Welcome Home to Casa Crazy

I have proof positive that Coach and I have lost our minds. Yes, we are crazy…
Her name was A20338515 at the Central Texas Humane Society, but we’ve decided to call her Nola:

I saw Nola on Facebook a few weeks ago and thought, “How sweet!”  And kept scrolling.
Then I saw her photo reposted last Saturday and thought, “I can’t believe that pretty girl is still at the pound.”
Coach happened to see the picture over my shoulder, and we showed her to the kids on Sunday.
Monday morning Coach said to call and get more information about her.  The kids and I were floored!  But if Coach says “Jump!” then we say “How high?” (Please do NOT verify that with him, though…)
So…that afternoon, Angel Girl and I went to the pound to see the puppy. (Yes, she is roughly 5-6 months old. And, yes, we are crazy.)  Tuesday, the boys joined us for a second visit at the shelter.  By Tuesday afternoon, Coach said “Go get her…”
So we are now the proud family of 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 1 puppy, 5 cats, and 3 baby kittens.  And, YES, WE ARE CRAZY!
Puppies are a ton of work, and most of that will fall on me as Coach is already in football season mode and the kids go back to school in a month.  So why in the world would I go along with such insanity?
Because I have a mental bucket list of experiences I want the kids to have before they leave me to be adults.  You’ve seen these lists – they’re all over Pinterest, all of the time.  I haven’t written one down specifically, but as we rock along in our little world, situations present themselves here and there that make me think, “I want my kids to know this.  I want us to know it together.  I want us to share this memory as a family.”
In 2005, I decided the kids needed to know that one can accomplish anything one sets their mind to do.  I’m not sure why I equated this immediately to my “running” 13.1 miles, but it did.  So in January 2006, I completed the Houston Half Marathon, with Coach and the kids cheering me across the finish line.  It was awful.  I hate running.  No, really, I HATE RUNNING!!  I’m really, really terrible at running.  I fought myself EVERY SINGLE STEP of the race and each step of the training that I managed to force myself to do in preparation for that horrendous morning.
But I finished it.  And they knew how hard it was for me to do so.  And they saw that I certainly was NOT the best race participant, nor the fastest, nor the strongest, not the youngest, nor the oldest, nor the thinnest, nor the fattest.  But I finished it, and somewhere along the way I somehow convinced myself that my torture taught them not to give up on something that feels important.  You really can do anything that you set your mind to do!

In 2011, the final movie from the final book of the best movie-book partnership of all time was being released at midnight, so we loaded up the family, and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 with the rest of the greater Waco nut cases.  IT WAS SO FUN!!  Of course, we got home at 3 am, and Coach did have to carry in our Angel Girl who saw all the movie but did not make it all the way home, and he did have to leave for work by 6:30 am (nothing like a mere 2 hours of sleep to get you through a long day…), but it was still worth it!  We are HP crazies, absolutely love the stories, the creativity, and the characters, and we went TOGETHER – we enjoyed every second of it as a family.
 
So, here we are in 2013.
We have Belle, a beautiful and loving 11 year old Yellow Labrador Retriever.




We have Sassy, a sweet and spunky 4 year old Miniature Dachshund.



Both are full bred with papers that have never even been registered.  Obviously, lineage isn’t all that critical to our family.  I’m also very proud to say that differences are not any big thing either…
The Facebook photo of A20338515 shows only her left eye which is the most magnificent shade of powder blue.  When Angel Girl and I first met her, we realized that the right eye is pure black.  I (unfairly) assumed that Coach and the kids would see this as a defect or inferiority and not want her because both eyes were not that majestic, sky blue.

I was wrong.  That thought never once crossed their minds.  Their immediate reaction to her was that those mixed eyes are TOTALLY COOL, and I love that about my crew!
So, now we also have Nola, a 6 month old wonderfully unique Catahoula Leopard Hound.  We also have the warm, fuzzy feeling that comes with saving an animal who was on the “critical list.”  In other words, the short list; Nola was scheduled to be euthanized next week.  And we also have another source of entertainment, laughter, and love at our house.

My ultimate hope is that some day, wayyyyy in the future, SonShine and Angel Girl will take their own families to the pound or a rescue facility, find a friend they love, and share this same experience all over again.
I encourage you to do the same.  We were heartbroken at kennel after kennel and cage after cage of the many animals awaiting death as we walked through to meet Nola.  It was not easy to see!  Please consider going there for your next pet – they may not be registered, they may not be perfect, but they are definitely precious!
www.humanesociety.org