Growing up, Grover was always my favorite Muppet/puppet.  I wouldn't know if i were near or far from anything if i hadn't gotten to watch Grover plod back and forth from the camera so many times.  Not only that, he also had the best books.  "there's a monster at the end of this book" is truly a piece of kid-lit genius.  I think i'd still enjoy it if i read it today.  but wait, there's more.  Grover also had a secret identity (don't we all).  Who doesn't want to throw a knights helmet on their head, whip on a cape and call themselves Super Grover! 

Part of the reason i chose to go to Wesleyan for my undergraduate degree was due to Grover.  Under the buildings at the school there are semi-abandon tunnels running, pretty much everywhere.  Because of the semi-abandon nature, students through the more recent years have found keys to open the hallways and, it now resembles the walls under the NYC underpasses in the late 80s.  Graffiti everywhere.  But this is liberal-kid graffiti and less a decidedly less edgy feel to it.  My favorite piece included a huge spray-paint face of Grover, with "Grover RULES!" across the top.  But then, and really what sold me on it, is that it said, "Elmo Sucks" across the bottom.  There are people who felt strongly enough in their Muppet love that they would go so far as to disparage another neighbor on Sesame Street.  Those are people i wanted to be around.


So, all of this is to say that it is somewhat fitting that mmf and i have decided to name our dog Grover.  This decision was made all the easier by the fact that our beautiful new boy has a ginormous head.  A melon for the ages.  In person, he almost resembles the dog in the movie "The Mask," when the dog put the mask on.   Hell, it's almost as big as Eric Stoltz's head in "Mask."  Cept way cuter.

We rescued this love after he was found super underweight and neglected.  Hurts my heart to think about.  He won't formally join us until our New Year's move (to a dog friendly apartment), but we plan on visiting a ton.  enjoy the first installment are what will not be the last photos of Grover the Love Monster.  Oh wait, HES the MONSTER at the end of this post@!!!!!