Saturday, September 5, 2009

"Soloman's Blog!"








Soloman


The ride to get Soloman was so long, not sure if it really was because it was a long drive or because I was just that excited! The city it self was an experience I will never forget!
We finally arrived to meet him and I saw him standing in the window with Kristin and my first thought, and I kid you not was, “ Oh I can’t wait to kiss him!” It was like seeing one of my children for the first time in a long time. My husband didn't have the pleasure of seeing him through the window so of course I am screaming at him with excitement that he is, “So big, so glorious, Honey I love him!” Mean -while my husband is trying to park! When I walked in the door and I met him for the first time I knew that this would work deep down in my heart! He was so beautiful and well behaved, and yes I got my kiss right away smack dab on his forehead.
It was so nice sitting around with Kristin and her getting to know us as a family. I am blessed to have this family God gave me and that includes my dogs.
Soloman instantly took to Mike, which didn’t surprise me, we used to call him the dog whisperer. He played with Mike and gave him a high five, he sat, and gave paw. I could tell he was prefect with in the first few minutes of meeting him!
You know the feeling you get when you bring your child home for the first time from the hospital? You sit by them, you make sure the driver does the speed limit , you’re an extra pair of eyes they don’t need and so forth. That was me on the way home. I was so worried that the road was too bumpy or that we were going too fast, or the car next to us was too close.
We stopped at a rest stop and Soloman loves to get in and out of cars. He just jumped right out and off we went, and I really mean off. BOY he is strong. Maybe this will help keep me fit , I thought. The seven hour drive home was fun. That last half hour of course felt like forever. We arrived home around 2:30 am and now we had the chore of introducing two dogs that are pretty big too each other so that we can get some shut eye!
Mike took Soloman outside and walked the yard with him, while I went in and loved on my baby girl “Dana,” whom now looks like a large Lab to me because she is so short! Dana right away smells something on me and won’t stop sniffing. It seemed like Christmas morning for her she was so excited.
Mike and Soloman were outside in our Pole barn, (since there is a light in there and it is two in the morning we decided that would be a good place to introduce them!) I took Dana outside and opened that door and oh boy Soloman jumped and was wagging his tail and Dana jumped and barked and was wagging her tail. They wanted each other so bad right away. I have to say that the introduction went so well. They sniffed ,stood tall when needed and most importantly they listened to Mike and I. We wanted them to calm down so we thought that we would lay with them on the ground in the pole barn, (mind you it is gravel) and well Soloman wasn’t too sure of it. He didn’t want to put his body all the way down. That’s how Dana gets sometimes too. She doesn’t want her back end to touch the ground it is so funny. All went well and then we brought them into the house and their again was no problems. They sniffed and walked around. Soloman doesn’t like my living room too much but I think the couch scares him, ( it is a wrap-a-round) I am going to move it to the other wall for them to have more room to play. By now it’s going on four in the morning so we put Dana in her crate or she will have accidents in the house and we bring Soloman up stairs with us to sleep. Surprisingly there was no whining like when you bring home a puppy for the first time. I think at this point we were all really, really tired.
We all had a few hours of sleep and were up again by eight. We had to get ready to show Soloman off to everyone. We took them outside and they had so much fun and did so good. Not once has there been growling at each other. Not once has either one of them gotten mad about anything.
Our kids were not home yet so we decided it was time to take him to the pet store. Everybody there knows us from bringing Dana in and it is right up town. It was nice and he had fun looking around. We then went out to Chesterland and then we went to Mike’s work to show off Soloman who loved the car ride.
Mikes boss is not a big guy and he couldn’t believe how big he was. We introduced him to everyone there and then we went to my work. By this time I have already received at least three text s asking, “When are you going to get her?” (Invisible Fence)
Now Luke, my one manager doesn’t like big dogs. He is highly afraid of them, and has only touched Dana once and that was very hard for him. Everyone’s mouth dropped when I came in the office, it was kind of funny because most of them were on the phone so they couldn’t say what they were thinking. Everyone their had to love on him and pet him and comment on how well behaved he is. (Which he is, he listens better than my kid s do sometimes!) I wasn’t able to show him to Jack . He wasn’t in the office ,but I am going to take him to work with me one day this week soon!
