Introducing.......

As many of you have suspected,
there is a new dog at my house......

This is Lover Dog.
 Daddy bought him just for Momma.
Isn't he cute?

Ok, I'll stop yankin your leash.....

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This is Taffy.

She is the one seen in my Wordless Wednesday post snuggling with my daddy. Apparently, Mom and Dad went to the vet to meet her one night after work last week.
Nobody even asked me how I felt about this.

They just went and picked her up on their way home from work Friday night. I bet you're wondering what my reaction was when I found out, aren't you?

Momma and Daddy had told Dr. Abby that they were interested in a wire-hair doxie if one ever comes up for adoption thru Hard Luck Hounds.
A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Abby sent an email asking if they would be interested in a female wire hair that has been in a breeding facility. Momma had been secretly hoping to rescue a dog that had been at a puppy mill. Momma said she knew right away this was gonna be the right dog for us.
And, next thing I know I have a new sibling.

Taffy has never had a name before,
she was only a number. 

She is 3 years old and doesn't know how to play. 
Her 3 years have been spent in confinement
making as many puppies as possible. 

She has never even had someone spend enough time with her to potty train her or teach her any sort of manners. 

She has never been on a leash before and it is obvious that she has never worn a collar before either. 

Her teeth look like they belong to a dog at least twice her age. (She has to get them cleaned soon.)

She doesn't even know how to chew on a bone
:o(

She is a very sweet girl and loves to be loved.


She is also camera shy and these are the only photos Momma has been able to get so far.

As you guys know, we have lots going on here already as we are preparing for Grandma's transplant.  Momma has been working with Aunt Shannon and Grandpa to get the house cleaned and ready. Grandma isn't allowed to help.

Grandma has to have lots of testing to make sure her body can withstand the treatments and transplant. They found an electical impulse abnormality in her heart and now she has to have some special tests at the cardiology office. 
Please pray that these tests come back normal.

Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts, crossed paws, prayers, and patience.

I Have A Funny Feeling About This......

Hard Luck Hounds has two main objectives:

First, we try and take animals with medical needs that other rescue groups may not be able to provide.

Second, we obtain dogs from breeding facilities in Southwest Missouri which are no longer wanted or needed. We are able to bring these pets into the clinic, address any medical or behavioral needs, begin training and socialization and keep them safe while beginning the search for the perfect forever home.

*Taken from HLH website

This short clip was on our local news lately. I've heard Mom and Dad talking about it AND Hard Luck Hounds is at my vet's office. Actually, now that I think about it, Momma has been emailing Dr. Abby quite a bit lately.  Add to that the mysterious photo of my daddy cuddling with another dog........ 

Hard Luck Hounds Urges Pet Adoption - WDAF

Click on the above link if you want to see the clip.

I think there is something suspicious going on at my house. What do you guys think?

Wordless Wednesday

Grandma Update

I know, it's been a while since my last post. I had to have a serious talk with my momma about helping me more. We'll see if it did any good. I apologize ahead of time but this will be a long wordy post and may be TMI for some of you.

Puddles posted some good news about my grandma and her girl earlier this week and I want to say

Thank You, Puddles!

Now we have even more support than we had before.

The good news about grandma is that one of her brothers is a match for the transplant!!!! We found out yesterday that one of her sisters is a match as well!! There is about a 25% chance of having a sibling be a match so we are fortunate to have 2 matches.

This whole thing has been a bit overwhelming, as you can imagine. For those of you who are new and don't know, Grandma has to have this transplant because she has CMML, an uncommon form of Leukemia. She got this type of Leukemia because of the chemotherapy she had to have last year to treat ovarian cancer.  The only chance of living a long life after being diagnosed with CMML is to have an

allogeneic bone marrow transplant. Other treatments may slow the progression of the disease but they can't stop it and without the transplant life expectancy is about 2-5 years. So, there was no question as to whether or not she wanted to proceed with this.

This type of transplant has about a 50% success rate and the way we understand it, that is a very good number in the world of transplants. The biggest risk factors are GVHD (Graft vs. Host Disease) and illness. Grandma will basically have no immune system for at least 100 days after the transplant. They have to be very careful to keep germs away from her.

For example, if Momma were to peel a banana for her it would go like this:

1. Wash hands

2. Wash banana for at least 2 minutes

3. Peel banana 

4. Wash hands

5. Grandma gets banana without ever touching the peel

For those first 100 days, she will only be able to go to the doctors office and home with no visitors, only her caregiver.

