Doggie Dates

Our next door neighbor's sister and boyfriend came to visit them again, and Dixie got to have another doggie date with her friend Glider.

I couldn't catch any decent shots of the two dogs running around. They are so fast and my pictures all came out blurry.  I did manage to catch some cute shots of the ending. These two have so much fun together but they can certainly wear each other out!

And by the end of the evening, Dixie looked like this.

Dixie loves her play dates!!

Dixie's First "Date"

While the family enjoyed a post-baby dedication lunch, Dixie got to have play time outside.  When Buddy went to check on her, we realized our neighbors must have visitors because there was a dog in their backyard.  Our sweet neighbor Gina has a sister who was visiting, along with her boyfriend and his dog Glider.  Buddy invited Adam and Glider to come in the yard so the dogs could play.

Dixie had a blast!  I think Glider did too!
















Although, since she and I are the only females in the house, I've got to teach her not to kiss on the first date!

Goodbye, Tillman, Goodbye

Sunday, April 29th, was a very hard day.  We had to say goodbye to our sweet dog, Tillman Lee.

Tillman has been our dog since Buddy and I were students at Clemson.  Buddy got him in December 2002, right before I graduated and moved back home. He still had another semester and said he needed a dog so he wouldn't be lonely without me there.  So he brought home this cute little minature pinscher puppy. I'll be honest, I was a little mad that he picked a dog without my input, especially since we would be getting married in a few months and the dog would become ours. A few days playing with the puppy before I graduated and I was in "puppy love"!  Plus, I got to name him, so I named him Tillman, after the oldest building on Clemson's campus.  This happened to be the building where all my classes were held.

You know how they say every dog has its "human" that it seems to love more than the others? Well, for 6 and a half years, that person was me.  Maybe it was because I was home more often than Buddy? With my schedule as a teacher, I left for work later, I get home earlier, and I'm home all the time in the summer, so I got to spend more time with Tillman.  I was booted from the spot as Tillman's #1 human right around the time a certain boy named Quinn came into our lives!

For the past few weeks, Tillman was having trouble getting around. He started limping and such with his front legs, and it progressed to trouble in his back legs as well. Basically, after discussing with our vet, and attempting some medication, the doctor determined that his problem was some sort of neurological disorder, and without some very expensive tests...think thousands of dollars worth....., we might never know exactly what the problem was. But with it affecting all his limbs, it was a very likely chance that he would lose his ability to walk. Buddy and I both love animals too much to watch them suffer, and for that reason, we made a very hard decision.

If you had told me Sunday morning that I wouldn't have my dog anymore, I would have said you were crazy.
Here are some of my favorite pictures of Tillman.

 

The Bible doesn't say if dogs go to heaven, but there are some subtle references to animals. In Revelation, John says he saw "heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse..." (Chapter 19, vs 11).  In Isaiah chapter 11, there are references to these animals: wolf, lamb, leopard, goat, calf, lion, bear, ox, and a cobra.  God created all the animals on earth, and He gives us some of them to be our friends.  I can't imagine that He would give us these sweet creatures on earth to be such a part of our lives and not have that same privilege in Heaven.  At least, I HOPE that is part of His Plan!

So, sweet Tillman Lee, until I see you again, I hope you know how much we loved you. I'm sorry that you got sick, but I'm glad your legs work again. I hope you are having fun running and playing with brother Brady and Desi.  You were our baby before those boys Quinn and Jacob came along.  You lived a great 10 years in our family, but you will always be in our hearts.  Rest easy, little friend!

Tillman Lee

2002 - 2012

What's Dixie been up to?

The last time I mentioned our new puppy Dixie, she was a little bitty thing....same size as Tillman.

Um...not so much anymore!

I can pet the top of Dixie's head without bending over. Tillman can walk underneath her, on the rare occasions they are out at the same time!  Dixie and Tillman don't get along as well as we had hoped. Perhaps when we get all the puppy out of her, she will settle down and they will like each other. For now, we value Tillman's health, and Dixie doesn't realize Tillman is smaller than her.

Most recently, we had her spayed, which was more of an ordeal than we realized it would be. I guess it wouldn't have been so bad if she had not been able to get to her stitches, despite the lampshade sized cone she wore. But the stitches got infected and we got to visit our local emergency vet! And Dixie got to upgrade to an even bigger cone, and proudly wear it for over a week!  She's much better now though and hopefully life will get back to normal.

Here's a couple of pictures of our "puppy"....despite her size, she is still a puppy!  Only 6 months old!  She's laying down in all the pictures because she won't stand still long enough for me to get a decent shot of her upright.

 

Everybody knows that a dog's best friend is a human.....

I love that quote from Lady and The Tramp!

Quinn and Tillman have been best friends since the day we brought Quinn home. For a brief moment in time, they were actually the same size!!



Lately, Quinn and Tillman have taken to snuggling together on the couch, especially on cold mornings. Our routine is that when Buddy gets out of the shower, he wakes Quinn up and brings him to our room for a few extra minutes of sleep. When Buddy leaves for work, Quinn comes out on the couch to watch a cartoon while I get ready. He always wants to cover up with this fuzzy orange blanket (that Tillman happens to love). Usually I come out to get Quinn ready to get dressed to find them snuggling.

Except, one morning recently, I came out to get Quinn and found this.



Yep, that's Quinn, feeding his Cheerios, aka "snack" to Tillman!  You can see that Tillman doesn't think this is a bad plan at all.

There's just nothing like the love of your furry best friend!!

Bringing Home Dixie

I mentioned in a previous post that Quinn prays for a dog named Dixie.  I also mentioned it was a story for another day.

