Proud Pet Parent

This guy is so precious.

These two buddies like to hang out in the kitchen hoping to catch any food that falls on the floor.

 

Polly, her bone, and the bones she stole from Fletch and Bates until her parents made her give them back to their rightful owners.

Bates loves extremely fluffy beds.  When we stack up the dog beds to vacuum around them, Bates hops on top of the stack for a few hours.  Whatever happened to him while he was in the hoarder situation seems to have given him a taste for anything soft, cozy and comfortable.

 

Halloween 2013  Our neighborhood always gets tons of kids on Halloween.  It’s only fair to let the cutest kids in the land dress up too.  Cali has a football jersey for her outfit but was not wearing it in this photo.  Polly is a police officer.  Fletch is a cow.  Bates is the one-eyed superman.

 

It was a big day when Fletchy finally looked at the camera when we photographed him.

Meet Polly.  She joined the family in May 2013 when she was 13 months old.  After having all special needs pets, we wanted a young and healthy dog.  She officially has alopecia but it is not bothering her now.  Her previous owners surrendered her to their vet because she had demodex mange and it frightened them.  Thankfully the rescue that had our cat now had a dog rescue that saved her.  She arrived home a week after Bates and they became instant best friends.  They share their food and toys with each other and they wrestle and snuggle together.  Many times Polly will sleep with her head on Bates.  She is very inquisitive, has endless energy, and is obsessed with all things toys.  She  runs up to anyone that enters the living room with the toy she wants them to toss to her or play tug-of-war with.  She’s small so many of her toys are cat toys.  When she is in the yard she likes to pick up large sticks that are way too big for her.  She will tug at the leash to keep walking farther no matter how long she has been walking.  She wants to meet as many people as possible and get petted by as many people as possible.  She loves going downtown, where people that have met her before will remember and call her by name.  If a neighbor is mowing the grass, she will still try to get petted by them despite the loud mower.  No noise scares her.  She is nurturing to all of our kids.  She will lick their eyes and their ears.  Fletch and Bates are ok with it.  Cali the cat still runs away after the first lick or two.  Polly may be the smallest kid in the house, but her siblings treat her like she is the boss.

 

 

  Polly, Bates and Cali enjoying the warmth of the heater fan.  Cali and Bates are both one-eyed kids and they are unaware that she is not a dog.  They are the closest dog-cat relationship in our house.

  

Bates aka Freckles joined our family in May 2013.  He was estimated to be 6 or 7 years old at the time.  The rescue saved him from a hoarder that had 17 dogs!  First they took 10 dogs, then he was in the group of 4 additional dogs that were rescued on the second visit.  They did not receive basic care, so he lost his eye and quite a few teeth before we met him.  He did not have any teeth on the top or bottom row from canine to canine.  The vet that removed his eye was interviewed for the local news when they did a story on the 17 dogs.  The rescuers used Dawn dish soap to bathe the dogs to remove the high volume of fleas that they each had on them.  He is a super sweet boy that likes to sit right next to you or toss and turn on the floor on fluffy blankets or on all the dog toys.  He runs in fast sprints all around our yard and really enjoys the snow.  He is terrified of storms and of fires in the fireplace.  He and Cali have a truly special bond, but Polly is his very best friend.  We got them a week apart and they continue to eat out of the same bowl every night.  They both have their own bowls and their own food, but they choose to share.  They start at his dish then finish her food or they start at her dish then finish at his.  They cuddle to sleep whether it is night or day.  He lets her lick his eye and ears.  They share toys and wrestle as long as he feels like it.  Sometimes when he wants attention from her, he will sit in front of her and set his paw on her face or her head.  That is usually enough to get her into wrestling mode.  When he is ready to go outside in the morning, he plants his elbows in your ribcage to wake you up.  If you don’t get up fast enough, he will gallop back and forth across the room to make triple sure you are awake.