Blog + Dog, Lifestyle

Welcome to the Family

Welcome to the family Tess, Siren, March, Knight, Hardy, Duke, Nosky, Hera, Boudica, Makeda, Lily-May, Athena, Oryol, and Bear. 

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No this is not an April Fool’s prank. This is real life. Sorry I’ve been keeping it from you, but we wanted to find some equilibrium before announcing it to the world. Here is a cliff notes version of a much longer story. 

Exactly five weeks ago, I was driving to an event in Houston on a frontage road during rush hour when I saw a small and seemingly very pregnant dog on the side of the road. Nothing pulls on my heartstrings more than a homeless dog. I was driving too fast to stop. I quickly flipped around and stopped traffic in high heels and a skirt to make sure she made it across the road to safety. I knelt in a fallow field as people sped home to their families, holding out my hand, wishing I had dog treats in my car, crossing my fingers my car didn’t get hit all while looking at a very skittish dog, hoping she wouldn’t run away. It took thirty seconds before she picked up a mutilated bird wing and dropped it at my feet. My heart broke as I touched her head for the first time. A minute later, I took a calculated risk by picking her up. Instead of biting me or struggling to get free, her body relaxed into mine as I carried her across the field to place her in the back seat of my car. She immediately curled up and let out the biggest sigh. 

Once I was back on the highway, I called Dylan. “Hi, honey. I have a dog in the car.” “I didn’t know you took Beau with you.” I paused, “It’s a different dog, and she’s pregnant.” He paused for even longer, “Oh. Well. Okay. I’ll be home soon, and we’ll talk.” Then I called my bestie, Kelsey, and asked, “What the fuck did I just do.”

Before I brought this new and unknown dog into the house, I put Beau in her box to make sure both would be safe and quarantined. It took ten minutes to bring the new dog through the front door. She was scared and didn’t know what a doorway was. I didn’t want to push her or make her feel uncomfortable, so I sat down, petting her head until she walked far enough in so I could shut the door. I laid a blanket down for her with a bowl of water and food. She drank two full bowls of water and nibbled on the dog food before she laid down and closed her eyes. Her belly was huge. Her nipples were about to burst. I could see the movement of tiny puppies in her stomach. My family had a litter of puppies when I was fourteen, so I knew the signs and what to look for. We had maybe a week before the puppies would arrive. 

Dylan walked through the door and made eye contact with the cutest stray you ever did see. I saw his heart melt. We talked for a long time about keeping her or contacting a rescue. Taking on a stray is a big commitment. Taking on a pregnant stray is a HUGE commitment. I knew she would be ours in the field, but I didn’t want to push Dylan into that decision if he wasn’t comfortable with it. 

That night we [I] gave her the name Tess. We decided to lengthen it to Tessa because Dylan likes that a little better. Her name comes from the titular character in Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. The plot mimics Tessa’s own story, in a way, but with a happier ending. We gave her a bath, fed her, and loved on her.

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A call to the vet happened immediately the next morning. We kept hoping she would be microchipped by a home with someone desperately searching for her. No such luck. Dylan and I knew at that moment, we had a second dog. We spent three hours at the vet running a full panel of tests, x-rays, blood work, ultrasounds, and more to make sure Tess and the babies were healthy as can be and, at least, not contagious before we brought her home to Beau. After a once over, we found out Tess is maybe a year old.  The vet came in with the results from all the tests, and it wasn’t all great news. Honestly, it was mostly bad news. Tess had hookworms and tapeworms. We put her on pregnancy safe dewormers to take care of that problem. As expected in a street dog, she has heartworms. We won’t be able to treat that until she has weaned the babies, but she is on heartworm prevention to keep it from getting worse. That will be a process to take care over the next year. Then, the vet told us we were expecting THIRTEEN puppies. Tess isn’t very big. She weighed 52 pounds pregnant. I didn’t think she could fit more than eight babies in her tummy. The vet pulled out the x-ray saying, “Here is where the pellet is.” My brain didn’t register it at first. My dog. My pregnant dog had been shot in the spine. I don’t understand. I can’t understand it. It makes me want to cry thinking about it. I was trying to register and process that this small, young, helpless dog was full of fleas, worms, heartworms, a pellet, and thirteen babies. Other than that, she was healthy, and sweet. The vet prepared us to only have nine puppies survive because of the amount of puppies in the litter and the fact she had been living on the street for probably ever. Oh, and the puppies could arrive any time between now and a week. Hurry, hurry, hurry. 

