(no subject)

I keep thinking of interesting (well, interesting on the relative scale of subjects I talk about, anyway) things I want to post about, opening up the Update Journal field, and then writing a few paragraphs and forgetting what I was going to say in the first place.

I have e-mailed about three dogs in the last week, and every one of them has been adopted before I can go see them. (I would say sadface about this, but it's actually happyface because they found homes! Yay!) I just got in touch with the lady who runs the Australian Shepherd and Border Collie Rescue of Northern Nevada, though, and I think that's a great connection to make when hunting for a border collie. :D They seem to get quite a few great dogs in! Before anyone gets confused, we're close enough to Nevada that making a trip over there is just a matter of about an hour and a half or two hours, so dogs in the Tahoe/Reno area works just fine for us.

Still considering Sammy, though. I figure if the right dog doesn't show up in a week or two and Sammy isn't adopted, I'll take it as a sign. We'll see what happens.

I took Hana to the dog park last night and my wildlife rehabber friend Nina was there! We talked about our dogs for a while while playing with them. :D She has a poodle who had such severe behavior problems when she rescued him that she almost put him down, but she actually managed to train him into a great dog after years of effort and reading dog training books. The elderly couple who had him for the first six years of his life literally kept him sedated (as in DRUGGED) all the time and didn't take him anywhere at all, so she had to teach him about just about everything in the world outside of the house and yard, including socializing him as if he were a puppy. Gahhh, people. ;___; At least he's had a good home for the last six years of his life. She has a cute fox terrier as well, and this poor doggie was hit by a snow plow and broke her pelvis in five places. The vet did an amazing job on the pelvis, though--you could only tell something was "off" if you looked at her gait carefully, and she was running around having a grand time as if nothing ever happened.

Anyway, leaving the subject of dogs for now, I'm going to go order faux fur for my Umbreon costume tomorrow! Definitely excited. :D I need to get some foam, too, and get started on the head. Heads are definitely both the most fun and most challenging part of mascot cosplay.

I have some other errands and things to do tomorrow, but thankfully nothing too stressful. I'm actually looking forward to having a few things to do because I feel like it keeps me more focused instead of just sitting around doing nothing and then wondering where the time went.

Want to play more Platinum, try my hand at doing some digital drawings with time limits to see what happens, do fanfic post at some point (...or at least write it if not necessarily post it), and download/watch anime once I've dumped some stuff on my external hard drive.

...WHY THE HELL AM I READING RANDOM CRAIGLIST POSTS (especially really cringe-worthy personals ads)? I have a feeling this is one of those stupid things I'll find mildly amusing for a few hours and then after that feel mildly disgusted with it. Well, that's the internet for you.

( Some of my findings. NSFW, stupid, weird, and so on. )

(no subject)

I keep thinking of interesting (well, interesting on the relative scale of subjects I talk about, anyway) things I want to post about, opening up the Update Journal field, and then writing a few paragraphs and forgetting what I was going to say in the first place.

I have e-mailed about three dogs in the last week, and every one of them has been adopted before I can go see them. (I would say sadface about this, but it's actually happyface because they found homes! Yay!) I just got in touch with the lady who runs the Australian Shepherd and Border Collie Rescue of Northern Nevada, though, and I think that's a great connection to make when hunting for a border collie. :D They seem to get quite a few great dogs in! Before anyone gets confused, we're close enough to Nevada that making a trip over there is just a matter of about an hour and a half or two hours, so dogs in the Tahoe/Reno area works just fine for us.

Still considering Sammy, though. I figure if the right dog doesn't show up in a week or two and Sammy isn't adopted, I'll take it as a sign. We'll see what happens.

I took Hana to the dog park last night and my wildlife rehabber friend Nina was there! We talked about our dogs for a while while playing with them. :D She has a poodle who had such severe behavior problems when she rescued him that she almost put him down, but she actually managed to train him into a great dog after years of effort and reading dog training books. The elderly couple who had him for the first six years of his life literally kept him sedated (as in DRUGGED) all the time and didn't take him anywhere at all, so she had to teach him about just about everything in the world outside of the house and yard, including socializing him as if he were a puppy. Gahhh, people. ;___; At least he's had a good home for the last six years of his life. She has a cute fox terrier as well, and this poor doggie was hit by a snow plow and broke her pelvis in five places. The vet did an amazing job on the pelvis, though--you could only tell something was "off" if you looked at her gait carefully, and she was running around having a grand time as if nothing ever happened.

Anyway, leaving the subject of dogs for now, I'm going to go order faux fur for my Umbreon costume tomorrow! Definitely excited. :D I need to get some foam, too, and get started on the head. Heads are definitely both the most fun and most challenging part of mascot cosplay.

I have some other errands and things to do tomorrow, but thankfully nothing too stressful. I'm actually looking forward to having a few things to do because I feel like it keeps me more focused instead of just sitting around doing nothing and then wondering where the time went.

