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Mar 15 2015

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JillyBean- True Schnauzytown Stories

So here’s a story of a lovely lady named Jill, who was waiting around at MSPCA’s Nevin’s Farm for some ~~sucker~~ kind human to come whisk her angelic face away to her forever home. Her old caretaker had apparently been incarcerated. (My human’s nosy side is tortured by the absence of more information than that.) The vets at the MSPCA had estimated her age to be around 14 and she was quite, er, portly. Gussy and his Momma, who as you know used to be our roommates, live up around Nevin’s farm and mom likes to go on weekends to look at all the animals that they have there and she likes to pretend she’s going to take one home.

This should go without saying, but obviously all this pretending was most likely going to turn real sooner or later.

Two weeks ago, it did. Mom and Mama A went into Nevin’s farm and the last pup that they saw was this mess:

She was chunky and crusty and she had poo stuck to her bum.

Mom was in love.

She walked little miss Jilly around for a bit and then ran right into the adoption center and asked for an application. She was told that there had to be blood work and that someone else had already applied to adopt her. This was perfect for mom. She was trying, but there was a good chance it wouldn’t work out, so it didn’t feel like a commitment yet.

The moms ran around and did errands and a few hours later mom got an email from the director of the adoption center saying that the first family backed out because they wanted a younger dog. Dummies. Mom immediately wrote back and said she was interested pending blood results.

That’s when the panic set in. Mom is not allowed to have two dogs in her condo. Mom didn’t know if she could do this. Mom talked to friends and family and panicked. She’s fluent in panic and anxiety. She got permission from her neighbors and she felt a lot better. She realized that was the thing bothering her the most. She made her decision on the following Monday when she heard that Jilly’s blood work was normal. All that was left was to pick her up on the next Saturday. She fretted over her teeth, then learned that the MSPCA would be doing the dental surgery before mom got her. Everything seemed right and was falling into place.

Saturday, March 7th, 2015. The moms and I went to Nevin’s farm so I could meet my potential new sister. She loved my bum and I didn’t snap at her. The rest was history. Here are a few pictures of us when we first met:

She loved me immediately. Especially my bum. Before I knew it, we were back in the car and somehow, I was in the back seat:

She got a bath at Mama A’s house and we just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. She made herself comfy VERY quickly.

A week later, I wouldn’t say we love eachother, but honestly, mom can’t imagine life without her:

Welcome to the family, Jilly Bean!

Tagged bio, Jill, Peter, TrueSchnauzytownstories

Feb 23 2015

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The Story of Peter- True Schnauzytown Stories

Once upon a time, in a little town called Nottingham, two very cute schnauzies made more very cute schnauzies. Their names were Fonz and Shirley. Not too far away, in a section of Boston, called Southie lived a human and her sister. The human was named Jamie and she had always loved herself a dog. Her dad, who lived not to far, had a most fabulous black lab named Smudgey, but Jamie wanted a pup of her own. Actually she wanted to want a pup. The jury is still out regarding whether or not she actually wanted one. One day, just before Thanksgiving, Jamie’s sister got it in her head that she wanted a schnauzer. But she wanted the schnauzer to be Jamie’s schnauzer because she wasn’t sure she wanted to commit. Jamie’s sister was the boss of Jamie. She still kind of is, to be perfectly honest. Jamie’s sister orchestrated a puppy search with Jamie, Moe and their dad. And Smudge. She went everywhere with her daddy. In case you are wondering what Smudge looked like here she is:

Wasn’t she beautiful? She’s not with us anymore, but she is greatly missed.

ANYWAY back to the story of me, not Smudge, but maybe I’ll have to tell that one day. So Jamie, Lindsay (mom’s sister/roommate), Melissa (Moe, Pawblo, etc), Smudge and their dad all piled into the car to follow leads that Lindsay had found on the classifieds for Schnauzer puppies. First the went ALL the way down to almost the cape and found a horrendous place that mom doesn’t like to think about. It was pretty much a puppy mill type place and no one could stomach getting a puppy there. So they followed their next lead ALL the way up to New Hampshire. Nottingham is a small town not far from where mom went to get her undergraduate degree. The place where I was born was a small house full of kids and puppies. The owner of Shirley and Fonz was a married mom of four who was also a nurse. She was caring and willing to see mom and her family late in the evening.

When the family came into the house there was a litter of brown schnauzer puppies who were not ready to go to their forever homes yet. The woman explained that there was one salt n’ pepper from a previous litter that hadn’t found a home yet and was ready to go. She brought him out. He was me. She brought out my parents and my dog mom Shirley immediately jumped into mom’s dad’s lap and made herself at comfortable. Fonz did a round of sniffing and settled by the kids in his family. Mom, Lindsay, Moe and Mom’s dad discussed the options. Choose one of the younger pups or take the left over from the last litter. Mom was tired. They had spent the whole day looking for puppies. She wanted something to show for it. (She was young). She choose the leftover so she could take me home that night. Although she didn’t make the decisions for the right reasons, she definitely made the right choice.

