Saturday, May 27, is Clover’s third birthday. Already! So how is a Dog Mom supposed to celebrate our amazing birthday dog? With dog birthday party cupcakes, an exciting new present (woot!), and with another dog birthday video tribute!
Really. We got about 2 feet of snow late this week. These big storms are more common in March and April, but we have had at least some snow as late as Memorial Day. Here are a few of my fav photos from the storm.
Everything is a bit of a blur when you’re raising two puppies at the same time, especially two border collie puppies who are just 13 months apart. In the ideal world, I would have had all or most of Clover’s basic training done before we got another puppy, but that’s not how things worked out. So, I’m sitting here with Clover now 2 years old and Tori 1 year old, and I’m taking stock of where we are now on the dog training front. Let’s just say I’ve not reached my goals, and I’m feeling rather bummed about it. Warning — long post ahead.
I’m not sure if I can keep up this tradition of making tribute videos for the puppy-girl’s birthdays for all the years to come, but here is the latest video that celebrates Tori’s first birthday. When we adopted her in September 2015, we counted back 12 weeks (a guess on her age) and picked a date — July 1 — as her birthday. What’s great about that is that we’ll always be able to extend her birthday fuss into the Independence Day holiday. We do the same thing with Clover’s birthday since it always fall close to Memorial Day.
Friday, May 27, 2016, is Clover’s 2nd birthday. How crazy is that? Seems like just yesterday she was a wee-one. Just like I did for the 1st anniversary of Clover’s adoption, I made a 2-minute tribute video that chronicles her second year of life. Most notably the addition of a baby sister, Tori. In many ways, this video is as much a tale of their puppy-soul-sister status as it is a celebration of Clover’s birthday.
Today, Ginko crossed over. He was 4 months shy of his 16th birthday – by far, the oldest dog in our family history. Rest in peace, Monkey Man, Snuffle Man, Stinko Monster, Golden-Eyed & Good Boy … Fan of toys, fetch, and food. Lover of Rock music. Hater of Bluegrass. Long-suffering brother to 4 sisters (2 super bossy, 2 super sweet). Sofa Captain … faithfully piloting the couch so that it never ran aground on his watch. We never knew which of his potentially fatal conditions would be the one. A survivor, Ginko ultimately succumbed to the ravages of time.
Whirlwind of a week, so I’ll have to tell the full story later when I’m not so tired and preoccupied with having TWO puppies in the house. Yeah, you read that right. Here is the short version. Someone at our main veterinary hospital rescued a border collie + Australian shepherd puppy from a bad situation, while visiting family in New Mexico. Our pals at the hospital called early Wednesday morning, asking for my help finding her a home. Tom asked to see her photo. He went to the hospital to meet her and fell in love. She came home with him that day on a “trial visit.” Today, we made it official and adopted her from the veterinary hospital. Photos and one short video below.
Sunday, September 13, we’ll celebrate the first anniversary of Clover’s adoption from Blue Ridge Border Collie Rescue. It took fate and many major feats to get her from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Plans for festivities this weekend remain in the planning stages, but I’ll bake canine cupcakes, probably take her on a hike, and otherwise spend the entire day marking the occasion (as if we aren’t always in constant awe of just how blessed we are to be raising this incredible puppy). Let’s begin the party with this 2-minute video slideshow commemorating our first year together.
Prior to Clover, the female dogs in my life got spayed early — before or after adoption. That means I didn’t really know what I was getting into when we decided to allow Clover to go through one heat cycle, on the advice of our board-certified veterinary internal medicine specialist in hopes of solving the issue of back-to-back urinary tract infections (UTIs) in our puppy-girl. Here’s how things went, these last 20-some days. (I promise, this post is NOT gross or graphic.)
Now that Clover is a year old and demonstrating more maturity, we’re giving her a bit more SUPERVISED independence — like letting her run around a little bit in our front pastures. This independence nearly landed her in the Emergency Room over the weekend. I’m still astounded she didn’t get hurt. When you see the photos, you’ll understand.
