clickinmyheels

I know I’ve been absent lately and I’m sorry. I think spring break has gotten the best of me. We have stayed home this break and just planned a few fun things to do with the girls through the week and then we are surprising them with a little getaway this weekend. The weather has been pretty nasty for spring break so it’s been kind of nice to lounge together, watch movies, eat all kinds of goodies. I planned on getting a few organization projects completed and doing some cleaning on the house this week and taking advantage of my little helpers being home. I know, I know –  such a fun break doing chores! Don’t call the Spring Break Police on me. I’m not that mean, I only made them do a few chores each day so it didn’t seem that bad. My cleaning bug kicked into high gear when I discovered our newest family member George had worms! Ewwwww! Gross!  I hope you are saying that in a Jimmy Fallon way – “Ew!” I felt that everything in the house needed to be power cleaned and disinfected! I’ve never posted about George and was meaning to write something up so today seemed fitting. We rescued a puppy in February and named him George Costanza. Here’s a picture of him the day we went to pick him up. He seems so tiny then.

No, he’s not bald, but he’s one heck of an importer-exporter. 🙂 He’s an Airedale Terrier mix with possibly a Shepherd of some sort, but it’s hard to tell since he originally came from a high kill shelter in Kentucky and not much at all is known about his background before that. The rescue we adopted him from is Wagging Hearts out of Chicago area and they work with the Kentucky shelter and try to transport as many dogs back up to Wagging Hearts in Chicago as possible. It’s a foster based rescue so the dogs are in foster homes until they are adopted. George, originally named Cupid by Wagging Hearts made the journey up to Chicago with his sister and as many other dogs as they could squeeze in their transport van. It’s a great organization with people who are truly passionate about saving as many dogs and cats as possible.

He was loved and cared for by a wonderful foster family and they really got to know his personality and how he reacts with people and other dogs, young and old, big and small. Somewhere along the way, he contracted parvo, which is a nasty virus that can easily be spread from mothers to puppies and from dog to dog. His foster mom saw the first signs and didn’t hesitate to get him to their vet right away and he came out a parvo survivor!

I had been wanting to adopt a third dog for a few months and it’s hard to find the right match with our household. Of course, we could have rescued another doberman since that’s our breed, but I wanted a little scruffy terrier type dog. When I was young, we had miniature Schnauzers and I’ve always loved the spunky personality of the terrier group. But I knew we needed the dog to have a little size to him so he could play well and not be injured by our very playful, but rough dobermans.

I swear when they play outside, it sounds like we have a dog fight. Their are high pitch howls, boisterous barks, standing on hind legs and punching it out like a couple of kangaroos. Lots of teeth and gums shown. Lots of growls, lots of noise and our dear old Zeppelin used to do this Chewbacca type sound that I miss so much! If you don’t know dobies or other large playful breeds, then you might think they are surely attacking each other, but that’s just how they play. They are very vocal, very fast, and love to put on a show.

My dog searching stopped when I read George’s description. He was a perfect match and he fits right in. He and our female Zelda are just like a tag team on WWE. They play and wrestle and cuddle together all the time.

Our male Kramer is warming up to George, but Kramer is a big baby and needs reassurance that he’s still our baby. George is now just over 20 pounds but he swears he is 80-90 pounds like our other two. I love his confidence and his fearless attitude. He’s around 4 1/2 months old and his little grey haired wirey face is so darn cute that you just can’t help but love him.

He’s lucky he’s cute because he definitely keeps us on our toes with the many, many, many accidents. Oh, that poor rug! So I rented a Rug Doctor, shampoo’d all the carpets and our large rug. This rug has seen better days. It was one of the first purchases my husband and I made after we were married. It’s around 12 ft by 8 ft and is very heavy. It’s always worked with our decor and it’s well made, but it’s seen a lot of messes. Three babies, multiple dogs, muddy shoes, dog zoomies and wrestle matches – you name it. So it gets a good shampooing a few times a year to keep it going. I would like to replace it eventually with something a little brighter and fresher. But this will have to wait until George the puppy is older and a little more trustworthy with not having any accidents. We are rounding out this spring break and ready to finish up the school year and get on with summer. Our youngest has been asking when we can go to the beach since about November, so we are all ready for some warmer days for sure! I’m sure George Constanza will fit right in at the beach with his marine biology background and all his skills!