Nola Muffin Monday: Best Christmas Ever

Hi everyone, Nola here. I want to tell you about this past Christmas, or what I call the “Best Christmas Ever.” I’m not sure Mom and Dad would agree, but here’s why I had such a great Christmas.

First, Anna left. I know, I know, that might sound a little mean, and I am happy she has a forever home now, but she was a pain! I am up for helping other dogs in need, but she was a bit much. All my toys had to be put away because she wouldn’t let me play with them without starting a fight. We always had to take separate walks because she was a spazz when we were together. And, she always took my spot on the couch next to Mommy. She didn’t even respect that this is MY house! Geeze. I will miss her a little, she always tried to snuggle with me and I liked it, sometimes.
But the biggest reason this Christmas was awesome is Bullwinkle, or B-Dub as Daddy calls him. Mommy thinks it’s creepy that a moose has a beard, but right from the beginning I knew B-Dub and I were meant to be pals. He has squeakers in his arms, crinkly ears, and a he gives off a sound when you squeeze his chest that just makes me go crazy. He hasn’t left my side since I got him.

He is so soft any furry that I even like to take a snooze while cuddling with him.
As if getting rid of Anna a forever home and replacing her with BW wasn’t enough, I also got lots of other cool toys from my extended family. Opening them all up made me so tired.

I hope you all had an awesome Christmas too!

Freedom!

Here’s another post about Anna I never got the chance to share before she was adopted. This was the first and LAST time Anna was off leash, as she seems to have an affinity for escaping and we just couldn’t take the chance of losing her! She was condemned to a life on a 30 ft. lead for most of her time with us. But, it didn’t seem to phase her much and hopefully with some more training in her forever home, she will be able to enjoy the freedom of being an off leash dog.

A couple weeks ago we took Anna for her first off leash play time that wasn’t in our backyard. AHR has a strict no off leash policy for any of its fosters, and with Anna not having much recall we didn’t risk it. But, we really value letting dogs run in an open area because it lets them expel energy that can not be gotten rid of on leash. We went to a sports complex that has several fences in baseball fields. The gates may or may not have been locked and the Mr. May or may not have lifted Anna over to get her in, but it was the perfect place. I brought a duck that had a slingshot on its beak and Anna loved it. Here are some action shots:
As to not press our luck and get caught, we then put her on a 30′ lead and walked around the rest of the complex. We let her sniff and run and just enjoy a less structured walk. She did so well! We even threw in a quick recall training session! Anna was so happy and slept the entire rest of the day (which made it a good day for us too!)!

Houseguest

It’s been 5 days since Anna went to her forever home, and I haven’t been able to put aside all my emotions and write about dropping her off. I still have yet to write my letter to her, I just can’t find the words. So, in the mean time, over the next couple of days I‘m going to share several posts I wrote before the blog hiatus. 

Usually at the M&M&NK household we only have four legged houseguests, but in October we were thrilled when our friend from Tennessee came up for a visit. He stayed at our house because we were all going to a friend’s wedding that weekend. Well, we weren’t the only ones that were thrilled. Both dogs got some quality snuggle time with JYB.

The first night he was here, we had Anna’s obedience class. When the class was over, this is what we came home to:

It’s hard to tell who was more comfortable! Shortly after that, Anna got a turn getting some cuddles from JYB.

She snuggled right up to him, just minutes after they met. This is a true testament to Anna’s loving personality. She loves to cuddle with people more than anything in the world! It was nice for the pups to have a two legged visitor, and we were happy to see JYB too. It was a great weekend, a beautiful wedding and lots of attention for the pups.

Merry Christmas!

Nola, the Mr. and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Hope your day is full of family, fun and of course puppy snuggles and kisses!

And to Anna, who is spending her first Christmas with her forever family: Merry Christmas Banana! We love you and are so happy you got a home for the holidays!