That day is here.

Dixie is the newest member of our family, thanks to my husband!  The story surrounding Dixie's arrival has a story all its own, and quite frankly, is not one I care to get into.  Let's just say Dixie was an unexpected surprise!

Dixie was born somewhere at the end of August / first of September, and we were able to pick her up on October 8th. The guy who raised her was one of the guys Buddy worked with in Virginia, and this guy owned both the father and the mother dogs. So we knew they were well taken care of during the pregnancy, birth, and first weeks of life. Dixie is an American Bulldog.

When we arrived at Buddy's co-worker's house, this is what greeted us....11 puppies! (Not all 11 made it into the picture. And Dixie is the 2nd puppy past the metal pole in the fence.)

These are the parents. Mom Dog is Bella, and has the dish in her mouth. Dad Dog is on the right, named Bennett.



Here is Buddy, holding his new puppy for the first time.  I love her brindle patch over her eye!



You can see from the angle of her face here, that she only has the patch on one eye. It is really cute, because her eyelashes and whiskers on the brindle side are brown...and on the other side they are white.  (PS...I'm not frustrated here, but the sun was in my eyes!)

As you can see, she has adapted well to our family....doesn't take long to fit in with us!

Even Tillman, our 9 year old miniature pinscher, has learned to tolerate Dixie. He still puts her in her place every once and a while though. She is all puppy and he's our "old man", so he's not into playing and things like that. Quinn loves for Dixie to chase him through the house and outside.

Even I have to admit, she's a cutie pie. And she certainly has some funny sleeping positions!

I'll like her even more, just as soon as she learns her "potty breaks" should happen OUTside!

All Dogs Go To Heaven

This past Saturday, August 14, 2010, our family had to say goodbye to a special friend. My parents had to put down our toy poodle, Desi. I say "our" because she was technically my dog.

The summer when I was 15, I baby-sat for the son of one of Mom's co-workers. He was an only child too, and I think we just fell in love with each other. He was about 8 years old and was like the little brother I never had. Even after that summer, I would keep up with him, since our moms worked together. The next summer, as I was turning 16, they gave me the coolest present....first pick from a litter of toy poodle puppies. They had a female and had decided to breed her. Instead of keeping the first pick, they gave it to me for my birthday. I still remember going to their house when the puppies were just 2 weeks old and making my "pick". How I told them apart, I'll never know, since they were such tiny balls of black fluff. But I managed to choose one and we tied a red ribbon around her neck so we would know which one she was. A few weeks later I brought her home.

Desi was instantly part of the family! And in keeping with the true, girly poodle impression, when she got her hair cut, she came home with ribbons on her ears and painted toe nails to match! She and I were best pals! When the time came for me to go to college, she of course stayed at home but was ever so happy to see me when I would come home for the weekend or holidays. Momma always teased me that when I finally moved out, I was taking Desi too. However, when I got married and was moving out, Desi stayed with my parents. They became so attached to her that they were not willing to give her up too! So while she was "mine", she ended up being my parents' dog.

As she got older, her health got bad, as happens to most of us. We learned about a year or two ago that she had developed a heart murmur, so I knew that the time was coming closer. She had several times in the past year when we all thought this was the end for her, but she would bounce back. However, this past week was just too much suffering for her, so Mom and Dad had to make the tough decision to have her put to sleep. I had already told them that whatever decision they made, I was agreeable with. So while I was expecting to get a phone call one day soon, I was still shocked on Saturday morning when Mom called to tell me that Desi was no longer here. My dad stayed with her until she fell asleep, and then he buried her out at the edge of our yard, where he had buried my cat.

Desi was the sweetest dog and she was part of our lives for 15 wonderful years. We will miss her dearly, but she will always be in our hearts.

A Boy and his Doggie

Tillman has been a member of our family for a long time. Buddy got him our senior year of college in 2002. Tillman is named after two buildings on Clemson's campus. Tillman Hall is one of the oldest buildings on campus and where all the education classes are held. His middle name, Lee, is the building where all the construction and architecture classes are held. When he was a puppy, he was small enough to fit inside the pockets of our jackets! Now he is seven and a half. He can't fit into our pockets anymore, but still loves to cuddle.

I was worried how Tillman would take to Quinn after he was born, but they quickly became best friends. Here they are when Quinn was about 3 or 4 months old. You can't tell in this picture, but they are the exact same size at this time. I have another picture somewhere of Tillman on his back beside Quinn and they are the same length.



This picture was taken a few weeks after the other one, but you can see that Tillman loves being with his Quinn. He's even smiling!



This one was taken back in the spring of 2009. Tillman loves to lay on fleece blankets.



One thing I haven't mentioned about Tillman is that he always seems to know when someone is sick or not feeling right. He will stay with that person all day, snuggling with them or laying nearby. If the sick person walks through the house, Tillman is on their heels. For instance, when Buddy had his appendix out a few summers ago, Tillman was with him the whole time he was recuperating. The night I went into labor with Quinn, Tillman would not settle down in our bed. He got off the bed and scratched at the door. When I let him out of the bedroom, he went to the kitchen and barked at his dish...code for "Get me more water". When I bent down to get his dish, MY water broke. I truly think he knew I was about to go into labor.

So I wasn't too surprised when I walked into the living room today and saw this.



Quinn hasn't been feeling too great today...fever and coughing. So I wasn't surprised to see that "Nurse Tillman" was on the job! And I know the next time one of us is sick, Tillman will be right there with his special touch! I am so thankful that God made animals for this world. They have a way of becoming such a special part of the family. Those of you with pets know what I mean!