Camera Critters: The Snow Dog

This is my first time participating in Camera Critters. I'm a huge animal lover and take every opportunity to show off our German Shepherd, Roman.

A couple of weeks ago, we had the largest snowfall that my city had seen in 18 years. It was 8 inches deep in our front yard and Roman couldn't have been happier. (He must have been a snow dog in a previous life)

Here are a couple of shots of him in our front yard, having a blast with a couple of his "people".

If you would like to participate in Camera Critters, check them out here!

My, how he's grown

Remember WAY back in August when I told you about the newest member of our family?

Here's a reminder, just in case (since I've kind of forgotten to give him any additional blog time ever since).

His name is Roman and he was a precious 13 week old German Shepherd puppy in these pics.

He & Little A are big buddies. Aren't they cute? And little?

What a difference 5 months makes.

We've made all kinds of progress with him. He's learning some useful commands and making all sorts of friends at the dog park. And he doesn't mind the girls hanging all over him.

And he & Little A are still best buddies. Even though he now outweighs her by at least 40 pounds.

We are so glad the hubby spotted him on Craigslist last Fall and even happier that all the stars aligned and brought him to his forever home.

And I'll try not to wait another 5 months before I post about him again.

Puppy Power

On Monday evening of this week, hubby called to me from the other room and said, "Hey, there's a 13 week old German Shepherd on Craigslist that some people are trying to re-home." And so, foolishly, I emailed the lister and didn't give it another thought.

Tuesday morning, I got an email back from the guy and we ended up swapping phone numbers. He told me this story that was kind of a bummer, but made me a little intrigued about checking out this puppy. Hubby agreed and so off we went that afternoon to check out our prospective family member.

The little guy was adorable! His parents were both on site, which gave us a pretty good idea of what he would look like when he grows up. And the temperament of his dad appears to be who he's taking after. Yay! So, we made the quick decision to commit to giving him a forever home and we agreed to return the next day to pick him up.

Wednesday, the girls & I were enjoying lunch when I asked them the following question. "If we could have another pet come and live with us in the house, what kind of pet would you want?" Here's how that conversation went down.

Little A: I want a pet mouse.

Big A: No, I want a baby giraffe.

Me: We're not getting a mouse and a baby giraffe is too big to live with us.

Big A: But, if we just buy a bigger house, then it would be much taller and then the baby giraffe can live with us!

Me: Nice try. We're getting a puppy instead.

Little A: Oh, I want him to chase me around. That will be fun!

Big A: NOOOOOO! I don't want to pick up my toys.

Me: You would have to pick up your toys anyway.

Big A: Can we get a baby giraffe instead?

Me: {bangs head on table repeatedly}

And so here is Big A welcoming our new horse, er, German Shepherd pup into the house.

Checking out his new backyard (that he doesn't have to stay in full time...yippee!)

Oh my, this looks like nothing but trouble.

His name is Roman and he's your typical 3 month old puppy. He's playful, very wary of his new surroundings, and incredibly loving. He's going to be a great member of the family!

Now if only we could get the cats to agree to that last statement.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

Wanna know a quick and efficient way to completely turn your life upside down overnight?

Add one of these to your house.

This is our new puppy, Roman. More info on him in tomorrow's post. In the meantime, Trim the Fat Thursday will return to it's regularly scheduled slot next week. For any of you who did a TTFT post this week, please link it up here and keep up the good work!

Friday's Foto Finish Fiesta

This is Kota.

Kota was a sweet girl who we adopted from a rescue. She had the softest fur and a shy disposition. She was slow to trust people, so when we finally won her trust, it the best gift ever. She was protective of our family and very gentle with the kids. She was strong despite physical limitations. She was a true best friend that gave us unconditional love. We miss her terribly.

We've been talking lately about adding a new German Shepherd dog to our family. It's something that we're hoping to accomplish this summer. I only hope that we find a creature as special as our Kota. Those are big shoes to fill.

For other photo stories, check out Candid Carrie!

It's So Hard to Say Goodbye

Before I get to the sad part of this entry, I need to take care of a little business here. Due to the fact that I'm DROWNING in comment love this week (thanks so much you sweet readers!), I wanted to answer one of the hottest questions that I've gotten in the last 24 hours.

