2 more puppy pics

I had to get a good one of Collin with Yazzi. He has been asking for a dog for YEARS!

Here she is one one of her regal poses. :)

She acted like a puppy today. Chasing the kids, bouncing, ears and feet flapping. Her feet are so big she doesn't have good control over them.

She has only had one accident, but that was my fault. I left the house for a few minutes, and as usual, when I am gone, I told Kaitlynn not to go outside. Well, Yazzi needed to go, but KK didn't want to disobey.

She has been going whenever we take her out to the grass. But as of yet, she has not made a single sound. Not one bark, one whine, one whimper. I AM NOT COMPLAINING, just wondering when the noise will start.

Can a dog be mute?

Yazzi Grace is home!

For those of you not following us on Facebook, we sent out a plea last week to see if someone knew somebody who knew somebody who had Golden Retriever puppies for sale. Melissa and Susan put us on the right track, and we found a registered 10 week old litter. Thanks you two!!!

So yesterday, I drove Collin and Kaitlynn to Iuka, Mississippi to pick her up. It was a 10 hour trip, including one stop at Wal Mart, one stop at PetSmart and one stop at Sonic.  :)

When we finally got there, I told the kids to stay calm, let's just look and talk to the owner first. Nothing was set in stone and if I felt uncomfortable or the dogs didn't look right, then we would just leave.

We get out, and there is a large pen with momma and the puppies, they see us, come running, and so much for being quiet. Kaitlynn squealed!!!

First we met momma dog. She was well cared for, very friendly and made a good impression. Her name is Missy. This was her second litter.

She came up to each of us and sat in front of us, so we couldn't go any farther without petting her.

Then  daddy dog.

He was a huge and gorgeous 85 pounds and a beautiful red color. He was also friendly. It helped me to be able to see and pet both parents of the puppies.

Then we had a choice of 2 girl puppies. We sat down and watched them run around and laughed as they climbed all over us an each other. How do you choose, Collin kept asking.

We stayed for awhile, finally one of the girls put her paw in my lap and just looked up at me. That eye contact was the clincher. We had found our Yazzi Grace! (named by Kaitlynn).

We made it home a little after 6. The puppies were so hyper that I was nervous how to get her home, thinking she would be crazy in the van. I had brought the cat carrier as a last resort, but we never needed it. She took turns sleeping in the kids laps the whole way home. Well, she did pee at Sonic!   :)

Kaebrie was more fascinated with the new crate than Yazzi was. Can you tell she dressed herself yesterday?  :)

Here she is!

This morning, breakfast could wait. It ws puppy time!

I put the crate in our closet last night, so I could hear when she needed to go out. She didn't make a sound all night. Don't worry, I am not going to believe that this house training is going to be that easy. But it ws nice having a quiet night when I didn't expect it.

We are going to be a little late starting school today.  :)

Yes, it looks like we have another cat too. This is Maxie. Sam fell for that white cheek in a half a second. It was so cold the other night, he snuck her in the study window and I caught him on the computer with the cat sleeping in his lap. I am not convinced she doesn't belong to somebody yet. She is so friendly and is de-clawed, so somebody took care of her at one point. We will see!

And that catches you up to date!

The next animals on the way?

Chickens. But more about that later.   :)

I would NEVER be guilty of this, NEVER.

Well, mainly because I don't have a laptop and have to stay by the main computer. Things would have the possibility of getting really bad if I could take a computer and lock myself in a closet though!

But they would find me. They ALWAYS find me! :)

Picture

I have been asked about the rather strange picture on the blog header. What and why were the general questions. :)

Yes, I took this picture. It was last summer at Sam's parents house in Alabama. I was following around Christopher, trying to get a picture of him helping Poppa in the garden. Their job that morning was to find the caterpillars that were on the plants and kill them.

Poppa was laughing saying that Tiff wouldn't touch them. I looked closer to see what they were squishing and was surprised at how pretty they were.

