Rollerskating and other Occurences

The puppy sleeps like a ROCK with the heating pad on low.  And laying in my bed.

This had mixed results.  The blue side was streaky blue, the dark purple side looks like  her regular dark brown hair color in all but super bright light.  So it looks like half her hair was attacked by little girls with markers.  Which has happened.

Last night we met friends to go roller skating at Skate Odessey.  First, the woman there made us go back outside and wait, despite the building being open and WARM (it was 22 out with wind chill in the teens) and almost no one was inside (a Relay for Life event was going on, there were maybe 10 people total)

We had 11 kids, 4 under 10 and it was COLD.  We had to wait 10 minutes.

Then the woman let us in and Amanda has 4 kids, Katy has 4 kids.  Amanda paid for 3 and went in.  I paid for my 3 and went in.  She charged Katy for Owen, who was not skating. Her reason was that people drop their kids off to hang out and not skate.  He was sitting with 3 adults the whole time!

We opted to boycott the concessions and arcade in protest.

I cropped it funny to crop out the littles and blurry Beck who did not want to be in the shot.  :)  Owen looks less than thrilled himself!
Elan was there, but had gone out to his car because he had hurt his wrist in a fall and did not want to mess with skating any more.  They found out a few days later that it's broken!  :(

We went to...Taco Bell!  LOL

This was meant to be a cute cuddle shot, but it looks like he knocked her out and dragged her in.  ack!!

Back home, Matt had been on dog duty and Nia was NOT happy that the puppy wanted some snuggles.

Kaiju has not healed well from her spay, she's too active!  The vet gave me some stuff but wants to see her early next week, she may need to be restitched and there's a little concern about the underlying muscle because it's bulging.  If that happens, we will have to board her there for a day or two until she is well on the mend and then stay with her around the clock, but I don't know how to keep her calm, she's either asleep or leaping around like the floor is electric.

Nineteen

19 years ago today, I was getting ready to meet Chandler, who turned out to actually be Jake!  Life sent her along a couple years later.  :)  It knew I'd need my boy first.

My sweet child, all roundness and smiles and trial and error.  Such a forgiving soul, as if he too had no idea what to do and did not mind my stumbling around.  By 3, he was saying, "Well, let's reconvene in the morning and try this thing again, mama."  And we did.  Every day was a new start and most days we got it right.  Most days, we still do.  And when we don't-there's always tomorrow.

He's always been that way, handing out a clean slate and finding the very best in any situation.  It's not a trait he got from me, but it's one I admire.  He's such a good person, his heart is huge and so fragile.  He hasn't yet learned that the world is not always kind.  But thank goodness he has good friends and good people around him, loving adults in particular.

This coming year will be so full of changes, I mourn the passing of his childhood while remaining almost anxious to see what comes next for him, what choices he will make, what adventures and experiences he will undertake.  Job, college, travel?  Will he choose to stay home another year and take more online classes and keep learning the foxtrot?  He knows who he is, there's no pull to 'find himself'.  I don't know anyone happier and more content or with more self esteem.  It can get annoying.  hahaha!

On this birthday night, Phoenix is here to celebrate into tomorrow with him.  She has spent every birthday of his and Chan's with us for 6 years now.  I love that.  This is the first one Emily has not been to, and she has been missed.  Arden, Alex and Emma also stayed, I hear the 7 of them on the other side of the door all chatting and laughing and Ben playing the banjo.

So thankful for those who took the time to join us to celebrate.
So sorry we dragged you out in the freezing weather to do it!

Autumnal Walk with Dogs

I have been up early the last few days thanks to Kaiju, who loves to be up with the sun and preferably fed, watered, pottied at least twice and with something to wrestle by no later than 6:15 a.m.  She is happy to make do with your ankles and feet if no toys are instantly provided.  Or your pant cuff, it's all good nomming.

