Reasons to adopt a dog

Life is full of choices...

Cereal or toast?

1 sugar or 2 in the morning coffee?

Daily newspaper or latest gossip mag?

Clean the house or watch Bold & the Beautiful?

Who am I kidding????

Those are the choices I use to make before Miss Twinkle Toes became part of my world!

It's now more like should we...

Play inside or outside?

Trash the lounge room or trash the bedroom?

Watch Play School or In the Night Garden?

People have often asked me If people were to ask me,

"Why should I adopt a dog?"

I would reply,

"This choice to adopt a dog can be made simply by reflecting on the following reasons."

See if one of these little paw padded puppies would suit your lifestyle.

If you want someone who will eat whatever you put in front of him and never say its not quite as good as his mother's...

Then adopt a dog.

If you want someone always willing to go out, at any hour, for as long and wherever you want ...

Then adopt a dog.

If you want someone who will never touch the remote, doesn't care about football, and can sit next to you as you watch romantic movies...

Then adopt a dog.

If you want someone who is content to get on your bed just to warm your feet and whom you can push off if he snores...

Then adopt a dog.

If you want someone who never criticizes what you do, doesn't care if you are pretty or ugly, fat or thin, young or old, who acts as if every word you say is especially worthy of listening to, and loves you unconditionally, perpetually ...

Then adopt a dog.

BUT..

On the other hand, if you want someone who will...

Never come when you call,

Ignores you totally when you come home,

Leaves hair all over the place,

Walks all over you,

Runs around all night and only comes home to eat and sleep,

AND

acts as if your entire existence is solely to ensure his happiness...

Then I'm sure you know what you have to do.

Do I really need to tell you?

You probably have it figured out by now...

You may even have one at home already...

Just save yourself the trouble and

adopt a cat!

And you thought I was going to say marry a man...

I can't take full credit for this, although I did find all of the gorgeous puppies and can endorse the reasons above as to why you should adopt a dog.

Fur Baby Max celebrates his 3rd birthday!

Max.

Today is his birthday. He is 3 human years old.

We didn't think he would make it past his 1st birthday so we are so happy that he is celebrating being 3.

I like to celebrate my fur babies birthdays with their favourite meal. They get a special birthday dinner and celebrate their day with their best mates.

Max's 1st Birthday

Max's 2nd Birthday. Celebrated with Winston & Ashlyn.

Dinner- 2 steak cupcakes each (not for 3mth old Ashlyn though)

Max's 3rd Birthday! Celebrated with Winston & Ashlyn

Main course: Steak all round!

And yes my fur babies are that well trained that they will not touch their food until they are given the go ahead.

The Birthday Fur Boy - Max.

Check out these fur babies birthday celebrations.

How do you celebrate your fur babies birthdays?

Maybe you don't at all. That's okay. I am sure they know they are loved.

Please share by leaving a comment.I love comments.

Show us your Mess!

I have 4 of them (lucky me).

One Miss Messy child.

Two dogs.

And a man.

One thing I have learnt since being a mum, is that there always seems to be a lot of mess!

Some people have messy closets or maybe messy drawers.

Some have messy cars, or

messy children or the worst of all... messy husbands.

I don't really cope with mess very well and I seem to spend most of my days at home with my little one shadowing her and picking up all the things that she likes to 'unpack'. I really can't wait until she learns how to pack up things.

In saying all of that, I feel that I have coped quite well with the mess that is made during meal times. Not sure whether it is the fact that there is something about seeing the look of joy on her face when she makes a mess or the comforting fact that I know there are two furry friends who are right there to clean up any of the missiles of food that go flying from the high chair in an instant!

Example below is Miss A having icecream on her first birthday. No need for a spoon when you are one year old! The look of shock on her her face is the realisation that there is no Winston or Max at the restaurant to clean up her mess! Lucky for us, the restaurant was very good about the mess that was made.

So now that I have been honest about the mess that goes on at our house, it's time for everyone else to come clean and spill your mess.

Feature your mess in your blog and be sure to tag Paw Pads and Twinkle Toes as we would love to know that we aren't alone in our messy little world!

In the dog house!

So I am sure you have heard of the phrase 'in the dog house.' More commonly associated with the male species being in 'it', but have you ever thought about what it would be like to sleep in the dog house?

I suppose most wouldn't mind if the 'dog house' meant one of these pads....

Even better if it came with a pool....

I think the rapper Xzibit would be pretty impressed with these 'pimped up dog houses'.

My random thoughts led me to ponder this question when thinking about my fur babies and their sleeping quarters.

My paw padded friends dont actually have a 'dog house' that I can 'pimp up,' as they seem to be under the impression that our king sized bed is for thetaking.

In fact, it seems to be in our house that there is a race to see who can get to bed first to secure the best spot. As I write this,

Winston has already secured prime spot on top of all the pillows.

Must love comfort!

So I am interested to know....

Where do your fur babies sleep?

Cuddles!

