This makes me melt.

This poor little guy was abandoned by his mother and seal family because of his rare coloring. Luckily, some wildlife experts in Russia have taken him in.

How could you not just want to squeeze this little guy?!?!?! I wish I could bring him home.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2037734/The-lonely-seal-wanted-Pup-abandoned-having-rare-brown-fur.html

A Pet Is For Life

This is pretty sad but makes a wonderful point. I want to adopt the cartoon doggie now!
If you're thinking about getting a pet, please seriously consider adopting from a shelter or rescue group!

A Pet Is For Life

Torkie's first time playing ball

Torkie hasn't shown a lot interest in toys so we were a little disappointed and figured ball throwing was out of the question.
We were SO excited when we discovered yesterday that Torkie is interested in playing with balls.
He loves it and is so cute when he gets really into it.
Here are some photos of our ball session tonight. I'm loving my new lens too. :)

My ball!

Throw it again!

You're not gonna take it are you?

Just try to get it!

Weeeeeeee! I got it!!!

Torkie... I can't help posting pics of him.

This is the guy who wasn't sure he wanted a dog... :) Yes, Torkie is licking his nose.

The second two pics are from our Monday night Subie meet. Torkie was a good boy and had fun hanging out with everyone.

I rescued a human today...

I found this on another blog I read. Brought tears to my eyes.
Adopt a shelter pet! Save a life!


I Rescued A Human Today
Author: Janine Allen CPDT


I rescued a human today.

Her eyes met mine as she walked down the corridor peering apprehensively into the kennels. I felt her need instantly and knew I had to help her. I wagged my tail, not too exuberantly, so she wouldn't be afraid.

As she stopped at my kennel I blocked her view from a little accident I had in the back of my cage. I didn't want her to know that I hadn't been walked today. Sometimes the shelter keepers get too busy and I didn't want her to think poorly of them.

As she read my kennel card I hoped that she wouldn't feel sad about my past. I only have the future to look forward to and want to make a difference in someone's life. She got down on her knees and made little kissy sounds at me. I shoved my shoulder and side of my head up against the bars to comfort her.

Gentle fingertips caressed my neck; she was desperate for companionship. A tear fell down her cheek and I raised my paw to assure her that all would be well.

Soon my kennel door opened and her smile was so bright that I instantly jumped into her arms. I would promise to keep her safe. I would promise to always be by her side. I would promise to do everything I could to see that radiant smile and sparkle in her eyes. I was so fortunate that she came down my corridor. So many more are out there who haven't walked the corridors. So many more to be saved. At least I could save one.

I rescued a human today.

The week is half over...

Ryan took this photo of Torkie with his phone yesterday. Torkie got to hang with the guys while they were working on the shop yesterday afternoon. He was enjoying the sunshine and just relaxing.

We're taking him for his first vet check up today. I'm sure everything will check out fine. I have to remember to ask her about his grass eating habits and if he's the type of dog that might get cold this winter and needs clothing.

Ryan and his dad are getting ready to pour more concrete tomorrow. Another step closer to the shop being done!

Another blogger thing: Welcome Wednesday.

Basically, this is a way to find interesting new blogs and for other people to find my blog. Sort of like a blog swap I guess you could say. :)

I enjoy doing these. I've found some cool blogs to read lately. :)

The newest member of our family is here!

Well, the little doggy I applied for is now ours! We have decided to name him Torkie!(I forgot to put that earlier). He is about 2 years old. They aren't sure when his birthday is so we need to pick one.
It all happened pretty fast. The lady who was fostering him called to have the phone interview this morning. Everything about him sounded great. She told me she would call me later to set up a time for us to meet him.
Well, that time was today. It worked out that they were available to bring him to see us.
We hung out with him for about and hour and he was perfect. Exactly what we were looking for in a dog.
We signed the paperwork and now he is home with us.
He's already met a bunch of people and is doing great. I love him so much already!
Here are our first photos of our new furbaby!

Getting comfy.

On the way home. He did great in the car.

We're back!

The above photo is totally unrelated to my post, but the title made me think of the movie, so I found the pic and posted it anyway. Cute movie btw.

But, we are back from our trip. I haven't had much of a chance to spend time on the computer and write all the posts I've been meaning to. Now that Ryan is off school for the summer we have a lot of time together to get things done. This also means I don't have much spare time, which is fine, but I don't get many chances to update the blog.

Our trip was fun though. Didn't feel long enough. I was NOT ready to come back to work.

