Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

So obviously I'm a week late on the Christmas wishes, but today I finally got our Christmas letter and card converted into a digital format! This version might not be as personal as the one via US mail, but it's clearly superior because of the additional pictures and links. :) Enjoy!

December 18, 2013 

Merry Christmas, dear family and friends! 

We hope everyone is having a joyous holiday season that is full of merriment and void of stress. It's been a very blessed and often busy year at the Luce household, and it's so hard to believe that 2013 is already over. As you may have guessed from the pictures, we had a significant loss in our family this year as our dear dog Hope passed away. After a cancer diagnosis in June and many subsequent trips to K-State for chemotherapy, we let our sweet girl go on August 10. She was a fighter until the very end and never ceased to amaze us. We miss her loveable weirdness so much, but we know it was the right time—just before her 13th (or 14th or 15th) birthday. 

Fresco seemed sad at first but has adjusted very well to being an incredibly spoiled only dog.

We might start fostering again in the near future, but right now he has play dates and outings all over the city! In fact, today he's having a great time playing with our friends' dog Willy as I provide fill-in childcare for their toddler! 

This is one of the huge blessings of not having a regular job—getting to help out friends and family members in need whenever possible. I still volunteer once a month at the food pantry, but I stepped down from coordinating back in April to devote more time to my family and to the volunteer team I lead at church. I still spend 1-2 days in Topeka with my mom, continue to do portrait sessions for friends and had a wonderful trip to California wine country in April with a bunch of ladies I adore. Mom and I visited Eric and his girlfriend Jiffy in Los Angeles in July, and I walked the 60 mile 3-Day for the Cure for the 7th time in October—this time in Tampa. A few weeks later Chad and I went on vacation with my mom to New York City, where we saw a Broadway play and took in lots of the sites. We even met up with Eric and Jiffy there for a couple of days!

Chad also got to go on his annual pilgrimage to Florida this month to play golf with his friend Dante and a couple of other friends. He continues to golf every chance he gets—when he's not working or volunteering at church or watching sports or doing yard work! He just finished his 10th year at Westar and finished his term on the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce board. He's taking a few days off over the holidays and might even get to play a round of golf if the weather stays like it is today! The other thing on his “honey-do” list is to plan our next vacation—a big trip for our 20th anniversary in June! 

We are so incredibly blessed to have each other, such terrific families and so many dear friends—not a day goes by that we don't thank God for all He has given us. We were reminded what a gift each moment is in October when our friend Tiffany was killed in a car accident, just 18 months after she and our dear friend Mike were married. Life is so precious, and we pray that you and your loved ones treat each day as the wonderful blessing that it is. May you all find joy in the precious gift of Christmas as well. Much love, Kim (and Chad)  

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. --Isaiah 7:14

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

Today we're celebrating the 7th birthday of our sweet little man Fresco, although I'll admit I didn't actually look at the calendar and realize today was September 1 until this evening. Regardless, our munchkin still had a pretty good day. Our walk this morning got cut way short because of rain, but Fresco got some extra exercise this evening when we took him to the dog park--just his second visit ever. He had fun playing with a bunch of puppies and held his own during the game of chase. It was clear that he wasn't a puppy anymore though! Hopefully we'll become dog park regulars and Fresco will get better and better at coming back when he's called. His ears have turned off almost entirely during his first couple of visits!

Our little lanky guy is doing pretty well adjusting to being an only dog for the first time in his life, but he does seem a little bit depressed. Honestly, we thought he would be a little more excited about getting all the attention in the house. Maybe what seems to us like sulking is really just exhaustion, since we've been enjoying 4-5 mile walks most mornings. Hopefully some regular trips to the dog park will help his mood as well. Ultimately though, I think we'll start fostering again later in the fall, and hopefully that perfect addition to our family will eventually come along.

Five

Tonight we have a lucky pup sleeping right in between us, even though he's normally only allowed at the foot of the bed. It's a special occasion though, because today is our boy Fresco's birthday! He didn't get much of a party today, so tonight he's getting some special snuggle treatment. He did also get a special photo session earlier this evening, as you can see from the handsome photo. Since it was over 100 degrees today, he was hot and panting when he came inside--which meant that I got some lovely smiles.

Although Fresco also got a special doggie sandwich cookie made with homemade biscuits and peanut butter this evening, he was a little bummed that he didn't get a walk today. Since we walked over 3.5 miles last night, I didn't worry too much about walking this morning, especially since I was busy driving a friend to the airport. I think he felt a little slighted! Our big guy loves his daily walks, and 3.5 miles is definitely not enough to wear him out. Even though he's now five years old, he's not showing any signs of slowing down!

