New location

We have moved. We've decided to move back to my original blog, as it's a little more general and will make a lot more sense to blog about a variety of subjects. All the blog posts from 4 legs and 2 wheels have been moved over so you should be able to find everything over there.

It's been fun here, and was our first venture into a joint blog. We quickly found that we wanted to blog about more than 4 legs and 2 wheels. Please venture over and check it out. We're still working on cosmetic details, but it's there, and will hopefully be a place that we'll post on more often.

Thanks!

This weekend we had our family o' friends over for a Christmas movie marathon/cookie bake. It was so great to be able to spend so much time with such good friends. I still miss being in college, living with the girls, sometimes and having my best friends around all the time. We still get together as much as we can now, but it's been a long time since any of us have lounged around in our pajamas and just enjoyed the company. We were missing many who have moved too far to make it back for a short weekend, but a great time was had by all. And it was even better than being back in college - the pups and baby (err, toddler) make everything so much more fun!

We kicked the weekend off Friday night with some good food and Elf. We started again with an awesome breakfast casserole made by Eric and the Muppet Christmas on Saturday morning once everyone from in town made it back over. Eric and I decided to make sticky rolls instead of cookies. Gracie apparently thought they were all for her. We put the dough by the register in the living room to rise, thinking that it would be well watched. When the girls decided to leave on a short excursion, I had a bad feeling about it there. But Eric was going to be home, and I figured he would be back in the living room soon to keep an eye on it. Well, he figured I wouldn't have left and left it down...

When the girls got back, Gracie had eaten about half of the dough that was only partly through its first rise. Caught in the act, she was very sorry. Luckily with our group of friends, there is almost always someone of the veterinary persuasion around. We decided that we would induce vomiting this time. She has a stomach of steel, but there was no way it could handle that much dough rising inside. Turns out we underestimated the strength of her stomach. I've never seen peroxide not work at making a dog throw up. Twenty minutes later we had to bring a very uncomfortable Gracie back inside and just leave her in the kitchen. She finally threw up about half an hour later. Twice. And twice more later in the evening. The good news is that I have a legitimate excuse to replace my cheap Christmas tree skirt!

Even with a vomiting, uncomfortable Gracie, we all had a great time. We baked come cookies, chilled on the couch, watched Liam and Webster play, and cleaned the kitchen more than a few times. It was so nice having a little one around and hearing little feet on our wood floors all day. Sarah and I really enjoyed getting to give Liam a bath and put him to bed. How many childless women does it take to put a sleeper on a sleepy toddler? Too cute. There's no denying that I can't wait to have kids, but I can hear Eric in my head saying "stick to the plan, woman!"

I'll leave you with two videos. Webster taught Liam to play ball for the first time 10 months ago, when he was 11 months old. Now, Liam is a pro. They play so well together. It never gets old watching them.

Changes may be around the corner

So, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and while I still like the "4 legs" part of 4 legs and 2 wheels, I'm not so much feeling the 2 wheels much anymore. Realistically, we both enjoy cycling, but 95% of the time, I only do it to commute to and from work, and The Teacher hasn't been on her bike in months. I don't feel a strong pull to write much about cycling and I think it might be time to change the name of the blog. We're still trying to work out a new name that I like and will encompass more of an overall description of what we will write about, but without being too "corny" as The Teacher puts it.

We will still more than likely keep the 4 legs part because it's a huge part in what we are both passionate about. I however would like to add on to it something about living a better life. I'm becoming more and more interested in local and sustainable food, taking control of the food we eat (i.e. growing and storing), exercise (this will no doubt include some cycling stuff), etc. I would like for this blog to be able to encompass everything in our life including the things that we strive for, and I feel 4 legs and 2 wheels is too specific and hard to elaborate additional topics into.

Maybe it's just me. I hope that everyone that has read the blog in it's current state, either regularly or just whenever, will still continue to frequent it. Hopefully you will take interest in something we're doing or striving towards, or maybe you'll just feel enlightened by expertly written blog posts.

