missing barney

barney found a new home on september 12. i haven't posted about him leaving as i haven't known exactly what to say. barney was extreme - extremely playful, extremely loving, extremely barney! there wasn't anything he did halfway. and, although it was frustrating at times, it was what made barney barney. and it was what made me love him so much. driving home from work each day, i knew that as soon as i walked in the door, barney would be bouncing in the barney box, waiting for me to let him out. then he would bounce his way to the back door (usually by way of the love seat arm) and outside where he would proceed to bounce even more around the yard. and no matter how long or hard or bad a day may have been, watching him always made me smile. and then when we would come inside and he would curl up on the couch next to me and look at me with those huge brown barney eyes, the day would melt away, the world would right itself again and nothing would really matter anymore. barney had a way of making you remember that life should be lived with enthusiasm and to the fullest.

i didn't realize exactly how much i missed barney until i started writing this post. and then it hit me just how much of a role barney had in my every day life. i know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he is with the perfect family for him. he will be so well loved and cared for! his family now consists of two human siblings and a new canine baby sister! his new parents couldn't be more perfect for him either. they will work with him and help him to become the best dog he can be. they will be even better for him than ed and i could have hoped to be. that doesn't stop me from missing him and wishing i had taken better advantage of the time he was with us, however. in the midst of sadness, though, i am extremely grateful for the time i had to love and be loved by barney.

catching up

we haven't posted much about barney the last few weeks. it's been busy! but, it's time for an update. barney has been working on his manners and is doing fairly good. he does really great with sitting on command and knowing that the way he gets pets is to sit. we're still working on his jumping. honestly, i think barney has a spring somewhere in him. he can jump head high from a standstill without any problem!! he is especially bouncy when he first gets out of the barney box. i come home and let him out and all he can do is jump up and down! he reminds me of tigger. :-) his top is made out of rubber, his bottom is made out of springs - he's bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!!!! and, the most wonderful thing about him is he's the only one! hahaha!! that is one thing i can say with complete and absolute certainty - barney is one of a kind.

swim, barney, swim

ed and i took the dogs to lake lanier yesterday. it was barney's first time at the lake and the first time he had ever been swimming. considering he is not a water dog like amos and calvin are, he did extraordinarily well!!! at first, he wasn't all that sure what he was supposed to do, but once ed got in the water with him, he decided it wasn't so bad. :-) although he will probably never been the fish amos is or the duck calvin is, he is definitely on his way to holding his own.

we learned something about barney yesterday. he LOVES park rangers!! the ranger came walking around the corner of the cove where we were and as he walked off, barney ran after him. TWICE!!! hahahahaha ed ran him down the first time and then as soon as he put barney down, off he was again, running full speed after the ranger. lucky for us, the ranger was a dog person. :-)

the only other trouble we had was when barney heard some people through the woods in another cove. off he was yet again to see if they may be more fun than ed and me. i ran after him this time, with calvin and amos close on my heels. we all got to him before he ran pelmel through someone's lake picnic.

true to his barneyness, he wore himself completely out at the lake and fell sound asleep in the car. it was a fantastic day for all. :-)

for more pictures of barney at the lake, click here.

opal is a little gem

i haven't posted much about opal, but i should. she is such a funny little kitty!!! after such a rough start, i was worried she would never really be a people cat, but she has proved me wrong. i also worried she wouldn't get along with the dogs or other cats. again, she proved i didn't know anything!

opal has become fast friends with dougal and bram. the three of them will chase one another around the living room, hiding, pouncing and wrestling. it is just a hoot to watch. opal will hide in one of the cubbies in the table and jump out, thinking she is being all sneaky. meanwhile, the boys know exactly where she is, but being the great big brothers they are, they let her think she has bested them. :-) browser has even befriended opal. she is the only one he doesn't give a paw to when she comes up to eat his special food out of his bowl. he is very patient with her.

the dogs are not even remotely a big deal to opal. she lets barney chase her and will chase him right back. she really is just a little dear. :-)

The Wonderful World of Barney

Barney came to us about a month and a half ago. As always seems to be the case, we weren't expecting to have another rescue dog so quickly. When Barney came into our life, we found after just a couple of days that we weren't able to simply drop him off at the county shelter.

Barney is a dog of extremes: extreme energy and playfulness followed by snuggling, deep sleeping and snorning! I don't think we have ever had a dog who wants so much just to be part of the family. He wants to be exactly where you are at all times, which makes it easy to know where he is. He loves everyone he meets and gets along with Amos and Calvin as well as our cats.

