My Babies..

Bailey and Kali are my babies. My only babies right now. They are two mutts. Two mutts who have brought me so much happiness in this year full of crappiness.

Bailey is part Pitbull and part Lhasa Apso. And her mother was the Pit Bull if that ain't a crazy hook up to picture. She's a whopping 40 pounds. The perfect medium size dog. She, along with her mother and siblings were surrendered to a foster care/rescue group when she was born. Whoever owned the mother didn't even want her either. One night in late January of 2007 while I was still recovering from ectopic #1, I was surfing Petfinder.com. I saw her picture. It was freakin adorable. The picture showed this scruffy 2 month old puppy. I clicked on it, enlarged it and showed it to Jeff. His response? "That's our dog". I totally knew it too. It just was. We loved her 'story'. We loved her look. I emailed the rescue then and there and asked if she was available. She was. We went and met her two weeks later and gave them a check on the spot.

This dog is special. Everyone who meets her thinks so. She is what I would call an 'old soul'. She never really had all that much 'puppy' in her. She isn't crazy, she doesn't chew. Rather she looks at you with soulful eyes as if to say "I understand". She is my dog. She follows me everywhere. She layed by my side everyday as I lay in bed recovering from my two surgeries.

Kali is the 'puppy dog' for sure. We got her two weeks into my recovery from ectopic #2. Because Bailey is so passive and demure, we had been discussing getting her a playmate. We thought she would benefit someone else around with a little bit more energy than her parents!
The Detroit Zoo had a weekend event called "Meet your best friend at the Zoo" where shelters and rescues from around the metro area were coming together for a huge pet parade and adoption event. The Zoo is 5 minutes from our house. So we went. Kali was the third dog we really looked at and the second we really seriously considered. She was sitting in her cage completely silent in a sea full of barking dogs and meowing cats. She is a mystery mutt. They said she was a terrier mix, but I don't really agree. She looks like a mini chocolate lab! It was obvious that she was very malnurished. Her ribs and hip bones were ghastly visable. We asked the caretaker next to her what her story was and he said that they were from Detroit annimal control and they picked her up as a stray on the streets in downtown Detroit a couple weeks ago and here she was. not only was she malnurished. She was sick. Terribley sick with kennel cough. It was awful to watch this poor little 17 pound doggy girl wretch like that. We had to save her. So we took her immediately.

Last night after my egg retrieval, Kali came into the bedroom with a sceen of baby blue yarn in her mouth and dropped it on the floor. . The yarn was from when I crocheted a baby blanket for Cheri's son, Andrew when he was born. She wrapped him in it when he was baptized. Maybe Kali knows something I don't? Kali makes us laugh constantly. We have so enjoyed nursing her back to health and I am thrilled to say she is now 23 pounds and looking perfect!

It dawned on me tonight: if it weren't for both of my ectopics, we would not have either of these two little souls in our lives. That chokes me up.

I have always been a huge dog person. Jeff had a dog once and it got hit by a car. He and I both couldn't wait to have a dog someday. But we had decided. Baby first, dog second. We wanted them to grow up together. When the baby thing didn't work out the first time, we got Bailey. When it didn't work out the second time, we decided it was time for Kali.

They have been our sunshine through the rain. I love my dogs. They will always be my first babies.