Snow Day!

Hi, brrr... It's cold out there. Come in, put your feet by the fire. Here's a cup of cocoa. Do you take marshmallows? Now this is how you enjoy a good snow storm :)

This picture of my kids' playhouse during Storm Benedict reminds of Robert Frost's poem.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Of course I was not on a horse and Frost did not have to airbrush lawn furniture out of his picturesque poem. I don't think I did that bad if you don't look at it too long. Ok, look away.

Winter Storm Benedict paid a visit to Connecticut and dropped 2 feet of snow. Yes, 2 feet! I have been tweeting about how funny Scout is in the snow and thanks to some much needed reminders from a Twitter friend (wink @MarshaEpstein )I finally have a few pictures to share. Above my son Spencer takes a break, but Scout is still eager to run. Below Scout plows her way toward Spencer and my daughter Megan and then does her best super snow dog impression. I think she actually caught some air there! Look at those ears and her smile! lol

Today is another snow day (3 inches + freezing rain) and those evil weather people are predicting another foot (A FOOT!!) of snow for Friday. I'm charging my camera now for more pictures and stocking up on the hot cocoa.

Do you have any snow pics? I'd love to see them. Leave me a link in the comments and I'll check them out.

Thanks for stopping by. Stay warm.

Kristin : )

Scout Update

My last post was a repost of our adoption of Scout back in June. Thanks to Pedigree, my post helped feed dogs in shelters. Pedigree offered to donate a bag of dog food to a shelter for every blog that published a story about rescuing a dog. Not a bad deal at all :) Today I'm sharing some updated pictures of Scout. She's now just about 6 months old and living up to her name; if there's trouble to be found she'll Scout it out.



The first picture is from last month. It's one of my favorites because she looks like a bobble head puppy :) The second is what she looks like after rolling herself in mud, which she loves to do often. I don't know what I was thinking getting a white dog. I don't even like to wear white clothes, for fear of staining them. I'm just glad she has been pretty easy to clean, gentle cycle seems to be her favorite setting. (I'm joking, please don't wash your pets in the washing machine)


And the 3rd picture is just to prove that I don't actually have a bobble headed dog. She is a perfectly proportioned pup; her bark, ears, and heart are equally over sized for the tiny frame that carries them.

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear about your pets too. If you have a rescue story to share make sure you check out Julie Klam's Blog. She's looking for your stories.

Kristin : )

Meet Scout

I recently found out that Pedigree was offering to donate a 20 pound bag of food for every post about rescuing a dog. I don't need much prodding to talk about Scout and this was such a great idea that I had to participate. The following post was originally published on June 1st, 2010, a few days after we adopted Scout from a local shelter. She is now 5 1/2 months old, still melting our hearts, and stealing an occasional sock ;) Thanks for reading. More information can be found about Pedigree's campaign here, Write a Blog, Help a Dog!


We have added a new member to our family. She is sweet and spunky. We named her Scout, as in Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, she also fits the name with her impressive bug hunting abilities. She has already shown the yard who's boss by dominating over the smaller bushes and uprooting chunks of grass that have no business growing in her path.

The picture above was made by my sister in law, who has satellite adopted her. She is so much better at taking pictures and then making them even cuter with her creativity, so I happily bring Scout over as often as possible. The picture below is Scout with her cousin Bailey (my in laws dog). She already thinks she one of the big dogs :)

Don't let these sweet pictures fool you though. She is a mini terror. There is not a toe or ankle safe in our home. She sucks you in with her blueish/green eyes and when you're close enough she pounces with a look I can only explain as Gremlin like. The more you react and run from her the more she loves it. Upon first meeting her no one believes she could ever do anything but blink her puppy dog eyes, struggle to master the 2 steps into the house, and lie around chewing landscaping. We know better, she has reduced grown men to yiping, hopping, running for cover cowards (trust me, it's quite a sight).

Scout has been with us a week and she is fully embedded into the family. Each of my kids takes turns playing, walking her, and of course running from her razor sharp baby gremlin teeth (we have yet to evenly dole out the pooper scooping duties though). They are also proud to tell everyone who asks that she is a pound rescue.

Scout was one of 18 new puppies born in a local pet rescue. We had been talking about getting a dog for a while. Our local news does a Lost & Pound series every weekend that highlights some of the pets available for adoption. Last weekend they spotlighted some of her siblings and we knew it was time to add a new family member. The adoption process was thorough, but quick. We had to fill out an application, answering all kinds of questions about our home and family. We even had to give 3 non family references, which were called to make sure we would make good parents. We sent in our application on Saturday and received the green light on Tuesday to come on down and pick out a puppy.