Will write more in the next few days. Just wanted to say my first words about Barney.

good dog, bad dog, barney dog!

with each of our previous rescues, ed has been the one to get annoyed first and i have been the one to have more patience. well, barney has changed that! :-) ed has the patience of job with barney and i just want to ring his little doggy neck most of the time. (not really. he's way too cute to stay frustrated with, to be honest.)

i think barney has more puppy in him than any of the others and he has more of a need to be right where you are all the time. he chases the cats and wants them to play with him. he chews on calvin nonstop. he grabs toys from your hand and won't let them go. he hasn't finished housebreaking yet. he's just a mess.

and yet, he can fall asleep on his back at the drop of a hat and snore like a freight train. he runs through the yard with this wonky, puppy run and his tongue hanging out, and it makes me laugh out loud. he has all sorts of little grunty, groany noises he makes that are just too funny. he is smart as a whip and learns things so quickly!! he makes friends with everyone at the dog park, human and canine. he tilts his head to the side when i talk to him and i know he is trying so hard to make sure he gets everything i am saying. but best of all, he snuggles on the couch with me and makes everything in my world okay.

barney and opal went thursday to be neutered and spayed. they both did great! opal had a slight reaction to the anesthesia as she was coming out from under it and acted a little crazy. i hate to say it, but it was absolutely hysterical watching her try to walk while she was drunk and hallucinating. apparently, some cats experience that with anesthesia so i didn't worry too much. but i did laugh.

barney left lifeline in an e-collar. as soon as we got out the door, his head fell forward and the collar was on the pavement. he stopped and just stood there, not able to see and not knowing to pick up his head. it was just so sad and funny at the same time!! poor little barney!!!

barney

ed and i have been busy with home renovations. we've painted the living room and dining room, ripped up the carpet and are getting ready to install laminate flooring. because of all of this, we had decided to wait until october to talk about getting another rescue dog. sometimes, fate has other plans.

barney is a stray i found, starving and just pathetic. i brought him home and asked ed if we could keep him over the weekend and take him to the shelter the next week. after talking about it, we decided to keep him and get him healthy. so, into the middle of all the chaos that is our house came barney.

update on opal and kittens

well, the kittens didn't make it. opal was too young and didn't have enough milk for them. we tried feeding them by hand, but they wouldn't eat from us.

opal, however, is doing great! she has put on weight and is healthy and happy.

kittens???

well, it seems that maybe the vet and i were both a little off in our calculations. if i am reading the signs correctly, opal is in labor and we should have kittens in the next day or so. hopefully, all will be okay and opal will be a good mommy to them. to be continued....

the big scare

opal went to the vet to be tested for feline aids and leukemia and to get a rabies vaccine on thursday. when her carrier was taken out of the car, she pushed her way out! we looked for her and ed even got a humane trap and set it up behind the fence, but no luck. on friday, when i got home from work, i asked our neighbors to be on the lookout for her. well, lo and behold, she was in their backyard!! she ended up a tree, but between ed and me, we were able to get her down and she seems none the worse for wear. :-)

mixed species again!

a couple of weeks ago, shortly before otis went to his new home, actually, i found a stray kitty and brought her home. she was feral, but still young enough to be tamable. she spent a few days in the bathroom, learning to use the litterbox, then moved into the extra bedroom. finally, she got free reign of the house, once we were sure she would use the litterbox consistently. she has turned out to be a very sweet little kitty!

the downside to taking her in, however, came when we realized that she is, more likely than not, pregnant. i think she is probably in her 6th week now so i think we have about 3 and a half more weeks. she is just a little thing herself so i am a little worried about her having kittens. but, we have been feeding her kitten food and giving her kitten milk to help her get all the nutrients she needs to have healthy babies. :-) ed suggested taking her to the shelter, where they have experience with cats giving birth, but they have so many cats and kittens now, they would probably euthanize her and i couldn't live with myself if that happened. so, we are going to be kitty parents again. hopefully, this time will have a different result than the last.

otis has a new home...

a couple of weeks ago, ed met a family at the doggy park for them to meet otis. he came home and said they would be a great fit as they have children and the mom stays at home, which would mean no otis jail for 8 hours a day while we are at work. we didn't hear from them for a week and i started to think maybe they didn't want him. they emailed, however, and said they did indeed want him. so, we arranged to take otis to them this past sunday.

when we got there, everyone was waiting in the front yard and boy were they ever excited to see otis!! :-) i think he was a little overwhelmed at first, but after a few minutes, he seemed to take everything in stride in typical otis fashion.