Support for Canine Cancer

Looking for something to do on Sunday? Want to get out and enjoy the weather for a good cause? There is a walk going on in 12 cities across the Nation to help raise awareness for canine cancer. Check out the 2 Million Dogs Walk. It's for a great cause and I only wish we could go. Unfortunately, Gracie and Webster are both still on antibiotics, and it's probably best that they don't go until they are done and have a clean bill of health.

We've been aware of Luke and his beautiful dogs for a year or so. Lynette met Luke, Hudson and Murphy at the 2009 Cincinnati Pet Expo, and I had read an article shortly before that. What dedication. The three walked from Austin, TX to Boston, MA to raise awareness for canine cancer, which prematurely took Luke's beloved Malcolm. It's such a great cause that really needs a larger awareness. Little did we know a year ago that we would really become part of his cause...personally. I would recommend checking out this walk if you're free, reading Luke's blog, and/or buying something from their online store. I know I will be keeping track of my days in 2011 on one of their calendars.

Cycling sabbatical

I didn't ride to work yet again today. The pups took forever to do their business this morning, Gracie acted like a picky eater this morning, and the bike tires needed some air. I thought about it for minute and said screw it and grabbed the car keys.

Once to work, I started thinking about it. I don't necessarily enjoy riding to work. Actually, it's kinda a pain in the ass, especially now that it's starting to get cold. It's much more convenient to drive and my lungs and legs aren't burning from my immediate hill climb on my way home. Why do I bother then? Because it's the right thing to do. I only live a mile from work and it's really unnecessary to drive. Working only a mile from work also makes it hard to spend enough time in the saddle to actually enjoy the ride. Maybe if I lived a little further, it would give me the opportunity to enjoy the ride a little more. Then again, it would also be more inconvenient.

The worst part is, I know there are a lot of people that truly do love the ride. Maybe I need a new bike or maybe just some new components!

Tomorrow, I start to ride again, whether I like it or not.

Another Note from the Very-Germy Household

When we got home from watching the game with friends last night, we were greeted by, not just one, but two happy, coughy and sneezy dogs. We knew that if it was a bug that Gracie picked up from the vet, then there would be no way to avoid this - with all of the snot Gracie has been producing the last couple days. They've been cuddling even more than normal since the surgery, and Webster has been giving Gracie a thorough sniffing every day to see how she is.

I got up first this morning and the two happy, coughy and sneezy dogs were at it full-force. Our house sounded like Petland. Eric joked that he was not going to get out of bed without galoshes. It was disgusting! (And yes, every surface of this house will be cleaned and disinfected before anyone is invited over again - probably several times!) Anyways, I checked temperatures. Gracie's fever is gone! But Webster was running 103.6!

When the vet opened at 1:00 today, I called to ask for antibiotics for Web. The receptionist told me that I was going to have to bring him in, which I was not expecting since they already know what is going on with Gracie. Within 30 seconds of hanging up with the receptionist (and Eric and I beginning to stress about how much this visit would cost us), the Dr. called me right back. She said that she would give Webster the antibiotics without seeing him, checked on how Gracie was doing on the antibiotic, and said that she would call again tomorrow or in the next few days to see if Webster is any better. We seem to be getting used to our daily chats with her. Thank goodness for a caring and dedicated vet! Well, all of the vets at the practice have been wonderful, but this one has definitely taken a special interest in Gracie, and now, Webster.

I'm actually kind of glad that Webster has the same thing as Gracie now. As much as I hate to see him not feeling well, I was beginning to worry that maybe the coughing and some of the sneezing was more related to the cancer and spots in her chest. I was afraid that she might never be comfortable again if the worst case scenario proved true. Now we know that the coughing and sneezing is from a bug, and she will feel better soon!

That's it for now! Hopefully...

Gracie update

The wife took Gracie to the vet this morning to get her stitches out while I was helping a friend move. The incision looks much better now that the stitches aren't scrunching everything up. They were definitely ready to come out. The bottom of the incision didn't heal together as nicely as the top part, but all in all, it looks pretty good.

On the down/gross side, she's starting to sneeze a bit more and mucusy snot is slinging out of her nose. Well, it may not be "as" dramatic as that, but it's still kinda gross. The Doc thinks it might just be the infection moving forward a little so we're just going to monitor it for changes over the next day or so. If it gets worse, we'll add an additional antibiotic into the mix.

