Sammer

I have been wanting a Golden Retriever of my own for a LONG time.  I grew up with Golden’s and in my opinion, there is no better family dog.  The weinas are fine, but they aren’t good family dogs.  Oliver is 100% mine and thinks he’s my personal body guard and wouldn’t hesitate biting someone given the chance.  And Sadie is just dumber than a box of rocks.  She’s cute and sweet, but man, is she dumb.

For Christmas 2013 we got Sampson and we are totally in love.  This dog is everything I’ve wanted in a dog.  He’s great with the kids, friendly to everyone, good with other dogs, playful sometimes and lazy others – he’s just a good boy.  And he’s SUPER laid back compared to his brother, Riki, that my parents got.

 

Here are a few pictures of Sam during his first month with us.  (In the pictures with both pups, Sam is the lighter one and Rik is the darker.)

 

#3?

No, I'm not talking about another baby.  I'm talking about one of these.

Four-legged kid number 3.  

I grew up with Golden Retrievers, and in my opinion, there aren't many family dogs that can top a Golden.  They are friendly, loyal, smart and great with kids.  I love our weinas, but they are annoying, loud and really yappy, which drives me absolutely insane, more stubborn than any other animal I've ever met and not all that great with the kids.  They tolerate the kids, but Oliver especially, views the kids as competition.  I don't think my kids want for much, and they're not lacking anything, but I would love for them to grow up with a "real" dog.  One that they can enjoy and more importantly, one that will enjoy them.  My kids know how to be kind to animals and they are gentle with our weinas, but Ollie still wrinkles his nose any time Abbie gets near him.  And he growls if she touches him, which she completely ignores, but still.  I wouldn't consider Dachshunds, especially ones that didn't grow up from puppies with small kids around, child-friendly, at all.

So I began looking into Golden's in AZ and had quite a shock when I realized that to get a decent, pure bred Golden, you had to fork out at least $1500.  Apparently I'm in the wrong business.  I was SHOCKED!  I know that my parents never paid more than $500 for the Golden's we got in WI and those were show quality dogs.  I'm not looking for a show quality Golden, but I would like a nice representation of the breed, at least.  And I don't want to get a dog from a "backyard breeder".  I don't mind if someone has a small breeding business in their back yard, I'm referring to someone who has no clue about breeding or bloodlines or conformation or anything like that and just throws 2 dogs together and ends up with puppies.  The ones pictured above are adorable puppies, but the lady selling them wasn't a breeder.  She just thought she could have an intact male and un-spayed female in the same yard and not end up with puppies....  So this was her 2nd litter because apparently she didn't learn the first time, or she learned the first time that she could sell these dogs for $500 each and make a nice profit for not a whole lot of work.  Not the kind of "breeder" I want to get a dog from.  And if it had just been looking at the puppies, I might have been tempted.  But she had both of the parents there and they were what I wasn't impressed with.  The mom looked like a mix between a Golden and Collie of some sort and the dad was huge, but he didn't have that great of coat or conformation and he wasn't well-behaved at all. 

There is a breeder near my parents house in MO that breeds the cream colored Golden's, which is what I would want.  My parents went over there to check out the 2 litters of puppies they had there.  These dogs are a lot better quality than the ones that we looked at.  And they're $700.  Cream colored Goldens in AZ sell for $2500-3000, no joke.  And that is with limited registration papers because they don't want you breeding them without their consent.  As much as I love Golden's, I can't justify spending that much money on one.

I have had many friends tell me that I should adopt a dog from the humane society or a rescue.  I have looked into that, and did consider it, but it just doesn't make sense to me right now.  If you adopt a dog under 2 years old, it is a $400 minimum adoption fee.  You know nothing about the dogs background or bloodlines (if hip dysplasia or something else that Goldens are known for).  I would like to get a puppy under 10 weeks old so I can train him myself and so he can be acclimated to our kids at a young age.

We'll see.  I don't at all have Mark convinced that we NEED another dog yet.  But maybe in a few months when I can start making more money.  I definitely miss having a big dog around.

Lazy Saturday

Today I had plans to go shopping with Brittney, but she cancelled on me, so Abbie and I went by ourselves.  Taking Abbie shopping is hit or miss and I was a little worried about it, but I figured even if she was a bear to deal with, it would be better than sitting in the house by myself all day.  Weekends are hardest when Mark isn’t around, so I like to try to keep busy.  So we headed to Pordenone, which is about 30 mins from us, and went to Decathlon (a cheaper sporting goods store), the mall, and McDonald’s.  I found cheap Old Navy-type long and short sleeved t-shirts, except they’re much better quality, last time we went there and I wanted to get more.  (An XL here is equivalent to a L in the States.)  The ones on the left are long sleeved and the ones on the right are short sleeved.  The colors don’t really come through very well on this picture but you still get the idea.

