Tanner Would Like To Forget The Whole Thing

This move and all of its ruckus is proving to be a bit difficult for our little chihuahua, Tanner.

Lately I find him hidden away in the guest room, more often than not.

He just can't understand what the heck is going on in his world these days.  And I don't blame him.  There's an awful lot going on!  We are now in contract to sell the house, I've sold off roughly 1/4 of everything we have and am set to sell another 1/4 starting on Thursday.  And of course, everything that's left is being packed.

Yesterday was especially tough for little Tanner.  He was outside in the back yard and I suddenly heard him screech like I've never heard before.  I found him whining and holding up his left front paw.  Right at that moment a bee came and stung him right on his bum!  The poor dog was stung twice by bees! 

Luckily Tanner is not allergic to bees, but he certainly seems to feel like he's allergic to all this chaos! 

Wordless Wednesday- Hmmmm...

image found at: cartoonswalls.com

Robin, This One Is Especially For YOU!

Hi all!  I'm finally gonna' do some catch up here in blogland.  Soooo..... without further ado, it's time for that cutesy dog post I promised.  You've been warned.

On the day we got Tanner, he looked like this:

 

He was a little tan fur ball with a white blaze on his chest, white back toes and green eyes.

On his very first night at home, our dog Hailey was already willing to share her favorite spot with him.

He made himself quite comfortable.  I thought even his little backside was cute.

 Tanner got to meet our nephew Nathan the very next day as we were already on our way down to Palm Springs to close on our condo.  Obviously, Nathan thought Tanner was pretty cool.

We ended up waiting in a motel for days while the kinks were ironed out with our seller.  Tanner proved to be a pretty mellow fellow through it all.

Hailey and Tanner made themselves comfortable in the condo right away.  

They didn't mind the 80's furniture one bit.

When we checked out the dog area at the condo's west wall, we found out that Tanner wanted to help take Hailey for a walk and that he would hop like a bunny to keep his feet from getting wet in the the long grass.

Tanner's ears were flopped over for about the first week that we had him.  He looked like a little teddy bear.  Many people mentioned that he seemed a lot like a 'live' stuffed animal.

 Then one night he had one ear that was starting to go up.  The next morning he looked like this:

He was really starting to look like a Chihuahua!

There was a lot of work that needed to be done in the condo and all that being held in one hand while my husband or I would clean and scrub and move things around with the other hand was exhausting for Tanner.

But he found a really great place to rest!

 Hailey is sweet and will put up with almost anything from Tanner.....

 But when she's done, she's done.....  everybody has their limits!

(This is one of my absolute favorite pictures!)

 We have had so much fun with this little guy.  He is super easy to train and really made this Christmas time special for all of us.  It was a little tough because I took on extra work and then I was also surprised to note how challenging it was to have a big family holiday without our dog Parker this year.  Many people mentioned that they had so many wonderful memories of our Parker and also told me how much they really like our new little dude.  I would never want to put any pressure on a pet to heal a hurt, and yet Tanner has been just what we needed, just as he is.

......and it looks like the green eyes are here to stay!

New Years Plans, A Small Business Rant & Puppy Love...

...that's my life these days, in a nutshell.

Let me explain.

When I got back home from the Palm Springs trip that involved our getting the new (to us) condo all cleaned out and redone to our liking (and ability, in two weeks time) I was presented with a business opportunity.  I was more than happy to jump on said opportunity because my husband and I had already decided that we are returning to our Palm Springs condo for New Years, and taking our nephew with us!  It turned out that we didn't get the last of our deliveries until the Friday afternoon before we left on Saturday morning to come back home.  Naturally that means we need to go back just to be able to see how much we enjoy the fruits of our labor.  AND Nathan- our nephew- is thrilled beyond words that his school calendar this year allows for a sun break for New Years!

So.... it's on to explaining my small business rant. 