On another, not so happy note, the Doc also got word back about the x-rays she posted online for a second opinion on the spots she saw. The person that commented on them wasn't the radiologist she was posting them for, but instead another general practitioner. She said she was only taking their comments with a grain of salt because they were a general practitioner, and she was looking for a radiologist's opinion. Even though they weren't from the radiologist the comments weren't what we wanted to hear. They said that they thought the spots looked to be caused by a cancer rather than associated with pneumonia. Sigh... After the first x-rays we were told that if it is indeed cancer and it's in her chest, they don't really advise any treatments because it's not curable at that point. We may opt to do some treatments to improve her quality of life, but even that may be negligible (and not to mention expensive).

We also got word back on the additional staining that the lab can do to figure out what type of cancer it is. $359 for the additional stains. Not as cheap as we would have liked, but reasonable, I suppose. Well, better than the $500+ that I was worried it might be. I really want to find out what it is, but we've talked and aren't sure we should spend it, if it's not really going to matter if it's not really treatable. Still up in the air, but we will definitely be getting another round of x-rays after her course of antibiotics are finished. Fingers and toes crossed that the spots are gone with the second x-rays and we get our happy and healthy girl back!

The week that will never end...

So far the first 3 days of this week have felt like 3 weeks and not 3 days.

Sunday was a big birthday for me. The big number 30! We had some people over on Saturday for dinner and Sunday was a day for just the wife and I. We made homemade clam chowder and biscuits. It was all delicious and a wonderful night. When it was time for bed, I started feeing a sore throat come on and sure enough, I was feeling sick on Monday. I wasn't the only one feeling sick this week though.

On Tuesday morning, just when I was taking the dogs out to do their morning business, Gracie started coughing and hacking like she had inhaled some water. She's done it before, but it's always been because of inhaling water so I didn't think anything of it. When we got home from work she had a bit of a coughing fit again. It seemed weird because it lasted about 5 minutes, but I wasn't overly concerned. Then in the middle of the night, to be more exact 3:30 and 5:30 on Wednesday morning Gracie woke us up coughing and this time coughed up some mucusy saliva. We took her temperature and it was high, so I called the vet and made an appointment to take her in this morning.

Come to find out, she's got what they think is a bit of an upper respiratory infection and maybe a little pneumonia. We got some antibiotics to alleviate that, but they did do some x-rays (I wish I had an image of the x-ray to share). This was good because they could get a better look at what was going on in her chest as well as take a look at the lymph nodes since she just had a tumor removed. They did find 3 white spots on the x-ray which could either be pus packets from the pneumonia or, scarily, tumors. The Dr. said if they were tumors they weren't acting like the round cell tumors that we thought she had. Her thought was, if they were tumors, that they were so mutated that they were actually round cells that weren't acting like round cells or they were something different that were mutated enough to look like rounds cells. Let's just say that we hope by the time we get a second x-ray when this course of antibiotics are done, those white spots are no longer there.

In addition to all of this, I have failed a goal. My goal was not to drive a car to work for at least once consecutive year. Until Tuesday, I hadn't driven to work since February 2nd of this year. The culmination of feeling like death, a 60mph wind storm that was blowing through, and not having anything here for breakfast (therefore I would need to go get something), I said screw it and drove. I also drove today because I still wasn't feeling great and I had to take Gracie to the Vet this morning. More than likely, I will probably drive the rest of the week because I still feel a little crappy and I need to get healthy. The wedding and other stuff throughout the year successfully ate up all but 8 hours of pto at work.

It's One of Those Days

There are days when I wish that I hadn't started working at Nisonger and fallen for the special needs students... and this is one of them. I could be a vet right now, and maybe I might understand all of what is going on. I just want to know if Gracie is going to be alright!

