Our Visitors!

About a month ago I was running an errand at work and noticed that there was a golden retriever in the parking lot of some apartments across the street from my office. I was hoping the dog's owner was close by but then I noticed it walked into the road and almost got hit by a car. So, I pulled into the apartment complex and called the dog over to me. It ran over to me, with a big smile on his face...and right behind him was a chocolate lab who looked like she was still a puppy. Niether of them had tags, although they were both wearing collars. The apartment complex manager said he did not recognize the dogs and decided to call the pound. I was not going to let these dogs go to the pound, so I called my coworker over to help and we took the dogs to a vet clinic down the road to see if they had microchips. Sadly, they weren't, even though I was positive they belonged to someone and they couldn't have been lost for long because they looked clean. They were both well kept, very friendly and had perfect manners.

We weren't able to take the dogs back to our office so I called Chris and he picked them up and took them back to our house. But first, he posted "Found Dog" signs in the neighborhood behind the apartment complex and even knocked on a few doors to see if anyone recognized the dogs. I spent the rest of the day searching for lost dog ads and posting found dog ads on Craigslist, FidoFinder, FindToto, PetAmberAlert, etc. I knew these dogs belonged to someone and I was determined to find their owners!

I got home from work that day and Chris was sitting in the backyard with all nine dogs and they were all getting along great! The golden retriever and chocolate lab certainly made themselves right at home.

I spent another hour or so online trying to see if anyone posted new lost dog ads or had responded to mine. Around 9pm that night I got an email through Craigslist from a lady, saying that we had found her dogs and their names were Chance and Katherine. We verified that they were in fact their dogs and they immediately left their house to come pick them up! I was so incredibly happy and started jumping up and down.

It turned out that the owners had just moved down to the area from Oklahoma and while they were at work, the dogs had dug out of the backyard. They were so happy to see their dogs and they were very gracious to us for getting them off the street. We enjoyed having our 2 lovely visitors but we were very happy to see them go home with their owners!

PLEASE either remember to put collars with ID tags on your dogs or get them microchipped! Most cities...City of Dallas, City of Grand Prairie, etc. offer $15 microchips. Take advantage because not everyone will stop to help a dog and others may just call the pound.

Beautiful Weekend!

The dogs spent a lot of time outside this weekend...we've had beautiful weather the fast few days in DFW but just like a typical Texas winter, they are predicting "wintry mix" on Tuesday and the rest of the week will be cold. I'm ready for the spring!

"When God made dogs, he just sat back and smiled." - Anonymous

Just Me and the Pups

Yesterday Chris drove down to Marble Falls to hangout at his friend's lake house for the night. So what does a girl do with a night to herself? Lots of cleaning of course! Followed by a workout, some cooking, and a juicy new episode of Jersey Shore to finish off the day.

When I was cleaning I left the back door open so the dogs could play outside and come in when they wanted, since it was such a nice day. So after about an hour they were worn out and crashed on the living room floor. But Dakota parked herself right by the front door and stared at it, waiting for Chris to come home. I had to force her to go outside to use the bathroom before we went to bed. Even when we all went to bed, Dakota hopped on the couch and laid her head on the arm rest so she could still have full view of the front door, so she would see Chris the second he walked in. I felt bad for her because she really wanted Chris to come home! When I got out of bed this morning she was still in the same spot, looking at the front door and again, I had to force her to go outside to use the bathroom. What a loyal dog she is :)

The other dogs continued on as if it were any other day. Except Gabe was able to cuddle up in bed with me all night...he even laid right next to me and laid his head on Chris's pillow. I woke up at one point and his giant nose was about 5 inches from my face and Chase was practically laying on my legs all night even though he had tons of space to sprawl out on. I guess they really wanted to be close to their favorite gal!

This morning, as soon as I got out of bed, the other dogs hopped right up and got comfy. This is usually what they do every morning when I get out of bed, whether Chris is in it or not.

Gabe took full of advantage of Chris being gone by being able to watch his favorite show - "It's Me or The Dog". Duh.

 Here in DFW, it's in the 70's and sunny! It's a perfect day! So, I'm leaving work a couple hours early to let the dogs out of the house and play outside. YAY for Fridays! Have a great weekend everyone :)

It's Been A While!

It's been about 6 weeks since I've blogged! I got pretty lazy, I'm not gonna lie. I had 13 straight days off work over the holidays, which I dedicated to sleeping in, cleaning, painting our master bedroom and hanging out with Chris and our furry family. After my break, work got pretty busy for me and after sitting at the computer all day, the last thing I felt like doing was getting back on the computer at home. One of my New Year's resolutions was to blog at least 5 times a week and here we are almost a month later and I have yet to post at all! Until now :)

To catch up on the pups...after my last post, which was the video of the dogs playing at the field, Gabe had some trouble with his right leg - this was the leg that hadn't had ACL surgery yet. After he got surgery last year on his left leg, the surgeon told me that his right leg was 85% likely to need surgery in the next 18 months. So, after we went to the field that day, within a couple hours he was limping around the house and having some trouble standing up and laying down. The next morning, Chris and I took him to the vet and we found out that he had a slight tear in his right ACL. The vet told us to give him a couple weeks to see if he stopped limping and if not we would schedule his surgery. For the next 2 weeks, Gabe was allowed to sleep in bed with us so he could be comfy, even though he took up my side of the bed, so I was not comfy. It was worth the sacrifice though :).

So, a couple weeks later my poor Gabe was still limping around and having trouble getting up and laying down. I called the vet and scheduled his appointment to get his ACL surgery. I was mostly relieved to get it over with so he wouldn't have to deal with this again, but I was also sad because I remembered how much pain he was in after his last surgery and how he didn't get to go on his daily walk for 3 months. Four days before his surgery, my parents came over to drop off an anniversary present for Chris and I. Before they left, they prayed for Gabe and his leg...the next day Gabe stopped limping. Chris and I kept an eye on him for the next couple of days to see if he started limping again, but there was no sign of any problems! The surgeon called me the night before his surgery to tell me they had overbooked the surgeries for that day so they would have to reschedule Gabe for the next week. I told him that it worked out because we were going to cancel anyways! I explained to the surgeon that Gabe had stopped limping that week and he told me to just hold off until he has problems again.

It's been exactly 3 weeks since Gabe was supposed to have surgery and his leg is still going strong! He's even run around on it several times and we still go on our daily walks and he's doing great! No limping at all!

Thanks for the prayers Mom and Dad!

Stay tuned for the story about 2 super cute dogs I found a couple weeks ago!