Our Outdoor Pet

This weekend as I was passing through the kitchen,  I was startled to see a brown furry creature out of the corner of my eye on the deck.  A sweet little squirrel was hanging out in one one of our planters (that did contain pretty zinnias earlier this season, but had since been fried by the relentless heat).

Chalk this up to yet another wildlife encounter right out the back door :)

Bon Voyage (Not sure how to say that in Thai...)

Well, it actually happened: Uncle Drew left for Thailand.  Drew is off to college with his girlfriend in Thailand - THAILAND.  Not only will he see what college life is like, but he'll find out half way around the world.  He's only been gone a week, and we already miss him so much - especially the kids.

We have been trying to gobble up every possible moment with Drew this summer, and a couple weeks ago, we headed up to Memaw and Pepaw's for dinner, a concert at a winery, and a sleepover.  It was heartbreaking because each time Drew would leave the room, Aidan would say, "Where's Drew?  Did he leave?  Did he go far away?"

Ava trying to squeeze out some extra Drew time:

 Ava and Memaw played cards to pass the time before the concert began:

 Not to be outdone, Aidan also tried to hang with Drew as much as he could:

 A rare photo op of us (let alone, me, since I'm always the one taking the pictures):

 Ava and Memaw gettin' their groove on:

 And Finn made the trip too!  He and Daisy - Memaw and Pepaw's basset hound - played for an hour non-stop.  This was the end result:

 And then last Sunday (a.k.a. the night before he left), Memaw, Pepaw, Ross, Ashley, my dad and Sean and I gave Drew a going away party of sorts.  Memaw hung out at our house to watch the kiddos while the rest of us saw "Batman: Dark Knight Rises" in Imax.  It was PHENOMENAL.  After that, we all went to Buca for our last dinner with Drew before he left:

 The conversation in this picture went like this:
Ava: Why do you have to go?
Drew: Because I have to go to college.
Ava: Um, but there's lots of colleges in this country...

 And after this was taken, Aidan said, "Drew, tell Pritsana not to take you far far away from us.  We will miss you."  These kids really do love their Uncle Drew and absolutely hated to see him go.  We'll be counting the days until April 6, 2013 when he comes back home for summer break:

Llevame al Partido*

 *Translation for those of you who don't know Espanol: Take Me Out to the Ball Game

A few Fridays ago, we took the kids to another annual summer tradition - an Indians baseball game.  It was one of the first weekend evenings that wasn't 100+ degrees, so it was quite pleasant to hang outside for once this summer :)

The home team didn't pull out the win, but we still had lots of fun and even got to take in our first fireworks of the season (seeing as how there have been burn bans in about every county all summer).  And the best part?  I caught a t-shirt from Rowdie!  Pretty sure it's the first time anything has ever been thrown our direction at any kind of sporting event.

Introducing The Newest Member of our Family...

After some debate, and lots of sad days being had by all, we decided to get a new family dog.  When we returned from Gatlinburg - to reality - the five of us (us four plus Gobi) found ourselves really missing the companionship Cooper gave us.  On top of that, I had taken for granted how much safer I feel with a dog in the house, so we made the move.

I do feel strange posting this right after Cooper's post, but according to some of my readers, they were so sad / touched / moved by his post that they needed something uplifting to follow it up.  Having said that, we are pleased to announce our newest addition:

Finn Cutie Pie Crockett

5/9/2012

5 pounds, 2 ounces

What's in a name?

The name the breeder gave him was Crockett.  We really loved the name Finn, but Ava demanded that we keep Crockett as a middle name.  And the Cutie Pie?  Aidan thought he was a cutie pie and wanted to call him that.

 We always knew we loved the herding group since they are such intelligent dogs and easily trained, so it didn't take too long to pinpoint a breed we liked.  Sean found a fantastic border collie breeder - kind of by accident - so we decided to pay a visit.  We had the agreement that we would only make a move if it felt right for our family.  It didn't take us long to realize that Finn wanted and needed us almost as much as we wanted and needed him.

