It would be impossible for me to pick a favorite one, but I want to focus on the two most recent pets. Heads up...lots of pictures will follow!
When Hubs and I started dating, Grizzly had been the sole attention getter in his life for 5 years. Grizzly was literally the laziest and most laid-back dog on the face of this Earth. He was a Rottweiler who had that "mean" Rottie look to him but would have licked you to death before he harmed a hair on your head. If someone came to visit and he was sleeping, he would pick up his head from the couch, check out who it was, and go right back to sleep!
This was a pretty standard day for Grizzly. At most, he would move from one spot to another on the couch.
Grizzly had a tough life from a medical standpoint. He suffered through a torn ankle ligament, a ruptured ACL, and four separate surgeries for a cancerous lump. This dog was a trooper through it all though. (Warning: some of these pictures are a little graphic from his surgeries).
This was surgery one for the cancer. He had a lump on his leg and required a skin graft to close the wound.
And surgery number two when the first skin graft didn't take.
And surgery three when part of the second skin graft didn't adhere.
And finally his last cast and procedure when he had skin and fur growing again.
This dog was seriously the best dog anyone could ask for. We were lucky enough to spend 11 1/2 years with him (I was around for 6 1/2 of those). Very good friends of ours got us a photo shoot for Grizzly the summer before he died. It was the absolute best thing we ever did. Julie Furtado was amazing and took some awesome pictures that we will treasure forever. She came right to our house and we just got to play with Grizz for the afternoon while she took the pictures.
Just a few of them...I promise!
Grizzly died on August 9, 2011, just a few weeks after our wedding and honeymoon. He had a brain tumor and was gone within 48 hours. It is still one of the most difficult things I have ever experienced and we miss him every day. He was truly one of a kind.
(And now I'm crying as I write this blog post)
And then you move onto our current monster. Another Rottweiler, but Max could not be more different from Grizzly if he tried. Max is a completely different looking Rottweiler, which was important to us when getting a new dog. We didn't want to feel like we were comparing him to Grizz all the time and felt like if they looked different that would help a little.
Max was born on my birthday in 2011 and came to us on a plane all the way from California.
We should have known those eyes had a little of the devil in them!
Max has been rambunctious since the day he arrived and has certainly given us a run for our money!
I may look innocent, but really I'll eat all your napkins, shoes, and pillows.
I'm just so happy to eat dirt!
Max really is a wonderful dog, but he comes from a strong line of working dogs who have a ton of drive and need to be consistently challenged. He is also still a puppy and is working out some of those puppy behaviors (like stealing every rug in the house and running wildly down the hall with them). We are working on getting some more training for him to get ready for the baby, as he is certainly in for a surprise when he is not the only one getting attention in the house.
A big brother? I don't think so!
We are so lucky to have been blessed with such wonderful animals to be part of our family.
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