As posted below, we had a tragic experience with our first ever dog, Ellie. When we came home from vacation our house was empty. Even though we had had Ellie for such a short time, we became dog people and our home became a dog home. Elaine, the wonderful woman from New England Lab Rescue, was very understanding of what happened to Ellie and said she would find us another dog. She sent out a kind e-mail to all of her contacts explaining what had happened and that she was looking for a good, family-friendly lab. She got a response immediately. There was a dog named Scout in Maine looking for a new home.
Toby and I talked a lot about whether we should get a dog right away or not. After much thinking time, we decided it would be best to get another dog settled into our home and routine before we both go back to work full time. We called Elaine who put us in touch with Heather, the founder of New England Lab Rescue, who was fostering Scout. The next morning, we got in the car and headed for Maine.
Knowing we were getting a new dog gave us a purpose and a light at the end of the tunnel to head towards while we were grieving for Ellie.
The second we met Scout, it was like he knew we were there to adopt him. He put his head right in our laps and made us fall in love with him instantly. We seemed to fall in love with us pretty quickly, too! Heather was so kind in giving us the beginning essentials for life with Scout and we were soon on our way back home. He was a trooper in the car and came into our house without a problem. He is a little snuggle bug and loves attention. He also knows when it's time to lay down and chill out. Because of what happened with Ellie, we are super careful and he stays in a crate when we're gone. He does great in the crate!
About Scout: Scout is a true rescue dog and survivor. He and his sister were found by an elderly woman tied up under a trailer in South Carolina. Having an apartment, she couldn't take them in so she drove 30 miles a day to feed them. When she realized no one was coming back for them, she called a rescue place. They took them in, neutered/spayed them, gave them all their shots, and prepared them for a trip up north. Apparently black dogs don't get adopted very often in the south :-( Heather had Scout for about a week when we contacted her, and she said he was one of the top 10 dogs. He's about 9 months old and is just purely awesome.
Toby has been able to bond with Scout because he was on vacation last week when we got him. With Toby's work schedule changing soon, it will be nice to have a companion in the house. We have started letting him roam the yard when we are there watching him, and he does well. Like I said, he's a snuggle bug! He sleeps on the bed with us and we spoil him rotten! Although we are still so sad with what happened to Ellie, we now have Scout and we are in love with this little boy!
Here are some pictures of our handsome boy:
In the car on the way home from Maine:
Here he is playing with his new bone he picked out with Toby:
Such a beautiful dog! You might notice the lumps on his elbows. Those are from laying on concrete for long periods of time before he was rescued.
He is such a well behaved dog!
This is one of my favorite pictures of him. He is so photogenic! He loves playing out in the yard!
It has been one roller coaster of a week. So many things have happened in so few days, and they have ranged from wonderful to traumatically depressing. Our brand new (to us) lab was hit by a car on Sunday morning.
We adopted Ellie on Wednesday night. We had a vacation already planned to Bennington, so we decided to take her with us. We had to downgrade our hotel room, but it was totally worth it for her. We drove out to Bennington (2 hours) on Friday afternoon. Toby and I LOVE vacations. We had a great time in the car on the way out there and settled into our hotel just fine.
On Saturday, we went to the Obelisk which is a monument for the Battle at Bennington. It was some anniversary weekend, so people were dressed in Revolutionary outfits and they set off a cannon to start a 5K. We brought Ellie with us, and she had a great time seeing so many new people. The canon was her (and my) least favorite part. We left her in the car for about 15 minutes while we went up the Obelisk. She was just fine when we came back to her. We were so proud of her being a good dog while we were gone.
We went back to the hotel and crashed for a while just spending time together and watching tv. We also played some Bocci Ball. Life was great. It was time for lunch, so Toby and I thought we'd leave Ellie alone for about 2 hours while we head to the brewery we were so excited to go to. We checked on her on our way out through the window, and she was great. We had an awesome time at the brewery and brought great leftovers back for later. We were living on cloud 9, so excited to come back to our dog. When we got there, she wasn't there.
At first we thought maybe she was making too much noise, so the hotel staff brought her to the office. We went to check with them, and they had no idea what happened to her. They said they saw a dog with a blue collar come into the office at 1:30 but then the dog walked right back out, like she knew her owners were waiting for her. We left at 1:15, so she had escaped 15 minutes after we left. She was never seen again.
We went back to our room frantic. It turns out she broke the screen and climbed out the window that was open a small amount. We got her leash and some treats and hit the road. We drove up and down so many streets, calling her name and asking everyone we saw if they had seen her. Toby dropped me back at the hotel, I called the police and animal control to let them know what was happening. My parents went to our house to check our messages because her tag had our home number on it. We don't have cell phones so they forwarded our calls to their cell. Toby would stop in every half hour to check in, then he would go back out searching. We finally tried going to sleep and had a sleepless night.
At 5:00 am (after 15 hours), we woke up to loud banging on the door. We both jumped out of bed and ran to the door, expecting to see Ellie. There were two police officers there who relayed the sad message that Ellie had been hit by a car. She was on a highway with a 50 mph speed limit, only 1.5 miles away from the hotel. It makes us so sad to think she was so close and so lost, just looking for us. We couldn't go back to sleep or enjoy vacation after that, so we left.
We came home and called my parents to let them know what happened. To say we were devastated doesn't even begin to explain our feelings. Our hearts were broken and our home was empty. We just felt so terrible that we rescued this sweet girl and she was in our care for less than 3 days before she died. We tried to sleep but couldn't. And when we could, we had bad dreams.
I finally called Elaine from New England Lab Rescure, the wonderful woman we adopted Ellie from. I felt we had to tell her what had happened. I couldn't explain without crying what happened and how terrible we felt. She felt terrible, too, and told me she would find us another dog. We were so amazed to hear that from her. She sent out a mass e-mail to all of her connections looking for another great, black lab.
