A day in the life...

* with largely unrelated photos. Like for real, these photos have barely anything to do with the written words accompanying them. ;)

Wake up.

Hear my insanely adorable kiddo get up, go potty, get his underwear, return to his room, get into his newly renovated closet where everything he needs is in his reach and talk himself through getting dressed.

Laugh at his sweetness when he finally comes to my room and announces "I got clothes on Momma!"

Feed son. Feed cats. Feed dogs. Feed self.

Watch from kitchen window as a squirrel approaches a bowl of acorns that has been sitting on top of our covered wood stove on the patio for months (why?! Who knows...).

Watch as bowl falls and shatters on the patio.

Think coffee. Think pie. Then think pie is almost gone. Better make another pie.

Marvel at kiddo's beautiful imagination. Marvel at the relative peace of a house with a kiddo, 4 dogs, and 2 cats. Relative peace. ;)

Read books with kiddo, smile as he recites book titles.

Move furniture around in preparation for Christmas decorating.

Lunch. Just for humans. Silly doggies...lunch is for humans.

Finally get coats on son, self, and 2 doggies (2 other doggies having quiet time) and head out to clean up shattered glass on patio.

Sally shows fear of stepping out onto metal steps; lift her up, put her down on steps and ignore odd noise as she takes off across yard.

Clean up glass.

Watch kiddo, and 2 doggies play and run in yard.

Grow a brain and finally notice the bloody stump on Sally's back left leg where a nail once was.

Run to metal steps, immediately find entire nail. Eeewwwwww. {Feel free to leave a comment thanking me for saving you any photographic evidence. ;) }

Take Sally inside for an abbreviated bath, which she hates as much as a full bath. Go figure. Clean wound. Giggle at her apparent consternation over the cleaning, but not so much over the wound itself.

Kiss her snout and forehead repeatedly. Watch her forget the cleaning too. =)

Put Sally to quiet time, release other 2 doggies. Watch 3 doggies and kiddo play in yard.

Bring them all in...thinking about coffee and pie again...and watch kiddo pretend he is a dog. {Don't worry, he alternately pretends he is a frog, or has a camera, or that he went to a museum.}

Blog about it. ;p

Exciting business right?!

**Okay, this represents only about half a day, and I'm sure I left out a bunch of minutiae, which I'm sure you all don't miss. At any rate...exciting?! Maybe it's all relative...

A little push...

Oh my goodness...hey, I'm still here. Hard to believe I know. I just go missing and pop back in every now and again. Bad bloggy manners, I tell ya. ;)

Anyway, I got a shout out on a blog-friend's blog today and I gotta say, it was just the kick in the pants I needed to get something new up here.

Hmmm, and now where to begin?! Oh it is so tough. Well, here is Sally:

She has been here a week. These things I know about Sally...

*She's just a wee peanut of a thing, at around 35 lbs

*She's fascinated by her mirror reflection in the windows at night

*She's awesome in her crate

*She's better with the cats than poor Mel (seriously Mel, it is time to make friends with those furballs!)

*She's got some of the greatest, most comical, entertaining zoomies

*She is smart; I would swear her little brain must be exploding with how quickly she is taking things in, overcoming fears, and getting used to no-doubt brand spanking new stimuli (key among them, a toddler!)

*She is a bust dog

Our rescue brought 8 dogs from this summer's huge bust into our program. Sally was the lone adult we were able to carve out room for, the rest are pups ranging from 2 months to 5 months. Sally is no bigger than the 5 month olds. ;)

Despite what I know about Sally, there is so much more I don't know. We can make a lot of conjecture about her early life based on the dogfighting bust, but the fact of the matter is that I don't know--I don't know if she was fought, I don't know if she lived on a chain in the woods or in someone's basement, or even if she might have lived a life not all that different from her life now. I have no idea what her early socialization was like, if she knows how to play with other dogs, or how she'll react to people of different sizes, shapes, and ethnicities. Her initial responses to Grady paint a picture of a dog who had never seen a young child; but she is coming along remarkably well to life with a toddler around just the same.

The truth is that I like to think of her largely like I do any of the dogs we bring home--I use caution, I watch closely, and I give them every chance to show me their best. I know it is prudent to understand her background and what that may mean for her behaviors. I also know that I don't want her past--a past she never chose, a past she was unfairly born into--to define her. I refuse to let her past dictate what she is capable of or what her limitations are, when she is right here, willing and able to show me herself.

Because I feel slightly remiss if I post without a picture of the Bugga, if nothing else for Memaw and Papaw...

There, I feel better. ;)

It's Thanksgiving week! I adore Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for these days?

The Haul

Again, here's our little Halloween Doggie.

Yes, you can bet there was barking. He seems to know what to do, even though he lives with some of the more quiet dogs I've had the pleasure of knowing, judging by the cacophony of non-stop doggie racket from neighboring dogs. Speaking of which, today it would seem they are all on high-alert, making me a tad nervous. Until I remind myself how crazy it is to take my cues from dogs I don't know and often can't even see. ;)

Annnyway...here is what his Halloween haul consisted of, this his first year of costume-ness. ;P

2 suckers

3 apples (if we count one each for Momma and Papa too)

2 cloth bags (again, if we count Momma's too)

5 candy-corn print pencils (what fun!)

2 plastic green footballs (instant love, you'll see)

2 organic lip balms (um, yeah...awesome)

2 activity/coloring books

Not bad, considering the boy didn't actually trick-or-treat. Forsaking that traditional activity, Bug got all dogged-up and we took him to the Arboretum.

No haunted houses, ghosts or goblins, or funky stick-your-hand-in-and-be-grossed-out-by-common-household-goods displays (do people still do those?! I might be behind the times here)...we have years ahead of us for him to take in such spooky fun.

For this year, it was just about getting out of the house, enjoying time together, and since the weather was fair, being outside and enjoying all that Fall has to offer. And enjoy, we did!

A doggie in the making...

I love the "tongue of concentration" here. I display this trait a lot too, and had my face been visible, I wonder if we both would have been showing our sincere concentration via our tongues hanging out of our mouths. ;)

A different view.

Notice Mr. Random-head-in-the-shot. This photo reminds me of photobomb. Albeit a much less funny--actually not funny at all--version.

{My all-time favorite photobomb here. I laugh maniacally every time. It feels darn near sinful, but I can't help it, that face zeroes in on my funny-bone like some kind of short-range comedy missile. I now return to my post about...hmmm, what was this about again?!}

Alert doggie. HA!

Get it?! The ear being up...okay, we were laughing at the time. Hard to believe there wasn't copious amounts of sugar involved, huh?!

The sky in this shot turned out so interesting. That is not post-processing people!

Just part of the pack...

And again.

We found this fun outdoor play area, and we had it all to ourselves. Bug wanted to walk along this fallen tree and to keep my nerves in tact--because some of it was mighty high off the ground--we compromised and held hands.

And J snapped away.

Which was fun, because I am rarely in the photos it seems, and I am trying to remedy that a bit.

This concludes our Halloween coverage.

This last photo is blurry and totally not great, but there's something about how he has his hood down and his little ears flopping, and his cute hat and mittens. Seems a fitting goodbye to Halloween for this year I guess. =)

Until next time, Happy Monday and Welcome to November.

Sad Doggies

What does it say about me that such sad doggies can bring such a large smile to my face?

Nevermind. Don't answer that.

More Halloween fun to come.

*Please excuse me for blasting Paisley right out of the photo. Unhappy, cold, and impatient subjects + bright light streaming in from the window = me settling for what I could get. ;)