Breakfast with the Bennetts

We have Grass!

2010-04-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

We have been living so long with mud that mom can not believe it is finally here!

Here are some of the cool pictures...

Before

Delivery of the Grass

Bella loves laying in grass!

These are my two skin nephews. They had a great time playing in the mud as you can see by Jack's mouth. This is Andrew and Jack.

This is me being a very good boy around the babies. I love babies and normally have to be told to not lick them so much but I was trying to get my toy back! I did wait very patiently for them to give it back and did not go take it from them. It is not nice to take stuff from babies.

Jack kept trying to crawl up to me and touch me. I let him a little but mostly just kept backing up. He did use my mouth to hold on to and pull up to a standing position once. I just let him and then gave him a big lick. He laughed and fell over. I love babies but I really just wanted my toy back. Mom went and got it for me after this because I was being so good.

The finished yard! It looks like a park it is so beautiful!

Mom is so happy to have a finished yard but now we have to go an help her water. Thanks for coming to look at our pictures! There will be lots more fun pictures to come!

Boxer love
Boxen

p.s. Mom said to tell you that she and Andrew's mama were very close while I was playing with the babies. She knows I am a good boy around babies but it is always a good idea to have an adult near because I am very big and can hurt them without meaning to. In this case two adults, one for each baby. Please be careful around babies and children if you are a doggy so that we can help teach them to be nice to doggies and not be scared of us. Parents please teach your children to be nice to doggies and watch your children because not all doggies are nice and know to be careful. My good friend Honey is very good at this. Go and see her in action here...

http://bighoneydog.com/2010/04/07/mangominster-parcel-newcarpet-kidsocialising

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

Playtime with the boys!

p.s. guess who's yard that is in the background? More on that tomorrow!

Have you noticed my clipped ear?

2010-04-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone it's Beau!

I thought I would come and tell everyone what my life has been like this first year. I am one year old now so this is a most important story. I was born to a feral mama cat that took care of me for eight long weeks. When I was still a kitten I lived on the streets and had to search for all my own food. One day someone put some wonderful smelling food out for me but it ended up being a trap! I was most scared but they were really nice to me. They fed me and gave me a bath and then let me take a long nap. When I woke up I had been neutered. They told me this was important so that I did not have any kittens of my own. I was fine with this because I am just a young boy cat and not ready for a family.

Anyhoo they nice people at KittyCo here in Dallas were the ones that neutered me. They have a most alarming way of telling which cats have been neutered and which have not. You see they need to be able to tell from a distance sometimes because some kitties will not let you get close to them. So they cut the tip off of our left ear. I know how horrible! But it is a great idea to them and it does work I suppose. He is my picture, you can see my left ear is missing the tip. Mom says this makes me look scrappy and she loves it, dad thinks it's weird. I really don't notice it at all now.

So after the ladies at KittyCo got to know me they liked me a lot and called the Lost Paws Rescue Group. A very nice lady named Kathy took me in to live with her. She named me Rowdy because I LOVE to PLAY!!! She started looking for just the perfect home for me.

Unfortunately mom lost her most important friend just before she adopted me. I hear about Andy all the time and how much mom misses her. She must have been a special kitty, here is her picture. Isn't she most beautiful? I wish I could have met her, even though mom says she would not have liked me because I am too playful. She liked things calm.

This is when mom came into the picture. She started looking for kitties because she needed to have a kitty in her home or she would just be sad about Andy everyday instead of remembering how much fun she was. One day she called my foster mama to ask about two kitties. They were meezer cats, or Siamese. MooGoo and Kashmere. Mom loved meezer cats but Kathy didn't think the meezer kitties would like Boxen and Bella. She did have two cats that she did think might like her dogs. Enter Rowdy and Waldo.

One day mom and dad came to visit Waldo and Me at Petsmart where we were staying. They came into the room and played and played with us through the bars. She and dad wanted to come and meet us. They left that night and Said they would see us that weekend but I had heard that a lot and didn't believe them. Guess what they came back! They took us home that weekend and let us have an upstairs room to ourselfs for a week. Then it was time to meet Boxen and Bella.

the introductions went well cause Boxen and Bella know how to act around kitties. They know we don't like to play rough or be boxed with huge Boxer paws. Unfortunately My foster brother Waldo never really liked it at mom's house. He was way too stressed out. So mom took him back to Kathy. I hope he has a new forever home and is as happy as I am.

