Petco entry for the win

Here is Leslie's entry for the Petco contest for Reunion Rescue's chance to win $10,000 for the dogs!

 Gauguin: The Art of the Dog

My dog Van Gogh had died at home and was buried under a headstone that said “Companion, Friend, Teacher.” Then there was nothing left but my grief. I knew I wanted another dog, but I was looking for a pit bull because of how maligned they are and Van Gogh had been a pit bull terrier. I emailed Cindy at Reunion Rescue about a couple of dogs on their site. Cindy listened and said she had a dog that needed a friend. She said, “Festus” had been found on a brutally cold day and taken in by someone who couldn't keep him. Festus was a few months old still in “training.” He had been in two foster homes and a failed adoption. Cindy said we should both go for a walk and I should “check him out like a library book.” Reunion Rescue has a foster to adopt program and a 100% lifetime guarantee so no pet ever goes back to a shelter.

I took gangly Festus for a walk and was told he was kind of a pain – super energetic and athletic. After the walk we played fetch and he and I fell into a nice rhythm. I did NOT feel ready, but sometimes the dog knows better and “our time” was just beginning. We have the best adoption day picture EVER. The kids in the neighborhood all came over that day to meet him and they took him on a walk. Everybody loved him.

 

Throughout many other fosters, other cats, a turtle and many moves, Gauguin (renamed from a close friend to Van Gogh) has weathered the storms. Gauguin outlasted my marriage and several moves – including a cross-country move from Texas to Minnesota with Gauguin in the passenger seat. 

 

Throwback to his beginnings on that “brutally cold day” and now he has many fashionable coats to keep him warm and dry. He has run many miles and we still walk twice a day. From his frenetic youth, he has slowed to a very sweet guy who loves to lean on me. He is like a Gauguin painting, colorful, bright, mystical.

 

 

 

 

He's not your average cuddler, but he does allow me to use his hip as a pillow. I am very grateful that he was there with me to visit my difficult mother. He was there for me when I went to her funeral. He always travels back and forth from Texas with me and while he does not seem to enjoy it - he does it without complaint.

Wherever we walk he chooses human and animal friends to visit and people are so proud to be “chosen.” I get lots of strange looks and chuckles as I call him “Sir” when addressing him. It reminds me that he deserves the respect of being a separate and whole entity with his own life beyond our friendship. 

Gauguin is my best friend in the world, my soul companion like that Jimmie Dale Gilmore song, “Reunion,” “we’ll remember that we’ve never been apart.” 

 

 

The Liebster Award

Ok, our newest bff nominated Pit Bulls and Other Animals for a Liebster Blog Award! For those of you, like us, who do not know what the Liebster Award is, please read the following excerpt from:

EMT April 10, 2013 at 9:05 AM Hello! Just stopping by to let you know I have nominated your blog for a Liebster award.

So our nominator is The Five Dog Blog

Please visit http://thefivedogblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/liebster-award.html for all the information!

So, we have a couple of minutes and here goes....

The following was excerpted from The Five Dog Blog:

I'm relatively new to the blogging world and was not familiar with the Liebster Award and what it

really meant. So I jumped on my trusty Google browser and started searching. Most of the entries were other blog posts from blogs that had also received this award, so it seems legit :). I like awards. And the Liebster Award is for bloggers with under 200 followers to help spread the word about their blog. I like followers :).

I figure it's kind of like a chain letter - a blogger to blogger award. And even though it's a chain letter, it's still fun to get to know other bloggers! Apparently, liebster is a German word meaning sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. Seriously, that is a lot of  adjectives for one damn word! Maybe some of my German friends can tell me if that's a real translation or just chain letter nonsense.

Right, so time to pay it forward. Liebster rules:

1. List the nominator's blog on your blog roll with a link.
2. Answer a set of 11 questions asked by the nominator.
3. Provide a list of 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 11 qualified blogs (less than 200 followers) for the Liebster Award and let them know through a post on their blog page.
5. Provide a set of 11 questions for the nominated blogs to answer.
6. Display the award on your blog!

Questions for me to answer:

1. Describe yourself in one word. Passionate
2. If you had a time machine, would you travel to the future or to the past? Future when all dogs are saved!
3. What is your favorite city? San Francisco when I'm in Austin and Austin when I'm in Frisco
4. Do you write more than one blog? Sure do!
5. What is your favorite time of day? Morning when I'm full of energy...
6. If you could have lunch with a famous person, from past or present, who would it be? Bob Dylan
7. Coffee or tea? (Or neither?) Coffee ... and tea, but mainly coffee
8. What is your favorite flower? Carnation
9. What do you like best about blogging? The pictures
10. What is your favorite season? Fall in Austin, Texas
11. What is your favorite movie? The Incredible Journey..the original with Bodger, Teo and Luath

Random factoids about myself:

1. Guilty pleasure...the Houswives shows
2. I listen to music all the time
3. I am a great dancer
4. I really do like people and believe there are more good people than bad people.
5. I used to hate pit bulls.
6. I think I'm a teenage boy in an old lady's body
7. I'm really a cat freak...confirmed ailurophile
8. I try to be a vegan every day and fail
9. ALF are my all time heros
10. All the animals communicate with my friend who tells me what they say
11. I am very spiritual

Questions for my nominees to answer:

1. What animal would you come back as?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is your pet's name?
4. Who is your hero?
5. When you have only thirty minutes, what do you do?
6. What is your hobby?
7. Favorite song?
8. Favorite book?
9. Favorite movie?
10. Do you have a pit bull story?
11. What is your Indian spirit guide?

I am nominating:

1. Five Dog Blog
2. BSL News
3. No Kill Houston
4. Lizard Marsh
5. Aimee's Law Blog
6. Dogtown Ranch Sanctuary
7. Wonder Dog Rescue Blog
8. Shirley's Wellness Cafe
9. Vital Animal Blog
10. My Pit Bull is Family Blog
11. Humesh's Blog: Homeopathy for Cats