The book that I read was "Bitter is the New Black" by Jen Lancaster. And I loved it. More on why I loved it when I post my Spot's Sunday Entertainment Roundup this Sunday. In the meantime, here's the scoop on my depressing day today.


I have been a lover of German Shepherd Dogs (GSD's) for as long as I can remember. I had one as a very small child and then hubby & I obtained a puppy the DAY after we moved into our first house. (The house just wasn't home until we had a GSD pup running around ruling the roost) We added another GSD a couple of years later that we rescued and we had a Boxer as well. It was a huge & happy family. And then we added 2 kids of the human-kind and our house was really bursting at the seams. And then in the course of 13 months, we lost all 3 of our dogs to sudden illness. Just as it seemed that we were starting to feel normal again, another passed away, until we were dogless.


In April of this year, we decided to rush into getting another GSD into our home. Hubby could see how miserable I was without my GSD's and he just wasn't having it anymore. We ended up adopting a brother/sister pair from a local shelter. We kept Chloe and ended up adopting out her brother to a great home. The story of all that is here, if you're interested.


Everything was going along swimmingly until I left to go to Maine with my mom for a long weekend at the end of May. I got a frantic call from hubby on my 2nd day away saying that Chloe was growling at my kids. For no good reason. Thinking that it was probably because I was away and hubby was now home 24/7, I kind of dismissed it. That is until I got home and she started that behavior towards my kids while I was present.


So, for almost 2 months now, I've researched training methods, tried to talk with professionals and contacted multiple rescue organizations to try and fix this situation. The growling has now escalated to full on teeth baring and voracious barking anytime my kids come remotely near her. It has to stop.


With a VERY heavy heart and a lot of tears, I'm taking Chloe this morning to a brand new shelter that just opened up near my house. They have a behaviorist on staff and plenty of room to make sure that they find her the perfect home (with no small children). I feel so awful about this. I really feel like I've failed her as a dog-mom. I know many people don't have this kind of connection to animals, so I'm sure there are at least a few out there rolling their eyes and saying "good grief woman, get it together, it's JUST a dog". The problem is that I've never seen any of my pets as "just a dog". No matter how much they angered me or got under my skin for whatever reason, they were part of my family and I loved them.


So, be thinking of us today because although Chloe will no longer be in my home, she will always be in my heart.

Message Received

They're calling for some nasty thunderstorms here today. We had a very brief one blow through here yesterday while the kids & I were at a friend's house for a play date. I learned an important lesson when I got home.

Apparently, Chloe is not a big fan of thunderstorms. I actually already knew this, but it didn't occur to me that she would try to eat the metal doorknob in order to get out of the house to try to come find me. Lesson learned. Time to add new doorknob and doggy Prozac to the shopping list.

Wordless Wednesday - It's a Dog's Life

Updates on Chloe and my brother-in-law

Thanks to all of you who have sent well-wishes for Chloe's speedy recovery! Her symptoms have responded very well to the new meds and the doctor's are pretty certain she has a tick-borne illness. We'll get the final bloodwork results next week. We sprung her from the vet kennel this afternoon and she's currently sleeping on her very comfy bed. She's got a look on her face that tells me without a doubt that she's glad to be back home!

My brother-in-law is doing better. He's still in a lot of pain, but I think the danger of death has passed. He had surgery today to insert a catheter into his heart, which should catch any clots that form due to his immobility from paralysis. The doctors are already formulating a rehab plan and he might be going to Atlanta for that. (About a 2 hour drive from here) I'll keep you guys posted on this developing story. Thanks for all the well-wishes and zen you all have sent our way! We really appreciate it!

When it rains it pours

Just as my family is dealing with the stress of my brother-in-law's accident this week, we were dealt another scary card. Our new family member, Chloe, began sneezing blood Tuesday night. As I mentioned in the previous post about her, she is on the tail end of getting over kennel cough. I kind of thought that maybe all of the snot that she's been slinging from that wonderful adventure had irritated her nasal passages somehow. After a frantic call to the emergency vet hospital that night, I felt a little better that I could probably wait this out until yesterday morning.

