Dog for Adoption

I need my blog friends help, or anyone you may happen to know. My little sister has been fostering a dog for the last 6 months. She got him from the Leo Rescue and he needs a new home. Here is what she wrote about him and a picture. If you or anyone you know is interested please let me know.

We started fostering Koda a little over 6 months ago for Leonberger Rescue. Anyone interested will have to fill out an application with Leo Rescue.

Koda will be 4 yrs old in December. He is very tall, but also very skinny. We can't seem to put much weight on him; he currently weighs in around 100 pounds.

Koda is probably one of the sweetest must loving dogs you will ever come in contact with. He is a big cuddle bug, he is always trying to get in everyone’s lap. He is great on a leash and loves most other dogs. He currently goes to day care everyday and gets along with dogs of all sizes. In fact the staff often tells us that all the small dogs love Koda and tend to lay on his fur and tail.

Due to Koda's past he does have a few things that need work. He has some separation anxiety tendencies. He doesn't do well with crates, so crating is more than likely not an option without extensive training. Due to the anxiety he does sometimes have accidents in the house when left alone. He also was a little destructive at first and took the liberty of chomping a few door knobs. The good news is that all of these things have improved over the past 6 months. He hardly ever has accidents anymore and hasn't been destructive at all.
Koda was also not exposed to children; therefore he would do better in a home without small children. He does great with my 4 yr old nieces, but has shown fear to other children of similar age. He does great with all adults, including strangers and men. 
If anyone interested has any questions please feel free to ask.


Thanks for the help. Another blog post to come soon.


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A "Fair" Weekend!

This past weekend was a blast. We went to Dallas Friday night. Friday we ate dinner with Jonathan's mom and then went to my sister's house in Rockwall and played Ping Pong until way too late. Saturday morning came early and we enjoyed some garage sale shopping (where I found a changing table in excellent shape for $10), shopping at Macy's, Sonic Happy Hour and then headed to the State Fair. I haven't been to the state fair in about 6 years. The last time I went was with 2 great roommates to see a Brad Paisley concert and it was pouring down rain. This time we went to meander, hang with my family, and eat fried food. Here's a list of the foods we ate, but we shared most of it with each other: Tater twisters with cheese (kind of a cross between a french fry and potato chips), Fletcher's Corn Dog, fried frito pie, fried s'mores, sausage on a stick, cotton candy, funnel cake, fried cheesecake. Now we can all have a heart attack. After the fair Jonathan and I headed back to his Mom's house to hang out with them some more. We spent most of the day Sunday with his Mom, which was fun. I've been on "vacation" this week. It's been more like a "staycation" but I don't care. Sleeping in, lounging around, not having anything in particular that needs to be done has been fabulous and I'll be sad wen Monday comes along. Today I got a hair cut, actually I got about 4 inches cut off, so now my hair is pretty short but really cute :). Today I also tried my hand at making a changing pad cover that matches the "little kid" room decor. It turned out pretty cute. I'll have to take pictures of the kids rooms and post them on here sometime. Tonight we are having a pre-interview social at a friends house. Last Thursday it was at my house and there were about 25 people there. This week I volunteered to make the desserts since my friend who is hosting said "I'm a disaster in the kitchen". I made cookies and cream cheesecake and a 4 layer delight. Should be tasty. Tomorrow I'm going to finish my application for my future job, work on my supporting documents for my Texas Medical License, catch up on some laundry and hopefully just lounge around the house.

The last cycle of meds I took worked but I didn't get pregnant. We have decided to take a break for a few months and in the spring start back up. I need an emotional and physical break from the hormones and disappointment when the tests are negative. This will also give us more time and energy to focus on our foster care plans. We are hoping to be licensed by Thanksgiving, which means we need to get busy with our observation hours and scheduling our home study. I can't imagine how amazing Christmas will be this year with children in our home to share it with.

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Ramblings.....

So it stormed here tonight. The kind with lightning streaking across the sky, my favorite. It always reminds me of a summer when I was a kid. We were at Lake Texoma with my family, somewhere we went often as kids. A summer storm was coming. My dad loaded all the kids in the car and drove us out to the end of the road. Somewhere where there were no lights, no people, nothing. Just us, the lake, the bluffs, and the trees. We sat in the car and watched the lightning for what seemed like hours. It was almost magical. We would see how many streaks would come off a bolt and what color it would make the sky and clouds. It makes me smile just to think about it. Life was simple then. No cares. Your dad in the car to "protect you". I still love to watch thunderstorms roll in and would be sad to live somewhere where there weren't storms. I love the sound of the lightning cracking and the thunder rolling.

I wonder why I get more upset when I learn of one person being pregnant than when I learn of someone else. People I know pretty equally well. Hmmm?

I'm starting to get frustrated with the foster care process. It seems like every time I think we are nearing the end something else comes up that needs to be done. Why do they have to make it so difficult to be a foster parent? I mean, we are willing to take in other peoples children, children likely to have emotional, and sometimes physical injuries and yet they make it incredibly difficult to be a foster parent. I know that they are trying to ensure that these fragile children are placed in safe and secure homes, but some of it seems a little ridiculous. Oh well, we will jump through all the hoops and hopefully be done before Thanksgiving.

I just want to be a mom.....

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The Weekend...

This past weekend was a full one. I took Friday off because I knew we had a ton of things to get done. Friday morning we moved all the stuff from the storage that we were sharing with my parents to a smaller storage with just our stuff in it and transported all of their stuff to our garage so they could take it home on Sunday. Then we went and got fingerprinted for our foster care stuff. Want to know something really annoying? I have to get fingerprinted for our foster care stuff and I have to get finger printed for my medical license this year. Logically you would think that fingerprinting for the FBI would only need to be done once and would work for all things needed, NOPE, I have to pay the $50.00 to be re-fingerprinted at the same place and do exactly the same thing for my license, sounds like someone wants money to me :( Ok, off of that topic. Back to the weekend. Friday afternoon we went to lunch and then came home and rested for a little while. Friday evening we started getting things ready for our garage sale that was going to be on Saturday morning. We also put together a bed. I guess I should have started my weekend with Thursday night. Thursday night we bought a set of bunkbeds and a separate twin bed from a guy off of craigslist for our rooms. That means that Friday night we needed to put one of the beds together so my mom would have a place to sleep. A friend gave us 2 free box springs, which was a huge help! Friday night after all was said and done we didn't get in bed until after midnight. Saturday we got up at 7 am for the garage sale and moved more furniture outside to sell. We managed to make back all the money we have spent on the crib that we purchased as well as the twin bed and bunk beds plus some, so that's good. I had bedding for the twin bed that is in the "little kid room" with the crib but I needed to buy sheets and comforters for the bunk beds. I found a steal of a deal at Target on comforters and some really cute coordinating sheets at Wal-mart for pretty cheap. Now I just need to make the curtains in the "big kid room" and we will be set except for we still need 2 dressers and a changing table. Sunday involved rest, cleaning, laundry, and I worked on a huge presentation that I have at work on Wednesday. Then Dinner with friends and home to bed. Whew, I'm tired just remembering it.

We have pretty much everything completed now except for our observation hours. Hopefully we will be able to get those done pretty quickly and get kids in our home before Thanksgiving. I'm faxing the remainder of our paper work tomorrow. Tonight and tomorrow night will consist of me getting ready for my presentation. Then on to my application for my future job.

Until