PICNIC!

Last Saturday was the picnic that the rescue group puts on every year in October. A couple hundred goldens and their families enjoyed a great time at Lake Grapevine...the weather was beautiful, which was an awesome stroke of luck since it has been so disgusting outside for most of the past few weeks. There was barbecue, a silent auction, a raffle, a doggie bandana contest, and a foster parade. The organizers of the picnic always do such a great job and the event always helps earn much-needed money for the rescue group.


One of my favorite parts of the picnic every year is that I get the chance to see some of my former foster dogs with their 'forever families.' This year was no exception: I got to see one of my very favorite fosters, Samuel, with his wonderful new family. Samuel was very sick with heartworms and it took him a while to recover. He is now one of the most athletic dogs at the picnic--he barely stopped running around long enough to say hello to me--but I'll forgive him for that. I also got to see a former foster named Huckleberry. I fostered Huck for a couple of weeks when he was only a few months old. He is now a beautiful 93 pound golden. Here he is enjoying himself on Saturday:

We did have one minor picnic mishap...which was unfortunately not discovered until Monday. For a while now, I have been trying my darndest to convince Brian that I REALLY need a nice new Audi Q7 to replace my current ride. I always get shot down, with the primary reason being that all the (often dirty, stinky) dogs I chauffeur around town have trashed my current car and will certainly trash the nice new car as well. I suppose this is probably true, but I keep persisting nonetheless. But, my parents' dog Jasmine did not do much to help my case when she PEED on the floorboard of the backseat of my car on the way home from the picnic. Unfortunately, all four of us who were in the car on Saturday failed to notice this little incident and, even more unfortunately, I did not drive my car again until Monday, when the smell was nice and set in. Long story short, the car wash did not quite do the trick, the car still smells a bit rank, and Brian is more insistent than ever that I will be driving my current dog-mobile for many years to come. Thanks for nothing, Jasmine!

Mansfield Music Fest

Last weekend, my little hometown put on a music festival with bands, beer, wine and lots of food...so we bundled up, grabbed some lawn chairs, and headed to check it out. After all, it's not every day that Mansfield has something like this (plus, it was free!). I think the highlight ended up being the food. A ton of local restaurants, including Houlihan's, Suzushi (I passed on this--sushi brought in in coolers seemed a bit suspicious to me), Black Fin, Palio's, Oliver's, and even The Keg set up booths and sold food, and nothing was priced over $2.00.

The headliner was Delbert McClinton--apparently he was big in our parents' day. I was not familiar with him, but Brian's dad loves him so Brian grew up listening to his music. My appreciation of him grew when I found out that he wrote, recorded and won a Grammy for the song "Have a Little Faith in Me"--I love that song!

Tiff samples the wine.

It got a little chilly!

Thanks, chauffeur Tommy!

One of These Things Is Not Like the Others

Last week I did an unusual transport. It involved going to the town of Thurber, Texas (pop. 5) and meeting another volunteer who lives in Abilene who had pulled two dogs from the Abilene animal shelter. This girl is awesome and regularly pulls dogs from the shelter for us and meets a volunteer somewhere along I-20 so that one of us doesn't have to drive all the way to Abilene (which I have done in the past--three very stinky dogs in my car on the way home was not fun). The transport went off without a hitch and I even talked my mom into riding with me so that I would not be so bored in the car.

The unusual part of the transport was that instead of two golden retrievers, my passengers were one golden and one dalmatian. The girl who pulls the dogs for us had also been in contact with a DFW area dalmatian rescue group who agreed to take the dog if we could find a way to get it to Fort Worth...so I agreed to help (hey, what's one more dog in my car?). The golden (named Talon) was a bit clingy and kept trying to climb into the front seat. As I drove, my mom channeled her inner 5-year-old and kept repeating, "Can't he please just come sit in the front with me?" until I gave in and allowed Talon to ride up front with her.

Once allowed in the front seat, Talon was content and fell asleep. And check out my mom texting!


The sweet dalmatian, Daisy. She was dumped at the shelter by her family and was obviously scared but she was a great passenger and I'm glad she's on her way to a new family!

It's Official

Brax's potential adoptive family loves him. I believe their exact words were, "He is a mess and we love every bit of it." Haha, he is indeed a mess but I'm glad they see that as a positive! I have mailed all the adoption paperwork in, so he has officially found his new home and I am so happy for the big boy. We now find ourselves foster-less for awhile. My parents are going on a cruise around Italy in a couple of weeks and we will be keeping their two goldens, Jazzie and Bear, while they are away. I love those two, so I'm very excited to have a house full of dogs...triple the dog food, fur and fun! Until then, Bailey is enjoying her status as an only dog, and I'm sure I will have some transports to keep me busy. PLUS, the rescue group's annual picnic is in TWO WEEKS! Picnic day is pretty much like Christmas to me...literally hundreds of goldens running around and swimming at Lake Grapevine. I can't wait!

Hair, There & Everywhere!

Here's a newsflash for you: golden retrievers shed. A lot. I did a transport today for a dog named Ellie Mae whose owner gave her up because she sheds. Had this woman done even the tiniest bit of research before getting the dog, she would have known that a golden is probably not the right dog for her, but whatever. Her loss and someone else's gain, because little Ellie Mae is too cute and such a sweetheart.


Yes, goldens do shed but in my opinion they are so worth it. My three secret weapons against shedding are my Furminator dog brush, my beloved Dyson Animal vacuum, and the ability to come to terms with the fact that I will always have tumbleweeds of dog hair blowing through my house. If you have a dog who sheds, the Furminator is well worth the money. Here is an example of what the Furminator can do:

This is all hair that we got from brushing Brax for about 15 minutes. We always try to pick up all the hair after brushing the dogs, but I have a feeling that there are some birds in our neighborhood with nice, cozy, furry nests!