Will you look at that – gas finally went below the $2-mark.  I never thought I’d see this day.

This little baby is NOT shy…  and he likes show and tell!

In her last two days, she just let us hold her and love her.  She wanted to get up and run around and jump so badly, but her little legs just wouldn’t work. It was so hard to see her not being able to be a puppy.  The doctor said that she had a deformed vertebrae (probably from birth) that had just shifted and was now pushing up on her spinal column – causing the paralysis, incontinence, and shaking.  The odds were so stacked against her that even surgery likely wouldn’t help.  So we held her as long as we could, scratched her ears and her belly, held her little paws, and then we let her sleep for the last time.  We buried her in a special spot in the mountains, with sunshine, trees, and a view of Mt. Millicent (for which she was named).  I held her all wrapped up in a blanket as we drove up the mountain road – she was so peaceful and I wasn’t quite ready to let go.  We dedicated her grave and placed her in it with her stuffed chicken and the pink bandana Jake bought for her.  We love her and miss her so much.  But we know that she’s in a better place now – somewhere that she is whole and healthy, but hopefully still her cute puppy size.  We feel lucky even to have had her for 2 short months. Our neighbor Beth and her two children came to the pet hospital to say goodbye to Millie and as we were sitting in the waiting room, Beth said that Millie was so special and unique – and maybe that’s why we only had her for such a short time.  She was just that special.  She was the perfect dog for us – the sweetest little girl we ever could have hoped for.  We like to think that now she has joined Jake’s fleet of guardian angels on their Search and Rescue task force.  Oh how we miss her already.  She really has a special place in our hearts.  We love you, our sweet little Millie. 

Memories of Millie

5/6/2008 – 9/8/2008

• She is part reindeer, part puppy.  We determined that from the way she would prance/pounce especially when we first got her.
• She couldn’t walk straight for the first little bit – had trouble getting the back legs and front legs to get in the same direction so she’d zig zag/prance/pounce wherever she went.
• When I would come down in the morning, I’d sit Indian style on the floor and she’d jump in my lap, try to lick my face, and let me pet her, scratch her, especially her belly.
• The beautiful white cross on her chest.
• How her cute little nubbin of a tail would go crazy wagging whenever she got excited (i.e. whenever she saw one of us after not being around for awhile, whenever she saw a friend, etc.).  Her tail was docked when we got her (cut off, I guess), so it was only like an inch long, and whenever she wagged it, she ended up shaking her entire hind end.
• How much she loved when Jake would feed her string cheese, bread w/PB, tuna, treats.
• Our favorite was when she would lie on her back with all 4 legs up, and try to gnaw on something near her head.

• How she pounced at her bone, as if it were alive.
• A few times recently she’s run into the screen door trying to get either inside or out, not even seeing it.  She had a much better track record with the glass door.  We laughed, she just looked at us with her head cocked.
• Digging in the dirt whenever she could reach it.  Or the drain pipes, or the wet part in our grass.  Then when we’d call her to stop, she’d look up at us with her ears up, with an expression that said, “Huh?  Who, ME?  I’m just digging over here.”  There are still a few of her holes in our dirt that I’m not quite ready to fill back up…
• How she’d look us all alert with her ears up and her head cocked.
• Whenever she was in the front room, she’d just want to play – with the table, the table runner, ANY SHOES she could find, the Gatorade bottle.
• Sometimes when we were in the family room but she was supposed to stay in the kitchen, she start creeping into the family room, and as soon as we would notice her and tell her to go back, she’d run back to the kitchen.
• She got pretty used to not being able to go to the front room – she would sit at the border, right where the kitchen floor met the carpet, and she’d barely put her little paws on the carpet.  As if to say, “Look, I’m close, but I’m not going in.”
• If she was in the kitchen when I came home from work, she’d see me opening the front door and try her best to stay on the linoleum, but after a second or two she wouldn’t be able to stand it anymore and she’d run as fast as she could to greet me.
• Chasing the Gatorade bottle for HOURS in the kitchen – every once in awhile she’d think it’s alive so she’d back away and growl and bark at it.

