Last Ames Adventures

This is the last week that we will be living in Ames! It's crazy with how much time has flown by. I've spent 12 years of my life (6 as a kid and 6 as an adult) living here. It's kinda weird to think that in 6 days we will officially be done and out.

This week (on Tuesday) Guy and I officially checked out of our "first" home together. It was pretty sad cleaning out and finishing the last of that process. Our apartment seems smaller now that it's empty than it did when we had it full. Karen Paxton, Lara Mortensen and my grandmother came over and helped get the last few minute things done in the cleaning process. I was grateful they were willing to come over and help clean.

The last few weeks especially I've been trying to take in the last of the unique activities in Ames. I've taken Finn up to Ada Hayden Heritage Park a lot. I've enjoyed running on the trail around the park and I know Finn's enjoyed the people around the park.

This week we also went to the Farmer's market downtown. Finn was the hit of the town! We met another family with a female black Tri Australian Shepherd. Their puppy is four months old however Finn was probably 2-3 inches taller and longer than theirs and he is 13 weeks. I have a feeling he's going to be a good size dog. Both of his parents are rather large shepherds so it doesn't surprise me.

Last night we went to a dog play night/going away party for me with some former (and one current) coworker. One former coworker has an australian shepherd/laborador mix and the other just adopted a mutt from the animal shelter. The shepherd/lab mix Finn wasn't a huge fan of, but I think it was mostly because she was annoyed with him. However the smaller adopted dog, Finn loved! He enjoyed chasing her constantly around the yard. She also let him pounce on her. Pouncing is one of Finn's favorite activities! As the dogs played, we say around and chatted. It was nice catching up with the former coworkers about what all has been going on with them and in my old lab. It's kinda weird to thing that Friday is my last day of work!

This week will be a little crazy for me as I wrap up the last of the things that I need to at work. Finn hopefully, won't be too crazy this week before we get to Texas.

This is a video of Finn and Juniper chasing each other. This is right before we left so he's a little worn out. He's been asleep (Sunday) pretty much all day.

The great escape of Sir Finnegan!

Wednesday was a rough day in the Lasley household. My grandparents have been helping keep an eye on Finn while I've been at work. During the noon hour I come home and feed Finn his medicine and play with him a bit before I go back to work. This Wednesday my grandparents were heading for a talk and so we had decided to put Finn out in the yard for the hour or so that he would be alone before I got back at noon. I had borrowed some puppy playpens from a coworker and I was planning on leaving him in that. What I didn't account for was the strong wind that accompanied the store as it rolled in. The storm was strong enough that it blew the playpen enough that Finn was able to climb out of it!

Fixed fence (it's got a new wire on both sides)

The fence at the Taylor's isn't secure and I knew Finn would be able to escape if he was left out ( I saw him escape as I was unloading the car). Sure enough the rain came and the storm was nasty and when I got back to check on Finn he was gone! No where to be found, gone! As traumatizing as I'm sure it was or him, I was a nervous wreck! I cried a lot, called Guy. I hyperventilated a little ( ok...a lot) and generally freaked out. Finn isn't microchipped yet (the vet wanted to wait until we cleared his health issues) and I haven't put a name tag on his collar yet. After my freak out, I prayed that we would be able to find Finn. Guy was in a better place than I was and he was prompted to have me go talk to the neighbors. I immediately put on my rain coat and started walking up and down the street calling his name. Two doors down the neighbor's daughter came out and asked if I was looking for a dog! I exclaimed yes and inquired if they had seen one. She had, and they had him! I was so grateful!! More tears of gratitude as I explained that we had only had him a few days and he wasn't chipped or ready yet for a collar with tags on it.

Asleep in the kennel

Many prayers were said in thanking Heavenly Father for keeping him safe and that we were able to find him. This experience helped cement in my mind that: a) Heavenly Father answers prayers and b) Finn is suppose to be with us. There's no doubt. The odds of us being able to find him and get him back were pretty slim. Guy and I both had it confirmed to us that we were suppose to get him, and this experience helped cement that fact.

