Hi, My Name Is Anubis

We have another addition to the family!!! His name is Anubis :) What's especially funny about this name is since Alma was originally thought to be a boy, it was supposed to be her name. But she's a girl so Anubis got passed on to this little sweetie pie.

I went to the pet store to get some more dog food when I heard the saddest mewing. I turned around and there was this little guy reaching out for me and climbing up his cage to get closer to me. I left with the dog food I came for, but a couple hours later I returned with Alma and my husband to have a meet and greet. And Anubis came home with us, too :)

We're well on our way now to completing our family! So far, Aura has decided she's the mom (again), and Achilles plays too roughly per usual. Alma has no idea what she thinks about Anubis so they've been keeping their distance aside from conversations across the couch. 

But back to little Anubis. He's our April Fool's baby which puts him at 10 1/2 weeks old, about four months younger than Alma and almost a year younger than Achilles. He's definitely a cuddler. And he's LOUD. But that's okay :) He's going to fit in just fine, I'm sure

A Day in the Life of... The Fur Children!

I just realized that I really haven't actually written anything about my lovely fur children since The Day I Got Pantsed in The Middle of The Street so here is a little recap of what they've been up to.

Let's start with Aura since she is our oldest fur baby. First off, she is Roger's daughter through and through. She definitely picked him as her preferred parent. Secondly, she doesn't have the harness in this picture anymore. I did a bad thing and left it out in her reach, and the buckles have since been digested. But anywho, Aura is now a certified Emotional Support Pet for me. As an empath I have a lot of emotions and anxieties, and Aura is my rock in the storm. Thanks to her I am finally getting good at differentiating between my bad feelings and the bad feelings of others so I don't get overwhelmed nearly as often as I used to.

Next up is Achilles. Achilles will officially be ten months old tomorrow and a year old July 14th. And let me tell you, this picture pretty much sums up our relationship. Even as I'm writing this post he has his head resting on my arm. He is my shadow. Wherever I go through the apartment, he is sure to follow. Or he'll lie down outside the door until I open it. As soon as I finally get home from work, he has to be touching me, or he won't sleep. He'll keep pacing in the bed until he finds a spot that fits him leaning up next to me. Where Aura is my rock, Achilles is the light in my dark days

Finally, we have Alma, our latest addition to the family. Little Alma is my sob story. This precious girl was found three weeks old with a dead momma cat and her three siblings. Thankfully a lady whose cat gave birth around the same time Alma's litter was born took them in. Her momma cat suddenly had eight kittens to nurse, but she loved them all just fine. Alma may or may not have FIV. She tested negative for leukemia which is good, but it's pretty much a waiting game to see if she will continue having little sneezing fits regularly or if it was just seasonal allergies like Achilles and I have.

And that's my story. These are my silly, crazy munchkins that keep life always interesting.

Dog Park Etiquette

As many of you know, I have three fur babies. Achilles, my husky, is the only one that picked me instead of my husband to love the most so he is the star of nearly all of my animal stories. This one is no exception. One of our favorite things to do is to go to the dog park on base (for some reason, this city hasn't realized that non-military dependent civilians can have dogs, too). Sometimes we go with his doggie friends. Other times it's just him and me going to hang out. This sad story is one of the latter times and has turned me off of this particular dog park altogether so long as it's just the two of us.

We got to the dog park around 2:30 which is right when it starts to get full of running buddies for Achilles. Around 4, most of the ladies left. Their dogs were tired, and their husbands were getting off work. Some of Achilles' best running buddies were still there so we stayed. And that's when it happened.

One of the Marines showed up with his two bulldogs. His grown up bulldog, whom we'll call BD, is a problem. BD doesn't like Achilles. In fact, one of Achilles' first trips to the dog park ever when he was maybe four months old got cut short because BD attacked him. Achilles was acting pretty skittish so I thought that maybe his fear is what triggered the attack. His fur is so thick no teeth touched his skin so he was completely unharmed.

Flash forward to the present. Achilles turned eight months old on the 14th so he's still quite the goofy puppy. This Marine has shown up with BD and his bulldog puppy heretofore to be known as LP. The five dogs seem to be playing well together until BD and Achilles come face to face. BD once attacked Achilles. The other lady who was still there was the first one to try to break up the fight. The Marine and I start running. I get there first and scoop up my baby away from BD while kicking him away. I high tail it to the holding pen where Achilles will be safe. Once again, his thick fur saved him from harm.