I wandered around the mall some but didn’t find anything I like, except for a coat, but I didn’t buy it.  They have a grocery store in the mall here so I spent 41E buying noodles and Nutella.  *grins*  Actually I spent 16E on these little Nutella packs that come with these little breadsticks.  They’re SOO good and I wanted to send some to people back home, and then I bought like 10 different kinds of noodles and riso because I wanted to try to make risotto. 

After that Abbie and I had lunch at McDonald’s.  It’s weird sitting in a  restaurant like that, basically by yourself (since Abbie’s not old enough to have a conversation with yet) and listening to everyone around you speaking Italian.  It’s a little intimidating, but kind of fascinating at the same time.  It definitely makes me miss home though, and everything that’s familiar.  I wanted to order honey mustard sauce for our nuggets, but the girl taking my order didn’t speak English.  I kept saying honey mustard (in English) and she kept repeating the list of all the sauces in Italian and the only one I understood was barbeque (because it’s pronounced the same).  After 3 times through that routine, a girl in the line over said one of them to my cashier and said mustard to me.  I need to learn more Italian.

This weekend my house is a pet hotel.  I’m dog-sitting two of my friends dogs.  It’s fun having a menagerie of animals around and I like having 4 animals greet me when I get home.  And I love having big dogs around.  I love my little weinas, but I miss having a big dog.  I’ve already decided our next dog will be big.

Here are Jess and Abner.

Our yard is pretty much a zoo.  That’s Sadie in the foreground running around like a loon, as she always does.  (It’s 55 degrees and sunny today so it was a perfect day to play in the yard for a little bit, except for all the dog poop… Ew.)

Time to go get something done while Abbie naps!

A girl and her dog

“The dog was created specially for children.  He is the god of frolic.”  ~Henry Ward Beecher

That was then…

 

Sadie still isn’t 100% better, which is worrying me some.  I have a feeling something is wrong and it’s going to cost a lot of money to fix.

I remember, pre-child, having a few friends that got rid of their dogs after they had kids, and I pretty much thought they were horrible for doing that.  Not horrible people, but I just couldn’t fathom giving up my pets “just because I had kids”.  My pets were my babies and I just knew that wouldn’t change when I had kids.

Wrong.  Yet again, I’ve proved myself wrong.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any plans on getting rid of my pets, but I’ve noticed my priorities have changed since I’ve become a parent and I’ve definitely become that person I once thought did horrible things.

I’ve always been an animal lover.  I couldn’t walk into a Humane Society without coming out in tears.  My dogs were my best friends growing up and I couldn’t imagine my life without animals in it, and I still can’t.

I find myself thinking a lot about the “what-if’s” with Sadie.  What if she does need this $2500+ surgery?  If she does get it, there’s no guarantee that that’ll fix her forever.  So then what if she needs another surgery later on?  And these surgeries are $3-4000 in the States.  She’s not even 4 years old so her odds of needing two or more surgeries are pretty good…  Do I really want to spend $6-7000 on a dog?  That is a HUGE amount of money.  She’s not allowed to go up or down stairs pretty much ever again.  And as I previously posted, we just moved our room upstairs.  So every night I make multiple trips up and down the stairs to bring stuff up I want and then to bring Sadie up.  And every morning I carry her down the stairs.  What if I get pregnant over here?  Carrying a dog up and down stairs at 6+ months pregnant isn’t the smartest move.  And what if we do have a baby over here?  So then I’m going to have to carry the dog and the baby up and down the stairs multiple times a day?  Yay.

Mark says we can just leave her downstairs if that ever happens, and to quit thinking about the “what if’s”, but I can’t help it.  Our dogs sleep with us every night.  Sadie would be miserable if we left her downstairs and she didn’t sleep with us anymore.  As it is, she already doesn’t ever want to go outside, which she used to LOVE to do.

It bothers me that my dogs aren’t my first priority anymore, like they used to be.  I remember talking to my friend Elyse when we were both pregnant about how our relationships with our beloved pets might change.  I guess I didn’t think it would, but it has.  I’ve talked to Brittney about it, and she’s understanding, more so that I was in her situation, but she’s where I was a few years ago, pre-child.   I also distinctly remember thinking I would never sell my horse… and we all know how that turned out.  (For those that don’t, I sold him due to the military lifestyle.)  But I don’t regret selling him.  Mark is 1000% worth it and I’d do it again if I had to.

I love my animals, and I wouldn’t ever wish harm on them at all.  But this is getting to be a bit of a hassle and the “what if’s” are eating at me.  I emailed her vet and he’s going to try to get her in to the back doctor sooner.  She seems to be doing a little better today so that’s good I think, but I’m not holding my breath.  I don’t want to have to make big decisions about Sadie by myself but Mark is 9 hours different from me right now so it makes it pretty hard to consult him about anything.  Fingers crossed.