What a long, busy, and exciting week this has been.
Slight catch up from the past two months: Our first week back from SOS, our best friends moved to Florida which was super hard. That whole week we helped them pack up and tried to spend as much time with them as possible. After they left I was able to keep busy with the girls and time went by just as fast as it ever does.
I, however, started wanting a little bundle of something to take care of so I asked Kate if she wanted to help me foster a puppy. Silly question to ask a little girl...and well, anyone else really. So the next day we went to A Pet's Wish, a dog and cat rescue center in town. They didn't have any young, small puppies which is what we had wanted, so K brought out a bunch of smaller dogs for us to look at. Two of the males hiked their legs as soon as they came out marking their territory. Nope, that's not gonna work. One of the females started barking as soon as she came out. I'm not a fan of loud, yippy dogs so nope, she wasn't gonna work either. Another one jumped a little too much and the other wasn't really interested in us. First impressions were a bust and I was let down. I wanted a baby to take care of.
I wanted to keep face and obviously these dogs were excited to be out of their kennels so we just started playing with them. Abby wasn't really a fan. Too much doggie happiness to handle at once. But Kate really took a liking to the little female that had barked when she came out. We played with her and after asking Kate a few times if this was the dog she wanted to take home, we loaded the dog up and went home.
Slight catch up from the past two months: Our first week back from SOS, our best friends moved to Florida which was super hard. That whole week we helped them pack up and tried to spend as much time with them as possible. After they left I was able to keep busy with the girls and time went by just as fast as it ever does.
I, however, started wanting a little bundle of something to take care of so I asked Kate if she wanted to help me foster a puppy. Silly question to ask a little girl...and well, anyone else really. So the next day we went to A Pet's Wish, a dog and cat rescue center in town. They didn't have any young, small puppies which is what we had wanted, so K brought out a bunch of smaller dogs for us to look at. Two of the males hiked their legs as soon as they came out marking their territory. Nope, that's not gonna work. One of the females started barking as soon as she came out. I'm not a fan of loud, yippy dogs so nope, she wasn't gonna work either. Another one jumped a little too much and the other wasn't really interested in us. First impressions were a bust and I was let down. I wanted a baby to take care of.
I wanted to keep face and obviously these dogs were excited to be out of their kennels so we just started playing with them. Abby wasn't really a fan. Too much doggie happiness to handle at once. But Kate really took a liking to the little female that had barked when she came out. We played with her and after asking Kate a few times if this was the dog she wanted to take home, we loaded the dog up and went home.
A few days later K was brought an abandoned little baby puppy, only 5 weeks old. She texted me that night if I wanted to take care of it. Um, yes please. So the next morning we were picking up another foster dog to take care of.
Fast forward to this past week. A friend came back in town for some hearings her husband was a part of. She wanted to be with him but asked if I could watch after her little girl. I was happy to help. Kate had a great time with little R. Abby was content to watch the fun and games but only participated a few times. However, the third and fourth day that little R came over Abby was not happy. Started crying immediately and became super clingy. It was like we had brought home a newborn baby and she needed to fight for attention. All in all, we had fun. But like with any day spent with more than one child, fits were thrown, tears were shed, there were little tiffs over toys, snacks and momma's attention. But there were also squeals of delight, fun games of chase, sweet kisses given, and funny things said.
So that took up my Mo Tu Th Fr. Friday evening, I noticed Penny (our female foster dog) was acting off. We've had her for a little more than three weeks now and I have been noticing her tummy getting bigger. I suspected she was pregnant, like maybe 6 or 7 weeks along. (Dogs are pregnant for 9 weeks). Well, Friday evening she was having body shakes and panting constantly. I got a video of it and messaged it to K at A Pet's Wish. I was in the process of messaging K when Andrew got home. I was telling K that I didn't know what was wrong with Penny and telling Andrew the same thing when he looked down and pointed at Penny and said, "Well, she's having a baby."
I looked down and sure enough, there was a puppy coming out of her right in our kitchen!! Trying to not let myself totally freak out, I grabbed my phone and called K. I told her what had just happened. She said she was on her way to help. I then looked down at Penny. There was no puppy. I looked in her bed, under the towel. Nothing. The puppy had gone back inside her.
Simplified story: K came and went. Penny had settled down quite a bit. We put the girls to bed. Andrew then sent me to bed because I'd possibly be up with Penny all night. A short time later at 0026 Penny gave birth to her first puppy. The puppy was breach and took a minute to come out all the way after the feet had shown. It was amazing to watch. I did help pull the puppy out just a little bit but Penny did the majority of the work. She was awesome. An hour later at 0116 the second puppy came out. She came out much easier than the first. Penny probably knew what to do this time around. I made sure both puppies had latched and nursed for a bit before I felt I could go to sleep. I set my alarm for a couple hours later to make sure the puppies nursed again. Repeat that again. Then Kate got up for the day.
Saturday morning was Kate's first ballet class! My friend had told me about it the previous week so I called and signed up Kate. In December they will be performing the Nutcracker! It's going to be adorable. I'm thrilled. Anyhow, I got Kate ready for her 9 o'clock class and we left.
Being as that Kate is extremely shy, I figured she wouldn't do much. She wouldn't do anything with me in the same room so I left but was able to watch from another room. It took her a while to warm up but she eventually did a few thing that the teacher asked her to do. I loved watching. There were two other girls in her class that morning. One didn't do hardly anything, then there was Kate, and the third girl did everything wonderfully well. It was a delightful continuation to my already exciting morning.
Being as that Kate is extremely shy, I figured she wouldn't do much. She wouldn't do anything with me in the same room so I left but was able to watch from another room. It took her a while to warm up but she eventually did a few thing that the teacher asked her to do. I loved watching. There were two other girls in her class that morning. One didn't do hardly anything, then there was Kate, and the third girl did everything wonderfully well. It was a delightful continuation to my already exciting morning.
And it's General Conference Weekend! What a great way to end a great week. I look forward to watching/reading the talks again and giving them my full attention, lots for the first time.
