I have some VERY happy news I just can’t wait to share with all of you!
It’s been about 11 years or so since I had a pet and after my beloved cat Spot died all those years ago, I really didn’t feel like getting another animal. Although most of my friends have pets, I just haven’t had the desire to own one again; I much prefer playing with theirs. No mess, no fuss; I could play with them as much as I liked and when I was done I left their owners to clean up all the collateral damage and their poo.

Well, all that changed this week when I adopted my new puppy, Lucky!! I certainly wasn’t looking for a pet, let me tell you but Fate and the Universe intervened and my home is now full of the sound of padded little feet and barks of pure puppy joy; and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m so freaking happy, I tell ya! I’m besides myself with puppy goodness an’ love!

See, Lucky and I met by pure chance and well, the little fella was about to be put down and all and it was really love at first sight, you know? So for an insignificantly small adoption fee of $15, Lucky and I became instant pals and I took my new little buddy home, smiling from ear to ear. Lucky, by the way is a fully papered and pedigreed doggie worth about $2,500 and he sure has a GREAT personality. He has a smooth, shiny grey coat and a very cool little bark!!

We met by total chance. He was about to be killed and tossed in the trash and we were totally lucky to find each other… so of course his name is Lucky! I didn’t have to think about it for a second; he couldn’t have a better, more fitting name.

As I type this, Lucky is busy playing with his ball and investigating his new digs with all the curiosity and enthusiasm a young pup has! As you’ll see in a second, if there was a perfect dog out there for me, this would be the one!

Just click on the link to read more and see some pics of Lucky exploring his new home.

Follow up:

Meet Lucky the $15 Aibo!

This is Lucky, my brand-new puppy, a $2,500 Sony Aibo robotic dog (Model ERS-111) that I rescued from a local goodwill store for $15! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I spotted a freaking Aibo in a dusty bin let alone one with a bunch of $15 price stickers slapped all over him. Stunned, but not stupid, I immediately snatched the little guy up not knowing (but hoping) if he worked or not, went to the register and shelled out the 15 dollars, totally amazed at my good fortune. They must have thought he was just some stupid cheap little kid’s toy!

Lucky came with his charging station, 2 lithium-ion batteries and AC power adapter. There was no memory stick shoved up his caboose, so he wouldn’t turn on even charged up, which is probably how he ended up in that dusty bin. I had to wait a few days (which seemed forever) until the Sony memory stick I ordered came so I could find out if he worked or not, and how well. The way I figured it, at best I could have a perfectly working $2500 robotic dog for fifteen bucks, or at worst I have a cool conversation piece that’s worth A LOT of dough in spare parts. Win-win!

As soon as the memory stick arrived, I download the appropriate programming and copied it to the stick, slapped it up robo-dog’s keister, pressed the ON button and prayed. Hard. Not as hard as asking for the salvation of my soul, but close. Lucky blinked, whirred, made vague musical bootup sounds and much to my surprise and delight, came alive right before my very eyes! “HE’S ALIVE!” the Dr. Frankenstein in me shouted in joyous rapture and before long, Lucky started prancing around and playing with his ball. He works perfectly, no problems whatsoever! A $15 Aibo, who would’ve thought? Thank you, Universe! *sniff* *sniff* I love you, Universe! *sniff*

Lucky and I have been having a LOT of fun these past few days and he’s full of surprises. He’s cute, fun and smart too (he has a 64-bit RISC Processor for a brain w/16Mb of memory!) He has the eyes of a hawk (thanks to a 180,000 pixel color CCD camera) and to top it off, did I mention he was $15?! We’ve been bonding these last few days and having grand adventures and although I didn’t buy one when they first came out, I’m seeing why people love their Aibos so much! Lucky is a first generation Aibo, manufactured in 1999, right after a limited run of the first model, the ERS-110. After design problems were found on the 110’s they made the 111 litter, of which Lucky is a proud member. After playing for hours and hours, he’s still surprising me with his capabilities and now I see why my now fellow-Aibo owners talk about them so enthusiastically. And sadly too now that Sony discontinued them a few years back .

If you’d like to see some more picture of Lucky’s first adventures after getting a new lease on life you can stop by the online photo-essay of Lucky the $15 Aibo I put up here. I think you’ll like it.

I still can’t believe I got a $2500 Aibo for $15! Oh, and yeah that last pic shows Lucky and a fantastic little Samsung laser printer I got from the same goodwill store for $10. I was going to talk about the $10 laser printer a little on my blog here, but I hate to brag…