500th Post...and Our Puppy

She LOVES to watch football.

So. 500 posts. Who on earth would've thought that I could manage to pull THAT off?! Certainly not me! It has been awhile since any real posts, but that's because I'm livin, folks! Not that I don't miss blogging, because I do, but I have a pretty good reason. Her name is Derby and she's the newest addition to our little family.

Here is her story...
I had been a fan and follower of Ohio English Setter Rescue for about a year before we took the leap into fostering, which we knew would be an incredibly rewarding experience and help provide unconditional love and support for a rescue dog. After application approval, passing our home check, fixing a fence, many conversations, pup meet-ups, and a LOT of discussion (truth be told, we were nervous and carefully weighed every option, scenario, and never forgot our beautiful senior kitty gal Wink throughout the process), we knew that OESR was a group of people who were exactly our kind of people and we were committed to becoming part of their organization one way or another. We also knew that when it was right, it would be right, that we would know it, and the rest would be history...

There she is...far right.

 Well, during all of this time, OESR rescued an English Setter named Jordie from a high kill shelter. And she was pregnant. Oh boy. Oh boy and five girls, as it turned out. All the pups were born late June 2011 at foster momma R's house and they were the. cutest. puppies. ever. But I really didn't want a puppy. Really and truly. I wanted to give a home to an adult. Maybe even a senior dog. I felt it was a calling for me, but...But. Bubs felt a bit differently about that. He had his eye on those pups. Oh boy did he.

As a bit more time passed, Jordie momma dog was adopted out and one, by one, the pups, too, were both fostered out and found their forever homes. But R. held on to the little brownie bundle of puppy love named Josie. Josie was the one pup who was different in the litter. Out of the 6 pups, she was the one born with the most color and, of course, being the odd girl out, she tugged at my heartstrings.

Pupper McSpottypants

Josie's first foster DogMomma R. is a rock star. She's a wife, mom, dogmom to her own pack and, on top of that, she went back to school to become a vet. She had fostered Jordie during her pregnancy and was there for the entire whelping. Needless to say, she was (and is) a busy, busy lady -- one who made the very hard choice to love this pup enough to let her go. This was an incredibly difficult thing for her (trust me, you'll see how much stronger she was than me!) and her family to do, but she had Josie's best interests in mind through and through. Fate played her hand in all of this, because once I came to learn that R. might be looking for a new foster home for 3-month old Josie, I told Bubs and, after a few more phone calls and coordination, we got the green light to take over Josie's fostership and we drove to pick up our new little foster babydog!

And she was perfect. She snuggled in my lap the entire 2 hour car ride. She went potty outside at a rest stop. She didn't pee or barf on me. It was love at first sight.

Wow. It was not easy! I was raw nerves those first few days. (From what people tell me, it's a lot like what having a new baby is like...) But after some time, we found a routine and stuck with it. We were up 3 times a night for almost 2 months so we could housebreak her, knowing that even though difficult, it would be worth it in the long run to support her early. We taught her to sit, stay, come, lay down and shake with both paws. She had all the right toys to chew on (and only the toe of one flip flop and the side of one slipper ever was chewed - not bad for damage control lol!) She was our little genius dog. We were going to help her be the best dog we could help her be for her future forever family.


A couple months passed and conversations came up about whether or not we would adopt her. I stuck to my commitment as a foster (and no one believed me...), knowing that letting her go would break my heart...but I told myself it was for the best. And then, after 2 months of our fostering, she was put on Petfinder. And the next day, an application came through from someone very, very far away. And I cried. A lot. Bubs sulked in his man cave. The truth was, neither of us wanted to let her go, but it took the thought of never seeing her again to help us to see that. Even though everyone at OESR had warned us, that once an application for her was in, there's no going back if it got approved. We KNEW that. But with a hope and a prayer, we let them know that if, for whatever reason that first application didn't get approved, that we wanted to adopt her -- and so we put in our application, too. (We were such jerks. How we had waited so long is beyond me...I chalk it up to major anxiety and commitment issues. God bless OESR for putting up with us and, specifically, my neuroses.) After a little less than a week, the planets aligned (and fate once again played her hand) and we got the joyous news..."Congratulations, it's a girl!" And the rest is history...and just the beginning of our glorious foster failure.Bubs said an English dog needs an English name, so we renamed Josie to Derby. She's now our little "brown" Derby and she the best little girl ever. I never thought I'd be one of those people...the kind who forgoes normal adult conversation to tell people about Derby's poops or the custom, handmade coat I bought for her on Etsy, but I am 100% that guy and loving every minute. She helps me see the humor in everything. To get outside more (even if it means being on poop patrol), to meet new friends at the dog park, to smile and laugh, to watch my tone, to grow up.

Derby's 6-1/2 months old now and growing like a weed. She loves chewies, her stuffed duck (which is really a pheasant I think, stuffingless, beakless and stinks to high heaven), belly rubs, playing at the dog park, shaking for treats and digging holes in the back yard (but we're working on that one...) I could go on and on, but this post is long enough...I can't wait to share more funny stories and cute pics later. Thanks for stopping by :o)

Look at that face! The sun washed out her Setter spots but they're there :)