Anyhoo that is my story. I am so glad to be here with mom and dad, and even Boxen and Bella. I really love this home!

The End, or the Beginning really
Beau

After 36 square yards of dirt and one day grading...

2010-04-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

So this is some of the middle of the project pictures, as promised. It already looks lots better.

Here is the before...

here is the after...

Before...

After...

Not quite from the same angle but blame mom she took the pictures.

Here is a better picture...

And if you look closely at the back of the yard you will see the big bobcat machine that moved all that dirt! oh and Boxen chasing his ball...

And here is the last picture for now...me posing on the most beautiful new dirt!
Aren't I beautiful!

Stay tuned...the sprinkler pipe goes in this weekend and next weekend...GRASS!

Boxer's out...
Bella

Why mom is so busy and not helping us blog...

2010-04-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I am so happy to be able to show you these pictures today! We are in the middle of a very big yard project. Today I am going to show you some before pictures of what our yard looked like before and then show you other pictures over the next few days! Exciting huh!

These are some of the first pictures taken at our house.

This concrete patio was taken out and the bushes cut down. Mom didn't want to cut the bushes down but they got injured by one of the big machines and had to come out. The patio was just extra concrete and there is already enough of that back there as you will see in a minute.

This is the area around the pool. See there is already lots of concrete.

This is the side yard...

This is what the yard does when it rains even just a little bit. there is lots of firewood left from us cutting down 16 trees and lots of concrete left from us breaking up that patio.

This is what happened to the nice concrete patio area...mom sometimes says she wished she would have left it there...

yucky right! Wait till you see tomorrows pictures...

Snow in Texas

2010-03-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! It's Boxen here. I wanted to tell you about a very strange but wonderful thing that happened here this past month. We got lots of snow!

Here in Dallas Texas it does not snow, ever really, so when we got lots of snow it was really cool. Bella as usual does not like anything wet to touch her unless it is the pool so she hid on the back patio under the very small roof.

Isn't she pitiful!

I on the other hand love the wet stuff and especially snow!

But those pictures were very early when mom just got home. The next day was the fun one! Look how much snow we got!

The diving board had twelve inches on it!

The trees were all heavy and making loud cracking noises from all the weight!

The night before the electricity guys came and trimmed some of the branches out of the way and made a big mess! Can you see it in the background?

Anyway We had a great time playing after Bella quit being a wuss. LOL

Dad even played catch with me a little!

Anyway there were many pictures that did not turn out because our camera is not the best for snow. I hope that you enjoy the ones we have though.

Boxer snuggles
Boxen

GRASS!!!

2010-03-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

Well hi everyone! Sorry for the late posting mom has been really busy. Guess what?!?

We are getting Grass in the back yard!!! WooHoo!

Let me explain. When I was a puppy I lived at another house with mom and dad that had wonderful grass that I could lay all day in the sun and be perfectly happy. Then we moved to the new bigger house and guess what? There was not a lick of grass in the back yard! Oh the Horrors! The people that had the house before mom and dad really didn't take care of it. Mom and Dad ended up spending a lot of monies on fixing stuff that they had done incorrectly and not told us about. They had to replace the sewer in the frint yard, fix the crack in the pool, fix the improperly run pipe for the a/c fic the leaking toilet upstairs, you get the point. There were lots of minies spent that forst year so there was not any monies for grass. But now they have saved enough monies and it is SPRING and time to put it in.

This is the plan:

1. Mom has a really cool job designing buildings for people so she measured the back yard and drew up a plan.

2. Dad had a friend of his come over and tell us how much dirt to buy so that they can grade the yard. If I had to grade the yard I would give it an F because it fails to have grass. haha

3. Dad had 24 cubic yards of dirt delivered so that they can grade the yard. (Mom told me that grading meant leveling the yard so that the water drains off right, I still give it an F)

4. Next they are going to come over next Saturday and play with a Bobcat! I got really excited because I have never seen a Bobcat but mom says it is a machine not a real cat. Darn! The Bobcat is going to make our yard nice and level.

5. Next they are going to dig and put down pipes for a sprinkler system. I love this too as Boxen and I love to play in the sprinkler system. It is about time mom lets us have what we want!

