House hunting!

I've been meaning to blog for a while now but never got around to it. I guess I didn't really have anything that important to say!

The saga of Gracie the night monster continues... Last night was horrendous, she wouldn't stay in bed and she was pacing around our room, so hubby let her out (again) and she went potty. She hadn't done anything when he took them out before bedtime, though - how annoying! Then she seemed to settle, but at 2am she was whining and scratching on my side of the bed. I let her out again - she peed. Again, why she couldn't have done that either of the previous two times we'd let her out, I don't know! Then again she woke us at 5am. Jeez! I don't know what her problem is, but she definitely doesn't like night time. She just won't settle. We have a problem virtually every night and it's doing our heads in! I would put her out in the hallway overnight but she would still whine and cry and then she'd start scratching the bedroom door, so it wouldn't help much. It's infuriating! She wakes us probably as many times as a newborn baby would! (I'm not comparing having dogs to having children, by the way - I know it's completely different but at least you expect a baby to wake you through the night!)

Yesterday we searched online for houses for sale within about 10 miles of our area. We made a list of some of them and went to drive by them, to see what the areas were like and if the houses looked worthwhile making an appointment to view. Of course, you can only tell so much from the exterior, but it was more about location and whether the areas had a good vibe about them. We've ruled out one house for definite, because in order to get to it you have to drive right by loads of really run-down trailer parks and boarded up houses - it didn't exactly feel safe round there! The house itself and its surrounding neighborhood seemed nice enough, but it was almost as though the housing estate was built in amongst all these dodgy trailer parks! It just didn't have a good feel to it. So we didn't waste our time - at least we've ruled some in and some out, which is what we expected to do really. It's going to be a learning curve, that's for sure. We're pretty sure we know what we want, for the most part - our main requirements are as follows:

- 4 bedrooms or more

- 2 bathrooms (or 1.5, 1.75, whatever!)

- 2 car garage

- good air conditioning

- nice location with good access to the freeways and good amenities nearby

In addition to that, I'd like to have a laundry room as we do now and it's really nice not to have to do laundry in the garage (in Phoenix it's way too hot in the summer to spend much time in the garage, since they generally don't have A/C!). The laundry room isn't absolutely essential but it would be nice!

We saw one house which looked nice but it was literally 3 doors down from a big elementary school - that kinda put us off. I mean, we're wanting to have children soon so for that reason it would be good, but traffic would be crazy at school start and end times and there were signs up saying no parking between 7am and 4pm - so you couldn't even park outside your own house! That wouldn't be so much of a problem for us because we'd park in the garage or on the driveway (depending on if we had 1 or 2 cars and if we had enough space in the garage for both) but if we had guests that could be very problematic. We ruled that one out.

There were a couple of really nice neighborhoods we looked at and we want to make appointments to view those houses, so we effectively ruled some houses in! Quite a variation in prices, going from literally as little as $85,000 to $135,000. We could go higher but we figured we'd start out low and see what we can get - in this economy there are a lot of nice houses going for cheap, so we may as well try and get one for as little as we can. We don't need a flashy house, after all! The 4 bedroom requirement is partly because hubby works from home so he needs an office, we need a bedroom, we'll need a nursery when we have a baby and it would be nice to have a spare room. Also, we're planning to have at least 2 kids so when that happens maybe we'll forget about having a spare room and they'll have a room each. We'll see! Neither of us wants to move house again for a long time, so we need to make sure we buy the right one and one that's going to be big enough for us and our expanding family! :-)

I got a message on Facebook this morning from hubby's sister in Florida, asking if we're going to be attending her daughter's high school graduation in June. Maybe it's because I'm not American and I don't "get it" but really? It's over 2000 miles away! It's a high school graduation! I spoke to hubby about it and told him that since his sister didn't come to our wedding, I don't see why we should go all that way for a high school graduation! I'm pretty sure that weddings are a bit more important than graduations, right? Surely they are! Anyway, I've never met his sister and although I would like to, we're not going to be able to make it regardless. Hubby's vacation time doesn't re-set until July, he only has a few days left at this point and he's wanting to take them soon; we're wanting to buy a house and so him taking unpaid leave isn't really an option; I looked at flights and the cheapest I could find was almost $1000 return for the two of us, which is significant when we're going to need a deposit for our house and moving fees etc. Hubby's parents are going, he said they'll probably be driving - so we could go with them if we had the time, but if we were going to go it would have to be by air because we don't have enough time to drive there and back! Also, we'd have to find someone to look after the dogs and they'd probably have to go into kennels for a few days - I'm not keen on that idea, and it adds more expense! A couple of people we know from the dog park offered to look after Suzie if we went away, but that was before we got Gracie - with 2 dogs I'm sure people would be more reluctant to make the same offer! Plus, I couldn't impose the night monster on anyone - how mean would that be?!

So anyway, I told hubby's sister that he doesn't have the vacation time and we're trying to buy a house so taking unpaid leave isn't an option right now. I still don't see why we should make that effort to go all that way for a silly high school graduation when she didn't make the effort to come to our wedding.

Good News!

My green card arrived on Saturday! Yay! Not bad really, 9 days after my interview - can't complain at all! It feels great to have it, it's a big milestone. Now we can relax until November 2012, when we'll have to apply to have the conditions removed. Because it's a marriage-based green card, they only issue the card for 2 years - then you send in more paperwork to have the conditions removed, and you get a new, 10 year green card. In 3 years time from now I'll be eligible to apply for citizenship, so I'll most likely do that when the time comes - it'll save a lot of hassle!

The weekend was a bit miserable weather-wise, really. We had a short hail storm and quite a bit of rain Saturday, then yesterday it rained again. It's pretty big news here when it rains - it still makes me laugh. By UK standards the rain really wasn't that big of a deal, but for the desert I guess it was a lot!

I cleaned the whole house on Friday, then hubby's brother came round for dinner so I cooked pasta. The house looks a mess again now - seriously, having 2 dogs rather than 1 makes a big difference to the state of the house. I'm gonna clean again tomorrow I think.

Tonight we're taking Suzie to her first ever agility class! We got the idea last week, that she might enjoy it and it would be good for her. I found a class and emailed the people who run it, and there's a class starting tonight which is a 5 week course. It's only for an hour each time, on Monday evenings. I think it'll be fun! We'll probably get laughed at by the other people there for bringing a pug to an agility class, but I don't see any reason why she couldn't be good at it. She's clever and she learns quickly, and she's got lots of energy. It'll be cool to see her do that! I'm taking my camera along, of course. :-)

We haven't been sleeping well these past 2 or 3 nights - Gracie has been acting odd, barking at something (no idea what) and getting out of her bed constantly. She comes to the side of the bed and whines, and when she's not doing that she's going under our bed. Weird! Hubby got up early this morning at like 4 a.m. to try to let her outside, thinking she needed to go potty - nope! I don't know what her problem is!!! I'm knackered now, and I'm sure hubby is too. I might take a nap, actually!

