Happy Howl-o-weenie!!!

My broken heart.

Georgia is leaving. It's been the original plan all along. It's what we've prayed for daily. So why is my heart breaking?

We approved an awesome adopter on Saturday though Georgia won't leave until after her heartworm recheck next week. For my own peace of mind, I need to know that she's healthy first. She'll be moving to 3 acres in Blount County to be a companion for a man in his early 60s... an unlikely applicant for a bully breed, I agree. But his brother has a female American Bulldog so he was looking for the breed speficially. No cats, no dogs, no kids, no grandkids. Perfect, perfect, perfect! Georgia needs one person to devote herself to and I think this is the one.

My only slight gripe is that he would prefer she not be on the furniture. Not a big deal as long as he realizes (and he does) that she IS allowed on the furniture at my house and it will require a bit of retraining. I also have to remind myself that my first dog CiCi was not even going to be allowed IN THE HOUSE. Yeah, that plan worked out great.

So, we have less than a week left with sweet Georgia...man, I'm going to miss that girl!!

Introducing Ruby!

As it turns out, she really is a 6mo Dachshund-mix! Once we had her out of the kennel and were able to handle her we realized that what we originally thought were puppy teeth are actually tiny adult teeth. And let me tell you, she's a firecracker!

She came into the house with the worst case of "little dog syndrome" I've ever seen. We put Veronica (very tall, 50lb Lab-mix) with her first because she's generally good natured with other dogs - she LOVES to do what we call the Jimmy-Jam when playing ;-) Yeah, Ruby (all 12lbs of her) jumped up to put her front feet on Veronica's back (a very dominant gesture) and actually tried to BITE HER! Of course Veronica laid her out flat, but still!!

And Marley...bless her big heart...I think she's sort of scared of Ruby! Ruby is about the size of Marley's head but when Ruby would growl, Marley would take off. She's either scared of her or of the fly swatters we had out for growling puppies!

So, for now, we're keeping her away from Lily and Georgia - until she learns some manners, I think she might be too much for them. I think Veronica, CiCi and Frankie will be able to straighten her out pretty quick though.

On a good note, Ruby behaved very well in the bath last night as I tried to kill all the fleas that were jumping ship and she slept quite nicely in her crate (without peeing or pooping during the night!). I'm making her spay appointment this morning (I won't even get into all the attempted leg humping) and she'll be on Petfinder by the end of the week.

It's official.

I've lost it. Gone off the deep end. Rock bottom isn't far away.

We're pulling a puppy from a local shelter tonight to foster. She was in the overnight drop box last Tuesday morning when we picked up our van for our trip. For those of you unfamiliar with the overnight drop box, it's a way for irresponsible cowards to dump their pets without being held accountable. But, I guess it's preferable to them being dumped on the side of the road.

Anyway, since she was dumped, she had to be held the required seven days (in case the irresponsible coward who left her changed his mind). So she's spent the last week in the animal control kennels, exposed to God only knows what, learning that it's okay to pee where you sleep. Yesterday was her seventh day and I just faxed the paperwork to transfer her to our rescue group.

The shelter is listing her as a Dachshund-mix but I think she's already too big for that to be possible. Either way she has beautiful red hair and we're going to call her Ruby. Our dogs are actually really good with puppies - CiCi (our oldest female) teaches a mean course in puppy manners 101. And puppies are really good for Lily, our otherwise crazy pit bull - adult dogs make her nuts, but she LOVES puppies! Hopefully Ruby will pick up on the housetraining relatively fast...hey, a girl can HOPE, right??

Check back tonight for pictures!!

Our latest trip to NH...

I think that's it for us for 2007 - like a friend told me, they don't need me up there driving 10mph on their potentially icy streets! But even Brandon is excited to go back in the spring - he kept telling me, "Man, this really isn't as bad as I thought it would be!" Gee, thanks, that's flattering!

Picture 1 - Hufflepuff, one of our transport dogs after we arrived at the shelter (I don't name them, I just transport them!) - he rode the last few miles in my lap after an unfortunate poop accident.

2 - the Mystic drawbridge on the river in CT (we stayed there the night we dropped the pups at the shelter). The foliage up there is unbelivable this time of year - my first New England fall! Oh, and Mystic Pizza? Yeah, it's fabulous!

3 - that's Otto (and Brandon!). Otto belonged to the owner of the carriage house we rented for the night. A resident dog - does it get any better than that?!

4 - another shot of the river - it was overcast and a bit cool that afternoon. A great change to the awful heat we've had in Alabama this summer.

5, 6, 7 - various signs. 26 Pearl was our rental and of course we found the two dog related shops immediately.

8 - Napping in the van after a long drive - I'm pleased to report that Brandon not only gave up 4 days of his time willingly, he also rocked his "Jesus loves pit bulls" shirt all the way up the east coast (and his houndstooth cap which, for all you yankees, is a University of Alabama thing)!

Georgia is still looking...

for a family to call her own. I mean come on people, she's a picture of grace, don't you think??

In all honesty, she's a total sweetheart - almost officially heartworm free and she graduates from basic obedience class next Monday. Georgia was found almost FIVE months ago and I've received exactly ZERO applications for her adoption. I at least thought I'd be getting BAD applications by now. But nothing.

We fostered a male American Bulldog (granted, he was a pup) in early 2006 and I was turning applications down left and right. Wally is now living the high life on the lower east side of Manhattan - quite a step up from the Walker County trailer park where he was found.

So now it's Georgia's turn...you know you want to adopt her!

What a difference a year makes...

That's Marley almost one year ago - we pulled her at 10wks when she was still a tiny cuddly puppy.

One year later, she's a 50lb BEAST! We had no intentions of keeping her, but being a somewhat plain, brown dog...she didn't get much interest. But even I have to admit that those lo-o-ong legs just scream "FLYBALL!"

Funny how things work out...

Veronica put the "BARK" in Bark in the Park

I guess in her mind, a BIG group of dogs = flyball. She's not allowed to misbehave or act crazy anywhere, but she is allowed to bark her black head off at flyball - barking = excitement = fast races. Bark in the Park was relatively quiet...and then there was Veronica...ready to race and not a tennis ball in sight! Crazy girl!