I got off the phone with the vet an hour ago, and I'm more confused now than when I started trying to research the types of tumors she mentioned. Turns out Gracie did not have a mast cell tumor. We were expecting to get the histo results back today and learn if Gracie has Stage I or Stage II cancer. But all the lab would commit to without further staining was that it was a "poorly differentiated round cell tumor." They seemed to think that it was consistent with a Merkel cell tumor. The vet also threw cutaneous T-cell lymphoma out there. From what she told me about Merkel cell tumors and what information I can find, I learned that they are rare neuroendocrine tumors of that appear to be fairly benign. Cutaneous T-call lymphoma seems to be quite the opposite.

So now we are waiting on the price of the further staining to decide if we want to do that or if we just want to take her in every 2-3 months for them to palpate her lymph nodes to check for metastasis. I'm usually a "wait and see" kind of person, but I'm not so sure I handle not knowing. I am reassured that my good friend, Dr. Joel, understands. He comforted me by pointing out that, for now, it is just good news her margins came back clean and that she has no other symptoms.

On a positive note, Gracie seems to be doing much better. Her diarrhea is clearing up, and she is acting much more like herself. Now that she can go off all of the meds, she should be 100% in no time. Except for that huge incision!

It's a quiet night here at the Rosendauls. The pups are lazy, and I think poor, sick Eric just headed up to bed. Time to let this go for now and go check on him. Afterall, I was the one who got him sick. Well, my kids got him sick....hmm another reason for wishing I hadn't worked at Nisonger. But it's just one of those days :-)

Gracie's Surgery

Yes, Gracie had surgery.  About a month or so ago we found a little hard lump on Gracie's lower neck.  We were first hoping that it was just a bug bite or something and that it would go away.  A couple of weeks ago, it was still there and we noticed it had changed from skin colored to red.  We made an appointment with the Vet and took her in.  The Vet aspirated it and came back with the news that it was a mast cell tumor. Sigh...  Not the news we were hoping for.

They prescribed some steroids, benadryl, and pepcid. The steroids to help shrink the tumor, the benadryl and pepcid to reduce any effects from the histamine that is in the tumor.  After a few days of taking it, the steroids really started hurting her stomach so I was actually happy to get her into surgery so we can get back to normal sooner rather than later.

It was a little tough coming home before work to see Web and Cissy without Gracie here.  To make a longer story short, this is Gracie now:

The incision was much much larger than we thought it would be.  They said they were going to take a 3cm margin around the tumor, but this is like a huge 9 inch incision!  I guess it's good because they will have hopefully gotten it all.

It'll be 3-5 days to get the results as to what stage of tumor it is, which we're hoping is just a stage 1.  Then we can hopefully put all of this behind us.

More to come as we know more.

Playing with the droid on the road

So we are on the road, headed to Illinois for Scott and Jessica's wedding. I saw Eric downloaded a blogger app. and thought I would see what it could do. Mostly though, I am playing with Swype. I love it, but it really would be better if it could capitalize appropriately without having to hit any other buttons. I am trying to figure out if I can upload pictures to the blog from the app. So here goes - Gracie doing one of her favorite things on her way to visit her cousins for the weekend.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.0

First Dance

Our very soon-to-be sister-in-law, Jessica, got a video of our first dance at the reception. It makes me nervous just watching it. I feel like we're actually doing it all again! I'm glad we didn't chicken out. We loved how entertained our guests were. Here is a link if you're interested. Enjoy :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6scJbYlfRs

Wedding Blog

Our photographer posted a very nice blog about our wedding! I thought I would share the link. She did great work, and we are so excited to start putting up photos of our day around the house! I love looking at them and remembering that it actually did happen and wasn't all a dream. I wish we could do it all again just for the fun of it. Thanks, Courtney!

http://courtneymasonphotography.com/blog/

Blog-worthy

We figured that the most important event in our lives deserved a blog, but where to even start...

I guess the best place to start is the simple fact that on August 7, 2010 we got MARRIED!!  It's been 15 wonderful days and every day seems better than the last.

It was a wonderful day!  Everything went pretty much according to plan, and it turned out more beautiful than we could have ever hoped for.  Every married couple we know told us it would fly-by and boy were they right.  From the rehearsal till the morning after the wedding, it feels as if it all went by in a flash.

