A Very Busy Girl!

Bunny Rita's been a very busy girl the past few days. This might be a long one because I've been taking TONS of pictures of her.

I Love Lucy
First of all, Rita met Lucy, my nephew and his girlfriend's dog. I think that makes Lucy & Rita cousins once removed. Although these two are more like never-to-be-removed cousins. Rita is probably a month or 2 older than Lucy, and they played hard for three hours straight. Most of my pictures from them playing outside look like this:

A blur or puppies

Action shot!

They seemed to enjoy this...

Inside, they played a "Queen of the Bed" game that went on and on. 

Great-white-shark teeth!

A rare moment of rest

Rita definitely LOVED Lucy and looked very sad when they left. Then she crashed!

Bunny Meets Bernie
You might remember Bernie, aka Bernie bin Laden, from this video I posted of him back in January.Well, Bernie wanted to come down from his home in Orange County to meet Bunny Rita, so the roads were cleared, and the appropriate authorities were warned, and we signed Rita up for insurance (our first time having pup insurance, btw), and the two of them met at Fiesta Island on Monday, along with Linda, Bernie's older and wiser sister.

No, don't follow Bernie! That way lies nuthin' but trouble!

Linda es muy linda.

They were actually pretty tame, I think because Rita was still hung over from her play marathon with Lucy the night before.

A very dirty Rita

Afterwards we went to In-N-Out, which was obviously a huge hit.

"Nom, nom, nom"

"Are there any more Flying Dutchmen?"

Bernie decided to give Mike the kisses he's been missing since Rita is stingy with them.



Then Bernie decided his dad might be jealous, so gave him a bunch too. Below, John demonstrates the appropriate way to receive Bernie's kisses: lips and eyes all clamped tight shut. The only problem is that Bernie then kisses your nose, sealing off your access to oxygen, so that you are forced to open your mouth. But you really don't want to do that, so it's best to just hold your breath til you pass out.


Bernie also decided I needed my makeup washed off - but I have no pictures of that (which is probably a good thing).

Bunny Rita's Special Valentine
Rita also received not one, but TWO special Valentine's from her long distance boyfriend, Rocket. First of all, he sent her a Valentine's care package that included a Monkeydog helmet, a stuffed pink monkey, and some chocolates for Rita's mama. (Which Rita's mama did not share with Rita's daddy...)

If you missed it I explained about MonkeyButts (aka Monkeydogs) here, but basically they are quadpawds who stir up friendly trouble on Tripawds.com to keep the smiles coming on a site that can sometimes be filled with sad news. The Monkeybutts' leader, Rocket (a.k.a. the "MonkeyButt-Bunny Vampire Pirate") has a little crush on MBBunny Rita, so he sent her a helmet. She is ready for battle with those silly Tripawds!

The other special Valentine he sent her was this special video viewable here, which cracks me up every time I watch it. My Rita es muy bonita! Y Rocket es muy macho!


Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day, whether your Valentine is two-, three-, or four-legged (or web-footed or talon-ed or whatever. I don't judge.)!

It's Official! (& A Commercial)

She's Ours! 
On Saturday we had our "home inspection" to make sure we are suitable pawrents for Rita. It was fairly intense - full-on white glove inspection while we stood at attention (even Rita). Somehow we managed to pass and now Rita is ours, all ours!

To celebrate, she got a Frosty Paw.

Not sure if this is pure rapture, or just the sun in her eyes...

...Got her some sunglasses in case it was the latter.

She also got a few kale chips*, which (amazingly) were also a hit!

We are still getting to know our girl. She's so sweet! She really is amazingly good - we've had no destruction, no accidents (other than Day 1 when she was, I'm sure, still a little confused about what was going on), and she likes to sleep in with us on the weekends. This makes us very very very very very very happy. I'm pretty sure most puppies are not sleeper-inners, so we are happy to get one who is!




She is not much of a kisser, like Bailey and Abby both were, but she does enjoy her some tummy rubs!

Does this little slut puppy remind you of anyone?