• Her “shiz-eating grin”, as Jake called it when she would look at us all excited with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth.
• She LOVED our neighbors – especially Anna.  She’d be so excited whenever she saw them that she’d end up accidentally peeing.  She really liked Laura, too.
• How ready and alert she would always be to get out of her kennel.  Especially when we moved her down to the basement.  She’d always be standing ready, looking around the corner to see if we were coming for her.
• She liked sitting under the back porch in the shade, but often she’d get her leash tangled around the post to the point that she couldn’t move hardly 1 foot.  So we’d rescue her and unwind the leash, but she would inevitably do it again.  Cute puppy.
• She would pull ANYTHING she could through her kennel – once I found like 5 washcloths and hand towels in it.
• She liked getting into the insulation and wood in the basement… not so good for a puppy.
• She decided that the little soft bed we got for her was a better chew toy then the bed.  She tore part of it apart, pulling out the stuffing from inside.  Also, she seldom sat INSIDE the bed – she usually wanted to lie half on, half off.  And the first time we put it in her kennel, she crawled under it to sleep.
• She always wanted to lick our faces, but I never let her until the day we said good-bye.  Then I couldn’t get enough of it.
• One morning we were cooking bacon, and we had her outside in the back yard with the just the screen door shut and it only took her a few seconds to realize, “Um, you’re cooking bacon?  I don’t know if you remember, but I’m a DOG and bacon is kinda my thing…”  She was up to the screen door pushing her nose against it and wagging her little tail pretty quickly.  After breakfast, I ended up giving her a piece of bacon
• Going on walks was almost impossible. She would run around our legs and it was a struggle to make sure the leash wouldn’t trip us.
• Sometimes she would be scratching her head with her hind legs, and all of a sudden she’d start chewing on her foot.

• One day Jake brought home a little pink bandana with white polka dots for her – I almost died. But it was so cute that he got it for her, and it really fit her sweet personality.
• Then I almost died again when Jake got her a little dog tag for her collar and on it he’d put “Millie Spurlock”.  But now I’m ok with it.  Now I really feel like she was part of our family.
• She had a love-hate relationship with sprinklers – she would get up close and bite at the water, only to run away the next second, and then go back at it again.
• She loved going on walks to new places – she’d run back and forth from one spot in the grass to the next, so many things to discover!
• Her sweet little face and name, she just wanted to love and be loved. She was so excited for life and for every single day.
• Jake said she hardly ever winced for the shots when he took her to the vet – she didn’t mind it at all.
• She loved taking naps on top of the air conditioning vent.
• She wasn’t a huge fan of taking baths, but after awhile she got used to the blow dryer and would sit calmly in Jake’s lap and bite at the air.
• When she got the cue that her bath time was done and she was free to go, she never went down the stairs faster.
• She loved playing fetch, but only until she realized that we would take the ball away from her again if she brought it to us. So she’d catch it about 3 times and then just take the ball with her and sit down.
• Her favorite toys were her chicken, a leather shoe, the teddy bear from Anna, and the rope.  And the dog brush with the wooden handle.
• She LOVED eating ice.  On that sad Sunday, I fed her ice as she lay on the grass.  She couldn’t get enough of it.
• Whenever I washed dishes, she would want to sit on top of my feet, partly to just be there, partly because there was another air conditioning vent there.
• She liked to bite on her leash. One day we had the leash partly inside the sliding glass door but she was outside, and apparently she saw someone she liked and bolted so fast that she broke the leash.  We got a stake with a much stronger leash that day.
• She loved sitting on the grass when it was windy outside, just feeling the wind on her face.  She’d face the wind and let it blow her ears all the way back.
• She had one crooked ear that would always be flopped backwards when the other one was down regular.  Cute little lopsided ears…

• She liked to nibble on Jake’s toes when she was really little.
• It was so cute when she would put her paw up as if to say – please hold my hand.
• She would never do her business in one spot – she would always walk a few steps, leaving a trail of it.  THANKS, Millie.
• She loved to be scratched and played with.  And she had the softest fur I had ever felt.
• She loved kids – she was happiest when she was outside playing with all of our neighbor kids.
• She would army crawl when she wanted to sneak up on something, with her arms straight out, and her legs straight back.
• When we first got her, Jake would have to take her out in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. The only way he could keep track of her was her little white bum.
• Just a few days ago we noticed that she had lost 3 or her front puppy teeth.
• When we would take her somewhere in the car, if she wasn’t in her carrier, she’d want her head out the window or right in front of the air conditioning
• On Jake’s recent walks with her to the mailbox without her leash – she’d run almost the whole way there and then look back at him as if to say, “What’s taking you so long? I’m already here, you should be too.”

