Bailey's Birthday

Birthday Girl!

Our girl turned SIX yesterday! And, on a day that we celebrated the birthday of our first golden girl, I got an email about a golden at a local shelter that was scheduled for euthanasia at 10 a.m. So of course I canceled my morning plans and planted myself on the doorstep of the animal shelter 20 minutes before they opened at 10 so I could be there to pull the dog and take it to one of the rescue group's vets to get checked out. Fortunately, I was there in time and got the dog safely to the vet and he will go to his foster home soon. Unfortunately, it took forever to get all the paperwork done and I absolutely despise spending any more time in an animal shelter than is necessary. Since I have already been told by a few people that my blog has made them cry, I will leave out the details and just say that I saw more than I cared to see that day at the animal shelter. But, I went there to get the golden and I did. Moving on...

To celebrate Bay's birthday, we decided to take her out to the lake for the afternoon. Brian had to go out there anyways to get the boat, take it home, and get it all ready for summer. So off we went to Bailey's favorite place on earth, where she swam in the lake, rolled around in the grass, and went for a boat ride (her very favorite thing to do; she will go stand by the boat and cry until we take her for a ride). Here are a few pics from our birthday girl's day of fun:

Houston, We Have a Problem

About a month ago, Kim and I decided that it had been way too long since we'd made the trip to Houston to see our H-Town friends. Our trips to visit Christina, Jill and Whitney (and now Kile!) are always so fun and always involve the same itinerary: shopping and margaritas on a patio somewhere. Yeah, those events were not in the cards for this trip.

The first bad omen was the torrential downpour that followed us all the way from around Corsicana to Houston. It was seriously raining so hard that Brian and I couldn't talk to each other without yelling--the rain was that loud. We finally made it to Houston and the exit to Christina's neighborhood only to see that traffic was diverted around cars that had stalled in high water! So we took a few detours and drove through some water that was MUCH higher than I was comfortable driving through, but we made it (practically floating!) to Christina and Tim's house in one piece. Maybe I'm a wuss, but I was actually pretty scared. (I asked my Houston friends if that was what it was like being in a hurricane. They laughed at me and said no.)

We ate a quick lunch and then it was on to our next stop: no, not shopping, and definitely not margaritas on a patio. Here's a hint:


Yes, that's us hanging out in a hospital room. Jill had been admitted Thursday night with a 104-degree fever! The doctors ran pretty much every test imaginable and finally decided she had pneumonia. Poor Jill. On one hand, it sucks that she was in the hospital the weekend we came to visit, but on the other hand, I'm so glad we got to visit her while she was stuck there. She looked great and was feeling much better by the time we got there. As you can see, she even let us take pictures of her. What a good sport!

We left the hospital to let Jill rest, and Whitney headed back to Spring to get some rest of her own (she is 28 weeks pregnant with twins and I think we wore her out!). Kim and Levi ended up heading home Saturday evening, which dwindled our group of ten down to four. But Tim, Christina, Brian and I had a great time at El Tiempo, where, although it was not a patio kind of evening, we did get our margaritas! And we had a good laugh when we realized that we ate dinner, drove home, turned on Saturday Night Live, and got comfy on the couch without anyone even asking whether we were going to go out after dinner. We are so darn old now that we all just assumed that we'd turn in for the night after leaving the restaurant--it didn't occur to any of us to go out and party after leaving the restaurant!

Anyways, although the weekend didn't quite go as planned, we all had fun together and got to spend some time catching up, which (besides shopping and margaritas on patios, of course) was the whole objective of the weekend. Mission accomplished!

Good, Bad & Funny

The good: Bubba is all settled in to his new home. They tell me that he's doing great, and they love having him as part of their family. The bad: I still really miss him! I'm always sad when one of our fosters gets adopted, but I usually get over it much faster...not sure what my problem is this time, but I cannot get over how strange the house feels without him here. Hopefully I'll cheer up soon. And now, the funny: Bailey does NOT miss Bubba. Not at all. She has been so thrilled to be an "only dog" again; it really makes me realize how good she is to put up with all these foster dogs coming and going from her house. She shares her toys and food, and she accepts that Brian and I are going to have to give the foster dogs a LOT of attention.

So, we decided Bailey deserved a little trip to PetSmart to pick out a new toy. My mom thinks it's funny that I say that Bailey picks out her own toys, but it's true. We go to the store and hold up two toys. She picks the one she likes. We repeat the process until she seems to have picked a clear winner. On this shopping trip, she picked a toy in record time and would not put it down--she was quite pleased with herself. She even tried to jump up onto the conveyor belt when Brian took it from her so the cashier could ring us up. It was pretty darn funny. Here are some pictures of Bailey's shopping trip. (And yes, I realize we are huge nerds for taking pictures of our dog picking out a new toy. We're okay with that.)

