For better or worse!

Hello sweet souls. I am just checking in to say I am alive, and still following all of your blogs,and still following the BFC. The weekend was a bit rough. We went down to our shore house to start to get things ready for summer. It was a carby weekend, but back on track this fine Monday. I have kept up with all of your posts. Please forgive me for not commenting. It's hard for me to comment on my phone and I wasn't around my laptop all weekend. Congrats to Beth on the birthday and the puppy. I am here with any advice you may need, having impulsively taken two puppies from the shelter 3 years ago. What was I thinking?? I have to tell you my story.

I have done insane things for the love of pets. One example would be taking two pound puppies from the Last Chance Ranch 3 years ago. Yes, I said two, as if one wouldn't be enough for the two dogs we already owned in our family, Steve (another rescue)

 and Sadie (a glorious and regal harlequin great dane) The last thing these dogs needed was two rambunctious puppies. They were just settling into the lazy, sleep most of the day, get up to eat and drink, then back to the comfy frontgate dog bed, dog days of senior life. No one to bother them, steal their food, chew on their ears, jump on their head. Just blissful naps lasting hours and hours. They had earned these luxuries of old age, and they were going to make the most of it.

Enter  Riley and Roscoe.

 They were about three months old, heinz 57 variety, mutt puppies. Life as we all knew it changed. Up went the baby gates, out came the doggie crates and new puppy bowls. Puppy classes, training sessions and potty training filled the days that I had planned to fill with me time. This was the year I was going to get serious about yoga, cook from all those cookbooks that had been piling up, do things that I had put off. Time for me. I sent my baby to college and impulsively...yes I can admit it now honestly, it was impulsive. I went to a shelter and took TWO puppies.

I didn't plan it. I wanted a two or three year old, house trained dog. One without any real issues. One that would fit in and not be too needy. The shelters were full of them. I worried that once Sadie was gone, Steve would be lonely. He would go nuts without another dog. He needed a companion. But those shelter people saw me coming. They brought out one puppy and then another, told me they were crate mates and I instantly felt bad about taking one and leaving the other. Not to mention they were cute and cuddly and I had my 19 year old son along. "Mom", he said, "you can't take one and not the other!" He was right.

So our lives have changed since these two entered it.   Sadly our Sadie is gone, and Steve is enjoying being the grumpy pack leader. Riley is meek and mild, Roscoe is wild and wacky...oh and he has bladder issues! But a few hundred dollars in vet bills, and some expensive food for dogs that form bladder crystals, have resolved that issue!! I love them and I commited to them....for better or worse!! But it's mostly better! Mostly!!!

P.S. Did I mention Riley grew into a 80 lb tank??  What happened to that little puppy?

Thought for the day: "Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." ~ Roger Caras