Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Hey, I'm back!

It's only been 2 days since I last posted, and not my customary 20-some days. ;) HA! I have been a horribly negligent blogger lately, I know. At least I can admit when I have a problem right?! (Eek..bad joke, sorry.)

I got a delightful email from a sweet woman today, a fellow companion animals rescuer. I can't say "dog rescuer" because she rescues cats too. Wowsa. I haven't thoroughly explored her blog yet, but in even brief viewing, it seems pretty fair to say the number of pets through her home makes our total after about a year and a half of this fostering business seem pretty paltry. {For the record, counting the pups, we are standing at 19 beautiful doggie creatures.} So go Laurie go! =)

Due to her inspiration--and my recent trip to NE whereupon I learned there are people reading my blog and they do pay a bit of attention and I have been woefully inept at updating because they were asking questions that to me felt like crazy old news, til I realized if you went by my blog and thought I was on top of things...well, you get it--here is an update on our little family.

Was that really one sentence?! Goodness...if it was, it shouldn't have been huh?! And I do know where my delete key is, I just choose to let it languish while I force innocent people to follow my line of thinking. ;) Back to it...

Paisley. My love. Mi amor. Mon petit chou. Golly goodness if this girl isn't one of the top 10 best beings to ever come into my life. Don't ask me to round out that top 10, because someone would feel bad falling below a dog and all, but seriously, I loooove this girl.

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And here she is in all her nekkid glory. She rarely gets to be nekkid because there are usually multiple dogs in the household, so it is a simple safety (and practicality) issue: a collar gives you something to grab should you feel the need. She was nekkid for 2 days because her foster sibs were off galavanting with veterinary students, bless their souls (the dogs AND the students!). She also got to sleep in bed with us for two nights and to not hear her Momma sound like a militant* trying to keep three dogs and a toddler in line. I *think* she was pleased with those two days. ;) Though to her credit, she has seemed pretty pleased to have her playmates back too.

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Sula. Sweet, sugarpie SulaSu. Me loves. I've already been pretty forthcoming on my feeling toward this little beefcake (note to self, must post photo of her insane muscles, the girl is stacked!). Here she is doing what she does best, with an absolute stranger no less, at an adoption day event.

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She did go to a family for a couple weeks, but they ended up deciding it just wasn't for the best to keep her. They adored her, so it is not a testament to her being a bad dog or them being bad people, it just wasn't the right fit. So she is here, and I am happy. =) Turns out, Su's got quite the personality, complete with rough edges, but you know (or maybe you don't) that I'm cool with rough edges. These dogs are no more perfect than you or I, so can't we cut them all a break?! ;) She gets barky toward other dogs when she is overwhelmed. That's actually not much of a rough edge, but still, she's not the "perfect" gal she may have seemed when she was exhausted from raising those littles of hers. =)

And of course, Mel. Melly. Smelly Melly--not because he stinks, but because he was the sniffin'est thing we'd seen in a while when we first brought him home.

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{Photo courtesy of the J man; I love this shot, one of my new favorite foster photos of all time.}

Still here, still his own unique little dude. "Look honey, Mel's a real dog!" This is the standard joke around here when he does any of a number of things that pretty much any dog would do. Why?! Because when we met him at the shelter, he was doing pretty much nothing that lots of normal dogs would do, besides maybe walking on all fours and having a tail. ;) And the tail was in question because it was tucked so far beneath him we weren't quite sure it was there. He wasn't our typical pull. He was my "compassion" case, I had to bring him home, I had to see if there was a real dog in there...and lo and behold, much to my endless pleasure, there IS! A pretty sweet little one, if you ask me. J is in love too; I don't think I've seen him fall this hard since...well, okay Una. So that wasn't so long ago. And she's still available too! Now his tail wags and he quite nearly wiggles, or as close to the wiggles as we think Mel can get, and he is happy to see us and he seeks us out and he kisses Grady and we wuv him oh so much. =)

Except....aw man....that's the same as "but." ;) Except he can't live with cats. Of which, we have two; this is the first time we've had to crate and rotate out our companion animal species. And he has problems with his right hip and both ACLs. Yeah, I'm just patting myself on the back over this pull, believe me. Oops! But he's here, and we're banking on the fact that there IS a family out there for this little guy. My special needs boy. =)

Last but not least, there's the Bugga. Grady Boone. Goofer Snoodle. Me sure loves him too.

