Random Acts of Kindness

An Ode to Opie

Have you ever sat back and thought about the beauty of the world around you and how one decision, one act, one moment can bring so much joy and happiness and change your world forever?

This the story how Opie,  his loving Mom, a pair of socks, and a stuffed Opie altered the path of my life and filled it with love, happiness, and a friendship that will last a lifetime.

When you read quotes that say things like, "You don't know what someone else is going through, choose kindness." This is the spirit of Opie and his Mom!  Let me explain...

I was in a place of deep sadness, I had lost my Dad after a long illness, my sweet MadZ-Pup crossed the rainbow bridge a few weeks later and I was feeling lost. I had never been a social media person, but had stumbled upon Twitter and Opie's account.  He was a golden like my MadZ-Pup and he exuded happiness in it's purest form.  I created a personal account and would read his posts and let his love fill my heart with love and light.  I started to reply to him and he replied back and I fell in love with a dog on Twitter who I had never met; how was this possible?

One day, Opie posted about a pair of socks with his face on them and I knew I needed to have a pair.  I wrote to him and he sent me a link on how to make these custom socks, but I wrote him back and said I wanted to buy a pair with his face on them.  This made him so excited, but what happened next, was where the true magic begins.  Opie and his mom, through a random act of kindness, sent me a pair of socks with Opie's picture on them.  That one moment, where they didn't know what I was going through, but they chose kindness, changed the path of my life forever!

These socks! These very socks, helped heal my heart and made way for the adoption of Linus!  Opie and his Mom didn't know that this one act of kindness would do this, but they sent them anyway and that is what makes them magical! 

Linus came into our world and he was introduced on Twitter, Opie immediately became his friend and they posted and responded to each other regularly. It was a friendship between two dogs that had never met, but that brought joy to not just them but the world around them.  Then I became friends with Opie's Mom, sending messages through Twitter, sharing that I was scared of how I would be able to care for Linus and she sent me a stuffed Opie for Linus to cuddle at night when he was scared.

Soon stuffed Opie would follow us around the house and be Linus' companion wherever he decided to rest. A magical friendship from across Twitter to the real world.

Stuffed Opie was by Linus' side when he crossed the rainbow bridge, he slept next to me while I grieved the loss of Linus and he was with me when we decided to adopt again and again.

Opie is now with Linus across the rainbow bridge and they will be able to play forever, but a piece of them will always live in my heart.  I will share a friendship with Opie's Mom and I will be here to help heal her heart by surrounding her in love and light while she grieves the loss of her magical pup.

I will sit back today, and always, knowing that I just happened on a place called Twitter where this magical pup lived a digital life and how his kindness opened my heart and made the world a happier place.  I have since built many friendships across the Twitterverse, all because of a random act of love and kindness and for this I will forever be grateful! Thank you Opie! Thank you Opie's Mom!

Please take a moment today to give your pups a hug, to reach out to friends and let them know you love them, and bask in the beautify of how a digital world could allow you to love pups near and far.  Sending much love and light to everyone who has touched our lives; please know you are loved!

- Momma K

When Dogs Break Away | Our Worst Fear

I have written before about Quinnie and her fear-based aggression towards other dogs and sometimes people.  I have written about our journey with training and working with her to help her see that she is safe in this world of things that frighten her. But, today, I am going to write about our biggest fear and how we survived it.

Our biggest fear is another dog who is off lead or breaks free from their lead and comes at us; either friendly or aggressively.  In Quinnie's world other dogs are scary, so imagine one coming straight at her snarling and snapping....now imagine two dogs breaking free from their owner and coming straight at her and me, snarling and snapping.....now, one more time, imagine three dogs breaking free from their owner and coming straight at her and me.....and that is what we experienced this morning.

Let me back up and say, that I am writing this from the comfort of my home office and Quinnie and I are fine.  I have a few tiny nicks and bruises, but Quinnie without any marks on her. Deep sigh out....we are thankful for this....now we want to tell you our story.

Let me back up to Monday, when Quinnie and I were on a walk and I wanted to start working again on FOCUS, so we introduced treats back on our walks.  As we walked I would say her name or click my tongue and she would look up at me and she would get a treat.  I felt our connection on walks was not as good as it had been and I just wanted to start building that connection again; this was working. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and today, we walked, we played our training game of FOCUS and we were building a strong connection.  This morning we noticed another dog up ahead and it was barking at us, so I had Quinnie sit so we could give a little distance between us and them and we played FOCUS.  She was nailing it; she stopped paying attention to the barking dog and focussed entirely on me.  GOOD GIRL QUINNIE.  Once the other dog was a safe distance away, we started in with HEAL and continued FOCUS.  Before we could know what was going on, we came up on a house with a man holding three leashes attached to three dogs.  In the blink of an eye, the three dogs had slipped their collars and were running straight at us; barking, snarling, snapping; our worst nightmare.