Seeing Abby During Super Bowl
We heard from many people who mentioned seeing a dog that looked a lot like Abby in a Chevy commercial aired during the Super Bowl. We saw it too - and I was even working on my Abby scrapbook (my sis made me a gorgeous scrapbook with pics of Abby plus space to add extra photos) when we saw it. Maybe you saw it as well? It was the Mayan Apocalypse commercial. If not, you can view it here.

"Abby" appears at exactly 19 seconds in and then again briefly at 31 seconds. So cute! She's even riding in the same spot where she used to ride in my car. (Although I, alas, drive a Ford, so will not be surviving the apocalypse - but that's cool.) I think she put on a couple of pounds, eating Twinkies on set between takes. I've since seen "her" again in an Oscar Mayer turkey lunchmeat ad.

The Latest in Wooly Dogs
In "felting" news, the most recent pup that Terry and I attempted to recreate in wool is Chili Dawg. Chili Dawg is a Tripawd who, sadly, earned his wings several months ago. He was such a gorgeous boy, it was hard to do him justice, but the wooly version came out pretty cute in the end. 

Abby sneaks a kiss...

  




Isn't Chili Dawg one of the best names ever for a dog? Especially a red dog??

* Kale chips (don't turn your nose up! You know who you are...Kath) are easy to make and (in my opinion) one of the tastiest ways to eat kale. (I don't really like kale, but it's good for me. The other tasty way to eat it is blended up to where it is indistinguishable in a smoothy. I highly recommend chocolate-cherry-kale smoothies!) To make kale chips, all you do is: tear the kale up into bite size pieces, toss it in a bit of olive oil, lay it out on a parchment lined cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt, and cook for ~10 min (maybe a little more) at 350 degrees. Yum. Salty, crunchy. Nutritious & delicious.

Celebrating a Missed Ampuversary

Today would have been Abby's 15 Month Ampuversary. It makes us sad, as this is the first one since she passed, but luckily we have our funny little Bunny to help us turn the day into a celebration.

What would an ampuversary be without a trip to Fiesta Island? This is her second visit there. When we went last week, she barely got her toes wet, but today she was in there a lot. It looks like she might turn into a swimmer some day - which would have to be the shepherd in her, because I never knew a beagle that swam!

And what else would you eat on an ampuversary besides a Flying Dutchman??

Her first (that we know of...) Flying Dutchman!

It was a hit!

You got a little somethin' on yer nose there... (it's cheese!)

Pretty sure BunnyRita will be getting a Dutchman at least once a month in Abby's honor. She's a very lucky girl.


All this fun can be exhausting!

And, yes, for those of you who have been to my house, she is sleeping on the "good" pillows on the "good" couch - something even our oh-so-beloved Abby didn't get to do! Not sure what Angel Abby thinks, looking down on that!

Happy Ampuversary to our Angel Ab, and thanks to Bunny Rita for making us smile so much today!

Our Dirty Little Secret...

Okay, well... she's not that dirty (she had a bath on Sunday) and she's not that little (almost 40 pounds!), so I guess she's our clean, medium-sized secret...

Meet Rita, or Bunny, or BunnyRita. We're not entirely sure what her name is yet, but I think it's Rita (short for Rosarita, the beach she was found on). Although her nickname is Bunny (because she runs like a jack rabbit, plus it was Kathryn Hepburn's librarian character's name in Desk Set, plus bunnies and bunny ears, especially, are kind of a running thing on Tripawds... I wanted her real name to just be Bunny, but I don't think Mike can picture himself standing there at Fiesta Island yelling, "Bunny!" It's not muy macho.)

I think she likes it here.

She likes Fiesta Island too!

Yes, it is crazy-soon to have a new puppy. And we totally did NOT intend to bring a new dog home yet - but... here's what happened. The Saturday after we lost Abby, we were sitting outside watching the sunset. The ocean was the calmest I've ever seen it since we moved here - like a glassy lake as far as the eye could see toward the horizon. Mike asked Abby and Bailey (our previous pup for those of you that don't know) to send us a sign that they'd met up and were together. Well, I was sitting there with my iPad, and I went on PetFinder - seriously I don't know why because we really really really didn't intend to get a new dog for a while - and I typed "female beagle" in the search with our zip code, and "Peaches" (as she was known) pops up on the first page of results. We couldn't stop looking at her! She looked so much like a combination of Bailey and Abby! She has Bailey's body, with Abby's ears and eyes (even a bit of the same eyeliner look like Abby had). If Bailey and Abby had a puppy (through immaculate conception or in vitro or whatever, since they were both girls...) the result would be this little girl.