They took me home that night. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2003. When they brought me out to the car, Smudge was not impressed. In fact she was pretty pissed. They had done no preparations for a new puppy so they had to find an open pet store to buy stuff. On our way back to Boston I pooped on Lindsay. This is something that Mom’s dad has never let go. And brings up all the time. He thinks it was hilarious. He thought it was less hilarious when I pooped at his feet in the living room of the lake house a few months ago though. Mom thought both were pretty funny. I digress.

Mom brought me home and went to a party. SHE WENT TO A PARTY. Unbelievable. She left this:

To go to a party.

I guess you could say that her enthusiasm for having a puppy had to grow.

Here are the things she remembers thinking that first night (after she came home from her party):

“why is he crying?”

“I can’t do this for the next 13+ years”

“I”m going to have him until I’m in my 30’s!”

Nice right? But our love grew. Within a week she was as obsessed with me as she should have been. She woke up several times a night to let me out to “go potty.” She watched me and praised me. (She gave me a litter box?!?!?)

She bathed me

She made me sleep in a crate (I pooped in it several times)

Thank goodness she doesn’t do that anymore. Obviously I am much more comfortable in my bed.

She and I became the bestest buds that we are today. We didn’t have the best start and Mom would never recommend getting a puppy with such little thought or preparation. But luckily, for us, it all worked out. And now 11 years later, when mom is well into her thirties, she never wants to let me go and there is no one else she’d rather take a terrible Sunday night selfie with.

What are your puppy love stories??

PS. Since I was born in Nottingham, and I’m also a Sheriff. I guess that makes me the Sheriff of Nottingham! HAHAHA

Sorry.

Have a great week everyone, See you on IG!!

Side note- We are going to try to post once a week- if you have anything you would like us to write about, please let us know and we will do it.

Tagged bio, Peter, TrueSchnauzytownstories

Feb 07 2015

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Meredith- True Schnauzytown Stories

In honor of Caturday, I am sharing the story of my little Tuxedo Sister, Meredith. As I told you, Gussy’s mom had a tuxedo cat named Reily when she moved in with us. Reily was and is a portly fellow who never has any interest in playing unless there is food or significant amounts of catnip involved. Mom found this boring. She often expressed to Gussy’s mom that she would like Reily to play with her. Gussy’s mom should have seen the signs and stopped this before it started, but alas she did not. Totally all Mama A’s fault.

Mom used to have some goldfish. They were big and time consuming and Mom and Mama A had to go to PetSmart to get some fishy supplies. By some sort of terrible coincidence, Kitty Connection was having an adoption event. Natch, the mamas had to go check out the kittens up for adoption and a tiny tuxie named Tina caught Mom’s eye because she looked so much like Mr. Reily-Pants. The volunteer offered to let mom hold the tiny kitty, but warned her that she was squirmy. Mom is a sucker. Anyone could see this scam from ten miles away, but not my old lady. So I think you can see where this is going. Mom stood in the store for almost an hour holding a very NOT SQUIRMY cuddly little Tina and found she couldn’t give her back. So we ended up with this:

Mom didn’t feel that Tina was really a good name for her so she named her Meredith after the small town in New Hampshire where she had spent her summers growing up and where her dad still has a home.

Here’s a photo of my face after meeting her. Note my look of despair. It was partially due to having to wear a citronella collar to keep me from parking in tiny Meredith’s face. Now luckily she doesn’t care and I am allowed to bark in her face all I want. (Quick human note to all those parents of barky barkners out there, this citronella collar has been a life saver on several occasions, but I don’t use it often- better than a shock!)

So now momma’s little girl is five years old. And since Reily has moved out she’s grown kind of portly herself due to lack of competition for food. Here is what I think is the only photo of Meredith with Reily that exists (I think it’s because there was only one open window in the house)

As a side note, mom is really wishing the forecast on the TV in this picture was our forecast now.

So now we have Miss MereBear in all her goofy glory. Ten facts about my silly sister:

1. She cries when we leave the house. Like a dog

2. She is so useful in knocking treats off the counter. I love her for it.

3. We play and wrestle frequently, but we NEVER cuddle.

4. She weighs 10 pounds. She weighed 8 pounds last year. Mom says “whoops”

5. She is missing one of her canine teeth because it broke. Having that one removed probably saved the rest of her teeth because she had really bad teeth as a kitten and because she broke that one she had two dental cleanings in one year. Now her teeth are perfect.

6. She loves laying on mom. Mom finds this endearing. Most of the time.

7. She never has accidents outside the litter box. For this mom loves her and I am disappointed because I can’t get into her litter box.

8. Gus is desperate to eat her.

9. Mom tries to keep her off the kitchen table, but has pretty much given up because she rarely eats at the table anyway. Like never.

10. She is a big purrer. She even purrs at the vet making it impossible for the vet to hear her heart.

Here are some photos from a special Caturday Photo shoot this morning. Let us know if there is anything else you need to know about my crazy cat sis!