Trendley the Dog

Anyone who knows me knows how I feel about animals, specifically dogs. I have pretty strong beliefs when it comes to adopting dogs rather than contributing to puppy mills and breeders. I try not to preach because everyone has to do what's best for them but I do stand firm on my opinions. We adopted our Osborne from Gateway Pet Guardians here in St. Louis. He was rescued on the streets of East St. Louis and they literally saved his life. I will forever be supportive of this organization and indebted to them for the sweet boy they allowed to live and become an important member of our family. You can read all about the life of our beloved Ozzy Cash here, here, here or here.

When  GPG came across my facebook feed this morning with their newest rescue, the sweet face of Trendley tugged at my heart's strings. I immediately hugged Oz and started to sob. The gauges in her neck from the chain that was tying her up, skin infections and obvious malnourishment ate away at me all day. I could not get her blue eyes and sweet, sad look out of my head. It is beyond me how someone could hurt an innocent, loving animal. What kind of evil person could do that?

This evening, this link came up on facebook and I knew I had to help out. If you donate, it will go specifically to Trendley's vet bills which are estimated at around $2,000. If you go to the GPG Facebook Fan Page, you can see videos of her sweet demeanor and gentle nature. So instead of going to Starbucks tomorrow morning or spending cash on a soda and candy at the gas station before work, consider donating $5 or $10 to help bring this sweet girl back to her full potential!

CLICK HERE to donate!

Cheers,

Lynsey

Another Birthday!

Sunday, October 31st, was Osborne's 2nd birthday. We celebrated with long walks, playing ball in the backyard and a big special happy birthday "cake" puppy dog style!

He totally knew what he was doing and licked off all the "icing" first...

He got a new kong, two real, frozen bones, and his favorite so far, a strawberry shaped Orbee! He has the artichoke and eggplant version of this toy and he just loves them.

Now comes the part where I get all sappy and confess my adoration towards my pup. He's such a sweet, gentle baby. He takes treats out of your hand so gently and nibbles away at them. He is the best cuddler I could ever wish for. He places his head on my leg while I work and when I look down at him his tail starts to wag. He follows me everywhere I go. I couldn't love him more. I am so grateful to have our Ozzy that I don't know what I would do without him. The love of a dog is like none other...he is excited and happy to see me all the time. Even if I just run to the post office for 5 minutes, when I come home, he acts like he hasn't seen me in years and puts on his show for me.

Our boy with his favorite birthday gift, the strawberry Orbee.

Cheers,

Lynsey

A Little Info on Ozzy Cash

I am stealing this blog post idea from Mary but I had to do it since it would be all about my baby, Ozzy Cash.

The Basics

1. Name & Age
Osborne Cash Tedesco, 1 year 8 months

(Ozzy at 3 months old)

2. Breed

Well, this is a pretty funny story I haven’t shared on my blog yet. We adopted Ozzy when he was 3 months old and told he was a Labrador Retriever and German Shepherd mix and weighed about 13 lbs. Pretty common for the mix but we were expecting him to be around 90-100 lbs based on his “breeds.” When he was about 10 months old, we weighed him at home (Tommy got on the scale with and without him) and we figured his weight to be approximately 36 lbs. We thought this was really, really odd considering his feet were huge and his tail was so long. I started throwing suggestions out to Tommy such as “maybe he’s a midget breed. Can dogs be midgets??” and “what if he has dwarfism and dies before he’s one!” To which Tommy nodded his head and told me not to worry (have I mentioned what a saint he is for putting up with all my crazy?) Anyway, I was in my favorite pet store and came across a Doggie DNA Test. I quickly picked it up, went home, swabbed my dog’s mouth and sent it in. 3 weeks later, we received a certificate in the mail stating Ozzy’s heritage. Great Dane, Lhasa Apso, Shih Tzu, Airedale Terrier and the majority of his breed being Rhodesian Ridgeback. What a relief to find out that he’s a mutt. Whew. Best $52 ever spent. I know it’s pretty ridiculous but anyone that knows me isn’t that surprised. Plus it gave my husband ample opportunity to hit me with lots of “who’s your daddy? Jokes.”


3. Nicknames
Ozzy, Oz, Ozzy-Cash, Bubba, Puppa, Ozzy-Baby, Oz-man, OZZZY (in our best Sharon Osborne voices…British accent and all), puppylove, sugar and when he’s bad, ass-hole.


4. Where did he come from?
Tommy and I felt very strongly about rescuing a dog in need versus spending hundreds to buy from a breeder. There was no specific breed we were looking for, we just waited until we fell in love with a dog and let me tell you, love is an understatement. Ozzy is our first child and we adore him. He makes us so happy and we laugh so much! He is a lover and gives us back 100% what we’ve done for him. It breaks my heart to know that Osborne was abused on the streets of East St. Louis for the first 3 months of his life. I have tears in my eyes writing those words and it makes me sick to my stomach. However, knowing that we saved him and have given him a life he wasn’t going to have makes me feel so good.



Favorites

1. Toys
He loves his Kong, hallow bones we fill with peanut butter or cream cheese, round tennis circles, and any stuffed animal, his artichoke and eggplant toys, and especially his baby Milo the Frog (RIP Milo)



2. Snack
Cheese, strawberries, cottage cheese, peanut butter, cantaloupe, vanilla yogurt, rice and beef, scrambled eggs, pita chips

3. Human
He is definitely a Mama’s boy. He adores his daddy too though. He has a special cry, yelp and wine he does, all at the same time, when he sees his car pulling into the driveway or hears the garage door go up. It’s so sweet!

Funny Stuff

1. Worst Habit
We leave him uncrated for a max of 3-4 hours every once in awhile and if we forget to put up the tissues or close the downstairs bathroom door, he will shred the toilet paper and tissues. What a turd.

2. Most Embarrassing Moment
When we dressed him up as a lobster for Halloween and his first birthday. He actually acted depressed and sulked on the couch all night during our party. We took it off of him and he pranced around and was so happy.


3. Family Dynamic
He takes pride in being my bodyguard. His barks is so loud and intimidating (must be from the Great Dane…thank GOD he didn’t get the Shih Tzu bark!) that he seems MUCH bigger than he really is. I love this because when my Tommy’s out of town, I am not at all scared to be home alone.

On a side note, I am a huge advocate of pet adoption. There are SO many animals out there who need a home and are great forever dogs. If you can’t adopt but love animals, you can donate your time, money or supplies to them to help out.

Cheers,

Lynsey