All hail the Queen

I got home from work tonight and there was Kirby's face in the window...making sure I come in the house instead of running away. No matter what kind of crappy day I may have had, seeing that furry face in the window just makes me smile. I came in and we had our usual conversation. How was your day...did you lick any of the cats....were they nice to you about it...that kind of thing. All 3 of our cats have Kirby under their kitty mind control, by the way. It's a good thing, really. They're all quite a bit smaller than she is - especially Hemi, who has always been a tiny little girl and weighs in at 6 pounds. Kirby loves them all dearly - even Sarah, who is extremely anti-social to any dog and looks at Kirby with complete and utter disdain. Kirby takes it all in stride, happy to be part of the group.

Anyway, just after dinner Kirby was very angsty. Very hyper. She kept wanting to chew on toys that weren't meant for chewing. So I put my shoes on, grabbed my keys and stuff, and took Miss Kirby for a drive. I figured she needed something to chew on, so I took her to a local pet store. Not her favorite pet store, but her FAVORITE store is farther away and I wasn't up to it.

There's always a traffic jam on the street leading to this pet store. It's a good 15 minute wait just to get through the light. Understand, I drive a Hyundai Accent. It's a little 4 door sedan. Kirby now takes up the entire back seat. When she sits up, her muzzle hangs above the head rest on the front seat and her forehead brushes against the ceiling. I'm sure it's quite a sight. I've been teased by the other doggy Moms and Dads at the dog park a lot about it, actually. It does look pretty funny. So we're stopped in traffic and Kirby stands up back there to get a better look at something and suddenly her tail is slapping me across the back of my head.

I turn to look and there is a Cadillac Escalade full of women and teenagers waving at her and smiling at me. I rolled the window down and they asked me a bunch of questions about her. I asked them if they wanted to trade cars with me so that Kirby could have more room. :-) We were all laughing with each other. We've occassionally gotten strange looks from passersby before, but I've never had a car full of people do that before. It was quite an experience. And Kirby ate it all up. She loved it.

I pulled the car into the pet store lot and took Kirby inside. I looked for a toy that she could really chew on, but I didn't find anything that either of us liked. I picked out some pig ears for her and we went to the checkout. As I'm walking up to the front of the store, a group of 4 teenagers comes in looking for us. They had seen Kirby in the store and stopped, parked, and came in to meet her. They actually got down on the floor with her, so she had one at each end and one at each side. She got head rubs and belly rubs and toe rubs galore.

Finally, we get to the registers. I'm talking to a customer and a pet store employee and I hear a big THUD. Kirby has plopped her giant toes up on the "cookie bar" and is helping herself to the dog cookies. I give the command, "Kirby! Leave it!" and she gets right down, bless her soul. She may not always remember her manners but she does remember her training at puppy school.

Of course, everyone laughed...including the pet store employees, who promptly asked if she could have a cookie and then started feeding them to her like gum drops. I told them to at least make her sit so that she had to do something to earn them. She continued to get visitors at the front counters. Anyone who came in to the store had to make a bee line for the furry cow with the big brown eyes. And she's just sitting there, wagging her tale, soaking up every minute of it.

I realized...Kirby is like Brangelina, the Jonas Brothers, and that weird look'in kid from the Twilight movie...all rolled up into one. Anywhere we go with her, it's like she's a celebrity...and we're her staff. We're her entourage. Kirby gets the royal treatment wherever she goes. People stop to look at her, they pull over in some cases. :-) They go out of their way for the chance to touch her. They're in awe of her. It's amazing the attention she gets from people...it's like she's a queen. All hail Queen Kirby, ruler of the fur persons. I feel lucky to live in the shadow of her presence. :-)

Right now, the Queen is resting in her royal living room...on the royal couch cushions, tired from her escapades this evening. If I go to the landing and look down, I can see a big tangly jumble of giant toes just hanging off the edge of the couch. And she's sleeping with her tongue out again. Like she's giving the whole world a raspberry. Such a life.

All hail the Queen!

DENIED! The dog park is closed!!

Oh, woe is me. And Kirby.

The dog park is closed due to excessive mud, etc. from all the rain.

At least Kevin and I took Kirby to Petsmart. Petsmart is her THIRD favorite place in the whole world, first being home with her family (optimally, sandwiched between me and Kevin like an 80 pound wedge) and second being the dog park. We took her to Petsmart to get a new nail clipper and it actually took us an hour to get back out. She was quite a big hit with all the people who were shopping.

This is no surprise to us, actually. Kirby went to Puppy School at Petsmart. She is always full of joy, that's just how she is...but when we go to Petsmart it's like she KNOWS she's a superstar. LOL. She walks a little taller, she struts a little struttier...she's work'in it! Believe it or not, this blog is not an advertisement for Petsmart. I write this blog to describe the super fabulous life of the biggest, most lovable bear I've ever known: Kirby. But as it so happens today, Petsmart is part of Kirby's story.

Of course, we saw her puppy school trainer, Renee, while we were there. I knew she was near before I saw her...because I saw Kirby's tail go crazy and I watched her lunge for Renee with 80 pounds of puppy enthusiasm. Kirby always lights up and goes ballistic as soon as she sees Renee. She looooves Renee.

