Bon Voyage

Brian and I are leaving tomorrow to go on a trip to Greece and Italy. How sad is it that I start getting homesick while packing for a vacation?? Anyways, we will be gone for two weeks, and we're very excited but nervous as well. It's hard to pack for two weeks, especially when you have never been to the places you are going...not to mention the fact that we are going to really miss our Bay--we have never been away from her for this long. She's a smart girl and has spotted our suitcases, and has consequently been pouting all day. It's quite pitiful. I will be sure to update with pics when we get home.

Bubba Update

One of the best parts of fostering dogs is opening my email and finding an update on one of my former fosters from his forever family...and I was thrilled to get an update last night on my little Bubba (new name Samson):

Marcy,

I was just thinking about updating you. Samson is doing great. He is fitting in very well. He is such a loving dog. We've never had one that was so loving. He likes to cuddle. He gets so excited when we get home he whimpers. He is good with the cats. The old one is coming out now and getting nose to nose with Samson. Samson and Buddy are best friends. They get along so well. It does my heart good to see them play so well together. Samson loves to play ball. I think he would let me throw the tennis ball all day. Our back yard looks like a race track, but we have two smiling dogs. We love Samson so much. He is AWESOME! Thank you for taking such good care of him. When we get some new pictures I will send them to you.

I can't tell you how awesome it is to read that. Remember, this is a dog who looked at me like I was crazy the first time I threw a tennis ball for him. He had no idea how to play! And now he's got a new best friend, some feline sibings and a tennis ball addiction. Sounds to me like life is good. :)

Best Friends

As you know, the economy is not great right now. This affects pets in a few different ways: First, when people are short on cash, they often stop spending money on their pets (hence the rescue group getting tons of dogs that are sick and/or heartworm positive). Second, foreclosures sometimes mean families having to give up their pets when they move. This is what happened in the case of the two girls I pulled from a local shelter last week. The dogs are eight years old and were turned in to the shelter when their owners lost their home due to foreclosure. They had lived together with the same family since they were puppies, and it was very sweet how attached they were to one another.

When I got the shelter, they brought the dogs out to me one at a time. When they brought the first girl out, you could tell she had NO idea what was going on. You can't explain home foreclosures to dogs. Imagine having lived in the same place your entire life, in the same comfortable home with the same people, and all of a sudden being dropped off someplace as scary as an animal shelter. She was just trembling....UNTIL they brought out her friend. You could tell that being separated from one another, even for a short time, was terrifying. Once they were reunited, all was well! They hopped in the car (eager to get the heck out of the shelter, I'm sure), and we had an uneventful ride to the vet's office.

It was just really sweet that it seemed like even though they were unsure of where they were and where they were going, they were happy to have each other.

A Birthday and an Engagement

Last weekend, we gathered at the Shelton's lake house for two celebrations: Brian's 28th birthday and a surprise engagement! Our good friends Andrew and Casey got engaged on Friday evening and I was so excited to be an accomplice to Andrew's plans. Because I am kind of sappy about these things (I love when people get engaged. It makes me so happy!), here is a recap of how everything happened:

On Thursday, Andrew brought me the supplies he would need for the proposal: the ring, a big bag of flower petals, and some red ribbon.

Now, you should know that Casey is a girl after my own heart--and by that I mean she is dog-crazy. She adopted her dog, Nixon, from a Boston Terrier rescue group and she now volunteers for the group and helps other Boston Terriers find homes. Nixon is her baby, so Andrew knew that the proposal would not be complete without him. So...after Andrew and Casey left to drive out to the lake, my brother went to their house and got Nixon without them knowing. He beat Andrew and Casey out to the lake (we convinced them to stop and pick us up a few things), and we quickly got everything set up.

We tied the ring, on a red ribbon, around Nixon's neck and set up a trail of rose petals and candles that led from the front door out to the patio overlooking the lake.

We shut the boys in the master bedroom so they wouldn't make any noise, and Lindsay and I hid around the corner of the house with Nixon. When Andrew and Casey walked in, they found a seemingly empty house and trail of rose petals...so she followed them down the stairs and outside, where Lindsay and I were hiding around the corner of the house with Nixon. When we heard them coming, we let him go and he went running up to them with the ring tied around his neck...and you can probably guess the rest! She said yes! After which we all ran out of our hiding places to congratulate the happy couple.

She was so thrilled and surprised...isn't it awesome when a plan works out? Here is a picture of Casey with Nixon, who still has his little red ribbon around his neck.

It didn't take us long to start celebrating the engagement, and also Brian's birthday, with pizza, champagne, and Sprinkles cupcakes. Unfortunately we had a rainy weekend, but at least we got to spend a lot of quality time indoors!