Brian and Amanda Lain

Brian’s mom, Sue, found an adorable, though severely starved, weak, and frost-bitten, puppy on December 12 (coincidentally, Brian and Amanda’s 7 year wedding anniversary) far removed from houses and Silver City. Sue took great care of him for about 2 weeks, but found that she was unable to care for him for he was wearing her out! So, as a Christmas present to all of us, Brian and Amanda adopted this cute lab/pit bull puppy to keep Ciara (their lab/pit bull) company. We named him “Miles” as he was miles from nowhere, and miles from “home”. He is 6-8 weeks old, male, mostly black with some white on his chest like Ciara, and was 7 pounds on December 12. He is gaining weight, and the hair on his tail and ears is growing back – it had all fallen out due to frostbite. Below are some pictures.

Miles on December 12, newly rescued and extremely hungry. Sadly, you can see his backbone, ribs, and hip bones due to his lack of food.

Miles at Brian and Amanda’s house.

Miles at Brian and Amanda’s house, tackling a rawhide almost as big as he is.

Miles and Ciara running through the house.

Amanda went to Montana for 1 week prior to Christmas to see the family and the snow, take care of her sister, Kassy, after a procedure, see Nicole’s (Amanda’s niece) school play, go to Kassy’s work’s holiday party, and deliver and gather Christmas presents. Montana, to include Missoula and West Yellowstone, and the 5 hours of driving each way, was remarkably un-cold and un-snowy! Not the Montana winters Amanda remembers, but great to be home for the (pre) holidays! Below are some pictures from the visit.

Amanda, Amanda’s mom, Nicole, and Kassy.

Kassy’s family: Tim, Kassy, and Nicole.

Amanda and Nicole.

Kassy kicking Amanda’s a** at Tri-opoly (3-layer Monopoly). Yes, she won, of course.

Snow as seen from porch. As a reference, when Amanda was growing up, you could not see where the road went from afar for the snowbanks, much less the weeds and sagebrush. Now, there is less than 1 foot of snow, compared to 5-10 feet in Decembers past!!

Finally – a little taste of winter! Up until this week, the temperatures have been in the mid 60s. We got a touch of snow on the mountains at the beginning of the week, then got an actual snow storm yesterday. Winter wonderland in Las Cruces!

Organ Mountains – first “real” snow!

Same mountains, different shot.

The yucca (NM State Flower) in the foreground.

The same yuccas as the previous picture!

Ciara loving whatever happened to the lawn!

Ciara giddy with excitement!