Where in the the world is Ozark, AL??

One word of warning, do not look on Petfinder.com unless you are seriously considering a pet.  Here is how Annabelle came to be living with us.  We lost our sweet Mary back in February, we knew we weren't getting a pet this summer.  So the kids had been saying they wanted a puppy for Christmas.  I started to work on Brian a little and one night he looked at Petfinder.com with me.  We saw these precious puppies that were located in Ozark, AL.  I mapquested Ozark, because no one seemed to know where it was.  I looked and it was only 2 hours away.  That might work.  I called and the only one not spoken for was Gail the darkest puppy.  They were mixes of Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, and maybe Shar Pei but more about that later.  So I asked Ruth (who runs the shelter) to email me an application.  Then I had to send pictures of our home and yard.  She said if I was approved Gail would be ours.   She emailed later in the day and said we could come get her on Thursday.  The kids were out of school and I figured we could make the day trip.  I looked at Mapquest again and started mapping our course.  That is when I realized it was 2 hours and 59 minutes.  That is what I get for rounding down, Brian says I do this all the time.  I do it a little after a shopping trip.  These puppies were left in the woods by their Mama dog who is a stray.

So the kids and I loaded up in the car and went to Ozark, AL.  The shelter was only open between 8:00am and 12:00pm.  So we got up at 6:00 and left by 7:15.  We get there about 10:30.  This shelter is little, so many volunteers working hard.  We all hurriedly jump out of the car.  Lewis said he needed to go to the bathroom.  So Ruth showed him the bathroom.  We started talking about Gail and then Lewis hollered out, "I can't get out!!"  He was locked in the bathroom.  I told him just turn the knob.  Ruth said, " I don't have a key." We were all laughing so hard we could barely try to help him. Ruth then said, "I guess we are going to have to call the fire department to get him out of the there." So before we resorted to that I passed a note under the door to him showing him how to unlock the door, then she said it was kind of backwards.  Somehow Lewis got the door open and we continued the process of adopting Gail.  The puppy cost $95 which should have included the spaying but she was too young.  So she said we can send her the receipt later.  I told her she could keep the change from the $100 and she said good because she didn't keep change.  Smart lady.  We were leaving with Gail now Annabelle and Ruth said I love your house, I told her come visit anytime!!



[caption id="attachment_470" align="alignleft" width="540" caption="Ruth, Rob, and Gail/Annabelle"][/captio





When we were leaving we ran into a lady from Saint Petersburg FL who had come to adopt Gail's sister.  The litter went all over the Southeast.  Ruth posts all the adoptions on their Facebook.  It is amazing how she uses the internet to get the pets adopted.  Before I left I asked Ruth why Gail was the last one left.  She said well, actually she was the first one adopted, but the family who adopted her had a baby and Ruth said Gail was a crybaby who cried all night long.  Oh well I could handle it.  I will have to say there has been many times over the last week that Annabelle has reminded me of Clara as a toddler.  She was sweet and easygoing unless she really wanted something and then be prepared, she would not give it up.

It was a beautiful day to get a beautiful puppy.  She is sweet, not hyper at all.  She has a problem with her eye and we have been putting drops in her eye.  She has a spotted tongue which is a feature of Shar peis, unfortunately this weird eye condition where their eyelashes turn in and scratch their eyes is also a characteristic.  I guess we will see, she might have to have an eye lift.  Seriously.  We tried to figure out a radio fence for all of Sunday afternoon but I gave up.  Everytime I tested the spot by the road it wouldn't work, and the Mom in me figured that Annabelle is probably like her sister Clara in enspousing the moto, "No Pain No Gain" So I hired Donny to fix our fence.  We have a big backyard that has a run off ditch in it.  It doesn't fill very often but when it does it carries leaves and sticks with it.  Part of our fence fell down and we didn't have to fix it for Mary.  So we are finally fixing it for Annabelle.  Donnie is a great guy that works for me doing jobs around the house, when he first looked at it he said he was really busy and couldn't do it until the 13th of December.  I must have looked disappointed.  So when I called back the next day to say we needed it done sooner and who could he recommend, he said I looked at it again and I can start on Monday or Tuesday.  I was thrilled, then he called back an hour later and said I have a friend that can start tomorrow.  He is a great contractor, he knew that would bother me and worked it out for us.  So hopefully Annabelle will not be a Houdini dog like Mary was.

I went to Rob's first wrestling match last night.  It was wild.  I had tears in my eyes while I watched the first match, and I didn't even know any of the boys, they weren't even members of our team.   It was hard-core, don't know what I expecting.  Rob wrestled once and he lost, but I thought he held his own.  It is really like when you used to see your preschooler getting in a fight on the playground but in this case you stand on the edge of the playground and cheer him on.  I have to admit, it was amazing how strong our boys had become.