<![CDATA[Bark & Ophie - Blog]]>Tue, 20 Aug 2019 07:45:48 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[For the Love of Dogs]]>Tue, 30 Jul 2019 15:40:47 GMThttp://www.barkandophie.com/blog/for-the-love-of-dogs
 I grew up with parents who let me do crazy things. I'd bring home a stray dog I found in the middle of the night until we found its home, in the middle of a tornado we'd have to go home to get the cat to make sure she was safe, and I even rode my bike home crying because my guinea pig ran under the deck at the park (don't worry we got him out!). We grew up with just cats (and two guinea pigs) in our house, and I can tell you exactly how much I loved every one of those cats. I would bring them to bed with me every night, carry them when they didn't want to carried, and even take them to my grandma's house with me on snow days.
Animals have always been a part of my life,
​if I see one I need to pet it (yes I am the crazy lady running after stray cats), if I walk into a shelter I
​want to take them all home, and if I ever have to leave one I cry. 
       Fast forward to when I got married and got my very first dog. My husband grew up with a Sheltie and just LOVED her. I met her a few times before she passed away, and she was just the sweetest (although he forgot to mention the fact that she was a crazy puppy who barked every minute of the day *insert eye roll here*).  We started searching for puppies in January of 2016 and stumbled upon the runt of a rescue litter that was part Sheltie and part Rat Terrier (the regal boy pictured above). We drove four hours downstate to "look" (lol...doesn't everybody just go to look) at this puppy. The second he was in my arms, we all knew I was taking this puppy home.
Thus began my love affair with dogs.
Our one bedroom apartment above the theatre now held me, my husband, two cats, and a small terror named Barkley (anybody with a terrier will know what I mean). 
     My  dogs are spoiled x1000 (we literally just bought a new couch so they could all fit on it with us). From the moment we got Barkley, he got EVERYTHING he wanted (there's no exaggeration here). The poor boy suffered from separation anxiety, skin allergies, had two umbilical hernia surgeries, eye scratches from messing with the cats too much...I mean he went through all of that, so he deserved the world right?! Soon we moved from the apartments into our own house where he got to run freely in his own backyard (who cried the first time he got to run around? This girl). He then got another cat brother, Leo, and another dog sister, Ophelia (our sweetest girl). We quickly outgrew our little house with the fifth animal, so we moved on to what we hope will be our "furr-ever" home. When you get more space in your home you have to fill it right? We did . For the past three years, we added a new puppy to our family each year. Just last year we added our sixth member to the household, Brutus (our first big dog). 
Think we're crazy yet? 
We are. After Brutus, we added one more rescue kitten to the mix (Tybalt), and I think it's safe to say that we're set at seven animals! Our big house is at max capacity. It's a mad house...but I wouldn't have it any other way!
"So, why have so many dogs? How do you handle them all? Isn't it overwhelming? You guys are crazy! How do you keep your house clean? How do you afford them all? How do they all get equal amounts of love? Have you done training? How do they not destroy things?"

Those are just some of the questions that we hear all the time. Why do we do what we do? 

Yes, our house gets destroyed sometimes (all the time), we are tired and don't want to get up at 6am to let them out (guilty...I make the hubs do it a lot lol), they make a budget impossible sometimes, and they drive us insane. BUT the love you feel from a dog when you get home after a bad day is unconditional and incomparable. I don't know any human beings that would pick up my dirty laundry from the bathroom floor each day because they miss me. When my little girl runs up to me with that wiggly butt, ready to give me kisses, I'm instantly happy. When my little boy learns something new and looks at me like he's so proud, I'm can't help but be just as proud. When my biggest boy ALWAYS has to take a bag from my hands and carry it up the stairs for me, it's so sweet I want to die. Dogs heal our souls. They make our hearts smile. Dogs do so much for us. Their entire existence is centered around their owner. When their life is over (and Lord help me when that happens) my heart is going to hurt more than ever before (send help for my husband now, lol). So, why do I buy that extra toy they really don't need? Why do I bring home a treat that I know will be gone in one second?
​Why do we buy them a new couch so not one of them has to sit on the floor? For the love of the dogs.
So, follow along on my blogging journey to find out how you can best spoil your pet and keep them around as long as possible!

*Don't worry cat lovers. I love them too. Their time is coming! <3