6. After all of this they are going to have 3500 square feet of grass delivered. This is a lot of grass. It is 1000 square feet bigger than our house! They have it delivered on big square board things and then have to unload all of it and put it in it's place. I will watch this and tell them where to put it all.

7. Then it is time to water, water, water! The grass needs a lot of water to get started.
I will show everyone pictures in our new post. I want mom to help me find some pictures of the house when they first bought it. and show you now and then show you the finished yard. I am so excited and mom is too! Dad just says he is ready to not have to hear mom complain about the ugly yard anymore.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Boxer Snuggles
Bella

Wordless Wednesday!

2010-03-10T07:05:00.000-08:00

Bella representing at the Dallas Irish festival. She was a great representitave for NORCAL Boxer Rescue and loved all the attention she got!

Transfer from the old Blog #2

2010-03-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite blogs from Andy. She left us at the begining of this year so I am very glad to have this blog from her.

Hello everyone!

I thought I would sneak on here while the stinky ones are sleeping. I am Andrea, the most important one in this house. Mom rescued me about nine years ago from the Houston SPCA. She came in one day looking for a little kitty, that had already been declawed, to live with her in the box house. She was going to school and needed someone to keep er company. My family had moved and taken me to the SPCA where there were lots of kittys needing homes and she picked me because I was the most beautiful. I am a small kitty weighing in at about 5.5 lbs. My former owners declawed me to stop me from scratching the furniture. Mom says if I had been her kitty from the start I would still have my claws. She does not believe that declawing should be allowed and neither do I. I think I am about eleven years old, at least that is what mom says but no one really knows.

I lived with mom for a long time before she started spending a lot of time with Dad. Then we moved and there was a DOG! Gross! Boxen isn't too bad really. A couple of swats to the nose and he learned to leave me alone. Then they brought the puppy home. Boy was she trouble. She was always tearing stuff up and mom and dad had the hardest time teaching her to go potty outside. They finally hung the bell from the door and she learned to ring it to go potty. Silly dogs, I don't know why they don't just use a box like me. It is always clean and feels nice on your feet when you walk in it. Anyway...Bella has not quite learned that when I swat her it does not mean I want to play, it means leave me alone! She chases me and tries to bat at me but she means well. I will teach her one day. They do keep mom safe when dad is gone so I guess they can stay.

I guess I will tell you some stuff about me. I love the sunshine, and love it even more if the window is open and I can lay in the sunshine and smell the outside. I love the laser pointer and will chase it all over the bed. I really love mom and will follow her all over the house, I even get to snuggle with her at night when we sleep. I guess the last thing is I love to eat! I eat as much as mom will feed me. Mom had me checked out and I just have a really fast metabolism, so she can feed me all I want and I will never be overweight.

I will try to sneak on here as often as I can. I have to wait for them to go to sleep though, but they sleep a lot so that will be ok. I can't wait to get to know everyone on the blogs! I will attach some pictures of me so that you can see how pretty I am.

Whisker kisses
Andrea

Transfer #1 Mom's favorite posts from our old blog

2010-03-08T08:49:00.001-08:00

This is a transfer from our old blog, Mom made us change the name so she is moving some of her favorite posts from that blog to this one for some of our new friends to see. I hope you enjoy!

Hi everyone it's Bella! Sorry it has been so long, Dad's sisters are in the middle of having their skin babys and we have been really busy. The good news is mom has taken a lot of pictures so we will have a lot to post about now!

As most of you know mom got me this really cool lifejacket to wear while I am in the pool. It turns out I really do need it. I have been romoted to official lifeguard of our pool! There are lots of times when my services are needed. There are lots of tests I had to pass to become the official lifeguard. Here are a few of them...

#1 Mom and dad do a lot of swimming and they love to jump off the loud board at the deep end. This is very dangerous and needs to be very closely monitered. As you can see here my Mom's brother is about to jump...very dangerous. It is my job to watch them as they jump and make sure I do not need to come in and get them.

There is also a slide at this pool! I particularly hate it when mom goes off this slide but I don't really like anyone using it. Here are some pictures mom got of me doing my duty and protecting Dad's cousin. This is very important as well.

