Franklin Friday: Reindeer in June?

I've written a few times about the short sad lives of stuffies in our house before - and how we've been working on not destroying toys. I'm so so so proud to report that the Christmas 2011 toys are still alive!

Reindeer in June? Sure! Still stuffed. Still loved. 

I"m even thinking about buying some non-seasonal toys now that the monsters can be trusted...

Lola's new friends

I've posted before about Lola's stranger anxiety, and wrote a guest post on Two Pitties in the City about how Chicago SociaBulls is helping her.

Well, this week we had a big breakthrough.

This is Lola voluntarily getting close to a man who is not HER man. He did everything right. He got down to her level, moved slowly, let her approach him, and smelled like his own sweet dog. Lola went in for the smooch, and the lean. And he got some Lolalove.

Lola later relaxed happily in the shade during our water break.

And chilled with her friend Izzy at the end of the walk.

Good job Lola!

Travel dogs - Vietnam

Writing about the dogs we saw on our recent vacation reminded me of the whole album of animal pictures I compiled on our trip to Vietnam a few years ago, and looking back through those pictures really illustrated the diversity of dogs. While the typical dogs in the towns of the Mediterranean were small and showed terrier ancestors, those of Vietnam had a very different look.

Dogs just ran free around many towns and seemed to not be pets

I met this tiny adorable puppy in a palace. And tried to figure out how to take him home.

Tons of sand-colored dogs snoozing in the sand

This guy looks like a typical Chicago shelter pup - so cute

Tiny kitten in a market on the Mekong river. I wanted to take it home too.

They were much larger than the little white French lap dogs. More shepherds, more similar to our beloved Chicago Brown Dog. And no, we didn't see dog on menus or for sale in markets, but that does happen in the country.

Vietnam was amazing and I hope to go back on day. And take more pictures of dogs.

Home Improvements

As summer started to settle in, we finally decided to finish the porch beautification project we’d started years ago. When we moved into our house it had a horrid enclosed porch. 

A few years ago we tore that down and had a nice one built. That we never used. I posted pictures of the new porch a few weeks ago, and you'll notice it's pretty unadorned. 

Inspired by our Chicago SociaBulls friends who show off their lovely outdoor living spaces at Yellow Brick Home and Two Pitties in theCity, we finally made our porch into a living space. We hung some flower baskets, installed some window boxes and filled them with more flowers, got cushions for the seating area, and scrubbed off the winter's grime. 

Lola and Franklin approve.

It'll grow out. Really.

It was haircut weekend for Franklin, and this time I took "formal" before and afters.

He's so darn cute when he's shaggy. But his fur gets matted and dirty and he must be hot. So he gets haircuts. And he is soft and snuggly when shorn, but so much less adorable.



He does have all those cute spots tho, that you don't see when shaggy.

It's a rough two-weeks post grooming. We bank on the fact that Franklin doesn't understand the actual words we use, and doesn't understand the phrase "he'll be cute again soon".  He will be. In about 3 weeks.

Officemates

One way I found to get through the chaos of the weeks before the break was to work from home on Fridays. I find that I get a ton done, and the change of routine really helps. The pets also like the change. My routine is to get up, throw on workout clothes (so I’ll remember to get some exercise) take the dogs for a quick walk, and sit down at the kitchen table at around 7a.m. Maeby loves me most when I’m at the kitchen table and swarms all over my computer.

Lola tends to sign dramatically and find a place to sprawl and Franklin and Lindsey entertain themselves (nap) in their beds.

Around 1 I take them for a walk and realize that it’s really nice out. So we relocate to the yard for the afternoon. Lola and Franklin enjoy basking in the sun then cooling off in the shade, and like patrolling the fence to ward off any ally-walking strange dogs. This has led to some interesting conference call questioning of the background noises.

Late in the afternoon we’ll go for another walk, I’ll realize it’s really really nice out and I’m still wearing clean running clothes, so I go for a quick run, finish up work and start the weekend. 

A different view and different coworkers can really improve the work day. 

Two years ago today

(catch up on How we met our Franklin and IM chicken or how we tried to give him back - the first chapters in this story)

Part 3
We went to visit my family that weekend. 5 hours in the car spent talking about the potential horrible mistake we’d just made and how much we already missed Kieffer. We spent the weekend talking about how cute he was, showing my parents pictures of how cute he was, and missing him. We were wavering by Friday, 

crumbled completely by Sunday

and Kieffer found his forever home on Monday June 21. And got a new name a few days later.

We (and everyone who’s met him) can’t believe that we tried to give him back.  Happy 2^nd official gotchya day little man, looks like you've settled into your new life quite well!

IM chicken or how we tried to give him back

As I wrote yesterday, we met Kieffer and fell in love. We put in an application for him, went through all the checks and he came over on a Thursday for what I thought was a visit. Lola was wary at first, but eventually warmed up and started playing with him. And the volunteer said “ok, so let’s just see how he does for a few days” and his foster to adopt began. And he was CRAZY. We were told he was 1.5 or 2, but this kid was way too energetic and nutty to be that old (the vet later said he was probably 10 months old). He had endless energy, and endless pee. He was adorable for sure, but we realized that he needed a lot of training and attention, and we didn’t know that we were up for that. By Sunday we were having serious doubts, and contacted the rescue to end our trial period.

