Wag More, Bark Less

Hey guys,

I know I'm late writing this... like two months lol. Looks like everyone has been really busy, but enjoying themselves! As always, life has been pretty crazy here. I'm finally finished with this semester, but will start again on the 2nd for summer school.. not a long break, but I'm just ready to graduate. These last two months have just been awesome, my parents came to visit and we set a date --Everyone mark your calendars for labor day weekend 2012! Everything has been going really well for Lee and I, here's some updates! 

(also, sorry there are a ton of pics in this post, but it just wouldn't be the same without the pictures!)

First: Lee and I have been working on fixing up the house! We started building a garden together in the backyard and we are so excited to have fresh fruit and veggies to cook with this summer. Lee is also growing hops for his homebrewed beer, he is getting really good at brewing! We have had so much fun restoring the yard and fixing the house just the way we want it. It is so much work living in a house compared to an apartment, but definitely worth it! My mom also made us a lot of furniture for the house and its all starting to come together really nicely! 

Part of the garden

Lee's Hops

Second: Fosters galore... I have taken in four more fosters since I last posted. Heidi got adopted by a wonderful family in Connecticut. They have two kids and two cats and they just think Heidi walks on water. They keep me up to date on her and send lots of pictures and videos! It has been so rewarding to watch her go from a death row puppy to a well balanced dog in a wonderful home. 

Then I took in Gauge (Now Levi). He was a little German Shorthair/Lab Mix who was on death row. I only had him for about a week until he got adopted. His owners haven't been as good about giving me updates... 

Next came Noah. Noah is my three legged monster. He was rescued from a shelter south of Atlanta. I drove two hours there and back in the middle of the biggest flood of the year to pick him up before kill day. He had a terrible leg injury that we weren't sure we would be able to fix. Sure enough, the leg was completely dead.

Noah sprung from death row

Noah's Leg before removal

We removed his leg as soon as I arrived at the clinic on an emergency basis. It's incredible that he did not have infection spreading through his body because his leg had been like that for weeks. 

Noah recovering

Noah has been slowly recovering... and slowly turning into the typical Border Collie mix that he is. He is into everything, incredibly obnoxious and annoying, but we love him for it :) Noah has been adopted by one of my coworkers, but she is going through a divorce right now and lives with her parents. She takes him for a few days at a time and then he comes back to my house for a while. I am also keeping her cat, Moose. 

Noah is slowly becoming the best 3 legged dog to ever do agility!

Noah and his new mommy (right after his surgery, before she decided to adopt him)

Last but not least, the infamous Ande (Andy)... Ande is 5 weeks old today, but it doesn't feel like it was too long ago when she still looked like a little squirrel/otter... Ande has been my bottle baby. Her mother gave birth at our clinic to 9 puppies, but only wanted 8. Ande was the runt and was pushed away again and again by her mother. So being the sucker that I am, I took her home for ONE night (ya, like I could only keep her for one night.. ha!) So ya, she's been living with me ever since. She is the funniest little puppy and has so much personality.

1 Day old.

Ande Meets Gus

Ande asleep on her adoptive mommy, Maddie with her new toy

I can tell you already, Ande will not be leaving. lol.

Fostering is the greatest/worst experience, it is happy and sad, easy and difficult, satisfying and frustrating all at the same time. But always rewarding. 

Third: Maddie! Maddie, my poor dog sometimes gets lost in the jumble of fosters. But I always make it a point to do something with just her and I and Lee at least 3 or 4 times a week. She needs to know that she is still our number one dog. Some of our activities include agility, tricks, dancing and dock diving. She is excelling at all three. She absolutely loves agility, and although she's a bit ADHD, she is learning fast. Maddie is an absolute trick fiend! Her favorite part of the day is our training session for tricks and dancing. On top of all of her obedience, she has learned to spin left and right, beg, shake, gimme 5, gimme 10, wave, roll over, weave through my legs, figure 8 through my legs, jump on my arm, jump for joy, jump into my arms and catch a treat off of the top of her nose. We are always trying to learn new tricks. 

waving

Now that it has gotten warmer, we have started the exciting sport of dock diving! Dock Diving is a sport where the dog jumps off of a dock into water, chasing after a toy or dummy. The goal is for the dog to jump as far as possible She has only been twice, but the first time she went, she started jumping off the dock on her own! A wonderful start! We have a private lesson tomorrow and we start a group class on sunday!

the Jump!

If there is one thing that Maddie my foster dogs have taught me its to go with the flow and not worry about every little thing. I've learned that I don't necessarily need to control everything (because it sure is hard to control them!) But I've just learned to Wag More, and Bark Less, and thats something I'm trying to live by.