Summer has finally come to Seattle. Yesterday it hit 91° at our house. Our new windows are sure doing their job. For most of the day, they keep it about 10° cooler than outside. Since we don't have AC, this is wonderful. It's supposed to be even hotter today. Yikes. When I got up yesterday it was 57° and this morning when I got up it was 62°. If that's any indication, it's gonna be a warm one!

I'm starting to have dreams about the dogs I've been looking at on Petfinder.com. Last night I dreamt we brought one of them home and I was so happy. I hope everything works out for us to be ready to rescue one in August. Our new roommate moves in on Friday and I have to find out how he feels about dogs. I'm crossing my fingers he likes/doesn't mind them. That's the last real thing standing in our way. I can't wait to adopt our future friend!!!!!

So while writing this, of course I got distracted and decided to go look up the dog I dreamed about last night. He is still on petfinder.com. I feel pretty strongly about him, so I decided to submit an adoption application. There is always a chance that he might already have a home lined up or that the foster parents may not think we're a good fit so I am trying not to get any hopes up. Either way though, I'm excited about this first step. This is the little guy I just applied for:

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/16725929

Isn't he a great looking little guy? Maybe my dream about him was a sign. ;)

Vacation, Salish lodge, etc.

I'm still in shock that June is almost over. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it has not felt like June at all.

Tomorrow, Ryan and I are leaving for Montana to see my mom for 5 days. Woo hoo! The town she lives in, Livingston (about 10 hours from here), has the Livingston Round Up every year for the 4th of July. They have a parade, rodeo, craft fair(yes!) and fireworks. It's a pretty big deal for out there. Hopefully we'll have time to go to Yellowstone National Park(always great) and check out other stuff while we're out there.
We're planning to leave Wednesday around noon, pretty much drive through the night and get there Thursday morning. We'll have most of Thursday, all of Friday, Saturday and Sunday to do stuff, then we head back Monday morning. I'd like to stay a little longer, but work has picked up for Ryan and his dad, so he needs to work as much as he can while he can. Such is the construction industry.
I'm so excited for this trip I can hardly stand it. I LOVE road trips. Some people think that driving 10 hours is painful, but to me, it's wonderful. I've always had a love for it. I think my mom instilled it in me as a child. For most of my younger years, we would always drive on our vacations. I didn't get on a plane till I was almost 16. I have so many fond memories of places and adventures when we traveled by car.
Luckily, I married someone who enjoys it as much as I do. We make a good team and we always have a great time. We've road tripped to: Montana 3 times, southern Utah, Lake Tahoe California, Washington Coast and our honeymoon was one BIG 2 week long road trip-4500 miles.
I haven't taken a day off, aside from being sick, since our honeymoon. 349 days. I think I'm due for a vacation, even though it's a small one.


Last Friday Ryan and I stayed at the Salish Lodge(http://www.salishlodge.com/) for our 1 year anniversary. Which is actually 2 weeks early, but I got a great deal on a package;1 night in renovated room, 2 25min massages and 75$ breakfast credit, and it needed to be booked and used by June 30th. I'm going to have a whole post talking about our stay/mini vacation. I'd say it was 97% great though.

The shop/garage is progressing nicely. It passed inspection and has a roof. Now we just need to get some money together for walls, more concrete, garage door etc. I will be doing a progress post soon, I've just been too busy to go through all the photos and put it together.

Which brings me to the last part.
Ryan and I had talked about getting a dog last year. September was the last time we really talked about it. Winter came and school for Ryan, so it was put on the back burner. Now with the shop being built, we have started to talk about it again.
*Before anyone thinks I am being hasty or thoughtless because my Bailey just passed, please understand that I have wanted a dog in our home for a long time. Bailey having passed away has strengthened my resolve. I feel an even stronger need for a dog in my life now that my previous dog friend is gone. This is not a move to replace Bailey, for he can never be replaced.*
We have made it a goal to have our home and yard ready for a doggy friend by August 7th. This involves fencing the area behind our house and planting grass, which would be a play area for Future Dog Friend. Our plan would then be to connect this by door/doggy door to the garage where there would be an area closed off specifically for FDF. Our garage will have in-floor heating and insulation, so this area will be a nice place to have FDF hangout in when we are gone. It will be safe for him and for our belongings and we hope this will prevent FDF from having to be crated when we are away.
On August 7th, there is going to be a large dog adoption event in Tacoma where we hope we will find our FDF. It's called Woofstock for anyone interested. We've talked over all the details of owning a FDF extensively. We are aware of the life long commitment we will be making and are ready for it.
All I know is I am so excited to give a FDF a home and to love it so much it will want to burst with happines. I also know that once we find "The One" Ryan will love it more than he can imagine.

