Three Dog Life

As I've mentioned before, we have three dogs. Three. A three year old Malinois mix named Della, a year and four month old Pitbull mix named Ivan, and a seven month old Cane Corso named Chibi. It makes for a hectic day sometimes, but it's totally worth it.

We picked Della up from a local shelter, Wayside Waifs. When she first came to us she was afraid of absolutely everything! Ladders, guitars, bugs, the dark. You name it and she was probably afraid of it. She was also heart worm positive. The shelter told us she was afraid of men too, but she got along right off the bat with my husband. She also was completely house trained, was good with the kids, and seemed to really understand a lot of what we were saying. Still, as the months went on, she just seemed to get be getting kind of down. It was then that we decided that maybe another dog would be a good option. We looked around and finally decided on adopting a dog from the Mid-America Bully Breed Rescue. 

At first we looked at adopting older dogs. Puppies are usually sure to get adopted out, but I know that older dogs are difficult to find homes for sometimes. There always seemed to be something that wasn't a good fit with our home though. Some of the dogs weren't used to being around kids, and the other ones Della didn't care for. There was one beautiful boy that they brought over so we could introduce Della to them. She was having none of it! We decided to give it one last go, this time with a puppy. We decided that if it didn't work with a puppy, then she would probably be happier with being an only dog. 

One of the volunteers for the rescue was fostering a couple of puppies, so he brought them over. Both of them were completely adorable. Black fur with white spots. So huggable! Della and one of the puppies hit it right off. It was amazingly cute. We adopted Ivan and he and Della continued to get along great. Ivan was about 5 months old when he came to us and wasn't afraid of anything! He's been a bit crazy, but truth be told (don't tell the other two) he's probably my favorite. That brings us to Chibi.

My husband initially told me that we would never have three dogs at one time. Maybe I should've listened, but I love our life. He does too. He even admits that having three dogs is a lot of fun. We did get Chibi from a breeder. I know, tell me I'm a terrible person for buying from a breeder. Ok, done? Cool. Anyways, I had researched resuces, breeders, and the Cane Corso before deciding to buy. Besides Della's history with not caring for older dogs, none of the rescues had dogs suitable for small children at the time. I found a breeder that looked like it was pretty good and gave them a call. I didn't expect that we would be able to get a puppy for at least another 6 months to a year. They told us that they had one female that hadn't been spoken for, so we decided to go check her out just to see what we thought of the breed in person. 

All of the pups were still at home at that time, and it was so wonderful to see all those puppy faces running around and having a blast. My husband absolutely fell in love with them. We asked the breeder some questions about how they run their breeding business and we saw the conditions in which they kept their dogs. It was a family run business and the children were as active in it as the mom and dad. Their dogs were all indoor and outdoor dogs, extremely social, and bred for good temperament as well as health. They only bred their females twice before fixing them, and you could tell that they absolutely loved every dog they had. We put the deposit down and then when the pups were ready to leave their mother, we went and picked her up. 

It's been a lot of learning and laughing. Chibi was our first puppy puppy. It was challenging, but she's probably the most affectionate of the three. I've loved watching how the dogs interact with one another, and it's been a lot of fun watching Ivan and Chibi grow. Their antics are hilarious too. Ivan and Chibi get into a lot of mischief together, while Della is definitely the Alpha out of all the dogs. My hope is that someday I can start a Mastiff rescue. They're such wonderful dogs with big hearts. They can be a bit stubborn, but I think that just gives them extra personality. 

If you would like to adopt an animal or donate money or supplies to either Wayside Waifs or Mid-America Bully Breed Rescue, they are both wonderful organizations. 

Mid-America Bully Breed Rescue

http://mabbr.org/

Wayside Waifs

http://www.waysidewaifs.org/site/PageServer

Here We Go....Finally!

It's been an interesting year. We added two dogs to the family. Our first one was getting depressed. She is doing so much better now. Although three dogs makes for quite a bit more housework, they are such a joy to be around. I'm also in my last year of school at the community college. Should all go well, I'll be starting at the University come fall.

We also started discussing some different options for baby time. My husband had a vasectomy when he was with his first wife, so we've had to take the less traditional route to have a child. We had discussed getting a vasectomy reversal, but decided against it. Besides the cost, he is diabetic and we didn't want to chance a non-vital surgery. As much as we want to have a baby, it isn't worth risking his life for it. We finally decided on a squeamish option for some: artificial insemination using donor sperm. We saw a reproduction specialist who did the initial ultrasound to check out my girly parts to make sure it was a viable option. He said everything looked healthy. The next step would be blood tests. Just when we were about to start that whole process, financial disaster struck. My husband was layed off and it looked as though we would have to wait.

I'll admit, I was upset. I know that artificial insemination doesn't have the highest success rates, and those rates don't get any better as a woman gets older. I wasn't sure when or if we'd ever be able to afford to have a baby. I felt extremely depressed. It was horrible seeing people posting pictures online of the antics of their babies and toddlers. I would feel so awful when I heard of people getting pregnant or having babies. Then I felt worse about feeling bad! All wasn't lost though. My husband found a new job!

We still weren't sure when we could start the whole process. I kept going back to look over the paperwork from the doctor's office and attempting to do research on sperm banks and what-not. My husband and I finally decided to go ahead with the whole process, and here we are today.

The first process of the barage of tests was a blood test that needed to be done on day three of my menstrual cycle. The phone call needed to be made on day one. Day one of course was on a Saturday. I called the doctor's office anyways. Luckily they called me right back and set the appointment for today. I went in today and had a simple blood draw done. The results will be back in a week to a week and a half. The next step will be the HSG. Why do I have the feeling this won't be cheap?