Number 8 - I am thankful to live in a country where women can be business owners, doctors, lawyers and even president.  My mother encouraged myself and my 2 sisters that we could do anything we set our minds to.  We were not limited subservient roles to which our female ancestors were relegated.  As I sit here watching the National Dog Show, I see many female judges and handlers.  Women who may even serve as the alpha in their household.

Number 7 - As we watched the news this evening about the turmoil in India, I am thankful to live in a neighborhood that is relatively safe and secure.  We have no real fear of terrorist knocking down our doors and holding our family hostage.  A friend of ours has a brother who is currently living in India for a 2 year work assignment.  We ask all our website visitors to keep our friend's brother in their prayers.

Growing up in a large family has helped me to learn a few valuable lessons in life -one of which being: using up leftovers is not a bad thing it gives us ant opportunity to show our creativity.  Eating leftovers one might think could be tiresome at times - sliced turkey, cold turkey sandwiches, and turkey ala king by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend.  How about turkey vegetable soup, or turkey pizza or maybe turkey & cheese omelet.  Substituting leftover turkey for the meat in any recipe could make for a new family favorite.   Other lessons to be learned from from a "lets be thankful" viewpoint: 

A.  We're glad we have jobs so that we can afford a turkey big enough to feed the family and still have leftovers. 
B.  We're glad to be able to spend extra time with family because we don't have to cook again - we have leftovers. 
C.  We are healthy and still have appetites to be able to enjoy eating.
D.  And if all else fails, just be thankful that on Friday, the shopping begins at 4am  :-)  Remember the early bird gets the worm - if you've eaten your fair share of turkey for the Thanksgiving dinner - you qualify as one lucky bird.

As we approach Thanksgiving weekend, I look back and feel truly blessed.  Over the next 10 days, I'll be sharing the top 10 things we are thankful for.
10.  Our old dog Tyrone passed away just before the Thanksgiving holiday in Nov 2001.  He was the first dog Tom and I adopted as a married couple.  Tyrone was a big shaggy black Giant Schnauzer who was very protective of his family but was a big teddy bear once a visitor was allowed inside our house or yard. 

I remember, just after we'd moved to our current neighborhood, we were sitting in the front driveway enjoying the warm weather.  Tyrone was lying by our side "off leash".  He had graduated 1st in his obedience class and responded well to voice commands so we had no concerns about his being un-leashed.  Well that day our neighbor came by to introduce herself.  She walked up the driveway with a gardening glove sticking out of her pants pocket. 

Just imagine our shock and shagrin when Tyrone decided to run greet the neighbor (who at the time was a "cat person").  As if having a 90# black bear of a dog run straight at you wasn't intimidating enough, Tyrone decided to show his playful nature and he stole the glove right out of her pocket.  Did I mention Tyrone had a glove fetish?   

Luckily the neighbor did not run away shrieking in horror of the "attack" but instead realized the hilarity of the spontaneous joy a dog can give in one's life.  This neighbor along with many of our other friends shared with us our sorrow when Tyrone passed away.

Tyrone was a great "ice breaker" for many new friends and we are thankful for the many things in life he taught us such as to be yourself - those that look beyond the outward things and see the real you are truly friends indeed.

Remembering back to the first day we brought Elvis and Nosey home still to this day brings back many memories.  The majority of these memories bring a smile to my face and lighten my heart but don't want to paint a completely rosey picture.  The first few months with 2 puppies was A LOT of work.  2-3am always seemed to be the time of night when the pups felt like they needed to go potty.  The winter we adopted them was an unusually mild winter.  I remember many a night that first year pulling out a lawn chair in the back yard and just sitting while Elvis and Nosey played rather than pottying.  Most trainers will tell you that what I did was not the correct way to potty-train puppies but it just brought so much pleasure watching them play, I let them at the expense of myself getting a good night's sleep.

One would think that during Elvis and Nosey's first few months this potty-training regimen gave us the most cause to exclaim "what were we thinking" - instead however our "What were we thinking" moment came the very first day due to poor planning on our part.

While we had planned to adopt 2 puppies, the timing of bringing Elvis & Nosey home wa not as well planned.  Thus here we were coming home with 2 new 8 week old puppies and we had not bothered to think about how to best introduce the puppies to our resident cats.  I guess if we had given the matter some forethought, we'd have thought we were prepared simply because we'd introduced without any problems our old dog Tyrone to the cats we had at the time, Precious and Rosebud.