Thank goodness we had been working on our connection, because we only had seconds to respond.  I put Quinnie onto my left side, flanking my leg. I immediately made myself as big as I could, I used my voice as a weapon and yelled NO! while backing away, always keeping Quinnie close and at my left leg.  The dogs circled to the front and we moved with them, always keeping Quinnie to my left.  She barked, but she did not lunge at them, she stayed by my side.  It took minutes for the man to get his dogs back in control and he would get one in control and the other two would break away again and come at us, but Quinnie and I developed a dance together, moving, me staying big and using my voice, always backing away and keeping her safe; she trusted me, she worked with me instead of against me, we were a team! When we finally made our way passed the chaos, she shook off the incident with a full body shake and I sat on the ground and smothered her in love and kisses and told her she was a GOOD GIRL!

To finish this post, I would like to step up on my soapbox for a moment and please ask people to be responsible pet owners.  Please make sure that your dogs have collars and harnesses that they cannot slip out of.  Please make sure that if you cannot handle all of your dogs at once, take them out individually.  And, finally, please work with your dogs on recall so that if they do break away, you can get them to come back to you under any circumstance.  This could have gone so many, many ways wrong.  A car could have come down the road and hit one of the dogs; Quinnie could have been so scared that she reacted and attacked one of their dogs; Quinnie or I could have been bitten severely and needed medical attention; thankfully we are able to tell the tale safely from our cosy office, while Quinnie takes a much deserved snooze.

Dog Training | A Pawrent's Perspective

 

Whether you are adopting a puppy, a teen, or a senior dog you are likely going to need to do training at some point in their lives. Obedience and socialization training are the most common and are typically easy to find in your area, but what happens when you need specialized training?  

When we adopted Linus, our senior pup, he was deaf and going blind, so I needed to learn how to do touch training with him. Believe it or not, I was able to find this training online and followed the basics and within a few weeks he was following my commands and we were having a wonderful time.

When we adopted Quinn, our teen pup, she came to us with anxiety-based reactivity, so I thought, this isn’t my first rodeo, I’ve got this!  Boy was I wrong.  Quinn has taken me on a training journey that has not only provided her with a whole new life, but has taught me so much about dogs, training, and myself.  I thought I would give you some of my thoughts on the experience, so that maybe it will help you in your journeys.

First Lesson | How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? Practice! Practice! Practice!

We all know if you want to do something well, it takes time, dedication, consistency, and commitment.  Yet, when it comes to dog training and our busy lives, it can sometimes take a back seat to other things.  With our dog Buzz, if we missed a day with our training on the basics of sit, stay, come, it simply meant the next time we worked with him it could take a moment for him to catch on again.  But, with Quinn, if we missed a day, it could mean she lunges or snaps at someone in public and we run the risk of losing her. So, what I have learned is that training is a commitment to your dog to give them their best life and in order to do this, you need to carve out ten minutes twice a day to create a lasting bond with them; it is worth the extra effort.

Second Lesson | Forever Isn’t Long At All, When I’m With You

Training, whether it be basic obedience or specialized training, is a commitment to your dog for their lifetime.  It is not a quick fix, no matter what the Internet says.  Advertising and marketing are wonderful things, I know, I do it for a living; but training your dog, getting your dog to let go of a behavior takes time; it takes a commitment to your dog for their entire life. Even when they seem to “have it” one day, they may make a slip the next and you need to be there for them. I no longer take walks with Quinn or Buzz while looking at my phone, taking a call, or listening to the latest podcast. I take my walks with my dogs with active awareness of the world around me and the opportunities to learn are boundless.  Training is now an active part of our daily routine and we all look forward to it.

Third Lesson | It’s Not Them…It’s You

Although you are taking your dog to training, it isn’t actually the dog getting trained; it’s you! Be prepared to learn more about yourself than you would in a therapy session.  When you are anxious, that anxiety translates down the leash into your dog. When your dog is unsure of a situation, they need to be able to look to you, they need you to be the one to say, “I got this!” One of the most wonderful results of the training that I have done with Quinn is that I have gotten my voice back. I had taken a moment in life to fade to the background, to let myself be unseen, but Quinn needed me to step up and be the person she needed, so I grew a voice and now I am prepared to use it whenever needed to show her, “I’ve got this!”

