Hello Wilma.

Hello friends. It has been a while, huh? 2016 has been a rough one, right? One bright spot has been our second pug adoption this year. On November 5th we drove to North Carolina to pick up this little lady. Her name is Wilma!

Our first family portrait. Mildred was NOT happy about the five excited pugs in the house. She likes to have her own space. Look at her face!

Here is the first photo we saw of her. She was surrendered to a shelter by her owner before the rescue picked her up. She was overweight, intact, with nails growing into her paw pads and skin problems. She was the first pug saved after the rescue had to close intake, and I'm so glad they were able to get her for us. She came with the name Wilma Lou!

We knew we were going to get her for almost a month before we drove to pick her up. We were going on vacation so didn't want to get her until after we got back. It was torture! Her foster mom sent me lots of photos of her. It helped the wait go by faster!

We brought her home on a Sunday, then I was out of town for work from Monday to Thursday. When I came home, someone was totally in love with Travis. Now she splits her affection, but at first it was all dad all the time!

She is 8 years old, and so active! It is so weird to me. She can jump up on the couch and uses little dog steps to get onto our bed. She is so fast and loves to play with big stuffed animals. She is a very friendly and loving little dog. If you pet her, she rolls on her back within moments, and she loves to give kisses.

She is a good office buddy. This fox is her current boyfriend. She snuggled up with him like this one day and I couldn't take how cute it was!

I mean...

One thing I really love about her is she likes to be held like this. She'll put her paws on you and try to slither up until you are holding her, face to face. It is so sweet. She has been with us a little over a month and we are already feeling a nice connection with her. She is such a good girl.

We've also had Mildred for over 5 months! I can't believe it has been that long. Earlier this week she went to the vet to get a broken canine tooth pulled, and ended up with 11 extractions! Several of them were very old breaks, with the gums grown over the pieces. She had a rough first day after her surgery, that photo is from when we picked her up. She was still drugged! That is the very tip of her tongue poking out! It was pretty cute honestly. She seems to be feeling good now. She has even been cuddling with Wilma! Until this point, she would move if Wilma got close. I'm not sure if it is the amount of time they've been together, the fact it has gotten cold, or maybe her teeth were bothering her before. We'll have to see.

These two have been bringing us a lot of joy over the past few months. I'm glad we were able to rescue them.

Top 10 Animal Instagram Accounts!

I needed something to cheer my up after making the post about Priscilla, so I decided to make a post about my favorite animal Instagram accounts. All of these bring me joy daily, and it was fun to look for cute photos to make this post. Instagram is my favorite form of social media, mostly for the critters. You will notice my taste runs mostly to seniors and weirdos. Are you surprised?

1. Wolfgang2242 // My absolute favorite. Steve posts photos of his big crew of senior rescues. You can feel how much he loves them through his photos, and he is passionate about senior rescue. Travis and I both love this account and show each other when new photos get posted. Travis' favorite is Bikini the pig, my favorite is probably Phyllis, the little fluffy blind lady, or maybe its Enoch, the beautiful wolfhound, or is it Eyeore the chihuahua? Really, I love them all. Even the chickens.

2. BubbleBeccaPugs // Becca is a breeder who also has a rescue. The best part of her account, the insane group photos! Look at all those babies! She'll post videos of them all running around or all begging for treats. I love seeing her well loved grumble.

3. HopeSpringsAnimalSanctuary // Another Beca! We've been internet friends for years now and I love her big heart for animals. Beca and Doug have been rescuing animals for a long time, but have just recently started Hope Springs. They take beautiful photographs of the animals they are feeding and fostering. They are moving to Tennessee shortly and I'm hoping we'll be able to help out in some way.

4. Sacco_Sorry // I have no idea how I found this account but it makes me laugh all the time! My best friend Crystal and I send each other their photos all the time. This account documents two chinese crested named Emir and Taj and they are just so WEIRD! I love Taj's smile and the fact that Emir walks on his hind legs on walks. Their owner obviously loves them and takes the best photos.

5. Alien Bat Pigs // Someone with 7 Boston terriers! That makes me tired just thinking about it! But I love how she documents her big crew, and they are just so cute. I love the videos of them running down the sidewalk. Boston's are so goofy and alien looking.

6. ChubbstheWampug  // I saw Chubbs for the first time in her Bantha Pug video, which is SO CUTE. Go watch it if you like pugs and Star Wars! Now she is a beautiful 14 year old pug lady who is obviously adored by her family. It breaks my heart a little to see her on my feed, because it makes me think of my senior ladies, but I still love to see her. Especially when she goes swimming in their pool.

7. 2leggedMaggieMay // This is a new one, because this little angel has only been round for two months! She is a chihuahua born without her front legs and she is adorable. So so TINY and loves to play with her chihuahua siblings and her dad. A vet tech took her in and is making sure she has a great life. I love the videos, she looks like a tiny baby bunny hopping over the ground!

8. Spicedoggs // This one is pretty new to my list, but it is a good one. I THINK they are in Japan, and I think all 8 dogs belong to one person. The are mostly poodles, and have the cutest clips and clothes. This is one of those accounts that is just purely cute. I especially love the group photos.