Tess looked at me with the most soulful eyes and the biggest, pointy ears, and I knew we would do everything in our power to make her happy and healthy. 

After paying a small fortune at the vet, we took her home and made her comfortable. Then we headed to Petsmart where we spent another small fortune to get puppy formula, crate, blankets, collar, leash, dog food, dog bowls, puppy pads, bottles, flea collars, flea baths, flea bombs, puppy shampoo, and more. We bought a kiddy pool for Tess to whelp in, syringes, thermometers, and more at Target. Then we hopped on Amazon to order towels, blankets, bleach, sheets, and more. Normally, people have two months to prepare and spread out the cost of puppies before they arrive. Not only did we not have days, we also had to get everything for our new dog. Those first eighteen hours were very, VERY expensive . 

What made this whole thing harder was the fact I had to leave town two days later. Dylan had never whelped puppies. I had, but I had agreed to watch my cousin in New Orleans a year prior to this. I couldn’t back out. Dylan had to work that weekend, and he was stressed out of his mind trying to be a prepared doggy daddy. We tried to board Tess at a 24 hour vet office to make sure she was taken care of while Dylan was at work. That ended up being a complete nightmare, I will talk about that more in another blog post. Instead, we bought cameras to watch Tess in the puppy room and relied on my best friend, Amanda, to come over and lend a hand. I headed to New Orleans, hoping Tess would wait a week to have the puppies. In the meantime, I watched the cameras like a crazy person. 

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Makeda and Me

Five days after I brought Tess home, she went into labor. Fourteen hours later, Siren, the first puppy, arrived at 3:45 in the afternoon. It took seventeen hours for all thirteen puppies to arrive. My best friend, Amanda, came and helped. I was on Skype, as Overwatch, the entire time, letting them know when a puppy was coming and what to do when they needed help. We almost lost Tess between puppy ten and eleven, but she made it through. The three of us were up all night; it was exhausting and stressful. Dylan and Amanda were absolute champs. With every squeaking puppy, we let out excited cries. All thirteen puppies survived. 

At two weeks old, we had a huge scare. Oryol, Athena, and Knight’s necks started to harden and swell very quickly. The swelling started at their necks and worked towards their faces, closing their eyes. It looked bad, but what was even worse was the swelling was cutting off their air supply making them wheeze and cough for air. We loaded Tess and all thirteen puppies into the car with blankets and pillows to head to the Blue Pearl Vet in Spring, a 24 hour animal ER, at 8:45 at night. We were prepared to stay as long as we had to with credit cards in hand willing to pay whatever price we needed to. All the puppies came with because the swelling came on so suddenly, I couldn’t bear to leave the puppies at home and risk another one getting sick. The Coronavirus hysteria had started, so we weren’t able to go inside with our three sick puppies. The vet was baffled by the case. They went on a regimen of steroids and broad spectrum antibiotics to take care of anything it could be because it would be days before pathology could confirm if it was viral, bacterial, or autoimmune. We were hoping it was an autoimmune disease; the other options meant a possibility of losing the entire litter and even Tess. After pathology and all sorts of other small fortunes were spent, we found out it was a wildly atypical case of the rare autoimmune disease: Puppy Strangles. It doesn’t occur in puppies younger than three weeks, which is why it was such a rare case. The fact three puppies had it at the same time in the space of an hour made it even more uncommon. Normally, it is not lethal, but because they were so small, had we waited much longer they would have strangled to death. They’re still on steroids, but they’re doing great and should be off them in a week!

Coronavirus sucks. Honestly, it couldn’t have come at a better time for me, though. I was supposed to go on a three week trip to Europe, which was cancelled because of the pandemic. Also because of the pandemic, work has been very slow, and Dylan and I are stuck at home with the puppies all day. It’s an amazing way to spend our quarantine, and I’m not in Europe missing out on this preciously short time. 