Drama at the Dog Park - again!

I emailed APARN and told them that we hadn't been made aware of Gracie's health issues, and the lady apologized profusely - it was some kind of oversight. I can see how that kind of thing could happen, but at least now they might just be extra careful to make sure potential adoptive 'parents' know of any issues a dog may have before they go ahead and adopt.

I joined a pug forum and got some pretty good info from people on there who've experienced the same problems with their pugs, and they recommended starting Gracie on joint supplements called Cosequin DS. I searched around online and the best price I found was $39.99 for 132 chewable tablets. Petco have the whole range on sale if you buy online, but even then they were charging $44.99 for 110 of the exact same chewable tablets, and $52.49 for 132. It was worth the extra time to find them for less, especially as the regular Petco price for that pack size is $69.99!

You're meant to give one a day for 4-6 weeks and then you can reduce it to half a day after that initial period. That means 132 tablets will last for at least 7 months, so it's worth the expenditure. Especially if this stuff is as good as everyone says it is - it's meant to be great for dogs of all sizes and ages. If it helps Gracie's knees then it's worth it. Her patella did actually luxate for a short time last night, she jumped off the couch while we were eating dinner and started limping. It went back in after about a minute though. She didn't yelp or anything, but I can't imagine it would be a comfortable sensation! If this stuff is as good as it's meant to be, then hopefully it will help to prevent, or at least delay, the onset of arthritis. It should arrive either tomorrow or Friday hopefully, I paid for 2-3 day delivery.

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Yesterday when hubby finished work we took Suzie and Gracie over to the dog park. We arrived at the same time as one of our friends, who has a pug and a French bulldog. All was well until Jester, the Frenchie, got mauled by a bloody pitbull. The most horrific thing about it was that nobody could get the damn pitbull off of him - it had half Jester's head in its mouth and it was shaking him like a ragdoll. The pitbull's owner was screaming "choke him!" to the guy who was with her, because despite screaming at the dog and hitting it to try and get it to let go, it wouldn't. I didn't actually really see the attack because we were a little way away and there were loads of people gathered around, trying to get the damn dog off of poor little Jester. To be honest I was trying to locate Suzie as well, for a short time I couldn't see her and I was panicking like crazy. Gracie doesn't venture far from our side so I knew where she was. When the dog finally let go, poor Jester had at least 3 or 4 puncture wounds to his head, neck and shoulder. There was one at the base of his ear that I think had gone through the skin of the ear. It was awful. Considering how prolonged and vicious the attack was, I think he actually was very lucky. The pitbull could've ripped his ear off, he could've even killed him... It's just so scary.

Our friend was in shock, she was pretty calm but you could tell it was the shock doing that to her. I'm not surprised - I'd be a total mess if that happened to one of our girls. The fact that there was nothing she could do probably made it that much worse, too. Luckily someone had some peroxide in their car, so he went and got that to put on the wounds. One of the guys there called the cops, and there was a huge commotion with a lot of people yelling at the people with the pitbull because a dog like that doesn't belong in a dog park! Especially when the dog park is in 2 separate sections - small dogs and large dogs. Well, Jester certainly belongs in the small dog side. The pitbull should never have been in that section - in fact, he probably shouldn't even be on the big dog side. At least if it had attacked a bigger dog, the dog being attacked would have probably had more of a chance. I'm still shocked about the whole thing, really. It's just so horrendous. Our poor friend, she must still be in shock over it. I'm glad I didn't really see the attack - the sounds were bad enough. I knew it must be really bad if the owner was yelling "choke him!" - you wouldn't say that if it was minor, would you? The fact that nobody could get the dog to stop is the scariest thing - I know that not all pitbulls are bad, of course; I know they get a particularly bad rap - but when they start attacking there's really very little you can do. I'm seriously considering carrying hubby's baseball bat with me when we go to the dog park from now on - there's no way I'm going to stand by helpless if a vicious beast goes for Suzie or Gracie. I was angry enough on the two occasions that little bastard pomeranian attacked Suzie, and although I think that dog is capable of doing some serious damage (particularly to her prominent eyes) it's nothing compared to a pitbull. At least you can grab the little fucker and throw him if you need to - he's a nasty piece of work but he's small and light enough that you can pull him off relatively easily. A pitbull is a completely different entity and it really doesn't take much for one to severely maul or even kill a dog, big or small. The people with the pitbull's owner were trying to justify the whole thing - well, I'm sorry, but there is no justification. Jester was no threat to a dog that weighs at least 5 times what he does - he's 23 pounds for fuck's sake and he's not vicious! I'm just glad that Jester is OK. I'm sure he'll be in quite a bit of pain, and there's gonna be bruising under there, but the bites themselves look fairly superficial. I guess that being alive and not too severely injured is a good outcome when you've been attacked by a pitbull, anyway.

When the cop eventually arrived, after what must have been around 30 minutes (even though the dispatcher told the man who called that it was a 'priority' call!) the people with the pitbull had long gone. I asked the cop myself what you're legally allowed to do if a dog is attacking your (or another) dog, and he said, "Don't even worry about that, just do whatever you need to do to stop it" - good! So I think the baseball bat idea is probably a good one. I know it's more likely to be effective in a situation like that than shouting or hitting the attacking dog with your hand, anyway. I'd hate to have to hurt any dog, but I'm sorry, if it's attacking my dog, or another dog, then I damn well will.

Funnily enough, on Monday (the day before the attack) there was a man in the dog park with a handgun in a holster on his belt. At the time I thought it was a little odd, only because he's the first civilian I've actually seen to carry a gun even though I've been here over 5 months now, and also because I thought it was strange to carry a gun to the dog park - well, we could've used him yesterday! I don't like the thought of hurting a dog, but really what else could you do to stop such a vicious attack? The other thing is, that there were some little kids in the dog park yesterday - I know people say pitbulls only attack other dogs, but with a dog like that which nobody could control, how do you really know? I bet the police would've arrived quicker if it had attacked a person - of course they would. I hope those stupid people never come back to the dog park, and if they do then that bloody dog best be in a muzzle or left at home. I said as much to the owner - I told her that if her dog had attacked one of my dogs, I would not be as calm as our friend was. I said that dog does not belong here, and if you're going to take it out of the house it needs to be under control and have a muzzle on. I didn't shout at her, she was hysterical too, but it's something that better not be repeated because I swear, if that had been Suzie, and they tried to justify the attack to me like they did yesterday, I would go ballistic. It just doesn't bear thinking about, I'd be devastated if Suzie was attacked like that (I say Suzie rather than Gracie because Gracie doesn't go far from us, but Suzie does, and I think Suzie would be more likely to be in the situation Jester was in yesterday - but of course, if it happened to Gracie I would go crazy too).

