Last days of Summer

Most of our friends here are transplants from out of state and for the first couple of months it seemed like they were all traveling back "home". So we didn't really get to get out and have as many play dates as we would have liked. BUT our friends came back and some invited us to go swimming at their apartments. It was nice to get out and go swimming with some friends. Here are a few pictures I took of the girls.

Random August

 This girl LOVES bath time. It has kind of become our fall back plan if she is gets super fussy and we can't figure out what is bothering her. She loves splashing and if you take her out before her little hands and feet look like prunes, she will let you know it is too soon.

 Natalie is a climber. She just goes for it. It is pretty impressive just how strong she is and what she can do. I think Morgan was a little more timid and so I have never had to worry about this before.

 I don't know how it happened, but both of my girls fell fast asleep at like 6:30 one night. Kevin was gone and I had a busy day and I was ready for the break, but I was worried that going to sleep this early would mean either they would wake up in the middle of the night or like 5 am and be wide awake. Natalie ended up just taking a nap and waking up an hr or so later, but Morgan let me change her into Pjs (Instead of her Elsa dress pictured here) and she just slept all night.

I think I hear I hear "Hey mom, take a picture!", at least once a day. Here are the result of one of those times. Oh Joy :) 

Park days

It gets pretty hot here during the summer, but there were several days that we just had to say "Bring on the heat" and get out of the house. Here are some pictures from our days at the park.

Natalie's very first time on the swing. At first she was kind of scared, but then she loved it.

Gotta do whatcha gotta do

Having two kids is really hard for me. It just is. I can admit that. It had just been the three of us for so long and adding another little person just makes doing pretty much anything a little more of a challenge.

Kevin and I need to do photo shoots for our magazine and a lot of the time they require us hopping on a Jet Ski and riding to a nice spot to take pictures out in the water. Well, I can't really take a baby on a Jet Ski and Natalie is a super clingy, non bottle drinking babe who just wants me all the time. So, that being said, we have to improvise now. Find different locations and try to make it work. On one of our most recent shoots I had to take pictures with Natalie strapped to my back. I had to bend down and squat lower to get certain shots and angles. I really got a workout.  Here are a couple of pictures after one of our shoots. The picture of me is pretty bad, but Natalie looked cute.

Starting to be friends

When Natalie was first aware of our dog, she would get really excited to see her. Ruca did not feel the same way. In fact, she would go to the other side of the room. Now as time passes and Ru gets more used to Natalie, she doesn't go running. She has learned that if at any time Natalie has food she is the one that is most likely going to share :). So I would say that as time goes by, they are starting to be friends.

13 puppies Part 2

Week two was stressful because I was desperately trying to figure out what the best thing to do for these puppies was. My Aunt heard about the situation and she is a HUGE animal lover. She knew that I couldn't afford it myself, but she was willing to take care of food costs and veterinary bills for ALL of the puppies if needed. So awesome!

I was able to find a home for one puppy Tuesday night and I had quite a few interested in coming to get one Wednesday. I went to go put Whiskey outside for a while and I saw a truck right beside my neighbors kennel. I ran over there and saw that it was animal control. I told them that I had people coming to get these puppies and they ended up allowing me to keep the puppies that they had not already put in the van. So I had 6 puppies now (including Whiskey).

I need to back up just a little and explain some more frustration I have towards my neighbor. I mention earlier that he was planning on keeping a puppy. Well I had noticed when we bathed all the dogs that this particular puppy was injured. I don't know if it was a dog bite or if he accidentally poked it with the stake he used to push the puppies back in the kennel with. Yes, he would hit them in the face with a wooden stake. So I saw this injury and told him he needed to take his puppy to the vet quick and get that taken care of. He said "Oh yeah, I will take him today." Later that night, poor puppy was just sitting in the kennel with the rest of the dogs. When animal control came, he gave them that puppy and traded it for another puppy to keep. That shows he doesn't care a whole heck of a lot of happens to these dogs. It is just something to own.

While animal control was there I made sure to give her the "please help these dogs" look. She caught on pretty quick and started asking him for vaccination records on all 5 of his other dogs. Yep, this new puppy will make 6 dogs. I just hope they keep on top of him and then maybe either his dogs will have to be fixed or just taken away.