Some friends had told Lynette not to forget to look at Eric during the ceremony or lose him at the reception, or we wouldn't remember being together on our wedding day.  It turned out not to be a problem, because we couldn't seem to take our eyes off of each other during the ceremony and stuck pretty close together at the reception.  We thought it was a very special day, and even our pastor made a point of telling us that "sometimes you just do a wedding, but then sometimes it is something special."  He said he wanted us to know that ours was a very special wedding for him and that he would remember it.  It really meant a lot to hear that!

The two most nerve racking parts were 1. trying not to pass out during the ceremony, 2. trying to not sound like blubbering fools during our vows, and 3. pulling off the surprise of the evening...our first dance!  We could not pinpoint a good slow song that we both really liked, and didn't have "a song" to fall back on.  At about a month before the wedding we were sitting around working on wedding stuff and the Michael Buble version of "Feeling Good" started playing.  It was sort of Eric's theme song when we first started dating and Lynette causally asked, "what if we danced to this song?"  We both kind of looked at each other and thought..."ok, but it's too fast to just slow dance to."  That night we decided to start looking around on YouTube for some videos...and the idea was born! (note: Lynette doesn't fancy herself as a dancer and thinks she's terrible at it and Eric isn't exactly a pro either).  To make a long story short, we took a few different videos from YouTube, watch them a billion times and practiced in our living room for a month.  No one had any idea!  Our guests were shocked, impressed, and thoroughly entertained (as were we on all three).  We love that people are still talking about it! :-)

The reception flew by, we didn't quite get to talk to everyone, but it was a great time!  We didn't stay out too late, knowing that we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us on Sunday.  On Sunday morning, we were heading to Maine!  We took the drive in two parts, stopping in Albany, NY for the night on Sunday.  We finished the rest of the drive to Boothbay Harbor, ME on Monday and were greeted by beautiful weather, and the perfect place for our honeymoon!  Topside Inn was exactly what we wanted in a honeymoon spot.  We spent quite awhile looking at pictures, descriptions, locations, etc. for a Bed and Breakfast.  The moment we saw Topside, I think we both knew it was the place!  Boothbay Harbor was a bit touristy, but it gave us plenty to do while we were there.  We ate lots of lobster, kayaked out the harbor to the second oldest lighthouse in Maine (Burnt Island Lighthouse), took a two hour schooner ride and saw a sunset, and went whale-watching.  We also spent a day shopping around the LL Bean flagship store and a lot of outlets, right after a quick trip to a sand beach so we could dip our toes in the Atlantic.  It all couldn't have been more perfect!

Arriving back in Columbus, we were greeted by two very confused, but extremely happy pups and an attention starved cat (her own fault).

We are loving being married and think it's all a pretty darn good deal!

-Mr. and Mrs. Rosendaul

19 Days!

So hard to believe. My twin sister's wedding is over now, and she is happily on her way to Rome. Even when the countdown was in the 20's, I had her wedding to focus on and keep me from thinking too much about ours. Now, we're in the teens and I have nothing to keep me from freaking out that ours is so close!

So what am I doing when I should be working on reception dinner music and seating arrangements? Blogging. A new way to procrastinate. Let's hope Eric doesn't kick me off here for blogging about nothing :-)

I can't wait for the planning to be done and all of the projects cleared out of the house and for Eric and I to be married!

Rosie and Tommy's priest made me even more excited to marry Eric - just made me think about things just the slightest bit differently than I have. He asked what is it about the one person, of all the people have met and dated, that makes us say "This is the person for me. This is my home." It made me think of driving back to Columbus right before Eric and I started dating, and for the first time in 6 years, it actually felt like I was driving home. And just because that's where Eric was. I realized that Eric and I knew we were "home" from the very start. Apparently, our friends did, too. They all had July 17th, 2010 in their calendars as our wedding date when we were newly dating.

Anyways, I'm really glad that ended up being Rosie's wedding date instead! She married Tommy on their 4th dating anniversary. And that gives me 19 more days to get things done!

Better get back to it now :-)

Gracie's Birthday

I figured that Gracie's birthday was reason enough for my first-ever blog post.

We officially have two old ladies in the house now. Cissy is 13, and now that Gracie is 8, she is officially geriatric as well. It kind of makes me sad. Eight seems so much older than five, which is how old she was when she first came into my life on Webster's first birthday. Best birthday present ever!