Now we headed home because my Best Friend , ( Heather, who has five kids) is coming over to bring my kids home to meet Soloman . Heather and her family are always at our house and we go there all the time. We are family. We walked Soloman and Dana around the yard for a little bit and worked on heel and sit when walking and they did great together. Soloman is so funny he would look at Dana and then turn around and walk away. I am not sure if he is afraid of the grass or if his feet hurt him.
Heather arrived with my three kids, Haleigh 10, Patrick 8 and Emily 5 along with her five kids. Liana 10, Tyler 9, Mason 8, Joey 7 and Blake 5! Yep that’s our gang! The kids were screaming the minute they pulled into the driveway. All the way down our driveway I could hear them. (our drive way sits 650 ft off the road!) Dana is going crazy at this point because she loves Heather and her husband Dan. It was so cute when Heather parked the Van and Dan parked our van all the kids jumped out like they saw a spider or something in the van. Soloman was at Heather’s door to greet her right away . Soloman did get a little scared when he was approached by the kids but it wasn’t anything he didn’t overcome real quick when he realized that they all wanted to love on him. The kids did so good we introduced them one by one and they said, “ Hi” and they were loving on him.
I had to leave and take my son to the Doctor, and it took everything I had to leave Soloman home with my husband Mike and our friend Dan.. By now both Dana and Soloman are getting a long on leash and they are listening to us with out any problems, so I knew that it was just a matter of time before they got to play. Mike introduced Soloman to the Invisible Fence after flagging the yard. It went good. He only got one correction. At first he stayed really close to us and the house. Then he started to realize that Dana runs all around the yard why can’t he. He got to play with so many dogs. My brother -in-law has a Jack Russell and he had his dog over and they played. My friend Heather went home and got her dogs. She has a boxer and a Boston Terrier. They came down to meet Soloman and play and run around the yard. It was so cute watching these dogs play last night. They were so happy. The kids loved it too. The older girls want to learn how to take the Dane’s for a walk and I told them that in time they will be able to.
So I wanted to do this right. I didn’t want to mess up and anyone that knows me knows that everything has to be prefect , again. I have a little bit of O.C.D. So I wanted Lindsay to be the one to tell me that the dogs were doing great. Even though around 2 o’clock I could see for myself, but I still needed someone professional to tell me.
Lindsay was kind enough to come over (9-4-09). When she got there we were all playing and all the dogs were happy. Lindsay did a little bit of heel work and auto sit with Soloman. We did some leash work and worked with Dana and Soloman. Lindsay confirmed what I already knew that they would be just fine.
Jack (again my brother-in-laws dog) was also outside so she worked a little with him and Hobbs whom is Heathers Boston. It was an awesome night so much playing and having a good time. I am usually cleaning all the time or organizing things in the house. It’s an obsession I have. It was really weird last night because I didn’t worry about any of that stuff. I was having so much fun! When the adults finally sat down to have dinner around 9, both Soloman and Dana laid on their beds and slept. The kids would come in and pet them and then go back into the living room. It is funny with Soloman he is so tall that his nose can reach the back of my counter tops. I am not used to that and the pictures that I have on here don’t show or justify how large he is.
The kids all passed out in random spots in the house; Patrick sitting up on the couch and the girls half in and out of their beds. Everyone was so pooped.
It was really cute, when everybody started to leave. Soloman wasn’t sure whom he was staying with at first. He is a follower and follows Mike everywhere he goes. Mike was in the shower and I think Soloman thought that he had left. Everybody left so I took the dogs outside for a walk. They didn’t want to play they walked around the yard and sniffed everything and went potty. I am amazed at how well they are getting along. We went back in after a half hour of walking around and I put Dana to sleep and thought I would try to see if Soloman would sleep downstairs. I am not sure where he is used to sleeping.
Mike went upstairs and then I went up stairs and before I was all the way up we hear this big pitiful whine and bark. Remind you this is the first time I have heard him actually bark. He hasn’t barked back at Dana or anyone coming into the driveway. It was the cutest thing. Of course my heart melted and Soloman and his big comfy bed came up to my room where he slept. We slept in peace, until Emily went into the bathroom. It was really cute, she was going potty and of course since she is five she left the door open and he went to the door and looked at her and whined. I think he wanted to know what she was doing. I got up and had to guide him back into our room where he went right back to sleep. ( The next morning Emily says to me, “Mom the new dog came and checked on me last night and he is so big!”)