Fourth Lesson | Not Too Soft, Not Too Hard, Just Right

No two training courses and no two trainers are alike; what works for one person and their dog may not work for someone else.  Case in point, our first trainer was recommended by a friend who had great success, but neither Quinn nor I responded well to the techniques used by them, so we didn’t continue. We have tried different training courses along our journey, some worked to address an immediate need, and some have given us tools to continue our journey well into the future. Listen to your dog and listen to your gut; keep researching, interviewing and find the right training course/trainer for you.  When you find “Just Right” you will know it and the results that you see will guide you the rest of the way on your journey.

A letter from Momma Karen

Let me start by saying what Papa Andy says to people when we walk together and every dog we see I must stop and say hello, “It’s ok, she speaks puppy!”  There has never been a time in my life that I can remember where I have not loved animals.  I once had dreams of becoming a vet, but my father guided me to a different path because he worried about my tender heart; I just loved so deeply.  So, when Linus came into our lives, as you can imagine when a little bear comes into your life, I wanted to smother him in hugs, kisses, and love; but Linus had other ideas.  Linus was the first dog I had in my life that did not readily want tactile love.  If we touched his paws, he recoiled.  If we touched the scruff of his neck, he yipped.  He didn’t want to be up on the furniture to be petted, he didn’t want to be on the big bed for nightly snuggles; he did not even want a bed to lay on. I found myself sitting on the floor to get close to him, only to have him get up and move somewhere else in the room to get comfortable.  Normally, I would then move to a soft voice, a song sung, or just the act of saying his name to get close to him, help him learn to trust, but Linus was deaf so that would not work either.  I remember reaching out to friends and saying I was not sure I could do this, how was I going to find my way into this little man’s heart, how could we get him to trust again.  This was our beginning.

Today, between the tears of sorrow and the tears of sweet memories, I have been able to put together a beautify transformation of our sweet little man.  I cannot tell you the exact moment he decided to give us his heart and to trust us, but I can tell you it happened. 

The pup that would once get up and move across the room to get comfortable, now wanted to sit touching a part of you; his favorite thing was to sit on Papa Andy’s feet. 

The pup that was quiet and wouldn’t make a sound, turned into a pup who demanded what he wanted when he wanted; my favorite was his sass when he knew he was getting what he wanted. So many memories of him walking towards the door for time outside and he would turn back at me and give a little sass and wag his tail…..or walking into the kitchen while I made his dinner to bark and tell me to hurry up…..or the way he would whine and talk in the morning to let us know he was awake, only to walk to the door and bark if we didn’t pay attention fast enough. 

The pup whose tail would go between his legs when he became afraid, would curl that tail high and wag it freely; Papa Andy’s most favorite moment of each day was that early morning tail wag to say good morning Papa, I love you. 

This pup that was afraid of the world around him, learned to bimble with the best of them; everyone’s favorite was watching him make his way outside, sniff the air and see if his sweet Freckles was out and if she was, he would swagger down the driveway to greet her and then after a minute or two decide he was done and swagger back inside for a nap. 

This little bear who came to us broken in body and shy of his heart, turned into our little man full of love, sass and sweetness that upon his crossing the rainbow bridge has left our hearts hurting and missing him terribly.

In my first blog about our adventure I wrote,

“I plan on holding Linus’ paw through this adventure that is his life from this day forward. I plan to love him with everything in my heart.  I plan to take care of him for as long as he needs, and when he is tired and cannot go on, I plan to hold him close so he can feel my heartbeat until he takes his last breath. I will whisper into his deaf ears how much he was loved, what a wonderful boy he was, and how the field across the rainbow bridge is filled with butterflies to chase, never-ending food bowls, and a body that does not feel pain.  I will cry and then I will find my place again, holding onto the cherished memories he provided, and I will learn to love another animal again; because he would want it to be that way.”

This is exactly how his life went.  When he told Papa Andy and I he was tired, that it was his time to go, we didn’t want him to leave, but we knew it was his time; it was his choice.  As I laid with him on the floor his paw reached up onto my leg as if he was telling me he was ready, I reached down and held that paw and he didn’t pull away, he gave me his paw willingly and I held it to the end whispering to him that he was loved, and he peacefully drifted off to sleep.