It goes like this:  I took on a huge project that will end on the 23rd, knowing that I wanted to pay for my return trip to Palm Springs.  This project is so large that I needed quite a bit of help in order to get it done on time for the customer.  I lined up help right away.  It seemed like a win-win as I knew several people who definitely needed money right now and some of those had helped me out on a temporary basis in the past.  My plans seemed solid.  I'm not a fly by night kind of gal.  I'm extraordinarily reliable and come with exemplary references, etc., etc.

So when a couple of these people turn out to be major lazy asses who are completely ungrateful for the work I've offered and don't care that they are making me look like a total ass hat, well- I'm less than impressed and might or might not have even wished that their inability to pay their rent on time or make the payment on their new roof might cause them to lose said roofs over their respective heads.  Yeah, I can be nasty like that...  I take business seriously and don't enjoy being taken for a ride.  What can I say?

Anyway, there is a happy ending to this situation:  I have been able to take on more of the work than I had anticipated having time for myself.  And I have been able to bring my new puppy, Tanner, with me to the job site with no problems at all.  The people I am working for love him and can't keep their hands off him.  This has resulted in me already being able to pay for the New Years trip and Tanner's social skills are blossoming.  And last night I did get a voice mail from one worker who just wanted me know how grateful she is for the chance to make some money and how every little bit helps, especially during Christmas.  That one phone call did an awful lot to undo the yucky feelings I have had about the people who have said how much they needed to work and then shown up to do so with rotten attitudes or even bailed on me at the last minute.

So, finally, it's on to the puppy love:  Robin, I will post one giant picture post of love just for you in the very near future.  The rest of you can skip it if it makes you want to puke.  I get it.  In the mean time, just know that every last moment I can spare is being spent loving on our dogs Hailey and Tanner.  Hailey is great with the new pup and I have actually found myself wishing he wouldn't grow up so fast.  I am really loving this process of puppy raising that I was so afraid of.  It has been such a true blessing.  My husband and I have not smiled and laughed so much in I don't know how long.  I really cannot express enough how good this little surprise has worked out for us, even amidst our condo chaos and all that is the holiday season.  It feels like this year we're getting to stop and enjoy everything through the new little guys eyes. 

Of course some of that is because if we don't watch him carefully he'll chew everything in sight and pee on the artificial Christmas tree...!

Tanner

Ever since we lost our sweet dog Parker a couple of weeks ago, our other dog Hailey has been spending all of her time either moping around or begging for food.

She has certainly been more than a little sad,

just as we have been.

We miss our Parker.  We miss having some 'boy spirit' around here.  We've discussed the idea of looking for another little buddy.  At first we thought we ought to wait until next Spring.  We have so many things going and we definitely don't want to try to replace our Parker.

Recently, my husband and I had decided that we would seek out another dog sooner than later.  We've even floated the idea of seeing if we can't find someone special while we are away on our next trip to Palm Springs, which should be starting this coming weekend.

Yesterday, one of those "divine intervention" kind of things happened.

I was talking with a friend about how much we miss having a boy in the house and how sad our Hailey has been.  We discussed the idea that with family coming around for the holidays that would probably help a bit.

Then suddenly, my friend said she had a crazy idea and that she needed to make a phone call.

She ended up calling her in-laws in South Dakota who are due to come here to the Northwest today, for the Thanksgiving holiday.  These people are small time breeders of chihuahuas.  A couple of years ago I had seriously considered getting a dog from them as I have seen so many of their babies who have ended up in the homes of friends here, and how nice their temperaments are.  Plus my husband really, really wanted a chihuahua.  But alas, at that point the timing was off and we never got a dog from them.

Today, the timing is right. 

Absolutely everything lined up just right and our little Tanner will arrive at the Sea-Tac airport with my friends in-laws by 10am this morning. 

I feel as if I should be thinking about how nutty this all is, taking a new puppy on an immediate road trip down to California, where I have lots of work to do on our new condo. 

But I don't feel that way at all. 

I'm sure you dog lovers can understand.