The chaos of season in Vero Beach not being enough, sometime over the holidays we decided we needed to rescue our third Border Collie. Don’t laugh. The rational went like this:

1. Shade, our oldest rescue collie will be 15 this summer.
2. Kamir, our younger collie will be four.
3. Shade can no longer keep up with Kamir who is bored and now is torturing her in an effort to get her to play with him.
4. A third, young collie, would entertain Kamir and take some of the pressure off of Shade.

Sounds reasonable doesn’t it? Kitsune Kali Sparsis joined our pack a week ago today. She came from the same wonderful rescue that Kamir came from 3 years ago, Starfish Border Collie Rescue. She is a little red and white dog who was put up for adoption after killing what I can only assume was “a whole mess of chikens” at the farm where she lived. Extremely scared, submissive, underweight, skittish but sweet we figured she would not challenge Shade, who doesn’t need that sort of thing at her age, and wouldn’t stand up to Kamir who can be a bit of an ass now that Shade can’t read him the riot act anymore.

Well, Kitsune, which is the Japanese word or fox, a name we thought would be appropriate considering her history, has made huge strides in the week she’s been with us. She is very lovy, figured out how to use the doggy door in no time, made great friends with both Kamir and Shade and has stolen our hearts. She gets braver with every day that passes, appears to have house trained herself in 4 days and is learning how to walk on leash, sit, give a paw and be a dog.

The bad news? We found out, after the first hour of cohabitation, that this dog talks. She sounds like a Wookiee and has way too much to say about almost everything. She also has a penchant for Feng Shui. This morning 5 pairs of shoes were missing from the bedroom. One half of each pair was in the couch the rest were carefully arranged in the garden. With them a face cloth, 2 socks, an unidentified piece of machinery, possibly from the lawn mower and a half dozen dog toys. My keys, fortunately, only got as far as the back door and we are still looking for the good rubber spatula.

Needless to say she’s staying. I have big plans that after season dies down we’ll be ready to go to obedience class and, if we get past the timidity, Randy has plans for agility training with her. In the meantime we are trying to remember to put shoes back in closets and keys up on hooks.

I’ve been tasting the keemuns this week. Keemun teas are produced in the Anhui province of China. First produced in the mid 1800’s they quickly gained popularity in Britain and are an integral part of an English Breakfast Blend. We currently stock 3 different grades of Keemun at Tea and Chi.

Keemun: Longish, dark, twisted leaf gives a golden cup with woody, lightly smoky notes and a dry finish. A nice, any time of day cup.

Keemun Hao Ya: Fine, well sorted dark leaves. Aromatic, almost perfumy cup, light bodied with mild astringency. The scent makes one think of withered roses.

Keemun Mao Feng: Coarser, large, twisted leaves with a good portion of smaller, gold tips. Smooth, fruity, creamy and rich with notes of dried apricots and plum. Complex and rewarding.