Gotcha Day 2008

It was hot. I mean really hot. Allison and I got out of the car to walk into the Humane Society and the sun could have burned a hole in your head, especially if you're bald like me. The triple digit heat wave made the inside that place stink like all the worst parts of a dog. The barking was insufferable, you couldn't even hear your head roar. We were in a pressure cooker filled with dogs.

We walked up and down the rows of pens looking for the yellow girl we found online. We took a right on the second aisle, and there she was. Sitting silently, mashing herself up against the chain link door like she was trying to escape through osmosis.

Her legs were a little too short, and her body a little too long, and her skin a little too loose. She was the perfect dog for us. Grabbing a leash, Allison and I walked her outside into the yard and over to a picnic table, she climbed up on top and I began to look her over. After a brief physical and a few pats on the head she took a deep breath in and sneezed as hard as she possibly could all over me. She still does that occasionally. We returned her to her pen and the decision was made (mostly by me) that this was the dog for us.

As we were filling out the paper work, the lady behind the desk said that the owner just couldn't care for her any more, so he brought her in, and from what she knew she stayed locked up on the porch most of the time. It was pitiful.

We decided to come back to get her in a couple of days so we could prepare for her arrival into our home. Before we left I went back to her pen where she sat, attempting osmosis still, and knelt down and told her we were coming back. She looked up at me with here best basset eyes and it was almost like she understood.

And then on August 14th 2007, she came home. Given her new found freedom and home, we decided to name her Gracie.

The first night in our home we put her in her kennel to sleep and she whimpered and whined for a few minutes, and as I lay in bed my stomach boiled with anxiety. I put my pillow over my head and asked Allison "What did we do?!?!". I awoke the next morning and realized that the peaceful moments before I headed off early to the gym were now a flurry of confusion and dog wrangling to get her out the door and into the backyard. Our lives had been changed for the worse and the first few days were awful.

Slowly, however, we grew to love the old pup, slobber, barking, pestering and all. Now I can't imagine life without her. She's our buddy.

One time, on an early Saturday morning walk, we walked down by the Opelika tennis center. I wanted to go one way, she wanted to go another, and in a stubborn fit she backed out of her collar and ran down the hill, through waves of kudzu and out of sight. I took the long way around, down the steps, and over by some tennis courts attempting to follow her. When I reached the bottom I asked two ladies playing tennis "did you see a yellow dog run through here?", "She ran back up the hill" one lady replied. I went back to the top of the hill. No Gracie in sight. I called her and searched for the next few minutes with no success. I called Allison on the cell phone and told her to come get me so the search could continue. Allison got her keys opened the carport door, and there sat Gracie. She looked up at Allison with a concerned distraught face as if to say "I've lost your husband". When she couldn't find me, she just ran home. That's what abandonment will do, even to a dog.

One more story and I'm done. Some friends and I have a Accountability group that meets on Monday night. Allison, on one particular night, had prepared some brownies and had set them on the coffee table for us to enjoy. There were probably a dozen or so left on the plate when everyone had left. Allison had holed up in our bedroom so I let Gracie in and then went to retrieve Allison from hiding. After a few moments of talking with her, it hit me... the brownies... We walked into the living room to find Gracie licking the brownie plate clean, and I spent the next hour researching how much chocolate it took to kill a dog... alot, it turns out.

When I come home from work she usually greets me at the door wagging her whole body. It can be the perfect medicine for a hard day. I never would have fancied myself a dog person, but I am. And I think I'm better for it.

So there you go, on August 14th of this year we did it up right. Allison bought a small cake and some party hats. And we posed for a few pictures with my old friend, Gracie Boman. Don't worry, she only had a little cake... well, ok, a good bit of cake.

Happy Gotcha Day old pup.

zac

I guess I lied...

Sorry for the lack of posting. I really did intend to post several other posts last week, but once again things got hectic. I am getting ready to start teaching preschool again, so that has kept me occupied lately. We also were out of town last weekend. This week is just as hectic, and I just am not going to have much free time to blog, so it may be the weekend or next week before we get some of the new posts up. Don't worry, though, it's nothing too exciting. Hope everyone has a good week! :)

Garden Report & Sleepover Fun!

I have been meaning to post this week, but haven't gotten around to it until today. I thought I'd report first on our vegetable garden. Because we planted everything a little late, most of our plants are still producing and may continue through September. We were excited to find that when we returned from the beach our tomatoes were FINALLY beginning to turn red. We thought for a while that they were never going to ripen. We picked our first batch last week and they are delicious. I didn't think that I really liked tomatoes, but home-grown ones are so good! They are nothing like the tomatoes you buy in the store.

Our green bell pepper plants are still producing as well, but I think that the chipmunks may be stealing some of them. The interesting thing that we've noticed is that some of the green bell peppers are starting to turn red! What is really strange, though, is that this is happening on the plants furthest from the red pepper plant. I guess there has been a little bit of cross-pollination happening. I'm not really sure if they are green or red peppers - just an interesting combination!

The red bell pepper plant so far has only produced two peppers - one did really great and got very large and very red. I'm hoping to get a few more, though, before it dies. We'll see.

Our squash plants did good for a while, but they have since died. They really didn't have the room they needed to grow properly, so that is probably why they finally bit the dust. We'll have to space them out better next year. Here is a picture of the last good squash that we picked as well as some green peppers:


Last Friday night, we had a great time with Jack and Georgia. I tried to think of some fun things that we could do, so we first made homemade pizzas! Then, their request was to watch the movie Mr. Bean's Holiday. They had already seen it but wanted to watch it again. It was very funny, and we actually enjoyed it too. We also watched an episode of one of their favorite T.V. shows, America's Funniest Home Videos. When it was time for bed, we put their air mattresses in our room and all slept in the same room together! Needless to say, Zac and I didn't sleep much, but it was fun! The next morning we made chocolate chip pancakes and blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and then went shopping until lunch. Jack and Georgia are very special to us and we really had fun together! Here are some pictures from breakfast:

We have some other things we are planning to blog about next week, so stay tuned!

Beach Trip

Last week we were able to enjoy a few days in Gulf Shores. Zac's sister Natalie and her husband Jason graciously invited us to join them for a few days. They were there for the week, and we stayed with them from Wednesday night until Saturday morning. The weather was a little cloudy and raining at times, but we still had a great time. It is always nice to get away and especially to get away to a beautiful beach!

We took a few pictures on the beach. The first one is of us (of course) and then we are with Jack and Georgia. The next picture is a picture of Natalie's family. We took the kids out to eat so that Jason and Natalie could have a date and there are two pictures of us at the restaurant where we ate. The last picture is a picture that Zac took of Georgia, and I just thought she looked so cute in her braided pig-tails! :)

Jack and Georgia are planning to spend the night with us tonight for a fun little sleepover. It's the first time they have done this since moving to Auburn. They have to both start school (Georgia starts kindergarten) next week, so this is kind of a fun way to end the summer. I'm going to try and take a few pictures and post those soon. Sorry it's been a while since the last post. I'll try to get back on track. Have a good weekend!