The puppy saga continues

6-23-09

Puppies!! What are we going to do about the puppies???

When last I wrote, it was pretty clear cut. There were two uber cute puppies that we would pick up from the pound if they were not claimed at the pound. It got so much more complicated.

I went home at 2 so Ken and I could go to the shelter to see them. Of course, they were closed, but they let us come in and they printed the photos they had taken. We wanted to put up some signs in case they belonged to someone local. The guard even went back with my camera and took 3 pics of them for us. The staff was not super nice, but they were clearly not interested in dealing with people when they were closed. Plus, a supervisor was discussing furlough with them, so I can safely say that isn’t a happy moment.

The one lady was super nice, and looked thrilled we were there because she was happy that they had owners since apparently they were sweethearts. She did say they were underweight, and Ken had mentioned to me that the little boy had threw up in the car, and it consisted of sand and bird seed. Not good.

We headed home, driving through the neighborhood looking for signs. Nothing. So I uploaded the photos and we went to go get the boys. Ken mentions to Maria about the puppies and she tells Ken that our neighbor had been looking for them yesterday. This would be a good thing, right? No where close.

The neighbor in question is an idiot. She has had several animals, all of whom have gotten out a million times (often showing up on our doorstep, which makes me wonder if previous critters there left a map for future inhabitants), and some have died, gotten in fights, and ultimately, they last only a couple of months in her “care”.

We don’t like her beyond that. We actually call her Saturn Bitch. Not one of my most creative neighbor nicknames, but she is a bitch, and specifically with her car, which happens to be a Saturn. She used to park in front of our house, in the middle so we couldn’t park there. Mind you, she lives like 3 houses down from us. One time in the middle of our yard sale, she tried to park right in front of it. Ken bitched her out pretty good. Needless to say, we do not like this woman.

When we found this out, it was a panic. What happens if she goes down and gets our puppies. We couldn’t go back to claim them since they had already seen us as the dropper offers. Fuck! So I talked to Brandy and she agreed to pose as the owner once we found out what we needed to do it. Ken called and asked what we needed in order to retrieve some puppies. We need a picture of them or some kind of bill or just something showing they are ours. The only pics we had were the ones from my camera at the shelter! Crap! We tried to doctor the photos so you couldn’t see that they were standing in the shelter. We considered doctoring a vet bill. We considered many things.

The problem with all of this was, what if we got them, she found out we had them, and then she called the cops saying we had her dogs. That would not be good since then there would be legal issues, no puppies, and they would be back with Saturn Bitch. All around losing situation.

We considered what she would do about her dogs. She probably didn’t have any paperwork or pictures to even claim them, so if she didn’t, we just needed to wait until Friday at 8 am to go and claim them since between 8 and 9 am, they are ours if we want them. Even if she had pics, she was cheap, so we are thinking she would not pay the mandatory $160 (or more) for the spay and neuter that would need to be done before they were released. So many hopeful factors, we realize we would just need to wait it out. Because then on Friday, we would have claim to them, legally.

It is going to be a long week.

What really makes this suck is, honestly, I had not planned on making them our dogs. The idea is super appealing, sure, but man, there are a lot of cons. They are sweeties, and we would make due, as we always do, but it is quite the adventure we are embarking on. And really, with all this emotion already invested, I feel like they are our dogs already. Plus, I can’t see separating them, so even adopting them out to someone would be hard unless they took both.

Ken still likes Yahoo and Google as names. I am not as crazy about them, only because they don’t roll off the tongue. Plus, Lycos is cool for being, well, Lycos! It wasn’t a theme. I asked Bobby for names and he came up with Sparky and Raspberry. Both cute. Dax of course had no comment. I have not spent any time with them, so no names have come to me yet. I have their pics on my desk in front of me so I can consider this whole thing.

Do I really want to be potty training a kid along with two dogs?

Ken said we could have each of the boys have a dog sleep in their rooms. They would be crate trained anyway, so in the beginning, they would be locked up. That should satisfy my nervousness of potential dog on kid (or kid on dog) violence. Then as they get older, they would not have to have the door closed. In fact, despite it is against all better judgment, they may end up sleeping on their bed with them. Might be fun to have our boys with their own dogs at the foot of their beds. The house will be crazy. The cats will adjust, as they always do. Monarch won’t like it, but he seems to know what to do with a dog. We would need baskets for them. Ken thought they could share Lycos’s, which just isn’t right. That is a lot of dog for that basket. But I agree, the idea of them having their own space is good. We may end up letting them wander the house, but they should have a place we can send them if they get rowdy or even just to get away from kids or Monarch. We so need a bigger house.

We had considered going down to the shelter this afternoon, but I don’t see that this is needed. Maybe tomorrow. Today I am going to my folks, and Ken is going to a neighborhood watch meeting that was called due to the recent break-ins. Plus, do I really want to meet them and have my heart broken?

We have considered the idea that even if she gets them back, they will get out again, and then we can get them again. But once again, it is tricky. I hate this waiting.

Tammy and MaryAnn just put in their vote, and Google and Yahoo are preferred. I may be out voted on all of this!

