A Quick Congrats!!

It’s official! My parents are no longer homeless!! Yesterday was a huge day for them, all of their stuff finally came at the crack of dawn to their BEAUTIFUL new home! I am so happy for them and can’t wait to go visit!!
So CONGRATULATIONS Mum and Dad!! Hopefully we will be up in August to see the new house for ourselves!



Scituate, MA

Our gal is HOME!!

She’s HOME!!! We are so excited that Bella is finally home with us and her tail is back to wagging!! She does have to wear a big cone around her head that makes her look slightly like a satellite dish, causing Brian, Nick, and Jon to call her “Radar”, but I would much rather her be here being called names then still be at the vet!! The incision from the final surgery runs from about the middle of her belly halfway up her side towards her spine. Its pretty gross looking but the stitches will come out either this Thursday or next depending on how well it is healing. But like I said she is in pretty good spirits. I think it has been a small blessing that Nick and Jon have been here, their constant showering of attention on her has really helped get her back to acting normal.

Please excuse the short post that is lacking on details. I just wanted to update on the little one before I fall into bed! These boys keep me up way too late!! Goodnight everyone, have a wonderful week!!

An Overdue Update

I know it has been a while for an update but things have been crazy around here! When I last wrote we were expecting Bella to be home from the vet within a few days, but unfortunately that did not happen. Last Friday while I was at work, Brian received a pretty frantic call from the vet informing him that our gal needed to be picked up and taken to an emergency vet clinic. The place they wanted her to go specialize in surgery as well as being an emergency clinic, and they have a 24 hour intensive care unit with surgeons on the premises at all times. Bella was not improving the way anyone had hoped, so after they watched her overnight at the new clinic, they decided on surgery first thing Saturday morning. She had procedures on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday mornings. We got to visit with her every day for a bit, and even bring her home for a “sleep over” Monday and Tuesday nights. A nice treat for us, especially since Tuesday was my birthday and it just would not have been the same without her! She did go back in Wednesday, bright and early to have her final (FINGERS CROSSED!) surgery to have her wounds closed. They did not have to do full skin grafts like they originally thought, but they did have to take small pieces from her belly to close the larger areas. All went well and even though they expected her to be with them until Friday at the earliest, the surgeon said she was doing so well this afternoon they think we will be able to pick her up Thursday evening!

Through this whole ordeal we have really realized how truly blessed we are. Our family and friends have been so supportive. Brian’s friends (and future groomsmen), Nick and Jon are both staying with us for a few days, and even though they came in for a full on relaxed boys trip, they have both taken quite a bit of time to cuddle and love on our little girl while she was home. She continues to prove to us that she is a little fighter, and no matter what happens from here, she is doing everything she can to get back to normal. Even if that means lying on the couch when she really wants to play (and we all know what a feat that is for her)! I can’t thank everyone enough for the constant phone calls, text messages, and emails to check on her and see how we are doing!

On a lighter note, between trips back and forth to the new vet office, we did have the chance to celebrate my 24th birthday! Yes, I am 24 now, even if my dad didn’t believe it and had to do the math in his head to prove I was right! Nick and Jon are two of Brian’s good friends from New York, who both just got back from overseas on their second and third deployments with the Army, and Air Force. Since they both got in on my birthday we went out for a bit to celebrate their trip and my big day. Shannon even made a rare trip out to the west end and Luke joined us for a night at the bar that is a block away from our apartment. It worked out well, because Bella was home, so Brian was able to go check on her even though she was celebrating by passing out on the couch for the night. The whole couch to herself was definitely something to celebrate!

After a few days off work, I am back tomorrow, but get a short day for the fourth. I will update again when we get more news from the vet, hopefully the next post will be all about Baby Bella’s successful homecoming!!

a long day!

Just wanted to throw out a quick blog before I head to bed after an exhausting day!

