting for the workers to call our references, and then we were approved!!!

We brought him home and he instantly fell in love with Jess's dog Toby, a one-year-old, super cute dachsund. They romp and play every day, like best buddies! After going through a few options (including Oberon, Obi for short, Horatio, Tio for short, and Diego), we settled on Basil and the name fits him well. He has long lanky legs that flop around when he runs, and a cute, long tail that curls up and touches his back when he bounces about. His eyes are deep brown and almond shaped, and his coloring is "brindle," or black with stripes and specks of brown, gold, gray and white. GORGEOUS!! The shelter rescued him and brought him in, where he lived for a week, getting neutered and vaccinated. He's now 3 months old but amazingly well-behaved. Even though he's teething, he listens instantly when we tell him "off" and is content with his toys. He adores us, following us around the house and walking perfectly on his leash. He knows "sit," "off," and "down," and is almost there with "come." He's also house broken!! We have no idea how that happened, but we're guessing that during the week in the shelter he picked it up. But a week is so fast! He's only had one pee accident, the first day. What a good puppy!

So my weekend consisted of walking, playing, cuddling, taking loads of photos, playing catch, training, on and on. The hardest thing for him is not climbing over the baby gate between him and the bedroom, but he really knows "down" well and since last night, won't jump at all but will instead whine for a few minutes and be done. Blacula, Dave's kitty, is very interested in him but Basil got too close today and received a swift swipe on the nose, accompanied with a hiss. Frida, who hangs out in the bedroom only, enjoys staring at him through the gate but isn't ready to be physically near him yet. No hissing though! She watched him with extreme curiosity but has absolutely no desire to cross the gate into the living room. I'm not worried though; she's already more open with him than she is with Blacula, and they've been living together for four months! I think our cats hate most other cats but are cool with dogs, because they both like Toby, too. Frida will even sit right beside Toby and chill out! I envision her cuddling on the bed with Basil, and taking a picture that i'll title , "El amor de Frida y Diego, o Frida Bat the Slinkster Cat y Sir Basil Diego."

We are absolute dog nerds now. Well, I guess Dave was before but since this is my first puppy, I wasn't sure what to expect. But it's just perfect. Our little zoo is complete!

Feast your eyes on this beauty...

Eight-limbed Girl

"Eight-limbed Goddess Girl Becoming Normal, Little Girl"

Lakshmi Tatma, after the surgery that removed four additional limbs.

By Amy Burkholder
CNN Medical Producer

(CNN) -- Lakshmi Tatma whirls around in her walker at a charity school for disabled children in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, one tiny arm holding a balloon, her bandaged legs splayed wide apart, an enormous smile on her face.

Lakshmi Tatma's family and neighbors believed that with eight limbs, the baby was the embodiment of a goddess.

Twirling in a wheeled plastic disc is unremarkable for most 2-year-olds but a big achievement for Lakshmi, a child born with eight limbs who her rural villagers believed was a goddess, not a girl, and who underwent a surgery last fall unlike any her doctors had ever performed.

Her story is equal parts mythology and goddess worship, leap of faith and medical miracle.

Lakshmi was born in October 2005 in the Bihar region, one of the most remote areas of India, populated by Hindu farmers.

It had been raining for days, but the rain stopped the day Lakshmi arrived. Her mother, Poonam, says she had a dream just before her daughter's birth that she should build a temple to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and the embodiment of beauty.

And when the girl was born during the Festival of Lakshmi and the new mom saw that she had eight limbs, just like the goddess Lakshmi, Poonan and others were convinced that she was the goddess incarnate.

In medical terms, Lakshmi had a parasitic twin, a condition so rare that no reliable numbers exist on its prevalence. The incidence of conjoined twins is one in 50,000, and Lakshmi's kind of twin forms in only 3 percent of all types of conjoined babies.

Lakshmi had a full set of arms and legs. She also had another full set of arms and legs from a headless, mirror-image twin that didn't develop in her mother's uterus.