Aren't they just the best!
OKAY...
WARNING!!!!! MUMMY MOMENT AHEAD...

I remember the first time I cuddled my newborn baby... breathing in that intoxicating scent of her skin, the scent that sent shock waves of love right through my mind, body and soul...

I knew I was in love.
Just like the Huggies commercial had told me in all those months of pregnancy;
"Must be love...love...love..."
This was my Huggies cuddle momentDuring those precious moments when Ashlyn would just snuggle in, falling asleep in my arms; I imagined all the amazing times ahead for our family.
I can remember telling my partner that I just simply could not wait until my precious little girl would walk up to me with arms wide open and give me a big cuddle with arms wide open.

Well today I said to my little one,
"Mummy wants a cuddle".
I opened up my arms. She looked up with those amazing blue eyes, smiled and came toddling up to me with arms wide open. With that, she wrapped those little arms around me as far they would go.
Two words to describe that feeling...."PURE HEAVEN!"My heart crumbled into a million pieces. I think the only thing that could possibly top that will be the day that she utters 4 magical little words...
"I love you mummy"

Good times. Good times.

We spent some time outside today.

On a blanket in the backyard, we took our favourite toy Shaun the Sheep along with some other random things to amuse us and we were set for some fun in the sun.

We are absolutely loving these Autumn days where the sun is just enough to warm your skin and the air is fresh.

The dogs were never too far away.

Winston had quickly stolen a ball from Ashlyn's ball pit on the back verandah and was out running a muck. Max chose to soak up some of the suns rays whilst having a snooze. Ashlyn started exploring her basket of goodies and I got snap happy!Enjoying a French baguette!

For the love of mopping

I did something yesterday that I never thought I would love doing. Mopping floors...
In case you were worried, no I did not use my white fluffy dogs to mop my floors. However I would be lying if I said that the thought of putting a long handle on my dogs and setting them to work had not crossed my mind. Can you see the similarities?
With 8 little pawpads and a set of twinkle toes toddling around on the floors, it is a job that needs to be done more regularly. Now I am almost certain that the images of an unhappy looking housewife wearing gloves and a scarf on her head, slaving over a bucket are going through your head and you are possibly thinking, "How can a person in their right mind actually 'enjoy' mopping?" True, true. While I may not look as happy when mopping as the lovely lady below....
I certainly am enjoying it more now that my gorgeous mum gave me her Kenwood Steam Mop after she upgraded to a new one. No more buckets and dodgy mops that seem to just spread the dirt around on the floor. I am sure my partner thinks I am going insane when I get excited over the latest steam mop infomercials on TV (and don't think that I haven't noticed when he tries to change the channel before I see these wonderful inventions), but it truly makes mopping easy. So don't knock it until you try it!



I can say with pride and a wink in my eye that I am a self confessed steam mop addict!

Now to see how long my nice clean floors last before three little friends wake up from their sleep!

Magical Moments from the past

It is hard to start a blog about Ashlyn, Winston & Max when so many magical moments have already occured.

Like when Max first came home, only to get very sick with Parvo Virus. I honestly believe if he hadn't come into our home filled with love,met his big brother Winston and his new human mummy & daddy, then maybe he sadly wouldn't have been with us today.

Lucky for us he is a real fighter and made it through those tough early days.

When I was 9 months pregnant with Ashlyn and 10 days overdue, Winston cuddled up to my huge baby bump and showed me a love for his new little sister and a protective instinct that words can not describe.
He knew that she was soon to be here... maybe even before we did...

When bringing Ashlyn home, Angus & I had no fear about how Winston & Max would interact and accept her into our family.

We had made 'pack life' pretty cruisy for our two fur babies but there has always been a definite heirarchy and no discrepencies over the order of our pack. Angus made sure that as leader, the dogs knew that Ashlyn was above them.

Ashlyn bought new meaning to the dogs life. At first glance there were inquisitive eyes from all parties and then some accepting licks placed on Ashlyn's feet. It was then that our pack became five.

Ashlyn became of great importance to Winston & Max. They would watch over her like she was a puppy of their own and would soon learn that she would become a fantastic food source!

On the day that this photo was taken in December 2009, Winston, Ashlyn & Max were
discovering and taking joy in the most simple thing....

A blade of grass...just magic!

To describe each and every moment of interaction between these three beautiful friends and their lives so far would be far more difficult than you could possibly imagine.

I hope over time I can add in lots of details about their lives, how they happen to come into our lives and the journeys and adventures that each one has been on so far.

In the mean time, I am hoping pictures will speak volumes...

Introducing you to Max...

Name: Max
DOB: 4th June 2007
Legs: 4
Breed: Poodle x Shihtzu
Likes: Sleeping, cuddles, walks & any type of food
Dislikes: The dogs across the street, having a bath

Introducing you to Winston...

Name: Winston
DOB: 25th August 2006
Legs: 4
Breed: Jack Russell x Shihtzu
Likes: Ball, park, playing, running, chicken & icecream
Dislikes: Doing nothing, having a bath