They asked us to keep him for a few more days so they could go back to the many applications and find a new family for him. I had to travel for work the day before he was leaving us, so I said my goodbyes and headed out of town. On the flight home M and I had an extended IM conversation that went something like this:

Me: he’s really cute

M: he’s REALLY cute

Me: he’s gonna be a lot of work

M: yeah.

Me: I don’t want to do all the work

M: yeah

Me: so we’re giving him back

M: I guess so

Each of us was just waiting for the other one to say that we HAD to keep him. But neither of us caved, so he went back a week after we got him.

Obviously you know there’s another twist in this plot.  Come back tomorrow for the final chapter

How we met our Franklin

It’s finally time to tell the story of how we got the little guy. 

I’d been pestering M to get Lola a friend for a while (ok, since we got Lola). I’d stalked a few NLOL dogs, and we’d even met a few, but hadn’t found THE ONE yet. One day I’d noticed that New Leash was going to be at an adoption event, Pets on Paulina. We were going to lunch nearby and had some time to fill before meeting a friend for drinks, so we stopped by to see who they had with them. We met some nice dogs, and wandered around to the other tents and walked by this scruffy little white moppy thing. Totally not my kind of dog. At all. But he looked at me with such need in his eyes, and was wagging and smiling, so I stopped to pet him. Which led to sitting on the ground for better pet action. Which led to him crawling in my lap. Which led to my heart melting.

this is what he looked like when we met him

We continued to the other tents, did some wandering around the neighborhood, then walked back past the little white scruffmonster. Who gave us that look again. Which led to more petting. And us taking a brochure from Puppy Love – Love Cats (now Lovin Life Rescue).

Later in the day I tried my luck and said “maybe we should fill out an application for Kieffer (his name at the time, 24 had just ended)” and M calmly said “sure”.  So we did. 

Stay tuned for the next installment: IM chicken or how wetried to give him back

Franklin - party animal

To make up for leaving Franklin for a few weeks, we spent much of the weekend doing fun, dog-friendly things.

We went to a fundraiser for the Logan Square Dog Park. Franklin met a lot of people and a bunch of dogs, including this amazing Great Dane. She's stunning. Her legs are as long as mine.

We also went to the Farmer's Market. Lola carried our produce home in her backpack, and Franklin just brought his smile.

That's fellow Chicago SociaBull Hossa lounging in the background!

 After the market, Franklin did some serious patio lounging with his friend Owen's person.

It was a really fun weekend! Too bad vacation's over for all of us now.

Les chats, les chiens, los gatos y los perros

After the craziness of finals (I got an A!) and work (still crazy, but I’m refreshed), we left the menagerie and headed to Spain and France. My mom volunteered to move in and take care of the gang (thanks mom!), and being able to get updates made me miss them a little less. I still commented on every dog and cat I saw, and copped feels when I could.

We started our trip in Barcelona, where we noticed that the ‘basic mutt’ looked much different than our beloved Chicago Brown Dog. In the parts of Spain and France we visited, all dogs seemed to have a strain of wire-haired terrier in them. We even saw a super-cute pitty pup that had an extra scruffy look, probably due to local mutt genes. Dogs were everywhere, often off leash walking nicely beside their person. 

We moved onto Cadaques, the tiny coastal town where Salvador Dali lived. More tourists, fewer locals, so fewer dogs, but plenty of cats snoozing in the ample sunshine.

We spent the rest of the trip driving from charming small town in France to charming small town in France. 

Most dogs looked like this.

Franklin would fit in great over here. Except he’s a little too exuberant. The French dogs were so used to being out and about that they were pretty non-reactive to everything. They didn’t get excited when someone walked up to them. They ignored other dogs. They just hung out beside their person quietly. I saw a few playing, but for the most part, they just hung out.

We saw a variety of dogs doing all sorts of stuff.

Dogs at markets

Dogs napping in quiet plazas

Dogs patrolling restaurants 

This guy was so cute - he belonged to the server at this restaurant and just rested in the doorway while his person waited on customers. He was rewarded with a big hunk of bread when his person sat down to eat his lunch after the customers left. (The dog was much more interested in the man’s steak than his piece of bread).

Dogs patrolling shops

And some dogs just hanging out without a person in sight

The dogs were for the most part amazingly well-behaved, probably because they're so well-socialized. Turns out Lola and Franklin were doing a lot of cafe dining around the neighborhood while we were away, so they may be getting better too!

I know we're on a break - but I need a favor

VOTE FRANKLIN

VOTE LOLA

They're both entered in One Tail at a Time's photo contest. They could win a photo shoot and appear on busses across Chicago. Imagine the scene: you're waiting for the light to change to cross the street to run to a meeting. You are crabby. A bus passes by you and you see Franklin or Lola's adorable face on the side. You smile. Life is better.

You can make this happen. Vote now. 

Some of our other friends are in the contest too - see everyone here. You can vote for more than one. It is Chicago after all. 

thank you.