Villagers flocked to see her, some even offering to buy Lakshmi as a circus act. News of her eight limbs spread to Sparsh hospital in Bangalore, one of India's most technologically advanced medical institutions, and to Dr. Sharan Patil, an orthopedic surgeon.

Patil had seen plenty of disfigured children. He has removed a foot and leg sprouting from a boy's spine, but he never had encountered a child with eight limbs. "In spite of whatever the beliefs were, as a medical man, I thought she needed help," Patil said.

After traveling to Lakshmi's remote village for her first exam, he was encouraged by the fact that the upper set of limbs, which he referred to as the "Lakshmi" limbs, had the best motor control.

But he was troubled by an open, infected sore on what looked like Lakshmi's backside, which turned out to be the neck of the twin. Patil said Lakshmi had experienced infections and fevers every week of her young life. He worried that they could kill her.

Patil offered to pay for all of Lakshmi's medical expenses if her family would bring her to Sparsh hospital to evaluate whether doctors even could help her. Doctors conducted a series of MRIs and bone scans, as well as an endoscopic exam, to get a sense of the functional limbs and organs. As Patil explains, it took his team about a month of detailed testing before deciding that the twin could be removed.

Neither Patil nor anyone on his team had ever done a surgery like this. But they also knew that rare, conjoined twins like Lakshmi have a low survival rate and believed Lakshmi would surely die in her teens if nothing was done.

All the while, Lakshmi's parents struggled with their decision. Should they give up their little goddess, loved by them and revered by her village, for an operation that may or may not save her?

They decided to take the risk. On surgery day, as Lakshmi lay on the gurney, her mother sobbed uncontrollably. Then, she let go. There was no going back.

On November 6, 2007, a team of 30 surgeons began working on Lakshmi. The first step was an organ transplant; Lakshmi had two functional kidneys, but one was in the twin, so doctors transplanted the parasitic twin's kidney. They had to disentangle organs, including entwined intestines. One of the trickiest aspects involved the spine and pelvis and legs: specifically, reconstructing the pelvic ring without damaging nerves and picking the right legs, so Lakshmi could one day walk.

Sixteen hours into the surgery, the twin, with its extra arms and legs, was severed.

At 27 hours, it was over -- and Lakshmi had lived.

"The hero in this story is Lakshmi," the team's senior neurosurgeon, Dr. Thimappa Hedge, said at the time. "It's a little girl who withstood a formidable operation very well."

CNN joined media from around the world in covering Lakshmi's release from Sparsh hospital, reporters straining to see a little girl who once had eight limbs and who now had four.

Patil says Lakshmi continues to recover at the charity school outside Bangalore, but her family may head back to Sparsh hospital soon. Lakshmi still needs surgical attention to her spine and internal organs. Her feet are clubbed, and she'll need extensive rehabilitation to walk.

But her doctors say her limbs are functional and her organs are intact, including her ovaries and uterus, and they believe she will continue to improve and may even have her own baby one day.

Her parents call her transformation a debt that her family can never repay.

http://img.adoosimg.com/37b81e6ffd0d228739da05739214-1-3.jpg

Summer in New York

The summers here are insanely wonderful. Free music in all the parks, crafts and arts fairs in the streets, delicious taco stands on every corner, 24 hour fresh produce stores, crazy puppet dancers, muchos perros... I am so distracted from doing anything productive because I just wanna party!

I've been good so far though, keepin' up with my girls (they're on summer break now, woo!) my workouts and yoga, my writing and chores and all that. In just a week, Dave and I will be adopting our first child, from an animal shelter in Long Island. Yay puppies!!! That will be a wonderful way to just play outside but feel like I'm still being productive because I'm taking care of the dog. We can't wait.