When I felt my heart breaking into a million pieces, I reached for Papa Andy’s hand as we gave Linus his last pets, and that sweet little man of ours, in true Linus fashion, let out two toots!  Now many will argue that bodies do this naturally when they pass, but as Linicious Poot will tell you, he didn’t get his name for nothing, and that was our little man’s way of telling us that he was ok, that he was no longer in pain and that he was free to run, play, and eat never-ending piles of bacyum.  It was a fitting goodbye, and I couldn’t have asked for a better sign.

Upon losing my sweet little man, I am reminded of this quote,

“It came to me that every time I lose a dog they take a piece of my heart with them, and every new dog who comes into my life gifts me with a piece of their heart. If I live long enough, all the components of my heart will be dog, and I will become as generous and loving as they are.”

Sweet Linus, my love, you have made my heart closer to being as generous and loving as you were.  I love you little man, my little bear, my Linicious Poot.

Life with Linus, a Momma's Perspective

 

When I started Linus’ Twitter account, it was to spread awareness of senior adoptions and to promote positivity.  Never did I imagine that there would be a worldwide pandemic or the crazy election here in the US, never could I have known how much Linus’ account would touch people’s lives and bring them a smile each day. We have celebrated really good days of Linus wanting to walk, being sassy, demanding attention and even making his way up the stairs with minimum help.  I choose to post these events to Twitter because I want people to feel the true happiness of a dog who was neglected and abused, learning, even in the late years of his life, how to love, how to be happy, how to trust again. I wanted the world to know this little man and how truly amazing he is.

A dear friend wrote something to me the other day that has resonated in my heart, about my willingness to bring Linus into our lives knowing he would not be around for a very long time, that he was a gift to show the world the beauty of adopting a senior dog. She told me this, because I was struggling that day, because not all days with a senior dog are easy.  There are tough days, there are days with pacing and panting, there are days where you wish your pup could speak so you could know what was wrong, and there are days you just want to hold them and cry because you are just not ready to see them get old; even though when they came to you, they were already old.

I don’t talk about the challenges often, only with a select group of people, because it is hard to say the words.  Saying the words, or writing the words, makes it real, takes it out into the world, but every day with a senior dog, you are watching for the smallest changes in behavior, in appetite, in appearance.  You are looking for both the good and the bad.  The good to see if changes you have made in diet, activity, or medications has helped.  The bad to see if anything you are doing is making it worse or if some new ailment is being added to the mix.  Not all senior dogs are riddled with ailments, but my little man is.

I have chosen to write, for anyone who wants to read it, an account of the past few months.  You have seen the good moments, those have been shared on Twitter, what you haven’t seen is the hard moments, because sharing them made them real, and I wasn’t ready for that yet. But it is time, so here we go, grab a tissue and join me if you like…

A little over a month ago, I noticed he was eating his food differently, towards the side of his mouth, and leaving food in his bowl that I would need to coax him to eat.  I looked in his mouth and his gums seemed swollen in the front, so booked a trip to the vet and went in.  It had only been six months since his last surgery, where they cleaned and pulled several teeth, did a lung biopsy, and corrected his nails that needed to be treated surgically because they had been so overgrown for most of his life. I wasn’t overly concerned because it had only been six months, and he had seen the vet every month in-between for check ups and prescription refills.  

We spent the day at the vet, getting there early, no food, immediately placed in a private room to wait.  Little man is treated like gold there, I am allowed to stay with him the whole time, they keep us isolated so as not to expose us to anyone or for us to expose their team.  They had several emergencies that day, so it was late in the day before he was taken back.  The doctor came out regularly to tell me how things were going, several more teeth needed to come out, one fang was cracked, so they would grind it down to fix it, and then the news, there was a growth in his mouth.  Don’t worry, we don’t know what it means yet, but let me take it out and we will go from there.  Little man is returned to me, he is coming out of the anesthesia but very groggy, not his normal self.  He is angry, crying, agitated.  He tries biting the vet tech; he is hurting.  I hold him closer; I talk to him even though he can’t hear me, when he is ready, we go home.  The healing takes longer this time, he is slow to recover, doesn’t want to walk, cries and doesn’t want to sleep, the pain meds aren’t keeping the pain away. My heart is ripping from me and I know that he cannot go through another surgery, it is too much for him.  This is his last one.  