With that said, although he still has tons of energy for walks, our sweet man has matured in so man other ways in the 4 years since we started fostering him, and even in the 3+ years since we adopted him. He is much more calm when people come over--his manners with guests have improved greatly. He is still excitable about people and dogs walking by our house, but even that has improved a great deal! He still has his quirks and tiny issues, but overall he's just a big lanky lump of doggy love. We just couldn't adore this snuggly pup much more.

Of course, since I shared a picture of Fresco on Hope's birthday then I have to do the same for our sweet girl today. Although I have to say she wasn't quite as into the photo session as the birthday boy. :)

The Whites

Now that Celtic Watch 2011 has ended so happily, I can actually get back to blogging about our regular mundane life. Namely, I can blog about our laundry--in particular, the whites. Exciting, I know. This is what happens in our house when you sort the laundry on the closet floor but haven't had the chance to actually put said laundry into the washer.


The laundry becomes Hope's dog bed, despite the fact that there are three other dog beds within a 20 foot radius. This just in: Hope is weird.

There's one other thing that happens in our house when you leave the dirty whites unattended.

Celtic turns dirty socks into coveted toys, carrying them all over the house, hiding them from Fresco and Hope, and treating them like little stuffed animals. It's weird too, but so darn adorable. Clearly he's feeling way better.

Since I like to try and give my pups equal face time on the blog, I have to share an equally adorable picture of our baby Fresco, even though it has nothing to do with the laundry. This totally looks staged, I know, but the other day when we had all these extra blankets in the bedroom from my night on the floor with Celtic, I was using one on the bed and Fresco was laying next to me. When I got up and threw the blanket off myself, Fresco somehow ended up like this.


Seriously, could he be any cuter? He laid there wrapped up in the blanket until Chad pulled it off his face. He's such an agreeable little munchkin!

Birthday Baby

Today we're celebrating the 4th birthday of our lanky little man Fresco, and I use the word "celebrating" in the loosest sense of the word, since we did absolutely nothing special for him at all today! He's such a poor, neglected little guy.

The funny thing is that earlier this evening Chad mentioned that Fresco seemed a little dejected, which I attributed to me yelling at Hope and Celtic yesterday after work when they were jumping around like spazzoids before I got their dinner ready. Fresco is so sensitive to the emotions of either other dogs or humans, he was definitely more upset and worried about his siblings getting into trouble than they were, and he even seemed like he was still walking on eggshells a little this morning. I just thought maybe his concern was still lingering this evening, but then while we were outside for a couple of hours trying to pull up the evil, spider-like weed that's threatening to take over our entire yard, it suddenly hit me that his birthday (observed) is today! He was probably just depressed that his parents didn't even remember!

Unlike with his sister, we actually do know that Fresco is four this year and we know he was born in late August or early September. Since we already had a couple of August birthdays in the family, we picked September 1 as his official day of celebration--except that we forgot to celebrate!

Although our youngest munchkin didn't get a party, I assure you that he is probably one of the most loved pups on the planet. He is so sweet and so incredibly affectionate he will win over just about anyone he meets, just like he did when I first spent the day with him over 3 years ago. This little man was clearly destined to be part of our family, and we wouldn't trade him for the world. How can you resist that adorable face and those goofy long legs?

Good Dog

Since I gave Celtic bonus face time the other day, I need to give our youngest a little extra online love today as well. Our youngest but biggest munchkin is such a wonderful doggy I just have to sing his praises a little bit. First of all, I completely missed his birthday (observed) on September 1 because we were so consumed with Hope's visit to the surgeon. Our sweet little guy turned 3 years old around that day--I can't believe he's an adult already!

I obviously wanted to wish Fresco a happy b-day, but I also have to share a couple of recent stories to prove how wonderful he is. The first one is from the other day when we were leaving for the first KU game of the season. The little man is still kenneled while we're gone, which we started after he ate the corner of the coffee table last summer, and which we've continued because he really seems to be comfortable in his kennel. He will open the door to let himself in when we're getting ready to leave, and sometimes he'll sleep in his kennel at night just for the heck of it. So the other day when we were getting ready to leave and he could sense it, he just went to his kennel to lay down and wait. It was so sweet I had to take a picture!