i know it should be easier, this being the third time we have rehomed a rescue, but this time was the hardest yet. i can't decide if it is the fact that, for me, otis was a perfect combination of all the things i loved the most about penny and lily rolled into one or if it is that we had him a little longer than either of the others. i don't know. but for whatever reason, otis touched me and became so special to me and letting him go was probably one of the hardest things i have ever had to do.

although there were more times than i can count that i wanted to yell at him for destroying something or lock him in otis jail until he stopped jumping and bouncing, otis was so incredibly loveable and loving that you just couldn't stay mad at him for longer than a few minutes. all he had to do was walk over and put his head on my lap and look at me with those big, black otis eyes and i had to forgive him.

watching him blossom into a dog who loved everyone and everything was like watching a little miracle being born. and i will miss that. i'll miss watching him make sure everyone at the doggy park had the chance to pet him or sniff him or chase him or be chased by him. i'll miss having him fall asleep right next to me and immediately begin snoring. loudly snoring. i'll miss watching him play with amos and calvin and the cats.

but most of all, i will just miss him being in our home and being a part of our everyday lives. otis is such a fun, funny, loving, loveable goofy dog and he gave so much to all of us. no matter how many dogs we have in the future, otis will always be special to me. he taught me wonderful lessons about patience, acceptance, forgiveness, living joyfully and loving unreservedly and i will always be grateful to him for that as well as for all the joy, love and laughter he brought into our home and lives.

loa has a new home

loa (aka mommy kitty) went to her new home on friday! she is doing good and has the best new mommy!! her new name is phyllis and she has a new brother named oscar. :-) i'm tickled to death for her and know she is going to thrive in her new home.

kitty update

sadly, the kittens only survived a couple of days. i think the mommy may not have been healthy enough to provide nourishment before they were born and so they weren't healthy enough to survive. it was very sad.

mommy is doing good, however. she is gaining weight and getting healthy. she's a super sweet, loving kitty. very very petite!! she loves to snuggle and cuddle on the couch. i am meeting with someone next week who may want to provide her with a forever home!

mixed breeds? try mixed species!

wednesday, i found a pregnant stray cat (she looked like she was going to explode any second!). eek!! neither ed nor i have ever had an animal have babies so this is a new experience for us! i made the kitty comfortable in a bathroom and waited. and waited. finally, last night, at around 1:00 am, the first kitten was born!! mommy did a great job, especially for a very young, first-time mommy. :-) by 9:30 this morning, she had had 5 healthy, precious little kittens - 4 black, one grey. they are all healthy and nursing and mommy kitty is doing great!

calvin kept watch outside the bathroom door and once the mews of kittens started, all three dogs stood outside the door, heads tilted, trying to figure out this new, odd sound! too funny.

i'll be keeping an eye on things for the rest of the day, just to make sure there aren't any more kittens! :-)

Snow Day!

Otis romps and plays in the slushy snow at the dog park.

Done with the medicine

Today, Otis took his last dose of ivermectin. He had been taking 1.5 ml of it every day in order to get rid of his mange. The bottle has a handy lid with a hole on top where the syringe plugs into. To get the right dose, you just plug the empty syringe on the top, turn the bottle and syringe over, and pull out the plunger. Very neat and very exact. We tried giving one of our previous rescue dogs ivermectin that we had mixed ourselves. It was much messier and a lot of it ended up going to waste. I liked the new bottle better.

Otis was very good about taking his medicine. The ivermectin is very sour and very bitter tasting. He started to wise up about it after a couple weeks. Once I had squirted it into his mouth, he would shake his head in an attempt to get rid of the foul tasting liquid. I started squirting the medicine on top of a piece of thick whole wheat bread and gave that to Otis. He liked that much better and would eat the whole piece no problem.

But now he's done and his coat looks much, much better. The holes are starting to fill in. He's going to be a beautiful boy very soon!

reunion!!!

(in the photo: lily, calvin, amos, penny, otis)
yesterday, we went to piedmont park with the dogs and met up with the families who adopted our previous rescues. it was AWESOME to see penny and lily again! each of them is in the perfect home for her and it made my heart so happy to see them not just doing well, but thriving and loving life as dogs without cares! they both have such amazing families who love them so completely. it was one of the best days i think i have ever had - just seeing all the dogs running around and playing and being happy dogs. it reminded me again of why we have taken in the dogs we have.

each of them was a dog someone, maybe even everyone, had given up on. no one wanted to deal with them anymore - not because of anything the dogs had done, but simply because sometimes people view animals as disposable. they were unwanted, unloved, uncared for. and they were all hopeless. their forever families, however, were able to look beyond the mange, injuries, scars and fears to see the precious gem underneath. watching penny and lily, and even otis, yesterday, it was hard to remember any of them as the skinny, malnourished, scared dogs we took in months ago. the love their families lavish on them is immediately evident in their demeanors and in the joy they have in just living.

i am so blessed to have been able to play a small part in bringing these dogs to the people who love them unreservedly!! and i will always be grateful for the time i had with them and the love and joy each of them brought to my life and to our home.

