"LIFE IN THE SHAGGY SHACK"

My website or blog:

http://lifeintheshaggyshack.blogspot.com/

Proud pet parent of:

Razz and Biscuit (english mastiffs)
Boomer and Asia (pit bulls)
Calvin and MindyLou (smooth fox terriers)
Joey (terrier mix)
Ariel (toy fox terrier)
Pixie Dust (chihuahua)
Prince Ranier & Trevor (Friesian/Percheron and Percheron/Morgan horses)
Mishka and Pischer and Murphy (3 cats - 2 male and 1 female)
Diz E. Peckerhead (27-yo cockatiel - my pet since I was 12 yo!)
Button (9 yo California rabbit)

How we met:

I would say 80% of my ten dogs are rescues - well, they probably rescued me.....

Razz - english mastiff - my husband's "other wife." We purchased her from a breeder at 10 weeks old in 2001. It was my husband's first real dog of all his own. He wanted a rottie and I talked him into a mastiff - LOL. She was the key that opened up his heart to all the rest of them because, through her, he realized how cool dogs really are. Thanks Razz!

Biscuit - english mastiff - we purchased her and flew her up to New York in 2001 at the age of 5 months from an overwhelmed mom in Florida with three kids, one on the way and a mastiff at her feet already. She was bought to be Razz's "sister," best thing we ever did....

Joey - terrier mix - adopted September 2002 at the age of 2 to 3 from a lady about to have him euthanized at the Brookhaven Animal shelter (she adopted him from there three weeks earlier) for biting her kids....we exchanged in the parking lot...he is my forever "boyfriend"..together till the end....

MindyLou - fox terrier - adopted from Save-A-Pet in July 2002 at the age of 1 1/2...Save-A-Pet saved her from the shelter and we were her fourth and final home...

Ariel - toy fox terrier - purchased at the age of 8 months in July 2005 for 240 bucks from a family leaving the state due to some pretty tragic circumstances and they couldnt take her with them...

Calvin - adopted from Save-A-Pet at the age of 7 in October 2006. He was a test feeder dog his whole life living in a little cage at the IAMS food company in Ohio. See more about Calvin in the "sweetest moments" below...

Asia - pit bull - adopted from Sean Casey Animal Rescue in March 2007 at age 10 weeks. Her and her brother were left tied to the Brooklyn ACC malnourished, wormy and with colds. She is now our precious baby girl....

Boomer - pit bull - purchased from breeder July 2007 in Pennsylvania at 4 mths old to be a big brother for Asia...most sweetest and handsomest dog I've ever known....thanks Gram :)

Pixie Dust - chihuahua - purchased Dec 2007 from an overwhelmed friend who had to take on a third job.....the chihuahua who thinks she's a pit bull...my little peanut....I just adore this precious little dog....

Rest in Peace Harley, 03/12/2008 - golden/chow - adopted from Huntington Animal Shelter in 1999 at age 3...came from abusive home...carried her 75 lb body everywhere for a week till she stopped being so scared......

Pet likes:

me and my dogs have a 500 foot walking trail we have walked 1000+ times now. we love it - even if it takes only a minute to walk it - we walk it every time as if it were the first time......

I like to stand in the kitchen with all my dogs and popping Cheese balls into their mouths one by one by one by one.....so fun

i love to lay in bed with all my dogs in a big pile....

Pet dislikes:

rainy days, when boomer lets himself in and doesnt shut the door and its winter time, my puppies jumping up on guests (good for the abs)

they dont like when I leave... i work from home and they are used to mommy always being around....

Pet’s favorite spot:

our bed, couches, my office in beds, on their comforters, their dog beds, the wooden toddler's bed in my office just for them....

taking rides in the suburban to the park or to Wendy's

Pet’s favorite toy:

knuckle bones, leg bones, hooves, anything with a squeaker, stretchy toys, empty poland spring water bottles, shredding cereal boxes and paper towel rolls that mommy give us.....

Pet’s sweetest moments:

I have a ton of sweetest moments, but I think my most memorable is of Calvin. Please let me tell you about Calvin.

Calvin lived as a test feeder dog at a major dog food company his whole life of seven years. When first brought home, he didnt do much more than very tight right hand circles from living in a little cage. He didnt know really anything about life or living other than the right hand circles. When you called him, he knew his name, but he didnt know why. He would look straight up in the air and turn in circles like he couldnt tell where it was coming from. I would wave like a lunatic in every motion I knew to get him to walk to me while calling his name. Maybe because of the cage, he never learned to actually walk to the person calling his name..we're not sure. So I would call the dog next to him and then he followed them to me.

In the early days here, he would get confused a lot. When he got confused or "lost", he would just turn in circles over and over like a skipping record. We have a large yard and I would have to go and find him wherever he was "stuck." Sometimes he was way far back in the yard or in another room and I would have to re-orient him. The first few weeks he was here, I must have said "Where's Calvin?" a hundred thousand times as I was always worried.

Calvin has been here over a year now and he is doing so much better. Although he still does circles when he gets confused, it is now just briefly. He is definitely a food meiser and will chatter his jaws if he knows food is coming. I guess that is from food being the only thing he had to look forward to for seven years. He doesnt really like heights i.e. being on the bed or the couch and he doesnt know how to play with toys at all, but he does like to chew knuckle bones. He follows me EVERYWHERE. Why? I am guessing because he can. He is so in tune to my every move that he snaps up ready to go as soon as I stand. I call him "my trusty dog Calvin" as he is ALWAYS right at my heel. He comes in our room at 7 AM every morning and whines in anticipation until I get up. He knows it is time to tend to the barn and the horses. I would have to say that his life of imprisonment must have been extremely boring for a fox terrier just staring at a metal grate all day and that he now embraces every day of his new life with enthusiasm.

My sweetest moment with Calvin was when he discovered what his legs were truly capable of. We had him a few days and we were out back playing in the big horse paddock. Little by little, I taught him to run (off leash) and to keep going at it. Although we made improvements, it was still only in big right hand circles. He started to like it so much though that he would bark in glee as he ran around in big right hand circles. It was the first time I heard him bark. On the third or fourth day of this, something in his little head just clicked. All of a sudden, he just got faster and faster with no encouragement from me. Then he went off the "circle" and just kept running. He got so fast that his ears were pinned flat back and he stretched his little body flat out like a greyhound racer and, best of all, he had this big grin on his face. No longer confined to the "circle" in his head, he just kept going and going straight along the perimeter trail, around past the horse trailer, around past the back door, up the side in front of the sheds, back on the trail, all the way around the back, up the other side...he was so exhilirated with his new found legs! I could tell he was the happiest dog ever. As for me? All I could do was cry and yell with all my might "Run Calvin, Run!!!" like in the movie Forest Gump.

That day was one of those that makes dedicating my life to the care and comfort of nine mostly rescued dogs all worth it. To watch a dog caged for seven years of his life run like there is no tomorrow makes you realize just how precious life really is. Although I may have "rescued" Calvin, he pays me back triplefold every day. How does Calvin do this? Calvin reminds me every single day to never ever take life for granted.

I crack up when my pet:

tries to suck on my ear lobes! whats up with that? LOL!