First, we went to visit Bella at the vet for a bit today, and boy what a difference a day makes! She seems to be in much better spirits, I even got my toes licked, so the old Bella might just be in there after all! Although her personality might be better, her wounds are turning out to be much worse. When they went in for the surgery originally, they planned on going in on the left side only, on the worst wound. She literally has holes where the other dog’s teeth went in, and one was visibly worse than the others. It was constantly seeping and bleeding (a blast to clean let me tell you), so they were going to go in and literally scrape out anything that could be now, or could become later, infected. Turns out the “pocket”, as they call it, was much larger than they thought it would be, so the incision is probably about 3½ inches long. And on the hip of a little gal like her, that’s pretty big! They then realized a mark the other side, which we originally thought wouldn’t be too big of a problem, had developed a pocket of its own. So they went in, and she has another incision about half the size on that side as well. Both have draining tubes, so the vet thought it would be best for her to stay overnight again tonight to keep her comfortable and let them watch for any new issues. Fingers crossed that this will be the last surprise and the road to recovery can finally begin! The next step is to get her well enough to come home finally, it's just too quiet around here without her!

After our visit we had to run home and get ready for our engagement photo shoot! Even though with everything going on we had thought about postponing, it was nice to have something fun to look forward to. I managed to drive Brian crazy nuts stressing over what we were wearing, but the big issue turned out to be the weather! We spent the last few weeks hoping for no rain, but it just never occurred to me that we should have been worried about temperatures of 100+ degrees! We made it through, even though I seriously felt like I was going to pass out for the heat for a moment, all we can do now is hope they come out looking good, and we don’t look like big grease balls!

Thank you again for everyone’s love and support! And a HUGE thank you to Rachel’s mom and dad, Mr. & Mrs. Erwin, for the care package for Bella! I’m sure she will be super excited to play with the new toys as soon as she gets home and feeling better!

some sad news..

I apologize in advance for such a lengthy post..
Being that our blog is titled “A guy, a girl and a white fluffy dog” it is only appropriate that we shift our attention to our little fluffy gal, and use this as a place to keep people updated of the sad event that happened this past weekend. Although I have talked to most people who might read this already, I’ll go ahead and write the whole story out for those who are curious (feel free to skip the italics if you just want the latest updates).

This past weekend, Brian and I went to New York for a friend’s wedding. It was a quick trip, left on Friday morning; back Sunday night, so we decided to board Bella at Four Paws Pet Resort here in Richmond. This is the same place she goes for day care fairly regularly so she is used to it, and we had never had any problems before. In fact this weekend, one of my best friends, and maid of honor, Rachel, also boarded her dog, Buttons at the same place. Buttons stays with us at least once a month, so Bella and her are the best of pals; they were even set to share a room at Four Paws for a sleep over! All weekend we assumed the girls were having a great time and they would come back Sunday exhausted from all the fun. Neither us, nor Rachel would be back in time for the 5:30 pm pick up, so it was up to Uncle Luke to pick them up. Like I said, we had not heard from the resort all weekend, so when Luke called when he was picking them up, we were very surprised. There had been an “accident”.
The details are still a little sketchy, as we have gotten a few different versions from the staff there, that are now not lining up with paperwork we have since seen. Regardless, at some point on Saturday evening the dogs were let out for a “meet-and-greet”, basically their last play time before bed. The larger dogs are kept in one area, the little guys in another. Some how, one of the larger dogs, a Blue Tick Hound, either got through the gate, or away from a staff member, and headed straight for Bella and Buttons. Thankfully, Buttons got away unharmed physically, but she did witness Bella’s brutal attack. Judging by the wounds, Bella had her back turned to him, and he clamped down over her hind quarters, and picked her up. He then shook her, before a staff member could get to her and literally rip her from his mouth. We were also told by the Four Paws owner that he then bit down on to the employee, but now that is in question as they have not reported that to anyone else.
The staff took Bella to the Carytown Emergency Clinic when we believe she stayed overnight. We were originally told that she was there with one or more of the owners of Four Paws, but now have found out that she was in fact just dropped off. She was picked back up and brought back to the resort until Luke picked her up at 4:30 on Sunday night.