 Things have been going great so far!  We have had him almost 3 weeks, and he fits right into the family and seems really comfortable.  Having a puppy is a lot more hectic than I remember!  Almost like having a newborn again :)  We start Puppy Kindergarten on the 21st, so we'll keep you posted on his progress!

 Gobi is warming up to him too:

 He has been getting practice on the leash, and is doing really well:

 And, as you can see, he's pretty darn cute too:

Saying Goodbye to a Best Friend

The week before we left for Gatlinburg, we had to make one of the toughest, worst decisions we've ever had to make: We had to say goodbye one last time to our dear friend Cooper.

It has taken me several weeks to work up the courage and strength to blog this, but I have come to the point where I am at peace and feel like his story needs to be told.  To sum him up, he was way more than a dog, way more than even "man's best friend"...Cooper was truly a member of the family - everyone's family.

We noticed Cooper was slowing down a bit lately, but we attributed that to him being 12 years old.  Last year at the vet, he got a clean bill of health.  This year, my parents were watching him and Gobi at their house while Sean and I celebrated our anniversary, and they were watching them during the first leg of the Gatlinburg trip.  They took them to their annual vet appointment on a Friday, and we were at their house for Drew's graduation, and he seemed fine then.  The following Tuesday, my Dad called me at work and told me he wanted to take Cooper back to the vet because he didn't seem quite right - no eating, drinking, or "voiding" over the weekend.

My parents took him back into the vet, and the Dr called us to say they needed to do an x-ray to figure out what could be wrong.  At no time before this point had Cooper given us any reason to think there was anything wrong, and we suspected there might be a little something going on.  However, when the Dr called us back in tears to deliver the news, we were far from prepared to hear the words "...it's a tumor in the bladder".  Our choices were to be referred to an oncologist to fork over thousands of dollars to get maybe 6 more months out of him, or we put him down.  We literally had about 5 minutes to make our decision...

...we drove up that evening to put our dear buddy out of his misery and pain.  He was such a good strong dog that he tried to be brave for us and hold out as long as he could.  But to hear a vet in tears describing your options told us that Cooper truly was miserable, and if we didn't take care of it soon, then it would be even more catastrophic to his little body.

The way he looked at us when we got there was evidence enough that he was ready.  The kids got to hug, kiss, pet, and say goodbye to him, and then my parents took them for ice cream while Sean and I went in to say our goodbyes.  Crying is an understatement - rather, we were sobbing and choking and trying to get every precious second we could with him.  When "it" happened, he was laying at our feet, and we were petting him - just like we would have most evenings after the kids had gone to bed - it felt as right as it could.

Everyone who knew Cooper knew just how sweet, friendly, smart, loyal, caring, and gentle he was.  Cooper represented a major part of our lives - he was Sean and my "pre-engagement commitment", he was there when we graduated from college, he moved everywhere we moved, he was there for the births of Ava and Aidan, he was there when things were great - and more importantly - he was there for us every time things were bad.

We loved him with all our hearts, and still love him like it hurts.  It's nice to say that we are now able to think of him and all the fond memories, and laugh (and still cry a bit).  He was the best dog anyone could ask for, and we are so thankful to have had a chance to know and love him.  Rest in peace, buddy - you truly gave us 12 of the best years of our lives...

 

Gatlinburg, Part 10: One Last Thing...

LAST G-BURG POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the things that both kids really wanted to do was play a round of miniature golf.  We decided to hit up "Ripley's Old MacDonald Flying Pig Golf" for a couple reasons:

1. Aidan saw a brochure for it and was obsessed with the Flying Pigs
2. It was right next to the outlet mall on the way back home

Sean took the kids for a round of golf, and I got to go shopping for a "souvenir".  They didn't keep score, but both Ava and Sean got a hole in one!  Sean got his on the 18th, so he won himself a free round of golf that doesn't expire for an entire year.  Maybe we need to plan a return trip just so that he can redeem his prize :)

We had sooo much fun together.  It was a really nice release from the real world, and a great opportunity to catch up on time together with our families and just have some good fun.  Next up: planning our 10th anniversary getaway for 2013...