The other story is from Labor Day, when Chad and I were bringing in the last of the moving boxes from the garage into the basement. Chad had walked into the house through the garage with an armful of boxes, and since his arms were full he reached back with his foot to close the door behind him. We both went downstairs to put the boxes in storage, and about 5 minutes later we came back upstairs to find the door to the garage wide open with the garage door up--the door to the garage hadn't latched! I heard Chad yell "Oh no!!" and then run out into the garage, where he found an unleashed and uncollared Fresco, who was just wandering around the garage sniffing everything. Had he decided to run, he could have been a half mile away by the time we got upstairs, but our wonderful little man stayed put without any prompting at all. Now I'm sure if he'd seen a cat or dog or person or rabbit or squirrel or any moving creature out in our front yard he would have taken off, but lucky for us, there wasn't much activity in our neighborhood that morning!

Oh--and one more thing: when he doesn't sleep in his kennel, our youngest pup likes to put himself to bed in our closet, where we've opted to put a dog bed so that he'll quit pulling sweatshirts off the shelves to sleep on. How cute is this little guy?

While our lanky little man still has a few issues, for the most part he's well-adjusted, especially considering the first year of his life was so difficult. We love our sweet little Hoxer (Hound/Boxer) and couldn't be happier that he came to be part of our family!

Patience on a Roller Coaster

This week has definitely had its ups and downs. After having showings of our house the first two days it was on the market, we had a couple of days with no appointments, and we were totally bummed about it. Then on Tuesday, we had two showings and a Realtor walk through, so we were super excited! Then on Wednesday, some of the people who saw the house on Tuesday wanted to come back for a second showing, so we were downright elated! We were so hopeful that they would make an offer on the house on Thursday, but alas--no offer came. Our Realtor never heard from theirs, so we're guessing they decided this wasn't the house for them. Our roller coaster plummeted.

So today, we spent the whole day getting ready for tomorrow, which will be our first (and hopefully only) open house. We did yard work, touched up paint, bought new kitchen rugs and doormats, and finished up a few other random projects here and there. One of the areas I worked on was the basement stairwell, which I actually touched up the first time last week. It looked so spotty and splotchy after I just painted the dings and spots, I wasn't happy with the result at all, so today I ended up painting everything from the railing down. It looks much better now, no thanks to my little helper Fresco, who insisted on coming downstairs with me when I was at the bottom of the stairs, and running back up the stairs as soon as I got near the top. He's such a sweet little boy who wants to be near us at all times, but when we're in the midst of painting projects, that's not always the most helpful thing in the world.

Later in the afternoon, we were all sitting on the patio enjoying the beautiful weather, when we noticed something a little odd.


In case you don't notice anything unusual, let me give you a close up.



Uh, yeah. I guess on one of those trips down the stairs, our little helper got a little too close to the wall. :)

You Don't See That Every Day

The last few days it's been really cold here, but last Saturday it was absolutely gorgeous outside. Chad and I took the 3 mutts for our regular 1.5 mile walk, after which I took Fresco for another 3.5 miles so that he and I could get a little extra exercise and enjoy the unseasonably warm temperatures. For him to walk 5 miles didn't seem like a big deal since a) he's only 2, and b) when we first started fostering him back in 2007 he walked 9 miles with me in one day. I guess he's pretty out of shape right now though, because with just over a half mile left in our walk he about yanked my arm off when he came to an abrupt stop. I turned around to find him collapsing in a heap in a tiny spot of shade he'd found on the sidewalk! He was pooped! I let him rest for a few minutes and then made him move on to a more appropriate resting spot under a tree (that wasn't in front of someone's house) where we enjoyed about a 5 minute break. It seemed strange that he would get overheated when it was only like 55 degrees out, but he was certainly wiped out!

The other funny thing that happened on our walk was so odd that I really wish I had a picture to prove it actually happened. For someone who has so many darned cameras, I never seem to have one at the right moment! As we were walking along, we saw a girl turn onto the street a few blocks in front of us, and she was clearly not out for exercise as she was wearing jeans and carrying a purse. We followed behind her at a slightly quicker pace, so we began to gain ground after a while, and a few minutes later I realized she wasn't just carrying a purse--she also had a large iguana draped around the back of her neck. He was so big that his (or her) tail was hanging all the way down the girl's back. Where in the world do you walk to with an iguana sitting on your shoulder? I guess maybe your friend's house? It was just strange because the girl was clearly old enough to drive, which would seem like a safer method of transportation for Mr. Iguana!

I tried really hard to catch up with her so I could ask her about her lizard friend, but she quickened her pace as she glanced back and saw us approaching. It probably wouldn't have been a good idea for us to pass her, since Fresco was certainly tall enough to reach out and grab that tail had he noticed it was there. She was probably smart to peel off onto a side street just before we reached her, and yet it left me so curious! You just don't see people out walking their iguanas every day!