Lastly it is very important that I not be afraid to get into the pool. For a long time I did not like to jump into the pool but I have learned that my lifejacket will not let me sink. Here are some action pictures that mom got of me jumping into the pool. They look just like a real lifeguard don't they?

(look I am almost underwater in this one!)

Hope you all understand now how important of a job this is. I am really proud of all my hard work. It is really a lot of fun though.

Kisses to everyone!
Bella

Soft Claws

2010-03-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone it's Beau again!

Mom wanted me to tell you guys more about Soft Claws. It is this really cool thing someone invinted as an alternative to declawing. Mom does not think declawing should be allowed because of the pain and discomfort it causes us kitties. Andrea, the kitty before me, was declawed as a kitten. Bt the time mom got her a few years later she was already having pain in her paw bones. She would cry when mom touched her paws. Later near the end of her life she did not like to walk around or play much. Mom thinks her paw bones might have had some arthritis but it never seemed to really hurt her so mom didn't worry too much.

Soft Paws are a soft plastic cover that go over cat's claws. First you trim the claw, only the clear part not the part with the blood. That would hurt if you trimmed that. (If you are not sure about trimming cat's claws then get some advice from someone who knows what they are doing, like your vet.) Then you put a small amount of cat safe glue in the plastic cover and slip it onto the claw. This glue comes with the Soft Paw Package. We can still retract our claws with the Soft Claws on our claws. When the claw grows out then it sheds it's outer layer and the Soft Claw cover comes off with it. The whole thing starts over then.

This is what the Soft Claws look like and some of the colors they come in. They come in colors so that it is easier to see when they have come off. They make these for doggies too but mom has never heard of anyone using them on doggies so she does not know how well they work. They work great on us kitties though. I love to scratch the carpet and with these I can still make the scratching motion but it does not hurt the carpet. Isn't that great!

Here is what the green Soft Claws look like on me.

I was really good about letting mom put these on me but some kitties are not. If you need to then wait until your kitty is really sleepy and put them on a few at a time. Give him a yummy treat between so that he will associate yummy treats to having his Soft Paws put on and he will eventually love it! I still get a yummy treat even though I don't mind much.

I hope that this post will help someday to have a kitty not declawed. If we help prevent this in one kitty mom will be happy but she is hoping for more kitties to not have this happen. Please spread the word of Soft Paws as an alternative to declawing. Mom and I would really love it and I know Andrea would have too.

Kitty kisses
Beau

Rowdy's new name

2010-03-02T07:46:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Mom told me I needed to come and say hi and tell everyone what my new name was. It's Beau! Mom used to have a friend in High School Named Beau. He was a really nice guy. When she was telling some story to dad one day she said the name and Dad loved it. He wanted to use it on a skin kid in the future but Mom wait that would be a little weird. So they gave the name to me. Isn't that cool!

Anyway I am loving it here with Mom and Dad, Bella and Boxen. Waldo was too scared here so he went back to our foster mom. I miss him a little but now I don't have to share mom I get her all to myself! I have spent most of my life sharing food, toys, and all my other stuff with other nice kitties so it is kinda cool to not have to share anything. I do share my toys with Bella sometimes. She likes to jump at my feather on a stick toy so I let he play sometimes. She is a lot bigger than me so I kinda have to, but she is nice to the toy so I don't mind.

Mom also wanted me to tell you guys about something called Soft Claws. It is this really cool thing someone invented as an alternative to declawing. Mom does not think declawing should be allowed because of the pain and discomfort it causes us kitties. Andrea, the kitty before me, was declawed as a kitten. By the time mom got her a few years later she was already having pain in her paw bones. She would cry when mom touched her paws. Later near the end of her life she did not like to walk around or play much. Mom thinks her paw bones might have had some arthritis but it never seemed to really hurt her so mom didn't worry too much. I will do a post soon saying more about them but for now back to me!

Some of my favorite things to do around here are:

Helping mom in her craft room.

Helping mom on the computer.

And trying to tell mom that the flashy thing is annoying.

See I am trying to tell her in her ear in this picture because she didn't get it the first few times.

Other than that I love to play with my new toys, and I love all the Windows that I can see out of. My absolute favorite thing to do is to practice my 10 feet dash on top of mom and dad when they are sleeping at night though. That is so much fun!