Want to play more Platinum, try my hand at doing some digital drawings with time limits to see what happens, do fanfic post at some point (...or at least write it if not necessarily post it), and download/watch anime once I've dumped some stuff on my external hard drive.

...WHY THE HELL AM I READING RANDOM CRAIGLIST POSTS (especially really cringe-worthy personals ads)? I have a feeling this is one of those stupid things I'll find mildly amusing for a few hours and then after that feel mildly disgusted with it. Well, that's the internet for you.

( Some of my findings. NSFW, stupid, weird, and so on. )

TL;DR KRISTIN LOVES DOGS AND IS RESCUING ANOTHER ONE

So. Um. We are most likely getting a dog, either tomorrow or Sunday, that we haven't even met yet. I would normally advise strongly against this sort of thing because rescuing a dog you haven't even seen in person would normally just be a bad decision, but everything has just fallen perfectly into place and those "signs" I had been looking for are popping up, so I think this is supposed to happen. :D It's not 100% yet, of course, but it's something like 95%.

Here is what happened:

I e-mailed an adoption group in Incline Village, Nevada about a cute border collie named Trixie. I had held off on e-mailing about her for a few days because there wasn't much information on her and I prefer to e-mail about dogs where it says if they're good with other dogs, cats, etc. Well, I e-mailed and a few hours later the adoption group e-mailed me back saying Trixie had found a home that day, but she would have the head of the Australian Shepherd and Border Collie Rescue of Northern Nevada contact me right away. She did, and I described what we were looking for and so on. She said, "I have the perfect dog for you!" And it turns out it was Tilly, who I filled out an adoption application for a few weeks ago. Apparently it got initially lost in her hectic inbox, hence why I hadn't received a reply.

She reviewed our application, approved it, and said that:

1. She had just been in Penn Valley (where we live, and a very small town about two and a half hours from where she is in Reno) just the other day because her dad lives here.

2. A lady from Grass Valley, which is about a ten minute drive from us/considered essentially the same place as Penn Valley is coming up to Reno to get a dog from Tilly's foster parent today (as of now, seeing as it's just past midnight). So, chances are, she can bring Tilly right to us.

The timing is just...amazing. Even more intriguing to me than that is her name. Tilly. Our last two dogs we've owned, loved, and lost were Tia and Lily. Tilly. If that's not a sign, combined with the incredible timing, I don't know what is. (Aside from maybe toggy's story with Gambit, haha!)

She also has four white "socks" like Hana does, awww. ♥

Mom and I have both talked to her foster parent tonight, she's adorable and sounds extremely sweet, and she's...exactly what we were looking for. Right age. Right gender. Right personality (based off what we've heard). Good with dogs, good with cats, good in the house. Not perfect with small children because she's a herding dog, but I don't like small children myself! And it's not like we have any around the household/will have any around the household, uhhh...ever.

We're having some trouble getting in touch with the lady from Grass Valley who may be picking her up, so we're not sure if she's still coming down from Reno with her tomorrow morning, but if that falls through we'll just go pick her up on Sunday. :D

( Picture of Tilly! )

Sorry to disappoint those who loved Sammy (based off his super-cute mugshot, hahaha~ *0*), but, while he was totally adorable and I really liked him, I feel like if he was supposed to be our dog there would have been some sort of sign or connection with the whole family or something. He'll find a wonderful home, I'm sure. :) He's safe and happy in a foster home in the meantime!

I'm excited and a little bit nervous and...suddenly, it's like a hold has been released on my emotions over losing Tia. Not like the floodgates have opened or anything, but throughout today I've been crying a little on and off realizing that she's gone and having fond memories of her. It's strange how that works with me... That finally, now that we're rescuing another dog, I am able to cope with losing Tia. It's like, because there is the joy of saving another life, I can more easily take on the loss and balance it out and deal with both emotions a little bit at a time. I always feel a bit strange when trying to describe why I always immediately start searching for dogs after losing one, because I think it's easily to misinterpret as it being some sort of novelty thing, or "replacing" the other dog, but I don't think it's either of those even slightly. It's just that...I guess I feel like there has to be this balance of emotions in order for me to cope with it, and that if there is a place in my home and heart for a rescued animal, I have a duty to the one who has passed to save another life. It's hard for me to rationalize, or understand, much less explain, but I suppose that's how I feel.

In other news, I got a new bank account finally (PFFF I'M SURE YOU ALL CARE SO MUCH ABOUT THIS AND WERE DEEPLY CONCERNED ABOUT IT) and ordered some Umbreon cosplay faux fur. :D Oh, and my laptop is being stupid and therefore I won't be on the computer too much lately. Power cord issues again. :/

Sooo that's my life right now. I can't wait to meet Tilly. Hana will be so happy to have a new dogfriend around the house and the thought of taking them both to the dog park together and obedience and agility is so exciting!