In fact, she likes F.I. a lot!

The next few days we couldn't stop looking at her picture. I thought Mike would be the voice of reason, but no. He told me to fill out the online application. We did and were able to go meet her this past Saturday, Jan. 21. We brought her home and she's been pretty much a model pup ever since - doesn't jump up, barely barks, sleeps in Abby's bed like a good girl until we are ready to get up. She's just super sweet!

BunnyRita!

So, here's the deal. She's a beagle-shepherd mix (obviously); she's estimated to be 7 or 8 months old. We got her from the Baja Animal Sanctuary (technically she's not ours yet... They have to come do a home inspection on Feb 4. I'm fairly certain we'll pass...). I can't believe she was at the shelter 2 months, because she's so darn cute. I think she was waiting for us...

She's so funny as well - we thought it would be nice to have a chowhound again (what with the beagle in her) after Abby and her fussy supermodel picky-eater ways, but no... She's not a real chowhound either. She's not as picky as Abby was, but she doesn't exactly wolf down her food, and she turns her nose up at lots of things, like popcorn! Even Abby liked popcorn! Also, Bailey had no back dewclaws, Abby had both of hers - well, Rita has one back dew claw. I think she really is a mix of our two girls.

She met Ab's best friend, Dakota...

They already love each other! BFFs!

(This does look like love, right?)

Today, right after leaving Dakota's...

(And this too? Pretty certain that's love!)

Our hearts are still in a thousand jigsaw puzzle pieces from losing Abby, but I think this little girl will help start fitting the pieces back together.

Home Again

We picked up Abby's ashes today from the vet's office. Mike went with me on his lunch break, so that was good because I really didn't want to go alone. When we took her in for that last appointment, we said we wanted her cremated and that we wanted the ashes back. That was pretty much it for the discussion of such matters. So, when they called to say she was ready to pick up, we were expecting ... I dunno, a cardboard box I guess. But we were so touched when we picked her up - she's in this lovely cedar box (just like the one we bought for Bailey's ashes, only a bit bigger). It even has her name carved into the top of it. And they also gave us a clay imprint of her paw. It's the sweetest thing. It even has a couple of her hairs stuck in it - which is perfect because she was always such a hairy thing! If you even thought about petting her, seventy-five hairs would fall off of her, drift over, and stick to whatever you were wearing.

My good friend from Tripawds made us this lovely video of Abby. It includes some of my favorite pictures of her - some of them will hopefully even make you smile. I'm sure we'll watch this over and over again.

I think my favorite part is when she barks at me after trying to steal my socks. Boy she could be pushy when she wanted to play!

We sure miss her. She was so full of life; it's too quiet around here.

An Open Letter & A Banner

I wanted to send Dr. V. and his staff a letter to thank them for the help they gave us with Abby, and I decided I’d make it an “open letter” so everyone else can see how great they are too.

An Open Letter to Dr. V.

Dear Dr. Vancil and all the staff at San Diego Veterinary Cancer Group,

Thank you so much for helping us have an unforgettable year-plus with our beloved Abby. I remember at our first consultation, I came in with a long list of questions scribbled on a sheet of paper. You answered every question before I even got to the list. At every appointment after that, you always took the time to make sure all our questions were answered. 

We have absolutely zero regrets about going through with the amputation. Abby was amazing on three legs. People often stopped us at the beach, after Abby zoomed past or darted and dashed about, to say, "Wow, I didn't even realize she had three legs until she stood still!"

I know that with your help we did everything we could to give Abby a fighting chance. And what a fighter she was, living large for more than a year even with her lung mets. Near the end, she had metastasized cancer, three legs, hypertrophic osteopathy... and she could still run faster than me!

