Love at First Sight

Living in the country dictates having a large dog in my mind. Both for protection and because we have the land for it. So Mera and I took a drive to a small town in Oklahoma yesterday to pick out or new puppy. We have decided on a Standard Poodle because I can' t deal with anymore dog hair in my house. I chose a sweet little black and white parti poodle. She was so sweet and I can't wait to bring her home in a few weeks. I am sure there will be many more posts about her. Guess I am not quite done having babies after all:)

Goodbye Glory

We had a sad week this week in that we made the decision to put our dog, Glory, to sleep. This whole post is dedicated to her so if you aren't interested in a 9-year history of my dog, feel free to skip it.

Our family has a friend who raises German Shepards and since I can remember we have always had one. These are not your typical German Shepards though. She specialises in black and silvers and now solid black dogs. When I bought my house in 2003 (just off Cherry Street) I decided I wanted a big dog to live there with me. I called our friend and told her I would be interested in a grown dog that would make a good companion for me. I told her no hurry, just call if she had one she thought would work. She said she happened to have a 3-year-old female that the owners had returned to her because they wanted to focus on smaller show dogs and she had not taken to showing like they had wanted.

I drove out to her place the next day and met Glory and decided to take her home with me and give it a go. What a great decision. Part of the deal was I wouldn't have to pay for here as long as breeding rights remained with our friend. Fine with me.

So the time I lived in that house I got to play host to two litters of puppies. This is a picture of her second litter. Matt and I had started dating by this time and we both had so much fun with these puppies and Glory was such a good mommy.

Here they are starting solids.

Fast forward a few years and now we have a baby and a new home and Glory fit in perfectly. She was great with the baby and loved the country.

She always loved the snow and wanted to chase us when we would sled. She had one little quirk in that she was obsessed with tennis balls and retrieving. I think she thought when we were sledding she was supposed to retrieve us.

She loved to run and play with Milo and my mom's dog. She was the one dog Tucker would ever play with and he loved her so much.

You can see in this picture the intensity of her ball obsession.

The kids have always been free to play on her and she was always so patient with them.

When G was an only child, Glory was her favorite playmate.

When Darby came along Glory never missed a beat and Darby used to lay on her all the time.

I have a lot of pictures of naked Darby lounging on Glory but those are not acceptable for the WWW.

A few years ago Glory was playing ball and fell on some rocks and injured her hip. She was never the same after that and then developed hip displaycia. Her ball chasing days were over and she became home bound. We have watched her hips get worse and worse and often joked about having to have her put down. I think we joked on the surface but knew it would happen one day.

This last weekend I saw her fall and not be able to get up and I knew it was time. She was always the toughest dog and never yelped or cried in pain but she had lost her spunk and I knew she was in constant pain and that was not fair. I called our breeder friend and she agreed so I decided Monday morning I would take her. I felt like it was my place to do it, not Matt's, since she was my dog first.

We talked to the kids on Sunday and explained that some day Glory would not be with us anymore and Georgia immediately started pampering her. She made her a little bed and gave her covers. G had no idea at this point that we would loose our Glory the next day.

The morning before I took her I got some pictures of her withe the girls.

And her best buddy Milo.

And of course Mera who is, unfortunately, not going to get to enjoy her.

She was truly a great dog and so beautiful. My heart has a little hole in it that will heal with time but today I still miss her and wish she was waiting at the fence for me when I drive home. I hope she is whole again in doggy heaven and getting to chase all the balls her little heart desires, restored to her young gorgeous self. I wish she had just died here at home suddenly because I hated taking her in knowing what was about to happen. She didn't know my pats and scratches were a final goodbye but I was happy to be next to her as she fell asleep and then left my life forever. I will always remember her and the place she had in my life and appreciate her gentle nature and her love of my kids. We miss you Big Glory!

January 2000 to July 18, 2011

One Year Comparison

I thought it would be fun to look back at the girls on their birthdays since this will be my last first birthday. Her is my little G with all her hair.

And baldy Darby

I remember she pooped herself during her party and we had to give her a quick bath clean up.

And Mera. Feel free to comment about how much they do or don't look alike.

Mera turns ONE!

Mera turned one last weekend and we had a little family party at Mary's house. Her twin cousins were present and I realize I have put very few pictures of the on the blog but we do see a lot of them. They are 6-months younger than Mera. Alaliese is on the left and Genevieve on the right.

Genevieve loves to roll over.

Analiese is a bit of a drooler (in a good way).

Mera and cousin Vivian.

My baby girl loves balls so I did a ball cake for her.

And this one was for the grown ups in the group.

She had lots of presents and lots of help opening them.

Jack's birthday was in early July so he even scored a little something.

Here she is unsure of this thing in front of her.

And a taste.

"Me likee!"

She did a great job with it and really enjoyed it.

Happy birthday baby girl.

Jack Visits

The girls cousin Jack came for a visit for the weekend of Mera's birthday along with Nanue and Big Papa. We tried to show him a good time and took him to the aquarium and I think he had a good time. Here are a bunch of photos taken there. They girls had a blast getting to spend time with him!

Mera was napping at home with me while everyone else saw the fish but she had a chance to check him out.