Family - Pocketful of Joules

Introducing Ollie

When I last filled you in on our dog shelter saga, our adoption of Dobby had just fallen through due to him being shark-tastic and wanting to bite everyone.

Well, when I found Dobby I also happened to come across a cute little chihuahua/yorkie mix named Ollie. The only reason I didn’t call about Ollie first was that there wasn’t a lot of information about him in the listing. I had no idea about his age, his size or even if he was housebroken. Also, I was concerned because Chihuahuas shed like crazy and the only way it would work for us is if the yorkie side won out with the low/no-shedding.

After Dobby fell through, I went ahead and emailed to find out more information on Ollie. According to Mary, the shelter director, he was around 1 or 2 years old, weighed 8 pounds, was 90% housebroken, and was very low shedding.

YAY! Or as my husband would say, “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!”*

I submitted an application last Wednesday and waited. And waited. And waited. Until I heard this Tuesday that our application review was almost complete and the last step was talking to our reference. I had listed my bestie, Annie, as our reference and due to her job she’s hard to get on the phone during the day. The shelter contact was able to have her answer the questions by email though, which was fantastic. Annie is also fantastic – even more than fantastic – because she spoke so highly of us that the shelter contact emailed me on Tuesday night that we were approved to adopt Ollie!

Which is when the anxiety set in.

My husband, who hardly ever goes out of town was leaving on Thursday morning for five days. Our choice was to either meet and bring Ollie home on Wednesday night before Travis left, or for me to do it alone on Friday while he’s gone. I really wanted Travis and Jack to meet Ollie with me, so we decided to schedule our meeting for last night.

When we walked up to the PetSmart where we were meeting Mary and Ollie, my heart was totally pounding like crazy. I wasn’t sure if I was going to pass out, hurl or poo myself. Maybe all three, so it is good that PetSmart has mess cleanup stations. Luckily I didn’t need to use one.

At first, Ollie was super shy and didn’t even want to come over to Travis or me. We bribed him with treats and he would slowly walk over, grab a treat and run away. Mary told us that he would take a while to warm up to us, so we really hung back and tried to be super patient. Over about an hour he got more and more friendly and even went up to Jack to softly take a treat out of his hand.

rutledge — This is Rutledge Wood from Top Gear (American version). I have a super crush on him and Ollie kind of looks like him. Picture Source: Rutledge Wood website

So, we decided to go for it.

I signed the paperwork, wrote a check and picked out a collar and ID tag for him. He’s gone by Ollie for 4 weeks, so we think we’re going to just stick with that as his name. Not totally sure yet, I might decide to change it this weekend – he doesn’t respond to Ollie at all. Current frontrunners are: Dobby, PJ (Potter, Jr) or Rutledge, with a middle name of Voldemort (aka the dog who must not be named).

As soon as we walked out of PetSmart with Ollie, I totally had a anxiety attack freak out. My stomach started lurching, my heart pounded and I burst into tears.

I just kept thinking…he’s not as cute as Potter! And he’s not as awesome as Potter! And what if I don’t love him?! And what if this is a HUGE mistake?

Travis calmed me down by reminding me that whatever we give Ollie will be better than what he would get from a shelter. And that we were already great doggie parents to him because we didn’t drop him off at an overcrowded shelter and walk away. We also have an out if we choose to use it – if we decide that Ollie is not a good fit with our family we can give him back within 30 days.

So, that pretty much kept me sane. I mean, between the weird crying jags.

Mary had told us to have Ollie ride back home with us (over an hour car ride) in his crate, because that would make him the most comfortable with the transition. I pretty much decided that she wasn’t the boss of me and switched him to my lap after about 15 minutes. Which he LOVED by the way.

The entire way home he snuggled up with me as if he had been with us for years. When we got home, Travis took him for a walk and then we let him sniff around the house for an hour or so.

Our intentions were to put him in his crate to sleep, which is what he did with his foster parent. So we said goodnight and put him in there with a treat. However, while I was taking out my contact lenses he started whining… and before I was even out of the bathroom Travis had Ollie in our bed.

So, yeah, Travis is already trained.

Ollie slept by our feet most of the night and every couple hours he would get up to explore the room. This, of course, woke me up because I was afraid he was going to pee on something, but he did really well with no accidents. By morning he was curled up right between Travis and me like a spoiled pup.

I dropped Jack off at my mom’s house this morning for babysitting and I’m working from home today so that Ollie can get used to his new home. So far he’s been alternating between following me around the house, sitting on my lap, or curling up by my feet under my blanket.

Working from home is pretty awesome when you have a lapdog. (PS sorry about the lack of makeup, working from home doesn’t require makeup… or a shower… or real pants)

Oh, and he decided to pee on one of Jack’s toys. So that’s accident #1. Which is to be expected, but still sucks.

It’s nice having a dog around the house again. Even if he does keep farting. If he is this comfortable with me within 24 hours, I can only imagine he’ll be trying to sleep on top my face within a week. Which would be weird.

