Fresno's Gone to the Dogs!

Let us tell you about our grand doggie dilemma!

I (Hannah) am a definite dog person. Don't get me wrong - I love Echo the cat, he's very entertaining, but cats just aren't the same companions that dogs are. When Nick was going to leave for CO - we decided to get a dog to keep me company! Yipee!!! Not wanting to have to deal with potty training issues all alone, we went the rescue dog route and adopted an Australian cattle dog! She was originally rescued from a collector (one of those crazy folks you see on animal planet with 50+ pets roaming around their house) and since her rescue has been bounced around from shelter to shelter :( To their best guess she was 2-3 years old.

We named her Caldera ( a geology term on Nick's behalf) and were very pleased with her demeanor - she was SOOOOO mellow. That was fabulous seeing as we decided to go the bigger dog route in spite of the apartment lifestyle. Little dogs are great, but I wanted one who could go running with me and hiking with Nick. ANYWAYS...she was so mellow - she wouldn't eat. At all. We called the shelter and they said she was probably just anxious about a new home. That seemed all nice and believable until she tossed her cookies at 6 p.m., 2 a.m. and one more time at 5 a.m. on a work night. We had Caldera one week before we took her to the vet. The diagnosis? Pneumonia!!! They wanted me to spend $500 on lab tests and THEN hospitalize her. I know we're living the big spender Cali lifestyle, but can you say heck no?! So, after much tears and deliberation...Caldera was brought back to the shelter in hopes of finding her a new home (FYI - it's a no kill shelter, so do't worry folks, she won't be put down!)

That all happened the week before Nick left... when Nick came back, I still wanted a dog! And since he'd be home more to help out...we could go the puppy route!!! With Momma Anderson in tow telling us we were crazy (as she drove back to Cali with Nick after the CO fiasco and kept us company out here for a week) we puppy hunted! And we would like to introduce you to the newest (and cutest!) member of our little family. This is Geo! A (now) 7- week old Siberian husky. Despire potty training frustrations - he's been good so far and Echo had been EXTREMELY tolerant. He lets the pup bite and play with him and they even sleep together. We'll see how that keeps up once the dog is bigger than the cat! He's got one blue eye and one brown. In a few weeks, he'll be enrolled in puppy school and I'm sure we'll have stories about that! Stay tuned!

Here he is looking very devious, ready to kill the cat (even though Echo gives him a run for his money!)