We have a new baby!

As those of you that happen to read this know, we lost 2 of our precious babies this past Summer. We lost Nikki our 6 yr old bichon in June, and Sammi, our 14 yr old chow/shepard in July. We have noticed such a change in our other bichon Gabby. She and Nikki were not only littermates, but buddies. They slept together, played together, ran together, everything. For a while after Nikki was gone, she would wander around the house with a toy in her mouth as if looking for Nikki to come out and play. Then she'd go lay on a pillow and let out a sigh. So sad. Lately, she doesn't even do that anymore. She just lays down looking really sad and lonely. Our other dog Ringo doesn't play. He'll play with us, but not his "sister". I'm not sure he realizes he is a dog himself. LOL Here is a picture I took just this morning of Gabby. It breaks my heart to see her like this:

In the past few weeks we have talked about the possibility of adopting a sister for Gabby. Since she is only 6 1/2, she can potentially live up to 10 more years, and that's a long time for her to go without playing again. About 3 weeks ago, we decided to really start looking for the right one to become a part of our family. We have been going through bichon rescue organizations, and Small Paws Rescue out of Tulsa, Oklahoma was a godsend! The people there are so caring and they do amazing work finding foster homes for bichons and rehabilitating those that need it.

We filled out a very long application and they contacted our vet for a reference. I can't thank Dr. Tammy enough for the glowing recommendation she gave us! Then a processor called and talked with me for quite a while, asking every question imaginable...and some I hadn't even though of.

We were interested in a particular bichon, but someone else had just adopted her. While I was a little disappointed, I'm a firm believer in the idea that if something's meant to be, it'll happen. So by us not getting to adopt that dog, it meant there was one out there waiting for us to find her.

Two nights ago, Chelsea and I were looking through the Small Paws site again and Chelsea pointed to "Molly". Hhhmmm...how have we not noticed her before? I can't explain it, but after reading her bio, I just "knew" this was the dog for us. I emailed the processor and said we were interested. The foster mom called me last night and we talked for over an hour. She had just put Mollys pictures and bio on the site that evening around supper time, which means that was less than an hour before we saw it. Nicole is the foster mom and she is so sweet! By the end of our conversation, we both knew this was meant to be. I actually got choked up and so did she (nice to know there's other softies out there like me LOL). She said she would recommend us and they would notify us of the final decision soon.

About an hour ago, I received an email containing the following message from the processor:

Hi-Sounds to me like MOLLY has a new family!! Congratulations!!

I was so excited, I nearly jumped out of my chair! LOL We are in the process now of making arrangements to have her shipped. She will fly in to Des Moines where we will pick her up. Not sure how quickly that will all take place, but the foster mom said that once the decision has been made, they like to move things along as quickly as possible.

Here are a few pictures of Molly that are/were on the Small Paws Rescue site:

A little info about Molly: She is 6 yrs old and was used for breeding at a breeding kennel (aka: puppy mill). She was very shy of people, but in the last month has totally come out of her shell and now loves people and attention. She also gets along with all of the other foster family's dogs (which includes a lab and a gold retriever, plus a few other small dogs). She does like the other bichon there the best and the two of them love to romp and play and tear through the house (exactly what Gabby & Nikki used to do). I know it will take time for her to adjust to our home, but I do believe she will be an awesome addition to our family, and I can't wait to give her a "welcome home" hug.