So to the person in West Virginia who decided that Ollie was not the right fit for them… thank you. Thank you for giving him up to a shelter, rather than just leaving him on the side of the road or sticking him in a dumpster. We are so happy for Ollie to join our family and plan to love him to the best of our ability.

*There is a country song out right now that says “winner winner” and “catfish dinner” so my husband was singing “winner winner chicken dinner” over and over and OVER again last night.

So much Sadness

Today is not going well.

You know a day isn’t going to go well when you wake up incredibly sad and it takes you a few minutes to remember why. I’ve already ~~burst into tears multiple times~~ cried all morning long and thank goodness I’m at our Rockville office and nobody is here to see me.

To catch anyone up who doesn’t follow me on Facebook, my dog Potter has been at the hospital since Tuesday and his kidney’s are failing.

After 24 hours on IVs and antibiotics, he only had mild improvement of his bloodwork. As of this morning, his condition hasn’t changed at all and the doctor said that he seems “sad, depressed and still in pain” which kills me. We’re still giving him his IV and antibiotics and they’re retesting his kidneys at 6:00 tonight. At that point, we will have to make a decision based on his numbers.

Well, we don’t HAVE to make a decision… they could keep trying and keep trying… but as long as he is feeling awful and there is no marked improvement, it seems pointless. It’s like I’m just torturing him because I’m too selfish to let him go. Yesterday I spent about 2 hours with him on my lap just hugging him and telling him what a good dog he is. And crying. Of course, crying.

The stupidest things keep crossing my mind. Like how Jack looks around and says “dog” and he’s not there. And how Potter will never perch on top the couch again and fall asleep. And how he won’t climb up in our bed and roll around to get all snuggled up under the covers. And how we won’t be able to all crawl into bed as a family and hold everyone close. And how I won’t be able to tap his nose until he sneezes and then looks at me all accusingly. And how he loves bananas and will come running if he hears you snap one off of the stem.

It hurts so bad. I can’t even describe the pain that I feel right now. I’m devastated. And I feel terrible and guilty and horrible that I’m most likely going to have to make the decision tonight to put Potter to sleep. How can you do that? How can you say, I give up? At what point do you decide that you can’t spend any more money? How do you decide that you love him too much to let him hurt anymore?

And yes, I know he’s “only” a dog. But he’s been mine for almost 10 years. When I broke up with my boyfriend and bought my first house I was all alone. And Potter was my Christmas present to myself. And I have loved him every single day for almost 10 years. And I can’t believe that he’s going to be gone forever.

I tried to help myself feel better by doing a search online of other silky terriers that need homes, but that just makes me feel worse because even though we can get another dog it will never be the same as Potter. When Jack “pets him” by smacking him and he just moves to another part of the couch, when he is so freaking nice and sweet to everyone who comes in the house… how can you bottle that and make a duplicate?

A tiny part of me is still holding out hope for a miracle, but the other part — the part that can’t stop crying — knows that this is the end. I tentatively asked the doctor this morning whether they’d send him home to die or put him to sleep and it seemed like the doctor felt it was more humane to put him to sleep.

So I’m planning to go back to the hospital this afternoon to spend some more time with him. My husband will be joining me after work so that we can approach the test results together.

7/11/13 Update: Potter’s kidney numbers have gone in a good direction. He is still sad and not eating though. Our current plan is to do 24 more hours with the IV to see if there is further improvement. Then, we will most likely bring him home to see if being in his normal space relaxes him enough to eat and heal.

7/12/13 morning Update: Potter had some bladder issues overnight with led to an x-ray and catheter (which is now out). He is still depressed and still not eating. So, we’re back to waiting to see how his kidney levels look at tonight’s 6pm test. At this point, if there is not further improvement we’re thinking that it is time to make the decision to let Potter go.

7/12/13 evening Update: Potter was doing much worse and we had to make the hard decision to let him go. Our beloved dog was snuggled up with his head laying on my chest as we kissed him and said goodbye.

Our Family Summer Sand Bucket List

It seems like the summer goes by so quickly – you blink and BOOM it’s July. In fact, it will actually BE July in just a couple of days and I feel like it was just March?!

In order to help our family enjoy the season a little more, I’ve decided we needed a summer sand bucket list!

Our Family Summer Sand Bucket List:

Eat a sno-cone
Catch lightening bugs
Splash around in a pool
Watch fireworks
Roast marshmallows over a bonfire
Make a sand castle
Enjoy an ice cream cone WITH SPRINKLES
Have a picnic outside
See a movie in a super cold air conditioned theater
Have a crab feast

Does your family make a bucket list of fun things you want to make sure to do over the summer? Is there something I’m missing?

This post was created in connection with my appointment as an Ambassador in the Breyers Blogger Program. Visit www.facebook.com/breyers to join the conversation.