Happy LaborBirthday

I hope everyone has thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful Labor Day! As Chad and I are celebrating a day of not working, we are also celebrating the very special 2nd birthday of our very own Fresco Luce. I just realized that our dear little puppy doesn't even have a middle name--I need to work on that. Anyway, most everyone knows the story of how Fresco came to be part of our family, so I won't go into detail, but let me just say that this amazingly loving, amazingly goofy, amazingly smart guy could not be much more important to us! At least once a week, Chad and I have a conversation about how happy we are that we rescued him. He was so worth it. :)

As anyone who has visited our home knows, Fresco is the happiest when he's the center of your world, so it's always a bit of a struggle for us to give all three dogs the attention they crave and deserve. Fresco makes it darn easy though because he's just so darn lovable. This morning I awoke to a his sleepy little eyes staring me right in the face as his head lay right on my pillow.

One of Fresco's most adorable habits is his preference to have one limb hanging off the bed at all times. I have no idea why in the world he insists on doing this, but it's so flippin' funny. Here are some pictures I took a couple of weeks ago to just show off his adorableness. Notice that he's also quite the contortionist. Since he's only 2 he's still very flexible!






You can pretend not to notice how much dog hair is on our bed!

Recovery in Pictures

Thanks to everyone who asked about Fresco yesterday and today! He definitely started feeling better this evening, so hopefully that medicine is starting to work. Here is his recovery in pictures.

Yesterday he was doped up on medicine:

Today at lunch he seemed a little more normal:
This evening he was ready to eat, wrestle and walk--all the things he normally loves to do!
His guts are still clearly not completely straightened out, but hopefully that will all get back to normal soon!

Since Fresco got so much face time tonight and since my blog's been a little light on the pictures in the last few posts, I thought I'd better also share some great pictures I took of Fresco's siblings today!




How cute are they??! :)

What IS It With Our Dogs???

If you're not a dog person and/or don't have a strong stomach, I'd highly recommend not reading this post. It could get a little gruesome. Dog poop and dog vomit really aren't the most pleasant topics of conversation.

I'm sitting here waiting for the vet to call me back. Between Chad and I, we've talked to 4 different vets today in two different clinics, all about problems our poor baby Fresco is having. His issues actually started on Saturday, when I came home in the afternoon and let him outside, only to see him eating grass and making himself barf. Having seen a lot of barfing dogs in our day, we didn't think too much about it. When he threw up again on Sunday and then wouldn't eat, we started to get worried. Then Monday came and he ate just fine and seemed completely normal. On Tuesday, he refused breakfast and was barfing again at lunch, so Chad took him to our vet, who thought he'd just eaten something that didn't agree with him (like something in the yard that maybe he wasn't supposed to eat). The vet gave him a shot for nausea and some special dog food (oh, and expressed his anal glands just for fun [okay that's not really fun but Fresco's have been getting clogged a lot and I'm certainly not going to stick my finger in his rear to do it]) and sent him on his merry way.

Here's where the story gets really gross (as if talking about expressing anal glands wasn't gross enough for you). After getting home from the vet Fresco went poop, and let's just say that it wasn't normal. I won't go into the details of what Chad said it looked like, but it was red and extremely disgusting looking. Chad called the vet back, who for some reason wasn't alarmed--he thought maybe it was just mucus left over from his clogged anal glands. Maybe the vet tech didn't really relay to the vet what Chad described--we aren't sure--but they told him not to bring in a stool sample (can you still call it a stool sample when they don't use the stool?).

Fresco seemed to feel fine yesterday, and even though he was still having abnormal bowel issues (which thankfully all happened outside where they were supposed to), we didn't worry because he ate fine and was his normal, happy self. Then this morning when the alarm went out at 6 a.m. he rushed outside before eating and tried to poop, but was clearly having a difficult time doing so. After several attempts (some successful) he came inside and I tried to give him the special sick tummy canned food from the vet, and he wouldn't even eat it. He sat down on the floor for a minute and then got up, and low and behold (as my mom would say) there was blood all over the carpet. I just about panicked. I grabbed the phone and reached for the vet's number as he sat down and made a second spot all over the floor. As I sent him outside while trying to call the vet he dripped all over the kitchen, then all over the patio. I tried not to freak out as I got the vet's answering service and asked them to page one of our vets. This is the response I got, "Well Dr. Coles and Dr. Bayouth aren't on call, and there is a vet on call, but she's referring patients to the emergency clinic in Overland Park." WHAT??? Can someone please explain to me what the point is of having a vet ON CALL who isn't taking any CALLS? What is with this town and their lazy veterinarians!!! How can a town of 80,000 people not have a 24-hour vet!! It is so frustrating!!

