Our Beloved Shadow

We picked this up from the vet and it brought back lots of fresh tears.  I miss that dog so much and can't believe how empty the house feels without him.  I miss his bark and his loud snoring.  I miss how excited he always was to see us and him playing with the kids.  I hope he always knew how much we loved him.  In the spring we are going to bury his ashes under a fruit tree.

Goodbye Shadow

We lost our sweet dog and I am so heartbroken. Shadow had a heart attack while we were in California.  My mom, dad and Mark took such good care of him his last few days and especially his last few hours.  Shadow was the best dog.  He was the best door greeter ever with his loud bark and his happy face.  He loved being right under my feet while I was doing things around the house and I would trip over him constantly.  He loved bread and all carbs.  We didn't have a 5 second rule in our house when you dropped food it was more of a "beat Shadow to the food" rule.  When he was a pup he chewed everything, 2 fruit trees, our a/c unit, internet cables, sweatshirts, shoes, his blankets and pillows.  He chewed up my parent's couch one Christmas when they were dog sitting him.  He ate the entire Costco bag of rolls the day of Tayson's baptism.  He torn a duffel bag and ate 7 loaves of bread out of Jan's room.  He loved to kick Luke off his bed and sleep on the bed while Luke slept on the floor.  He loved sleeping on the couch - even though he wasn't supposed to.  He was so strong that I could barely walk him and he nearly killed me going down the stairs on a few different occasions.  His tail has knocked all 4 of our kids down the stairs at least once.  The only person I've ever seen him chase is the UPS man - he loved to chase him to his van for some reason.  Oh how I love this dog and every time I walk in the house I feel the emptiness of him not being there.  I miss his booming bark and his happy face. 

Cone of Shame

Poor Shadow.  He got something on his fur and it was driving him crazy I didn't realize just how crazy it was making him until the next day when I saw that he had chewed through his fur, skin and into the muscle.  I wasn't sure what to do so I had to put him in the cone of shame to keep him from biting it more.  I don't understand how he could bite himself until he hit the muscle - poor guy.  He seems to be healing ok and we can't find anything wrong with his skin that would have caused him to bite it. 

Shadow's New Bed

Todd came home from running errands with this fancy new dog bed. I have only seen Shadow in it a few times but the kids LOVE it! Sunday morning Tayson got up got dressed and came upstairs to watch a movie while resting in the dog bed.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I'm wearing green and I hope all of you are too or you deserve a pinch on the bum bum as my kids would say. Tayson wanted to wear as much green as possible so he put on his Incredible Hulk underwear, his camo pants and his awesome green Yoda shirt with his green bombers jacket. No pinches for him today. Everyone in the family is wearing green except Todd (party pooper!) I'm sure the kids will give his bum bum lots of pinches after work today.

I have 2 funny stories from this weekend I thought I would add to this post.

1. We have been trying hard to get the kids to be reverent in Sacrament meeting, which is not easy. Especially with Tayson - we won't let him play, color, eat or read during the bread and water. So yesterday during church he put his "quiet" pictures down and leans over to me and says "I am just going to think about Jesus" I was shocked and so happy that finally I was an amazing mom...look at my kid! It lasted for all of 2 minutes then he said "OK I'm done". Which just made me smile. Then he said "You want to know what I was thinking about?" so I whispered "sure" and he told me he was thinking about Jesus when he was on the cross and died for us. It was the sweetest thing and it was a great moment to be a mom.

2. On Saturday some of our neighbors brought their bunny out for the kids to play with so my other neighbor Lucy came over to get my kids to enjoy the bunny too. So Tayson, Luke and Claire all went outside to see the bunny. Claire was especially excited. Shadow of course always goes outside with the kids (thank goodness all my neighbors have big dogs and none of the kids are scared of him). I was watching to make sure Claire was ok and the next thing I know Shadow has his face in the cardboard box the bunny was in and the bunny is doing this high pitched squeal. So I start yelling at him while I mustered up all my speed (which isn't much even when I'm not prego...I'm more of an endurance person than sprinter) and I go running across the yard to the neighbors house to get Shadow while he chases and nips at the poor bunny in front of all the kids. I finally get over there and tell him to go inside which he ignores since I'm not alpha to him. Thank goodness all my yelling at the dog got Todd out there so fast so he could call Shadow. Luckily the bunny was fine and just very agitated by the whole thing. Which meant none of the kids got to hold or play with it. The worst part was that all the kids were yelling "stupid dog" since apparently that's what I was yelling. And then Tayson kept telling me that "stupid" is a bad word and I shouldn't say it. I felt so bad. The best part was that Lucy told Todd and I that we should see if we could take our "stupid dog back to the pet store" it was so funny.

Doggie Issues....HELP!!!

According to The American Kennel Club the most popular dogs in America are Labs. We have a lab and he's 4 1/2 years old. Since our new house didn't (and still doesn't) have a fence he ended up becoming an inside dog this past year. For the most part this has been fine. But there are a few things he does that make me crazy. I can't stand it when he sneaks in our bedroom at night to sleep - he snores, licks himself very loudly and always ends up on the extra pillows from the bed I throw on the floor when I sleep. He also loves to eat people food especially the kids food. If we don't pay attention he will sit with his head inches from Claire while she eats and she will take a bite of food then hand him a bite a food. When she decides she's finished eating she will just take her plate/bowl and dump it on the floor next to her for him. What a horrible habit. We have put a stop to this by not letting Shadow in the room while we eat. However, the biggest problem we have right now is that he will eat food off the table, counter, trash, people's rooms, etc. He actually ate 3 loaves of bread out of Todd's mom's duffel bag last time she came to visit (unzipped it and everything), he ate 3 of our Christmas plates, and ate Tayson's b-day cake last year off the counter before I even frosted it. The dog is crazy. Last night I woke up in the middle of night to him doing something in the living room ... I knew he was up to no good by the sound. So Todd and I went out in the front room and the pantry wasn't shut before bed so he got into the trash can and had pulled most of it out licked it clean and tore it apart on the living room floor. UGH! I love the dog....but it is getting to be too much. If any of you have any great ideas please let us know so we don't end up kicking him out of the family. :)

Shadow

Today I took Shadow to get a bath ... he was really stinky. He's a big dog (around 75-80 lbs) and much stronger than me. We got in there and after I checked him into the salon the girl took the leash and he pulled himself out of his collar and made a break for it. I chased him down as best I could (I was wearing dress pants and heels since I went straight from work) but he got out of the store and to the middle of the parking lot before he stopped. I yelled his name (which is a common occurrence and one of Claire's only words since we yell it so much) and he stopped dead in his tracks cowering knowing he was in big trouble. When I got to him he just sat there cowering and wouldn't come with me so I grabbed him by the skin on the back of his neck but he's too big for me to lift, pull, drag, etc. So we just sat there for a minute .... looking ridiculous I'm sure....until the girl came out with a better collar. This is the second time he has done this to me. The last time it happened I was 8 months pregnant with Claire and all I could do was kick him as hard as I could (which didn't even stop him in his tracks) as he pulled me out of the store and to the car. Today when I picked him up I decided that was enough of him making me look stupid at the PetSmart so I bought a choke collar and it worked like a charm. Now I'm in charge!!!