I don't want to stop taking the girls to the dog park, because I know it's good for them (especially Suzie, because she plays and runs like crazy every time we go) but it's made me quite reluctant to want to take them without hubby being with us. I already was reluctant, actually, but now I'm even more so. If anything like that were to happen to Suzie or Gracie, I'd never forgive myself (even though it wouldn't be my fault!).

An Update

OK, so we took Gracie to our vet. He doesn't think her patellar luxation is anywhere near bad enough to consider surgery. She walks normally and he said grade 2 luxations aren't that bad. He did say she might get arthritis later on because of it, though. He couldn't say with certainty that she won't progress to grade 3 luxation, but I didn't really expect him to be able to - he doesn't have a crystal ball, after all.

With regards her eye, he likened pigmentary keratitis to how the world looks to us wearing sunglasses. He said it would drive a person crazy but dogs just get on with things. We have some steroid eye drops for her, which we need to give her twice a day every day for the rest of her life. Luckily they were only $17 - although that's obviously going to end up costing a lot over the course of her lifetime! At least they're not like $50 a time though. That's what I thought they might cost. The vet said that the drops should stop her condition getting any worse, and hopefully will prevent her good eye from developing the condition too.

I'm still annoyed that we only just found out what APARN already knew - it doesn't seem very fair, really. I'm not sure how to broach the subject with them, obviously we're keeping Gracie but I think they ought to be aware that they should have told us what they knew. It was quite stressful to see that information last night, out of the blue. At least if they'd told us we would've known, and we could've got more information.

You know, I think Gracie knew something was up this morning because she hardly ate any of her breakfast (I mean, she ate maybe 15% of it - that's 15% of about a third of a cup, so really not much) and on the way to the vet she was whining a lot in the car. She doesn't normally do that. The difference this time was that we left Suzie at home. I wonder if she thought we were going to take her somewhere and leave her there? I mean, like her previous owner did when they surrendered her to APARN. In the vet's office she was shaking like a leaf. I just kept cuddling her and eventually she settled down. Poor little girl, I hate when she's scared like that.

It's such a relief that we can keep her - I really was starting to think that we'd have to give her back, we don't have thousands of dollars lying around for really expensive surgery; we're hoping to buy a house this year! Hopefully Gracie will never need surgery on her knees, if we're lucky they won't get any worse. As long as she has a good quality of life, that's the main thing.

Would've been nice to know...

We didn't end up going to see the in-laws on Saturday, as hubby was called for work at 3.30 p.m. and ended up having to work until after 11 p.m. We went over yesterday instead.

When we got home I had an email from APARN - Gracie's paperwork. We were pretty shocked to find that she has 2 pretty serious pre-existing conditions which we knew nothing of. She was seen by a veterinarian the day before we first met her, and they wrote a report stating that she has bilateral patellar luxation and also pigmentary keratitis in her left eye which is gradually making her blind. It's a condition where the cornea becomes covered in a layer of filmy pigment and causes blindness - so far, her cornea is 40% covered so she's effectively almost half blind in that eye. The patellar luxation is in both of her hind legs and is currently grade 2 - I've been researching it and apparently surgery is the only treatment option, and even after surgery there's a 50% chance of some degree of luxation recurring. Oh, by the way, surgery costs between $1500 and $2000 per leg - so it's not exactly cheap. The pigmentary keratitis is something that apparently can be treated with eye drops or ointment - but it won't be cured. I've read some articles that say the progression can be halted or slowed down, but the drops are very expensive.

So what the hell do we do now? We've had Gracie for 10 days. She'd been messed around enough before she came to us, so we'd feel terrible giving her back. None of this is her fault, obviously. However, APARN knew about her problems and they did not tell us about either one. If they had, we could have made an informed decision about whether or not to adopt her. Pet insurance is out of the question - they don't cover pre-existing conditions. We're taking her to the vet at 11 to see what they say. We also probably need to get her vaccinated against rabies and kennel cough, too - there's no record of either being given, although she must have had the rabies shot as she was licensed. I'm guessing we'll have to get the rabies shot again, otherwise we can't get a license for her. It was a different county she was licensed in before, too.

I just don't know what to do. I feel so angry at APARN for not disclosing this pretty important information. I mean, do you not think we deserve to know that she has 2 chronic conditions that are only going to get worse? We signed the adoption agreement thinking that she was in very good health. They had this information before we met Gracie and didn't tell us until 9 days after we adopted her. I know we could return her and cut our losses (we'd lose the adoption fee) and they would take her back - but as I said, we'd feel terrible doing that. Poor Gracie. At the same time though I don't think we can really afford all of this - we wanted to buy a house this year and if we're going to have to spend thousands on orthopedic surgery and eye treatments then that will have to wait. We also want to have a baby and they're expensive.

Obviously Suzie could be diagnosed with a problem like this, and we'd have to sort it out. We wouldn't consider giving her away. But this is something we should have been made aware of prior to adopting Gracie, it's like they deliberately hid it from us. We could've made an informed decision about whether or not to proceed with the adoption. You know, we would've adopted a pug anyway, just maybe not this one. I hope I don't sound awful but it's the truth. There should be full disclosure of any medical issues they're aware of. They can't say they weren't aware of them, because the vet report is dated January 28th and it has the name of the woman in charge on it as the person who took her there. The same woman we spoke with for ages on the day we met Gracie - and the same one who was emailing me regarding the adoption. They had plenty of time to tell us about her issues, and they didn't. It took them 9 days to get that information to me. Fucking hell!!!

Weekend!

We took the girls for a nice walk this morning, it's another beautiful day in Phoenix! (as if that's really anything surprising!)

After that we brought the girls home and went to buy my stepdad a birthday card. It's his birthday next Sunday and to be honest, although I knew it, I hadn't really thought past February 10th (my big interview day). Just as well I looked at the calendar this morning! We mailed it right after buying it, so hopefully he'll have it in time. If it's late, then so be it, but it should probably arrive on Friday or Saturday.