This morning we woke up early, I actually got out of bed in a good mood, (normally I am not a morning person) I couldn’t wait to get outside with the dogs! I turned the coffee pot on and grabbed the leashes and off we went!
It’s almost like they knew that they had to go potty first and then they could play. Soloman did so good he went potty and then he and Dana played for about a half hour outside just playing and romping around! I put Dana’s leash on her and she came into the house and I couldn’t get Soloman to come in he just stood there looking at me. I am not sure if he had a command that he followed or ritual (such as wiping his feet, taking collars off please let me know of anything that would help me!)
I took them in and showed them each their food and made sure that they weren’t going to bother each other (we are working on this with our dog.) they were perfect. Soloman ate and he even got Dana to eat her food which half the time she doesn’t like it without wet food. They ate and did a great job laying down for a good 45 min afterwards. I didn’t want to upset their tummies and they laid there like the two wonderful dogs that they are.
Emily was the only one awake and she was downstairs eating her breakfast while I went up stairs to get dressed. All of a sudden I hear, “Mom they are fighting” just as you, who is reading this is scared, I was for a minute, however I didn’t hear any barking or growling. So I calmly went down stairs and I find Emily in the corner with big tears in her eyes and two dogs looking at her. So you can breathe again and relax they were not fighting they were playing and she scared them because she yelled for me. It was so pitiful I didn’t know who to feel bad for more. So I picked Emily up and showed her that they wanted to play and she was laughing by the time I finished telling her she was all better. Now I didn’t mean to scare any of you just wanted you to see it from a 5 year olds stand point. Soloman is almost as tall as her and Dana loves to sit on her. It was such a cute moment, kind of like when you see the dogs pulling the diapers down when the baby is walking.
I then let Dana outside to burn some of her energy, she reminds me of an ADHD child who doesn’t sit still! I was able to get ready this time, I think I might give myself more time in the morning and take them for walks down the power lines (it’s a good mile, I live right next to them) Grandma (Marion) who lives next door comes over every morning to give Dana a treat and she came over and Dana ran up to her waiting for it and Soloman caught right on and they had a treat and got some more loving.
I had to go to work today and since I have been spending a lot of time with Soloman I decided that I better spend some time with Dana. So I decided that she would be who I took to work with me. The kids went with my friend Sandra to her house and Grandma went up town and Dana and I went to work. Soloman was sleeping at home. While I was at work I felt like a mother that goes back to work for the first time after having a baby. I was so worried about Soloman, I didn’t want him to think that we left him. Luckily I have a wonderful mother-in-law who when she got home let Soloman outside for me and left the door open and he was free to roam while she did the weed eating, she even called me at work to let me know that he was doing just fine. My mother-in-law said that he would come outside and look at her and then go back in and lay down. She gave Soloman a rawhide bone to chew on, Marion said he would toss it up in the air, step on it and even put it in his mouth and drop it, however he wouldn’t chew on it. That is until we pulled in and Dana got out that he wanted it!
Meanwhile Dana is pooped she was sleeping next to me at work all day. Its a great feeling when you know that your kids and your dogs are happy.
I went into this not knowing how well Dana would do, but I also knew that Dana needed a friend. Who wants to go through all their life without someone special in it to play with? I looked into this and right away as soon as I read the first e-mail about Soloman I knew that it was meant to be.
Tonight we are introducing Soloman to the four wheelers, we have three to ride around on out here. I am hoping that he does not get scared by them. They can be noisy at times. He didn't really care to much, he was in the house though. Tonight feeding time went great. Today was a good day!



I will write more in the days to come but I wanted to share this with all of you! I am so grateful that I was chosen to help in your time of need. I will Cherish Soloman just like I do anyone else in our family.

I look forward to writing more!

1 comment:

Susan Maree Jeavons said...

Cute video of the Danes. Now you need to put one up of the kids riding the horses. Love you!