MADDIE~
Our sweet loving Maddie has been a part of our family for almost as long as we have even been a family! We were married in Aug. of 2008 and we rescued a 2.5 month old Maddie from the pound on Jan. 2 of 2009. These are the very first pictures we ever took of her, the day we picked her up from the pound!
She was so adorable and so pitiful looking that Ken just COULDN'T say no, even though we were not allowed to have dogs in our apartment! It was love at first sight, and we were moving in less than a month, so like I said he COULD NOT leave her!
Maddie was a great dog from the very beginning (with lots of good training from Ken) she never chewed up ANYTHING, she LOVED to snuggle, and did quite well on a leash. Potty training was a little rough, especially with all the moving we did! My mother-in-law used to call her Miss Piddles because she would be running around the front room having a great time and would just piddle as she went, leaving a trail of tiny spots behind her because she would be to excited to even stop and squat! What a nightmare! Kens mom did enjoy putting a little sweater on her though, Ken was not as thrilled...
She is also a BIG FAT WHINER! Good grief does she let you know just how she feels! The husky in her definitely shows because she doesn't bark so much as just whine, LOUDLY! But she is very obedient (mostly to Ken haha), loves being out in the sun, and does so well with children. We love her so much and our lives just wouldn't be the same without her! Here is Maddie lounging in the sun, but she is such a princess that she wouldn't lay in the dirt, and instead opted for the pool!
~Did I mention its impossible to keep her clean!? :)
HARLEY~
Our not-so-little-anymore Babydog is such a joy! We had been wanting to get a second dog for quite a while as a companion for Maddie, and we had adopted a German Shepard/wolf-Alaskan Malamute mix while we lived in vernal (Ben) and loved it, but when we moved to Boise we just couldn't find a place that would allow LARGE dogs, let alone 2 fairly LARGE dogs, so we had to give him away. (Don't worry we went to the extent of holding interviews for a good home for him!)
(BEN) We miss him and wish we could see what he is like today!
Anyway a couple months later (Aug. 2009) we moved back to Pocatello and ended up finding a place that had NO PROBLEM with dogs, of any size or breed! So we started the search for a second dog again. We looked around for months, wanting to find that same "love at first sight" connection with a pup or even a breed to search for. After countless trips to animal shelters (we really wanted to rescue another puppy) we just weren't finding what we were looking for. Then one day in the grocery store we saw an ad for American Bulldog puppies for sale. The flyer said 300$ each so we didn't really think twice about it, but the puppies were certainly adorable. A few weeks later a new flyer appeared and the puppies had been priced to 200$! We went home and started researching the breed, since we didn't know much about them, and Ken instantly fell in love! We figured that since the price was continuing to drop we might be able to negotiate if we had a connection with one of their pups! So we called and set up a time to see the puppies. The owners said they were all purebred but not papered (hence the lofty price) and they were all DIRECT DESCENDANTS of CHANCE from Homeward Bound! Here is a pic of her dad... HUGE!
Anyway, there were about 8-10 puppies left and Ken was loving one and I was loving another (the soon to be Harley!). We couldn't really decide what to do. We knew we wanted one, but couldn't agree on WHICH one. It was my logic that ALL animals love Ken and only FEW love me, that got Ken to go with my pup! Ken wasn't thrilled because he didn't have the same connection as with Maddie, but he loved the breed enough to be ok with it! So in Oct. of 2009 we brought home Harley!! Here is Harley as an 8 week old!
She was so adorable, and she always liked to sleep in the strangest places! Harley did fairly well with Potty Training, thanks mostly to Maddie teaching her!
Harley was an incredibly sweet puppy! And everyone thought she and Maddie were related! When she was little they did look similar, but she didn't stay little for long! And as was typical of us, We ended up moving only 3 months after. Ken left for Texas in Dec. of 2009 and I stayed to finish up the semester and get things ready to move. I moved down in Feb. of 2010 and this is the Harley I found...
Just as big as Maddie and continuing to grow like a weed! She went through a rough phase of not being able to tell just how HUGE a puppy she was, but has since grown into a really great dog!! She was never a snugly puppy, but after she turned about a year she started to like to sit on Kens lap all the time, just like Maddie! So we now have a 60-70lb and a 85-95lb lap dog! GOOD GRIEF! Harley also rarely barks, or makes any noise for that matter. Which we love since Maddie is always so vocal! But when she does bark she sure does sound ferocious!
All in all I LOVE my dogs, so so much. I know I sometimes put off that I could do without them, or they don't quite mean the world to me, but they honestly DO! I can't imagine my life without them, I would be so lonely!
Maddie and Harley, we sure do love you!
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