Friday, January 06, 2012

Man's Best Friend

Cal got this hilarious birthday card, entitled "Awkward Family Pet Photos," from my bestie, Steph.  HA!  What a great way to start your day... an early morning teabagging...oops!  I mean... wake-up call!!!  AWKWARD indeed... LOVE IT!


"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."
~Roger Caras


My dogs have always held a very special place in my heart.  I remember getting my first dog at age 9.  I KNEW I wanted a poodle, and I KNEW I'd name her Cocoa.  NO MATTER WHAT.  All because I loved that show "Fame" on TV (not the new Fame movie... haven't seen it yet, but I'm POSITIVE I'll be disappointed...HA!) and Coco was my favorite character.  She was a badass, and I dug it.  And she could DANCE!
Meet our Cocoa, AKA "Cam."  (toward the end of her 16 years, she went deaf, and the only thing she could hear was loud, low voices, so we'd muster up our DEEPEST, LOUDEST voice, and we'd bellow out, "CAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!"  And she'd come running!)  I loved her SO MUCH.  She was so smart that one time, Scott told her to "get up on the fireplace, Caaaaaaaaam!" and she turned around, looked at the fireplace, had NEVER gotten up there before in her entire life, but walked to it, jumped up on it, and then looked back at us like, "Yeah, now what, jackwipe?"  She was THE BEST dog.  I miss her so...
Mom, baby Cal (Ummm... look at his humongo-like melon!  That head's freaky-huge!!!) & me (hello 1990's!  WOW.  Sweet overalls, curled bangs, and Doc Martens, Gwen.  Lordy!  I look 14 (!), but for the record, I was 24.) with our 5 pooches... Cocoa, Zoe, Pre, Max, & Halley. 
Artwork by Brett Longley, an amazing artist friend of ours from Minnesota.  He painted our Halley years ago, and we've always treasured this painting.  We lost our Halley in August 2010.  We still miss her a lot, and even just this morning I teared up remembering how she cried a real tear as we told her goodbye the day she had to be put to sleep.  One of the hardest things I've EVER had to do.  I love you and miss you SO MUCH, Miss Hal!!! 
Halley & Pre, our Italian Greyhounds
Pre, our old boy... now 14.5 years old!  We have been through SO MUCH with him over the past 3-4 years... several scenarios which were "likely cancer" and "likely fatal."  Trips to Kansas State for biopsies/treatments.  He is SO TOUGH.  And yet SO HERE still.  And we are SOOOOO grateful for that!  Love you, sweet boy!
Romeo (AKA "Capricorn"... don't ask why!)  We LOVE this boy.  He completed our family!

I could barely shoot this picture, I was laughing SO HARD at the fact Romeo was just SOOOOOO exhausted, he couldn't continue to stand ON his back, left foot, but just tucked it under to "kick back" and relax while resting "Captain Winkie" on our chair.  How precious.  HA!  He cracks me up DAILY.  I am SO infatuated with him & SO a whippet lover now!!!  (Whip it -- ummm, WHIPPET?! -- good!)

Our Romeo is pretty much a stuffed animal stalker.  We started out buying him fancy toys from the pet stores, but after seeing the carnage of his chewing efforts, we opted to buy him cheap, $0.25 stuffed, non-bean-filled toys from garage sales instead.  That way, when he destroyed them (which he ALWAYS does!), we'd not be out that money.  We could just toss the toy vs. feeling compelled to try to jury-rig it back to one piece/reattach a head or limb/etc.  That worked out well until he started ingesting the "innards" of the toy.  It became painful watching him try to shit out stuffing, so we opted to buy those expensive, spineless, stuffing-less toys from the store.  So far, so good...  Oh, and we try to find the dorkiest possible toys we can, as it seems fitting for this family.   And his chewing IS better now that he's 3 years old, so we hoped we were golden now.

Until this week with the new Christmas victims toys.  Sad to say that I stumbled into the bedroom to find THIS sad state of affairs a few days ago...
I was *SO RELIEVED* that top left one wasn't a turd, as it appeared at first glance!  WHEW!


Poor bastard.  That used to be a cute little bunny!

No love here... just a straight-up DECAPITATION.  Well played, Romeo.  You really showed this world a thing or two.



All I've got to say is... BAD CAT (we call Romeo "Cat" due to his cat-like stripes & evil feisty ways...)

More shots of previous massacres...
Formerly Mr. Fox...
Supposedly "indestructible" and "for heavy chewers," this Moosey is made out of FIRE HOSE?!?!?  It crinkled and proved to be "the one to take down," as Romeo worked persistently on this guy to prove he was Top Dog.
Mr. Baseball Head clearly lost the battle (all with one arm tucked inside his broken-down body & a super dumb-looking smile on his bloated face).
Faceless gorilla... boo-yah!
Nice beaver... "Thanks, just had it stuffed!"  (or unstuffed, in this case... hahahhaaha!)
He feels bad about it... He can't even LOOK at me!
See?  I'm PERFECT!!!!  What'd I DO???


"You think dogs will not be in heaven?
I tell you, they will be there long before any of us."
~Robert Louis Stevenson

Rest in peace, little Zoe (my Mom & Dad's doggie -- my "sister!")... you will be missed. 

For song information and video, visit here.

xo

3 comments:

Carolyn said...

Love this! You made my day with the giggles, Gwen!

Dawn@Lighten Up! said...

Aw! Precious dogs. Love the shots of the victims. I was picturing the tracing around them, like a crime scene.
Also love the RLS quote. Perfect.

Not Supermom said...

I looooooove the photo of Pre!

And the loved pets that have gone on before will be waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge. <3

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...