I hope that you all like my blog post. Mom is going to make my adoption official Saturday so you will be seeing a lot more of me.

Kitty Kisses
Beau

we got some explaining to do...

2010-02-26T07:50:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. Mom has been really sick. anyway some exciting things have happened. Some sad things too. After the last post mom thought dad was too allergic to Waldo and Rowdy to keep them. Well he came and told her that he really liked them and wanted to see if he could take some medicine and make his allergies better. So they decided to keep them a little longer and see what happened.

Rowdy has adjusted pretty well. He will even come out and play with Boxen and me a little now. Waldo on the other hand was never really comfortable with us. In fact one day he got really scared and jumped at mom! He even bit her and scratched up her face! Luckily mom had put Soft Claws on the kitties the day before so it was not as bad as it could have been. I will show you the soft paws tomorrow in our post, they are a really neat alternative to declawing. Mom was really surprised but she knew it was just because Waldo was scared so she put him upstairs in the cat safe room and closed the door. Later she put Rowdy up there too since their potty box is up there. They next day Waldo went back to his foster mama. He was just too scared here with us and mom was scared that he would do that to someone else that was not as understanding as she was. She let his foster mama know what happened and she said she would make sure he went to a calmer family next time.

But Rowdy got to stay with us. He is out and playing with us doggies and sleeping with mom and dad at night. Mom moved his food to the cat shelf downstairs and he spends most of his time out with us. This is really cool because Andy stayed in the bedroom sleeping a lot the last couple of years. She would never play with us because by the time she met us she was too old to want to play much anymore. Rowdy is only ten months old so he plays all the time.

Oh and Rowdy has a new name! Mom and dad gave him his new name Monday. Mom said she would post it sometime soon she wants to do a post just on him one day next week.

Another exciting thing that happened this week is that mom came home with some new toys for us! Here are some of our new toys. I will srite why mom got them so that you will know why she likes them for us. We just like them becaus they are fun!

This is the orange octopus by JW Ruffians. We got a green octopus a couple of years ago as a present and it is still alive in our backyard. This is very important necause we can destroy toys very easily. This company makes toys with squeakers, their toys are rubber and hollow so they float in the pool and they don't hurt when mom accidentally throws them at dad. LOL Sometimes we can get the squeker to come out so mom has to watch for that. Over all this is a great toy for very chewy doggies like us.

This is a rubber Kong toy. I like the other bone I have so mom got theis one for me. I love to chew on stuff and this bone is just the right size my my smaller mouth. It does not fall apart easily so mom likes them. She does not have to buy them very often and she does not have to worry so much about watching me with it. She just checks it before and after I play with it to make sure it is still ok.

This is called a Senior Kong. It is supposed to be a little softer than a regular red kong. Mom likes these because she can fill them with treats like peanut butter and kibble and give them to us when they are not home. They keep us busy for hours trying to get all the yummy out of them. They are great to chew on also and they don't fall apart like some other rubber toys. This one is for Boxen because his teeth are getting older and breaking. He does not have any sharp canine teeth anymore they are all flat from him chewing on stuff and breaking them. Ouch!

This is the last toy and the favorite at our house. The squeaker came out of it really easy and mom was glad because it gets really old listening to that squeak all the time. Now Boxen will not go anywhere without his ball. Mom and Dad have to take it away at night so that he will sleep. I love to take the bakk from him so that he will chase me to get it back. Fun!!

Well that is all that is going on right now. Mom has loads of pictures stored for lots more posts. She really wishes we had more people coming to see our blog but she really likes the people that come now so that is nice.

Keep your eyes on us we will be posting lots of new pictures soon!

Snuggles from Bella

p.s. Did you know that mom put a lock on her closet door?!?! That is so unfair. Anyway I guess there will be no more underpants for me. Glad I have all these new toys!

Update from Bella!!

2010-02-18T06:17:00.000-08:00

Well everyone I'm sorry I scared you all and the mama. It turnes out that eating a pair of her underpants is a really bad idea. Last night when I got home from the vet I finally got them out. Gross!!!

Anyway I'm back at the vet today so that I can have my yearly vaccinations and get my Arm Catheter out. The vet left it in incase mom and dad had to take me to the ER last night or they had to do surgery on me today.