Okay, Dr. Coles just called me back, just so you know. Even though I have other things I should be doing, I guess since I'm here I will go ahead and finish the story.

Upon learning that I needed to leave town in order to take my dog to the vet, I went and woke Chad, who made the quickest exit from bed that I've ever seen in 14 years of marriage when I told him Fresco was bleeding out his rear. We gathered towels and leashes and a poop sample and I headed out the door to Topeka, because it's a tiny bit closer and we loved the Stone House Animal Hospital there, where we took Steeler the night he passed away. Anyway, Chad called them and let them know I was on the way, and while I drove a little faster than normal, I didn't go too crazy since the bleeding had really slowed and Fresco didn't really seem to be in distress.

I was so happy that we saw Dr. Carder, who is the wonderful man who tried to save our baby Steeler almost two years ago. Fresco was so funny--he loved Dr. Carder so much and was laying in his lap within seconds. After an examanation of Fresco and a an examination of the fecal sample, Dr. Carder diagnosed Fresco has having colitis and gave him a shot of some sort of crazy painkiller for his cramps and pain. He said the bloody poops we were seeing were from the infection in his colon. He gave me some more meds for his pain and infection, and I headed home.

Unfortunately, I took Fresco back to our vet here in town again just a few hours ago because he was still pooping gross stuff and was so doped up from the painkiller that I couldn't tell if he was even breathing every time I turned around to look at him. Dr. Coles gave him a injection of fluids (which they can just give subcutaneously and don't have to do through an IV) because he was dehydrated, but then sent us home, thinking that the medicines would start taking effect relatively quickly.

Of course, since there always has to be dog drama at our house, I had to call Dr. Coles back a few minutes later because Fresco proceeded to walk outside and barf up a whole bunch of water, even though he didn't drink much at all! The vet told me not to worry too much because sometimes drinking water on an empty upset stomach can do that, but I have to say I'm still pretty stressed out and worried. This poor guy is having a terribly rough time of it!

I need to run to the store and start cleaning house for the gathering we're having tonight, so I guess I just need to get brave and leave him alone for a few minutes. I'm just so worried about him. Can you say overprotective?

Fresco's Adoption

I almost added the story of Fresco's adoption to my post about Mutt 'n' Strut yesterday, since technically both of these things happened on Saturday. We've actually known about Fresco's adoption for quite some time, but it didn't become official until this weekend.

I guess the story of our foster dog Fresco actually started over a year ago, when I took him to an adoption event in Kansas City after getting to know him at the shelter during the previous four months. I completely fell in love with him, so I was very pleased when he got adopted about a week later, and devastated when he was returned to the shelter about 3 months after that. We brought him home as our foster dog last August in order to save him from being put down, and then found a home for him in early October. In December, Fresco was returned to the shelter again, after having problems with the other dog in his new home. After another month at the shelter (in which he was supposed to be working on his behavioral issues with the trainer), we once again brought Fresco home with us to keep him from being euthanized.

During his last stint in doggy jail, the trainer who was supposed to be working with Fresco insisted that he was in need of years of professional help (clearly she was not a fan of Fresco), so we didn't immediately start marketing our foster dog like we'd done during his previous visit. We decided we would instead try to honor her wishes and get Fresco into a training class with some other dogs to work on his social skills. Our plan was to start the marketing campaign after he graduated, which we never actually got around to doing, because his future family became interested in him a couple of months prior to that.

While his adoption didn't become official until a couple of days ago, last weekend the process actually got started. Here's a picture from last Sunday:


Notice anything different about him? Here's a close up in case you missed it.

If you can't read it, that's Fresco's new tag, with his new last name. We bought it last weekend and then signed the adoption contract yesterday. We are officially Fresco's forever family. :)

To most of our friends who've seen Fresco at our home, this is not a huge surprise. It was obvious to everyone that we had bonded tightly to our little foster boy. The staff at the shelter joked about us keeping him long before we actually planned to, even suggesting that he purposely got kicked out of his previous homes in order to come back and live with us. I actually realized very soon after his arrival in January that we were going to have a hard time parting with him, but I had every intention of us doing so until the day in mid March when Chad took this picture:


How could we separate these cute little peas in a pod? This closeness of the dogs was really the major difference between Fresco's first stay and his second. During the first foster-go-round, Celtic was very unhappy. We loved Fresco then and often said we would keep him if it weren't for our "firstborn" Celtic. Hope and Fresco bonded through hours of wrestling, but Celtic was usually left out. He lost attention from us and attention from his sister because of the new puppy, and he was clearly depressed about it. This time was different, and strangely enough, I think it had a lot to do with the weather. Since Hope hates the cold, while she was snuggled up in bed the entire winter, Fresco and Celtic were outside sniffing around together and really bonding. They became such good buddies, and Fresco always let his older, smaller brother be in charge and be the leader. I began to worry as much about Celtic missing Fresco as I did about us missing Fresco!

