Adventures in Rescue

When my husband and I first started working with animal rescue it literally came out of no where. We adopted a puppy from a local group and this puppy ended up having parvo. We spent over $1,000 out of pocket and had it being monitored 24 hours but she still passed away. We will forever miss Harley but our 9 week old shepherd mix changed our lives forever. The rescue group was very kind and was in touch with our vet so knew about the extra life saving efforts we were willing to pay for so they gave us a dog for free when we were ready. We adopted another shepherd mix and then a year after that adopted again from that group a lab mix. We would randomly donate money towards them and supplies. I started taking my dogs to animal rescue walks to help raise money for other foundations.

My husband always wanted a rottweiler and I had made several contacts on Myspace who were involved in animal rescue. I would crosspost animals on death row daily. I donated from every pay check and even offered to help with a transport. We were assisting on a transport and the dog ended up coming home with us because the receiving rescue was full due to a litter of parvo puppies being dropped off. This wasn't a problem for us, we had the love, room and cash to take care of 3 dogs. This little cattle dog mix was awesome. We took her to our vet for some worms and other then that she was great. We found a loving home for her and 5 years later, we still see her quite often. She is a beloved family pet.

Shortly after placing her I saw a rottweiler being passed around by several of my rescue contacts. I tried to crosspost as much as possible and finally I just sent the picture to my husband who said he wanted her. We tried to have her flown up but the air lines wouldn't take such a large dog. We missed 2 transports that came through. Her time was up in a week and so I drove 5 hours to KY and met up with the vet tech who saved the rottweiler. She drove up from Virginia.

Nala was only supposed to be a foster. We just didn't want her to be put to sleep. She lived her life tied to a tree. Her collar was embedded. She never had a name. Never was vetted (really), She was used for breeding only. She was only 65 lbs when her "owners" brought her in to have her put down 'cause they were "done with her". She should have been closer to 100lbs. Marsha was a loving vet tech and medically rehabbed Nala (named her Nala) and then crossposted like mad because her house was already full to the brim. Marsha and I are still friends to this day even though Nala is no longer with us.

Nala was a special dog who needed a family. she needed to know what love was and she needed to learn to trust. I was pregnant with our daughter and I spent every night working with Nala, she didn't like her feet, ears, face or hips touched and would growl and snap. It took 5 months but in those 5 months she was a loving, devoted lap dog. She had hip problems & walked funny since she was starved and her body was taking calcium from her bones. But she would make it a few blocks on walks. She was the best dog ever.

A friend of ours wanted to take our shepherd mix because he was looking to adopt and we did have some problems w/ the shepherd mix and aggression towards other dogs and children. It was a win win because he took her and gave her a loving home, we still are able to see her and he has worked those kinks out. Nala was able to stay at our house and retire and eventually go to the rainbow bridge.

We had 3 amazing years with Nala. My daughter was her life. They would lay together and my daughter would dress her up. Nala loved her so much. Not a day went by that she wasn't hugged, pet and loved. She got along great with Duke (our lab mix) and they became best friends.

With our shepherd mix now having a loving devoted home we were able to open up our doors and save many more dogs that were on death row.

In one summer we saved 6 rottweilers from the streets of Chicago. Some were being beaten, others had traps set up for them by dog fighters in hopes to use them as bait dogs and some were just strays. The amazing rescue group we are affiliated with was able to help us with some vetting expenses and helped us to place all of the dogs in loving homes. It seemed as though each week we'd take in a stray and then adopt another out. Nala got along with all of them.

This past winter Nala woke up gasping for air. I stayed home with the kids and my husband rushed her to the ER Vet at 11pm. They said her throat was closing up and gave her steroids and downers and said if she could come out of the sedation and breath on her own then they could do a surgery but if she could not then there was nothing they could do. She could not breath on her own. It was a terrible situation but she was going to suffocate to death. She lived to about 10 years of age and retired in the best environment possible. We miss her daily.

Shortly after she passed we decided that we are animal rescuers and we take animals off death row. We figured we would check with a group first. If we adopted one from a rescue group then we would free up a space for them to take in another. We adopted Carl, a rottweiler that was 3 years old and he is amazing. We love him so much and he makes each day a blessing. He is amazing around the kids, a friend to Duke and we have nicknamed him "Carl the stalker" since he loves to follow us everywhere.

We will forever be animal rescuers

Laundry Fairies please come to my house

Amber and Jackson are the most important people in my life. Not a day goes by that I either spend it laughing at the funny things they do or near tears because of the insane things they do; but I couldn't imagine my life any different.

Doing simple chores such as putting away folded laundry can become an epic task. Both children were watching Gnomio and Juliet. I put up my laundry & my husbands laundry and the kids were still happily watching TV. I started to put up Amber's laundry & realized some of her PJ's didn't fit her anymore. I went to the kitchen to grab a glad bag & on the way I checked on the kids. Both were still watching TV. I tossed the PJ's that didn't fit Amber any longer into the garbage bag. I went into Jackson's room to pull out his old PJ's and put away his laundry & heard screaming.

Amber was in the living room watching TV and Jackson had booked it into Amber's room and climbed her play kitchen! I got him down and told him it was a no no. He said "no no", shook his head no and left the room. I went back into his room and grabbed the garbage bag of old clothing and heard Amber scream "No Jack!"

I ran into the living room, dropped the bag of old PJ's on the floor and rushed over to Jackson who had climbed the couch, crawled over to the end table and knocked over my pop and was playing in it.

I cleaned Jackson off and began cleaning the mess. I had to pull the couch out and was cleaning spilled soda from behind it; all the while I heard Jackson laughing in the living room so I knew he was fine. I stand up from behind the couch and he was definitely fine. Jackson dumped the bag of PJ's and was scattering them through out the house.

What should have been a quick 10 minute chore became a 45 min. ordeal all because I wanted to put up the laundry before the cat decided to sneak into the basket & yack on our clean clothes.

Since becoming a mom of 2 toddlers I have learned there are 2 chores I hate more then others. The 1st is laundry because it requires me to turn my back for a few seconds and my kids seize the moment every time. The 2nd chore would be emptying the dishwasher. It never fails, once they see that door open they think it's some magical cave they can climb into. Just as I tell one to stop trying to climb into the dishwasher the other is doing it. I had clean dishes sitting in there for 4 days last week because I didn't feel like dealing w/ the chaos that would occur if I opened that door during the afternoon.By the time evening came the dishwasher was the last thing on my mind.