Buddy, loyal companion, Mr. Fuzzy Face.

I haven't really known what to write.

My mom's and my dog Bailey passed away on Wednesday. It's incredibly sad. Ryan and I are planning to go out to Montana next Wednesday and I was going to say goodbye to him while I was there. His health was getting bad and we knew it was coming, but I really had hoped he would hold out a little longer. He was not a perfect dog but he was an amazing, great and loving dog and was well loved. He was with us for around 11 years.

Bailey Tid Bits:

• He loved the Red Hot Chili Peppers song Scar Tissue. Seriously. ANY time that song came on, he would start singing. His head would tilt, his ears would perk and he would make noises and howl. Then, as soon as the song was over and something else came on he would go back to whatever he was doing. Proof below.
• I used to grab him, sit on the couch and lay him on my legs on his back and then play with his legs. He was SO patient with what I'm sure was not his favorite activity. When I did this, I called him asparagus legs because that's what they looked like.
• He loved his toys but especially his squeaky bugs. They were some of the only toys he would never pull all the stuffing out of.
• If you said bug or snake in an excited voice he would look all over for one. He got really excited about them.
• When it snowed, he would jump up in the air and bite the snowflakes. It would be a dark and silent night except for his jaws snapping. It was funny.
• When we would go running he would start out pulling me and then by the end I would have to pull him.
• I used to dye the white patch on his chest pink and purple.
• Once when my mom got in a car accident, poor Bailey flew out of the car. Somehow he ended up almost a 1/2 mile away and was about to merge onto 405 before some kind people grabbed him and brought him back. He was ok too, no injuries.
• When we first got him, he slept in my room every night and had his own special blanket.
• One night when I came home to no one being there except Bailey, he rescued me from a giant wolf spider. It was scary!
• He used to go to Doggy Daycare. They had a live video feed you could watch and I would sit and watch him play and have fun while I was working. I also made everyone else watch.
• He LOVED Ryan even thought Ryan isn't very much of a dog person. He would follow him around and get excited when he came over.
• He was an escape artist in his younger years. He would climb fences and then take off on the Burk Gilman trail. Luckily, he didn't get out too often and once he was older and we lived in Seattle, he only got out once.
• He was adopted and returned to the shelter 2 times before we got him. You could almost say that not only did we give him a home, we may have saved his life. I never regretted us having picked him. The other people missed out.
• We never really figured out what type of dog he was. He was definitely a Lab mix. I always though he had a little Husky in him.
• He would stash toys all over the house. Sometimes you would find one in your bag, in a plant or under the couch.

You will be missed Bailey. Love you.

Montana 2009

Kenmore 2005

Kenmore 2006

Golden Gardens, Seattle 2007

Bailey singing to Scar Tissue 2006

Need a pick-me-up?

Click the link below.

http://www.ustream.tv/sfshiba

All I know is that if you watch that for a while, you can't help but smile. Ridiculously adorable blobs of cuteness.... Yikes! :D

Hair and other news from the home front

On September 10 I had my hair cut the shortest it's been in about 8-10 years. My long hair was too much of a hassle and I hated having to fight with it everyday. So I got it cut off. I LOVE it. It's so much easier to brush out and it's way better looking then before. Ryan loves it too which is very important. Crappy phone picture, but it gets the point across. Did I mention I love it?

On to other things... I am hoping we'll finally get all of our wedding pictures this week. We've seen them but dont have the disk yet. Crossing my fingers and getting too hopefull every time I open the mail box.

I made chicken fajitas last week for the first time ever. It was really exciting and they were delicious. I'm trying to change up our eating habits and trying new and interesting things. So far so good. We're going camping this weekend and I think we're going to make fajitas then too. Yum!

This Friday the 25th is my wonderful amazing husband's 25th birthday! A quarter of a century old. It's strange how fast life can go sometimes.

And last but not least.... The getting a dog situation is progressing! Ryan and I have mapped out a plan for fencing in our side/back yard in the next month I hope. He's supposed to borrow his uncles excavator this week and dig out some of the hillside. I've been looking at petfinder.com way too often, but I can't help it. I've seem some really promising looking dog friends. Unfortunately, the ones I've seem probably wont be around by the time our yard is all set up and Ryan finally gives in. Luckily, there are many great dogs at shelters and rescues that need homes. I'm so excited to get a dog friend. I've been wanting a dog in my life for a while now.

I haven't forgotton to post the rest of our honeymoon pictures, but with our new computer my photo software doesn't work. I've been waiting to get our (awesome) new software to get all the rest of the photos done and added. They'll be up eventually.