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Dillies and Bear

Tess is the sweetest dog you ever did meet. Beau and her love each other. They are becoming the best of friends, taking on the other’s habits and falling asleep snuggling. Tess is becoming exhausted and drained from all the nursing, but she is doing an amazing job. Thirteen teething puppies with only eight functional nipples does not make for a happy mama. I can’t imagine what she’s going through, but we’re loving her fiercely through it all. Beau is obsessed with the puppies. Whenever they squeak, Beau runs in to check on them. Tess sees Beau taking care of things and lays back down. They’re coparenting, and it makes my heart so happy. Beau is torn between being enamored and terrified of the puppies. She wants to play with them so badly, and they’re now old enough they have started to play back. 

My thirteen poop factories keep me busy doing laundry. And I mean a LOT of laundry. I’m a laundry goddess. They are the cutest things in the whole world, which makes it all worthwhile. 

Last week, at three weeks old, my bestie, Jenn, took family pictures. We wanted to capture all thirteen babies, Tess, Beau, Dylan, and I before they’re zooming all over the place in complete and utter chaos. They turned out so cute. I will treasure them forever. 

They’re officially one month old today. It’s an amazing age. They are walking and talking and playing. They mimic Beau’s boxerish play tactics. A herd of puppies run to me whenever I get near. I spend all day cuddling them when I’m not cleaning up. They are perfect and delightful and too good for this world. 

The only reason I knew I could bring a heavily pregnant dog home off the side of the street was because Dylan would have done the exact same thing. When we started dating, he knew this was the kind of person I am, and he signed on anyways. He had been pushing to get a second dog for the last two years. I have been very resistant to it because dogs are a lot of work and a lot of money. I love them to death, but it is hard to travel with one dog let alone two. The Monday before Tess came home, I had told Dylan we were absolutely NOT bringing a second dog into the house. By Wednesday we had two. A week and a half later, we had fifteen dogs. I guess I was wrong. I couldn’t be happier about our circus. 

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna, Dylan, Beau, Tess, Siren, March,
Knight, Hardy, Duke, Nosky, Hera, Boudica,
Makeda, Lily-May, Athena, Oryol, and Bear

Blog + Dog

Water Dog

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Beau really hated the pool float. | Swimsuit | Hat | Floatie |
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She did a lap around me to make sure the floatie wasn’t eating me, then said “See ya, Mom!”         | Swimsuit | Floatie | Hat |

 

I have loved water my entire life. I’m happiest sitting by the ocean. I used to crave summer for days at the pool or on a boat at the lake at my grandparent’s in Wisconsin. My brother and I could spend all day playing in the pool. 

I’ve had dogs my entire life. Some have loved the water even more than I do. Some have hated any water outside of their drinking bowl. Some have been ambivalent except on the very hottest of days. They are living breathing beings with emotions, preferences, and dislikes just like people. You can’t make a dog like the water. 

I didn’t really give much thought to if Beau would be a water dog or not when I brought her home. It didn’t matter either way. The first couple of months going to the dog park, she was pretty tentative about the dog pools and lakes. She loved romping through the muddy puddles. The muddier the better. It wasn’t until a gaggle of ducks started goading her one day that she dove into the water proving she could swim and wouldn’t take crap from anyone let alone a flock of audacious ducks. Ever since that day, she has been my water baby. 

Our first summer together, we went to Southern California. After 26 hours in the car, we drove straight to a dog beach at Ocean Beach in San Diego. We hopped out of the car, let Beau off the leash, she ran head first into the ocean, and had explosive diarrhea all over the place. So great….

We have friends with pools, and Beau LOVES going for swims and running around between her water adventures. So much so, she even knows what routes we take to get to their houses, and she perks up the moment we make certain turns. She’s hilarious. Always cautious with her first toe dips, she’s soon jumping in and taking a spin around. I can’t keep her out, which I don’t want to. She loves to jump in after me and swim a circle around me before hopping out and running a few laps around before jumping back in again. 