Oh and mom wants me to tell you that she does not leave her underpants lying around I go into her closet when she is sleeping and get them out of the hamper. There is now a latch on her closet door keeping all of us out.

Anyway I am doing better and am back to my bouncy self entertaining the whole vet staff. Thanks to everyone that helped me feel better. It is really bad when us doggies eat things that we aren't supposed to. It can really mess up our insides.

Snuggles
Bella

too much...

2010-02-17T06:51:00.000-08:00

Bella is at the vet with what we think is an obstruction. She threw up some fo the rope that we think the tree guys might have left behing the other night. Now she is refusing to eat which is cause for alarm in our Piglet. She will eat anything, clearly!!

Waldo and Rowdy will unfortunately be going back to Lost Paws. The foster period is about over and we are not really connecting with them like we had hoped. They are constantly fighting over me and not nice to each other at all. Oh and Joel is allergic to them.

When it rains it pours, first the bad news with Andy and now my Bella is sick. I don't think I can handle it if something happens to her.

Karen

Hello from Waldo and Rowdy!

2010-02-10T08:09:00.000-08:00

Well hello everyone! We are Waldo and Rowdy. Boxen and Bella have been whispering through the door giving us instructions on how to write on the bloggie. They are really nice doggies by the way, not to pushy at all!

Anyway yesterday was rough! Just when we though we were comfy and asleep mom started clipping our nails and telling us about our new family. This was such a shock because we have been with our foster mom for so long. But we can handle it, or we thought we could. Mom put us in our carriers and put us in the loud car machine. We got to the store where we stay sometimes in the clear boxes where we can see people. We were so surprised...there were two people there that we saw last week! There was a nice lady and her guy. They stopped by one day and played with us through our cages. We love to play!

Anyway, our foster mom took us into a back room and opened our boxes. I came out right away but for some reason Rowdy stayed in his. I definitely wanted to say hi to the new people and there was a whole room to explore. What I didn't count on was my foster mom cleaning my ears and putting the yukky revolution on my back. I hate that stuff! Do you know how long it will take me to get that spot clean now?

So after the ear cleaning we went into two new boxes. My new mom and dad were taking us home! We walked around the store a little to get food and litter and toys and got back in the loud car machine. Rowdy was being such a baby the whole night. He cried the whole way to the store and the whole way home. Ugh...grow up.

When we got to our new house mom and dad showed us to Boxen and Bella and let us see them, through our boxes of course. Then we went to our new room. It is so much fun! There are big windows that look out onto the big back yard and there is a squirrel that comes to visit us. There is a big cat perch for us to climb on and lots of toys to play with. Mom put out some food and water and showed us our new potty box.

Then she got out the flashy thing. I will let Rowdy explain the pictures since I have talked enough. It is so nice to meet everyone!

Waldo

Hi bloggie people! I am Rowdy and I am so happy to meet you. Don't listen to Waldo about the car I was trying to tell mom and dad how to drive right. They don't know how to drive at all. First they need to stay under 30 mph so my tummy doesn't get upset. They also need to learn to take another route without turns because I don't like those either. I hope they hear my instructions.

Here are the pictures mom took with the flashy thing this morning.

Mom was having a hard time getting a good picture of Waldo. He likes to snuggle in the morning and he wouldn't get far enough away from her to let her take a picture.

See! He was too busy snuggling to let her get a good one. I think she liked it though cause she kept picking him up and snuggling him.

This is me! My tail looks really weird cause my leg is blending in with it can you see which part is my tail and which part is my leg?

This is me too! I was peaking out from behind the couch to see what mom and Waldo were doing. Aren't I handsome? Well except for the alien eyes, oops.

I'm still a little scared and missing my foster mom so I am staying safe behind the couch. This is my favorite new hiding place.

Well I hope you all have a nice day. Mom said she would be back to check on us later after work. I can't wait, maybe I'll let her pet me again when she gets home. That is if Waldo will leave her alone!

Tata for now!

Rowdy

A house without a cat just doesn't feel like home

2010-02-03T08:20:00.000-08:00

So...it has been four days since I had to say goodbye to my precious Andy. She was the light of my life for so long that I feel as though a hole has been cut out of me. I am not sleeping at night, nor do I have any inclination to go home except for Boxen and Bella, Oh and I guess for Joel, LOL.