"Yes, this is the one. I'll take it."

"No need for carryout. I have this under control!"


"You guys drive. I'll sit back here with my toy."

"Shopping takes a lot out of a girl."

In non-dog-related news, we got to spend Easter with Brian's family, including our nieces and nephew...and we found out that Brian's sister Kari is having a boy, so we will soon have two nieces and two nephews. Very exciting!

This is our brand-new niece, Haven Grace. We hadn't seen her since she was born six weeks ago and it was great to see how beautiful and BIG she is already!

New Beginning

Our little foster dog, Bubba, came to live with us about six weeks ago. He was originally a stray in a nearby county and was picked up by animal control. He was labeled 'unadoptable' when he tested positive for heartworms...so he came to live with us and recover while we worked on finding him a forever home.

Bubba was scared of everything, but learned very quickly that I could be trusted. So he became my shadow. If I was sitting on the couch, he was on my lap. If I went to the mailbox, he barked at the door until I came back. If I went to the bathroom, he cried outside the door until I came out. He had been abandoned once, and I think he wanted to make sure it did not happen again.

Pretty much every other foster dog we have had has found our basket of dog toys almost immediately after walking in the door. Not Bubba. He had no idea what dog toys were or what to do with them. I would show him one, squeak it, throw it, etc., trying to get him to play. Nothing.

But Bubba was also the sweetest dog we've ever fostered. He gave kisses to everyone he met (including other dogs and even cats). He eventually came to realize that me going into another room didn't mean I was going to abandon him. And despite the fact that it made a huge mess, I was so happy the day I watched him go to the toy basket and pull each toy out to play with. He came such a long way in six short weeks.

Today, Good Friday, Bubba went to his forever home. He met a nice couple (in their late 40s, no kids--just one other Golden) a few weeks ago and of course they fell in love with him and wanted to adopt him just as soon as his heartworm treatment was complete. So today was the day. All day yesterday, I had that pit in my stomach that you get when you're just dreading something. It did not go away during the drive out to Keller to hand Bubba over to his new family.

But they were SO excited to see Bubba and to take him home. They already had a collar and new tag for him, engraved with his new name: Samson. (I like it and am glad they're changing it. Bubba was the name he was given at the animal shelter, so it will be nice to have a new name for his new home.) They are total dog people and it was obvious they already love Bubba, and he took to them right away. When we left, he was surrounded by his new family. And I mean that literally: he was surrounded by not only the couple adopting him, but a set of their parents, one of their brothers, and his three kids. They were all thrilled to be adding him to the family and I was happy that Bubba found such a wonderful forever home.

That does not mean, however, that I didn't start crying the minute I got the car door shut to head home. Or that I didn't cry when I got to my parents' house to pick Bailey up and told my mom about his new family. Or that I didn't get teary again when I got home and noticed his food dish in the kitchen. The house feels empty without my little shadow, and it's odd to be sitting on the couch without him sitting on top of me. But I know he is with a great family and is probably being showered with attention at this very minute. I will miss little Bubba, but I am so happy that he got his new beginning.

Bubba in his favorite spot. Bailey trying to ignore him.

Missie

Here is a picture of the girl I transported on Monday, Missie (I did not name her). No great story or anything, she is just too cute to not post a picture. As you can see, I brought the crate with me, but there was no need to use it--she was a great passenger. She was extremely shy but gradually crept closer and closer to me until eventually her head was on the arm rest, which is how she rode the rest of the way to the vet's office. So sweet.

Double Trouble

Yesterday I helped host a baby shower for my good friend Whitney, who is pregnant with twins--one boy, one girl! Whit lives in Houston and I hadn't seen her since December, when she was barely showing. Here she is now:

She looks absolutely beautiful and so happy. It always amazes me to see how much stuff you need when you have a baby, and Whitney needs double of almost everything! She got lots of very cute stuff for both babies yesterday. It was great to see her, and the other A&M girls who were at the shower.

Jen, Me, Whit, Lisa & Kim

The shower was fun, but afterwards, I was in dire need of a margarita. So Brian, Casey, Andrew and I met Todd and Tiffany at Uncle Julio's for dinner. After that, we headed over to The Gingerman for a post-dinner drink.


This place probably has over 100 kinds of beer to choose from, so I decided to stick with a classic: Root Beer. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream. That's right, I had a Root Beer Float at a bar.

Hey, it was on the menu! And it was delicious.