Chad took a little bit longer to come around to the idea of keeping our lanky boy. It wasn't until Fresco was about half way through his training class that Chad asked me one day, "So when Fresco's done with his class are we going to start looking for a home for him?" When I replied that this was, in fact, the plan, Chad said "I don't know if we can do that." For a while after that we just ignored the subject, but by the middle of April we'd come out and admitted that Fresco was where he was meant to be. It just didn't seem fair to ship him off to another home when he'd already been in so many in his short 18 month life!

So we are once again a three dog family. While we're very happy about our new addition, it's also a little disappointing that we failed to find homes for our last two foster dogs! :)

The Graduate

The bad news of yesterday morning was thankfully followed by a more joyful evening. I'm proud to announce that our foster dog Fresco graduated from his basic obedience class last night. For the last 6 weeks, Fresco and I have been attending this course at Petco every Monday, and I must say we both learned so much during our training!

When I signed us up a few months ago, I wasn't actually very confident that a Petco class would teach either of us anything we didn't already know. Fresco could already sit, shake, stay and lay down on command. He knew what come meant too, although he was fairly selective about when he chose to do respond, depending on his level of distraction (clearly he is part hound). I wasn't sure he would learn anything new, but the trainer at the shelter insisted that he could not be adopted unless he received training from a professional, so I decided to give in to her demands. Since the only real problem we were having with Fresco was his excitability when he saw other dogs on our walks, my goal going into the training was to get him some experience being around other dogs while on a leash.

Clearly my expectations of the class weren't very high, but I'm the first to admit that I completely underestimated the quality of our training! The instructor, Colleen, was an amazingly knowledgeable, helpful and patient teacher. She had all sorts of tricks to help teach the dogs various commands, all using positive reinforcement with lots of treats. It was certainly different than what you'd see on the Dog Whisperer, but effective none the less!

On our first day of class, Fresco was excited to meet all of his classmates, but did so in a fairly calm manner. Colleen couldn't understand what I was talking about when I said he would flip out with excitement when he saw a strange dog since he'd initially met up with everyone so politely. Then a large black lab named Benji came into class a few minutes late, and Benji was clearly nervous about approaching all of the already gathered strange dogs. Fresco then demonstrated his excited mode perfectly for Colleen, jumping up and down and barking hysterically as Benji came into the training area. Colleen said she thought Fresco's behavior was more of a reaction--that he was reacting to the stress Benji was obviously feeling, which was why certain dogs made him crazy while calmer dogs didn't. Her diagnosis was basically that he was just overly sensitive to other dogs' emotions, but in all six weeks of class she never saw any aggressive behavior in him at all. In fact, he would completely submit to his friends Havoc and Benji in their playtime after class, which Colleen always found very admirable and impressive! It always made me laugh since the LHS trainer had given him all sorts of labels like dominant/aggressive and possessive/aggressive. He is nothing of the sort at home or in class, and now I have Colleen's expert opinion to back me up on it!

So last night at graduation I invited Chad to come watch Fresco in action and also take a few pictures of the event. Each dog had to do a series of six commands: sit/stay, down/stay, close (heel), come, leave it, and wait. Fresco did so awesome! I thought he was definitely the most obedient in the class and an objective observer (okay, maybe Chad isn't so objective) agreed! Many of the "parents" had to try multiple times to complete one of tests or had to give the command multiple times, but there was only one time I had to do a quick do-over. That was because I didn't give the wait command quite quickly enough, so it wasn't even Fresco's fault at all. Even Colleen said he was extremely focused last night!

Here's him performing his down/stay.


Here's the baby of the class, Nikita, getting treats after one of her tests. I love the looks on everyone else's faces...everyone looks so proud!



After we all completed the 6 commands we learned in class, we each had to do a "stupid pet trick" that we'd worked on during the six week period, to show Colleen that we could train our dog without her help as well. Three of the five dogs in the class shook hands, which was cute but kind of predictable, so I practiced something more unique and exciting with Fresco. I was a little nervous since we'd been practicing on carpet and Petco only has a slick tile floor, but he performed like a champ! Check him out!

I love the looks on the faces of the other parents behind me in this picture!! I think everyone was impressed!

I was so proud of our big baby Fresco last night, and I think Chad was too. He proved to everyone what a smart, well-behaved and adoptable dog he is!!