I got an email from my friend T, and we ended up chatting on Skype (at long last!). She's planning to come over for a vacation in a couple of months! Yay! She said she's booked the time off work already and is hopefully coming on April 22nd and staying until May 1st. That'll be a great time to come here, the weather will be perfect but not ridiculously hot. My Mom and stepdad arrive on May 3rd, so it's quite close but it'll work. T will stay with us I think, which is fine - we have the air bed and it'll be nice to spend some proper time with her. I really don't think she could be anywhere near as annoying as my Dad when he was here! She won't leave a mess everywhere, that's for sure. I'm really looking forward to it! Hopefully she'll book her flights soon. :-)

Hubby got a call from work about an hour ago, but hopefully we're still going to be able to go to his parents' place for dinner. I'm looking forward to seeing them, now that I've been approved for my green card - my mother-in-law was so excited for me when I spoke to her on the phone, it was so sweet. She even caught me off-guard by saying "I love you" when we said goodbye. I wasn't expecting that! It's so nice to have such lovely in-laws, I really appreciate them. Hopefully Gracie will be calmer there today and not bark so much at everyone!

A Lazy Day

Today hasn't exactly been productive - I didn't get much sleep last night as I had a really vivid, scary, weird dream and I kept getting woken up by my stupid period pain, despite having taken painkillers before bed. I hate it! I've been feeling like absolute crap all day today so haven't done a lot. We took the pug-pugs to the dog park when hubby finished work and Suzie had a good run and play as always. Gracie was a little more confident with people, she even went up to a random guy and let him pet her for a while. I think she's coming out of her shell more every day, it's great! The eating thing is still rather frustrating, she really has to be coaxed to eat. This evening I googled 'dog reluctant to eat' and got some tips - I tried one of them, which was to put something different in with the food. I broke up a beef jerky dog treat into lots of little pieces and mixed it in with the kibbles. It worked really well! I ended up putting another one in there because she stopped eating with about a third of her food left - she ended up eating the whole lot! I don't really want to set a precedent by doing that, but if it makes her eat a good amount then it's worth it. I made sure to give Suzie two of the treats too, so they're both equal! We don't want to create any jealousy between them, of course!

Right now I'm making rice pudding with our leftover rice (we had green curry for dinner) - I'll give the girls a little bit each, Suzie loved it last time. I suppose if Gracie doesn't eat it then Suzie can - she gets plenty of exercise at the dog park! At the moment hubby is laying on the big couch with the two of them, and it looks like Gracie is cuddling Suzie - it's so damn cute! :-)

Great News!

I had my AOS interview this morning and it went extremely well - I've been approved for my green card! Woo-hoo!!!

I took 2 folders full of stuff - all our documents in one and correspondence (cards, letters, emails) in another, to show proof of our marriage. I also took 3 photo albums and the officer looked through all of them. I was very well prepared and it was easy to find all our documents when they were requested, as I made sure there were easy to read tabs on everything. My appointment was for 8.40 a.m. but we were seen about 5 minutes early, and we left the building at 8.55 a.m. so it was only about 20 minutes. It wasn't very stressful, the officer made us feel at ease and even joked around with us a bit which was nice. When he said he was approving me I was just so happy! No more immigration stuff to do now until 90 days before my conditional 2 year green card expires (we'll have to send in some more forms and evidence that we're still married etc. and then I'll get a 10 year green card). What a huge relief! I can actually relax now. Last night I got a bit upset because I couldn't help but wonder, what if they don't approve me... I couldn't bear to be apart from my lovely hubby and our pug girls! We were long-distance for a long time, about 19 months, before I finally had my visa and came to live here, and I couldn't bear to be in that position again. I knew that the interview would most likely go well, but until the officer said that he was approving me I didn't want to get too carried away! I'm so so happy now. I called my mom and my dad (who said he'll call me next week, so I asked if he really would call me this time!!!) and we also called hubby's mom too - she was really happy for us too! It's just wonderful news, it really is! Tonight hubby and I are going out for a nice meal, it'll be lovely. We don't tend to eat out often so when we do, it's a nice treat!

We got up at 6 this morning and with all that nervous energy I'm pretty tired now - I think I'll take the pugs for a nap, they can sleep with me since it'll only be for an hour or so. :-)

An unexpected call... and interview preparation!

We were eating lunch when the phone rang - it was my cousin! Yes, the one who hasn't replied to any of my emails. He said he hasn't been ignoring me, but I'd disagree really! Anyway, it was nice to speak to him. It would've been nice if he'd just replied to my emails in the first place, but what can you do?

I've been getting all our documents etc. ready for my AOS interview, I think we're good. We probably have too much stuff but I'd rather be over-prepared than be missing something important. My appointment letter says to take evidence of your relationship, such as correspondence and anything that's in both our names - I have loads of cards, letters, emails, photos, our joint medical and dental insurance cards, the lease for the house in both our names, our joint bank account statements... Of course we're also taking the documents they want, such as financial support information, our marriage certificate, birth certificates, passports, my employment authorization card, my travel document... I definitely think we're good! I'll just be so glad when it's all over with, it's been on my mind for a whole month now (since I got the letter). I feel the way I did right before my visa interview - like I shouldn't have anything to worry about, and everything will most likely go great. Should do, anyway!

Finally got some sleep!

Last night we went to PetSmart and got a new doggy bed for Gracie. It's the same as the one we got for Suzie last year, but green instead of blue (like it really matters!). Suzie settled right away, but Gracie took a while to settle - she wanted to be on the bed with us. I felt really bad for her because I know she's sad right now, but we had to have the bed back to ourselves for our own sanity! We were hardly sleeping at all before. With both of the girls in their beds, we weren't disturbed by Gracie's snoring - what a relief! The girls probably slept better too, they have their own space in their beds and I'm sure when they slept on our bed we were waking them whenever we moved, or when we were trying to get Gracie to stop snoring!

We also got the girls a toy each - Gracie played properly for the first time last night! It was so nice to see! I think she's maybe feeling happier now. Yesterday evening I did have trouble getting her to eat, though. I spent half an hour with her, coaxing her to eat. At first she only ate a few little bits, then she wouldn't eat again for ages. I was about to give up when she started eating again, and she finished her dinner eventually. I hope that's only going to be a temporary thing - I'm sure it's because she's a bit depressed, with having been given away by her original owner. It's completely understandable. I do think she's a little underweight, so I really want her to eat more. I guess we'll just have to work on that. It's not much, maybe a pound or two. As long as she eats twice a day and eats most, if not all, of the food we give her, I'll be happy. When she doesn't eat I feel really bad. I know it's not our fault she's unhappy, but I really feel for her - especially when she looks at me with such a sad look in her eyes. I know people think pugs look sad all the time, but they really don't - they have very expressive faces. Gracie looks happy sometimes, like when we're getting ready to go for a walk. When she's refusing to eat, she looks so sad. The look in her eyes breaks my heart.

