A new family member

I must have the best husband in the world, because look who he let me bring home yesterday!

Meet Lupe, the newest member of the pack!

Isn't she gorgeous?

Old man Otis is not too impressed.

But he'll try to distract himself with this tasty pine cone.

Old lady Hazel could care less... she's so easy.

It's nice (but strange) to have a young dog around again. We've become so used to Hazel and Otis and their laziness and general old-dogginess, it is kind of a shock to have a dog who actually wants to play! And having to be on the lookout for all the behavior stuff is weird - I guess we've been spoiled for too long. Overall Lupe is a super good girl, she's just still learning not to get on the furniture, and that Carlos' stuffed toys are not hers to play with. :-)

Doggies

Bruno in stealth mode

Lookin' cute

Pretty Hazel

Bruno and Otis

Otis enjoying a stick

More stick chewage

Hazel takes a turn with the stick

Bruno!

Our new dog is the sweetest little guy ever!!! Matt gave him a bath today...

A fun weekend and a new family member!

Matt, Carlos, and I had a fun weekend - we went down to Animal Place for a little party and got to hang out with lots of great animals (oh yeah, and a few cool people too), then we met up with JP from CAPE, who introduced us to a very sweet little guy named Bruno... I'll start with the Animal Place Photos -

This was pretty cute - at first I thought that the turkey and the gray chicken (under the turkey's wing) were snuggling, but then I saw an egg pop out of the chicken's bottom so I think they were actually just jockeying for the primo egg-laying spot.

Food!

This feathery-headed guy was especially handsome.

Aren't these turkeys gorgeous?

Pretty birds.

A little rooster skirmish.

Oink.

I think the rabbit house was Carlos' favorite. I was pretty charmed as well by the bunnies.

You could tell that these two were majorly in love with each other.

The speaker for the event was Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of The Face on Your Plate, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon, Dogs Never Lie About Love, and When Elephants Weep. He was very personable, friendly, and charismatic. Carlos was excited to meet him because Jeffrey stars in one of Carlos' favorite movies, The Emotional World of Farm Animals.

After our lovely visit to Animal Place, we were off to our next engagement - a meeting with Bruno, an adorable one-eyed miniature poodle! After a short visit, and with much pleading and cajoling on my part and Carlos', Matt was convinced that Bruno should come home with us. Hooray!

Bruno is part of a program headed by Compassion Without Borders, a nonprofit working to provide spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations, and medical care to companion animals in Mexico. CWB identifies the most friendly, adoptable small dogs from all of the street dogs they encounter, and partners with Animal Place (to provide quarantine here in the US) and the Center for Animal Protection and Education (to provide foster care and permanent placement) to find permanent homes for these dogs here in the US.

Because small dogs are in high demand, and are often in short supply at animal shelters, these groups bring small dogs to the US to give adopters an opportunity to save a rescued dog rather than go to a breeder (or worse yet, a pet shop) because they can't find a small dog at a shelter. Great idea, huh?

Bruno meets Otis.

Hazel steals Bruno's bed.

After some initial growling and position-establishing behavior, mostly from Otis, the dogs seem to be getting along surprisingly well. Hazel and Otis seem strangely compelled to wedge their 50+ pound bodies into Bruno's 20 pound sized dog bed, which is oddly entertaining. I'll try to get some better pictures of Bruno and post them soon.

Why my dogs are vegetarian

(via EtsyVeg)

"The US Deptartment of Agriculture uses the term '4-D' to indicate flesh that's considered unfit for human consumption. the 'D's' are: dead, dying, disabled, and diseased. In all but a few states, flesh from 4-D animals can be sold to pet food manufacturers ... (Jim) Mason and (Peter) Singer report an average of 15 million pounds of cancerous tissues a year (added to slaughterhouse reject piles - much of which is rendered into) 'by-products' on pet food labels."

~ Barbara Lynn Peden, Dogs and Cats Go Vegetarian

Turkey Eggs

We recently enjoyed a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm weather, and I think it fooled the chickens into laying eggs again (they had stopped for the winter a while back) - and we got our first turkey eggs too! They are so pretty, all speckly and huge.

Here's a turkey egg with a chicken egg, for size comparison.

Awww... Hazel wants an egg.

What a sweet face - doesn't she look so innocent?

She has cute paws too.

Carlos and his buddies

We have struggled on and off with convincing Carlos to be nice to the dogs. Sometimes he's great with them but other times he wants to hit or squeeze them, which is obviously unpleasant for the dogs and dangerous for Carlos. I think he may be starting to get it though - here are some pictures I took yesterday when he was being very nice to them (and getting lots of praise, of course).

See that devilish little look on his face?

Okay, so I know these next ones are blurry, but somehow I think they seem to capture the essence of Carlos best. :-)

My dogs are cute too!

I used to take pictures of my dogs all the time. Obsessively, some might say. (ahem.) Anyhoo... after Carlos came along, and then the chickens and the ducks, poor Hazel and Otis haven't been getting the film time they deserve. I mean really - how can you resist this face??? You can't.

Otis - 10 years old this November!

Blurry, but still cute.

When it rains, it pours.

Rowdy's cancer must have been very, very aggressive because this morning, just 2-1/2 weeks after diagnosis, we had to make the painful decision to let her go. Yesterday she took a bad turn for the worse and we couldn't bear to watch her suffer. Even super strong pain medication wasn't doing the trick.

Rowdy had a beautiful soul and brought lots of fun and laughter to our house during the six years we were blessed to have her in our family. She will not be forgotten. (That's her on the left in the above photo, with one of our other dogs, Otis. They were good pals.)

To make matters worse, Carlos has been sick for weeks with a cough/cold, and over the last few days he also developed a fever. Today we took him to see the doctor and found out he has infections in both ears. Poor little guy... we got him some antibiotics and ear drops and I'm fervently hoping the three of us will get some decent sleep tonight for the first time in several days.

Are there any experienced moms out there who care to share tips for keeping the ear drops in the ear???

Scenes from a Semi-Rainy Thursday Morning

Carlos' big cousin is in town, and we have the good fortune to get to hang out with him today and tomorrow. Carlos is having a blast of course.

Driving the fire truck

The two amigos

First day wearing rain boots - too cute!

Goofing around on the fire truck

Carlos, happy to be playing with his big cousin

This is Otis, the dog who loves to love.

This is Rowdy, the dog who loves to eat.

And this is Hazel, the dog who loves to whip the other two dogs' butts.