Our Non-human Companions

The females are white, fawn, and brown. I'm hoping for white. But yes the one you mentioned does look awesome! That pup definitely stood out to me too..

Why white? We have LOTS of ticks and the guinea fowl can't keep up to them. They eat ticks. While we give our dogs Bravecto and it does a great job, we go over them after they come in and white would make it super easy. FWIW, the other day we got AT LEAST 13 nymph stage ticks off of Shadow (we lost count) and the nymph stage are really miniscule. He's white and light brown (is that fawn?). But when they move to his white fur they are super easy to see.

FWIW, the owner, I dislike calling her a breeder since she only has 2 dogs and allows only one litter per year, got our deposit today, so we're in. That gives us 5th pick and 2nd pick of a female. After the wait and the pick we need to figure out a way to get it from FL to Maine. It'll be fun to have a pup again. We've been too long without one.

Shadow appears to be sorta pulling out of his funk. Sorta. He's been barking at me to get me to play with him and I submit. I also sit on the floor with him and he's ben snoozing next to me. But I'm old and I can't play the way he probably wants. 4-5 more weeks until the pup can leave mom and dad. Then Shadow will be kept busy! Years ago we had a Large Cane Corso and the dog we just put down was a pup. It was like watching a PT boat vs an aircraft carrier. He couldn't turn fast enough and she was all over him. This should be similar. It should be fun to watch.

I strongly suspect the white dog is taken. There were 3 females and we're only getting pix of 2 of them. Why send pix of all 3 if one is spoken for right?  We were in line for female pup pick #2.

I think Diamond is going to be our pup. Here she is 4 weeks old. I don't know precisely how old she is though.

I strongly suspect the white dog is taken. There were 3 females and we're only getting pix of 2 of them. Why send pix of all 3 if one is spoken for right?  We were in line for female pup pick #2.

I think Diamond is going to be our pup. Here she is 4 weeks old. I don't know precisely how old she is though.

Suspense is killing me......

Maine law says that the pup can't be separated for 56 days (8 weeks) so we have a few more weeks to wait. They're in their 5th week now. I heard from the breeder last night and I think it was just an oversight that prevented a pic of the white female. No one picks their pup until the 11th.

Maine law says that the pup can't be separated for 56 days (8 weeks) so we have a few more weeks to wait. They're in their 5th week now. I heard from the breeder last night and I think it was just an oversight that prevented a pic of the white female. No one picks their pup until the 11th.

In either case, I believe this pup that you adopt will have a most wonderful future with you!

OK, so it wasn't Diamond that we got. The wife wanted a reminder of who she is replacing so her name is Winter. I plan to call her Winnie. Here is the Staffordshire Bull Terrier pup at 7 weeks old. She's grown a bit but since the full grown size is <30# she won't be much bigger than as seen here when she arrives.


Neither the breeder or we wanted her to fly in the cargo hold so that meant a flight nanny. I started to search for a flight early on, then the holidays came with all sorts of cancelled flights. The pup is 10 weeks old now and we got a flight nanny approx' a month after I started the search and 4 flight nanny services later. Our high bids were over $2K for air or >$1k for a van. We passed on both of those. We still don't know what the final bill will be since there could be airline fees. But it will be reasonable.

I considered and immediately dismissed the idea of driving down. Not at my age and without my navigator? No way. I don't fly. I used to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, but fly today? It's not happening. The answer is a flight nanny. We had one that lasted for 30 minutes 2 weeks ago and we agreed to it and it would have been ideal. But we have another and hopefully everything works out. Text messaging is a must and I don't do text, but a friend of ours does so she'll handle the comms and the navigation. If it works out Winter will be home with us Wednesday night. I'm hoping for an easy night. Her siblings have been slowly leaving and we got her a heartbeat stuffed pup to keep her company. Our "lost" AmStaff is going to be in for a pleasant surprise! Who doesn't love a puppy? Hopefully he will too. I don't know if he understands, but we keep telling him his new sister is coming.

It's been a long time coming, searching for a pup, then waiting for it to be old enough to leave mom. We're pumped! But until we have her home we're not going to think it's over.

edit: The breed is a scary bull terrier, except no it isn't. Yes they were bred to be in the blood sport bull ring but that was bred out of them. Are they a protection dog? Well, yes and no. They'd make a lousy junk yard dog since they love people and would let everyone into the junkyard. What they do is protect people and not things. They are the original nanny dog. Leave a child with it and it's safe. The AmStaff was derived from it and if anyone has seen "our gang comedy" the dog on it was also a nanny dog, just an AmStaff (so bigger than a staffordshire bull terrier), but same duty to people under their charge.

Here's hoping for the best for you all, Brian ShadowsDad! May it all go as smooth as butter!

We had a scare with our old boy we adopted back in late July. Tyler is a 6-10 y/o male black short hair cat who was found abandoned in April or May last year. He had been on his own for some time and has the scars to prove it!

He has always had itching issues, and watery eyes, and our local vet tried him on steroids for a week (no improvement) and then an older generation antidepressant (as he was excessively over grooming and scratching, and the vet considered it anxiety or other psych trauma). Not so good with pilling him and when successful, med seemed to sedate him, so yeah, he stopped grooming, cause he was sleeping!

But this past Sunday and Monday, he seemed to be suffering and was moving in a tic-like fashion, making us suspect neurological damage. So we brought him to a specialty vet clinic in southern Maine (MVMC in Scarborough). Tyler was examined, found to have a parasite (since removed, and curious as he is only an inside cat with us. Vet said could have been in him all along?) and had bad earwax, possible inner ear infection, so treated for that. He came home Thursday and is really the best he has ever been! We have an appointment to have him see a vet who specializes in dermatology, as MVMC said he has some severe skin issues from long past that may benefit from treatment by a specialist. I can hear the vacuum suck to my wallet already, but if it helps Tyler to have a better life, we are for it! My concern now is the local vet. I hope they were just out of their depth. I don't like thinking that they just wanted to keep things in-house rather than get more help.

I hope Tyler gets well soon. Yes, we do get attached don't we and don't even hear that sucking sound that gets put on our wallet. But being abandoned might have caused a great deal of problems.

This by far our most expensive pup and we haven't even met it yet. But of course our last pup flew in cargo and it was 20(?) years ago.

Just curious, what local vet is it?

I think we may have used that vet in Scarborough decades ago. We had a Rottie that had a cruciate ligament problem and a vet down there developed a surgery to correct it. Afterward he decided to retire at a very young age and cruise the world in his sailboat.

edit: BTW unless something really screwy happens it's on for Wednesday. We just got a text from the flight nanny telling us what fight "she" is booked on.

I hope Tyler gets well soon. Yes, we do get attached don't we and don't even hear that sucking sound that gets put on our wallet. But being abandoned might have caused a great deal of problems.

This by far our most expensive pup and we haven't even met it yet. But of course our last pup flew in cargo and it was 20(?) years ago.

Just curious, what local vet is it?

I think we may have used that vet in Scarborough decades ago. We had a Rottie that had a cruciate ligament problem and a vet down there developed a surgery to correct it. Afterward he decided to retire at a very young age and cruise the world in his sailboat.

edit: BTW unless something really screwy happens it's on for Wednesday. We just got a text from the flight nanny telling us what fight "she" is booked on.

Animal Hospital of Waterville. We have seen the same vet for 20 years almost. We trust her, but this startled us, the missing of parasite and the ear infection. In her defense, she hasn't been able to examine him, as we opted not to wait the 10 days for the next available appointment but instead drove down to the Maine Veterinary Medical Center.