Brian and I are both obviously the most upset that Bella was hurt so badly and is in such pain now, but we are trying to remember that accidents happen. At the same time, it is all in how the situation is handled after the accident that really matters. With that said, we have a few issues with what happened this weekend.
First, we were NEVER contacted by Four Paws to let us know what was going on. Granted we were in New York where in the past coverage has been an issue on our cell phones, but between the time the attack occurred, and when we found out, we had both sent and received many phone calls, text messages, and voicemails on both phones. The staff at Four Paws claims they tried to call us multiple times, but still had no reason as to why they never left a message. They say they called all of our numbers, but not even our home number had a missed call on the caller ID. We feel like we trusted these people with a dog that we love like a child, and they did not take the time to inform us of what was going on. If it had been our child, I doubt they would have stopped calling until they reached someone.
Second, and probably the most important, was the dog that attacked Bella. As I said he was a blue tick hound. We are told he was over 60 pounds and pretty solid. The kicker is, he was a foster. We had no idea that Four Paws even took in fosters. All we knew was what they had told us in our original touring of the facilities: they had strict breed restrictions to keep the small guys safe. Come to find out, they will take fosters of any breed (including fosters that might have a pit mix!). After speaking with the Henrico Humane Society, we have found that he was taken directly from a pound to Four Paws with no temperament testing from them, that was left up to the staff at Four Paws. They did tell me though that he has been found to have aggression issues with cats (cats, small dogs, you would think they might have made a connection, but apparently not).
I think I can speak for Brian as well when I say we go from being terrified and sad for Bella and her current condition, to being absolutely outraged that this incident has happened at all. Four Paws has agreed to pay all vet bills that may result, but we will see how that goes.
In the mean time, our gal spent the night at our regular vet, Wellesley Animal Hospital, on Monday night. We had her back at home Tuesday night, where she rested comfortably for a while, but had to bring her back this afternoon for another stay. She stopped eating or drinking for us, and wouldn’t let us clean her wound which she would not stop trying to rub. At about 4:30 today she went in for surgery. They decided the best thing to do was to open up the largest “hole”, or tooth mark to be honest, and cut all the damaged tissue out. They are hoping the damage won’t be great enough to have to cut any muscle, so fingers crossed on that.

While we wait to hear how she is doing, I would like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart. I started by sending out a very quick email to a few people but the response from our friends and family has been overwhelming. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people around us who know how important Bella is to us, and how in our eyes she is much more than just a dog or pet.

I will continue to update on here with her latest news. So check back often! The picture below is of Bella from this morning, a much sadder looking lady then normal. :(

I'm already slackin..

So in my own defense of the fact that I am being a slacker, I would like to remind everyone that I am in school every morning, and then I go straight to work for 9+ hours every day. So I am pretty sleepy when I get home and have not been motivated to get on here and type. But regardless, I am going to be better :D

Anyway, Brian and I are officially the luckiest engaged couple ever! My fabulous Auntie Peg and Uncle Steve gave us the engagement present of all engagement presents, tickets to the Red Sox game on Sunday! We could not have asked for a better game or better weather! We may not have seen Manny's 500th home run, but we did get to see 501! So for your viewing pleasure a few pics from the game...

Our thank you message to Auntie Peg and Uncle Steve :D






Yes, we are "those" fans. It is slightly rediculous.

Well, I am off to Boston for the weekend to see my cousin Matthew graduate! Love to all!!

our first!!

So here it is, our very first blog!! Brian and I both had some down time today, me from the insanity of back to back school and work, and Bri from his endless quest for a new job in the crappy Richmond job market. It’s really one day at a time right now, and in the nice Saturday afternoon we had today we decided it might be a good idea to start a blog! I figure if anything we can look back later and see how things were, and for now keep everyone we don’t get to talk to as much as we would like, up to date on our lives. Soooo with that said, both Bri and I are both going to try to update regularly, and hopefully remember to bring the camera around to important events and eventually we might be pro bloggers like a few of my fabulous sorority sisters who have inspired me :)

Well it’s off to bed! My one day off all week comes tomorrow, and we are going to see the Red Sox play in Baltimore! I can’t even tell you how excited we both are! Uncle Luke will be coming to check in on Bella, so we can spend the whole day without worrying about her being lonely.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!!

love love love,
katie