Otis at the Dog Park

We all went to the dog park today -- Otis, Amos, Calvin and I. Otis has learned that riding in the car is a very good thing and usually ends up in him going to Lenora Park.

When he's around other dogs at the dog park, Otis acts very differently from our other two dogs. Calvin doesn't care to play with other dogs. He just wants to hang out with me and maybe play fetch. Amos likes to run around and sniff the ground, the fence, and other dogs but doesn't really want to play. Otis is very interested in being everyone's friend -- both dogs and people. He will go up to other dogs with his tail wagging, cautious but friendly, ready to make friends. He seems very interested in making sure the other dogs like him. Once he's sure they like him, he moves on to the next one. He will also stop by any people for a quick pet or scractch on the head. Then it's off to run to the other end of the dog park to see if there's other friends he can make.

Good dog, Otis!

I haven't posted here about Otis yet, though I've been meaning to for some time.

Otis has been a lot of fun to live with. He's such a people-loving dog and his enthusiasm is infectious. I've been impressed by how quickly he's learned some simple commands -- sit and down -- and how he obeys directions when we ask him to come here or go outside.

He had some health issues, namely some worms (treated weeks ago) and a little bit of mange, but in the last few weeks I see his skin is getting a lot better. His treatment of ivermectin and antibiotics will last a few more weeks. After that, I think he'll be the healthiest dog around!

We need to work on his tendency to jump up on people when he greets them, but other than that he's very close to ready for his new home.

otis is just a sweetie

in the last week, otis has calmed down and settled in to life in our home. it usually takes about 2 - 3 weeks for rescues to fully settle down and show their true personalities so otis is right on schedule. he is such a smart dog!!! he is definitely learning his commands (sit, off, no, leave it, down) and is really coming along in his obedience. he is also learning when playtime is and when it's time to be quiet. he is actually very self-entertaining with his chew toys (his favorite is one of ed's old shoes that he has been working on killing since he arrived). when he's not chewing on a toy, he's playing with calvin or sleeping on his bed.

i think i've mentioned before that otis is a huge snuggler. he knows when it's bedtime and will hop on the bed and wait for you to get in and snuggle with him. it's too funny!! the other night, he started crying because i walked out of the room and he thought it was time for bed. he didn't understand why i wasn't getting under the covers yet!

we are still working with otis on staying out of the cat food. apparently, it is quite tasty! after watching victoria stillwell (it's me or the dog), we have some good ideas of what we need to do, however. hopefully, her methods will work with otis! or maybe i should say hopefully we will be able to successfully implement her methods! :-)

break through

since sunday, otis has seemed to settle in!! he has relaxed and isn't jumping or being unruly anymore. he is sleeping through the night as well!! and he hasn't had an accident in a while! he was basically housebroken in about a week. even ed has noticed the difference and has seemed to be a little less stressed.

i think the biggest thing now is working with otis on learning his commands - he has sit down pat and we are moving on to down. i think he will be a quick study as he has already learned leave it, down, off and no.

i am not going to be completely excited about otis and his behavior yet. but i can say that he is becoming a very nice dog. :-) he was already extremely sweet and smart. now that he is learning his manners, he is becoming much more of a joy to be around.

otis

we decided to call the new dog otis. it fits him and he is responding to it!

the last week has been hard. it seems that otis has never had any training or discipline and he is making everyone a little crazy. i can tell ed is stressed to the breaking point and i feel completely guilty. all i can do is hope we find a home for otis before too long. the only bright sopt is how well he and calvin get along and how much fun they have playing together.

new year's eve

i took the new dog to the vet day before yesterday and he is healthy!! he got all of his shots and was such a good boy! the vet did make fun of us not having a name. his chart name for right now is new dog.

last night, there were tons of fireworks going off. i was worried the new dog would freak out, but he handled all the noise without batting an eye. he seems to be getting along with calvin and amos, but doesn't really understand how to play with them. calvin will take him a toy so they can play tug of war or keep away, like he and lily did, but the new dog doesn't know what calvin is doing.

we took all the dogs to the dog park today. we tried calling the new dog floyd, but that doesn't seem to fit him. plus, i couldn't remember it when i needed to call him! he did really well. he doesn't know his pack yet, but then he's only been a part of it for a day or so.