Doggy Heaven

I told the kids last night that we would be visiting Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. They both shrieked with excitement. Avery said that she wanted to see Abby, Grandma and Grandpa's old yellow lab that recently passed away. Garrett said, "Avery, remember that Abby died. She's in doggy heaven now so she can eat as many dog bones as she wants. Isn't that right, Mom?" How sweet is that?

A Boy, A Frog, & His Dog

A boy and his dog

These two friends are inseparable. Garrett can't go to bed without Casey in his room and Casey can't handle it if he's not included in Garrett's bedtime. If I had known what buddies they would become, we probably would have had a dog much sooner.

Garrett has been waking at night and coming into our room several times a week. He always brings his two "blankies" and his favorite stuffed cookie monster and orange cat (aka Morris). He climbs up onto our bed and attempts to sleep at the foot of our bed. This lasts for several minutes and then he climbs down onto the floor with his blankets and animals to curl up with Casey who sleeps next to the bed. I often will tuck him in with a blanket. He is fast asleep in no time at all, snuggled up with his best friend, Casey. Sometimes I worry about him not sleeping well on a hard floor and we'll move him back to his bed after awhile, but last weekend, he slept all night on the floor with his pal.

Avery's buddy

I haven't downloaded my picture of Avery and her buddy, Casey, but when I do, I will post it. She and the dog are inseparable. If Casey goes outside to go potty without her, Avery stands at the backdoor and cries and Casey justs sits and looks back at her. It's like I'm separating two best friends. So usually we take him out to go potty together. She tells him, "Go po-y, go po-y." I think she likes to tell him what to do. If he picks up something he shouldn't, she says, "No, no, no, no, no!" She also requests his "ball" all day long. We have to put his balls away so he will settle down during the afternoons, otherwise he could play all day. He drives me a little nuts by repeatedly pushing his balls just out of reach under the furniture. Avery also hand-feeds him his dogfood and occasionally eats it herself and tries to drink from his water bowl. As if that's not bad enough, when we took him to the vet, she licked the floor in the exam room. Yuck! Maybe she thinks she is a dog??
One morning last week as I was cleaning up after breakfast, I peeked into the living room to find her propped up on Casey like a pillow, watching cartoons.

Obedience Training

We enrolled Casey in obedience training which was part of our adoption contract with Golden Retriever Rescue. Our first class was quite interesting. I don't know if Casey was really tired or if this was his reaction to the stress of being in a strange place with strange dogs, but every time we stopped walking during class he would curl up at my feet and appear to fall asleep. This dramatically different than the handful of older puppies in the class that are jerking at their leashes and gagging themselves. Everyone is probably wondering why we are there! We are headed to our 3rd class today. So far we've learned to sit, heel, begin to stay, down, and turning while heeling. Casey seems like a bright student!
We did learn something about Casey the first day of obedience. We had kind of figured out that he becomes car sick after about 35-40 minutes of driving. Obedience class is about 35 minutes away, but not wanting to medicate a dog unnecessarily, I decided to try the trip without motion sickness medicine. It worked fine on the way there, however, just as we rounded the corner for home, he began licking his lips A LOT. I pulled into the garage as fast as I could and jumped out to open his door just as he puked! Luckily on his dog blanket and not the floor of the van!!

Where's Cookie Monster?

This morning at 5 am, Garrett woke me up asking for his beloved stuffed Cookie Monster. He said, "I can't find Cookie Monster anywhere." I went into his room and looked all over his bed and under his blankets, but couldn't find him. So I headed back to my room to grab my pillow so I could sleep with him. I figured he wouldn't be falling back to sleep without his favorite stuffed pal. That's when I found Cookie Monster. He was lying in the middle of the dog's bed. Uh-oh. Casey must have snuck into Garrett's room and stolen his favorite animal right out of his arms in the middle of the night. I did tell this story to Garrett in the morning and he and Casey are still best of friends!

You Need to Talk Nice

I keep reminding Garrett that he needs to be nice to the dog, Casey. Sometimes he plays a little too rough. Yesterday I was loading the dishwasher when Casey came up and started licking the silverware. I had several exposed knives laying there, and I yelled at him to move. Garrett piped up, "You need to talk nice to him. You'll hurt his feelings. He won't be your friend." Sometimes we need a 3-year old to put things in perspective.