Anyway... hopefully getting her to eat breakfast won't be such an ordeal!

My patience is wearing thin with some people!!!

Remember when my friend T stood me up yet again for our Skype chat on Friday? Well, I left it a couple of days and didn't hear anything - there was no apology in my inbox, no message on Facebook, nothing. So, I decided to email her yesterday. I kept it simple - I basically said this:

"Hey, what happened to you on Friday? I waited on Skype for half an hour but didn't see you!

Hope you're ok." [read: Huh, you messed me around again. What's your excuse this time?]

I got a reply later in the day, which basically said this:

"I'm so sorry, I fell asleep after dinner. I'm rubbish aren't I? :-( [Yes, very. Consistently rubbish in fact, to the point where I can't be bothered with you right now despite our 23 year friendship]

I've been to London this weekend... [I didn't even really read the rest of that - I don't care, you could have at least apologized before I asked you what happened!]

I'll get on Skype tomorrow night after work, I'll even set a reminder on my phone!" [Wait, you'll even try to remember?! Oh no, I couldn't ask that much of you, really! Don't be silly!]

I wasn't sure how to reply to that, because I was still kinda mad about the whole thing seeing as she consistently lets me down. So after thinking about it a while, today I replied to that email. I didn't address any of the "apology" stuff - I wasn't about to tell her it's fine, because frankly it really isn't fine at all. Once would be alright - repeated occasions of her flaking on me are not fine! I just said that this week is a bit crazy, I have my AOS interview and we just got another pug. I said, "Maybe we can talk sometime next week" - although I doubt it very much, because even if I make plans with her, I think we're all aware that the chances of those plans coming together are approximately 10% right now.

Our mutual friend, R, says I'm too nice to her and I should tell her how rude she's being. She said: "The way T is, is rubbish and down right rude. Who does she think she is? I think the next time you speak you need to make it clear that you're angry about it or she'll keep doing it. She's taking you for granted."

To be honest, I couldn't agree more. I don't really want to have a confrontation about it, but I don't want it to keep happening. Now it's got to the point where I don't even want to make plans with her because it's pointless and all it does is annoy me more when she doesn't show. Maybe R is right when she says I'm too nice to T - nothing will change if I don't say anything, will it? She just expects me to be available whenever she dictates, and then she doesn't show up herself. At least if she would apologize within a reasonable amount of time, it wouldn't be as bad. I shouldn't have to go fishing for answers. Two days was plenty of time for her to send me a quick message explaining. A couple of months back, she did the same thing and I refrained from getting in touch with her - I wanted to see how long it would take her to apologize. Answer: 5 days! This, from the person who's "always connected" because she has an iPhone. The fact that it would be so easy for her to just get in touch makes it all the worse, doesn't it?

On this note, how about my Dad? Well, he still hasn't called me. He was meant to 2 friggin' weeks ago. He emailed me on Saturday to tell me he's getting a rescue dog. I emailed back, saying that's funny because we'd just got our rescue pug. He knew nothing of the possibility of us adopting another pug, because he hadn't kept his word and called me. I also put this in the email:

"I thought you were going to call me last week? Give me a call when you get a chance."

He replied again, but no mention of why he hasn't called or even if he will call. So, I'm still not calling him. He can afford to give me a call every other week at least, it's not like I'm expecting to speak to him daily for goodness' sake. Since I moved to the US 5 months ago, I've grown really tired of many of my so-called relationships with people back in the UK being so one-sided, with most people making little to no effort to keep in touch with me. The worst offenders? My Dad, T and my cousin. Funny how I still haven't heard anything from him. Funny also how he was on Skype a little while ago while I was on, and I typed a couple of messages to him with no response yet again. Yet he has the audacity to send me a Skype message when I'm offline, when he knows I'm offline, saying he hasn't seen me on there for ages! I guess you haven't checked your inbox for at least 3 months, then - if you did, you'd see about 4 emails from me, one from the other day saying that I've been emailing you and heard nothing back since November.

Maybe it's time to cut some people out of my life, if all they do is cause me hurt. I don't want to do that, but how much more should I really take? I mean, I've tried and tried, and what's the point? It really does upset me sometimes how people who are supposedly meant to care about me just clearly don't give a fuck. If they do, they have a very strange way of showing it. How long does it really take to reply to an email? How difficult is it to pick up the damn phone and dial my number? Why make plans with me and repeatedly allow them to fall through, leaving me sitting here like a fucking idiot? I don't understand these people at all.

I was thinking about the whole thing with my cousin... how I've always gone out of my way to see him and his family, how I spent a pretty penny on his and his wife's wedding gifts, how I bought loads of nice gifts for their baby when he was born in March last year, how I took them out for a pre-baby meal. When hubby and I got married in October, did I get so much as a card from them? Nope. What made it even worse is that they were actually in Florida at the time, and they could have bought and sent a card for less than $3. Really, it was too much effort? I can tell you now, if it was my cousin who had emigrated I would have sent a nice card at least. Maybe that means I'm a mug, then? When it's their baby boy's first birthday next month, I will probably go to the trouble of buying him a nice card and mailing it. Maybe what I should do, if I haven't heard from my cousin by then (which seems pretty likely at this rate) is write him a letter and put it in with the card. I could write that it would've been nice if he could've bothered to at least attempt to keep in touch with me, given that nowadays it's not exactly hard. I know he's on his computer a lot, because he's often on Skype and it tells you if the person is on their cell phone (which it doesn't say for him). Not one reply to any of my messages on there, and no replies to emails for 3 months? Shoddy.