I asked him to put one on the table so I could photograph it. Yes, he looked at me like I was a bit off my rocker, and reminded me that he was going to kill it as soon as I was done, but he sweetly did as I asked and put her down.

I like the eggs that she carries on her back. I like the colors against the black table, I like the garden flowers blurred out in the background.

Yes, I really like this crazy picture of a mommy caterpillar seconds before her squished death, so I used it for my blog header.

Any questions I forgot to answer?
:)

Bye Bye Dog :(

Well, we are once again a dog free house. But now we are not happy about it.
In hind sight, I should have handled getting Bowser / Murray differently. I should have INSISTED upon a vet examination BEFORE we agreed.

Instead, we were excited and hasty and didn't think through all the details. After having her for over three weeks, and after getting VERY attached, I took her to the vet yesterday to get all her shots updated, NEVER expecting a fatal diagnosis of heart worms.

Something that is VERY preventable, but she wasn't given the once a month pill and became infected when she was a puppy through a mosquito bite. She doesn't show any symptoms yet, so it took a blood test to diagnosis it.

There is a treatment they can TRY, for $700.00. But it isn't guaranteed to kill all the worms, and your dog isn't guaranteed to make it through the treatment.

I came home fighting tears, Kaitlynn was with me and was crying, having understood that the vet said Murray was very sick.

Called Sam. Called the old owners and they were SO nice. They offered to pay for half the treatment. But we decided to give her back. As attached as were were after three weeks, I couldn't imagine the pain of watching her die in a year or of having to put her down. And that is a LOT of money as well.

So we brought her back to her original home, along with the dog house, leash and food. Came home and put away all the stuff we had bought her (bed, food bowls, brush, treats, t0ys) and tried to comfort three crying kids.

sigh

I REALLY wish I had done it right at the beginning and spared us all this.

Anyway, this showed us that we DID want a dog. Right now we are considering a puppy, one that starts out healthy and we can keep healthy with proper care on a regular basis.

What kind? Which breed? The options are staggering! But we will let you know when the new arrival gets here. Kaitlynn has been given the honor of naming the new dog with agreed upon parental veto power.

More to come!

Hanging Stocking

The girls got a tire horse for Christmas and yesterday the weather was sunny , Sam was off, so it was time to hang it up!

It took several tries to get the rope tossed over the big limb.

Success!

After a few minutes the entire family came outside to watch and ended up playing. We just called it recess after lunch.

Here is the group!

Sometimes they chased the dog............. and sometimes the dog chased them........

But listening to all the laughing and squealing was wonderful to hear.

Even Christopher likes her and seems to be over his nervousness of this particular dog.

The rope had be thrown a second time before Daddy could knot it. He did it, knotted it, and hung the horse, named Stocking.

Kaebrie likes it best when Kaitlynn pulls her up the hill then lets go and runs under her feet.

We wore the poor dog out.

Bath Time

Another first for our family was giving Murray (yes, she is officially named now) her first bath. She did better than I expected her to, but it did take some coaxing to get her in the tub ( and Sam lifting her too).

Now, I was tired. It was late, and I asked that we wait. I was reading in my favorite spot in the house.

Can you see why I didn't want to leave this spot?

Sam wanted to do it then because the little 2 were sleeping and if they had been up, they would have wanted to help. Now the house is great, but the master bathroom is lacking in space, and there wouldn't have been room for 6 humans and one wet canine. So off we went, where I stood on the potty to take some pictures.

She did really well!

Except for giving me begging looks to get her out of there!

All done!

Kaitlynn was also pretty wet.

They are loving having her!

.

BEFORE.....

AFTER.....

She LOVES it!

We have been adopted......

New Years Day. We got up and were doing the normal breakfast routine, when Kaitlynn said there was a dog on the carport. This was not the first time this has happened. We live kind of in the country and there are no fences out here. Usually the dog(s) leave after a bit of exploring. This dog stayed. She was VERY friendly and followed the kids everywhere. There was no ID on her tag so we didn't know where she came from.

