Big News!

So today our little family received some really big news!  I found out that I was accepted into the 2012 Teach for America Teaching Corps.  Words cannot express how excited I am about this opportunity.  I have always wanted to be a teacher (in spite of what my educational background might indicate) and I cannot believe that I will have my very own classroom this Fall (or, well, at least my very own students...)

Since this is a blog about our little pittie, I feel obligated to tell you that the very best reaction I received was from Raisin.  She and I were home alone when I received the email telling me I'd been accepted and when I yelled with delight, up popped 50 lbs of butt-wiggling happiness.  She jumped right on top of me and gave me all the smooches I could stand.  For a good five minutes, she actually prevented me from checking to make sure I'd been placed in Chicago and discovering what I had been assigned to teach (Special Education, by the way...)

I immediately called David, but since he didn't answer, I got about 10 more minutes of celebration time with the Raisin.  She and I did our happy dance; the dance includes an embarrassing amount of wiggling on both of our parts and then I gave her a special treat and fed her dinner early (so that I could actually get back on my computer and read, in more detail, about the big news).

Once I had talked to David, I started making the family phone calls and since Raisin had finished her dinner (a feat that takes no more than 60-90 seconds) she clambered back on top of me to continue with the celebratory slobber.  Now that things have settled down a bit, I have been talking to her about how things are going to change in a few months.  I am going to go from working at home, being with her nearly full-time, to working out of the house and going to class two nights a week.  Since David will also be starting work full-time this summer, things are going to be drastically different for our baby girl.  We are going to have to find a dog walker for afternoon potty breaks, figure out feeding routines on nights David and I will both be gone late, etc.  On the plus side, having two full-time incomes means that we will finally be able to seriously search for a house!  I have been telling Raisin about the glories of having a yard for so long and I know that it will be a dream come true for her.  She loves visiting her grandparents in the suburbs and running free around their huge yard.  She is also looking forward to the likelihood that we will have a car in the not too distant future.

"What's that you say?  More car rides!?!  I accept."

Her love of car rides is fodder for a future post, so I will leave it there.  More celebratory kisses are coming my way :)

Drama Free is Not for Me

I like to think that I am not someone who purposefully attracts a lot of drama into her life.  However, it does seem to pop up around me every once in a while.  So, while the process of finding and choosing our precious Raisin was an emotional one, it was somewhat surprising that it entailed very little drama.  That is, until we had been approved to adopt and were supposed to actually GET Raisin.

Although One Tail operates in Chicago, it is an entirely foster home-based organization.  That means that some of their foster homes are outside of the city.  Which is great.  Suburban homes tend to have yards, big happy families, lots of love for dogs who need as much as they can get.  However, for a car-less couple that relies solely on public transportation, this meant that we were relying on the foster parents to bring our little girl to us.  Unfortunately, because Raisin clearly is the greatest dog ever, while the family was fostering her, they apparently fell in love.  And while One Tail allows foster families to officially adopt dogs, they do not allow this when a pending foster-to-adopt is in place.  However, the difficulty came when the foster family started pushing off the date for Raisin to begin her foster period in our home.  At first the foster mom couldn't get out of work on time.  Then there was some bad weather (and in December, of course, there really was some very bad weather).

However, after nearly two weeks of waiting and being pushed back, our One Tail adoption coordinator, Anna, finally decided to take matters into her own hands and go down to pick up the Raisin.  Tragically, the Sunday she was supposed to get her, we had the first blizzard of that year.  Conditions were terrible and it certainly wasn't worth her risking her life so we could have Raisin that weekend (of course, that is easy for me to say 1.5 years later when I have Raisin every day...during the moment, I was pretty devastated).

Finally, later that week, our fearless adoption coordinator, after working a full day at her job, drove an hour down to the suburbs and an hour back to snatch up our little pittie.  That night, David had class until the mid-evening.  When Anna arrived with Raisin, I was by myself and nervous as could be.  I met them downstairs at the service entrance and we brought her up the elevator.  This may have been her first ever experience with an elevator because she was visibly nervous (though this may have been from her fear of small spaces...something we discovered when trying to get her in her crate in the following days...)

When we got in the condo, I was very worried that Anna would judge me to be a bad potential dog mom  if I did something wrong with respect to introducing myself to Raisin.  So while every natural instinct in my body told me to get on the floor and start playing with her, I held back my urges and politely talked with Anna while holding my hand out to Raisin and allowing her to take her time checking me and the new place out.

Raisin was super sweet and very timid (something that is hard to remember when one meets our exuberant pooch these days).  Our trainer described this period as a type of shell shock, and looking back on it, I would have to agree.  Raisin was in a state of near constant change and we were just another new set of people who were, hopefully, going to be nice to her like the last few.  Within a day, Raisin started to come out of her shell and transformed into the playful, but snuggly, girl that she is today.

But back to the day of her introduction...After a little bit, David came home and met our girl.  Raisin immediately liked him better and I admit, I was VERY jealous.  David also seemed to completely forget his silly pit bull bias and seemed quite smitten with our little lady.  We spent a bit of time talking about Raisin's needs (a new type of harness, high-protein dog food, etc.)  Then it was time for Anna to go.  She quietly snuck out and just like that, we were a family!

The story of us (at least, of the three of us).

This "tail" begins shortly after David and I were engaged.  We had been living together for nearly half a year and, although things were very nice, I felt like something was missing.  In November 2009, I started telling anyone who would listen how badly I wanted a dog.  Although neither David nor my parents thought this was a great idea, nothing could dissuade me from my mission of becoming a dog-mom.  So after searching Craigslist on an hourly basis for unwanted dogs around Chicago, and sending every single option to David for nearly a month, David finally broke down and agreed that we could get a puppy.  His two specifications were that he did not want a rescue dog and he did not want a pit bull.  Naturally, after carefully considering all of the very cute, very adorable puppies that we could purchase for way too much money, I decided that we had to adopt.  Once David acquiesced to this desire, it was only a matter of time before I happened upon the most irresistible face I have ever seen:

We lovingly refer to this as her "adopt me" face.  It is also good for: "You're not really going to eat all that yourself, are you?"; and "I'm pretty sure it is time to get off the couch and give me some attention"; and "Surely you can squeeze little old me in the middle of that big old bed, sofa, soft thing, etc. you're laying on at the moment..."

Honestly, from the moment I saw this picture, I was a goner.  And one look at me told David that there was no use in trying to dissuade me.  So after an email, an application, and several weeks of waiting (something to be discussed in a future post...), this little princess made her way into our home!  We adopted her through One Tail at a Time.  They are, honestly, the most incredible NFP I have ever encountered.  We felt 100% supported throughout the foster-to-adopt process and, because Raisin is part of their Court Case Dog Program, she receives free training for life (something that has been a life saver, for sure...also to be discussed in the future).

So that is how our little family began.  Since then, we have had a year and a half of adventures.  Lots of ups, quite a few downs, and plenty of smiling, snuggling, snorting love in between.