So, after 2 hours in the vet's office yesterday, I was very disheartened to find out that she either has a tick-borne disease (such as Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever) or the beginning of an auto-immune disease. We're praying for option A because if it's option B, we're in a lot of trouble. So, with a lot of tears, I left her at the vet's office to begin a 3 day stay where she'll start a new round of antibiotics and we'll keep our fingers crossed that she'll respond to them. Ailey & I visited Chloe this morning and she is so ready to come home. We're actually thinking of trying to spring her out tomorrow night, because we're all missing her terribly.


4 different bags of dog food in hopes of finding 1 she'll eat..........................................$100

2 trips to the veterinarian to treat illnesses received from previous homes............$560

Canine kisses of gratitude.................................................................................................Priceless

Chloe & Asher: A Tale of 2 Shepherds

Chloe agrees that there's no place like home

Chloe & Ashlyn having fun in the backyard

I love German Shepherd Dogs. I might have mentioned that once or twice before. I had a GSD as a young child and I think that's where my love of the breed emerged. They have such power and grace all at the same time. I could gush for an hour, but I digress.

When Jake & I purchased our first home in 1999, we immediately fenced in the backyard and added 2 puppies to our home. Meeko, was our GSD and Val, was our Boxer. When the furkids grew to be about 2 yrs old, I came across another GSD named Dakota that was in desperate need of a good home. After many tears, I convinced hubby that she just had to move in with us...and so she did. Both of our GSD's suffered from severe hip dysplasia (which is very common in the breed unfortunately) and they each developed a condition called degenerative myelopathy (also common in the breed). We lost Meeko in January of 2007 and then Dakota in August of 2007. It was a very hard year and heartbreaking to lose both of my GSD's that close together. Our Boxer then very unexpectedly passed away in February of this year, which left our house very quiet. There's nothing like the "tic tic tic" of doggie nails walking along the wood floors in the middle of the night.

Before Val passed away, we had made plans to purchase a GSD puppy from a local breeder in June. Due to mother nature's hand in the matter, the puppy was never conceived and we were left wondering how we were going to fill in the empty hole that this family had. And then the miracle of the internet appeared.

Craigslist has got to be one of the coolest sites ever! You can buy/sell/trade/giveaway/locate anything that you can imagine on that site. One evening, while feeling especially low, I found an ad asking for help to find a home for a pair of GSDs. Hallelujah!! I emailed the person and was soon on the phone with a guy who gave me quite a sob story about the plight of this brother/sister pair. After a very long weekend, we made our way to the local Humane Society and met these 2 adorable creatures.

They both had the exact coloring of my Meeko that had passed, which immediately made me want to pack them up and take them home. Their dispositions were so docile and they desperately needed to get out of the shelter situation. So, we decided to adopt them immediately and take them home! Ashlyn & I headed for the pet store to purchase all the necessities, while hubby took the new furkids home. The first 24 hours were pretty shaky as we soon discovered that the female was not particularly happy with sharing her new home with her brother. After a couple of days of this aggressive behavior, we knew that the situation was not going to work out and that someone was bound for a new home. Little did we know that we were now going to be put into a position that we never wanted to be in...rehoming an animal.

We were now in full swing to get these dogs fully vetted (they got a lovely case of kennel cough from the humane society) and make the decision on who would stay and who would go. By this time, we had given our new houseguests names that we thought fit them quite well. The female would be called Chloe and the male would be Asher. Chloe was a sweetheart who loves people. She's not fond of other animals and she has a leg injury to a front leg, courtesy of a tangle up with a cow at her previous home. Asher was a gentle giant. Weighing in at close to 100 lbs, he was content to lay on his bed or sidle up next to me for all the rubs and hugs he could stand. This was an excruciating decision, but we finally settled on finding Asher a new home, since he would be the easier of the 2 to place.

We distributed flyers, made lots of calls and utilized the internet to the best of our ability. Thankfully, after a week, the right family came along! They had lost their male GSD (Asher's lookalike twin) just recently and really wanted another GSD in their house. It was meant to be. With a lot of tears and a broken heart, we said goodbye to Asher and focused all of our energy on making sure Chloe fit into our house just right.

It's been 10 days since we said goodbye to Asher and Chloe has really become a wonderful dog! She's more at ease and playful. She's finally eating with consistency and almost over her horrible kennel cough. She's getting used to having 2 little girls who just want to love her. And she finally has her silver charm on her collar that proudly displays her name, address and phone number. Chloe is finally home for good!