Lost and Found

This week on my way to work I saw a lil white dog and a long haired daschund on the side walk trying to cross a busy intersection. I did a Ui and turned around because I really could not go on with my day thinking if the dog was really going to end up as a hotdog on the street. When I parked on the side of the road the lil white dog took off like a bandit pass me the daschund looked at me and came running and did a belly flop right at my feet! So sweet! I was glad they did not try to cross the intersection. I picked him up and decided to call him Papo. Put him in the passenger sea and drove around to look for the other dog, but he was no where in sight. Called my boss and told her that I was going to be late since I just picked up a dog from the side of the road. It is nice to know that my boss is an animal lover and she would understand why I had to pick up a dog from the side of the road.

I drove to my vet to se if the dog had a microchip, got very excited when he did! NO so excited when we called Avid and they had no record of the owner. They gave us a number of the people that administered the micro chip but they were no longer in service, some pet shop in OK, I wondered if it was a puppy mill.

I took Papo home worrying about how Molly and Tullah were going to react. Well Molly was in cloud nine! I think she like the idea of having someone in the house that was smaller than her, Tullah is twice her size.

I settled him down in my bedroom and headed to work two hours later. I Tweeted about finding him. Drove back the same way, my normal route. Looked on line in the lost section, called the local shelter, called a few friends to develop a plan B.

One my way back to work I took the same route and I saw a sign and I was very relieved, the lil guy had a family that was looking for him! The other white dog happen to make his way back home, I think Papo's lil legs did not allow him to run fast enough.

The story ends with a happy reunion of Papo , well his name is Sidney and his family.

It is important to microchip and register your pets. Tullah probably had a loving family somewhere, but maybe no one decided to stop when she was lost, and she continued wondering around until she was finally brought to the shelter. Tullah had a chip but her owners never registered her. Now she is home with me and Molly, she's registered to this loving family, but I can not stop to wonder how many pets are out there in the same situation that have not been as lucky as Sidney and Tullah...

Back to square one

Both girls are back a home now. Tullah enjoyed her quality time with me a little too much. Now that Molly is back home from gramma's, Tullah is pushing her weight around to be #1. Molly is not happy about that. It seems that they are back to getting to know each other stage all over again!! Molly looks overwhelmed, by the situation, Tullah on the other hand is totally relaxed.

Tullah does not know how to get the treats out of a Kong toy, she likes to play with balls and is learning how to steal Molly's Kong Air Dog Squeaky toys.

It's going to be an interesting week.

Tullah Update

For those that were wondering, Tullah is home with me, Molly is still at grandmas. It has been nice to spend quality time with the Bullie without having to feel guilty about it.

Weekend in Puerto Rico

Got back from my weekend in PR. I find it amazing that Puerto Ricans clap when the plane lands in SJU, son unos Jibaros!! Overall the weekend was nice, saw a lot of old friends and made some new ones.

The good: my usual breakfast stop at La Bombonera in Old San Juan for mayorcas and fresh squeezed OJ; dinner at Raices in Old San Juan, the best passion fruit mojito! I recommend the Tornado for dinner and both sampler appetizer platters; The Turtle Bay Inn in La Parguera, awesome place to stay, great service and ammenities and accommodations.

The bad: the service a Budget Rent a Car at SJU; extremely disengaged employees; except for their shuttle bus drivers, they are nice, always.

The ugly: Playa Buye in Cabo Rojo, I have not been there since my college days, and it seemed to me that I drove into a "squatters park", unattractive people and ugly sights, looked very unsafe, MACONDO! Drove by la calle comerio in Bayamon, another unsightly place, extremely deteriorated!!

Quiet House

It was obvious to me when I dropped Tullah at my friend's house that she probably felt abandoned again. She's in great company with (2) other bullies, but my heart ached.

Molly loves going to my mom's house, since my mom devotes 24/7 attention to her, including quality time in the yard fetching tennis balls. I am pretty sure my mom spoils her with human food.

The house is quiet now, it will be like that for a few days.

It's official she is staying

After two weeks it is obvious that Tullah will be staying, took her to the vet, she has a clean bill of health. Molly really enjoys her company and Tullah likes to slap her a wet kiss every time she can. At this point, Molly plays with her only when I am not watching. It's quite interesting, every time that they are roughing it up and I look she stops and looks at me like: " it's not me, I am just standing here". Tullah likes to rest, A LOT! We go for our afternoon walks and when we get to the house, she rests some more. We go to the green area, and yes Molly still rules at fetching.

We will try the dog park next week. This week Molly goes to gramma's, Tullah will stay with her bullie cousins, and I will travel on business.

Monkey See Monkey Do

Training Tullah to go poopo while on the leash was a lot easier than I expected. Molly helped with that, since Tullah apparently does everything she does.

They also discovered that they share a love for balls!! It was a random incident, a guy in the neighborhood was playing with a soccer ball and he was kind enough to let them join him. It was there first interactive play, we were making progress.

The next day we went to the green area in the neighborhood to play catch. This is Molly's favorite activity, she is fast and furious when she goes after a ball or frisbee. Tullah, well not so much. By the time she is ready to go after the ball, well Molly is on her way back. Not very interactive.

