RIP Scooter

Last Tuesday (July 19, 2011) we lost one of our 4 legged pets. Scooter, the Chihuahua, was about 12 years old and probably died of old age or congestive heart failure or something.

Scooter initially was my father-in-law's dog, I remember when he got him when Nick and I were engaged. He officially moved in here in May of 2004 when Gar moved in with us. 2 years later we moved him upstairs when Gar died and he became a real member of the family (even if it was reluctantely by Nick). I really took care of him the last 5 years because I was really one of the only ones that he liked. Otherwise he was pretty anti-social and would hang out in his kennel a lot of the day.
Scooter's favorite thing was sitting and laying in the sun (he was a Chihuahua after all). He loved the occasional treat or fallen food scrap that Lucy wouldn't get to. He was a barker, would bark at almost anyone coming to our house (but me). The house is definetly quieter with him gone.
I had a feeling this day was coming soon. Earlier this year he started hacking a lot. Then about a week and a half ago on a Sunday he showed signs he wasn't doing well. He could hardly walk and would hardly eat. We ended up feeding him wet food to get him to eat something. He seemed to get better from that, but was still even skinnier then he use to be. I will say I was still surprised to open his kennel on Tuesday and for him to not come out.
He is now up in heaven with Gar, as well as our dogs, Mandi, Mollie and Maggie. I know he will be well loved up there.

C-Ya!

Introducing Lucy!

Introducing our new puppy, Lucy:



When Maggie died we knew we couldn't be without a little dog for long. So we went back to the place that we got Maggie and saw that they had some shih poos available right away and soon. We found one that was born on February 4, had the same father and was going to be available the beginning of April. So on Thursday, April 10 Nick went and got her.
Now the kids knew we were talking about getting another one, but they did not know when. Partially because I didn't want Jeffrey to miss school since we were getting her while he was gone. Nick brought her home in the morning so Jeff was gone but this was Samantha and Carter's reaction when they saw her


Samantha was pretty excited but nothing could contain the excitement Jeffrey felt when he got home from school and Samantha brought her out

After discussing it all day (and initially thinking we were going to call her Abby) we settled on Lucy. Kind of a break from the "M" names we have named our dogs in the past.
Of course I get to hold her a lot

Potty training has gone ok... she is starting to get the hang of using the bell to go outside, though at times she can be lazy. Samantha and Jeffrey are great with her... they are always taking her out and playing with her. This has been a Godsend because it can get kind of crazy having a new puppy and a baby. Carter, well, he doesn't same much about her. We do have to watch her around him or she mistakes him for a play toy. And Nick is just grateful to have a new "drinking buddy".
Max hasn't had much play time with her, but Scooter has and is quite dissapointed... he thought he would be the only furry friend in the house for awhile.
C-Ya!

In Memory of Maggie

I am just going to repost what I emailed everyone when this happened.

It is with sadness that I have to say we have lost our Maggie dog. On the night of Tuesday, March 24 she got off her leash and was hit and killed by a car. I wasn't home but Nick said that whoever hit her didn't stop. Another person saw her lying in the street and went and got the neighbors who in turn got Nick. The lady that found her said she had a faint pulse but by the time Nick got there it was too late. She was almost 2 1/2 years old and was the perfect dog.
We told the kids the next morning.. Jeffrey is taking it especially hard and we let him stay home from school. Samantha decided she wanted to go. She is just asking a lot of questions and is saying that she is sad.
Nick and I are devastated. We have suffered so much loss. I truly don't know if I slept that night, I felt like I was up all night.
The house seems quiet right now, even with the noise the kids make... she definetly had a presence around here larger then life.I think we have all decided that we want to get another little dog soon. We don't know much about what kind yet, but we know we want a girl and to give her a name like Maggie.
Maggie was buried in our back yard next to Mollie, that is what the kids wanted.
:(


C-Ya!

RIP Mollie

I have been holding off posting this - for awhile it was too hard to deal with.

On Thursday, December 28, 2006 we lost one of our fur babies. Mollie was 5 1/2 years old.. so as you can imagine this was a shock to us.
The night before we heard her whining.. we went out to the kennel to check her out. Her stomach was bloated. We thought that since both her and our male lab weren't fixed that she was pregnant. We had seen her getting some "action" so that would have made sense.
When Nick went to check on her the next morning she was still whining.. but we thought it was just pregnancy pains some more. We had to go out of town that day for a couple days, so we asked our neighbor to look in on the big dogs (the little ones were going with us). When she came home that afternoon from work she went in and checked and Mollie was already dead. Laying exactly where she was laying when Nick put her back in the kennel.
Our neighbor's son lives next door to a Vet, so they called her and she said it was a twisted stomach/intestines. Something fairly common in dogs that live with another dog.
This is my third pet to die. First was Mandi (Nick's Lab) who died at age 14, next was Klinger (parent's cat) who died at age 23... for some reason this one was the hardest. I think because this was my first puppy. When we got her over 5 years ago, I went with Nick and my fil to Nebraska to pick her up. I have pictures of her as a puppy laying on my lap. She never did get to live a full life. And that is the tragedy.
Here is Mollie

Now she is up in heaven driving my fil nuts, playing with Mandi.
C-Ya!