The vet checks in every few days, and on the 10^th day she tells me the biopsy has come back, it is cancer, my sweet boy has cancer.  We didn’t get clear margins, as it would have required taking a good part of his upper pallet, his recovery was hard, we decide to just let him be for as long as he is comfortable.

Fast forward to last week, he is recovered. The growth is being watched, it is back, but it is slow growing, and it is not causing him pain right now, so we just continue to celebrate this beautiful life that Linus chooses to live.   Then, we notice that he is becoming more and more agitated.  He is not sleeping at night, he is panicking and behaving like he doesn’t know where he is.  We spend a night on the couch, he will not settle, the whole night.  We wait for the sun to come up, we wait for the vet to open, we wait for our appointment. 

The vet examines Linus.  She is so gentle with him, he isn’t afraid, his little curly tail wags.  She looks at me and tells me, he has gone blind.  100% in the left eye, 80% in the right eye. My eyes fill with tears and she says, “This poor little pup just can’t catch a break.”  She further goes on to say that he could also be experiencing what is called doggy dementia sundowning affect, which is similar to what happens in humans that have dementia.  She prescribes a sedative to help with the anxiety. We head home, I hold him tight all the way home, he falls asleep on my lap, he is finally sleeping, I hold him close.

This brings us to today, today is a mix of good and bad.  Little man was agitated this morning after breakfast, no reasoning, just wasn’t happy.  Finally, at lunch, he settled down after his afternoon pills for a four-hour nap.  He is awake now, but happy.  It will be dinner time soon, I will coax him for a walk if the rain stops, maybe we will see Freckles outside.  He has adjusted quickly to his new life, we think he sees something out of that right eye, because he turns towards us outside, we think he can see shapes and shadows. I have started working on touch signals instead of hand signals, he is learning quickly.  He uses my leg now as a gauge on his left side, bouncing off me as he walks so he stays out of the street and so that he is protected from curbs and other obstacles.

Linus is a survivor.  He has not been given an easy life.  He was not always loved. But he has survived and adapted and learned what it is like to be loved now.  He needs more reassurance that everything is ok, he needs extra snuggles and to feel your foot or your body up against him to relax. He cries out in the night if he wakes and worries that he is alone, so we gently touch his head and let him know we are there.  We are his family and we will love him and take care of him until he is ready to say goodbye.  As it was when he came to live with us, we don’t know how long he has, but we will give him the best life possible each day, for however long that is.

Someone asked me the other day, if I had it to do all over, would I have still adopted a senior dog and my answer was enthusiastically, YES! The only difference between adopting a puppy, an adult dog, or a senior dog, is that you have to fit a lifetime of love into a smaller window.  I love this little man with everything in my being and I wouldn’t trade this time with him for anything. He has taught me perseverance, he has taught me trust, and he has opened my heart to love.

Thank you for following my little man, thank you for loving this wonderful boy.  Now, on to more adventures.

IT'S A YEAR! GUYS! GUYS! IT'S BEEN A YEAR!!!

I cannot believe it has been a year since this little man has come into our lives. I still remember when Linus came to our house for the site visit.  He came out of the minivan and he was walking with such a pronounced limp on his right shoulder, I worried that he would not do well in our house. We have a two-story house and he would need to do stairs each night, we have hardwood floors and he would slip on them.  But there he was, that sweet little man with his wonky one up-one down ears, the blue tongue that is as long as his entire body, and that demeanor of, “I can take care of myself, I don’t need anyone” personality that I was so longing to break down. I was hooked.  Before he was getting ready to leave, Papa Andy and I agreed, he was our little man, so we said we wanted him and scheduled a time to pick him up.

Fast forward to picking him up.  We drive for an hour, well out of the city, down these long winding roads, onto a dirt road, thinking, “where are we going, and will we be able to find our way out again?!”  We finally come up on the house and see at least six dogs out in the yard and we are looking and looking for our Linus and he is nowhere to be seen.  We get out of the car and before we can shut the door a very impressive bulldog jumps in and proceeds to take over the driver’s seat and he isn’t going anywhere.  Papa Andy is working on getting the bulldog out of the car, as  I turn and Linus is at my back, acting shy, but I lift him up and put him in the back seat and whisper in his ear, “welcome to your new life my sweet boy, I promise you nothing but love and happiness from this point forward.”

The wonderful woman at the shelter who had cared for Linus since January of 2019, came out with a bag of pills for Linus and was explaining each one and that two more had been added as of today.  We swapped out collars, she gave me the information on his tracking chip, and we were off.  We were on the start of this new adventure.  Linus lasted less then ten minutes in the back seat, before he decided that he wanted in the front seat and on my lap for the remainder of the ride; so, this is how we made our way home and into our new lives together.