Beau loves lakes, oceans, puddles, streams, rivers, and pools. Anxiety riddled and cautious, she never has a probably enjoying the water or a good swim. With the Texas heat on full blast ten months out of the year, water is a great way to have fun and stay cool. 

bisous et обьятий,
Beau and RaeAnna

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I was being eaten, and Beau didn’t care. | Swimsuit | Floatie | Hat
Breakfast, In The Kitchen

Sweet Potato Hash

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Sweet Potato Hash for breakfast! | Cast Iron Skillet | Mug

I love breakfast. I waffle (pun) between sweet and savory breakfast foods. I love both equally!!! I found a yummy looking hash recipe on page 44 of the Sugar Free Cookbook by David Zinczenko. I took it as inspiration and completely changed it to fit my tastes. This recipe is gluten free, sugar free, and super yummy. It is really filling. You can add more eggs to this or more ingredients to feed several people. I actually made this as follows and ate it two days in a row because I had left overs. 

Ingredients

  • 1 tbs. Olive Oil
  • ¼ Onion
  • 1 Garlic Clove
  • 1 Sweet Potato
  • 12 Grape Tomatoes
  • ½ Can White Beans
  • ¼ of a Turkey Kielbasa
  •  ½ Fresh Spinach
  • 1 Egg
  • Salt/Pepper to Taste

Instructions

  • Heat olive oil in a cast iron pan. 
  • Mince garlic and onions. Add to pan with salt and pepper until browned. 
  • Chop sweet potatoes into small chunks. Half the grape tomatoes. Cut kielbasa into bite sized chunks. 
  • Add sweet potatoes and tomatoes to pan. Cover and let cook for six minutes or until tender and tomatoes have burst. Stir frequently to avoid sticking. 
  • Add kielbasa, white beans, and spinach. Cover for two minutes. 
  • Stir everything together. Make a small divot in middle of the food. Crack egg. Cover. Cook until the yolk is as runny as you like. 
  • Enjoy!

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Blog + Dog, Style

Dog Mom Shirts

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Hanging out at the beach in Galveston, TX. | Dog Mom Shirt | Dog Mom Hat | Shorts

I love dog mom clothes. It’s advertizing. It says “Hi, I love my dog more than I’ll ever love you.” It may also say, “Hi, I’m a crazy dog mom. Try me.” Okay. All it probably says is “I have a dog and enough money for this tshirt.” If you know me, I’ll personally tell you all three of those sentences, but the first is the most apropos.

I really love being a dog mom. It’s probably the most rewarding thing I will ever do in my entire life. I shouldn’t have children because I will probably always tell them I love them almost as much as the dog. Reasons why:

  • Dogs clean their own butts. There’s a solid three-ish years you have to do that with the human children.
  • Children are sticky. My dog has never been sticky. Not ever.
  • I can put my dog in a box and leave for several hours. Children: Hello, CPS?
  • Children are a lifelong commitment.
  • I wish my dog was a lifelong commitment.
  • Children can talk. My dog only barks when there is danger or she has to shit.
  • Children will probably grow up to hate you in some small way. Beau only holds a grudge for 20 seconds.
  • I can pack Beau up in the car and go anywhere anytime. Children have school and other boring crap I have to go to and be a part of.
  • Waking up to my dog’s butthole is unpleasant, but it’s better than an expensive, sticky, talkative child.

I love kids. I think they’re super great. Especially when I can hand them back to their parents. Being Fun Aunt RaeAnna is my favorite thing to be to children. I can whoosh in with presents and fun times before whooshing out several days later. I’ll even take them for weeks at a time! My heart is with my dog. I love being her Mom more than anything. I love working from home because I get to cover Beau in kisses any time I want to.

I have been collecting Dog Mom clothes because it is my favorite part of my identity. Here are all the fun Dog Mom things I found!

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Books, NonFiction

How to Skimm Your Life from theSkimm

Worth A Read Yes
Length 240
Quick Review From the creators of theSkimm. They walk you through the basics of being a successful adult from what they mean when they’re talking about wine to networking to taxes.