Anna’s Special Visitors

As I briefly mentioned when I was catching you all up from my blog hiatus, we got an application for Anna! After three long months of crickets, we seemed to have hit the jackpot. The applicants had an American Staffordshire Terrier for 10 years before they lost her to cancer. They have no other pets, no children, a fenced in yard, and didn’t seem initially deterred by Anna’s ‘issues.’ So, after the rescue approved them during a home visit, we set up a meet and greet for Anna.
Saturday was the day. We had cleaned the house, cleaned the dog, and sent Nola to hang out with her BFF Payson for the morning. I think Anna could feel how important this day was to all of us. But I am not going to lie, I was nervous. I tried not to get my hopes up too much, Anna can be a handful and I was nervous once they saw her get overly excited in person they would change their minds.
When they arrived we discussed everything we could think of that they would need to know about Anna. We didn’t want to scare them, but we felt like we owed it to Anna to be honest. Is she very reactive on leash? Yes. Does she have a bit of separation anxiety? Yes. Does she know her name, or have any recall at all? No. Does she like to jump fences? Yes. Did they seem deterred by any of this? Not at all. And how could they, because Anna was her usual love bug self. At one point she sat on the gentleman’s feet and laid on her back for a belly rub. How can you not fall in love with her? You can’t.
It was hard not to like the applicants too. They showed us their photo album of their dog Indy. She and Anna look very similar. There were photos of her hiking with them, snuggling and all around being happy dog. It was hard not to smile. Not to be out done, the Mr. then showed them our album of Nola and we traded stories of the joys of raising a puppy. Then they said the one thing I can’t get out of my mind. They had lost their dog just this past October and they said although it may seem quick to adopt another, their house just doesn’t feel like a home without a dog. Bring on the goosebumps!
So an hour and a walk around the block with Anna later, we answered any last minute questions. We traded phone numbers and said we would be in touch with the rescue to finalize everything. I got a call from the adoption coordinator about a half hour later telling me they had sent her a text right away saying they definitely wanted to adopt Anna. We chatted about how great it went and then I left it in the hands of the rescue to officially approve them.
And they did. Anna is officially, 100% adopted!

Wordless Wednesday: Santa’s Little Helpers

   

Let’s Catch Up

Well, it’s been almost a month since I last blogged. A lot has happened since my last post, so here’s the reader’s digest version:

• Thanksgiving: Did everyone have a nice Thanksgiving? We did. Nola and I went down to Massachusetts to visit with my mom’s side of the family. The Mr. went to see his mom and family in northern Maine. Even though this is the one holiday I have NEVER spent with the Mr., I still enjoyed it.
• Trip to Seattle: My show went well. It was  a looooong flight and a looooong trip, but good. I even made it to the Space Needle this year!
• Christmas decorations: I flew home from WA for a couple days to unpack and repack for my next trip to LA. I did find time to decorate a bit. I think the pups liked it!
  
• Nola lost a tooth: Not just any tooth, her top canine tooth! She was chewing a bone the night before I had to leave again and I heard a crack. I checked her mouth and found that her tooth was gone. But there was no blood, no remnants of a root, nothing. It was like it just vanished. After the Mr. took her to the vet, it was determined this happened a while ago. I have no idea how we did not see blood, the tooth, or any signs from Nola she was in pain. It’s just crazy! I still feel so sad and felt so guilty for not noticing sooner. Nola’s jowls are so long that I barely ever see her top teeth, but I should have looked in her mouth more often!
  
• Trip to New Orleans: I always love this trip because it is where the Mr. proposed and it is the town that Nola is named after. The weather was warm and my show went well.
• New Camera: I got a new camera! It was supposed to be a Christmas present from my parents and the Mr., but I couldn’t wait. It’s my first ever DSLR, a Nikon 3100. While I am still learning how to use it, you should see an increase in the quality of photos on the blog (except for those that I have to take quickly or the pups will move, those I still use my iPhone because I always have it with me).
  

And the biggest news:

• An Application came in for Anna: While I was in New Orleans I got an email from Almost Home Rescue that an application had been submitted for Anna (her first one in the three months she’s been with us). It looked promising and there was a home visit arranged later that week. I don’t want to go into too much detail here, but stay tuned for more about this!
  

So that’s it in a nutshell. Hope you all had a great month. I am still catching up on all the dog blogs I follow, and it seems like I missed a lot! I will make sure to share much more about Anna’s search for her forever home this week.