Kirby soaked up tons of love, attention, and treats from many shoppers at Petsmart today...including a little boy who couldn't stop hugging her. When we first met him, he was afraid to put his hand too close to her mouth with a treat...and when he left, he was putting his little hand INSIDE her mouth. LOL. He'd figured out she's nothing but a giant love bear. I feel so bad for his parents. I bet they are STILL hearing about how he wants a big dog.

Kirby also got her picture taken with a little boy, who's parents were so impressed by her size and cuteness that they had to have a picture of their son with her. We were all laughing. She posed like the ginormous princess that she is. :-) Big, sloppy doggy smile on her face.

When we got home, we did some gardening in the front yard and took her out there with us. She got some "belly in the grass" time...then I took her in and brushed her....and started on housework. Right now, she's passed out up against the back of our front door. Belly up, legs falling all over, happy sleepy smile on her face. She's tired from all the attention and will probably sleep until the smells of dinnertime wake her up.

Oh, to be a dog. What a life. :-)

There's a growing cow in my house...

I got home today and was greeted at the door by a 75 pound beautiful hairy princess of a dog. Kirby the St. Bernard puppy was happy to see me.

As I puttered around the house, I kept laughing...and scolding...as she kept sticking her nose in everything. And I realized that she is now so tall that we are in a LOT of trouble. LOL

Kirby can walk up to the kitchen counter and take whatever she wants. She can get her head even FARTHER back on the bathroom countertops. If I spend too much time on the computer, she rumbles upstairs and licks my elbow until I give in and pet her. LOL. In fact, she just interupted the typing of this blog for more "mommy snuggles".

She is growing into a cow before my eyes. She is the reason we're getting a step trash can with a lid this payday. LOL. She has figured out how to work her Daddy into giving up a piece of his dinner if she bats her long eyelashes long enough. She is learning to manipulate any given situation. :-)

Even so, I just love this dog. She is so much fun and so easy to love. She just wants to please us all the time. She'll do anything for Kevin and me. And God forbid if she sees Kevin and I hugging each other...she turns into "the incredible stampeding cow". She has to get in the middle of it. She can't stand love being handed out if she's not in the middle of it. LOL

It may be time to hang a sign over the porch that reads "Welcome to the Stauber Family Farm". We already have a cow...why not? :-)

And so it begins...

Once upon a time, there was a peaceful household in the fair land of Texas.

Was being the operative word. :-)

Last summer, my husband Kevin and I had to have our dog Kokopelli put to sleep after it became clear that she was losing her battle with cancer. It was a sad time for us, but we were comforted with the knowledge that we made the right decision for her.

Our three cats helped us to move on eventually. In the Stauber family, there are always lots of furry bellies to rub...thankfully none of them belong to me or Kevin. :-)

One autumn weekend, Kevin and I were out running errands and we decided to pay a visit to the little "mom 'n pop" place where we used to buy the special diet food that Koko had to have. Kev likes to look at the fish and I follow behind and listen to him explain what an amazing fish the Oscar is. It's a standard pet store ritual for us. I knew Kevin was starting to get the itch for another dog, but I was holding him off. We needed new floors, new paint, and a million other things before we needed to welcome another mouth to feed.

Then...I saw her. Oh, dear Lord, help me...I saw her.

She was laying with her back to me and when I walked by, she turn her head and looked over her shoulder at me...upside down. It was as if she said "Are you my momma?" Big, sad, brown eyes. Long black eyelashes. Chubby little belly. Big giant toes. And Kev saw me looking. Damn it!

And that's how it started...6 months ago. I walked out of that store holding our newly adopted, 20 pound Saint Bernard puppy on my hip like a 5 year old. She was 9 weeks old. As I walked to the truck, I felt a vague sense of dread as I remembered the pet store lady telling us that the puppy's daddy weighed 175 pounds. I put her in the truck and got in beside her and thought to myself, "Uh oh..." But it was too late. She put her little head on my shoulder and let out the sweetest little sigh. And I was done. That was it. She was mine. Even more, I was hers. And there wasn't a doggy mommy in the world who was prouder than I was at that moment.

And so began...my life with a Saint.



** Please note: I do NOT recommend buying a dog from any pet store. This is the first time we've ever done it and we feel terrible that it's where we got her. But the simple fact is that we DID get her at a small pet store...and it's simply because I could not imagine my life without her as soon as she looked at me. I could not bear the idea of leaving her in that pet store.

Really, I recommend rescue dogs first...there are so many wonderful dogs in shelters that need good, loving homes. For us, though, we knew we wanted a puppy...because a puppy (especially a gentle one like Kirby) is easier for our cats to get used to. Not threatening in size, obviously a baby. And I was right...the introduction went smoothly and the cats love her. Even Sarah, who is afraid of dogs, is not threatened by Kirby and is able to co-exist peacefully.

We also had talked about getting an extra large breed dog...and we'd recently checked the DFW area shelters for big, BIG dogs but didn't find any. That's still no excuse for buying from a pet store (adoptions at Petsmart & Petco are different...those are rescued doggies...give them good homes!)

In the end, I feel like we gave her the best home...because I honestly want to smack the person who sent a Saint Bernard to Texas. It's HOT here in the summer. What if she'd gone to a family that didn't know how to take care of her? What if she'd gone to a family that just left her out in the yard all day?

Our animals are all part of our family. And while I'm not proud of our decision to buy her from a pet store, I'm not sorry I did it...because she is a wonderful, big hearted sweetheart of a dog...and I can't imagine my life without her.

I hope y'all understand.