Fresco's Photo Session

I've kind of been slacking on the old blog posts the last few days, and I really don't have an excuse since I had the entire day off on Monday for MLK Day. I was kind of a sloth and slept way in that morning, but in my defense, I spent several hours of my afternoon volunteering at the humane society, taking pictures and videos of the adoptable dogs in the freezing cold. That was probably kind of a silly way to spend my vacation day, but then again I don't really claim to be normal.

Speaking of adoptable dogs, I wanted to share some new pictures of our sweet little boy Fresco. I've been snapping shots of him like crazy in the 11 days since he's been home, trying to capture his loving and snuggly personality. I can't even begin to describe how great he's been doing since he got here. He has matured so much in the last few months I can hardly believe it, but then again, I guess maybe he's been through so many traumatic changes lately he's been forced to grow up rather quickly!

The biggest change we've seen in Fresco's behavior is with regard to his interaction with Hope. When he was here last fall, all he wanted to do was wrestle with his foster sister. These days, she tries and tries to get him to wrestle, but all he does is run away from her! I don't exactly know why, but he wants no part of Hope's advances. I feel kind of bad that he won't wrestle since they had so much fun and got such good exercise in their previous matches, but it's also very nice that we're not having to send them outside all the time since it's freezing cold!

Fresco's been doing so well in so many other areas too. He's had no accidents in the house even though for the last month he'd been having to potty in his kennel at the shelter. He's had no "arguments" with either of the dogs over toys or food, in fact, when I took this picture tonight it was the first time he'd even played with any toys. Hope has even been trying to instigate fights with him by throwing her toys all over the floor in front of him and playing with them, but he won't even pick one up in front of her. It's so weird. He's doing well on his basic commands: sit and shake (which we worked on last time he was here), stay and come (which he worked on with his most recent family), lay down and off (which he's been working on this week). He's been a perfect little gentleman except for the couple of times I've caught him "pre-washing" dirty dishes I've left in the sink. He's so tall he can just put his paws up and lean right into the sink to lick them, and his amazingly sensitive nose just can't seem to resist doing so when no one is around!

It's so weird that he's so much better behaved than he was before. My theories are that a) the vet who came to do a neurological assessment of him at the trainer's suggestion (Dr. King) is actually a pet communicator too, and she told him he'd better be on his best behavior in his new home or else (okay, I'll admit that's really far-fetched), or b) he finally associated his bad behavior with "the slammer" and is on his best behavior so he doesn't have to go back, or c) he's just matured a lot in the last few months, or d) he's just tired after a month of spinning around and jumping around in his kennel at the shelter and sleeping in his own poop (which is Chad's theory). Who knows, maybe it's just a combination of factors. Regardless, we are so thankful for his good behavior and so happy to have him here!

I still need to convince the shelter director and trainer that he is an adoptable dog, since the trainer's opinion is that he would need years of professional training before being able to go to a new permanent home. That's like a running joke with us--every time he's snuggled up and laying in our laps we have to laugh about how "unadoptable" he is. He will be so perfect for someone who can shower him with the attention that he craves, and who has no other dogs of whom he will start getting jealous! First in my arsenal of evidence for his "adoptability" is his new photo album, which has pictures from his first stay with us last fall and new ones from his current visit. Check out what a handsome boy he is!

Three Dog Night

Tonight there is an extra puppy in our bedroom. Not a new dog or a visiting canine friend, but a more familiar furry face to our family. Today marked the return of our former foster dog Fresco, who we are fostering once again. Early last month, Fresco was taken back to the shelter after his second failed adoption. Initially, we were reluctant to bring him home again, thinking maybe the best option would be for him to be at the shelter, where the trainer there could work with him on some of his behavioral problems. Unfortunately, during the last month he hasn't gotten nearly the attention and exercise at the shelter that he needed. He became more and more agitated and hyper in his kennel, to the point that the trainer thought he was crazy and the director thought he was unadoptable. They wanted to put him down (again), so I begged my husband and begged the director at the shelter, who both agreed that we could foster him again and give him one more chance for a successful adoption.

So far, his first day back has been a good one. He's been very well behaved, calm and loving--everything we know he can be.

I think our boy is happy to be home. :)

Goodbye Baby, Hello Brother

We said goodbye to our little baby Fresco today. We're going to miss him so much! We took a few family pictures before we went to the shelter to meet his new family. I just hope they end up loving him as much as we do!


Just over an hour after Fresco left for his new home, we welcomed my brother Eric to Kansas for a weekend visit. I'm always happy to have him here, but it's even nicer to have him here this weekend to help me forget about missing Fresco!

