creepy sleepy

Posted on June 4, 2010 by tara

After work today, I decided to spend some time at the town library. Okay, truth be told, I was secretly dying to read Dog Fancy magazine. No, really, I'm being honest here!

Anyway, I sat down and delved into a world full of dog sports, ads for flea and tick preventatives, and funny photos of dogs on vacation. Sadly, my delight was short-lived- after about 30 minutes (who am I kidding, it was probably even less than that!) I felt my eyelids slowly drooping, my heavy head declining toward my chest… And I was fighting the inevitable.

I can sleep basically anywhere. In Europe, I managed it on airplanes, crowded buses, trains, and even in airports!

Anyway, back in the library, I thought for sure I was winning the battle. My eyes were still open, yes, I could see the plethora of books surrounding me. "I'm not sleeping, I can't be sleeping, not in the public library!" I thought (or dreamed, perhaps?!). Then, hearing a gruff chuckle, I woke up. At the table across the walkway, a middle aged-man was guffawing at my expense!

Oh well. I attempted to keep reading for the next while, but gave up and went to put my magazine away, hearing the man recommence his cackling (yes, cackling… alright, that might be a bit of hyperbole…)

What's so funny about a girl falling asleep in the library anyway?

In Switzerland, my roommate Katherine managed to catch me sleeping while doing my "scripture study". They all had a good laugh at me, the creepy sleepy "mummy"…

girl’s best friend

Posted on May 18, 2010 by tara

One of my very favorite things about going home is seeing my puppy.

When I was a junior in high school, my brother and I tried so very hard to convince our parents to let us have a puppy. At the time, we already had a dog, but he was getting old and had already suffered a herniated disc in his back. Despite our love for him, we wanted a dog who could run and play with us. My mom finally "instructed" my dad to take us to the humane (or as we later discovered, not-so-humane society) to LOOK at the puppies.

Once there, we peered into a cage that contained 3 puppies- 2 were obviously brothers, and the other was a husky mix. We first walked one of the brothers. He was sweet, but a little too calm for our taste. My brother and I went back and had a look at the second brother, who was all black with white front legs and white hind paws. "Look at his 'socks!' " I exclaimed. Maybe by now you can guess where this story is about to lead…

We took him outside and he was the boldest, most energetic puppy we had ever seen. As we went back inside, my dad started telling us how we had to put the puppy back. I held the little guy close as we tried to persuade him that this was the perfect dog and we couldn't just leave him behind.

"What a cute puppy!" A lady walking by commented. Both my brother and I knew that we couldn't put him back in his cage now, that lady would snatch him up and he would never be ours.

Being such convincing kids (maybe we should've grown up to be lobbyists) we finally managed to get our dad to agree to adoption.

Here's our little "Socks"…

Socks and Barney…

We loved him so much from the start, but he was actually a very sick little guy. Just a few days after bringing him home, he couldn't seem to stop . Mom called the vet, who said to bring him in immediately. Socks was diagnosed with the deadly Canine Parvovirus, and was hospitalized for a week. Miraculously, he came home.

And now, nearly 5 years later, he is still my buddy. My dog always remembers who I really am and never stops loving me, even if I'm in a bad mood or make mistakes. Dogs see straight to your heart, and that's why I love them.

un weekend chez les parents

Posted on May 18, 2010 by tara

This was the first weekend of summer, and my job hasn't started yet, so we decided to go visit our families! I haven't seen my family since Christmas, so it's been awhile. I also got to do some other fun activities while we were there, like go to the dentist. Ahhhh!

We got to see our dogs, Scrappy and Socks.

Michael also worked on our car with his dad…

I've got myself a cute little mechanic now =)

And we adopted a new guinea pig!

Ok, ok, he's stuffed. But still cute!

dog-gone good day

Posted on May 2, 2010 by tara

Today I slept in for the first time in a while- we got up at 10:20! All right! After that I did the normal Saturday thing… aka LAUNDRY, which is probably my least favorite chore, even though it's not at all labor-intensive. strange…

The best part of the day was this afternoon when we went to the humane society to volunteer to play with the dogs! We saw a lot of little sweethearts, including 3 beagles. One of them was there when we went last July (luckily this is a no-kill shelter). Michael enjoyed seeing "Harold" again, and he actually looked a lot healthier than before =)

It was easy to choose the dog I wanted to walk: the furriest one with the most energy, course! Her name is Gracie and she looks like some kind of Shetland sheepdog mix. She doesn't like chasing balls, but she sure loves playing tug-of-war with her leash and running after you!

Here she is before we tired her out:

We ran like crazy, and then decided to brush her, because she had a lot of extra hair and some matting. Here's what we got off of her:

And then we ran some more…

And then she was a tired little girl.

I love making the dogs happy, even if it's just for a little while. I could go there every day and never get bored. One day I'll bring a puppy home, but that won't be for a while!

putt-putt, dogs and dinner!

Posted on July 3, 2009 by tara

Today was awesome!! Michael was off work so we slept in a bit. This afternoon Michael came up with a crazy idea- but wouldn’t tell me what it was! He got me in the car and just drove. And well… we went and played putt-putt! (which we’re actually both REALLY bad at). It was so much fun to play outside and have time together! He won by just ONE point.

On our way there I saw the coolest dog EVER. Take a look yourself- he even smiled at the camera!

After I [barely] lost at putt-putt, we went to the Montgomery County Humane Society to volunteer! We spent time with a lot of the dogs there and took two of them on walks.

It’s really a sad place to go- none of those dogs have families to love them, all because someone was irresponsible with them in the first place. Sure, a dog needs food and water, but the biggest thing a dog needs is companionship. None of the dogs there have that, and was nice to know that we could give it to them for at least a little while.

I walked a little sheltie mix named Rhett, and Michael walked Harold, a very old beagle. He was so glad to just get outside!

Michael and Harold

Is this not the cutest face?

After playing with the dogs, we went to Olive Garden to celebrate (belatedly) our one month anniversary! It was great to go out and not worry about cooking =)