All of Our Children...

In the beginning there was Sydney - the black Lab. Initially she was my dog - I brought her to our marriage and T Rex Dad adopted her. If you've followed our blog for a while you know she's had a couple bouts with cancer and lupoid onchodystrophy but seems to continue to thrive at the age of ten. Coincidentally, she and I have the same birthday.

Then shortly after we were married - Anya joined the family. She is a Bolognese - a rare breed of small dog. So rare at the time there were only 4 breeders in the US with waiting lists at least 6-12 months out. Thus, we looked into importing from Italy - origin of the Bolognese. She was not the original Anya - our Anya was delayed because she was scheduled to arrived the week of 9/11 and the attacks on the World Trade Center. All flights were grounded and cargo was halted.

Thus, the breeder sold our dog and gave us the daughter of the world champion. The only stipulation for giving us his prized puppy was we were obligated to breed her at least once. We agreed and our Anya (papered name "Pompeia") arrived in late October. She was our "first born" child and still acts as such. She really is the queen of the castle.

As agreed, we bred Anya and she had three puppies: Andreanio, Dolly, and Jack. Andre went to a wonderful lady in Ohio who uses him as a stud for other litters. My mother kept Dolly and my sister-in-law took Jack. Sometime I'll post photos of them as puppies - too cute! Two years later we bred her again. This time, the puppies did not make it and Anya had to have an emergency C-section and hysterectomy just to be saved. It was horrible - especially when she came home from the dog hospital looking aimlessly for her puppies. She mourned for months and we feared her spirit was broken. Then we got an email from Andre's mom in Ohio - she had a female puppy needing a home. We thought this would be just the ticket to perk Anya's spirits. Enter Sonador or "Sona" (pronounced "Sewn-ya-door" or "Sewn-ya").

Sonador is very playful but fairly shy. She will fetch all day if you let her. And one of her favorite pastimes is chasing the birds. Anya is nothing like this. The best way to differentiate between them (other than Anya wears a red collar and Sonador the blue) is that Anya acts like a human princess and Sona acts like a dog - one likes to be petted and groomed and the other just wants to run and play. Anya treats Sona like she's her own personal pet!

Then there's our little T Rex - our first two-legged human chid. You know all about him. Note in the photo below he is playing with the same toy Sydney has in her mouth in one of the earlier photos. And both he and all the dogs were drinking from the same water. As fate would have it, he is allergic to dogs. Horrible huh? He started having breathing issues at 6 months and was diagnosed with asthma and allergies. The scratch testing showed the only thing at that point he was allergic to - dogs. That has changed our lives significantly but the breathing issues are improving. He will still break into hives occasionally after playing with Sydney - never the little ones, but it is so hard to keep them apart - they love each other SO much.

Sydney is unbelievably protective of the little guy - I fear for anyone strange approaching our yard - her hackles and teeth really come out! She'll even sit at the base of the slide and wait for him.

This is first flattering photo I have EVER captured of all three of our four-legged kids all together. I guess after photographing a moving target (AKA T Rex) I've gotten pretty good at capturing photos!

And now you can say you've been introduced to all the kids!

Don't forget about the giveaway going on until the end of the month. I will be working on projects all weekend and post photos of them next week as well as announce the winner of the giveaway.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!!