Casey

Meet the newest member of our family! We welcomed Casey into our home last Wednesday, June 17th. That explains the week-long break from blogging! We met Casey Tuesday night at his foster home in Omaha and fell in love with him. By the time we went to bed that night, we knew he was supposed to be our dog. We adopted him the next day. He is finally getting the love and attention that he deserves! His previous owners didn't have time for him and confined him to their basement.
As you can see, he is wonderful with the kids. Casey is fully housebroken, loves to take long walks, and can play fetch for hours at a time. He brings the ball to you and drops it at your feet or puts it in your lap to throw it again! He enjoys sneaking in naps on our bed. We are smitten.

GRRIN update

Here's the latest update with our golden retriever adoption:
We are at the top of the list. There are 5 dogs available and 3 coming up for availability very soon. So far of the 5 available, 3 of them are not a good fit (don't like cats, older dog, etc). The case manager will be calling soon with more info about the 5th dog and the dogs that will be available soon. The 5th dog is a 5 year old farm dog that was used as a breeder for a backyard breeder. The 3 coming up are younger male dogs. We are trying to wait patiently for the right dog to come along!

Another GRRIN update...

Here's the latest on our golden retriever adoption:
We are now at the top of the adoption list!! The coordinator is on vacation until next Tuesday and will call us next week with information about the available dogs!! She said they have about 6 dogs available right now. They have "several wonderful 5-year old females," she said. We can't wait to hear more and start meeting dogs!!

Update from GRRIN

I got home from work late yesterday with the kiddos and we picked Greg up at home to head off to the Olive Garden for supper. Greg told me that GRRIN - Golden Retriever Rescue - had left us a message today. I grilled him for details on the way. He told me I'm so excited that I'm "like a little kid!"
Here's the scoop: the 2 families ahead of us on the adoption list are currently looking at dogs. Three new dogs have also just joined the rescue! I'm guessing that the families in front of us will have to make their choice before we start meeting dogs. Hopefully it won't be long!

Our Dog

On Friday I got an update on our status with our golden retriever adoption. We are still the 3rd on the list. The first family is waiting for a female. The second family wants a puppy or an adult male and we have requested either an adult male or female. The rescue group has several (3 or 4) goldens that are becoming available this next week or so and at least 2 of them are females. The first family on the list will get to meet the females and then we will be next! The adoption coordinator will call me toward the end of this week with another update. She thought that they may have a dog for us to meet at that time! So hopefully we are only 1-2 weeks away from meeting our dog!!

A Dream or a Nightmare?

I definately have dogs on the brain since we are anxiously awaiting to hear when we may be able to adopt a golden retriever. I had a crazy dream a few nights ago. I dreamed that GRRIN (Golden Retreiver Rescue in Nebraska) had a golden for us to adopt and they also gave us a 3 year old boy from Australia to adopt as well. How crazy is that? We would have our hands full...

Adoption

Many of you know that we have decided to adopt a golden retriever from the Golden Retriever Rescue in Nebraska (GRRIN). www.grrin.org Here is an update on our adoption status. We have been through an extensive interview process that involved a telephone interview and a home visit. We are required to have a fenced backyard and agree to keep the dog indoors when we are away from home. Now we are approved and are on the adoption list! There are 2 families waiting to adopt ahead of us. We will likely be waiting 4-6 weeks in order to find a dog that gets along well with young children and other animals since we have cats and birds. Once a potential match has been found, our family will meet the dog at the foster owner's home and then if we all agree that it is a perfect fit, the dog will be ours! The adoption coordinator will be calling us every 2 weeks with updates and as dogs become available. Each dog is required to spend 2 weeks with a foster family before it can be adopted. This gives GRRIN a chance to learn the dog's quirks and know what type of family it will need. So now we must wait patiently! There are several dogs pictured on their website. You can check them out. Most of the pictured dogs have a special need (i.e. senior dog, no children, no cats, etc). The majority of their goldens are adopted so quickly that they never make it onto the website. We are so excited and we keep wandering through the dog aisles of Target. I will post updates as we know more!