If you are contemplating adding a new family member I hope that you consider adopting from a local pound. If you don't have the time to spend training a brand new pup like Scout you can choose an older dog. A good pound like, Bandits Place will pair you and your family with the perfect pet depending on your needs, space, and even allergies.

There are many puppies, dogs, rabbits, chickens, birds, and more available. If you are in the Connecticut area take a look at Bandits Place or enter your town and state in Pet Finder and let them find the perfect match for you.

Before I go check on Scout I wanted to say a special thanks to Liz Bennet, who runs Bandits Place, and all of the generous people who give their homes and hearts to animals in need of good, loving homes.

Thanks to all of you for stopping by to meet Scout.

Kristin : )

Scout (blank) Callender

Hi everyone. It's time for another Scout update. The above picture is of 2 month old (pre-puppiness syndrome) Scout and my daughter :) She is 3 months old now and has found her puppiness, which comes with sharp teeth and a few unpleasant offerings left in dark corners. Sure puppiness also comes with a lot of cute, fluffy, nuzzling stuff too, but that's not what I'm here to talk about now. I'm here to discuss those parts of puppies that dog lovers like to call "spunkiness, mischievous, or the infamous still learning stage."

As we continue to help her through this energetic (and possibly overfed) time I have found that her name (which I love and won't let my in laws change to Sprout. Yes they have tried) needs a little something extra. When she thinks it's great fun to run around me, nipping and occasionally catching a whole mouthful of my flesh, I find that shouting "Scout, NO!" isn't always enough. She seems to hear, Scout, NO... you're not biting hard enough and Scout, NO... you should not go to the bathroom while we stand outside for an hour, you should wait til we go back inside.

Now I proud myself as a problem solver, so I start thinking how do I solve this? The books I've looked at and many websites say your tone of voice should signal to your puppy if she has done something good or bad. Hey, that works with my kids, but after countless attempts and variations of tones I truly believe that Scout is tone deaf. She can't seem to tell the difference between our happy good girl voice and our angry stop what you are doing one. Although to her credit, she is fully conditioned to sit and give me her paw at the slightest potential of food being offered. And yes, I have tried to diffuse an overly energetic biting/playing session with food. It has had mixed reactions, sometimes she will sit and listen, but once her eyes glaze over and the Gremlin in her is released there is no getting through to her.

So, I sit and think again, read some more information published by people who have sparkling good puppies, and wonder how I have managed to raise four kids that don't bite and only occasionally miss the toilet. That's when it hits me. When all else fails, when my kids tune out my angry voice, there is a secret weapon I use. It's a weapon that has been passed down, generation to generation, and yet when used properly never loses its power to stop every kid in the neighborhood in their tracks and bring all eyes on the wayward child in question.

What is this awesome power? It's the dreaded middle name. You laugh, but every kid knows when their middle name is used something has gone terrible wrong, they have been nabbed beyond all reasonable doubt, and they scamper home to learn their consequence. (Well, maybe not scamper. It's more of a stompy sulk)

Why not try this power on Scout? This is where you come in. We need help coming up with a middle name for Scout. Something that will help her better distinguish when things have gone terribly wrong. So far we have had some interesting recommendations.

Some suggested middle names for Scout:

• Sprout (does make a cute middle name) (TY to my in laws)
  
• Bella (for her Vampire tendencies) (TY Dave & Amy)
  
• Gremlin ;)
  
• Ignatius (TY @Stinginthetail )
  
• Lee ( TY @amydaugustine )
  
• Scout-A-Roonie (TY @amydaugustine )
  
• Potato (TY @MrsWhich )
  
  

You can vote for one of these or add your own to the mix.

Please keep in mind, this is all in good fun. We are dealing with the same issues that all new puppy owners do and are just leaning on our sense of humor to get through it. Scout is well loved, exercised, and fed. So, with all due respect, if you are here to lecture me about proper pet care do me a favor and get your own puppy and call me in the morning ;) If you're here to help give our Scouty Pouty Pudding Pie who bit the kids and made them cry* a middle name, THANKS for your help and sense of humor.

Kristin : )

*That is what we sing to her now. With our singing, she is very lucky to be tone deaf ;)