It is with this point in time that I have the biggest issue. Mr. Marine walks up to me to explain how ever since they got LP, BD has started to become overly aggressive towards some dogs (and puppies apparently). This guy KNEW about his dog's issues and still chose to bring him to a place that would have other dogs (read potential fights). He KNEW! BD was even wearing an e-collar, but Mr. Marine didn't bother to utilize it. There was no training or anything. Just a useless explanation that shows he didn't care to remove his problem dog from the situation.

There are rules at the dog park. One of them is that if your dog starts a fight, it is to be leashed and taken from the dog park immediately. Did he comply? Of course not. After all, "it's only with some dogs." Hogwash. If your dog has a guarding problem, your dog needs one on one training to correct the issue. Until such training can be provided, you DO NOT put your dog into a situation that could end in your dog getting put down. That's being an irresponsible owner.

So ya. That's my little rant about dog park etiquette. There are rules to protect all dogs who utilize the chance to socialize at the dog park. Those rules matter. Does anyone else have any bad experiences with dog parks? Or a favorite dog park? How would you react in that situation?

The Day I Got Pantsed in The Middle of The Street

I know the title of this one is pretty intriguing, but before I dive in to the story of how this awful thing happened, I'm going to take some time to introduce you to my animals. We have two dogs and a cat. The first dog is a hot mess. Her name is Aura. She's a red nose pit bull I found outside our high school almost five years ago. After some swapping she ended up with Roger instead of me, but now we're married so I got her back. Achilles is our seven-month-old husky puppy. We say he was my engagement ring, but we were already married, and I paid for him so...meh, Roger can win this one ;). Our newest addition is a two-month-old kitten named Alma (we've got an "A" theme going). She was a shelter save so we don't really know much about her other than she's female and healthy now.

But on to the story. Last week I was having a pretty rough go of it. I was stressed out about everything: money, marriage, roommate, apartment, pets, baby Avery, finding down time. You name it, I was working myself into a tizzy because of it. And so, as this was all culminating into an implosion of incredible proportions, I was rushing to get the dogs bedded down so I could make my park date in twenty minutes. I had spent the morning cleaning. The last thing I had to do was take them outside and then lock them in their crate.

Achilles had already peed on my clean floors so I knew he didn't have to pee, but I wanted to give him a chance to take care of any other business he may have had. He accomplished nothing outside, of course. Then came Aura's turn. I got her harness and leash on her so she was ready to go. I open the door and walk out, and who follows  me? Achilles. ACHILLES!! The perpetual wanderer.

I shove Aura back into the apartment and tear off down the stairs. At that exact moment Achilles was running back to me. But now we're playing chase since Mommy's coming after him. Obviously. So he sprints down the road to the clubhouse. A car is coming our way who luckily saw my flailing arms and angled his car so Achilles wouldn't be able to run onto the main street as easily. After he gets to the clubhouse, he turns around to run at me. I squat down. I'm ready to stop this dog no matter what. He's running. He's running. He's running. Then he jukes to the left. I lunge for him and manage to grab a leg. He flips and skids a little (thank God for that thick, double coat), and I tackle him! Victory is mine!

Or so I thought. Now, I may go to the gym three times a week, but I was out of breath. Trying not to lose my flip flops while running as fast as I could and figuring out how to tell Roger our dog got hit by a car wore me out. And let me tell you, a seven-month-old husky is not the lightest of creatures. So I change which side I'm holding him. Left hip. Right hip. Left hip. Right hip. And that's when it happens. He caught his foot in my right pocket and kicked. My sweat pants hit my ankles faster than I could blink at the car that drove by.

Was I embarrassed? Nah. I skipped straight to hysterical. I was laughing like a crazy person all the way up the stairs. But that dog is my baby. And more than that, he's the light in my dark days. Even the days he made dark himself. He helped me to be able to truly breathe and laugh at myself instead of being so serious all the time. My back actually released all the built up tenstion, and the stress left me. Animals really are God's gifts.

Who else has fur babies? Any ridiculous stories of when they saved you from yourselves? As much as we joke about trading them all for cats, I know dogs will always be a part of our lives. After days like that, I couldn't have it any other way.