So I have started looking for a new kitty friend for our house.

I have always wanted to have two kitties. I love seeing them play, and snuggle with each other. Andy always wanted to be an only kitty so I never pushed her to share me. Now that she has left us I feel it is right to give another kitty, or two a chance to find their homes. This is where www.PETFINDER.com comes into play. You can go onto this site and see all the cats near you that need homes. You can see their pictures, read about them, and ohh and ahh over all the kittens. While I do love kittens so does everyone else. They are adopted almost three times as fast as adult or even adolescent cats. So we decided to search for an older cat, over a year. Also bonded pairs of cats are at a disadvantage because most people only want one. So we searced for a pair already bonded.

Enter Kashmere and MOOGOO. I found them at LOST PAWS RESCUE in Carrollton, TX. They were a pair that had bonded and needed to be adopted together. They are both siamese and beautiful. I e-mailed the organization and waited to hear back. I got to work the next day and had a voicemail from them saying that they didn't think they would be a good match for us, or for Boxen and Bella. What a letdown! But they did have some suggestions.

They suggested Rowdy and Waldo. They are two boys about a year old that LOVE to play! I turnes out they are camping out in the kitty room at Petsmart in the Petsmart close to us. YEA! So we head out to petsmart to check them out. We get there and of course they are sleeping. Waldo is in a cage with another calmer kitty and Rowdy is in a seperate cage. They needed to be seperated because they were making a mess of thier food bowls with all their playing!

Without further ado meet Waldo and Rowdy. We hope that they will be joining our family next Tuesday. Get ready for some Action!

Waldo

Rowdy

Goodbye to an angel

2010-01-29T19:19:00.000-08:00

We had to say goodbye to Andy today. She had been sick for a little while but I thought the vet could do something to help. We went to the vet today to have some blood drawn and find out why she was losing weight. The vet noticed her gums were a little pale and after they drew her blood she needed some oxygen to be able to breath. After some discussion with the vet we decided to let her go. She probably had some type of intestinal cancer. She was with me when she fell asleep and was so peaceful.

I have a favorite quote but it is so hard to remember it at the moment.

"Don't cry because it is over, Smile because it happened." Dr. Seuss

She had a full life and was my angel when I needed it the most. I was blessed with ten wonderful years with her and I will cherish every memory.

With tears of pain and tears of loss we will all go to bed tonight.

Love from,
Karen

Sick mama

2010-01-28T09:01:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

Yesterday one of my favorite things happened. Mom stayed home from work all day! I love it when this happens because mom will get out of her bed and get into ours to snuggle with us. We don't sleep in bed with mom and dad because we are too big. That would add almost 150 lbs of dog to their bed and we like to snuggle so mom does not get any sleep. Sometimes she will come and sleep in bed with us, and sometimes when dad leaves I will sneak into bed with her!

We have a very special bed. It is a twin bed matress on a bedframe so it is not on the floor. Mom got us this at a garage sale, whatever that is, and it didn't cost nearly as much as a doggie bed. Also mom can wash the sheet for it in the washer machine and keep it non-smelly for us. Best of all she can come and sleep with s when she wants because she can be comfortable on it. I will try to add pictures of our bed tomorrow. I think I will do a bloggy post on different places to sleep. that sounds like fun!

Anyway mom is feeling better today so she is back at work but yesterday was nice, I wish she caould stay home always!

Boxer Kisses
Bella

A post about babies...

2010-01-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

So as it turns out there are some major times in life when everyone seems to just copy one another. Marriage for instance...there must have been ten weddings we went to for our close friends the year we got married. That is a lot of weddings.

Now babies...

They are everywhere and multiplying at an alarming rate! I can count at least six new babies and three people pregnant. That is a lot of babies! And when did it become ok to ask us every time you see us when we are going to join in? We will join in when we feel like it thank you very much.

Son't get me wrong I like having all these babies around but there comes a time when there are too many babies in one room.

My husband and I got to spend last Friday night with our three year old nephew and had a great time with him. His mom and dad were celebrating a night alone for their anniversary. The nice thing was that we could finally get a glimpse of what it would be like to have our own child. One that I could cook dinner for and watch movies with, and snuggle with in the morning. It was wonderful. But it was also stressful at the same time. The nice thing was that Joel still got to sleep late and I still got to go and workout. So we proved that just because you have a child does not mean you have to stop doing all the things you love.

