puppy love

I have a very weird relationship with my dogs. I think it is normal, but others find it weird.

I snuggle with them every chance I can get.

I kiss them on the mouth.

I talk to them like they are humans, even if no humans are in the room.

I want to leave social functions early because I don’t want to leave them home alone too long.

I buy them collars like it is an addiction.

I would let them lay on top of me even if I am suffocating just so they will be comfortable.

I wink at them when they wink at me. (Seriously, they wink at me.)

I just love them so much. They are the best things that have happened to Tom and I.

We took in a stray yesterday who we found at our fence. He was shivering and his paws were all bloody. We ended up bringing him in the house because with Clarksville being shut down basically due to this ice situation, we didn’t want to leave him out for who knows how long until we either found an owner or the shelter was able to pick him up. We kept him segregated from our dogs who were being territorial from about 9am until 4pm when the local shelter was able to pick him up. Tom and I took turns cuddling with him and giving him much needed attention. We spread “flyers” through Facebook, and Tom drove around the neighborhood and tried to follow the pups tracks back to his home. This poor sweet puppy just wanted a warm place to stay. If our dogs wouldn’t have been so jealous about “Carl,” we would have kept him longer. Grace and Crosby were not happy with us AT ALL though. So we sent Carl off with people who could see if he had a microchip and find his home. I almost cried though when they took him in the truck.

He was so sweet. I wish we could have kept him. I am glad we were able to help him at least be warm and happy for the day.

It makes me think about the lives that Grace and Crosby had before us. I am so glad that we are able to offer them a warm house, food, and most of all love.

They really do complete our lives. And they do things that surprise us every day.

When I was hugging the porcelain throne on Friday, Crosby laid with me the whole night. Grace came and checked in on me off and on. They are already taking this baby guard duty seriously.

This was early in the night, but Crosby stayed for every minute of this night right beside me.

This is where I was struggling, and Crosby was not happy about people disturbing his guarding. He takes his job seriously. There was one point in the night I had to puke over him because he was insistent on not leaving his post.

While some people think it is weird that we treat our dogs like humans and real children, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. If they are going to take care of me completely, why wouldn’t we do the same?

I just love them, and I hope that all dogs get to experience that at some point in their lives.

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am. ~Author Unknown

If you have been following me at all, there is no surprise that I love my dog. So today is all about my little lady.

My parents willed me this chair from my childhood. It is an old beat-up lazy chair, that is slightly pink. So it matches nothing that I own, but I absolutely loved this chair growing up. I spent hours reading books in this chair, so they gave it to me in the great purging of the Glinn household.

Well, it has now become Grace’s chair. She is in it all the time.

She loves staring out the window to our backyard. I originally had the chair facing in a more functional way with the room, but Grace moved it to the side like this to make it more functional for her outside watching.

Like I said, this is no longer my chair. We now refer to it as Grace’s bed.

We have always let Grace sleep in our bed with us, so this chair has left an empty spot in our bed at night. For the most part we are ok with it because she is a bed hog and will pretty much lay on you and not be willing to budge. But there are moments that it is a little sad for us as doggy parents.
And this sparked this week’s episode of “Talks with Tom.”

Tom-I like it when Grace sleeps in other parts of the house.

Me-Why’s that?

Tom-Because when she gets in her chair it is a little insulting because I am right here. She is basically saying she doesn’t want to sleep with me. When she sleeps in other rooms, it’s like she is at summer camp.

Just this morning we marveled at the fact that she slept with us most of the night. Later to find out it was probably because she wanted to melt our hearts a little bit with glee before we found her puddle of pee all over the living room. She was probably embarrassed because this is totally out of character for her.

And just when I made her a new chew toy! The nerve!

I love making Grace new toys out of household items that are worn out. I am all about sustainability and reusing things when I can.

Grace does not allow us to keep nice bedding because we–and by we, I mean Tom–plays and wrestles with her on the bed. Impossible to keep a nice bed made.

So we get holes like this in our sheets.

In my effort to be green and also save some of our green, I cut up the fabric to use for a project that we are currently working on for our bathroom, but I still had a lot of “unusable scraps.”

I cut the leftovers into long strips, knotted, and braided them together to make a new rope toy for Grace. These are her favorites because she likes ripping them.

This is super easy to do and then I don’t feel so bad about throwing away sheets. My suggestion though is to make sure you make them long enough to make lots of knots. This will make them a little more durable to doggie teeth. For this one I made 4 separate braids then knotted those braids like the friendships bracelets we all made as kids.

She perked up from her nap to play with it a little bit! Success!

I have also made new toys out of old socks that have holes in them. I know others who have done this but they commented that their dogs then would grab any sock regardless of toy status or not. I didn’t have this problem with Grace, but just be weary if you do!

We have been considering upping our little family by adding another furbaby. We have been discussing the pros and cons of getting another dog, and right now the pros outweigh the cons. I have already been scouring shelters’ websites to see who our new rescue puppy could be, but we want to make sure that this will be a good decision for both Grace and the new puppy. Ideally, we would want to get one around the same age as Grace, and more than likely the same breed if not one similar. But who knows once we actually go look at a dog and let them meet Grace to ensure compatibility. Any thoughts and comments on the subject of owning several dogs are welcome! We want to be realistic and do the dogs justice if we choose to adopt another rescue, so any helpful advice would be awesome.

For now we are enjoying our time with just our Gracie lady. Here are some fun videos from our weekend. Yep, we are totally those parents…ok honestly I am totally that parent.