I think I need to find a summer groove, a nice balance between enjoying the outdoors and NYC, but also being chill and keeping up with my projects. So far it's been hectic, working a lot and trying to do everything else around the 10 and 11 hour days. But the family I work for are leaving for vacation soon, which gives me a week and a half off to play with the pups and relax hardcore. Then they come home and start day camps, so I'll be back to the normal schedule. I really can't believe there are people who happily work ten hour days every day! There's really no life except working and then chilling out at home. It's interesting that some people are so career oriented that their ultimate goal is to work work work and make tons of money. I definitely want to be advancing my career, but not at the expense of everything else in my life. I guess that's why I'm not a lawyer.

Oh! Congratulations to my friend Rico! He just had his first baby, Sammy Sneller, who is beautiful and big (almost 8 lbs and 21 inches long!). I can't believe it -- in the same week, my friend from high school got married, a friend from college had a baby, and my fiancee turned 30 (happy bday Dave!). When did I grow up?

I went to Coney Island the other day with Marie and two of her friends, and we had an absolute blast. What a fun place! We played loads of games, rode a few rides, chilled on the boardwalk, swam in the ocean. The Cyclone, New York's famous wooden roller coaster, completely destroyed my neck for two days, and the girls got a kick out of making fun of me being old. What? I should make fun of them for being short. Everything about this place is sooo wonderfully Brooklyn, like out of a movie. The guy selling Cyclone tickets had a cigar hanging out of his toothless mouth, grumpily handing us our tickets and telling us to stop "lollygagging." It was hilarious to see these white, Upper East side rich kids walking along the boardwalk with these black Brooklyn girls wearing tight shorts, carrying boom boxes and screaming cuss words at each other. My girls were like, "Whoa, language!" I laughed and said, "Welcome to Brooklyn!" It was truly fun. Now I can't wait to go back with friends my age... it stays open until six a.m. or something crazy like that, and strawberry margaritas are only $2!

My highlight from the week involves a story from C.I. Marie and her friends were playing the game where you throw balls at rows of cups and win a goldfish if a ball lands in. Luckily none of them scored so I thought we were in the clear (not sure the Upper East Side mommies wanted goldfish). Then, some enormous man with no shirt, chewing a cud of tobacco in his cheek, wins two goldfish and gives them to the girls. Ahhhh! So, these two goldfish are tied in baggies with some water for the hour and a half subway ride back home, and the girls are so concerned they'll die. Somehow they make it home, where Linda is like, "Um, who's going to take care of this goldfish?" She didn't so much mind having it, but the point is that they go away every weekend, either to visit Dad or go to the farmhouse or soon, on vacation. So the goldfish, named Helios because it had a red spot on its back that reminded Marie of the sun and Helios is the Greek God of Sun, got to take another trip to Brooklyn with me to join our menagerie.

However...

Helios was in a bowl that I put in a large bag with handles, and on the walk to drop Marie off at a friend's house before going to the subway, some water spilled over into the bag. As I was walking to the subway, the bowl broke through the paper and landed on its side. I hurriedly picked the bowl up to save some of the water, then tried to scoop up Helios, who was dramatically flopping on the sidewalk alongside the subway grate. A women literally stopped and watched me, kind of laughing and kind of cheering me on. I finally get him in my palm, and the dumbass jumps out, landing perfectly between two sections of the grate and falling to his death. By this point, two other people had joined the crowd and all gave their commentary. I laughed my head off all the way home. Poor Helios! After making it all the way from Coney Island to the Upper East Side, after being so cared for and worried over, he jumps from my hand into a subway grate! I haven't told Marie yet, and think rather than laying out the whole story, I'll just say he died. I'm not sure if she'd get the humor in it or be upset.

Anyway, feel free to say your own words for Helios. And also take my survey!

Survey Number 1: GAS!

Below is a link to my first survey, all about gas. If you do not feel comfortable sharing intimate info with strangers, then perhaps this survey is not for you. However, you can submit anonymously... Enjoy!

http://www.zapsurvey.com/Survey.aspx?id=e8a3b7e0-ff8f-4f66-a512-79ec4e25cf60

I'll post the results next week.