A Cute Spencer Story

 We were at my parents house this afternoon and one of their dogs, Gus, starting sneezing.  Spencer grabbed a tissue and walked over to him, holds the tissue up to his nose, and goes "Blow!"  When he didn't "blow" after a few of her urgings, she said "Watch, Gus," and then proceeded to demonstrate how one should blow their nose into a tissue. Poor Gus still couldn't figure it out, even after that tutorial.  It was super cute!

This is Gus.  He is also really cute. It was a cuteness overload.

A Girl's Best Friend

Meet Leah.  

She is Great-Gran's 10 month old Shih-Poo.  For those of you not familiar with the all-of-a-sudden ubiquitous "Poo" dogs- she is a half of a pure bred Shih-Tzu and half of a pure bred Tea Cup Poodle.  I was never a huge fan of these "designer dogs."  Until now.  Leah is the perfect dog!  She has her issues, as all dogs do, but she is sweet, gentle, fun, and most important- she loved my Spencer! 
 
I'm very careful with Spencer and dogs- especially small dogs, since she often mistakes them for toys.  I know she wouldn't mean to hurt a dog, but a two year old and 7lbs dog don't always make a good outcome.  But Spencer was as gentle as I've ever seen her and Leah was a happy little camper.  There were times I had to "rescue" Leah from Spencer's clutches, but that was mostly at the beginning of the week when she was figuring out her boundaries. 

When we left North Carolina yesterday, Spence kept saying "I love Leah!  I want Leah!" She talked about her in the car ride home and even dreamed about her last night.  (I know this because Spencer talks in her sleep!)  I'm thinking this might be a friendship to last span the ages...

Princess Spencer and her Little Dog, too!

Show Us Your Life - The Pets

This week's Show Us How You Live blog hop is about our pets. Technically, I'm the current owner of two dogs, but in reality, it's just one. But I consider all of my parents pets as mine too, because they were all there when I was growing up and were our family dogs. (I think leaving them was the one of the hardest parts about leaving home, ha!) But I am the owner of my old gal Josie, I rescued her when I was 16.




It's still a bone of contention with everyone in my family, because they don't believe my story of how I found Josie, but it's the truth! I was driving my friend home from cheerleading practice, I pulled into her driveway and she got out. She stood there for a moment with car door open, and all of a sudden this little bundle of fur jumped in and started licking my face. She had no collar and was so sweet, so sweet.

I took her home and my parents were like, Nope, No WAY, NOT Going To Happen! You see, just a few months before I found a crate of puppies someone dropped off on the side of the ride and I brought all them, too. And it took a few weeks to find homes for all eight of them. So they were not looking to take in another stray dog. We hung up signs all around the neighborhood and posted an ad on the public access channel, but no one knew anything about her. Which turns out to be a good thing, since after we took her to the vet a week later, he told us that she's been abused. Two of her ribs were broken by someone kicking her and she'd pee on the floor whenever a man would walk by her. My parents felt so bad after hearing that, and they we'd could keep her.

I love my Josie, but she has some quirks to her! She can't stand feet, probably because of being kicked, and if you put your feet near her she runs away. Josie also doesn't know how to play. The vet said if a dog isn't exposed to playing activity when they are young, they often don't understand it when they're older. Every time we'd try and play with Josie, she'd look at as like we were torturing her. Later, when more dogs came along, she'd watch them play and try to mimic them, but we could tell she had no clue why she was shaking a stuffed animal or bringing us back a ball.



Josie is now about 13 years old and very set in her ways. I would have loved to bring her with me, but my dad grew especially attached to her when I was in college and Josie got very used to the other dogs. Whenever one of them as to leave the house for grooming or a vet appointment, they sit at the door and cry for them until they come home. So I knew I couldn't take Josie with me, it just wouldn't have been fair to her. Thankfully, we only live about about three miles away, so I get to see her all time. But it's not the same, and I miss her.

The other members of Josie's dog pack of which she is the Queen Bee:

Shadow the Scottie, and

Gus, the dog we inherited when my Mema died. Gus is six and Shadow is eight.

Spencer and I now have a Great Dane named Vivian Leigh. I've been delinquent in taking her photo recently, so I only have pictures of her from when she was smaller.

She's now 9 months old and 120 llbs, she's a very big, very sweet girl!

And those are "my" pets!

**More Show You How I Live Posts**

School Spirit Pride
Halloween Costumes
Baby Gear Favorite Dessert Recipes
Favorite Go-To Dinner Recipe
My Baby Shower
School Pictures
Favorite Vacation Spot
I Have a Child. The Jig is Up.
Here Comes the Maid Of Honor

Spencer's Birthday Party!

Spencer's birthday party, celebrating her 2nd year, was last Saturday. It was a beautiful day, in the mid 80's (which is very cool for Virginia in July) and it was a great party.

I had a local farm bring their mini animals and some others, for a petting zoo party. They brought pigs, goats, a lamb, bunnies, chickens, a mini horse, a pony, an alpaca, and a donkey! There were 10 kids and about 30 adults, so we had a full house, um yard.

The backyard before the party started.

Some of the animals "grazing." I really want a farm now. Well, except for the poop!

Moriah the Pig. She liked to have her belly rubbed, and when you were doing it just right, she'd snort, roll over, and pass out. It was so cute! The other picture is of Spencer playing dress up with the mini horse, who was so gentle and sweet.



That's the Alpaca, and she liked to hum. If you hummed, she'd join right in and try to match your tune.



Chickens, roosters, bunnies and pigs.



One of the goats and the lamb.

A chicken, isn't he/she cool looking? And that's Spencer trying to give one of the bunnies a kiss.

Patting the donkey with one hand, a chip in the other!

She kept walking back to the chip table, she couldn't resist them.

She was very nervous on the pony. Thankfully, she didn't cry, but she didn't smile either.

Can you see her red cowgirl boots?

SO serious! She still won't smile for the camera, or look at it for that matter.

Her cake. Now that looks like a pig!

Blowing out her candle. I don't know why the cake isn't facing her. Ooops.

Enjoying her sugar - the rush did not end until MUCH later that night! It was a really wonderful day, stressful and exhausting, but well worth it.


Us. (How do like that Big Gulp!? ha!)

Maybe I Should Work for a Wildlife Refuge

I dare you to watch this video and not get misty eyed. Spoiler Alert, no one dies, it's a happy video!