I have to say that I was pretty proud of myself for remembering her birthday not only before her dad, but also, without the help of Facebook. I think I could probably forget own my twin's birthday. Anyways, we had a nice time cuddling this morning while I planned out her special day.

I decided on giving her a "spa" day, long walk, and a trip to the pet store. Mani/pedi included. Not at all her favorite, but her dew claw growing at warp speed has been bothering me for a few days. She was a good girl, and the long brushing and tooth brushing made up for it in her book, I'm sure. After we finished the grooming and before we got around to the walk, I got a call from my bridesmaid Julie. She was going to take a picnic lunch at the Park of Roses with her son, and did we want to join? So we left the pup at home (just a special treat for the birthday girl) and we took our long walk down the Olentangy Trail with some good friends. The baby even gave Gracie a bowlful of Goldfish for her birthday!

Now, after a quick trip to the pet store for a new (dental, because she's a bit chubby) bone, Gracie is pooped. But I'm sure a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house tonight should perk her up here soon.

I'm very happy to be Gracie's mommy. I love taking care of her and getting to spoil her whenever I can. Happy birthday, Gracie!

Here is a picture of our two old ladies side by side in their old lady recliners:

The 2010 Bike to Work Challenge...

It's not dog related, but this is 4 legs & 2 wheels afterall.

May is Bike month and many cities around the country are having some sort of cycling related festivities.  For the last couple of years, Columbus has had a Bike to Work Week (B2WW) which for 2010 has been re-badged as  the Bike to Work Challenge.  It's taking place from May 10-21.  Rides are tallied for the 10-20 with the last day being used as a tallying and award day.

2008 was the first year of B2WW and it was really what spurred me into starting to cycle.  That and my employer also offers an Eco-bucks program.  Here's a little blurb about it.  Basically, every time someone cycles/walks/runs/skips/skateboards/crabwalks to work they get $1, $0.50 if they carpool or take a bus.  It's not a lot of money by any means, but it's a great little incentive.  Now that I cycle full-time, it's a dinner out for me and The Teacher once a month.  Back to the 2008 B2WW...we won!  It was great!

The 2009 B2WW came along and we were obviously feeling pretty full of ourselves and excited to repeat our victory.  In 2009 they made the week actually 2 weeks worth of riding.  That was fine by me because I was sure it would give us the chance to stomp the competition even more...we lost.  We came in second place and it was actually a bit of a punch in the gut.  We had some pretty decent stats though.  We had 23 people that were registered, 21 of which were active, meaning they made at least one trip.

This year, we are at 19 registered riders right now with at least another 3-4 more (that I know of) to register.  I'm sure we'll have at least as many as we had last year.  We are even doing an holding a bike tune-up think in our parking lot on Wednesday, the week before it starts.  It will hopefully be just another way we can get more people participating.  We'll be doing basic stuff as well as answering any questions and maybe providing some free schwag (I've got to get around to finding some first though).

Each year the whole event gets bigger with more cycling related events to take part in.  There is a kick-off party that the Columbus Clydesdale and I will be going bright and early on the first day.  There is also another event on Monday the 17th with the CEO's of Central Ohio.  I think the first party is actually just more of a social gathering while the second event includes people talking about the future of Columbus cycling.  I think I will plan to go to both, but it'll depend on if I can come into work late both days.

One thing is for sure, we will bring victory back to it's rightful home!

3 months, 300 lives - ASPCA's $100k Challenge

The long and short is that the ASPCA is challenging shelters across the nation to not only come up with innovative and unique solutions to finding forever homes for more animals, but they are challenging them to find homes for at least 300 more dogs and cats from August 1st - October 31st.  This is 300 more as compared to the same time frame as 2009.  Basically, whatever shelter has the largest difference from last years adoption not only has the intrinsic benefit of saving hundreds more animals, but they also get a cool $100k to slip into their budget.

There is also a $25k prize for the shelter that "most inspires and engages its community to get involved in promoting pet adoptions and reuniting lost animals with their pet parents."  


