Our fur babies. A (cautionary) tale of love

I thought it might be time to do a little About Us post. Well really, an About the Pets post since they're so darned cute.

Some background: I live with my partner M in Madison, Wisconsin. We recently moved to the midwest from Philadelphia, PA and we're still adjusting to small town life. And owning a car. And shopping at big box stores...

We moved because M finished grad school and received a job offer that he couldn't really refuse (makes us sound like we're in the mob doesn't it? I like it that way... more mysterious). So we packed up our little apartment, I left my job and we road tripped to our new life in Wisconsin with pets in tow.

Which brings me to our fur babies. Baxter is our sweet, if not aloof, domestic tabby we adopted from the Philadelphia SPCA. Actually, we started out by fostering him because he was involved in a legal battle. His owners had abandoned their property leaving Baxter behind and the SPCA and the city govt were suing the owners. Home abandonment and animal abandonment for that matter, were/are pretty common in Philly due to the high unemployment rates and low-income status of many residents. It's sad but true.

Isn't he a pretty boy? And large. Like nearly 20 lb.

And very prim as well.

So Baxter had been languishing away at the PSCPA for nearly six months while his court battle dragged on since no one could legally adopt him. After a particularly bad row one Sunday M and I decided we needed a pet in our lives (still not really sure why our fight lead to us getting a pet but oh well). So off we went to the shelter and home we came with Baxter.

Sleeping on Daddy's stinky hockey equipment.

Baxter and M bonded right away. M is definitely his person and they love each other very much. I think they're so cute when Baxter snuggles up with M on the sofa. They're best buds and M makes up songs in Baxter's honor.

B and I pretty much tolerate each other. Don't get me wrong, he's a got cat but I'm not really a cat person and B is content to pretend I don't exist most of the time. Unless of course I've got some tuna or a really soft fuzzy blanket. Or preferably both. Then he's my best friend. Ah, cats...

B thought my hair might be fun to play with.
And yes, despite the fact that he doesn't have claws, it hurt.

Well about six months after we got Baxter I got that feeling again.. you know the time for more pets feeling. What? You don't get that feeling? Well much to M's chagrin, I certainly do. Enter Dean. We knew that we would get a dog this time around and I started researching adoptable pets in the area. I'm dead set against buying from breeders and didn't want a puppy anyway.

Most of the dogs available for adoption at the Philly shelters are pit bulls and while I certainly don't have anything wrong with these often misunderstood babies, many people including some in our respective families, do. And so pitties were out.

I then started looking at other breed rescues in the area and came across a retired racing greyhound adoption group. I've always loved greyhounds and thought they might be a good match. I'm not going to mention the name of our adoption group because we ultimately had a bad experience with these folks and I'd like to be as polite as possible on the internet.

Fast-forward several months to me convincing M that we both wanted a greyhound and we adopted Dean. And our lives changed forever. Dean is wonderful and he's a very good dog. Now. Over six months after we adopted him.

Dean on his first day home in Philly. They pant like that when they're nervous.
 We didn't know it then...

When we first got Dean he had come straight from the race track to our house. Hadn't seen windows or stairs before. Or bicycles or strollers or any of the million + other things that are constantly around in the big city. And what can I say? It was a rough transitional period for the pup and us alike. D and I bonded right away but he and M took a long time to warm up to each other. It was tough going there for awhile.

Dean today. MUCH happier and MUCH more
relaxed as you can see.

Now I think we're finally on the easier side of things and we're all much happier. Plus I think our life in Madison is much more doggy friendly than in Philly (we have a backyard for example) and that helps a great deal.

My handsome boy.

We love both our boys and haven't ruled out getting another dog sometime in the future. Probably another greyhound. They're wonderful dogs and make excellent pets. All my comments above about how stressful our doggy adjustment period was should be taken with a healthy dose of salt. Dean has separation anxiety which makes him a bit more complicated than the average pup.M and I both grew up with dogs but this was our first dog together. That you know, we didn't have our moms to  walk and feed it for us. Plus M was in the middle of finishing grad school and THAT was a stressful time. 

Basically we were noobs who were in hindsight probably way too stressed to get a dog. And our adoption agency was pretty much useless when it came to helping us make the transition from kennel to home with Dean.

But it all worked out in the end and we're all so much happier now with both our boys in our lives. I can't imagine our house without them now. Plus we have his and her's pets which works out really well most of the time. We've agreed though that if we do ever get a second dog M will be the one to pick him/her out since it'll probably be his dog.

Do you have fur babies? If so, did you go through a tough transition when you brought them home? Would you change anything about the way in which you did? 

