Jasper

   I know that like a lot of parents, I tend to speak a lot about my babies, however in my case, my "children" are of the furry, four legged flavor.  I often find myself countering someone's funny tales and anecdotes about their kiddos with my own about my pups and kitties.  To the non-pet lover this may not seem like any sort of comparison, but to those of us who love our furry babies, oh trust me, it compares.
   Now, really the reason for this blog today is to talk about my precious Jasper.  I know, it's shitty of me to write about just one of my furry babies, but unless one of them breaks into my lap top, I don't think we have to worry about any real jealousy here.
   The reason why I am singling out Jasper is because I believe Jasper was truly sent to me as a gift.  I needed him in my life and he found us.  Literally.  When we first saw Jasper he was just so fucking adorable with his big ass ears and jumping all over my mom's neighbor, we didn't think anything of it.  Then we found out he was *gasp* an abandoned puppy.  We couldn't just leave him so we took him to the vet to check and see if this adorable little baby was micro chipped.  He was not.  We put an ad in the paper, no one claimed him after 2 weeks.  I didn't even want him at first, no matter how fucking cute he was because he was a destructive little asshole who ruined a bunch of shit AND chewed through my laptop cord.  I was livid.
   CW, however was pretty adamant about wanting to keep the little bugger so, we did. We got him fixed and micro chipped and boom!  He was ours.  Now, almost 4 years later he has become one of the greatest dogs I have ever owned.  I love him to pieces and he makes my heart melt daily.  With his breed it is said that:

"The ACD [Australian Cattle Dog] needs to be handled firmly yet fairly, and it is totally loyal and obedient to its master, and it's a one-person dog." -http://www.terrificpets.com/dog_breeds/Australian_Cattle_Dog.asp

   I happen to be the lucky one that Jasper chose to be his person.   Not to say that Jasper doesn't love CW tons but let's just say, if he had to chose one of us to save from a burning building, adios, Honey!
   Not only is Jasper a really good companion to me, but I have managed to train him to be somewhat of a service dog.  How?  or Why?  You might ask.  Well, you see Jasper is insanely smart and I swear he knows what I'm saying most of the time, and he's very easy to train.  I have some health issues where it hurts to move sometimes of it hurts to bend (I've blogged about 'em before) and my immune system is shitty due to my health crap so sometimes I'm not 100% and when I'm doing things around the house like laundry or hell, sometimes even if I'm not if I'm just knitting or crocheting and I drop something I might need help because when I bend down to get something I get shooting pain and then it fucking sucks.  So I just call Jasper and boom, he picks up whatever I need.  Sometimes I don't even need to call him, he hears something hit the floor and he's there to pick it up.  He's that damn good.
   Not only does he do that but he also breaks up cat fights, he throws away trash, he takes things to my husband in a different room or brings things to me from my husband in a different room. He helps make up the bed, he alerts us to when the older dogs have to go outside to potty.  He helps put away his toys (he has tons of them too), he'll watch movies/tv with you, he'll help pick up laundry, sometimes, he'll even sing a song with you.  He's such an amazing dog.  I'm lucky and blessed to have him.   I'm not saying that my other furry babies aren't special they are, they are very special, but Jasper, Jasper goes that extra mile to make sure that his two legged Momma is feeling okay and if I'm not, he does whatever he can to make sure that he can make me better.  I'm so thankful my hubby talked me into keeping him.

a quick update...

  I've been busy lately with trying to get back in the groove of working full time and trying to find a balance with a normal routine again.  I'm so tired lately!  I'm at work 46+ hours a week and I'm still trying to get used to it.  I guess after almost a year of crafting and having my own hours, it's going to take a while.
   Well, I haven't been much on the social network lately but I have been observing shall we say... Not just online, but in life.  Online I've noticed that people are really sensitive and it's almost as though they expect you to share the EXACT same opinion as them and if you don't... they unfriend, unfollow, un-whatever you. I remember the days when it was actually okay to say something that was of differing opinion of someone else and it was ACCEPTED!  O_O  yes... those days did exist at one point in time.
  On another note, I've found that waking up early and watching the news every day does absolutely nothing for my paranoia.  It just makes me sad.
   I'm also closing down my website.  I don't keep up with it and I don't want to pay for it.  Besides, my blog and etsy are really my means of communication now anyway.  I've been thinking about doing it for about a year now and I'm going to do it.  I need new business cards anyway.  :)

Spending QT with My Furry Babies

   This morning I was taking my beloved to go pick up the truck from my parents' house and before we were leaving the dogs were being so cute.  It was almost as though they were begging me not to leave.  Okay, I get it guys, I've been gone a lot.  Even my autistic dog (I'll explain) was acting super cute and loving which is completely out of character for her.
   I know it seems weird, but my dog exhibits signs of autism.  I'll write about it and how I came to this conclusion in another blog, another time later.
   I explained to the dogs that I'd be right back and true to my word, I came right back.  The house didn't look like a rave happened while I was gone all of 13 minutes either like it did on Tuesday, so that was a good thing.  I gave my furry babies treats for being good and now they are taking naps on our king size bed. Yes, it is our bed.  My beloved and I got a larger bed when our dogs couldn't fit comfortably on our full size bed with us when we added a 3rd dog to our family 3 years ago.  I don't know who does that.  Seriously.
   My parents dogs are great.  They are super effing cute and fun to hang out with, but they aren't my dogs.  My dogs listen to me, my parents' dogs don't.  Granted, I understand they are still puppy-ish, but I'm used to my dogs coming when they are called and my super psychotically smart Jasper who knows how to help make the frickin bed and throws trash in a trash can (I have witness who can vouch for these tasks).
   Besides, who wouldn't want to spend the day with these faces?

 Wallo being innocent.

Patchik being sweet.

Jasper playing with his beloved yarn barf.