Juicy Details

- Due date:  February 26, 2009  (And YES, we will find out the gender, just not for another LONG month…)

- Current cravings:  oranges, grilled cheese with lots of cold dill pickles, ice water

- Cravings that I’m already over:  marinara sauce, watermelon, Mexican-hole-in-the-wall-Beto’s-style steak super nachos

We’re so excited!  

P.S.  I’ve already picked out the baby’s halloween costume for next year.  YOU JUST WAIT, it will totally knock your socks off!

Millie

We got a puppy.  I’m at a loss for words, just as you are.  Never in a million gazillion years did I EVER think that Melissa Bain Spurlock would ever have to own a real live pet, let alone a dog.  The things we do for our jobs… (or more accurately, for our SPOUSE’S job).  It still doesn’t feel real, I don’t totally believe it.  However there are several little BIG reminders that shock me back to reality, such as: the DOG IN OUR KITCHEN, the barricade we’ve made between the kitchen and the carpeted living room that I am constantly tripping over, the fact that I can’t eat in the kitchen anymore because just KNOWING an animal is there makes me a little sick to my stomach, the frantic banging of a Gatorade bottle being chased around the kitchen floor all day, and the smell of dog food in the garage.

But I guess she’s not ALL bad…  Jake’s really good with doing ALL the work in taking care of her, so I don’t really do anything (that’s our agreement and the ONLY way it can work).  And he’s really cute with her – I think he’ll be a great dad once we have kids.  And just look at that cute little face!  Plus, she’s pretty well behaved, as far as puppies go.  So I’m no ”dog lover” by any means, but I’m also not dead yet.  That’s what I call PROGRESS.

Millie’s stats:  Australian shepard.  Born May 6, 2008.  About 9 lbs.  If she gets too big, I’m giving her away.

1.      The main reason is that I want to include pictures in my posts, but all of our pictures are on JAKE’s computer.  And have you ever seen Jake without his computer?  Neither have I.

2.     The longer you put something off, the easier it is to KEEP putting it off.  Plus, the idea of blogging regularly overwhelms me, which is why it took me so long to start a blog in the first place.  It’s a HUGE commitment, not unlike marriage.

3.     I simply forget.  I spend my entire day at work on a computer, so you’ll understand if getting on another computer isn’t my first priority as soon as I get home in the evening.

4.     I think our blog theme is ugly and I can’t find any free WordPress themes that I like that are allowed with our current WordPress account.  But don’t worry, we’ll be rolling out our new blog site as soon as some of the back-end stuff gets worked out and everything from this blog gets transferred over.  And I’m sorry!  I know how annoying it is for people to keep changing their website address/email address!  But I’ll be much happier with a prettier blog template, and much more inclined to write.

5.     I’m busy!  When I’m not at work, there are endless chores to do at home which I should be doing instead of blogging.  (Who knew that a mere 2 people could generate SO MUCH dirty laundry and dishes??  It boggles the mind.)  I sooo look forward to the day when I no longer work and can keep up with the daily housework.

So there you have it.  But I’m back now and I’ve got a lot of catching up to do!  Stay tuned…

But alas, Jake just got a new job – his first post-college-graduation career-starting REAL JOB – and this job strongly encourages that he have a pet.  So in the name of Jake taking over the role of “breadwinner” in our family, I have more-or-less said OK to a dog.  Family, please do not disown me.

This decision, however, comes with conditions.  I only want a dog that doesn’t shed, doesn’t bark, doesn’t smell, doesn’t poop, doesn’t lick my face, doesn’t have germs, and it will NOT be in our family Christmas picture.  So if you know of a small dog that fits that description, let me know.

And as for a name, this was Jake’s attempt to build his case in favor of naming a dog “Capone”:

“Melissa, you’re from the Bay Area, right?  And in the Bay Area, there’s not only dogs, but also D-O-double-G’s.  You know, like Snoop Dogg.  And Al Capone, one of the greatest criminals/doggs of all time, was incarcerated at Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay.  So, naming a dog “Capone” is like an homage to your childhood hometown.”

Capice?

Yes, I cut my own bangs.
No, I didn’t mean to make them this short.
Yes, I’m OK with how they look.
No, this was not pre-meditated.  It was VERY spur-of-the-moment, with VERY permanent consequences.
Yes, Jake was momentarily speachless, but I think deep down, he thinks they’re hot.

Lesson learned:  Cutting your own hair is terrifying yet exhilirating.

Note to self:  You never feel like more of a dork than when you post a picture of only yourself…