I opted to take advantage of my now seemingly endless days and deep clean the house and finish some projects.  I have also tried to buy a new sofa 3 times now, but that is flat not working out.  The new one I had my eye on got jacked up in the price arena and I was actually headed to get another one yesterday off Craigslist and she sent me a message that someone else was there to get it.  ARGH.  That annoys me!  The third one ended up being gargantuan!  It looked normal in the pic, but the measurements were for Viking sizes.

This morning, we had a load of wood delivered.  It seemed to take forever to stack it, but I already know it won't last long.  He gave us a quote of an even thousand to cut down the white pine behind the house and leave it for us to dispose of.  Now THAT would be a bonfire!

I needed a break from all the cleaning up and cleaning out, so this afternoon I took the dogs for a walk/run.
I decided to bring along my camera because I have not taken any photos of the fall colors yet and hardly any photos of anything other than puppies when I did pick up my camera.

In the new trails through the old pasture, I spotted this little guy:

That was a thrill, I love owls and seeing one less than 6 feet away was super exciting!  I actually had to back up to focus, I only had my zoom lens!

Since getting back to the house, Nia and Kaiju have been playing like mad, mostly chase me-chase you, but it's still super adorable and makes my heart feel happy.  I want them to work out as playmates, Kuma will come around later I am sure.  Right now, she's smaller than the cats.  But not for long, I swear she's bigger every morning.  I heard Jake telling her today, "You have to stay little until my birthday!" That's this Friday, but he's thinking it's iffy that she will remain small that long.

Kaiju!

Kaiju has a new middle name.  Sandwiches.  I have no idea what sparked the change, but it caused great glee when it happened.  And I keep calling her Kairu and Kaija, so there's no telling how much therapy she will need later on.  I am sticking with Kai to be safe.  Everyone calls her 'Puppy' anyway.

48 hours in, she peed in the floor 3 times the first night, right in a row.  It was about a half hour span, with several minutes outside in between.  We were worried she was going to be horrible to train.  Pound dogs only get to go out twice a day, so puppies just pee where they are, they can't wait 12 hours!  We made a big 'no, no!" and scooped her up mid-stream and ran her out each time.  And put the water up for the night, ack!

By yesterday, she was better about realizing outside was MUCH preferred by all and went outside all but one time.  We decided it was a sign that she really does like us.  Today she had one tinkle right in front of the door on the tile, Jake was trying to get the door open and she just could not make it.  She has gone outside EVERY time we take her out!  I know that's because we take her out 3-4 times an hour, but every success is a success! She's even (sometimes) going to the door and when we open it, she goes right out to the grass to tinkle.

She's kenneled at night and we are all waiting for that to work out.  So far, she cries and Jake worries she needs to potty and takes her outside.  Not just 2-3 times, but a dozen times.  We are going to come up with a schedule and see if that helps.  For one thing, he's letting out all our heat opening the door that many times!

I got a few shots of her today while working on 'sit'.  Nia was LIVID.  I swear, she is in for a shock when this 8 pound cat-sized annoyance shoots up to 50 pounds.  It will go SO fast!  I think her feet are twice as big as they were Thursday and it's just Sunday!

We all do this...watch the baby sleep.  She's SO cute.

NOT watching the baby sleep, dammit.

Cute!!

AWWWWWW
She goes 'wuf wuf' and rabbits her legs.
There really is nothing quite so squishy cute.

I can sit!  I am good girl!  Yay!

She has that 'give me the treat' stare down pat already.

Yaaaaaaaaa!

I want to fuss about this but...well, she's his dog.
And there's Chan's knees.  We all just watch the puppy sleep.  Even when she's laying on Jake.
Except Nia, of course.

Athens, Puppies, Junk

Last Wednesday we went to Athens to see the Smithsonian 'The Way We Worked' exhibit and met up with Karen and Keilee!

This is Elkmont, the building at the very top is where Belle Chevre is now!

The exhibit is pretty cool.  You 'clock in' on a time card and fill in your name, town and e-mail.  At the end, you clock out again and drop it in the basket.  It's fun and it's a GREAT way for them to collect data right down to how long you spent looking!

