Our latest family member.. Ned

If you follow my blog, you would have seen that a while ago our baby girl Patch was hit by a car. This left us feeling a huge empty spot in our lives, and I was at the point where whenever a friend spoke about their pups at home I would burst into tears. It had only been a week but we talked and decided we needed a new friend to love and spend our lives with.
I didnt want to just get a puppy, I wanted to rescue a dog or puppy from a pound or rescue centre. This is when we met Ned.
He was a 5 month old "Bitsa - x" and located in the Shepparton pound. Huby thought he was cute so we bit the bullet and went to meet him on our lunch breaks one Friday.
He was very friendly, and quite happy to recieve belly rubs and pats. I fell in love. Obviously, he was not Patch but he was another pup, in need of a loving home. We decided to talk it over during the weekend. It was the longest weekend I have experienced, umming and ahhing, working out if we really were ready for a new addition or if it was too soon. So many people had different opinions and it kept clouding our decisions. It came down to the Sunday night and I had told the lady at the pound we would let her know either way Monday. I was still feeling the emptiness and not 100%. I went and sat at Patch's grave and talked to her. I think speaking it aloud helped me make the decision. It was when hubby came out and found me chatting away with Patch at her gravesite that we made the decision - Neddy would be coming home with us for a trial, if he chased too much or was too into the cars that went racing past we would re consider...

Monday morning arrived and we went our seperate ways, Luke to work and me to a driving course. I was looking forward to calling the pound and telling them we would take Ned home. 8:30am arrived and of course I jumped on the phone - I may have been a bit early as they didnt answer,  so I tried again about 8:45. Emma answered and I told her we would love to take Ned home and will be in later that day to pick him up.
The pound closed at 4 so I had to finish what I was doing early and head over to sign some papers and then take Ned in the car to pick up Luke from work. 3pm finally arrived and I headed off to the pound. Once the paperwork was completed I was taken out the back to collect Ned, He was very excited to be leaving the pound, though kept stopping and checking over his shoulder as if he expected someone to come after him. I reassured him and he trotted to the car.
At first he was hesitant, but then he got into the car and we went off to get Luke.

We got to Lukes work and he still had a bit of time until he was knocking off. So I took Ned for  a walk. He loved it, and this is where I first noticed his trait - one ear stands up and one ear flops most of the time!!

Once Luke finished work it was off home to meet John and Julie and explore his new home, and hopefully meet our cat Ginge without upsetting him!

Fast forward to today, Ned has been with us about a month and already made himself perfectly at home. We have managed to train him not to chase cars, and he no longer shows interest in anything going past on the road - such a relief!! Our next adventure is to complete dog training. We start the first week in April (provided the course gets enough interest to go ahead!) I have many funny (and not so funny) stories about Neddy already, though if I was to sit here and type them all you would probably fall asleep before getting to the end of this post... I'll save the stories for a rainy day :)

It is nice to get home and be met by a dog bounding up the path towards you. No matter what mood I am in it always makes me smile. Even better are the cuddles whilst sitting outside on the lawn giving Ned belly rubs. He (and Ginge cat) are our only babies for now.

I'll leave you with two of my favourite dog related quotes:

"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face." -- Bern Williams
"No animal I know of can consistently be more of a friend and companion than a dog."
- Stanley Leinwoll

 

Until next time

x

My first ever girls weekend away...Palooza 2011

So it has been a few weeks, and I think I am recovered enough to briefly recount the awesome weekend that was Palooza. I've been inspired reading Kell's posts, though mine will just be a quickie for now!

I don't know where to start, from the moment I picked Kell up Thursday night until the moment I arrived home it was the best weekend I have ever experienced. My body ached in places that I had not known existed from laughing so hard and my face hurt from all the smiling I was doing for days afterwards. This was my first ever girls weekend away - and will definitely not be the last. It was just what the doctor had ordered :) We left Thursday night and came home on Sunday arvo.  

I think Megs enjoyed her trip too, When I learnt Megan wouldn't be able to join us, I made a cardboard version of her, and man did she get around the place! We spent parts of the weekend posing cardboard Megs in various situations and places and taking photos and sending them back to Megan, hopefully next time she can join us for real.

The humidity made us wonder whether our pilot had gotten lost and landed in Singapore as it was bloody horrible!! We had the coolest flight attendant ever on the way up to Sydney. We flew Qantas so of course, free booze - woohoo! When she came past the first time I excitedly told her it was our girls weekend away.... (I was a tad like a kid at Christmas and very excited to be on the plane and headed to Sydney finally) So then she came back not long after with some more wine.... and then a while later with some more wine and some pretzels.... SCORE!!!!

The accommodation was fantastic, right opposite Hyde Park, beautiful views and an awesome air con. We participated in some awesome activities - from Jet Boating, to Burning the floor at the Retro club, and shopping at Bondi Junction what more did we need?!

The only thing I really think what the hell about the whole weekend is the freaky people we encountered..... I swear we had a freak magnet on (not naming any names) It ranged from the tour guide who was victim of the energy vampires to the taxi driver who told us we deserved our husbands to cheat on us because we had gone away and left them, and that they probably would cheat because all men are bastards, and to trust him because he is a man, and then there was the receptionist at the motel who thought we were offering manicures (with arms full of Adriano Zumbo goodies) rather than asking where was good to go and get Mani/Pedis..... There were certainly some characters in Sydney!

I also got to finally meet some of the wonderful NSW girls, from both Twitter and I-do forum days. What a way to top off the already epic weekend, meeting characters who I had conversed with online for the past 6-7 years in person... wow! (By the way, if you are reading this you are all just as gorgeous in real life xx)

So its a bit of a ramble, but that is a basic overview of my very first girls weekend away. I may return to post some of the stories in more detail but for now, Thanks for a SENSATIONAL weekend Fleur and Kell :)

BRING ON PALOOZA 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!