We can appreciate how very difficult your job is, seeing dogs pass from cancer on a regular basis. But we have you to thank for the wonderful and unforgettable time that we had with Abby.  I hope you'll hang in there for a good, long time because helping families get extra quality time with their beloved pups is so very important. 

Finally, I wanted to let you know that we did have a final few wonderful days with Abby. We went to the beach four more times; she ate steak, pork chops, Frosty Paws, bacon, and (her personal favorite) a Flying Dutchman from In-N-Out. On Tuesday, January 10th she started to have trouble breathing while taking a nap. We took her to Dr. Shaprut's office, where they always treated her like the Rock Star that she was. We said our goodbyes and thanked her for being such a special girl. She was still so happy, wagging her tail and eating venison jerky treats right up to the very end. She passed surrounded by love.

Thanks again for everything.

A Fabulous Banner

In other news, Abby got her banner on the Tripawds.com site. Isn't it awesome? 

The folks at Tripawds create the banners as a tribute for active members whose dogs have passed. (With the exception of Queen Nova - a Tripawd hero who has been kicking cancer's butt for three years now! She is the one pup with a banner who is still with us. Long may Queen Nova reign.) We love Abby's banner. It makes us smile (and get a little teary-eyed) every time we see it.

The banners come up randomly, so you never know what pup you might see when you visit Tripawds.com. It's like getting a little hello message from our girl each time I go on the site and it appears. I plan to remain active on Tripawds. I want to pay it forward - helping the new folks on the site after so many people helped us there. I hope that folks will still find Abby's story inspirational, even though she is gone now.

A Fiesta Island "Tribute to Abby" Day

If you'd told me I'd go back to Fiesta Island the day after losing our girl, I'd have said you were crazy. But that's what I did today. And I'm so glad I went.

You might remember that one week ago, I posted that we planned to meet up with some Tripawds folks, including the famous Tripawd's Spokesdog Wyatt and the feared-across-three-states (or is it more?) Bernie bin Laden. Even though none of those folks live in San Diego, they still wanted to drive down today to have a Tribute to Abby day at Abby's favorite place, Fiesta Island. They said they would totally understand if I didn't go, but I knew that Abby would want me to. If I didn't go, she would say, "Are you kidding? Miss a day at THE BEACH?" She would have said, "You're nutty, Mama. Go!" So I went.

It was really hard at first - especially turning onto the island without Abby in the backseat. She would always get so excited as soon as we got off the freeway. While we drove around the island, she'd stand in the backseat and hang her head out the window. She could barely contain herself until we'd park and I'd let her out.

But it got better once I got there and met everyone - especially the crazy pups! I took over 100 photos and had a hard time winnowing them down for this post, but here goes:

This is Wyatt Ray - how handsome is he??

This wily ball of craziness is, of course, Bernie bin Laden

...he does sometimes stand still.

This is the aptly named Linda, Bernie's sister

Um, this is also Linda

She can hold her own with the boys.

The boys started a tug-o-war that went on...

...and on...

...and on...

And then Wyatt went for his first ever swim!!

Oh,...and then back on...

...and on...

...and on...

...until talk of burgers broke up the war.

Don't worry - the dogs all got theirs too. (Ab would have LOVED this part...)

And no limbs were lost...

...or even fingers.

Tribute to Abby day was a huge success!

When I came home this afternoon, I downloaded the pictures from today. Then I got side-tracked looking through some of the last photos I took of Abby. All of a sudden, I looked up and saw this:

That is Abby's color! Tripawd-Warrior-Princess-pink. I'm pretty sure she wanted to let us know that she got there okay, and that she is painting the town pink! I'm hoping she met the Original Tripawd, Spirit Jerry, there shortly after arrival. We made a felted wool version of him for his pawrents.

Jerry and Abby would make a cute couple.


I'm sure she is flirting with all the boys up there.

As first days go without a beloved furry family member, it was actually pretty darn good. I laughed more than I cried - and who would have thought that? Certainly not me.

Thank you to everyone! All our family & friends & all the folks at Tripawds for the love and support. It really does mean a lot to know so many other people loved her too and were touched by her.