Yea Brother! :)

Happy and Sad All at the Same Time

Today we got the wonderful news that one of the potential families for Fresco with whom we met over the weekend has been approved to adopt him! We're so happy, yet so sad at the same time! We feel great about the family, who has a big yellow lab named Riley who seemed to enjoy his wrestling match with Fresco during their visit. They also have two very active young boys with whom Fresco enjoyed galloping around the yard. He will be an inside member of the family, but they have tall fenced backyard so that Fresco will stay safely on their property when he goes out! I really think it's the perfect situation for him!

With that said, Chad and I are still very sad to see him go. He is such a loving and goofy guy who has brought such joy to our lives in so many ways. Although it will be nice to get back to being a two dog household, we'll still miss him so much. Thankfully, I think we'll have a better chance of getting regular updates because his new "mom" Kelly is an acquaintance of ours from high school. Better yet, Kelly recently started her own photography business, so there shouldn't be any shortage of pictures of Fresco with his new family!

Lights, Camera, Action!

If you're reading this right now, you probably know me well enough to have received my mass email the other night about Fresco. If you clicked on any of the links I provided, you probably noticed that in addition to my videos of Fresco on our Picasa page, Fresco now has his own video on his Petfinder ad! Pretty cool, huh? It's a new feature that Petfinder just added this week, and now everyone who clicks his link will get to check out our adorable little goofball in action. I'm looking forward to capturing some video clips of the shelter residents as well, and my goal is to get at least one of them filmed each week, starting with those who've been there the longest. I really think this is going to help those harder to place dogs find forever families, because video captures their personalities so much better.

While I can barely edit my video to make them presentable, another nearby shelter has gone to great lengths to create awesome professional-looking videos of their dogs. I can't even imagine the time/resources this took--they are so great. You have to check these videos out! They will definitely bring a smile to your face.

My video clips will certainly pale in comparison, but I think some video is better than no video! Oh, and in case you're wondering, the mass email about Fresco the other night did some good! We have two appointments with potential families for him on Friday! :)

P.O.A. Step 3

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about taking step two in my marketing campaign to help get Fresco adopted. I actually ended up not getting step two finished at all, but instead ended up doing step one twice: I updated Fresco's Petfinder page that week, and then updated it again over the weekend. What I most recently altered in this online description was the reference to the date Fresco originally came to the shelter, which was November 2006. Based on the fact that not a single person had emailed us after seeing his Petfinder ad, I decided that people must be prejudiced against him because of how long he'd been in the doggie orphanage. It sounds silly, but it actually happens at the LHS all the time. The shelter often houses perfectly wonderful dogs who get overlooked for a month or so for whatever reason (had a pending application that fell through, had a crazy roommate, was a common color, etc.), and after people start seeing how long the dog has been there, they just start assuming there must be something wrong with it. Fresco was one of those dogs when he was at the shelter, and I suspected that this phenomenon was still occurring even though he'd moved out of the shelter! So over the weekend I tested my theory and took out the reference to his November 2006 arrival and just mentioned that he'd come to stay with us in August. Voila! We've since had three emails from people who saw him on Petfinder! We're in the process of scheduling meetings with a couple of them. We're not entirely sure either home is the perfect one for Fresco, but we're excited that people are finally starting to show some interest!

The step in my plan of action that I never got done was sending an email out to everyone I know to share a link to Fresco's publicity flier. I put that step on hold until I could get around to loading some more pictures and videos of our dear puppy online. He's so freaking cute you just have to check these out. I have a couple of other videos that are much better, but they're also too large to load onto Picasa. I need to find some freeware that will allow me to convert the video files to something smaller!

The way I'm frantically trying to get Fresco adopted, you'd think he was a terrible burden or we didn't like him or something. The fact is, we adore him. We are having a hard time imagining our family without him, but we know our little man Celtic will be happier to have more of our attention all to himself. Hope, on the other hand, will be devastated when Fresco is gone. They are such good wrestling buddies. The bottom line is that the longer he stays at our house, the harder it's going to be to say goodbye to him! So if I seem a little frantic about getting him adopted, it's only because I'm trying to save us all some heartache!

P.O.A. Step 2

Tonight I've been working on step 2 in my "Get Fresco Adopted" plan of action. Yesterday I updated his Petfinder page to make him sound even more desirable, and tonight I've updated his "publicity flier" (which I created a few weeks ago but never got around to actually sending out to anyone) and uploaded it onto the web so I can send out a link to everyone I know. I've printed a few copies that I'll post at my two offices, so hopefully someone, somewhere will fall in love with those sweet hound dog eyes like we have! How can you resist that adorable face??!!