Open House at Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary!

As everyone knows, I am a lover of senior dogs, especially the special needs ones. I have been following Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary on Facebook for a long time, and have reblogged this more than once on Tumblr:

Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw them advertising a fundraiser open house, and seeing it was only 30 minutes from my house! I had never even thought to look up where they were located! I immediately bought tickets, and this past Sunday was the day! I'm so thankful for the Facebook Algorithm for making sure I saw this event. (If you love old dogs too, make sure to give them a follow. They post photos of the dogs all the time!)

As you can probably guess by the name, they take in senior dogs and give them a place to live out their lives in comfort. They have lots of dogs at the sanctuary (at least 50!) and more dogs at 150 foster homes in the area. They don't adopt most dogs out, they get them forever fosters and take care of their medical expenses. How wonderful is that?

Crystal came with me because Travis had some work to do at home. We got to go in small groups to see the dogs. They have the "Wilder Gang" and the "Calmer Gang". We saw the wild ones first! OMG, so many gray faces to pet!

If you follow the page, you recognize this guy. It's Leo! He seems to be the most popular Old Friend. We got to pet him! Ahhh!

Just imagine: a petting zoo that consists of tons of old dogs. My heaven! 

You can tell all these angels are well taken care of and loved. The volunteers who were there were so sweet and you could feel their affection for their charges.

The underbite!

I could have stood there all day. 

Toby! (Please notice Frankie the pug in the background.)

Here I am meeting Bugsy, a pug with both his eyes removed. He was so cute! I wish I had asked to see Jeff and Jake! They are a pair of eyeless pugs who are on the site a lot. Everyone at the sanctuary was so nice, asking if there were any favorites we would like to see. Not everyone was out since it was so hot outside, so they carried some of the more fragile residents out for just a few minutes.

Oh look! It's Captain Ron!

Frankie! I was hoping we'd get to see him! Look at that face!

I think this is Snoopy. I love beagles, especially old ones. 

Here you can see what the yard is like. They have a little pool! And a deck with chairs to sit on, and then they have the run of the house. Everything was so well maintained and clean.

The first dog we all requested to see was Mildred! She is running for president this year, and they have been selling really cute "Put a Pug in the White House" shirts. Look at her sweet face!

I was so in love. I told her we have our own Mildred at home who is just as cute. 

That smile!

Next we headed downstairs to meet the "calmer gang". 

They didn't quite live up to that name, LittleBit ran out of the gate first thing! Crystal ran after her and brought her back, she was wild! They have everything double gated of course so she didn't really get out.

I don't know why I was making this face, but it makes me laugh. LittleBit was so sweet! She got hit and dragged behind a car! Poor little thing. The other dog I am petting is Bo. He looked like a little teddy bear.

Look at him! That cocker in the back is Oreo I think. 

These guys had the run of the downstairs. There are beds everywhere! 

Paris! She was queen of the back of the couch. There was the cutest old lady pit bull on the couch,  I never got a good photo, but she was just beautiful.

We headed back up to "the lookout" where most of the dogs are who are looking for foster homes. This is Precious. She is a chihuahua, but so friendly! One of the volunteers told me she loved to be carried around. You don't have to tell me twice!

Amy!

I don't remember this sweet baby's name. 

This furry guy is named Troop and is SO CUTE. He has a furry body and a puppy face! He lays on the floor all splayed out like a bear skin rug.

Ethel! She really has my heart. She has lots of health problems but seems to enjoy tottering around, getting loved on by everyone. That tongue!

This little guy is named Danger! If we could foster a dog right now, I would totally ask if we could bring him home. We've decided to put fostering on hold for a while since Priscilla has gotten so frail.

Two Old Friends, enjoying the sun. 

The open house was such a wonderful experience, I think that Old Friends is an amazing organization. They give so many senior dogs a chance, when so many end up in shelters when their families decide they are too old. Senior dogs make the best pets.

Life Lately

If you follow me on Instagram you know I just got back from a fun nine day trip to Asheville, NC. I have a TON of photos to go through (I think 16GB? or something insane) but I'm not emotionally ready to tackle that. So here are some shots of what has been going on lately. We have been having quite a summer.

First things first, the day after the Fourth of July we found this puppy in our backyard! Or, Travis found her. She had on a collar that was way too big and leash so we assumed someone must have taken her to see some fireworks and she got loose. We put up tons of signs and posted ads and called all the shelters and vets but no one called about her. She was even pretty good on a leash and in the crate, so it seems like someone had to have lost her.

Look at that tiny thing! She was a little too much for our senior pet rest home so my friend Crystal offered to take her in until the owners called. And no one did, so now she is part of the family! Little Veruca. Look at how precious she is with their dog Scurvy. A match made in heaven.

Our little nephew turned two and we went up to Louisville for his Elmo party.

We've been movie crazy as usual. Did you see Jurassic World? I loved it! It is pretty dumb, which is exactly what you want in your dinosaur action movie. We also went to see Jurassic Park in the park here! That is the only outdoor movie we've made it out to so far this year. I'm sad we missed Coal Miner's Daughter at the Belcourt a few weeks ago!

One of the perks of outdoor movies is Retro Sno seems to always be there. These are sweet tea sno balls with lemon! Yum!

