This blog will primarily be about my dogs, hense the name. I love them both, they are my children and they are two of the most loving and devoted beings I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. I can never ever take enough pictures of them which this blog will soon prove. But let's first start with the introductions:
First, this is Zuzu. She's my 15-1/4 year old black full breed cocker spaniel. I fear that her time to pass is soon approaching. As of the last few days, she has been walking and suddenly falling which terrifies me to no end. She is my dog. Meaning, we had dogs growing up but they were family dogs. This one was just mine! She was a gift given to me for Christmas in 1991 by my Mom Donna and Dad Wes. The best present I've ever gotten. I had been begging for a dog for a long time. Our last family dog, Nikki had died a few years prior and I just really missed having one. I decided I wanted a brown cocker spaniel and I was going to name it Panozzo (after John Panozzo from Styx) and I would of course use the nickname of Ozzie. Then I came home a few days before Christmas to find a box waiting for me. Curled up in a corner was the black mass of fur. Needless to say she was adorable. (I'll be posting some of her baby photo later to prove it.) My parents had gotten her from a breeder in Earlville. My folks didn't like the name I had chosen so they switched Panozzo to Penny. Well, I didn't care for that, and I admitted Panozzo wasn't appropriate for her. So we tossed a few ideas around. I knew that because I got her at Christmas I wanted a season name. We toyed with Holly a bit but then I started thinking about my favorite Christmas movie 'It's A Wonderful Life'. Of course any fan of the movie remembers "Zuzu's Petals" so we decided on Zuzu would be perfect. Though, it's tiresome having to correct people (no, it's not Zulu) or explaining the name (Have you ever seen?...) But the name stands and I think it's very original...just like she is.
This is Colby. We adopted him when he was 4 months old from a breeder in Grand Ridge. We heard about this Cockerpoo that was going to be destroyed because he had a damaged eye and no one would buy him. (the theory on his eye is it was scratched by one of his siblings when they were a couple of days old) We toyed with names on the ride over to see him. We knew that he had the damaged eye that would possibly need to be removed. We thought about Winky for a bit, because it would look like he was winking. (luckily we didn't go with that as we ended up calling his little private part that!) So, it occurred to me that we was a survivor. He's had the damaged eye, he recently had passed a stone as well. He'd been through multiple treatments (& catheters) all by the rip old age of 4 months. So, I decided that this little survivor would be named after my favorite Survivor on the T.V. Reality show of the same name. So Colby from season 2 the Australian Outback is his namesake. We had a name, all before we went to see him. But on the ride over we decided it wasn't just a trip to see him, we knew we were leaving with him. He became family right then. We went on October 5th, 2002 to get him and it was love a first site....for my Mom. It took me the ride to Wal-Mart to pick up supplies for him to love him endlessly. He is really my Mom's dog. She said she wanted me to have a 2nd dog because she didn't want me to be crushed when Zuzu died. But I think she really wanted another dog. She'd been eye a maltese puppy in the summertime. They got on so well. They napped together and travelled to see my Grandmother together. I thank God for sending Colby to us. A short 13 months after we got him my Mom died from cancer. I'm so thankful she had that year with him. She loved taking photos of him during the holidays, and she bought him outfits for the holiday pictures. I think he might have been the replacement for the grandchildren she never got. Colby is a blessing for my Dad as well. Since the morning my Mom passed away, Colby has become my Dad's constant companion. He sleeps on her side of the bed and from spring til fall, you don't see one without the other because he loves car rides. He sleeps either on the bed in the sun or on my dad's lap. He really is the glue that kept my dad and I from falling apart. A great big loving soul in a tiny package. People might think he's lucky we rescued him from being destroyed, when it was he who really rescued us.
So those are my dogs, and this blog is our story....