She found another lab for us named Scout. I'll explain all about him in another post, because this one is for Ellie. Knowing we were getting another dog was the direction we needed to pull through this terrible experience. It was a motivating factor, a light at the end of the tunnel, to help us through. Ellie was such a wonderful, sweet dog. There will always be a place in our hearts held just for her. She was our first dog we had together as a couple, and the first thing that made us as a couple into a small family. It saddens us to think or talk about her, but we know she is now getting all of the care, love, and attention she'll ever need. She doesn't have any reason to run away any more.
Sweet, sweet Ellie Girl <3
Super exciting and unexpected news - we got a dog! Here's the story:
I have been trying to break Toby down for a long time to let us get a dog, but he has never caved. Unbeknownst to me, a coworker of his was also trying to break him down. The coworker's sister works for NH Lab Rescue. The sister was about to pick up two labs in our area, told her brother, who told Toby, and Toby said okay, we'll look into it. I had no idea any of this was going on, until I got a call from the sister telling me she was calling about the two labs. I was like, come again? Are you kidding? She said that Toby told her brother he was interested in getting a dog and that's why she was calling. I was having a very difficult time believing this! She offered to stop by before she brought the dogs home with her (an hour away) just so I could meet them. She said that she had several other people interested so there was no pressure to get one that night.
She came over and had Ellie (formerly known as Starr) and her 10-month old puppy. They were both excellent dogs from the beginning, but I realized Ellie was more calm and relaxed. I know that Toby isn't the biggest fan of up-in-your face dogs, so I thought Ellie was the best choice. Luckily Toby got home in time to meet them and we decided to keep Ellie that night.
She is a super calm dog. She's been a bit timid adjusting to the new environment, but she's taking it like a champ. For a rescue dog, she's very happy and loving. She already knows "sit" and is learning other commands quickly. She's also adjusting to the new name fine. She's going to need to be spayed very soon but we hope to let her adjust a little more before that traumatizing experience. Toby gave her a bath last night at the groomer my brother works at (and Toby used to) and that was terrifying for her. She got over it fast, though, with lots of treats.
Here are some pictures of her first two days with us:
Here she is checking out the dining room / living room for the first time. She likes to hide under the table.
Getting to know the place. Isn't she so pretty?!
Toby had to help show her where her food bowl is. That only needed to happen once. She definitely knows where it is now!
Here's my brother, Devin, hanging outside with Ellie. Once she gets her tags we'll let her roam more. He's so great with dogs!
This is one of her "spots." Right by me and under a window.
We're super excited to have Ellie. It's fun acting like a little family with someone to care for. She's a great dog and a perfect match for our life! More pictures are sure to come!
I finished my summer research course yesterday, which I'm totally pumped about, but I still have a lot of work ahead of me. The summer part of the year-long research course is really just an introduction to the research part and a way of identifying an area of study.
I have my area of study identified - peer-tutoring. I am going to research the impact peer-tutoring has on the students involved. I hope to see an improvement in academics for both the tutors and the tutees (haha funny word), but I also hope to find that peer-tutoring improves the tutors' leadership skills - their ability to initiate, their confidence and self-esteem, and so on. We'll see - check back in May!
So I like checking things off of lists and seeing how far I've come. I've realized the following:
- 45 pages were written this summer
- 24 / 36 graduate credits have been completed (since last summer!)
- I am 1 / 3 of the way finished with my research course
- I have 100+ pages left to write
- I have 2 semesters left
- There are 269 days left until graduation!
I know that I am going to be saying this more and more throughout the next few months, but I cannot wait until graduation. I am looking forward to the work and research I have ahead of me, but life without graduate school is hard for me to picture at this point, so I can't wait to see it again!
Toby starts his internship this fall which is awesome because he gets real life experience being a guidance counselor in a public school, but a bummer because he has to work weekends and holidays when he isn't interning. It's going to be a hectic year ahead for the both of us, but we are very grateful that there is an end in sight!
On a completely different note, school is starting in less than a month, and I have so much to prepare for. I went back into school today for a couple of hours and have a lot of work ahead of me weeding through the stuff that was left for me in the new 5th grade classroom and getting ready for teaching a new grade. We are also restructuring to an RTI model, so there are going to be a lot of changes. I am excited, but also overwhelmed. I am working on finding ways to make sure my full plate stays organized. I have a lot on the plate, but I can't let it get all jumbled up into a big mess where I don't know where to start or what to do.
Even though school doesn't start until the very end of August, whenever August first comes around, I am itching to get into my classroom. I'm changing grade levels and classrooms this year, so I'm super excited about finding a new layout. I went into school for about 2 hours yesterday just to play with furniture arrangements. When I walked in, this is how it looked:
I'm always amazed at how quickly and efficiently the custodians clean the whole school. The always do an awesome job.
I sat and pondered for a long time on how I wanted the room to look. I moved furniture, didn't like it, so I moved it again and again. The SmartBoard is on one side of the room, and I have a whole white board on the other side, so I want the room set up in a way that both ends can be the front. There's also no cubbies or coat racks because the kids will have lockers, but I had to make a space for them to keep their stuff like water bottles.
Anyway, after a mostly unproductive 2 hours, I think I have an idea of how the classroom will be set up. That's the easy part. Unpacking and finding homes and preparing for the kids is a whole other job - but I'm excited!
The library shelves are under the white board, and the horse-shoe table is in the corner with the bean bag on top. I stood on my desk to take the picture, so it's shoved off in the back corner.
I wish I could go in more, but unfortunately grad school assignments are eagerly waiting to be finished. We have class all day on Monday and then the summer semester is over! Only two more long, full semesters left!