My neighborhood

Here are few quick snaps of my neighborhood I took this week with my camera phone while out and about:

Our backyard

View from one of the many bike paths near our house

Goodman Community Center on the bike path behind our house

Train tracks and bike path at the end of our street

We live in a very hippy-meets-hipster-meets-blue collar worker neighborhood
 Therefore we hate the Republican governor

Home sweet Home. We live on the first floor of the house

We'e going to LOVE the front porch (and swing!) come spring

Beautiful stormy morning on the lake

Yarn bottles update and thoughts on Madison thus far

As promised, here are pictures of my finished yarn-wrapped beer bottles. I ended up using two beer bottles and one wine bottle for the project. I had three different colors of yarn so I did three bottles. Pretty simple. My colors are pretty similar to those in the last inspiration link I posted. I gravitate towards neutrals in everyday life punctuated by small pops of color and that was definitely reflected in the skeins of yarn I had lying around.

The project ultimately ended up being super easy and quick. Although I think the yarn would have adhered a bit better with a hot glue gun rather than my Elmer's like I mentioned in a previous post. But all in all, not bad for a free, easy DIY.

Aaand now for the heavy stuff... I kid. Sorta.

I realized this morning that Saturday will make three weeks I've been living in Madison. How has the time flown by so quickly?! Madison feels familiar yet still so new and undiscovered at the same time. I've gotten to know our quirky little neighborhood quite feel I think simply from the fact that Dean dog and I take multiple walks a day. I've used the bus system a few times and so far, so good. It's nothing like Philly. All of the bus driver's I've had have been so helpful! They've offered me directions, advice on living in Wisconsin and helped me understand that transfers are free (!) here.

Meeting other people hasn't been quite as easy of a transition simply because without a job and no real network to speak of I'm just starting at zero. And the meetup.com scene in Madison seems to be somewhat limited to SAHMs and Singles Ready to Mingle. M has been great about including me in a work event or two and going out of his way to find things for us to do. I'm hoping to hone in on some activities (and therefore a community of folks) I might want to join soon.

Though I don't think there are a whole lot of us twenty-something, stay-at-home, non-mommies (fur babies don't count here I think) out there... it's no longer 1955. Most women who don't work tend to have children. And most women my age are out there in the workforce or in school. So the whole making friends at the playground or in the preschool drop-off line doesn't apply in my case (And yes, I'm aware of the gendered nature of my comments. But this is my perspective and experience. While one could argue the economic recession coupled with the rise of young hipster parents has led to a surge of stay at home daddies, women still perform 90+ percent of child care duties in the country. That's the way it is. Anyway, I digress...).

Crossing my fingers I'll find a job soon. And not just for the monetary benefits it will bring. Human interaction is nice too! But lest I sound like a whiner, I will say that I recognize how lucky I am to have this option. And I will try my best to make the most of my free time. i.e. there will be more DIY projects ahead!

Madison

I took a quick snap with my plain ol' "not an iphone" camera phone while walking the dog one morning last week. This is Lake Monona. It's three blocks from my house.

Love :)

Good-bye Philadelphia

Just under two weeks ago we taped up the last moving box, loaded our (terrible) rental car up with last minute "have to take this with us" items, strapped in the pets and said good-bye to Philadelphia forever. Forever sounds so definite but in reality we're not likely to move back there again. Two days of driving- logging 17+ hours in the car- and we saw something to this effect:

Welcome to Madison
(pop: 233,000)

So here we are in Wisconsin! Never in all my days did I think I'd ever live in the Midwest, let along Wisconsin... but thus far Madison is proving to be a charming little city.

Why did we leave Philly, home of the cheesesteak, water ice, oh and apparently liberty and freedom? M got a job offer that was right up his alley and too good to turn down. You see M originally moved to Philadelphia for graduate school and I followed him there the next year. He was a PhD student at one of the universities in Philly until this past summer when we both realized that he wasn't happy in his chosen field and consequentially we weren't happy as a couple either. The thought of three or more years of his unhappiness and daily frustrations (he was about to start his third year of studies) and I was ready to beg him to leave... but of course it wasn't that simple.

I'll spare you the details suffice to say that we've had a stressful past nine months and we're thrilled to be finished with that chapter of our lives.

But I'll miss Philadelphia. It's people and food and row homes and nightlife. The gritty side of the city that we all as city dwellers disparage out loud to one another at cocktail parties but secretly love. After all that's what makes us city folk.

So we've said good-bye to the City of Brotherly Love (there's a misnomer if I've ever heard one) and hello to America's Dairy Land. I have a feeling we're in for one heck of a ride. Oh and did I mention that winter is coming to Wisconsin?

Stick around. It'll be fun times for all.