Friday, July 31, 2009

Birthday Dog

From Ozzie: Today the humans declare is my birthday! I am two years old. Why I don't feel a day over 6 months! I hope they give me a cake, better yet a steak would be nice!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Ozzie Comes to Town Part Deux

I was given the number of the foster family where Ozzie would be over the weekend so I gave them a call. I got hold of Monty a person who loves dogs and volunteers his home for fostering rescues and owner of a Bulldog named Ruby ( a rescue ) and two Pugs and one French Bulldog. He had received Ozzie Friday evening from his family and had already fallen for him. " He is a big mush. A very sweet dog you are going to love him!" said Monty. "I will be around all weekend come and see him, and if it works out you may be able to take him home with you!" I was excited about the prospect and told him we could be there Sunday. When I got off the phone I told my husband who was interested but held reservations. "Look, if the dog doesn't like us and visa versa then we are not taking him!" Yeah, yeah all bark and no bite I thought!
It worked out that we would take my Dad with us because on the way to Monty's was the nursing home where his sister was a resident after suffering a stroke a couple of months prior. He was glad to go visit his sister but dubious about the dog. "Why do you want to get a dog now! It's such a inconvenience for you!" Dad grumbled. Nothing but nay sayers I thought! We set off that Sunday for our meeting with Oz. We dropped off my Dad at the nursing home who's parting words were "think with your heads not your hearts!" Well wasn't it all about ones heart when it came to a dog?! We would get lost a little on the way and argued a bit about the directions until Monty on the other end of the cell phone reeled us in. We pulled up to a lovely 2 story colonial and standing outside was Monty. Come in and I will introduce you to Ozzie. We went through the kitchen out to the yard which was nicely landscaped with a little kiddie pool for the doggies. "I will bring him out" said Monty. Mark shot me a guarded look as to say be cool and lets see! Well charging out came Ozzie and the rest of the clan. Ozzie ran right to Mark and "jumped" up on him! Well needless to say he had my husband at the first hello! He is beautiful exclaimed Mark! Can we take him home today?! ( So much for playing it cool! ) So we signed the paperwork made out the check to the Rescue ( yes there is an adoption fee that goes to help support the continued efforts of the Rescue ) and we were off to life with Oz (all 73 Lbs of him)! We stopped at the nursing home on the way back to get Dad. Ozzie was in the back seat with me in the car as my Dad entered the passenger side. "Why that is the ugliest dog, are you sure you want him?!" I know that in my father's head a "real dog" is a Collie or a Golden Retriever! "Dad, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and in our eyes he is a real beauty!"

Ozzie Comes to Town!

It was early in 2009 that I decided it was time to get a dog. My cat of 16 years has passed away in October of CRF (Chronic Renal Failure) after a long brave battle and thousands of dollars in veterinarian costs. She was a joy and a very sweet kitty I may say! Heart broken I went though several months of missing her when I started to think of the dog thing! My husband Mark was dead set against it! "No way, we work, we travel a dog will never fit into our lifestyle!" Well he had very logical points but I wasn't thinking logically I was thinking with my heart! I had a dog before and know all the ramifications of dog ownership! Rushing home after work or going out and looking at my watch towards the end of the evening. The walks in 20 degree weather waiting for him to pick just the right spot to do his business! Cleaning mounds of poo in the back yard and the occasional pee-pee accident! Yeah its not all that glamorous! All that aside there is something special about having a dog as part of the family! They offer you a certain happiness and joy that you can never get from your human counter parts. They make you smile when you are blue and they are your best friend for ever!
A coworker of mine, Jason, had Labrador puppies recently ( not birthing them personally of course!:) ) and was trying to find suitable homes for them at no cost! Of course I begged and pleaded with my husband, bombarding him daily with emails of the puppies progress with pictures. All I heard was "no no no!". I could detect a weakness in his no's at times. Persistence would pay off I figured! Alas all the puppies would find homes. I did stomp my feet like an eight year old and shouted "See we could of had a wonderful dog and you blew it!" Time passed and my husband out of wistfulness one day expressed how he would go for an English Bulldog! I had been campaigning for a Pug of late and thought "Okay they are similar!" We both happened to be home for the summer ( unfortunately we were both layed-off from our respective jobs ) so it would be a great time to assimilate a dog into our home. The only problem was we were low on funds. A Bulldog puppy in this area goes from any where to 1600.00 to 3500.00 dollars! There was always the local shelters. Unfortunately the pounds just seem full of Pit bulls. The sad consequence of a__holes that breed them for fighting. More on that another time. I then turned to the Rescue organizations. We have friends that have rescued several dogs that way and what a terrific thing to do in adopting a pet! There were several in my area and I applied to them. There are few dogs compared to the number of people that apply so the wait can belong. Plus they do check you out to make sure that you and your home would be suitable for the dog and that you are a good match. Knowing this I thought that it may take months or longer to adopt but somehow worth the wait. After submitting my application to yet another Bulldog rescue I received an email saying that they were expecting a Bulldog to be surrendered any day and they thought we would be a good fit especially since we didn't have any other dogs and where we interested?! Wow this was too good to be true! Of course we were. I responded and then the director of the Rescue gave me a call. She explained that he was 2 years old neutered male named Ozzie. His family was giving him up because they already had two older dogs and small children in tow and the husband was being deployed to Iraq. I assumed at that point he was one dog too many for the wife to handle and decided to surrender him to the Rescue. A difficult decision to make I am sure! Ozzie was going to a foster home this weekend in Pennsylvania about 2 hours from our house and if we wanted we could make arrangement to meet him this weekend!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Getting Started

I have been tempted for a long time to blog but always though better of it. About three weeks ago we adopted a 2 year old male bulldog named Ozzie from a local Bulldog Rescue. Since then life has changed for the better I might say. He has also inspired me to brag about him in less conventional ways so what better forum than this!? Life is a journey and taking an animal companion with you is wonderful company! ( Sometimes better than human! Oh no I don't mean you dear! ) So I imagine more times than not I will be rambling on about the latest Ozzie escapade or perhaps life as he may view it.