Nietzsche is so beautiful!!! I bet he's a wonderful companion. If we ever make it back to Australia from the UK, we'll get dogs again. Much missed in our lives. My sister in law does have a lovely and quite mad collie called Willow who is entertaining us right now.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. I miss the days when we 'made do' - the more you have, the more you spend. In the early days of our marriage we scavenged a lot - dumpster diving, finding free stuff online, and so on. It always felt good.
Really good to know a bit more about your resilient, resourceful and determined self. You'd be one I'd want on my side in an apocalpyse, that's for sure.
Thank you so much for the kind words and I definitely suggest you get yourself a canine companion. We need more good ppl giving them homes, because there are so many bad ones out there.
Make sure the breed characteristics match your lifestyle. Too many ppl get pets that require much more than they can give.