Coldspring, Shelter Pets, Star Hill

If You Can’t Commit Don’t Get A Pet

I got the following message from my lake house neighbor Thursday night: “ FYI, you and Hubby have a new dog. A white spotted one that has been living on your porch since at least Mon. He has a routine of spending part of the afternoon in your side yard in the sun, but early mornings and evening, he camps inside the fence and bays. Yes, bays, he’s loud and I’m sure nothing has been able to get anywhere near your property since he arrived.
Translation: Someone dumped a poor defenseless dog at your empty home. In winter. With it expected to snow and the temperature to be below freezing for several days. No food. No water.
I do not know the dog dumper but I will go on record saying I do not like this person. When we arrived Friday afternoon with snow on the ground and temperatures in the 20’s there was a shivering, hungry scared 30 pound mostly grown puppy on our porch.
snow on the ground
There was snow on the ground

snow on the steps

paw prints in the snow
When we got to the house we could not see the dog, but the footprints were in the snow on the porch.

dog dumped
By the time we unloaded the truck she showed up.

We spent the morning Saturday trying to find a no kill shelter. We have a 15-year-old Pomeranian who has congestive heart failure and other issues. We also have an 11-year-old cat who hates every dog on the planet. We learned after talking to three shelters in the county that they were all full. We spent the weekend trying to figure it all out. She is a sweet-natured dog who has definitely lived with a family. You can see where a collar once was around her neck. She knows how to sit, can play fetch, can ride in the truck without problems,responds to basic commands- as well as any 8 or 9 month old will. In short, she wrapped herself around our hearts. I have an idea that she was a super cute little puppy who grew, jumped, chewed, and had more energy than the owners wanted to deal with. Puppies this big do those things a lot.

People, please make sure you can deal with a dog before you get one. Before you bring that little puppy home make sure you have the time, patience, and finances to take on the responsibility. Ask questions,

We are not sure how it is going to work, but we are willing to give the girl a home if she can tolerate the backyard in the suburbs. Thankfully we have patient neighbors who have already met her. A “Hubby made” dog house is in our near future, there is a trip to the groomer, and vet next week and I think we now will not have an excuse to miss our walks. We are not going to be the only one needing our exercise. We will be spending a lot of time working on her barking. She definitely has some bird dog in her and sounds like she is on the hunt when she gets excited.

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Update:  We named the sweet girl Lumi, which means snow in Finnish.  She is a total house dog and has taken to crate training like a champ.  She went to the vet where they agreed she is between 8 and 10 months old, so not fully grown.  She loves to play fetch and will go after her tennis ball until she just about cannot walk.  She has learned to drop it at my feet and knows where we keep the ball.  I left one tennis ball where she could reach it and found it in about 20 pieces on the floor.   If I ask her if she wants to go outside, she runs to where the ball is and waits.  The rest of the creatures at our house are getting accustomed to her…slowly.

lumi tennis ball
The tennis ball. Or should I say the former tennis ball.
lumi
Chew sticks make it about 2 hours at our house.

Charlotte NC, Christmas, DIY Art, Maeby, North Carolina, painting, Shelter Pets

Rustic Dog Silhouette

I have a grand-dog.  She is a sweet-tempered rescue pup named Maeby and lives with The Southern Belle and Big Cat in North Carolina.

Maeby

What do you get a dog for Christmas who has everything she wants? I mean she has all the belly rubs, walks, chew toys and snacks a girl could dream of.  She is even famous.  Her pretty face is on the cover of Pawblo Picasso custom pet portraits. 

That is her on the left side.  The happy one!

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She really is a happy dog.  Her parents love adore her and have a commissioned painting of her pretty face.  Recently I was cleaning out a stack of old pictures (under our bed) and ran across this silhouette of me in like third grade.  It got me thinking.  I remembered that I had a picture of Maeby in portrait.

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An idea formed in my little brain.  A rustic silhouette on barn wood of Miss Maeby.

 

Hubby cut the boards to roughly the same length.  He wanted to clean up the edge but I wanted it to look rough.  I painted it my favorite off white, Cinnamon Cake by Behr then sanded the hound out of it to make the wood show through.  Next, I glazed the boards with Behr Faux Effects mixed with just a little Behr Revival Mahogany.  I wanted another layer so I wiped it all down with dark walnut stain.  I liked the look of the wood enough that I could have just stopped at this point really, but the next step was to print the photo of Maeby on an overhead transparency sheet.  If I had a projector that would project the picture straight on the wall that would have been awesome.  I don’t.  I do have access to an overhead projector.  ( Check out school district auctions, they go on sale all the time for a few bucks.)

Shine it up on the wood, trace then fill in with charcoal colored paint.

overhead

Sounded good huh?  I hated the first attempt.  Well, I thought I did anyway.  It took a few days and looking at the picture to realize that  I really needed to rough up the portrait a little to match the background.

I still want to do a different picture that is all of her but this one makes a presentable present for her Christmas present now.

dog silhouette

Soooo what do you think?

I know for sure that Maeby does not read my blog so if you see her, don’t spoil the surprise.

One Christmas present done.

Charlotte NC, Maeby, Shelter Pets

The Luckiest Dog in the World

Miss Maeby Smithson-Wood won the lottery.  When The Southern Belle and her fella decided to get a dog they felt strongly that a shelter dog would be in their lives.  The big guy wanted a big dog, The Southern Belle wanted a more petite pup.  They decided to go look for a pet at a local shelter.  A hairy white and black dog decided that she wanted to be their pet.  She won them over and all I can say is WHAT A SMART DOG!  The Carolina Kids found out that this sweet pup was left when a family moved away.  She had spent time with a golden retriever, but someone adopted the retiever and left Maeby alone at the shelter.
Let me tell you a little about my grand dog.

First of all, she is cute as can be!
Second,
She is famous!  See her in top right of  the Pawblo Picasso website header?

Her parents even commisioned a portrait of her.
maeby.jpg

Maeby gets to go on trips, even when she doesn’t act the best ever. Here she is at the Biltmore. 

She gets to hang out with her friends.

This is her buddy Midas.  They hang out from time to time.

See the dogs in the windows?  Maeby is allowed to sit on the furniture, and she keeps her nose in the blinds.  Midas looks out the door.

 Maeby goes to daycare from time to time.

 Yep, I said daycare.

 She loves it. See her smiling up at the window?

 But she love her mom and dad more.

She is such a happy dog.  She has a greatg back yard, she gets to chase squirrles and go for walks.

Maeby runs too.  She gets to go on runs with the kids’ running club on Thursday nights. She even won a doggy dash and has her own award for being the fastest dog,  She beat out some fancy breeds, and growled at them when they tried to pass her up.

Maeby did win the lottery when she convinced the Carolina Kids to adopt her, but they were pretty lucky to find such a sweet natured dog too.