P.S. If anyone is looking for a dog, go here: http://www.dogsindanger.com/ and run a search. I don't advise doing it if you're not searching for a dog because it will absolutely break your heart like it did mine. :( The "In Memorium" pages make me cry and feel upset and angry and a little sick to my stomach. I can feel my misanthropy increasing by the minute.

TL;DR KRISTIN LOVES DOGS AND IS RESCUING ANOTHER ONE

So. Um. We are most likely getting a dog, either tomorrow or Sunday, that we haven't even met yet. I would normally advise strongly against this sort of thing because rescuing a dog you haven't even seen in person would normally just be a bad decision, but everything has just fallen perfectly into place and those "signs" I had been looking for are popping up, so I think this is supposed to happen. :D It's not 100% yet, of course, but it's something like 95%.

Here is what happened:

I e-mailed an adoption group in Incline Village, Nevada about a cute border collie named Trixie. I had held off on e-mailing about her for a few days because there wasn't much information on her and I prefer to e-mail about dogs where it says if they're good with other dogs, cats, etc. Well, I e-mailed and a few hours later the adoption group e-mailed me back saying Trixie had found a home that day, but she would have the head of the Australian Shepherd and Border Collie Rescue of Northern Nevada contact me right away. She did, and I described what we were looking for and so on. She said, "I have the perfect dog for you!" And it turns out it was Tilly, who I filled out an adoption application for a few weeks ago. Apparently it got initially lost in her hectic inbox, hence why I hadn't received a reply.

She reviewed our application, approved it, and said that:

1. She had just been in Penn Valley (where we live, and a very small town about two and a half hours from where she is in Reno) just the other day because her dad lives here.

2. A lady from Grass Valley, which is about a ten minute drive from us/considered essentially the same place as Penn Valley is coming up to Reno to get a dog from Tilly's foster parent today (as of now, seeing as it's just past midnight). So, chances are, she can bring Tilly right to us.

The timing is just...amazing. Even more intriguing to me than that is her name. Tilly. Our last two dogs we've owned, loved, and lost were Tia and Lily. Tilly. If that's not a sign, combined with the incredible timing, I don't know what is. (Aside from maybe toggy's story with Gambit, haha!)

She also has four white "socks" like Hana does, awww. ♥

Mom and I have both talked to her foster parent tonight, she's adorable and sounds extremely sweet, and she's...exactly what we were looking for. Right age. Right gender. Right personality (based off what we've heard). Good with dogs, good with cats, good in the house. Not perfect with small children because she's a herding dog, but I don't like small children myself! And it's not like we have any around the household/will have any around the household, uhhh...ever.

We're having some trouble getting in touch with the lady from Grass Valley who may be picking her up, so we're not sure if she's still coming down from Reno with her tomorrow morning, but if that falls through we'll just go pick her up on Sunday. :D

( Picture of Tilly! )

Sorry to disappoint those who loved Sammy (based off his super-cute mugshot, hahaha~ *0*), but, while he was totally adorable and I really liked him, I feel like if he was supposed to be our dog there would have been some sort of sign or connection with the whole family or something. He'll find a wonderful home, I'm sure. :) He's safe and happy in a foster home in the meantime!

I'm excited and a little bit nervous and...suddenly, it's like a hold has been released on my emotions over losing Tia. Not like the floodgates have opened or anything, but throughout today I've been crying a little on and off realizing that she's gone and having fond memories of her. It's strange how that works with me... That finally, now that we're rescuing another dog, I am able to cope with losing Tia. It's like, because there is the joy of saving another life, I can more easily take on the loss and balance it out and deal with both emotions a little bit at a time. I always feel a bit strange when trying to describe why I always immediately start searching for dogs after losing one, because I think it's easily to misinterpret as it being some sort of novelty thing, or "replacing" the other dog, but I don't think it's either of those even slightly. It's just that...I guess I feel like there has to be this balance of emotions in order for me to cope with it, and that if there is a place in my home and heart for a rescued animal, I have a duty to the one who has passed to save another life. It's hard for me to rationalize, or understand, much less explain, but I suppose that's how I feel.

In other news, I got a new bank account finally (PFFF I'M SURE YOU ALL CARE SO MUCH ABOUT THIS AND WERE DEEPLY CONCERNED ABOUT IT) and ordered some Umbreon cosplay faux fur. :D Oh, and my laptop is being stupid and therefore I won't be on the computer too much lately. Power cord issues again. :/

Sooo that's my life right now. I can't wait to meet Tilly. Hana will be so happy to have a new dogfriend around the house and the thought of taking them both to the dog park together and obedience and agility is so exciting!

P.S. If anyone is looking for a dog, go here: http://www.dogsindanger.com/ and run a search. I don't advise doing it if you're not searching for a dog because it will absolutely break your heart like it did mine. :( The "In Memorium" pages make me cry and feel upset and angry and a little sick to my stomach. I can feel my misanthropy increasing by the minute.