As of yesterday, I was able to find homes for 7 puppies! This was such a crazy ride and not one that I hope to take again. I just feel a little better knowing that they will get the care that they deserve.

I have kind of followed up with everyone that came and got a pup and they have been really quick to respond with how great their dog is doing and let me know what they named them.

One little boy was named coco and lives with a family that has a 2 1/2 yr old little girl.

Another little girl was also named coco and they have a 9 month old daughter. They drove all the way from Huntsville, Alabama.

This little girl is named Nala.

A mom brought her twin boys over to surprise them with a puppy. She originally wanted to get a girl, but these boys fell in love with this little guy. They didn't have a name picked out yet. I'm sure they will have a lot of fun with him.

We decided not to keep Whiskey. I just knew I was going to seriously regret it. Not that we wouldn't love him, but I already have my hangs completely full. So...my neighbors mother really wanted him and she even kept the name Whiskey!I didn't get a picture of them together, but  i'm glad because they said they will bring him over all the time and I will get to see him.

The last two puppies stayed with us until Friday. We brought them inside to give them another bath.

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This is Nash and his new family. They already have a 10 yr old Half Heeler mix named Whiskey. (crazy huh?)

Last but not least is Max with part of his new family. They actually got another puppy that day to. One for their daughter and this one for their son.

I am so relieved that this is all over and I know that although in a different circumstance I would probably be willing to foster a dog, but I don't think I could ever work at a shelter that may have to euthanize any animals.

13 puppies Part 1

So these last two weeks have been kind of stressful! Week one, my husband was out of town ALL week so I was left to tend to our girls and our dog. It is a lot more difficult than it sounds. I have so much respect for single mothers and military wives! I needed a break BADLY.

One afternoon I was outside playing Frisbee with Ruca and I saw something strange in my neighbors kennel. I looked a little closer and I saw little bobbing puppy heads. A lot of them. I called out and said "You have puppies?" to which he responded "Yeah, from your dog!" I had to inform him that that was impossible because my dog 1)is female and 2) is spayed. Turns out it was another Blue Heeler that would frequent our neighborhood. We had to return him to his owners multiple times. It all makes sense now :)

Moonshine (the male Heeler) did not get one, but two dogs pregnant and now my neighbor had 13 little puppies. I went over to investigate closer and I immediately felt sad. These puppies were stuck outside by themselves ALL day. I checked outside often and I never saw them out running around and they didn't even have a dog house. They just had a blue tarp placed over the kennel that sagged and had holes that the puppies would get stuck in. I asked him if I could help find homes for the dogs and he said yes. All except one. He was keeping one-UGH.

I had been telling Kevin all about these puppies. I would have a hard to sleeping because I was so worried about them. Were the getting enough food? Are they just sitting in filth? Are they getting played with at all? I just couldn't handle it. When Kevin makes it home, we show him the puppies and we even end up putting a dog house in their kennel as it was POURING down rain.

The next day we take all of the puppies and bathe them in our daughter's little swimming pool and then place them in our kennel to dry off.

I wasn't want to offend my neighbor and make a real enemy out of him so when he noticed the dogs were gone we brought them back to his house, but continued to check up on them.

I posted pictures of them on Facebook and begged my friends to spread the word and help me find homes for the cute pups. Although, I have several people share my post I had ZERO responses through Facebook. I put an ad for them on craigslist and I had tons of responses. I had been told that was a quick way to find abusers and people that just want to harm puppies so I grilled most of them that responded and found some people I felt were really sincere and just wanted to help these pups find homes. I had reached out to several animal rescues, but it was several days before I heard anything back from them. I had to act fast.

At one point we toyed with the idea of keeping one. We even named him. Meet Whiskey. The son of Moonshine :)

The next picture will make my mom throw up. No I am not OK with her putting that ball in her mouth. This situation just made me laugh and I had to capture it. This is how these two would interact. Natalie was totally fine with Whiskey climbing on her. She would just push him off and he would keep on coming. Here they were fighting over the same toy.