Our good friends Aaron and Valerie visited from California and we all got the matching tattoos we've been talking about for YEARS! We tried to get them maybe seven years ago? But couldn't find a shop that could fit us all in. If you aren't familiar with TCB, it was Elvis' personal motto/symbol and we're all crazy Elvis fans.

A new raw vegan restaurant opened in town and we went to the soft opening. It was good, if expensive. The most amazing thing was this avocado margarita! Have you ever heard of such a thing? It was creamy and delicious and I want to have one right now!

A bar called Canvas hosted a Richard Simmons dance party and you know I was ALL over that. (if you haven't seen my post about the time I got to work out with Richard you have to see it here). People wore workout clothes and they showed Richard Simmons work outs over dance music and I LOVED it. I don't know if we've ever danced that much in public. We were all dripping with sweat by the time it was over. I hope they do it again!

Drag Race fans! Check out this beautiful lady! We went to see Miss Fame at Play and she was so weird and so good! I loved her latex outfits! I missed seeing Trixie Mattel because I was sick (ugh!) but Violet is coming next weekend and I can't wait! Also, did you hear they are doing All Stars 2? Yay!

Even with all the great stuff going on I've been under a lot of stress lately. Which is hopefully getting better. I treated myself to my second ever pedicure. The first was at the Aveda school and was less than relaxing, this one was great, even though I felt totally awkward and didn't know where to look. I also treated myself to a couple new dresses. I always send Travis dressing room selfies asking for opinions, even if he always says "That looks great!"

I'm reorganizing and cleaning and trying to get back on the Kon Mari train. Here is a photo of my "jewelry" collection. It's light on fancy, heavy on cute.

Oh man how did I get this far without mentioned this! We got tickets to see Dolly Parton at the Ryman this weekend! If you are in Nashville you know it sold out lightening fast, but Travis was able to get us two great seats because he delivers there. I can't wait! It is going to be all acoustic and I know I'll cry at least once.

I got my summah gum perk from backing Howard Kremer's Gu Cruise video last year. If you don't listen to Who Charted? that sentence probably makes no sense, so please enjoy a picture of my cat and my linoleum.

Of course I've been swimming like crazy. I'm getting tattooed next weekend (at a convention by someone from out of town. I don't usually get work done in the summer) so that will put the kibosh on swimming for a few weeks. Here is a photo of me as a mermaid pretending to drink from a big cup. I love that stupid underwater camera.

Hay Day!

On Saturday a local group, the Middle Tennessee Pet Resource Center, held their annual Hay Day event! The idea is to deliver cold weather supplies, coats, food and toys to chained dogs in the Nashville area. I wasn't sure if I was going to post about this because I don't want it to seem like "Look at me, look at what I did!". But after the experience we had yesterday, I knew I had to share it.
I knew it would be a hard day for me. I'm obviously a pet lover,  and I don't want to see a dog chained out in a yard in the freezing cold. (Like most other places in the country, the temperatures have been super low here lately). The idea of Hay Day is to go in with the spirit of giving for these people and their pets. It is a non-judgemental day where you just want to help give these dogs some comfort, and establish relationships with the owners so hopefully you can help them make more lasting changes. Volunteers go back later and walk the dogs, bring them more supplies, help the owners get them spayed/neutered, help them get assistance in building a fence so the dogs can be off the chains, etc. I was worried people would turn us away, but the houses we went to were super receptive and thankful for the help.
I volunteered to take photos so here are some of the ones I sent over. The before photos from the first house:

The brown dude is Bullet.

And the grey is Hawk. His chain was all tangled up, so that is as far as he could get from the tree. You can see if if you look closely to the left. And look at his house!

We got to work putting down hay around their houses to keep them dry and to give them something to cuddle down in. They put cedar chips in the houses which help insulate and keep away nasty critters. For bullet they bungee'd his house together so it wouldn't come apart anymore.

Hawk got a new house that he can actually get inside of!

He LOVED the squeaky toy we brought him. Both of these boys were sweet and friendly and were reveling in all the attention they were getting.

Hawk and his house.

Bullet wasn't as interested in the toys, he just wanted attention!

Getting some good booty scratches from Travis. I'm so happy Travis came with me. I wasn't sure he would want to spend his Saturday out in the freezing cold since this is his busy time at work and he has been working 12 plus hours a day, but he didn't hesitate to say yes.

After! Two boys with a much cozier home!

This is Diamond at our second stop. She lives at the bottom of hill so when it rains all the water runs down to her home.

I don't think I ever heard this handsome dudes name. He is at the top of the hill. Somehow every before picture I took of him features him peeing on something. Oh well.

A third dog lives in here. She just had puppies so was thankfully on the back porch in and enclosed space to keep the puppies warm. We worked on her home too, so it would be more comfortable when she gets put back in here.

Diamond was VERY sweet and rolled over so I could rub her belly almost immediately.

Big buddy was so happy for the attention! He ran around like crazy!

Putting a tarp up to provide some protection.

After! Look at him posing for me!

Even though it was hard, I am so glad we were able to help out. I really admire the mission of the MTPRC. It isn't always possible to get every dog out of a less than ideal situation. They talked about how when you ask someone to surrender a dog, they usually shut down and don't allow you to help at all. It is hard for me to understand, but some people just don't KNOW that they should be doing more for their dogs. Education is so key. I look forward to being able to help more with this organization in the future.