Never a dull moment

Warning*** Long winded post to follow.

We have been fostering Hey Ready Freddy for two weeks now. He is quite the character. It has not been a dull moment since we picked him up on the 13th of this month. Last weekend we forgot to shut the utility room door, after getting the hound's food from our air tight 40lb containers (I am all about convenience folks, and these work great), 2 minutes after Freddy finished his meal, he snuck off to the utility room for cat box crunchies. Luckily, we noticed where he was quickly, but I was terrified and freaking out, so I called the emergency vet. All I could picture in my mind was the trouble that was soon to be stirring in his digestive track from that clumping cat litter. I immediately took up the bowl of water.

The emergency vet instructed me to call the Animal poison control hotline for advice. $60 for the consultation, but worth every penny. The Vet who answered my call gave me instructions on how to induce vomiting. Here are some handy items you should have around the house for emergencies like these: hydrogen peroxide, milk (or ice cream) and bread. Minutes after giving him this magic potion for induced vomiting, I was following Freddy around with a huge bowl in hopes that this would work. Thankfully, 10 minutes later it did. And boy did it STINK!!! In the short amount of time he had his head in the cat box, he devoured quite a bit of litter box crunchies. I have never had a hound or any dog for that matter eat crunchies from the litter box. We learned our lesson, but I don't think Freddy has, so we are being super cautious about making sure that utility room door is always closed. =)

We had another scary experience on Christmas evening. After a wonderful Christmas day visiting with family and friends, we came home let the pups out, fed them, waited two hours and then let them out for their final pee before bed, when all he** broke loose. Mitch did not realize it, and I was inside brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed, but there was a stray cat in the yard. Of course the hounds spotted this immediately and gave chase and at one point Freddy had a hold of the cat with his mouth. Mitch, being the animal lover he is, tried to come to the defense of the cat and got in the middle of the commotion. The cat was freaking out, scratched Mitch and then bit him (through his coat and jeans) on his arm and leg.. The cat had no collar on and got away, so can you guess what fun Mitch was doing the following day?

You guessed it....good ole rabies vaccine and shots. He says it was quite PAINFUL!! But it was a must, we could not risk the chance of the cat being rabid and Mitch getting sick. As you probably already know, once the symptoms for rabies set in, it is too late, and at that point it is FATAL.

He went to his PCP, but they could not do anything for him, so they sent him to the ER. 4 hours later, he left the ER with discharge instructions and a sore rear end. 2 shots in his arms and two in his arse. Poor Mitch! But the fun isn't over yet, nope, he has to go back tomorrow for his second shot, then again on Friday for his third, then a week later for his fourth shot and then two weeks later for the final shot. Mitch says next time, he is not going to come to the aid of the cat. I can't say I blame him. The good news is, the hounds were all fine, they were a little scratched up, but nothing that required veterinary medical attention, just a little hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin. =)

Other happenings over the last two weeks:

Elsa went to her forever home on December 11th and was officially adopted today. They fostered her with the intent to adopt. She is such a sweetheart and Mitch swears our fourth hound is going to be "an Elsa"! =) Yeah for Elsa!!!!

Zola came to stay with us a few days before Christmas. Her mom had to go to Germany for a conference. What is the first thing Cueball did when she came in the house? Claimed her dog beds of course. I guess the 11 dog beds we have in the house and the 2 we have in my car just are not up to his standards.

Zola stays with us a lot, so this is like a second home for her. She pays Cueball no mind and finds her own spot to lay down. She is a good girl. =) She will be visiting us again next weekend and will stay with us for a week. Can you find all five hounds?

Mitch and I both took last week off from work. We have been working hard on all three bedrooms in our house. First challenge was the spare bedroom upstairs, which was previously used as a storage/junk room. It is now a computer/sewing room and is coming along great. I just need to finish painting the legs on the sewing desk, which is in the garage now, hang some frames and then this room will be finally finished.

Second challenge was the our bedroom. By moving out the computer stuff and bookshelves, we were able to free up lots of space in our room. We finally have a bedroom that I am not embarrassed of. Now, I just need to purchase some new curtains and some nice bedding. We would also like to eventually have a matching bedroom set as well. One step at a time. ;-)

Lastly we worked on our guest bedroom downstairs. This was also once used as a storage/junk room. I have just a few more things to do in this room. The VHS tapes on the floor will be going to Goodwill, Mitch is going to put the shelving units that are in the corner leaning against the wall now in the closet, try to attach the foot board to the bed and I am going to go through the box on the floor near the doorway and put things away and then install handles on the dresser. I made a trip to Goodwill on Saturday. Yep, that Subi was packed to the max! We donated a lot of items and also threw away a lot of stuff. I have one more trip to Goodwill to make, which I will be doing tomorrow.