Wednesday afternoon I put Finn in his kennel when I went back to work. After work I fixed the fence and secured it. Starting this week my grandparents won't be around to help watch Finn so I needed to get the fence ready. It'll be a little rough with me working full time and having him home alone. I'm hoping once we survive the next few weeks it'll be easer and Guy and I will have more time and fun training him.

Our newest adventure...

It's been a rough start but we'd like to officially introduce to everyone our newest addition...

Sir Finnegan de Paris (or Finn as we call him)

Bringing Finn home!

Over the last year, Guy and I have been talking at length about getting a dog. We started talking about it more after we accepted the offer with International Paper. When we looked at houses we tried to look for something that had a fenced in yard where we could get a dog. We had originally talked about getting a golden retriever through the rescue but we found out over the fourth of July that we weren't able to adopt one because we live too far outside of the Dallas Metroplex. So after being disappointed we decided that we would continue searching. Probably 2 days after we found out about the golden I saw an Australian Shepherd and the thought process went something like, "what's wrong with one of those?" Guy was driving back to Texas after having spent the weekend with me and he agreed it wouldn't be a bad idea. The only condition was that as an active dog if we went the puppy route I would have to agree to be home full time taking care of it. This wasn't that big of a deal since we were already talking about me staying home for a while.

We both started doing some research looking for where they were, how old any puppies were, when we could get a puppy, training, etc. I found some in Southeastern Iowa. Guy found one in Paris. We talked to the breeders about holding the puppies until August when I got down to be with Guy, but they didn't want to. I also wanted Guy and I to both meet the puppy before we picked one out. We talked about it, prayed about it and decided that we wanted to get the Red Tri colored Australian Shepherd. The only problem became timing. Guy isn't able to keep a puppy with his work schedule and I don't have a lot of time to come down. The short of it came down to if we wanted to get this red tri- then I either needed to come down the 9th of July or the 15th of July. Since I start necropsies the 18th we figured it was best if I came down over the 9th and that way we had a week roughly to get him adjusted to his new home before I was really gone for most of the day.

Road trip back to Iowa

That being said it was a whirlwind in timing to get him. I left right after work on Friday for Paris. I got to Texas Saturday morning (2 am). We went and looked at puppies Saturday night, picked the one we wanted; and I drove back with him Sunday morning (July 10). It was a whirlwind of a trip! Our poor puppy was pretty stressed. The day before we got him he had gotten his puppy shots, then we took him to a new home away from his littermates and then I drove him back to Iowa. The first night we got him, he threw up 4 or 5 times. He also had diarrhea pretty much non-stop. I made the drive back to Ames with only one minor accident. He was such a trooper!! He slept most of the way!! Sadly, after all the stress he had stopped pooping diarrhea and was pooping blood. I called the emergency vet when I got back to Ames. He thought it was fine to wait until the next morning to bring him in. I brought him in Monday for some tests. We found out he tested slightly positive for Parvo (could be due to the vaccination Friday) but since he was lethargic we decided to treat it anyway. We left the vet's office with: antacid medication, antibiotic, anti-nausea and a probiotic. After taking the medicine he started to do much better! At least until Wednesday. Wednesday nigh he started having diarrhea again and being a little lethargic. Thursday he was still having diarrhea and he threw up a few times. I called the vet again and she said bring him back in. We wanted to make sure it was nothing serious and that we didn't have to hospitalize him.

Taking the medicine

Learning to walk on a leash

On Friday the vet retested for Parvo (negative this time!!), took X-rays to make sure there was nothing else going on intestinally (clear except for some organic material like sticks and leaves) and decided that we should deworm him again just to be safe. She thought that the raw hide might have contributed but he shouldn't be throwing up since he's on an anti-nausea medication. So after leaving the vet again, we have additional drugs for him to take.