Saturday, August 28, 2010

Sunny with a Chance of PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!!! Finally! YAY!

Camp!







Cousins Visit!!











MI trip August 2010!































Colonel Mustard come home :D







Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Sunny with a Chance of Rice a Roni...

We went to San Fran this weekend-our first real amount of time away from our little Colonel. He did pretty well with our favorite puppy-sitter Kari but he does have a few issues we are working on. Issue 1: he is very excited to meet other dogs then gets very hair on end/growly defensive when he sees they're bigger than he is. Issue 2: he humps. We are working on this tonight with my office mate T's lil puppy named Einstein. Colonel just wants to show his dominance to this new dog in this space but the thing is he is the new pup on the block and I don't want a Sir Humps-a-lot for a pup. So we're trying to socialize him and work these problems out.

Kari and T are being great about training with him and understanding it will be a low process for Colonel. He was a stray that we rescued from the ghetto pound near Compton. I mean he could be the first dog to be a member of both the bloods and the crips (little Boondocks joke for ya there) for all we know. We just think that from his first home to his stray status he didn't have very much socialization with pups so we're trying to ease him in. I'm just glad that the pups and their owners are being so patient with my little guy!

Now as for San Francisco, it is just delightful and charming! It was SO nice to see my friends Lizz, her fiancee Sherman, and my friend Benny who is on tour with Beauty and the Beast. We all just hung out, toured the city, saw where Lizz and Sherm work, I saw Benny in the play, Joe cooked for everyone, and took an amazing series of photos which I SUPER DUPER PROMISE FOR REAL to post as soon as I go over to Kari's house and get them off her camera since my camera died and I have stolen hers for a month and a half. That WILL happen this week.

It was really just such a rewarding weekend with old friends in a new place. I felt so refreshed and recharged and just happy to leave work crap behind and just put my life first (ah the resolution I've made in therapy-yay!). So it was super tough to leave my little man but I knew he was with the most capable person I know. And it was great to get away and have a mini break with Joe and our dear friends. Can't wait for our next San Fran trip when we can take Colonel Mustard with us so he can meet Lizz's dog Chevy Chase! :D

Hope all is well with you. Until the photos arrive I'll leave you with "It was Colonel Mustard, in the kitchen, with his teeth!" ;)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Sunny with a Chance of Honey Mustard!

Colonel Mustard is the sweetest little man!! What a honey-bunny! :D

We're being very vigilante with his training, clicker and treat til he he gets on board with the clicker. He's gone to his first vet visit: kennel cough and giardia. He's on meds for both. He's a little stinker, in a good way, but is definitely going to need us to stick to his training extra hard. He snuggles before sleep time and then curls up at the end of the bed.

I just LOVE him so much!!! I can't believe how much he makes my heart swell, I feel like it's gonna burst! Joe and I are so happy to have him in our little family and hopefully he is happy to be here. :)

We're taking loads of pics on our friend's borrowed camera, we just have to borrow their computer to upload them because Joe's laptop doesn't recognize the memory card. But just you wait-they're the cutest photos! Hope all is swell with y'all, I'll keep you posted on more of the Col.'s adventures! ;)


Sunday, August 15, 2010

Cloudy with a Chance of...Mustard!

Friends!! There is SO much to catch up on. But I really cannot wait to share our amazing news....

So here it is: we've finally adopted our new little guy-COLONEL MUSTARD!!! We are so grateful to have him and share our love with him! Here is our first pic of the little guy in his animal control leash:



Our dear friend Kari knew we wanted to adopt this weekend and that we were going to look on Saturday after a bloody mary brunch we were having with my co-worker T from my newer job. She called me early yesterday morning saying she found a little guy on petfinder.com at the LA County Animal Control shelter in Downey. We were going to look at a breed specific rescue shelter that keeps dogs who cant find homes for forever but this little 7 month old male beagle mix was at a kill shelter. So after we hussled through breakfast we rushed to Kari's place and loaded up in her jeep to go see little man numbered A4164806.

We took a little drive to the ghetto of LA (just outside Compton) and stopped off to meet our man. Kari had called animal control and listed me along with her phone number as an "interested part" and found out he was scheduled to go out to a pet store adoption fair. She had called the local stores and found out the fairs we Sunday not Saturday so if someone hadn't scooped him up yet there was a good chance he could be ours.

We rushed in, got a number (sat next to a pup who was brought in and was super sick and dying-BREAKING my heart), got up to the counter asked about our guy and went to the back buildings to see him. There were 7 barn-like shelters with 20 runs on each side housing 1-5 dogs per kennel. We walked down to building 6 kennel number 20. The place stank. And all those little guys and gals needing homes just breaks your heart. We saw our man and we knew-that was our guy. He came up to me after calling to him a little and his tail started wagging like crazy. It was love at first sniff!

We raced back to the intake building and asked where we could find and ATM (cash or check only), raced to 7/11, raced back and made it official. He became ours for a total of $41 ($30 adoption fee-he was neutered and was there for over 10 days, $10 licensing fee-good for 1 year, and $1 slip-leash fee). We took him over to the medical building to get antibiotics for his kennel cough and where he was micro-chipped. We went back to the main building to register the microchip and got our voucher for a free vet check-up and rabies shot (once medication is done) at our local shelter so we didn't have to come out so far.

We walked him out to the car and began the journey back home. We stopped off at our local great pet warehouse Collar and Leash and picked up the essentials (shampoo-he stunk BAAAAAAAAD, brush, collar, leash, harness-it has to be exchanged since it is a little too small, water and food bowls, soft pad for floor sitting, nyla-bone denta-dino t-rex, stuffed monkey, poop bags, training treats in herring flavor (to help with his dandruff), food in lamb & rice flavor and venison meal flavor from California Naturals brand, a rope toy, and a puppy kong. He was going to be a well-spoiled boy :D

We brought him home where the first step was bath time. He didn't seem happy about it but he behaved quite well only trying to jump ship twice (thank goodness for sliding doors on the shower. I was in there with my bathing suit to keep him comfy and to keep him calm. We dried and brushed him and took him on his first walk. Complete with starting training with positive reinforcement. Then we began training him for an hour on "Sit", "Come", and "Wait". He is doing so well!! He loves to train actually and is quite smart. He's on an hour and a half pee schedule. And breakfast is at 9am with dinner at 7pm to get him used to my work schedule (I'm SO glad he can come to work with me!!).

We just love him so much and cannot wait to continue being his pet parents for the rest of his life! This whole experience just made my heart want to burst with gladness!!! Our little family has grown and we're excited to begin this journey with him. Get ready for the best Christmas cards of your life too-you know it will be him in the kitchen with the rope (toy)!! ;)



Love to you all!!!