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Reading How to Skimm Your Life in a super fun swing! | yoga pants | shirt | sunglasses | flippy-floppies |

theSkimm has become one of the most beloved emails people receive in the morning. It keeps you up to date on the goings on all over the world without having to invest hours combing through newspapers. I read it myself. The creators are now helping with life in How to Skimm Your Life comes out tomorrow and is a funny and informative.

I love a good glossy book with illustrations. Did you know millennials are changing and reinvigorating the wine industry? It only makes sense How to Skimm Your Life would start with a little wine information. Knowing your way around a wine menu makes you seem and feel fancy. There are also a ton of tips about taxes, travel, side hustles, politics, world history, house cleaning, finances, and networking. It’s a great overview of things every successful adult should be aware of in today’s society.

I love the section about politics and the UN. It helps break down a lot of overwhelming information. We hear about committees and such in the news, but often times we don’t necessarily know what they mean. One of the most important parts of How to Skimm Your Life is the break down of how these things works. It was also fun reading about it because I’m sitting in a coffee shop right across from the National Mall in Washington D.C. Although they fall a little short with the World History section because it starts in 1914. I think they could have given another page or two to a longer history lesson, but that comes from a history lover.

The book has a huge sense of humor, which keeps you flipping the pages. It has an incredibly upbeat tone filled with bright colors and a little bit of fun. Adulting can be hard, but getting better at it shouldn’t be. How to Skimm Your Life is like having a cheerleader in a book.

Memorable Quotes
“And why highly tannic wines like Cabernet Sauvignon develop like Jane Fonda: Better. Every. Year.”

Buy on Amazon | Buy on Barnes & Noble | Buy on Book Depository
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Title: How Skimm Your Life
Author: theSkimm
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9781984820808

Blog + Dog

The Struggle

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I’m just here. Holding fruit. Being stepped on. By my dog.
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Beau and I playing tug-of-war with treats.
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Me in my wellies, jammies, and sweater trying to get Beau to pose.
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Beau running away in her sweater and hat/leg warmer set.

The struggle is so real.

Have you ever tried to take a picture with a dog?

I think I’m probably a lot dumber than I think I am because I keep trying to take picture with Beau. She’s drop dead cute. You can look at me without triggering your gag reflex. Getting us both cooperate at the same time is a little like trying to put a cloud in a bottle. I firmly believe Beau is the smartest and most beautiful being to ever grace this world, which is why I like sharing her through my weekly Blog + Dog posts. She makes cameos in my other posts and pictures with frequency because the light of my life must shine.

Beau can be as uncooperative as she is smart. The key to taking great pictures is taking a megabajillion. Out of the megabajillion, I usually end up with one-ish great one. The others are hilarious, but not what I had in mind. Every single time I try for a picture, I’m always far more optimistic than realistic. THIS time, it will be perfect. Spoiler alert. It’s not. I can honestly tell you, I have never gotten THE picture originally imagined. I don’t know how photographers do it. They are magicians.

Hilariously, Beau hates having her picture taken or being recorded. I can strategically place my phone to record her or take a picture while looking the other way. The moment she realizes it’s there and looking at her, she stops. She’s like a shy little kid who was born to be an actor but hates being watched. I’m relieved that she is no longer terrified of my camera. When I first bought my Nikon, Beau growled and barked at it the moment it came out of the case. She does not trust it, but she will at least be in the same room with it.

A multitude of strategically placed treats are my go to. I will hide them in my hand, under my leg, in a bowl, between pages, anywhere remotely plausible. Beau loves treats. Every picture with her in it – except the ones where we’re sleeping – I have treats hidden. I am not adverse to bribery, obviously. It works. Kind of well. I get cute pictures. She gets the nom noms. I can post dogtastic pictures for dog-lovers to adore. Win-win-win.

I’m a major perfectionist. I have had to let that go when Beau is in the photoshoot. Otherwise, I would spend hours not getting the picture I had in mind. Dog photos are pretty much an experiment in winging it with treats.  

xoxo,
Beau + RaeAnna

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