No before photos. You just got to take my word, all three rooms were a cluttered mess!

Okay, I have bored you enough with house projects, now back to hound news.
2008 was a record breaking year for adoptions for VAGA. I hope it was for all adoption groups! I also hope this momentum continues and grows even stronger in 2009. We sure had an awesome meet and greet today at the Newport News Petsmart. Freddy was working his magic on lots of folks, so paws are crossed for his forever home to be found soon and Cueball, who was our donation dog, had overflowing money pockets, which I had to empty twice during the 2 hour event! Love it when that happens!! It has been an awesome week. Back to work on Tuesday for me and Mitch. =(

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!!!!!!

Bummed by Happiness

I found out a couple of weeks ago that Maggie's litter mate, Happiness, was available for adoption. She just got out of the breeding program a couple of months ago. She is eight.Isn't she a beauty?

I immediately called the rescue kennel to see if she would be a match for us. Unfortunately, she is not cat safe. Mitch and I were both so heartbroken! =(

Once finding this out, a dear friend helped me get in contact with the owner to find out where her other two litter mates are. Maggie has 4 female litter mates:

Happy Talk - adopted years ago and lives in FL

Happiness - available for adoption

Katie Kisses - ?

City Savvy - ?

After days of waiting to hear back, I made contact again and got more disappointing news. Both Katie Kisses and City Savvy were placed into the breeding program and the whereabouts are now unknown. =( Ugghh......

We then checked with the rescue kennel again to see if there was ANY WAY that Happi was workable. We were willing to work with her.

Nope....she will likely kill our cat they said.

Anybody want a cat? ............... Just kidding, we could never do that!

Now we are thinking happy thoughts about Katie Kisses and City Savvy, hoping they are in a loving home now, and trying to keep an eye on Happi's offspring. A couple of them are good racers and are only age two so they have a ways to go before becoming available for adoption. I have been unsuccessful at tracking down Booyah's one litter mate and have no contacts to find out where Cueball's litter mates are. He raced up north before finally ending up in FL.

Lion leaves, Elsa arrives

Well, after a month and a week of fostering Lion, he went to his forever home on Sunday. I drove him up to Fredericksburg to the adoption event and to say goodbye. This was the longest period of time that I have had a foster and I had grown quite attached to this sweet boy. But, he got an AWESOME forever home and now has a brother, Gallo, to play with! =) Here's one last picture of this sweet, lovable goof. Good luck sweet boy!While I was in Fredericksburg, I brought back Elsa to foster for a little while. She just turned three so she is a little playful, but super sweet. She ADORES people. She is having a blast running around our backyard. When she is inside, she is mostly doing this.

We will only have her a few days, but Mitch says he will be sad when she leaves. He really likes her a lot. He has never said this about any of our other fosters. Unlike me, he does not want to keep everyone we get. =) There is something special about her. I hope she does well in her foster home in Chesapeake and I hope they decide to adopt her!

Happy 2nd Gotcha Day Booyah

I started this post a week ago. I am just now finding some time to sit down and finish it. Sorry Booyah!! We celebrated Booyah's 2nd gotcha day on December 5th (his actual gotcha day was November 28th, but I was a bad mommy and did not go out the day after Thanksgiving to get him a cake). It doesn't seem like it has been 2 years already. Where does the time go? Booyah is such a love bug. He doesn't know a stranger, plays well with other kids, loves to be loved, loves to play with his brother Cueball and sister Maggie, loves to travel, loves cookies, bones and stuffies. He is a very well rounded grey and he is an excellent addition to our family! Everyone who meets Booyah, just loves Booyah. =)

I got his cake from Three Dog Bakery and we had a small celebration at the house. Lion got to join in on the fun too, since we are fostering him.

Happy Gotcha Day Booyah!!! We love you and we are so thankful to have you in our lives!! We hope you have many, many more!! =)

Booyah the Hunter…..

It was a cold morning, the kids let us sleep in a bit (6am) before demanding our attention. Not much was stirring outside, that I could see. I let the kids out to do their morning routine and joined them to enjoy the fresh, crisp morning air. I love the fall and the freshness it brings to the lungs. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the kids and found my self lost in thought (a lot going around here lately) when I felt something brush against my leg.

It felt furry but was too far down to be one of the kids. I quickly turned around only to see something scamper into the woods. Booyah was on the other side of the yard and I could tell he saw it too because he was in his hunter/stalking/invisible stance (tail still, ears perked up, slowly moving forward while he scanned for his prey). I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye and before I could tell Booyah no he was half way across the yard.