I only wish it didn't bother me so much. Perhaps I ought to just move on, I have a new life here with my wonderful, gorgeous husband, our two lovely pug girls and not to forget our fishy! I didn't want to lose touch with people back in the UK, and I tried my best to make sure that didn't happen, but there's only so much one person can do. How many emails should you send with no response whatsoever, before you give up? I think I've reached my limit with my cousin now. As for T, well, I don't know. I don't hate her or anything, but I hate the way she's been treating me. I just don't get it - it's like she has no regard for me whatsoever. I know I'm not working, but that doesn't mean that everyone can just mess me around. My time is still important, and I do have things to do. Now we have Gracie, I have more responsibilities with the pugs - feeding, potty breaks, walking, grooming. Gracie is difficult with food at the moment, she has to really be enticed to eat. I have to feed Suzie, then put her in the office with hubby while I feed Gracie in the hallway with no doors open so she's pretty much stuck there with me (otherwise she just goes off). She's getting better but it's been a little stressful. I know she's still adjusting to us and she's probably still missing her original owner(s) so she's probably sad. I can completely understand that, of course. I expected it, but I still need for her to eat so she can stay strong. It's less than 72 hours since she came to live with us so I'm sure in a little while she'll be more settled, but I just want her to be happy. She sometimes looks so scared and confused and my heart breaks for her. I know she must be so sad that her original owner effectively abandoned her - I know they didn't actually abandon her, but I'm sure that's how Gracie feels because she doesn't understand. I wonder if her original owner is missing her too. Apparently their reason for surrendering her was that they couldn't afford to keep their dogs - if that's true then I'm sure they're really sad about it. I know I would be. All Gracie really knows is that she spent virtually her whole life with that person, and all of a sudden they drove her to a stranger's house and left her there. Her foster mom told me that she cried actual tears and stared at the door that whole night, she was so upset. How heartbreaking is that? And some people think animals don't have feelings.

You know, the way a lot of my friends and family have treated me since September makes me love my pugs all the more. They're always here for me and they always will be - unlike some people I've mentioned. Even Gracie, who as I said has been with us less than 72 hours, is already way more loyal than they are!

Sleep? What's that?

Wow... We had a terrible night's sleep last night! Hubby and I woke repeatedly because of the pugs: Suzie was lying right against hubby (she's like a hot water bottle when she does that, so he kept waking up as he was too hot). Gracie snores so loud I'm starting to think we should've named her Nora (The Snorer!) and she was right next to me. I lost count of how many times I woke up to get her to stop snoring! Hubby left the bedroom at around 4.40 a.m. and went to lie on the couch; I followed him 10 minutes later and told him to go back to bed, and that I would move to the couch with the girls. He can't sleep on the couch, and he has to work at 7 a.m. I can sleep on the couch normally (although it turned out not this morning!) and I don't have a job, so it was only right that hubby could have the bed to himself. We've also decided that no longer are the girls sleeping on the bed with us. Even when it was just Suzie, we weren't sleeping that well. I like having them on the bed with us but I don't like the lack of sleep, and it's not something we should be doing long-term if it's impacting negatively on our lives! Tonight we'll go to PetSmart or Petco and get a nice big comfy dog bed that they can share. They'll still sleep in our room, but at least we'll be comfy in our (very comfy) bed and actually sleep. Gracie will still snore like a big fat man, but at least it won't be right next to our ears!

I feel really bad for hubby, because he's going to feel like absolute crap all day now. I'll make him a nice breakfast and some coffee - maybe I'll make extra coffee today, I think we could both use it to be honest! He's on-call all of this week, which usually means he gets called at like 4 a.m. and he has to get up and get on the computer to solve whatever the problem is (he's a programmer). His on-call weeks are always shitty, but at least if we have the bed back to ourselves then we'll have a better chance of sleeping well until he's called. I hope he doesn't get called on Thursday morning, because we have my AOS interview which is important and I don't want us to be like zombies. I hope the girls will be OK when we're gone, we haven't left them alone together yet but we'll have to do a trial run before Thursday and see how they are when we're gone for an hour or so. I think they'll be OK, but you never know do you? If they're not OK then we'll have to crate Suzie while we're out on Thursday morning, but I hope it doesn't come to that. We shouldn't be gone for too long hopefully, maybe 2 hours or so including travel time. The interview is at 8.40 a.m. so hopefully it'll be on time - they can't open much before that, maybe the first interviews would be at like 8 a.m. It's not like we're near the end of the day or anything - hopefully they won't have had time to get behind by my appointment time!

God, I am so tired. So so tired. You should see the very dark circles under my eyes - shocking! Thank goodness I don't have anywhere to be today - it's times like this I'm even more grateful to be a housewife!

We are now a family of four!

I was right when I said that once we got approval from our landlord to have a second dog, everything would move very quickly! A nice lady from APARN came round to do our home check at 7 p.m. on Friday, and she phoned the lady who was fostering Jessyka to let her know that everything was great. We went to collect her right after that!

Today is our second full day with her, and everything is going really well. Suzie (our first pug-pug) was so excited when we brought Jessyka home, she seemed to think it was the best present ever! Suzie hasn't been jealous much, so that's good. We're very conscious of making sure she doesn't feel at all excluded. She's doing so well. Jessyka didn't respond to her name at all, or any variations of it (Jess, Jessie). We've renamed her Gracie, and she responded to it pretty much immediately. I think it suits her a lot more and she seems to like it!

Right now Suzie and Gracie are playing - it's cute! I don't think Gracie is used to playing the way Suzie does, but every so often she'll try. I'm sure she'll get used to it. There hasn't been any nastiness between them yet, so hopefully it'll stay that way.

Gracie walks really nicely on the leash, which is great. She doesn't seem to know "sit" though so we're trying to teach her. She'll do it sometimes, but you have to say it lots of times first and even then she won't always do it. I'm sure as she gets more comfortable with us she'll come out of her shell and be more amenable to training. I'm so impressed by how she's settling in though, she's great!

The lady who was fostering her is so lovely, she gave us a zip-lock bag with some food in it (Gracie was eating a different type of food to what Suzie eats) and she gave us some treats for her too. She also gave us Gracie's favorite toy, a santa teddy. She didn't want her to go without that, it's so sweet of her (it wasn't Gracie's toy originally, it belonged to the foster mom's pugs but Gracie loves it). Gracie also had a little stripey purple and white shirt on which says "CUTE" on the back - too true! Foster mom wanted her to take that with her too, which is sweet. APARN people are so lovely and they do such good work.

Here's a pic of Gracie - she's such a pretty girl! And it looks like she's going to be a Mommy's girl, which suits me just fine (Suzie is most definitely a Daddy's girl!)

