Saturday, December 12, 2009

Gone to the Dogs!

In addition to my human crew, we are also pet owners. My husband and I have had pets all our lives, and wouldn't trade it for anything. (In fact, we both owned Dalmatians when we met, and that was a big part of why we were introduced!)
We had been down to one dog for the last few years (from 3 at our peak), but in March, we finally, tearfully, had Layla put down. She was 16 years old, horribly arthritic in her back and hips, nearly deaf and blind, and completely incontinent. (Thank goodness I own a carpet cleaner. Poor thing.) It broke our hearts.
But it was odd, not having a dog. So, we watched the shelter website, waiting for the face that we knew would call to us. And then.
I saw her.
It was a Saturday in May. My husband was at his brothers playing video games, I was checking the website, and I saw her. She was there, along with a sister and a brother, and she was adorable. I called my husband, and when he picked up his phone, all he heard was "I found her. We need to go to the shelter."

(I took this pic with my cell phone that afternoon while at the animal shelter.)

Big Daddy came home, and his brother followed behind. Uncle J watched the kids for us, while we "went to run a couple of errands" - we didn't want to get the kids hopes up if she wasn't the one, and we sure weren't taking them with or we'd be running our own shelter!
It didn't take long, though, and we knew. She was as sweet as they come, very laid back and did you see that face!? Her name was Effie, and we loved her. A few pages of paperwork and a check to the shelter later, she came to live at our house!



She took some obedience classes. Not sure if they really worked, but they let her graduate! (Kidding. She did great, and listens better than the kids most days!)
And in the middle of all that? Coming home from church one day near the end of September, I found this little girl, standing in the middle of the road.
We have tried to find her owners (If you look at the girth of her, she clearly was owned. She's a briiick. Houwse. Seriously.) We posted her to the shelter lost and found page. We took her in to be scanned for a microchip. Nothing. And now, blast it, we're attached. Last week, I sucked it up and bought a collar and tag for her.

So now, we're a two-dog house. And we love it.


So? Pets at your house? Any good fuzzy stories?



9 comments:

  1. What handsome dogs! You sound like a great pet owner. How kind of you to keep the "Brick House" :-)

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  2. Happy Birthday to Big Daddy! Have fun at the party tonight!!

    Your dogs are super cute!

    So, yeah, I have a dog..don't like her much though..She smells and her farts are loud and they stink.

    She's 10..Hmmm..maybe I'll do a post about my stinky dog..

    Anyway, her name is Talulah..or Lu..

    I got her from the pound when she was a puppy..

    More about her later...;-)

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  3. What hearts you have :-)

    We have a dog, cat, bird, guinea pig and hamster. God help us.

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  4. We have two dogs, two cats and a bird. Crazy I know. Our oldest dog is 11 and we found him as a puppy in a parking lot in January in the ice and snow. He's beagle & daschund (sp?) mix so if you're familiar with the breeds you know he has extremely short fur. He jumped right into our car. He's done a lot of very naughty things and I've tried to say goodbye lots of times. But my husband loves him to death so no that does not work. A few years back he hurt his back really bad and we thought we were gonna have to put him down but then he came back around. He has to stay outside now as he has no bladder control at all.
    Our other dog is a german shepherd and very smart. Unfortunately he is aggressive towards strangers so we have to be very careful with him. But he loves our kids soooo much.
    Our cats are three and came to the kids at Christmas 3 years ago. They are actually the best cats we've ever owned. One has a bad habit of scratching on the couch, grrr.... but otherwise they are really good.
    And the bird is very old. I've had him since I was 12 years old. He onery and cantankerous but still cracks us up. It'll be a sad day when he goes.
    Yep I know, you didn't expect me to write a book, but you asked so there you go :)

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  5. How sweet! We've had a few pets, and I want another, but the man not so much. Not that he doesn't like them. I really love dogs. Dogs of all kinds. I'm tryin to talk him into letting me get a micro yorkie or something that I can keep in the house and... oh yeah, I guess he gave me a baby instead. She's fun too!

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  6. I love it! And I'm not such a great doggy mommy - I totally failed to tell you what we really call the "Brick House" - we're pretty sure she's a puggle, and my hubby kept referring to her as "Pretty Girl". We've since shortened that to P.G., or just Peeg.
    We were "looking for a small dog" when we found Effie. She's. Um. Not so small. She's like 50 lbs now. And steals stuff. (If you follow me on Twitter - there's a link for that in my sidebar! - while I was writing this, she stole a phonebook! Seriously!)

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  7. So cute. I am a dog lover, but we don't have any now. We do have two horses though! Mister and Beau. They are geldings (which just means castrated male). Mister is mine and Beau is Andy's. We love them.

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  8. We have a bird (6 years), guinea pig and puppy. I've written about the puppy escapades because we had grown very accustomed to our "old girl" who we lost in May of 08. These two are very different animals, but now that Lilly's no longer waking me up at night (too much), I'm liking her much more. :)

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  9. Love all these comments - read every one! I'm a dog person. We had a Brittany that my hubby and I picked out on one of our first dates (my hubby was on a waiting list for this uber-hunting bloodline for three years - long befor me!). Her name was Copper. We had to have her put down two New Year's Eves ago. She was 16. Then, last March, Angel came into our lives...my baby who will never grow up. She's a small dog - I've never had a small dog before. A papillon. My husband calls her my "Mid life crisis dog". She is. It was this or a baby. It took about 1/2 second for hubby to decide on a small dog over another baby at this stage of our lives. :) She's a good dog - a little yippy, but she is the sweetest thing. My hubby may get a hunting dog at some point in the future. Fine with me. I have my baby. :)

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