say goodbye.

"she is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. you are her life, her love, her leader. she will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of her heart. you owe it to her to be worthy of such devotion."  

- unknown

noel.

but we call her nono.

she belongs to my mom & dad.
they adopted her almost eight years ago. 

{not long after the death of our family dog, buddy}
she's been a faithful companion, travel buddy, and
a well-loved member of the family.

her health has taken a serious decline in the last year or so.

she has trouble walking.

she's nearly blind.

old dog issues run her life.

last week, we knew it was time...

time to say goodbye.

adam gave her a bath last night.

he said goodbye to her this morning.

she'll be gone - to a new life across the rainbow bridge - by the time
he gets home from work tonight.

my heart aches for my parents

who are returning home to say goodbye to their faithful friend.
my heart aches for my children

who have never dealt with death...until now.

nono was a good dog.

her fourteen years of life were filled with love & joy.
she touched many lives.

she will be missed.

*nono has been in our care since thanksgiving. we dogsit for my parents often, but this trip was longer than normal due to family obligations my father had to take care of in his home state. last week, nono had some health issues that scared me. she wasn't eating. cleaning up vomit, poo & blood on a daily basis was not fun. clearly, something was wrong. the vet suggested blood work, but given her age & her condition, he said that it would be best to choose quality of life over anything else. my parents, who had to make this decision while 18 hours away, agreed. nono's ashes will be scattered in the garden at my mom & dad's house. it is the same place my parents scattered buddy's ashes.

a pupdate: buxton.

i'm warning you now:  be prepared to overdose on cuteness. 

from his squished in nose, his "blew" eyes {one eye blew this way, the other blew that way...thanks, dad} & his sweet lil' paws...

yep, buxton will stop you dead in your tracks with his crazy, latte colored eyes.  even worse? when he shakes his whole rear end {because he can't wag his tail}.  watching him shake his boom boom because he's happy to see me?  i die.  i'll share video of that, promise, but for now enjoy some photos of the little stinker.

ridiculously cute, right?

yeah, i think so, too.

snuggle buddies.

i feel like it's my job to share all of the cuteness that seems to be oozing from my home now that we have become a two dog family.

life with a new pup has been fun.  

throw rugs have been replaced with puppy pads.  

dog toys cover my living room floor.

frisco's 'super-sized' crate {a.k.a. his house} is, once again, in the bedroom.

so far, things have been a breeze.

frisco is very tolerant of the puppy.

aside from hosing down my dyson, frisco hasn't shown any signs of jealousy.

i love how both dogs tease each other.

i love watching them chase one another & fight over toys and sticks.

buxton is a good sleeper.  he's a good snuggler, too.

frisco is, too.
{must be a boston thang.}

we make every effort to have one-on-one time with frisco.

we constantly tell him how much we love him.

he's our big bubs.  now we've got a little bubs to love, too.

when we brought frisco home a year & a half ago, our breeder said we couldn't just love one boston terrier.

she was right.

i'm so glad we've become a two dog home.

a pup named buxton.

our newest addition.
he has the same papa as frisco.

he's red with a splash of brindle.

his eyes are so dreamy.  they will not be brown.

his personality is so different from frisco's personality.

he will be our lil' trouble maker.

paws.

if these aren't the paws of {perhaps} the world's most spoiled dog, then i don't know who they belong to.  

designer dog?

earlier this month we took our kids to the skinny dip for some froyo and as we were leaving malia noticed a dog in the car parked next to us. 

malia:  oooh, look at the cute dog!

aidan:  what kind is it?

adam:  i don't know.  maybe a retriever of some kind?

me:  i think it's one of those goldendoodles.

adam:  a what? 

me:  you know, a golden retriever & poodle mix.  they call it a designer breed.

malia:  isn't that like a snickerdoodle?


{source of the cookie, i added the text}

spread some holiday cheer...

...by voting for logan.

remember logan? my sister & brother-in-law said good-bye to their beautiful golden retriever back in september after logan lost his brave battle against lymphoma.

monica & james have entered logan's photo in a pet holiday contest and he's currently in the #1 spot! there are six more days of voting left...please show logan some love & give him a 5 paw rating {and, to be fair to others in the contest, please vote for them, too}. you do have to register to vote, but it's free & if you uncheck the two boxes then you'll never receive any spam or emails.

click HERE to register & vote for logan.

the newest member of the family.

My sister & brother-in-law {who just celebrated their first wedding anniversary yesterday} are the proud new parents of:

Bruin the Newfoundland

Bruin the Newfie joins big sister, Moxie the Bernese Mountain Dog. From what I've heard, Moxie is a bit apprehensive around Bruin. I've also heard that Bruin is quite the little beast...he's 17 pounds and only nine weeks old.

I cannot wait to meet the lil' guy!