Another thing I am wondering is when did having a baby come with so many prerequisites? Last time I went to the DR she gave me a whole list of instructions that she wanted me to follow before we even started trying to get pregnant. What happened to just deciding that you would stop trying not to get pregnant and see what happens. All these instructions take some of the fun out of it.

The baby thing is still not in the immediate future, it is just too important that we not rush each other on this. Trust me one day I will just announce that I am pregnant, no warning at all! hehe

Karen

My trip to the Emergency Vet.... By Andy

2010-01-20T07:25:00.000-08:00

So...I don't know if any of you have ever been to the vet but it isn't so bad. Usually they just prod you a little and give you some shots and that is it. Well the ER Vet is completely different. It is horrible and scary!

It all started with me not feeling well. Mom had to switch my food and take me off wet food because I had to give the food back to her about three times a day. GROSS!!! She switched me from IAMS because one of her friends at www.Mustluvboxers.com told her it might cause stomach cancer and they see a lot of problems with it at the vet she works for. STOMACH CANCER...scary!

So she switched me to Purina Cat Chows Naturals plus vitamins and minerals. I am doing great on that food but I have lost a whole pound from all the giving my food back. When you only weigh six pounds a pound is a lot of weight. Mom was just saying we needed to visit the vet to see why I had lost so much weight when her brother said my tail looked crooked. Mom came to pick me up to check it out and I cried because it hurt! She was really worried after that and put me down to check it out. This is when the panic started. Mom found a golfball sized lump by my tail!

So after talking it over with my dad they decided since I was in pain that they would take me to the ER for animals. Mom was really scared, she thought it was cancer. So they put me in my carrier and off to the ER we went. My mom's brother even came, he lived with me for three years so he was worried too.

The people at the ER were really nice, they took me into a nice quiet room for just us and took a look at my backside. OMG that hurt so much! They started messing with my lump! The guy vet said that he thought it was not cancer but might still be serius but he didnt't see any reason that they could not help me. YEA! mom was really worried that it would be something they could not help and since I was in so much pain she would have to let me go.

So after some time the lady vet came in. She thought it was either an abscessed anal gland or a hernia. She wanted to sedate me and give me some pain medicine and take a closer look. So mom kissed me and let her take me. The sedative was weird and the pain medicine was weirder. They took a closer look and it was the abscess. That was good news because no surgery for that! They had to lance it and clean it out which was horrible! It hurt real bad but I was a good kitty and didn't bite anyone.

When they took me back to mom I had two big holes in my skin where they flushed the grossness out and a cone on my head! A CONE UGH!! But I was still out a little and just wanted to go home. And they shaved my bum! that is so embarrassing!

Mom was really great at home and slept on the floor with me upstairs in her craft/cat room. I am now cone free and back to normal and hungry, hungry, hungry! I am back to my normal kitty self and happy to be free of all that pain.

Mom did take some pictures but they are gross so I will only post the one of me in my cone. She says I have to...ugh!

Anyway I would advise staying away from the ER Vet It really is different tahn the regular vet. Mom says it is way more expensive too. Oh well she says I am worth it.

Kitty kisses!
Andrea

The first post

2010-01-19T07:22:00.000-08:00

So...the first post is always the hardest for some reason. I have spent the last year getting up in the morning and checking on my blog friends. Now I have decided to start my own blog. This is the Bennett Blog. Hopefully it will be full of wonderful events and blessings and not just me rambling on about bad days. We will see.

About us:
Well we are Joel and Karen Bennett. Family of two. We live in Irving, TX in a house that will one day be the house of our dreams. We only need to do about a hundred thousand dollars worth of improvements to it first...haha. Just kidding we love this house. see...

In this house we have a minimum of two dogs and a cat. The reason I say a minimum of two dogs is because we have two boxers but we also foster Boxers so we usually have a third depending on where in the process we are. The babies are our furbabies and are thoroughly spoiled.

Hopefull we will be adding a skin baby soon but we will see about that a little later.

Anyway, this post hasn't been too lively but I promise more in the future. We have had a boxer photoshoot, a trip to the ER VET with the kitty, and the fostering of Mr. Ballard to discuss. See you soon!