A Little Late But… National Pit Bull Awareness Day!

October 25th was National Pit Bull Awareness Day.  It was founded in 2007 by a lady here in Tennessee as “… a day to educate and foster positive communications and experiences in the communities in which we and our dogs live.”  I have two rescued bullies of my own (Harley, the American Staffordshire/Boxer mix, and Bella, the American Bulldog/Belgian Malinois mix–according to their Wisdom Panel DNA tests!), so it’s an important day for us.  Around here we celebrate birthdays, gotcha days, and National Pit Bull Awareness Day!

I tried to take Harley’s picture to commemorate the occasion, and when I told him to smile, I got this.  haha  He’s such a smartass.  (Truth be told, I caught him a split second before a yawn, but it’s funnier to think it’s a cheesy grin.)

Since there were no events held locally, the pups and I drove up to Nashville for Nashville Pittie’s NPBAD Pit Bull Revolution.  It was such a good day!  So awesome to be surrounded by so many ambassadors for this wonderful breed with their families.  I only snapped a few quick photos while we were lining up for the March of the Pitties parade because I saw Nashville Pittie volunteers taking pictures all over the place.  I assumed they would be sharing them, but they haven’t posted them yet.

There were tons of vendors there giving away samples and just volunteering their time and services.  We took advantage of two awesome ones.  The first one you may think I’m a little crazy for, but I don’t care.  I’ve heard of people having this done but had never done it myself, and it was an AMAZING experience.  We had a session with an animal communicator.  Within the first minute of our session, she made me a firm believer that she was legit, and I most definitely will be using her again in the future.  The second one was a photographer.  Amiee Stubbs was there taking photos which would be free for us to download.  She posted them a few days ago, and I kind of love ours.

That’s Bella on my right side and Harley on my left.

As the day went on, it got louder and more crowded as more people showed up and the live band started playing.  Bella has the world by the balls, but Harley doesn’t have her confidence (one thing the communicator and I talked about), and he was getting a little anxious.  We made our exit, but instead of coming home we stopped in Clarksville at their dog park.  They both loooooove the dog park  As shy as Harley can be at times, and as much as he depends on Bella, all of that completely disappears when you put him in a dog park.  It’s amazing to watch.  He’s a little social butterfly!  He plays with every dog and greets every person there.  It makes me a proud pittie momma, especially when other people there comment on him.

When everyone was finally exhausted from the day’s fun, we packed it in and left.  Once we were headed home, I felt like it was FINALLY safe for me to drink something.  haha  I brought water and bowls for the dogs, but I had kind of intentionally dehydrated myself because when you’re traveling by yourself with dogs it’s hard to make a pit stop.  You can’t leave them in the car and you can’t take them into a rest stop, so unless you find a Petsmart or Tractor Supply or some other animal friendly place, it just ain’t happening. It was like 4:00 and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast or drunk anything all day, so I was starved and parched.  We pulled into a Sonic where I got what felt like the coldest, wettest cherry lmeade ever and an order of tots to tide me over till dinner… and I couldn’t stand to eat in front of my babies, who I was sure had worked up an appetite too, so I got them a plain burger to share.  haha!

Once all the bellies were full, it was lights out.

I absolutely loved spending the entire day spoiling my little furry family.  Screw baby showers and soccer tournaments.  This is my thing!

 

 

 

 

 

Diagnosis, Dogs, and a Dilemma

I completely let this week get away from me and haven’t posted at all. So let me catch you up!

I went to the surgeon as scheduled this past Wednesday, and he wasn’t at all concerned by the lymph node that has shown up in my neck. He said that with no other symptoms, with it only being one node (and he felt me up pretty good checking for other ones), and with it being as small as it is (less than 0.5 cm) he didn’t feel it was anything at all to be worried about. He gave me written orders for blood work and a chest x-ray to be sure, but I haven’t been yet. Honestly? I probably won’t go. I hate needles THAT much.

I had a pretty eventful Thursday-Saturday. We’ve been wanting to get our 10-month-old American Bulldog mix puppy a playmate, and we have actually turned in an adoption application for another American Bulldog mix at a rescue in Memphis. We got the two dogs together for a play date last Sunday, and things went well. But I wanted to do a trial visit at our home before we made it official. I am very glad that we did. We picked him up Thursday and had him until Saturday. For the sake of keeping this post at less than novella length, let’s just say that things did not go as well as I had hoped. When things were good they were really good, but when things were bad they were UGLY. He’s a very good dog, but there were just too many issues. As shitty as it makes me feel, we’re just simply not going to be able to go through with the adoption. I feel absolutely horrible about it. We struggled with the decision all weekend. We talked about it, and I cried about it, but ultimately I have to put the happiness and safety of my other two pets first.

And now on to running news… I set a 4-mile PR yesterday! That’s not what this is about, but I just had to throw that in there.

I have a running dilemma. I’ve been pondering on it for a couple of weeks now, and I just can’t make up my mind! I ran my first 1/2 marathon last November, and I am running another one in April. My original plan was to run the same 1/2 this fall that I ran in November last year to see how much progress I had made in 12 months. It’s on October 30th. The Marine Corps Marathon in DC is on October 31st. My friend that ran the MCM last year has me toying with the idea of running it with her this year. I obviously can’t do both. So now I’m trying to decide what I want to do! I still consider myself a beginner runner (only started running last July), and the thought of running a marathon is pretty darn intimidating. I remember how I felt at the end of last year’s half. I can’t imagine someone saying, “Okay, you’re halfway there!” at that point. I know if I really put my mind to it I could probably train my way to 26.2. When I first started running I was intimated by 13.1, so I realize that it’s all relative. But as scary as 26.2 sounds, I suuuuuuuuuuuure would like to be able to say, “I ran my first marathon the year I turned 30!”