The little furry monster scampered thisa way and thata way trying to evade his brutish hunter but Booyah, bad eye and all, quickly caught his prey in his mouth. He proudly jumped up and down and pranced around as if to say “look at me, look at me, I am the mighty hunter Booyah.” But his pride got the best of him as his prey escaped when Booyah thrust his head into the air. The furry little thing went flying through the air and quickly gained his feet and was off once he touched down. Booyah franticly chased after his prey but the adrenaline rush from his escape from death gave the little varmit a bit more speed and agility. Amazing what a shot of reality can do you.

The other kids were in on the action now and all hope was growing dim for our little furry friend. He was quickly cornered and Booyah once again had him captured in his mouth. He wasn’t prancing around this time though he got a firm grip on the little rascal and violently shook him back and forth to knock him out. The rest of the story is too gruesome to go into details here. I’ll let the pictures do the talking…….

Finally! Decent action shots.

Finally I was able to get some decent action shots of the kids. Mitch also let me use his computer, so I could zoom in and crop. I don't have any software on my laptop to do that. =) Not much commentary will follow. I think the pics speak for themselves. We had some nice weather on Thanksgiving day. It was a little cool outside, but not cold enough for the kids to have to wear coats, so we let them out with their stuffies. Here's Maggie with the headless frog. Yes, you read that correctly....headless frog. Story about that coming soon.

They are always ganging up on Cueball. He is the fastest in this bunch, so they are always trying their best to cut him off to slow him down. Our foster Lion is the only one that has been able to keep up with Cueball or beat him.

I think this is what it looks like when they are putting on the brakes. =)

Booyah gets a turn with the headless frog.

Hey, did you hear that?

This is one of my favorite pics thus far. If that stupid tree stump was not in the way, this would have been even better.

Maggie with Lion.

Lion absolutely LOVES squeaky toys. He has learned our schedule and knows when we are going out to play. He picks up a stuffie to bring outside with him.

I think I am getting better at this whole photography thing. Finally getting the hang of it. It only took 6 months. ;-)

Watch out for that killer toilet paper

I have been sick since Thursday. Rhinovirus, cold, whatever you want to call it...it has been miserable. Constant coughing, sore scratchy throat, puffy face, watering eyes, continual nasal drip....you get the idea. The housework has definitely suffered, and today I am running around like the Tasmanian devil playing catch up. I am starting to feel a bit better and I am tired of laying around on the couch. The soreness in my throat is finally gone. My face no longer looks like someone beat me up and the coughing and nasal drip are at a minimum. I think I should be able to return to work tomorrow. I hate missing work, but Friday there was no way I could sit for 8 hours at a computer working and answering phones with a dripping nose, watering eyes, sore throat and constant cough. I am sure I would not have been the most pleasant or patient voice on the other end of the phone. Not a good combination when you are taking calls from patients who just had open heart surgery. =( So I did everyone, including myself, a favor and stayed home to rest. And rest I did. I layed on the couch all day Friday and Saturday. Mitch has been great with taking care of me. Even after working a 12 hour shift on Friday and Saturday, he still came home cooked dinner and cleaned up the kitchen. That's my sweetie. He is a wonderful husband and I am one lucky chica. Miss moo has also taken care of me. She layed beside me all day both Friday and Saturday. I have been the true meaning of a couch potato these last two days. I only got up for the necessities and to take the kids out.

My title has a point...promise..bare with me. So, I told you I have been sick. Well my nose has been like a freakin leaky faucet and we did not have any Kleenex in the house, so I have been using a roll of toilet paper. Hey if it is soft enough to wipe my bum with..then it is good enough to blow my nose. Right? And besides, I was in no mood, nor did I have the energy to drag myself to the store. I know, I know...excuses....excuses. Anyways it was accomplishing the task until this:
Yesterday I went up stairs to take a nice hot shower and came back downstairs only to find Maggie attacking the roll of toilet paper like it was a wild hare in a field. Or maybe she thought it was the cause of my sickness. In any case, it was too cute not to capture a memory, so I grabbed the camera to take a picture, but she quickly got up and moved to the other side of the couch with the following expression on her face.
I think she was pretty proud of herself. A few moments later she celebrated her feat with a jubilant happy dance with Cueball on the couch.
I was mad at her, but it only lasted a couple of seconds. It took me about 3 minutes to clean it all up. Besides it is my fault anyway. I know our three are big time chewers. They steal our shoes, belts, blankets, remotes, cups...and anything else they get their little mouths on. Just the other day Booyah destroyed his second remote. It put us out of commission with the TV downstairs for 2 days until the new remote from Directv arrived. Thank goodness for DVR, we could at least watch shows we had recorded. =)

The moral of the story is, watch out for that killer toilet paper. Thank goodness the cow queen saved us.