If these become Brenan pups, it will continue our streak of not choosing animals so much as animals choosing us. Of course, Lycos was chosen, but One10, Jedzia, and Monarch all came to us from randomness. Perhaps our house is just a hostel for traveling animals.

There is no other real news. Those pups kind of took over our lives.

Last night I was amused at my husband and his sibs. They were all on FarmTown, standing around in a virtual field (which happened to be mine), all talking through avatars to one another. I am pretty sure when they were kids, and they were close as they have always been, that they never considered this is how they would keep in touch so much. Holly and Ken (almost called him Kenny!) have been chatting in FarmTown a couple nights in a row! It is just so funny, cool, and surreal.

I am so proud of Doug. He sent our dad a father’s day card!! Baby steps. So happy!

I may have to take away FarmTown from Ken. For the last two nights, he was sucked into it. He couldn’t be distracted. I have played, and like it ok. I can’t do it at work, even in quota time, so it is a twice a day thing only for me. My favorite part is that I can spin my avatar around in circles and it looks like she is singing “The hills are alive!”


The boss lost more of his spreadsheets, and in turn, his mind yesterday. He sent out gobs of requests for month old data. I have a feeling he is going to be annoying today. I refuse to let him get me down.

Bobby got up a couple times last night asking for fluids. Each time he was escorted back to bed in tears. This morning, after I put him back to bed when I came out of my shower, he came out again, this time in full hysterical tears. He was so tired, he was out of sorts. Ken took him to his room, but I went in after to calm him down some. I wanted to just give him some water, but it sets the tone for future requests, which would be bad. He isn’t going to die with no glass of water, especially since both drank like 3 large glasses of milk before bed. Luckily Dax did his fit pitching right when he went to bed. He wanted milk, he wanted a cracker, both of which were denied. He screamed and screamed, as we did the Ferberizer method, and after 20 minutes of tears and screams, he conked himself out. This makes night 3 that there were no cups overnight. Totally worth the little bit of crazy it produces. I joked last night that what we clearly screwed up on was that we should of just did what we did with the pacifier. Go to build a bear, put a glass of milk in a stuffed cow, and now they have their new distraction. Although, I am thinking that would stink on a level that I don’t even want to imagine.

Bobby never settled after I left, so he has been up too long. Luckily he was ok with going to Maria’s (despite being concerned that she was out of milk).

We need to go get Bobby some new shoes. Now that he rides the bikes, he drags his feet in such a way that it wears out the big toe section of each shoe. Wonderful. So I need to find something that is worthy of his punishment. They can’t be wussy shoes. Plus, they can’t be expensive. Yes, I did just request quality while cheap, but it can be done. He is going to wear through whatever we get him, so it should not be much to replace, yet it needs to last longer than a week. We have now entered the expensive part of a preschooler. Apparently day care costs go away, but then they are transferred into shoes.

I always love it when other people adopt nicknames I have come up with.

The girl who asked for my input on tattoos just showed me the work. It is awesome. She said it hurt a lot, but she made it. She wasn’t thrilled that she has to go back for color, but that won’t be too bad since she already made it through what she had. It is well done, and healing wonderfully. It made me want my ink!

I am looking at a customer web site that clearly prides itself in its slogan. “What would you create with the right product? THINK OUTSIDE THE FORM” Said slogan is featured above a form for you to fill out for them to contact you.

I always am confused at folks who get the same kind of dog each time. Or people with two or three of the same dog. If we get these pups, we will have 3 very similar looking black and white pups. I never thought that would be me. I always thought it would be fun to always have very different looking critters. But I guess sometimes it just works out this way.

Bobby and I were talking about the shelter and what they do for animals. Yes, I left out the euthanasia part. Any way, I was explaining to him that critters that get lost get taken to the shelter so that their owners can find them. And I told him that then the owners go pick them up. Bobby was quite impressed with this, repeating the whole process over and over. He said, “That is a good place for lost doggies, mom!” I agreed. He asked if Lycos would go there if she got lost. I nodded, not wanting to point out that she might not, but really, the kid was going to bed. We ended the conversation with him saying, “So if Lycos gets lost, she will go there. If Monarch gets lost, he will go there. And if Leonard gets lost, he will go there, too!” Once again, I didn’t have the heart to tell him if his little backyard lizard was “lost” it would likely be still in our house in the form of cat food. But why shatter him, right?

Jenni just checked the shelter site for me. No change on Google and Yahoo. That doesn’t mean they were not picked up. It just means they might not have updated it. Such a stressful week!

I am not ruling out the idea of finding them another home. Even though we may claim them on Friday so Saturn Bitch doesn’t get them, it doesn’t mean they are ours. It might be good to consider another home.

If we keep and name them Google and Yahoo, my vote is for the girl to be Google.

Can’t we call them Thing One and Thing Two? We could get them matching red sweaters!

Ding and Dong?

Ping and Pong?

My fav has always been what my uncle called his dogs. Dog and Other Dog. Especially awesome when Dog died because all he had was Other Dog.