Our lives together started somewhat chaotically, as Linus had a reaction to one of the new meds on his first night. He didn’t sleep a wink, pacing, panting, crying.  I thought many times during that night that I had done the worst thing, taking him away from his dog pack family and bringing him to a house by himself.  The next few weeks went by in a blur, little man was getting used to us and his new home.  He had seen the vet and she went down the laundry list of ailments for this sweet pup that I had already grown to love.  He had a curved spine that was causing his hips to be out of alignment and to have arthritis.  His shoulder had arthritis and was swollen and tender to the touch.  His lungs were scarred and would not heal, from years of pneumonia and neglect.  He was deaf, had cataracts on his eyes, his teeth were bad and several would need to come out, and he had a thyroid condition; but on the plus side he was heartworm free and the vet and staff thought he was adorable and instantly fell in love with him like we did.

Andy and I prepared ourselves that this relationship with Linus could likely be for a short time, but in that short amount of time, we would fill it with love.  I read articles, discussed with the vet all sorts options to make his life better through medication, therapies, exercise; anything that I could think of to make his life the best it could be.  What we had to learn was that we were never going to fix Linus, but we had to strive for a quality of life where he was comfortable and happy. 

Over the last year, we have had days that Linus was able to walk and enjoy being outside, to days where he would barely move from his sleeping spot.  We have had vet visits where the vet was astounded with his progress, to visits where we simply cried and wished that life was fair. But what we can say for sure, is that our little man has grown into a pup who no longer needs to hide behind a wall to protect himself from the fears of his past. Linus proudly displays his sass to tell us what he wants and needs.  He is spoiled beyond words and that is ok, because after all that he has been through he deserves it.  He no longer has the personality of “I can take care of myself” it has become one of “come snuggle me Momma or Papa Andy, I need love and a snuggle blanket …NOW!”

We don’t know what the next year holds for us, we don’t know how much time we get with Linus; my goal is to be able to celebrate another gotcha day and another birthday with our sweet little man, but we take it one day at a time.  One thing we know for certain is there will never be enough time, there will never be enough love to give this sweet pup.

So today we celebrate Linus and the day he came into our lives.  Tomorrow, we celebrate the day we have decided to call his Birthday. I hope he knows in his heart how much he is loved, how much he has taught me about perseverance, and how much he has taught us, and the world around us, about the magical wonder of adopting a senior dog.

I love you my sweet boy, thank you for finding me and thank you for letting me love you

Momma Karen

Reflections from momma

What it has been like to be momma to this little man and to Panthor KitKat.

When we first adopted Linus, I referred to myself as Mum, because Linus seemed like my little old man and that he would refer to me as such. Today, instead of a little old man, he has become my little man. When he is happy, he looks over to find me so I can see his tail wag, so I can see his smile, and he lets out a little growl or bark to make sure I am paying attention.  When he is scared, he immediately runs to me so that I can reassure him it will be ok. When we are outside and he walks ahead of me and realizes I am not at his side, he immediately stops and sniffs the air to find where I am. I have become his momma.

In the last few weeks, this little man has awoken before our eyes. He came to us an older gentleman who needed a quiet place to sleep and be cared for. Today, he is the pup who tells us what he needs (ok demands what he needs), he is the pup that now goes to the front door and barks to let us know he needs to go out, the pup who chews bones and gets cheeky and tries to steal from the trash. He is the pup who will walk into the kitchen and tell me to hurry up with his dinner because I am taking too long to prepare it, he is the pup who stomps his front feet when he is frustrated that we don't know what he wants, and he is the pup that when he is tired and needs a snoozle curls up on Papa Andy's or my foot so that he can sleep knowing we are watching over him. He has become my little man and I love him more than words can explain. From the first week, he found his way into my heart, right to where his piece was waiting for him to find it, he showed me that patience and love  can conquer the world, and he made me a momma again.

I know on Mother's Day it is a time to give thanks to your moms, mums, mothers, or mommas; but today I would like to be the one to say thank you to this little man for letting me love him.

Ok, if you are still reading, I know I started by saying a momma to both Linus and Panthor KitKat. I haven't forgotten KitKat, he has shown me his love and appreciation in his own way today; by leaving me a giant turd on the floor of the laundry room, three feet from his litter box.  I love you too, Panthor KitKat, you little shit!!