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He certainly has his own rough edges, the rough edges of a two and half year old. ;) Wow. But those rough edges are more than smoothed out when he hugs my leg and says "I yuv you Momma," or when he screeches when his Papa gets home and says "I missed you uh-day Papa," or when he tells his Memaw he "had a bootiful day."

So there you have it. Our house in review, minus cats who are still here and still loved (have I mentioned Turdie is quite the mouser?), and J and I who must be here, because can you imagine the insanity of all those beings without two half-sane adults around?! Yeah, I don't want to think about that either...

*J just informed me that my use of the term "militant" may lead people to believe I am harsh, physically violent, and politically extreme in my handling of our household. HA! I attempted to then inform him that it was hyperbole, I was being facetious, and that the context would assure people that is not the case. So here is my little p.s. in case your brain works more like J's than like mine. ;)

Monday, October 26, 2009

What else would he be?

Really, was there any question what the Bug might be for Halloween?!

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I know, I know, we're so predictable. So this isn't his first Halloween, technically he has been among the living for 3 full Halloweens now (counting this one, which I do realize has not occurred according to the calendar yet), but this is his first Halloween.

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I didn't grow up with a great love for Halloween. Nothing against it, but I just didn't enjoy coming up with costumes and I'm an awful liar, so it always felt like such a farce to be dressed up as something/someone else. {Wait, no, I'm not implying that people who love Halloween are great liars. Just needed to clarify that.} In years past, the little man wasn't old enough to express his own interest in or enthusiasm for Halloween, hence no costumes, etc. And we don't live in a setting ripe for trick-or-treating, so it was a non-issue. Fine by me. ;)

Anyway, this is Bugga's first year having a costume. Naturally, I stuck close to what I know. He still doesn't quite get the whole concept, and getting him to "choose" a costume wasn't really happening--it changed by the moment, depending on what he might be looking at or eating or what book we just read. I, in turn, looked around me and hatched a plan. Go figure. It was something I could make easily and cheaply, and inspiration of the canine nature always abounds around these parts. =)

So here he is. Of course there's a tail.

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What, you've never seen a doggie driving a truck?!

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No, we won't be trick-or-treating next weekend. Truth is, we just don't need the sugar. Just ask my family--2 glasses of juice and a popsicle and I think we all learned our lesson. ;) {To think, I was only gone 10 minutes!} We might find some other costume-friendly avenue for an outing, or he might just dress up again and be part of the pack for the day. HA!

A tired dog is a happy dog.

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By the way...where did October go?! ;)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

What happened to September?

So I have this husband. Alternately called J, or Doug, or Hubs, or What-the-hecka-do-you-think-you're-doing-I'm-trying-to-sleep. He answers to all of these, sometimes more positively than others. ;)

Anyway, he's a good guy. I'm lucky. Because whenever I say "Hey hun, can you do me a favor?," he almost shockingly does NOT head for the hills.

Like last night, the favor in question was this:
Take a handful of almonds, and a handful (or more) of peanut M&Ms, put them in the coffee grinder, let it go nuts (HA!), and then sprinkle it on some ice cream. For me, please. =)

Odd? Yes. Odd that he obliged? Quite possibly. But that's okay, we love each other, and that means not questioning when your wife requests you grind things to smithereens and sprinkle it over ice cream.

Other times the favor is more along the lines of "Please don't leave me, I want to bring another dog home." Recently, it was this dog.

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We call him Mel. J actually named him, so I suppose he got something out of it too. =) If you find him on petfinder, his name is not Mel. {And yes, he's a he even though we have him in a pink collar; we have a slightly twisted sense of humor around here at times.} We don't know what will happen with sweet Mel, it appears he has hip dysplasia, and not having dealt with hip dysplasia before, we are at a loss of determining if he can find a happy home, or if he is in more pain than he should be made to bear regardless of his home. ={

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In the meantime, he's living the life. Yummy food, gentle kisses, good cuddles, soft beds, and people to love him.

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That's all I ever want for any of them I suppose. Can't complain. Just like I can't complain about my Hubs, who sweetly obliges my whims, both of the ice cream and dog variety.*

*Among others, I can't lie. ;)