Here's to hoping at least one shelter in Columbus will pick this up and run with it.  I've sent an email to both of the big places I know of and are familiar with (Franklin County and Capital Area).  Feel free to do the same or let me know of other places.  I'm more than willing to get the word out if it means a chance of blessing the lives of people like us, who without Gracie, Webster, and Cissy would be very very very different people.


For more info on this, go to the ASPCA's site for the challenge:  http://challenge.aspcapro.org/

PetPromise RescueRun

4 legs and 2 wheels has a fundraising page for this years RescueRun!

We participated last year in the RescueRun and it was a lot of fun!  We had to coax Gracie for the last mile, but it was still a lot of fun.  It's organized by PetPromise  and raised $44,000 last year.  Please check out their site for more details about what they are all about, but this is their mission statement:


PetPromise is dedicated to helping to create a world where there are no more homeless pets through education, rescue, sterilization, and adoption.


The RescueRun is a day long festival that centers around the walk, but there is also vendors, food, contests, music, etc.  We only stayed long enough for the walk last year, but we look forward to spending some more time checking out what everything is about this year.


Please help us, help a great and growing organization like PetPromise.  Come on out and walk with us!


Here's a few pictures from the 2009 RescueRun

Getting ready to step off

A hello and introduction.

Hello to all you interneters!

We thought we would first take a moment to introduce ourselves.  We (the humans) are in the process of planning a wedding in August all while dealing with the everyday fun of having a mixed household...of pets.  I currently work at a law firm and my lovely fiancée is a special education teacher (known from here forward as "The Teacher").  Our pets are absolutely a huge joy in our life.  It would take way to long to tell you all about them, but if you keep following our blog, there is no doubt you'll learn more about them.  A brief introduction to the players should suffice, starting with:

Gracie

I picked up Gracie at the estimated age of 5 weeks from a farm that had a sign that said free puppies.  I was in college and really didn't have a clue about raising a dog, but I had a lot of love to give to her.  I had a dog growing up, but that seemed so long ago, and I really had no responsibility when it came to her.  Gracie's a lab/border collie mix and 7.5 years later she's been an absolute joy in my life!  She's definitely more lab as she loves to lay around and she's not over energetic when she doesn't want to be.  She's very food motivated and eats just about anything, eatable or not.  She loves car rides, laying on pillows and in the recliner, and getting loved on...a lot!

Webster

"The Teacher" got Webster from the Franklin County Dog Shelter when he was 7 months old.  He was picked up as a stray and ended up with in a foster home because he was not a caged kinda guy.  It was love at first sight when she saw him although at the time his ears hadn't matured to their full glory.  They were flopped over after a few months, one stood up and then two.  Now, they are quite the defining feature.  He's now 3 years old.  He is most definitely a border collie mix, full of energy and intelligence.  We're not really sure what else he's got in him, but he's a very unique guy.  He may be slightly addicted to tennis balls, not a big fan of loud noises and is very protective of his momma.  When our families began to merge, he was the one that help Gracie learn to play and will thankfully keep her younger, longer.

Cissy

Oh Cissy...where to start.  First I should mention that she's 13 years old and has never liked a man in her life.  She was found in a box with her brother outside of a school with a sign that said "momma died".  The Teacher was at that time only a student and in 7th grade.  When I first met her, I really did think she was the spawn of you-know-who, but she started to warm up.  She was still pretty particular as to when and how you could pet her, but when we moved into our new place she pretty much completely opened up.  Apparently she is now the way she was when I wasn't around, which is actually very entertaining.  At completely random times in the evening she starts meowing and begging for someone to come play...actually, she's doing it right now.  She's hilarious on catnip and is becoming quite social (she comes out when other people are around instead of hiding in a closet).  She's not the type of cat you can cuddle up with, but I wouldn't have her any other way!

So that's what the 4 legs part is all about.  The 2 wheels will be a "dusting" of cycling stuff mixed in with all the dog/cat information.  I'm a full-time commuting cyclist, but not overly hardcore as my roundtrip is only 2 miles, but it's still a bit of a commitment.  The Teacher commutes too far to ride, but hopefully someday that may change.

We all hope you enjoy the stories and information we share!