Weekend Visit

Xondervan's dad, Robin, came to visit this weekend. He lives in Texas, and he comes about twice a year. On Saturday, he graciously went with us to Warner Robins, Ga., to look at a truck we're interested in buying.

Warner Robins is home to Robins Air Force Base, so we stopped by the Museum of Aviation after having lunch at Cracker Barrel. I have to admit that I really enjoyed it because we watch Stargate, a tv show about the Air Force. So it was interesting to read about real people who dedicate their entire lives to the military. Some of the exhibits had survival packs--a TINY bag of misc. items the pilots would carry with them in case they had to eject from their planes and were stranded in the middle of nowhere. The packs were smaller than a tissue box, but one of the exhibit signs said, "This pack contained everything a pilot would need to survive in the wilderness." Seriously?!! There was a stick of gum, a piece of chocolate, a piece of toilet paper, a mirror to signal people with, a silk map, and that's about it!

The visit also launched a discussion on Robin's career in the army, and I am always thrilled to hear family history. --But you can still feel sorry for me that I was stuck in the car for 5 hours with TWO Xons. OH MY GOODNESS! ;-)

Difference in Dogs

Yesterday was Casey's birthday. He is three. My foster dog, Gavin, is also three. I was thinking last night...I have one three-year-old dog who acts like he's 50 and another three-year-old dog who acts like he's a puppy. Unfortunately, the puppy-acting one is a 127-pound, completely untrained great dane!

We are working really hard on mastering "sit" this week. He didn't respond to treats when we first got him, but now he is all about them! So that helps in the training dept. We must have done hundreds of repetitions by now. He is coming along!

Date Night

Someone gave me a gift certificate today for Mia Madonna, a semi-snazzy restaurant in Athens that I have never been to. Our profs go there a lot, which usually means it's a bit too pricey for me. :-0

Since it was V-Day, Xon and I decided to call to see if they had any room left for dinner. They were all booked, but we knew the hostess on duty from Redeemer Pres. She said she would call us if there were any openings. She called back about 30 seconds later and said if we could be done by 8:00, we could go right then. So we hopped on over and had a lovely meal. I had eggplant parmesan, which I've never had before, and an arugula salad with hazelnuts and a hazelnut dressing. Xon had the steak frites.

And the whole time I thought about how the profs were in a faculty meeting right then fighting over the faculty searches. :-)

Funny Dog Story

So we have this foster dog who is being fostered by a vet student. On Monday, we met a couple who is interested in adopting him. We liked them, and they liked the dog, but since he was getting neutered the next day, we decided to wait until the end of the week to let him start the two-week trial period at their house. Wanted to give him a few days to recover from the surgery. But Thursday night, he got a fever and was acting really sick. Since the foster is a vet student, she was worried about him and decided we better postpone the trial period until he got better.

So I wrote the adopters and said that I was sorry, but the dog had a fever so we would have to cancel the visit for that night. I also said that his foster was going to take him to the vet that day to get him all checked out, and that she would update us asap about what the vet said. I told them I was sorry because I knew they would be disappointed, but we hoped to get him in good shape soon.

Our Adoptions Assistant just started a new job, and turns out, she is the adopter's boss. Apparently the adopter thought we had changed our minds about her and were looking at other applications, so she went up to our Adoptions Assistant today and said, "Yeah, Riley's home visit was canceled for tonight because Riley has a 'fever.'" Our Adoptions Assistant said, "Actually, he does have a fever. I read the e-mail this morning." The girl's jaw dropped, and the woman who was working with them started cracking up. Later, the girl came back to our Adoptions Assistant and said she was just disappointed because she had been really excited about starting the trial period that night.

I think that would be the lamest excuse ever if we had actually changed our minds. This girl must be really paranoid or something. I mean, did she want us to give her a sick dog?! I told our Adoptions Assistant that she should start rejecting all applications because the dog has a "fever."

Yep, these are the crazy people I deal with in dog rescue. Actually I deal with much, MUCH worse. This is just one time I can actually laugh at the craziness rather than get sick to my stomach.

HIGH-larious!

Double Exposure

I got this from Datya. Now seriously, how can you get any cuter than that??!!

Introducing...Gavey-baby

My latest foster dog is Gavin. Did I mention he's a purebred Great Dane??!! He's a big 'un.

Poor Gavey has not had the best life. He is 3 years old and is 127 pounds when he should be about 145. He has a super duper strong case of heartworms (the worst the vet has ever seen), whipworms, and kidney damage. So he drinks a LOT of water and pees a LOT. He has been shot with birdshot (hence the bump on his nose that we thought was kinda weird). He has a large skin tag that hangs down from his stomach and really bad spots on his elbows from sleeping on concrete for years. To sum up, he is in the worst health of any foster dog I've ever had. But he's a sweetie pie!

I was scared to death of him when we first brought him home. You just don't know what these dogs have been through, and had he wanted, he could have eaten me. Instead, he is forever devoted and wants nothing more than to be loved on.

His adoption is already pending with the most wonderful adopter in the whole world--as long as his kidney damage is not too bad. We will find out Monday for sure. It is hard for ACR to foster dogs that are in very bad health because it costs a LOT of money. But I am very proud of ACR for rescuing him. He most likely would have died in a few months had we not. But he will be a completely different dog in just a few weeks! It is a wonderful feeling.

Here is a picture of the big ol' boy.