No dogs allowed

No dogs allowed on our bed. This use to be the rule in our house (set by Mitch), up until Friday afternoon that is.


As you can see from this picture, he is quite comfortable. So how did this happen? Mitch was home on Friday playing a game on his computer when out of nowhere Cueball jumped up on the bed. Mitch chuckled, did not correct him and that was the end of that. Cueball won. =)

Now lest you get the wrong idea, just because our kids were not allowed on the bed and still are not allowed up there when we are sleeping, does not mean they don't sleep in the lap of luxury. Quite the contrary.







They have a sofa in our bedroom.



And double stacked dog beds (a set for each kid), with the one on the top having memory foam under the natural bed stuffing.But even with both these cozy options, I guess Cueball decided that these options were not cozy enough for him and wanted to try out our bed, which also has a memory foam mattress and I must say is quite cozy, but it is only a queen size bed and no where near enough room for Mitch, myself and the kids to share at night. Luckily last night Cueball did not attempt to join us in bed, but this morning when Mitch got up to let the kids out and feed them, Cueball jumped right up and took his spot. We will see how this goes, but I have a feeling I will be awoken from a deep sleep by a 74lb dog jumping on the bed in the near future. ;-)


Other happenings.

Today is absolutely beautiful outside. A little windy, but warm, sunny, gorgeous fall day. While outside with the kids, I was able to get a great pic of each one of them enjoying this beautiful day.


We are also still fostering Lion. It did not work out with his slated forever home, so he is now in the foster program. We will foster him until he finds a home. He is no trouble at all! He is doing great with our kids!! We love his happy personality. He is a very sweet, good boy, who will likely need a home that already has a dog. Look at his sweet face.....how could you not want to take him home with you?
Last weekend we attended the monthly meet and greet in Glen Allen. We had a great turnout.
I took Lion with me and he did wonderfully! When we got home, Maggie had ETS.


We have been pretty busy lately around the house. Mitch and I are both working on the extra bedroom upstairs. We are re-purposing the room. Soon it will be a computer/sewing room. This will free up some space in our bedroom. =)

Last night we went out with a friend of mine from work, Jennifer and her good friend Phil. We went to the Wine Cellar for a wine tasting, then to Carrabas for dinner(yum). The wine, at the tasting unfortunately was not very good, but we had a very good time anyway. =) We bought a couple of bottles of Cabs from Chile to try.

Tonight we are heading next door to meet our new neighboors. They are having a housewarming party. It will be so nice being so close to home. We don't have to worry about who will be the designated driver, or about rushing home to care for the kids. Yeah!!

Bubble and Lion

We had a fairly busy day on Saturday. We woke up early and met the VAGA hauler and picked up two hounds. Kalahari Lion and CTW Duble Bubble. The other 9 hounds went to Fredericksburg for adoption. Pics can be seen on VAGA's blog.

Bubble and Lion are both very sweet. Bubble went to her forever home on Saturday. I am so glad her family decided to name her Bubble. The name so fits her bubbly personality. She has the cutest ears, they stand straight up to a perfect point. =) She is super sweet, very playful and tiny just like my moo. Lion reminds me a lot of Hank. He is a sweet boy. We are fostering him for a week until his family is ready to adopt him. So we get to teach him the ropes. So far he is doing really well!
The three boys are tolerating each other so far.




He is pretty low key in the house, but quite playful when he is outside. He is a good boy. We are going to enjoy having him for the week. I really enjoy fostering. It is such a neat experience watching these hounds come out of their shell and seeing their personalities develop. The first time they pick up a toy and play is so neat. =) Teaching them how to climb stairs is amusing. They learn so quickly!!




We also went to the New Kent Winery on Saturday. We did a tasting and bought some wine. It is a beautiful winery and only 15 minutes from our house. Score!!!!! My favorite was their White Norton, but I also enjoyed their 2005 Chardonnay, and Vidal Blanc. Mitch and I both did not care for their Meritage or Merlot. We had a good time and will be visiting again soon.



Sunday we spent lounging around the house watching football and just taking it easy. Next weekend we have some more DIY planned. Our computer/sewing room should be complete. I can't wait! I have started sewing Christmas coats for the kids, but it will be so nice to have an actual space to put all my fabric, thread, ribbon etc. instead of carrying boxes to the kitchen table to sew. And, it will be nice not to have the computer desk in our bedroom. This will give us so much more space. The kids will enjoy this also!






Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! And, Get out there on Tuesday and VOTE!!! EVERY VOTE COUNTS!!!!!!