An Update :-)

Right now I'm just waiting to hear back from APARN regarding when they can do the home check. Hopefully they'll be able to come sometime today, that would be great! I don't know what the process will be for actually collecting Jessyka - we've met her already so I don't think we'd have to go visit her at her foster home, but I'm guessing we'll probably go and get her from her foster home when the time comes. :-)

Hubby went and got us some lunch, and the gourmet hot dog place he went to had some leaflets from Petco about how you can get a booklet of coupons if you adopt an animal. All you have to do is take the adoption paperwork with you and they give you the booklet - savings of $225 or more, cool huh? We will need to get Jessyka a collar and harness, a crate, a food bowl and possibly a bed. I say possibly a bed, because we have pug-pug's old bed which she can still fit into, and her 'new' bed too. Plus, now she sleeps on our bed anyway so Jessyka most likely will too. I kinda want to get Jessyka's food bowl from our veterinary office, because we got pug-pug's from them - they sell handmade ceramic bowls which are really cute and they're only $3 each, which is a bargain! Some local lady makes them. I'd rather do that than buy a bowl at Petco, really. I'm sure we'll make good use of the coupons for everything else, though!

-------------------------------------------------------------

OK, now my friend T is really starting to drive me mad. She suggested that we talk on Skype today, she set the time as 1.00 p.m. in fact, and you guessed it - she's a no-show! Again! Bloody hell. It's now after 1.25. I'm giving her until 1.30 p.m. and then I'm logging off. What a time waster! Then I'll probably get an email in 5 days saying she's so sorry, she's such a terrible friend, blah blah blah. Yeah - I've heard it all before. Just stop wasting my time and don't make arrangements with me if you clearly have no intention to stick to them! How many times is she really expecting me to put up with her crappy behavior?

YAY!!!!!!!!

THE ANSWER IS YES!!!!!!!!

Wow! We're going to be adopting Jessyka! We're so very excited! :-) :-) :-)

omg... how long are they gonna make us wait?!

Hubby has emailed the property management company again to ask them if they've heard anything from the homeowner yet. No response so far. Jeez, this is so frustrating! I just hope we know by the end of the day, as I really would hate to have to wait until next week to find out - that would mean a second weekend of wondering.

I keep thinking how great it would be to be able to email APARN with good news, and organize the home visit etc. I guess that even if we do find out today, we probably won't be able to have Jessyka until early next week. That's alright though - at least if we get the go ahead, I can allow myself to get excited at last! I have been getting excited at times, but I have to keep stopping myself from getting too carried away as nothing is certain yet.

I guess the fact that the homeowner hasn't said no right away maybe is a good sign. She made us wait quite a while to hear if she would allow pug-pug, so maybe she's just mean like that! Or maybe it at least means she's considering it, rather than denying our request outright. Or, it could mean she hasn't got the voicemail or email yet. Surely though she would've checked at least one of those things by now - apparently the woman at the property management company sent the email and left the voicemail on Tuesday. Now it's Friday so surely she would have seen one of those things by this point...

Still waiting!!!!!

Still no news from our landlord... I really hope we'll get a decision before the weekend. The waiting is becoming unbearable! Basically, if we're not going to be able to adopt Jessyka then I guess the sooner we find that out the better. I don't exactly want that news to come, but if the answer's no then it's better to know that now rather than next week sometime. At least then I can get this out of my mind as much as possible, and stop dreaming!

I just hope all this waiting pays off and we get some good news - if we do it'll be good news for us, Jessyka and APARN too.

If the answer is no, then I'm sure APARN will find Jessyka another home pretty quickly and she won't know any different, but I want us to be the ones to give her the forever home she deserves. If we're unable to adopt her, then we'll definitely apply to adopt another pug when we buy our own house. That's without doubt - but also without doubt is the fact that I will never forget about Jessyka. I'll always wonder what happened to her if we can't adopt her.

So, here's hoping (yet again) that we'll get the news we want tomorrow! Or if not the news that we want, then the news that we don't want. I just want to know now, either way.

Still no news... and how can people be so lousy?!

OK, so hubby emailed the property management company yesterday and asked if there's any news from our landlord. The guy who came to see the house apparently isn't the one who will be asking the landlord - he said this other woman "will be asking her". Um, so let me get this straight - we asked you on Monday if we could have another dog, you came to see the house on Tuesday, and still nobody has even asked the landlord? Now it's Thursday, and we still know nothing. How are we going to get an answer if nobody even asks the landlord?! So hubby emailed this woman, and asked her if there's any news. He reiterated that the rescue agency are holding a dog for us, so time is of the essence. Not that it will probably make any difference whatsoever...

[OK, maybe I was a little bit hasty there... hubby just saw an email from that lady saying she's left the landlord a voicemail and sent her an email, so maybe we will hear something soon... watch this space!]

On the plus side, I emailed the lady at APARN again yesterday and explained that the inspection went well as expected, but we are still waiting for news. I got an email back saying not to worry, that they're all in agreement that we would provide a wonderful home for Jessyka and that they know the wait is harder for us than it is for them. She also said that Jessyka may be added to their website, but she won't be adopted to anybody else. So basically she's going to be ours unless we're not allowed to have her. That made me feel a bit better :-)

On the communication front, I was on Skype yesterday and my cousin logged on, and a message from him from January 31st came up saying something along the lines of "haven't seen you on here in a while" - well, that's absolute rubbish! He's been online at the same time as me multiple times, and I've typed messages to him multiple times, with no response whatsoever. Not to mention all the emails I've sent him which he's completely ignored - the last email I got from him was November 19th, I just checked my sent messages and I emailed him on December 9th and December 27th and got no replies. So now I've emailed him again, saying that I got his Skype message but that it's not a good way to get in touch if you send a message to someone who's offline, because it only appears when the person who sent it is online themselves - so it's hit and miss. I also said that I tried talking to him on there yesterday and got no response, and that I've emailed him a few times over the last couple of months asking when I could call him and haven't ever got a reply. I didn't word it nastily, but I think I made it clear that I was a bit annoyed. I also mentioned my Dad, and how he never bothers to call and I'm sick of it being me who makes all the effort - so yes, he can apply that to himself too. The message on Skype made out he hasn't heard from me in ages, which is a load of bollocks. I just don't get it. I wrote that I've been here exactly 5 months now (I arrived on September 3rd, now it's February 3rd) and I felt like writing "and it feels as though most people back home have forgotten about me completely" but I didn't. Maybe I should have!