Crazy, huh?

We keep reminding ourselves it will all be worth it and most of these changes will be short term.

Grandma's transplant is scheduled for Monday, Feb 7th. The stem cells will be "harvested" from my uncle that morning and she will receive them that afternoon. She will undergo chemotherapy for 3 days prior to that to suppress her immune system and blood counts.

On top of all of this, Grandma and Grandpa had to put their 2 kitties up for adoption this week. Even though I am not a big fan of cats, I am sad that they had to give them up.

 Thank You!

 Thank You!

 Thank You!

 for all your crossed paws, healing vibes, good wishes and prayers. We appreciate them more than you will ever know.

T-Shirts? On a Dog Blog?

As lots of my Blogville pals in the US have experienced, we have lots of snow. :o(
I'm up to my collar in the stuff!!! 

The snow isn't quite as deep as it looks in the photo but that is because my daddy made a place for me to tinkle.
I hear you big dogs giggling at me out there.....
You try peeing with your behind burried in the snow!

You guys remember when I did the Holiday Card Giveaway with Cafe Press?  Well, when Momma ordered my cards, she had found some T-shirts she wanted to get and ordered them as well. Next thing she knows, a box came with the cards and the shirts.
The nice people at Cafe Press gave us both!!!
The shirts were for Kayla and Elizabeth. Kayla had been looking for a shirt that said "Big Sister" on it but wasn't able to find one. Momma remembered that Cafe Press has T-shirts with all kinds of things on them and she knew if she couldn't find what she wanted she could make it!  She did some searching and found one she liked.

Kayla was wondering why she got a onsie that said
 "Little Sister" on it.


Then when she opened her next gift,
she realized the onsie wasn't for her!
Good thing, I don't think that onsie woulda fit!


She was pretty excited to get a "Big Sister" T-shirt and even more excited that Elizabeth has one to match!


Mom says the T-shirts are good quality and look exactly like she expected them to.  The onsie in particular is fairly thick and very soft.  I guess sometimes you can buy printed T-shirts that are very thin but Mom says she is impressed with the quality of the material Cafe Press uses.

They do look pretty cute together with their matching penguins, don't they?

Don't you guys worry about me and all the snow. You won't see any photos of me running around all cracker dog crazy in it like some of the other weiner dogs in Blogville. Nope, I think I'll stay right here!


Grandma has another doctor appointment tomorrow and they are supposed to give her a treatment plan so we will update you when we know more. Thanks again for your care, concern, prayers, thoughts, and crossed paws!
We really do appreciate it.
Also, thanks for understanding my lack of visiting lately and for still being my furiends!

The Photo Book Giveaway Winner Is....

Before I tell you who won, it is very important to show you what happened.  I can't believe how I get treated around here somtimes. 

So, there I am, snuggled under the covers, getting some

un-needed beauty rest. Next thing I know there is a breeze sneaking in under the covers......

Momma tells me it is time to draw a winner for the Mixbook giveaway.  Now, I'm wondering why she felt the need to wait until I was sound asleep to do the drawing. 

 Next, she tells me to pick one of these little pieces of paper but instead I did a little doxie strut right over them.

 

So, she tried again, and this time I thought I should do some doga right on top of her little papers :o)

 

Mom tried one more time and I decided it was time to quit punishing her for waking me up.  I stuck my nose on one of the papers and she knew that was the one. I was sneaky about it though, she didn't get any photos!!!

And, (drumroll) the name I picked was.....

 

Oh, I forgot, the first pic Momma took was unreadable. Maybe I should start saving my treats so I can get her a photography lesson or two.  Here let's try the second one.

 

Congratulations, Brutus!!!!

 I can't wait to see what your mom comes up with for you and Carmen!!!!

If you guys remember when I did the card giveaway last month, I told you that Mom had taken a video of me "selecting" the winner and I told you it showed my doxie attitude. I haven't shown it to you yet but since today's drawing was pretty similar I thought now was a perfect time.

I don't know why she thinks she can get me to do something I'm not interested in. Seriously, which would you rather do? Look at some little papers or get some lovin from Dad?

Brutus, tell your mom to get started on your Mixbook and my mom will send her the information she needs later this week (probably Thursday).

For everyone else, the coupon code DOGMIX20 is still available for a 20% discount and that code has no expiration date.  Feel free to use it!