Never having had 2 dogs at one time, however, we didn't realize the challenges we'd face introducing 2 puppies to 2 cats.  Our cat Harley, has always been an outgoing girl - not afraid of many things and so we were not surprised that within a couple of days Harley was friends with the new puppies.  Now we did have to CONSTANTLY remind the puppies that cats were not playmates.  We knew that within a very short time the puppies would double in size and could easily hurt the cats without intending to do so.  We placed a baby gate at the foot of the stairs so that we could keep an eye on the pups, and so the cats could have a "safe haven" away from the puppies if need be.

The thing we didn't count on, however, was the fact that Scooter's cautious nature would cause her to decide she'd rather stay upstairs far away from the puppies.  She parked herself in the upstairs and simply refused to come downstairs to the family room whenever the puppies were around.  Now one would think that in a few days or weeks, Scooter would "come around" but as the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months we began to think - Oh my Gosh!  What have I done! 

Poor Scooter!  One month - two months then 3 months went by and there was still no hint that Scooter would relent and come back to be a part of the family.  After about 6 months of Scooter maintaining her distance from the upstairs balcony, we had began to think she'd never get over having puppies invade "her house".  Then what did we see but while the puppies were taking an evening nap, Scooter had ventured downstairs to investigate.  Course as soon as the puppies stirred from their nap - Scooter was back upstairs to her balcony perch.

Praise be - this new development gave us hope that maybe eventually Scooter would accept the puppies.  Well to make a long story short it was almost 8 months to the day that Scooter finally came downstairs and stayed while the puppies were awake.

We could have taken our "Oh my Gosh - what have we done" moment and found new homes for either the puppies or the cats.  Doing so would, however, have gone against everything we believe in.  Pets are a lifetime committment - just like in a marriage - thru thick or thin, in sickness and in health our pets are with us forever.  At times life may not be as easy as we had hoped.  We may face behavioral or health challenges but in the end it's all about the committment we made to Elvis & Nosey that warm winter day. 

Now our only thought to "Oh my gosh - what have I done" is to think - oh how we wish we'd have adopted Elvis & Nosey's mom also.

7 years ago, a black lab mix gave birth to a litter of black and yellow puppies.  This lab was in the foster care of a Morgan County Humane Society volunteer.  This mother lab must have been recognized as a very special dog by the shelter workers.  They could have operated on her long before those puppies were born and thus cut back the number of dogs that would soon need forever homes.

Luckily for us the shelter allowed this black lab to have her puppies.  They allowed these puppies to stay with their mom for 8 weeks.  During that time, the puppies surely picked up a lot of the character traits that the shelter workers saw in the mom.  Even though the shelter often has an over abundance of black lab mixes, it is especially gratifying to know that the shelter workers were able to visualize what joy these puppies could bring to someone.

Keeping a whole litter of puppies for 8 weeks had to be quite challenging for the foster volunteer.  Watching as the little critters grew into very unique personalities, had to have been bittersweet - knowing that soon they would either find forever homes or be euthanized. 

I am so glad that on a warm winter day in 2001 we happened to go to Petsmart.  It was on that day that we first met Elvis & Nosey.  After the loss of our 14 yr old dog Tyrone, we had planned to get 2 new puppies but we had planned to wait until spring to get the puppies simply because of not wanting to housetrain a puppy in the middle of winter.  Fortunately we walked over to the Morgan County Humane Society informational booth where they had an X-pen with several litters of puppies. 

I happened to spy a little round yellow dog sitting at the edge more interested in all of the people going by than he was in frolicking with the other puppies - and there were a lot of puppies to frolick with - black furballs galore along with beagles and many other varieties.  The volunteer asked me if I wanted to HOLD IT.  Of course, I said yes.  That was the best decision I'd made in a long time.  That little round yellow puppy has turned into a big round yellow dog with the best disposition you could ever want in a dog.  Everyone is his friend - or at least he thinks so.

The little black pup was right in the middle of all the activity when we arrived and began cuddling the yellow pup.  Fortunately as we were filling out the adoption paperwork for the yellow pup, the volunteer happened to mention that there was still one pup left from the litter that the yellow pup came from.  Tom decided to greet that pup and as they say - it was love at first sight.  That little black pup was named Nosey and she began to live up to that name as we left the store.  While Elvis laid down in the shopping cart and took a nap (still his favorite thing to do), Nosey, on the other hand, propped her little paws up on the shopping cart and began checking out the world as the shopping cart rolled along.

Throughout these past 7 years, Elvis & Nosey have taught us the true joy of loving & giving to others.