Our Crazy Lives...

Friday, April 27, 2007

Our new baby...


Ok, so its furry and has 4 legs, but its the closest thing to a baby that we'll be having anymore! It's "2 and through" for us! :) Brian and I started talking about getting a friend for Bevo a long time ago. We kept going back and forth with the idea for a few reasons.

We wanted to have a friend for Bevo (since she's always taking "under-the-fence adventures" to play with the golden retriever next door.) BUT we felt that Bevo was a very good and balanced dog with some training under her belt. We didn't want to have to start over again if we brought a new dog into the house. We also wanted to be sure we could trust a new dog around the kids as Bevo has full access to them. We wanted a dog that would enjoy playing with Bevo, but also know that her "people" were in charge. Most importantly, we wanted another dog that would be a companion like Bevo...

And we think we've found one! After many e-mails to a fantastic rescue group called Austin Dog Alliance, we found Jett. I had seen a dog on their website that looked a lot like Bevo and wanted to adopt him, but someone else had already been approved and was about to take him home. So then I saw two other dogs that Brian and I thought were cute, but the great folks there said that they'd be too high energy and may not work well with our family. The fact that they worked so hard to find the RIGHT homes for the dogs made me trust them completely. So I wrote and asked which dogs may be a good match for us and they suggested an 8 month old purebred black labrador named Jett (formerly with 1 t but Brian thinks 2 t's are cooler!)

We went out to meet her and when we first arrived, she was very nervous, barked a little and tried to hide. The great lady who was fostering her at her training facility visited with her to get her to calm down. Then I got to meet her, Brian, Jaxon and Marley...once she figured out I was ok, the rest of "my pack" got easier and easier to introduce. We spent almost 2 hours out there letting the dogs get to know each other. We were happy to see that Jett had training (and actually has better training than Bevo). The folks at Southern Star Ranch are serious trainers who not only took lots of time to be sure the introduction went well, but REALLY know their stuff and we may be back to visit them very soon. By the time we left, Jaxon was walking Jett around by the leash!

Once we got home, we spent some time in the yard. Jett even got to meet our next-door neighbors. When we went inside, Bevo showed a little bit of the "little dog syndrome" and seems to be trying to establish her dominance, but that's to be expected as she's always been an only dog. Today, they're both happily chewing kongs and laying at my feet. They're both on leash just in case, but we haven't needed to correct them, so we're optimistic that this is a good match for us.

We're so glad to have found a friend for Bevo and a new GREAT dog for our family too!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

April 2007...

Well long time no post, but for good reason... first our laptop went completely black. Its only a little over a year old, just out of warranty, and the part that it needs, can't be sold separately so our laptop would basically be a $1200 paper weight! Then, while Jaxon was playing on the computer (his new favorite thing to do) it froze, got stuck on task manager and then went off. Now on start-up it says "Cannot locate hard drive" Eeek! Thank goodness I had backed up all of my digital pictures to the my book I got for Christmas or ALL of my photos may have been wiped out. We're still working on getting that fixed and meanwhile have a new laptop.

The kids are doing great - Jaxon is doing a fantastic job at school. He gets along with the other kids and is more advanced than some of the other peers in academics as far as letters, numbers, counting objects, etc. But he is behind a bit in writing (at least behind the girl peers - we all know they talk and write sooner though so no worries.) Marley is amazing! She is SUCH a talker already and went from only sating "dad" a few months ago to saying just about anything you say (she says "zja-zja" for Jaxon but most everything else sounds like the "real words.")

Bevo completed her training and has done very well. I want to be sure to continue her "training career" as she seems to enjoy and parctice makes perfect! She is still being Houdini - crawling under the fence as soon as we leave for work to play with the next-door neighbor's golden retriever Amber. We're hoping to work on that as it can get pretty muddy... but I can't blame her for being lonely.

My sister's divorce is hopefully going to be final at the end of the month as well. Its going to be a big relief for her and our family so fingers crossed that it ends as peacefully as possible. My birthday is this month too and probably will be uneventful, but we hope to get out and celebrate somehow! :) S