The Envelope Please...

And the winner of the 2008 "Name for the New Dog" is....

(drum roll please)

Do you want to read it?
-No, go ahead.
Are you sure? I don't mind.
-No, really, I know you've been looking forward to this.
Oh, gee, that's considerate. Thanks.

And the winner is... Lola!

Pie Crust on Shark Week

A very good friend of ours, Phan, visited from out of town last week. He got in late Tuesday night and immediately started calling the new dog "Piecrust." Admittedly, we have yet to come up with a name that seems perfect for her... and we really need to settle on something. Calling her "new dog," "girl dog" and "hey you" just isn't going to cut it. Maybe that's why she started paying attention to Piecrust, it was the first thing that loosely resembled a name. Or, maybe her turning her head twice when he called was merely a coincidence.

On Wednesday I got a phone call from the rescue group, Lost Paws Rescue of Texas, notifying me that the new dog was to have her pins out on Friday. On Friday! What happened to three or four weeks? Sheesh, I was not prepared for this. On Friday we were having a party for our friend and I couldn't imagine that being a good environment for a post pin-removal dog. We arranged for the vet to keep her Friday night, and nervously dropped her off Friday morning.

I was not familiar with the vet that they used. It seemed like a nice place, and the people seemed like nice people... but I have to confess that I did not leave feeling comforted. I almost felt as if I had not received their stamp of approval, as if I were not worthy of rescuing this dog. I am sure it was mostly in my head, but it was there none the less.

At this point in time, everyone had started calling her Piecrust. Everyone except Phan, who was now calling her "Shark Week." Before he left, he encouraged her to "live every day as if it's Shark Week." We picked her up Saturday morning, and that is exactly what she did. Richard and I left to run to the store. We wanted to get some little baby proof locks for the kitchen doors, which was where we were keeping her and Mosley during the day. We also wanted to get some rawhides for her to chew on, since every once in a while I would see her nibbling on her bed.

When we got home, the kitchen floor was covered in brown snow. Richard had a look of dismay on his face, and I had no idea what I was looking at. As I got further through the door, I saw what he was pointing at. "Shark Week" had nudged the kitchen doors open enough to destroy whatever carpet she could get too. And I do not use the term "destroy" lightly.



On a happier note, the vet said her leg is healing great! I really thought once the pins were removed it was going to be quite the drastic. stomach-churning sight. But it really is minuscule! She is back to walking on it lightly, just like she was before they removed the pins. The vet says in a week she should be using it regularly.



So that's that for updates. Leg seems to be healing nicely, but the overnight trip to the vet seems to have set us back some training-wise. It is strange. In terms of house training and carpet destroying, I feel like we are back to square 2. But she is doing exponentially better when we put her up at night. Anyways, I hope we are back on track and doing great by the end of the week. If you have any suggestions for her name, please post them here. We could use some help.

An Unexpected Turn of Events

Well, here I was on Friday talking about how crazy things are... and what do we do? We turn up the notch on the crazy machine!

This weekend my parents came over to visit. My husband and father went over to Frys to buy some parts for a computer they are building. As much fun as it is to follow boys arounds the component department of Frys, my mom and I opted for wandering off. We were heading over to Kohls to waste some time when we saw a sign for Lost Paws Adoptions at the pet store. A simple left turn and we were in front of the store.

As soon as I walked in I started mumbling curse words. There, in the cage closest to the door, was a beautiful Italian Greyhound. Why would this cause me to leap into profanity? Because I have always wanted an Italian Greyhound. But, we have also always said our next dog would be a rescue dog and you rarely find Italian Greyhounds in rescues. Add that to the fact that I have been saying we really should wait on another dog, you know, until things calmed down.

So we walked over to her cage, took her out, and instantly bonded. The rest is history! So enough text, here she is:

(Click to see more pictures.)

The name the shelter gave her is Athena, but we are trying to think of our own name for her. She isn't really responding to Athena, so it doesn't seem cruel to find something that suits her more. She is about 2 years old and a purebred Italian Greyhound. She the most relaxed small dog I have ever met. Up until four weeks ago, she had lived her entire life in a kennel. When she was young she broke her leg, but the breeder never fixed it. It healed wrong and she lost all use of it, dragging it behinde her. When the shelter received her, they took her to the vet to have her leg amputated. The vet told them he thought he could save the leg. So, they rebroke the leg and put three pins in it. She has to keep the pins in for 8 weeks. They are not sure if she will regain the complete use of it or not. But, she is already trying to use the leg. Last night she was even walking on it, slowly but surely. I am very optimistic. But, even if she cannot, she moves with incredible speed and balance without it. Thank god for the vet, because I honestly do think he saved her leg. Fingers Crossed!

That's it for now!

Epic Fail

I am ashamed of how neglectful I have been with this blog lately. It has almost been six months since my last entry. I do not really have any excuse for it. Life has certainly been eventful those last six months, and there was plenty to write about. I kept thinking I would get back into things once Halloween came around, but then I managed to miss even that deadline.

So I guess first things first, Happy Belated Halloween:Alright, now that we've got that out of the way we can focus on catching up.

How have you been?

Me? Oh I've been fine. We closed on our house the end of May, and we've been working on projects here and there ever since. We are currently knee deep in home improvement projects, and finishing seems a million miles away. I don't mean it to sound ongoing, though, because for a couple of months we were mainly unpacking and organizing. Then being lazy. And now, back in the thick of it. I think the key is to do as much as you can before you actually move in. Once you can be comfortable and lazy... you will be.

We waited about a week before we moved into the house. We had planned on waiting longer but as the closing date got closer and closer, we both knew there was no way we would be in our apartment any longer than we had too. The first day we had the house we practically painted the entire interior. My parents and brother came over, we all suited up, and armed with rollers and brushes... attacked like there was no tomorrow. We finished all our goals and plus some in the period of about a day and a half. I could not believe we got so much done, and I will forever be in debt to them for all the many projects they helped us finish over the next few weeks.

I don't think you truly have any idea how much stuff you own until you are forced to put it all in boxes. We borrowed boxes. We bought boxes. I even found some free boxes on craigslist. After each acquisition we would say "Oh man, this is way more than we need." Then we would fill them up and the apartment would still look untouched. In the end, we had to unpack boxes just to take them back and pack more. Imagine how productive that feels! I honestly cannot fathom how we lived in a 980 sq ft apartment with enough furniture, belongings, and knick knacks to fill up an 1896 sq ft home. I kid you not, I am still trying to find places to put all of it.

But that's enough house talk for one post. No one wants to read 6 months of moving mumbo jumbo in one sit down. We will spread it out more. Enjoy it. Savor it. Bask in our accomplishments.