Tullah's idea of fun is to get the ball and put her massive head over it so no one can use it. This is a little aggravating for Molly who at 25 lbs its half Tullah's size. However, Molly determined to get the ball, put all her weight into it, she manage to take the ball away from Tullah. Who knew, the mighty Boston Terrier ruled over the 50 lb bullie!!

That was doggie interaction, at it's best. I think we are on to something good.

Rude Awakening

It so happens that Tullah was crate trained and did awesome on the leash, that's 1/2 the battle of puppy training. So far so good, adopting her really cut down on the time that puppies require, yay hurray. Several things are very different from caring for a Boston Terrier:

My friend gave me a crash course of English Bulldog care: clean wrinkles, clean eyes, check paws, vaseline on the nose, the right diet, etc. Bottom line I spend more time in the morning doing facial care for Tullah that I spent on myself!

Tullah does not like to go poopoo while on the leash! We can walk around the neighborhood for a long time and she ends up doing poops on my back porch. We need to work on that.

Molly on the other hand, knows we are on a schedule and we need to stick to our plans.

Bottomline; 1/2 hour less of sleep in the am in order to get her and myself ready for the day.

The BT and the Bullie reunite

On June 15th I picked up Molly from my parents house and drove my my friend's house to pick up Tullah. Yes, I had yet another master plan. If Molly really liked her and wanted her, then she could be part of our family. If she didn't she will stay with my friend and the other bullies.

The ride home was nice the girls in the back snoring. The coming home uneventful, so far so good.

Let's get real how hard can it be? Bostons snore and fart, the bullies do too. My Megan could clear a room, with her loud snores and stinky farts.

How bad can the slobbering be??

Her name is Tullah

To make a long story short, after a little drama we were able to adopt the English Bulldog, and yes I had another master plan. The bullie will stay at my house until the weekend that my friend will drive down to pick her up.

My friends at work decided that her name should be Tullah, something to do with the movie "my greek fat wedding". Although, I thought she looked more like a Bertha.

Molly did not know how to react when the bullie got home, but she was willing to put up with the company as long as the company did not interfere with our quality time, or as long as Tullah did not get too close to her. It was all good, since she was only going to be around for a few days, after all Molly was used to me doggie-sitting for friends.

However, Tullah really liked Molly. She attempted to play with Molly, by tackling her when she least expected. I imagine, Molly felt rammed by a freight train.

It was kind of funny, because Molly found very creative ways to be in opposite ends of the room or the house in order to avoid her. However, on the Saturday, my friend was picking Tullah to take her home, Molly was starting to warm up to her. Timing was all wrong, I had to travel out of state, Molly had to go to gramma and Tullah to her new home with doggies her own kind.

Master Plan B

Occupied with school and work I decided that Molly and I will be ok, with frequent visits to gramma's house Molly will be happy, and the house, well it still felt empty. In my mind I figured a Master Plan B; after school is over get a new BT puppy and start all over again. The puppy will keep Molly company and me busy with puppy training.

A dear friend called me, telling me she had found a puppy for me a black and white female BT and she was pretty sure that the puppy had a blue eye. Very firmly, I told her that I was not ready for a new puppy and that my new BT will be a brindle Boston Terrier. Yes, I had a plan, I had convinced myself for years that my next Boston will be brindle. I even started researching breeders for when the timing was right.

During my busiest school week, I get a text from my friend: "check your email" she sent. I checked my email and it led me to the Dade-County Shelter web page and the pictures of (3) English Bulldogs that had just been surrendered to the shelter. Once again I was firm and I let her know that I was not ready for another dog and I was a Boson Terrier owner, I will not even consider another breed, a house full of BTs is what I always wanted. I forgot to mention that my friend is the proud mamma of (2) English Bulldogs.

Several weeks later, I get a frantic phone call from my friend, one of the Bullies was still at the shelter and people that had signed up to adopted her never showed up. She really wanted the Bullie and asked me to go an check her out at the shelter. I the 20+ years I lived in Miami Dade County, I have never been to the shelter. Luckily when I got there the Bullie was in the first cage so I did not had to go around looking at all the other dogs. The bullie was adorable and very sweet, I told her that i was a really good idea, she should adopt her.

In the end things did not turn out as expected...

Sometimes things do not go as planned

When Megan my Blue-eyed BT turned 6 y/o I had the wonderful idea of getting a new BT puppy, I named her Molly. The master plan was very simple: since the average life span of  BT is 10-12, when Megan was ready to meet her maker, I will not be lonely since I had Molly.

The day came on 4/25/09; after a sudden onset of seizure in March 09, Megan's health quickly deteriorated, she developed Congestive Heart Failure and I had to make the difficult decision to put her down. She was 13 1/2 y/o and full of life until the last week of April/09.

And then there was just me and Molly; we were supposed to be ok just the two of us. Nothing prepared me for two things: 1) I always had multiple pets in the house, the house felt empty 2) Molly was lonely and depressed.

The master plan failed...

New Beginnings

Inspired by those before me, I will attempt to keep you updated with my opinions about current events, but mostly about the adventures of my two dogs: Molly the Boston Terrier (8 y/o) and Tullah, my recently adopted English Bulldog.

After being a BT owner for 15 years, having a new breed in the house has been quite interesting. Reality vs. my expectations; how the two breeds get along and the time and care that goes along with it should make for interesting posts.