My mom called the vet the next day after she stayed by the back door all night and asked if anyone had reported a missing dog, and BINGO! The vet had just received a call! So we called the owners and they were so excited. She had dug out under their fence in the nearby neighborhood for the first time and they had no idea where to look. They immediately came over and got her. Christopher cried for about an hour. Kaitlynn was upset too. We said we have been thinking about a dog and maybe this showed us that we really did want one, so we needed to pray about it and keep thinking about what we wanted in a dog, and have some patience. Dogs are a LOT of work!

Now, I am a cat person. I don't HATE dogs, I am just more comfortable with cats. They are more independent and don't need me very much. But we have talked about a dog since we got this house, but I had several criteria I wanted met.

*I didn't want a puppy

*I wanted one that already had some manners and could sit, lay, ect

*I wanted a breed that was great with kids and would protect them in the woods

*I wanted one to guard the house

*I didn't want the dog INSIDE the house

* I didn't want a small dog

These are some of the criteria I had. I only speak for myself. Sam had others, as did Collin.

This dog met all of my criteria!!!!!!

The next morning, the dog was back. Had dug under another part of their fence. Once again, I called the owners. This time, we had a rather long conversation on the phone. He offered me his dog.

I was stunned! They really loved this dog, so why? Well, she LOVES kids. And his two boys were now teenagers and didn't have much time for her anymore. She had obviously fallen in love with my kids as she kept escaping and finding her way back to them. And because she met all the criteria I had previously had in my head, I actually considered it. Sam actually considered it. And hesitantly, we agreed.

Her owners brought over her dog house, her chair, bone, ball and food. And so, within 2 days of her finding us, she now belonged to us. She sleeps right outside the back door, in her doghouse on the carport and is fiercely protective already. Beware all you cats and squirrels out there! O, and the skunk she obviously scared to death last night, PLEASE don't spray here again. I don't have enough candles left in the house to cover that stench.

Her name? Well............. Bowser. Christopher, my tactLESS 6 year old, told the man, "That is a terrible name for a girl." He told us how they got the name when they got her as a puppy three years ago. We all agree we don't like the name, but we aren't sure if we can change it. Sam has decided on another name, Murrray, so we shall see.

So, here is Bowser / Murray!

She is three years old. Her dad was a full Collie, her mom was a mutt. She got her build and markings from he dad, her smaller size from her mom.

She is so happy to be here!

Are Sam and I? We will wait and see. :)

Happy New Year!

2009 already. It seems like just last year when the world was scared to death about all the computers malfunctioning when the year turned to 2000. That was a FAST eight years! 2008 was a busy year for us, lots of changes. I am kind of hoping that 2009 is a bit calmer. I will be OK with a boring kind of year.  :) Well, maybe not BORING, but maybe less chaos.

This year started out with our Annual Open House. Normally we have it before Christmas, but having only been in the house for 7 weeks, and having no den furniture, we put it off. The furniture arrived after Christmas so we decided to have a New Years party instead. We did it on the 2nd and it went really well. Almost 70 people were here. My mom and sister and nephew were over for their first visit and were a big help in getting it all ready! They had no idea when I said I was having a "little" party the weekend they wanted to come what they were in for.  :)

Sam's outdoor beverage bar.

Kaebrie with Blake

Auntie Jax and Blake , who said he hated taking pictures are refused to smile for this one!

Silly Cousins!

He smiled! As he ran around the room trying to escape my camera. But I caught him!

It was a lot of work, but I am glad we did it. Sam is the first pastor ever ( I think) to NOT live in the church manse, so people were really curious to see where we lived.

It was a great start to a New Year!

Thanks Mom and Jacquie for ALL your help!

Now I need to find the energy to take DOWN all the Christmas decorations................................