Also, my friend who I'll refer to as T, is annoying me no end with her fickle arrangements to catch up with me. We were emailing back and forth last week, and she said she could do a Skype chat on Saturday or Sunday, so I said Sunday (evening in the UK, lunchtime here) would work for me, so let me know if it works for you. Nothing. So, Saturday I emailed her and asked if that was alright - she mailed me back and said it was fine, and she thought she'd let me know but hadn't. OK, fair enough. So Sunday I speak to my Mom on the phone for like 40 minutes, and the time for my chat with T comes around (12.30) so I tell my Mom I have to go speak to her. I open up my laptop and get an email from T, saying that she was sorry but she'd been invited to her brother's house for dinner so she would try and get home by 2pm our time. I replied something like this: "Don't worry about it! We have things to do though so I'll have to cancel, maybe we can talk during the week" - my reasons being that she's one who often cancels or just doesn't show, and I wasn't going to waste my whole afternoon hanging around to speak to her if and when she might get online. I could kind of imagine what the next excuse would be - "I got back late, I'm tired now, we'll have to talk some other time" - and no, I'm not being paranoid, she does that kind of thing all the time. I'd say for every 3 catch-ups that we arrange, we maybe actually do 1. I spoke to my other good friend, R, yesterday (all 3 of us have been friends since like the age of 4) and she said the whole thing is ridiculous - T is so unreliable! I can't disagree. She also said that T shouldn't be expecting me to chat to her on a weekend, because that's my time with my hubby. I agree to a point, but 12.30 would have worked OK for us. However, I wasn't about to wait around another couple of hours for her. I think she was a bit taken aback when I replied and said we'd have to talk another time, but I'm fed up of being messed around (not just by her, but lots of people). She then suggested she could maybe do Wednesday night (yesterday) but mentioned that she might be going to the movies but it's not confirmed yet - well, I'm not gonna make plans with you then, because you will most likely end up cancelling yet again! Also, R had already said she wanted to Skype with me then, and she's reliable so there was no way I was gonna cancel on her for someone who's totally unreliable!

Now don't get me wrong, I get it - an invitation to go out somewhere is probably more appealing than talking to a friend over Skype. But the thing is, those plans were already made and confirmed. It's like, "Oh, I got a better offer, forget you!" which I think is pretty rude really. You wouldn't do that if you were physically going to meet up, so there's not much difference really. She could have told her brother she already had plans. He knows I'm in the US, it's not like we talk all the time and it's not like we can actually meet up these days. I'm sure he's not that unreasonable! I'm glad I told her it would have to be another time, because I would've been all the more annoyed if I'd given in and hung around waiting for her. I bet she never would've showed up. The thing is, she's probably taken that email as being "off" - well, it wasn't, but I'm not the one who constantly cancels (or just doesn't show up). There comes a point where you have to stand your ground, and people need to stop assuming you'll just bend to their every whim. It's just not on, in my opinion. If someone repeatedly messes you around, how long are you really supposed to put up with it? My Dad is awful for keeping in touch too. I last spoke to him over 2 weeks ago and he said he would call me "in a week" - i.e. middle of last week. Now it's a whole week later and I'm still yet to hear anything at all. He probably assumes I'll call him, but guess what? It's not happening. I'm obviously not important enough in his life for him to bother picking up the damn phone and dialling our number. Yet, if he does ever call, he'll probably be like "I miss you loads" - well, the old saying actions speak louder than words is very true, isn't it? When hubby and I were in a (very) long distance relationship for 20 months, only seeing each other every 3-4 months, we both really missed each other. Guess what? We would talk on Skype every day, we would text and call all the time. We didn't leave it weeks with no contact - that's pathetic. It's like when my Dad says he "wishes he could've come to our wedding" - that pisses me off so much! Really? Because last I checked, you could have come to our wedding! You didn't bother to book the time off work, and then a college orchestra rehearsal (not even concert, for fuck's sake) was more important to you than your own daughter's wedding. What a friggin' joke! "I hope you don't resent me for it" - well get this: yes, I bloody well do! And I resent you for never bothering to call me when you say you will. Not even close to the time you say you will, either. It's not like it's a day after he was meant to, or even a couple of days after. We're talking over a week already - and it'll probably be another week before he calls, if he even calls then. Let's just say I'm not exactly holding my breath. Oh and when I've had my AOS interview next Thursday, I won't be calling him to tell him how it went. I'm sticking to my guns, again, and I will not call him. I want to see how long it'll be this time before he notices he hasn't spoken to me for ages. Every time he's supposed to call I do this, and it clearly doesn't make any difference, but other than have a go at him I don't know what else to do. And I don't want him to call me because he thinks I'll get mad at him if he doesn't - I want him to call because he actually cares about me.

I'm starting to think the only person he truly cares about is himself.

No news...

As we kinda expected, we didn't hear anything back from the landlord yesterday. I didn't think we would but I really hoped we would! Maybe it'll be today...

We went to the dog park yesterday when hubby finished work, and a few of our friends there were asking whether there had been any progress. It's kinda disheartening to have to say no! Well, I guess in a sense there was some progress, in that the guy from the property management company came round to check the house, but that's it. The people at the dog park are all rooting for us, which is nice. It's so hard being in this kind of limbo situation, though. Sometimes I feel kinda positive about it, because surely the landlord will realize if we've taken good care of the house thus far, we'll continue to do so. Other times I'm not sure, I just keep thinking she might just say no for the hell of it. That would be such a shame.

If we haven't heard anything by say 3pm today, I think I'll email APARN again and tell them that the inspection went really well but we still haven't heard back from our landlord. I hope they'll be ok with it - they know we really want Jessyka, and they know we're doing everything in our power to make it happen. They're really nice people, I was surprised that they're keeping Jessyka for us until we find out what's happening. It's really good of them, because they know as well as we do that we may not be able to have her after all...

I think that would break my heart.

Pug update

The guy from the property management company was impressed with the house - he said he'd definitely put a good word in for us with the landlord, so hopefully we'll be getting some good news soon! I emailed APARN yesterday to update them on the situation, so they'd at least know that we're doing something. I told them that the property management company were sending someone out this morning to look at the house, and that hopefully when they see there's no dog damage the landlord would agree to us having another dog. The lady in charge emailed me back really quickly and said that Jessyka wouldn't be offered to anybody else until we hear back from our landlord, so basically, she'll be ours if we're allowed to have her! That put my mind at ease a little bit, I was a bit worried about if someone else came along after us and was a homeowner and therefore didn't have any problems with landlords etc. In that case I thought they might let someone else adopt her, but they're being really nice 'holding' her for us. That must mean they're happy with our application and they think we're a good match!

I just hope that the landlord doesn't keep us waiting too long, I'd really like to know the outcome either way. If the answer is yes, then that's wonderful news! If it's no, then we'll be really sad but at least APARN can work on finding her a different forever home. Honestly I'll be gutted if I have to tell APARN we're not going to be able to have her after all... I've grown very attached to that little pug and I can see her being a great part of our family, she'd fit in so well with us. I know we'd give her so much love and attention that she'd be the happiest little girl.

I wonder how long it will be before we have an answer... The suspense and the waiting is just about killing me.