9. SusiesSeniorDogs // A non-profit that bring attention to the often overlooked senior dogs in shelters. They will post dogs looking for homes and success stories from people who have adopted seniors. It is sad how many stories begin with families giving their dogs to shelters just because they are old. It is shameful. I love seeing these seniors and reading their stories. They still have love to give, and deserve to live the last part of their lives surrounded by love.

10. TheBumblesnot // Another beautiful senior pug. This one is 13 and reminds me of Priscilla so much. I actually cried while looking through his account looking for some photos to post. Bumble has several dog siblings, and his whole family loves on him constantly. Even when you are an old old dog who can't move around much, you can have a nice life.


There you have it! Ten of the instagram accounts that I love. This actually cheered me up a little bit, even though I put this post together at 3 am because I couldn't sleep. Do you have any animal ones that I need to check out?

In Memoriam: My Queen Priscilla

Travis has been getting on to me about updating my blog, so here I am. I have been avoiding it because I didn't really want to write another sad post. If we're friends on other social media, you have heard this already. It has been three weeks since we had to say goodbye to Priscilla.
Just seven weeks after losing her sister Phyllis, Priscilla was having trouble breathing and we rushed her to the emergency vet. She was there overnight, and in the morning we made the hard decision to let her go. She hadn't improved, and all of the options were full of doubt and worry over whether we would be prolonging her suffering. She had really gone downhill in the preceding months, couldn't walk or sit up. Even though it was heartbreaking,  I am glad we were able to be with her, and she left this world being cradled in my arms, her favorite place to be. But I was not ready to lose her so soon after losing Phyllis. It has been hard. Here is our last photo together.

Here is a look back at our five years with this goofy, loving girl. Maybe too many photos, but I am feeling nostalgic.
She was at Williamson County Animal Control and a friend who was working there sent me a picture of her. I went to see her, thinking if she wasn't a good fit, we could at least foster her for a rescue. But she was perfect. Phyllis and Priscilla were meant to be.

With tattooed Santa.

The sling. My favorite.

Christmas at their grandma's house.

Santa again. For some reason these Santa photos are really getting me. I love their matching pajamas. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, since they are custom. It seems too sad to get rid of them.

The raincoats! Notice Phyllis booking it back inside in the background.

Her big lake adventure last summer. 

In the storm this past winter. 

From this spring, when I wrote a post about enjoying every moment with Phyllis and Priscilla because who knew how long we would have together. I never imagined they would both be gone within 5 months. 

At her last pug meet-up. Her ears were like that after she got nerve damage in her ear and had a permanent head tilt. It messed with her balance, but it was very cute. 

So here they are. Back together in my office. It has been a very hard summer for me. Life goes on, but I miss these two every single day. I never knew grief could cause physical pain before. 

South of the Border!

As a fan of Roadside America I have of course heard of South of the Border. It is a legendary bit of tacky kitsch in South Carolina. It was never close to where we were going on a trip, but when we drove to Willmington to pick up Millie, our route took us right by! I hadn't done any research about our route before we left, but we started seeing billboards and I started freaking out!

This place is super dated, but it is a beautiful example of a mid-century tourist trap. And there are a million photo ops!

We had two dogs with us, so we couldn't go in any of the buildings, but that was fine. There was so much stuff to pose with outside!

I would love to have this guy in my yard!

Kabuki is a great poser!

I'll take this guy as well. 

Every single building was adorable.

We had only had Millie a few hours when we stopped here, but she was already settling in. She LOVES riding in the sling! She was happy to just hang out in there.

I love this too! I wanted to get a picture with it, but there was always a family getting their picture, or kids playing on it.

Family portrait. 

How many dog pictures is too many for one post? 

LOOK AT HER FACE!!!!

There is a bridge over the main road that has a nice view of more attractions. Like reptile lagoon and a restaurant in the shape of a sombrero. You can see "Pedro" the mascot in the front here. They could definitely stand to lose all the representations of him in the place. It is pretty racially insensitive for 2016. I would love to see this place updated a little (aka take out the racist stuff) but keep the vintage style charm.

I love the snake on here!

And this giant shell!! 

Travis and Kabuki listening to the ocean. 

He was very worried about this.

Guys, this is such a small fraction of the photos we took of the dogs. There were just too many places to pose! And Millie and Kabuki are so cute.

I mean, look at her!

Another family portrait. They painted jeans on this gorilla and it was so hilarious looking. 

Travis sat in the car with the air conditioning on so I could look around one of the many gift shops. It was FULL of so much junk! Some of it awesome, and some of it seemed like it has been there for 40 years!

I bought this mug, I couldn't resist!

I wanted one of these ash trays, but I resisted.

They were selling the BEST postcards for 10 cents each. I think I sent three to Crystal because I liked them so much! They seemed really old, I wonder how many old boxes of postcards they have stacked in the back. They had a post office box right outside, perfect!

I bought this too. Obviously. 

I mean.

We drove from South of the Border to a hotel for the night. The pups slept in bed with us, and the next morning we continued on through Asheville. Of course we had to stop for some doughnuts at Vortex. Delish! 

Then we went home. It was a LONG couple of days. Over 20 hours of driving from Friday night until Sunday afternoon! But it was so worth it. Mildred is a perfect addition to our family.