Jake was convinced that aloe plant is Cthulhu.  Lovecraft has caught his radar of late.

Remember when they did bear bating in Athens?

I THINK it's because the college is the Black Bears,  but...well, that's odd is all.

So the exhibit is from the Smithsonian and that middle bit travels around all over the state.  It will be in Cullman after the first of the year.
The outside edges were all local to Limestone County-photos, exhibits and information.  That was really cool, I enjoyed it and I am interested to see what Cullman puts up when it arrives!

We had lunch together and talked non-stop, but barely made a dent in catching up.  I hope we can get together again soon!

Thursday, of course, we adopted Kaiju and Jake went to dance class.  

Friday, Matt took the van to pick up the puppy after work (she had to stay IN Madison County until she had been spayed!) and to borrow a trailer from friends.

The kids and I spent the whole day cleaning out!  We hauled around ALL the dead appliances from the shed and backyard.  Then we cleaned out the rest of the shed and it's EMPTY!!

We piled it in the front and headed inside.  I cleaned out bookshelves and we bagged up clothes and books to donate, I burned some paperwork we no longer need, we took a few bags to recycle.  We worked the WHOLE day.

Saturday, Matt and I got up early and loaded the stuff into the trailer.  It ALL fit!  We got it to the dump and it was 1080 pounds!

After the dump, we went to see my father and meet my new brother, Butterbean!

He's a 6 week old Maltipoo

Hello Big Sister!

When not asleep, he is a MESS.  I have no idea if Daddy regrets getting a tiny baby dog-he's never had a dog inside and it's been 30 years since our last 'family' dog, but he is  hard at work spoiling him rotten. I told Matt I enjoyed my 4 decades of being Daddy's favorite, but I think I have been replaced.

Back at home, I have no photos of Kaiju one on one because when I try, three jealous other dogs show up and distract her.  Well, I DO have about 40 photos of her.  All BLURRED.

We think Kaiju is 100% German Shorthaired Pointer and that she was surrendered to the pound by the breeder when it was discovered that her eyes were not brown.  They are currently blue and could stay that way or could change into yellow or green.  Anything other than brown is undesirable, therefore to anyone looking to sell or show-she would be useless.  She has every other marker of the breed, including webbed toes.  When Nia comes to her senses, she will be thrilled to have a little swimming buddy

I could not resist this one today, though.  I was on the steps and Kai was jumping around like a crazy thing trying to get Nia to play.  Nia just me this look like, "Why, mom?"

Here is another accusatory stare I snapped from the side, it's blurry, but telling. hehehehe

Kaiju has HER boy, keeps drinking HER water, lays on HER bed and worst of all, Kaiju was menacing Camo Moose.  That has been Nia's lovey since day one.

She is not happy at all. 

Introducing...

Kaiju Cannibala!  The St. Bernard Chihuahua!

Kaiju is Jake's 19th birthday gift, he named her.

Kaiju is Japanese for 'strange creature'.  He wanted to call her Cannibal (her main talent thus far is stealing hearts and chewing knuckles).  We both wanted to poke fun at the whole 'every female dog in the past 4 years has been named Bella' trend.  Bella means beautiful.

The story:

We decided to start looking in earnest for another dog for Kuma.  He is Jessie's dog and she is in decline. She may have another 5 years in her, but they will be spent ruling the roost from her perch under the forsythia bush in the side yard during the summer and her sheepskin pile on the porch in the winter.  Unless it's cold or raining.  Then it will be near the warmest heater inside.  She's been a good dog, she's earned her rest.

But, she's not the running/playing companion Kuma still needs.   He has not dropped in strength at all and Nia is no filler for Jess.  She's small and pesky!  Her idea of a good run is 15 feet into the weeds and back to the porch where she wants to jump up in his face and yap about the adventure they just had in the scary woods. He needs another shepherd/hunting breed dog made for action and working.  He doesn't want to chat about feelings, he wants to watch the game and have a beer, then go rebuild an engine.

