Causes: National Pet Month.

May is National Pet Month, and while any pet cab be a great addition to a family, of course I am biased towards dogs.  Chrisy is a good friend and was one of my roommates in college.  I asked her to write this post because I know how much she loves her dogs and I love that they were rescues.  Babe and Izzy are part of her family, just as Rowdy is part of ours.  We were so excited to get Rowdy and he was (still is!) so darn sweet and adorable, we fell for him right away.  He kept me company while Trevor was in Kuwait and snuggled up with me during some tough times.  He keeps me active when I'm feeling lazy.  I know what it's like to have a very special furry friend in your life, I'm so glad Babe and Izzy wound up with Chrisy and Craig.

Growing up my family always had a dog, so when I bought my house in 2009, I knew I wanted one of my own.  I waited a couple months so I could get used to the house then started researching different breeds. I knew I wanted a bigger sized dog, and that I also wanted to adopt/rescue it. After a few weeks of checking different rescue websites, I saw a dog that I wanted to go meet. She was a 1 year old brindle Boxer, and little did I know she would immediately steal my heart.  Upon arriving (very early) to the adoption event, the volunteers took all my information and prepared the adoption paperwork.  My Babe arrived about an hour or so later and was in pretty rough shape.  The dog that I meet had 6 pink stitches in each eye, was so skinny you could count every rib and you could see her spine. She belonged to someone that had her chained up outside, day in and day out, finally taken away and put up for adoption after a good Samaritan neighbor called about her.  We went outside and sat down to see if we “clicked”, she looked at me with her big sad brown eyes and it was all over, but to seal the deal she sat down right on my lap. The day I took her home, Babe weighed in at 40 lbs, today she is a very healthy happy 60 lbs. My life changed completely July 4^th 2009, Babe is the best dog I could have ever asked for. She is so funny, and just loves life, dogs really do teach their humans how to appreciate the little things, like a walk or a squirrel in the front yard. 

In January 2013 my Fiancé and I made the decision to rescue another pup, her name is Izzy, a fawn Boxer mix. Like her sister, Izzy was in very rough shape when we got her.  She came to MN from Kentucky and we believe she was a puppy mill dog.  She had Pancreatitis, worms, issues with certain foods, and was also so skinny you could see her ribs and spine. We spent a lot of time at the vet those first two months trying to figure out what her issues were and how to make her feel better. She is now on a specialized diet and is a happy healthy girl.  Izzy is full of spunk and just loves to run, she is very interested in the squirrels and playing with her sister, Babe.

The two dogs are inseparable, and it is so fun watching them play with each other.  It melts your heart when you walk into the living room to find them snuggling on the couch together.  Some people may find it strange but our two dogs are our kids.  I couldn’t imagine my life without them, they just bring so much joy, I really do laugh at them every single day. It is the best feeling in the world to walk in after a long day of work to two wiggling butts, they get so excited when you come home. I’ve read a quote before that I love and think of often “I hope to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am”. This couldn’t be a truer statement, no matter what’s going on in my world, my dogs think I am wonderful and show me that every day.

Click here to see a list of the other posts in this series.