We have been to 4 different pounds and rescues in the last week, every dog I have had any 'feeling' about has been adopted out from under me.  Which is FINE, I would so much rather a dog find a home with not-me than be put down.  There are dogs galore needing homes.

Jake and I sat down and made a list.  We don't want a slick dog, we want a black or grey dog with as much fluff as possible, no speckles (the neighbors have a speckled dog that rushes the van and has been the source of MUCH stress for household drivers).  Nothing huge, nothing tiny.  No young puppies.  I joined rescue mail lists and called a pound in Georgia about a Belgian they had.  He was already adopted.

We got a message Thursday morning from a friend alerting us to an adoption drive in Huntsville to save some animals headed to the Back Room.  Their time was up, the pound is too crowded (well, was.  Petfinder shows only 26 animals now!).  We looked over the online listings and headed out to get Matt, who took a couple hours off to go with us.  I had a certain dog in mind-a Malinois mix they had tagged as a German Shepherd.  Never hesitate if you get a chance to get a Belgian Shepherd of any strain, they are phenomenal dogs.  If I ever get serious about thoughts to breed any animal for show, it will be Belgians.

As we walked in, he was up front, waiting for the paperwork to go home!  :(

We went on back-might as well, we were there already.  We cruised by the puppy kennels, I was enamored with a pair of Feist girls, they were SO adorable. (Feist are crazy diggers, avoid avoid!)  They had a pure Yorkie I nearly caved on (it got adopted while we were there, yay!), I got out a Cocker mix and made eyes at the guys to no avail.  No interest from them. (he also got adopted while we were there!)

Jake saw a Husky he really wanted, but I said no to that-he was grown and had signs of not being treated well. That could go all kinds of bad.  Plus he was very new, only been there 2 days.  They had no ideas of his temperament or anything.  I don't want a dog that can actually kill and partially eat me!

There were pit bulls in practically every kennel.  We looked at every dog in there and went back to a few more than once.  Matt was not interested in any of them.  He led us around to a pack of Chihuahuas! OMG, he lost his mind!  But...in the middle of this mass of mini Aztec war dogs was...Kaiju!  This gorgeous fat puppy.  We flipped through the paperwork and hang tags looking for any info. None. Well, none for HER.  There was a tag that described her markings and said she was a 10 month old Chihuahua!  ack!

I found the single worker (I swear, ONE employee for 80 kennels) and he said she just came back from foster and was in the wrong pen.  I immediately thought the foster family brought her back because she's a horrible dog.  Then I looked at her face and my brain reset into babylove mush.  He went off and came back with a sheaf of papers that were probably hers and they said she was a St. Bernard!

Well, we could hardly care by  then.  We had looked her over and she was perfect.  Puppy breath-check! Clear eyes-check! Good joints, pink ears, clear nose, walks well, comes when called, soft as a baby butt-check!  She's also a slick dog, brown and white with speckles and a young puppy.  Perfect!  Exactly what we had our our checklist!  hahahaha!

I did make them both go outside with me and go over every bad point to getting her.  Then we went in and got in line (one clerk!  During an adoption drive!) and waited for nearly an hour to fill out the paperwork.

She had to get spayed before she can leave the county, she's at the vet now and Matt will bring her home after work.

I am SO excited to get this dog, I think it's because it's Jake's dog and I know he's going to be a really good dog dad-he will take great care of her.  That takes a LOT of stress off me.  He is over the moon.

As soon as Chan saw her picture (she was home all day engaged in her new favorite hobby-hacking her head off) she said, "That's a German Shorthaired Pointer."  I looked up photos and I think she's right!  I was amazed at how she knew immediately a breed I had never heard of.  She said, "There's a Webkinz.." Oh!

She's certainly NOT a St.Bernard or a Chihuahua.  :)  She's a beautiful strange people-eating creature.

WELCOME HOME, BABY GIRL!