Piper Passes His Road Test!

Piper the Super Puppy!

Piper learned how to jump on the furniture yesterday. He took a running start and made it all the way up there with his short little legs--he was so proud of himself!

Piper the Big Brave Puppy

The girls brought their tent upstairs yesterday--for the past two days, Piper would walk up to the tent, bark at it, bite it, back away, stare at it--anything but go into the tent! Today he challenged his fears head-on, and there's no stopping him now!

Piper The Helpful Puppy

I wish my kids and husband were as anxious to help with the dishes!

Piper's First Christmas!

We had a nice March Christmas get-together with my brother and his family. Since Piper's birthday is December 29, 2008, today was Piper's first Christmas. I have the feeling our angels Cookie and Buddy were giving him tips, because he started tearing up the wrapping paper, first thing!

Welcome Piper!

Correction--I found on his paperwork from the shelter in Bowling Green, KY, that his birthdate is listed as December 29, 2008. So that sounds good to us:)

http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=13099783

We'd like to introduce the newest and cutest member of our family, Piper! Piper is about 9 weeks old, since we don't know his official birthday we're going to establish it as January 1, 2009--a New Year's baby:) Piper was turned into a shelter in Kentucky along with his mom and two sisters by a family who wasn't able to take care of them. We're grateful they made a responsible decision and sorry for what they had to go through--it must not have been an easy decision. The shelter was overcrowded, so Piper and his family came to Wisconsin and were placed in wonderful Foster Homes, awaiting their forever homes. Piper and his two sisters Ginger and Candy were adopted out right away. His one year old mom Penny is still awaiting a forever home.

He's extremely soft, sweet and playful--yet he settles down right on your lap very nicely! He's only about 10 pounds right now--we're not sure how big he'll bet, but we're guessing around 65 or 70 pounds (which is smaller than we're used to:) We can tell already, he's definitely going to be a big lap dog:)

We'd really like to thank Heavenly Hearts Rescue and Piper's wonderful Foster Family and his foster doggy siblings and Lily his surrogate Beagle Mom (also adopted out this past weekend!!) for all of your love and dedication!

I wasn't sure how to go about finding OUR puppy, out of all the hundreds of thousands of dogs who are in need of homes. My girlfriend suggested adopting a rescue dog, searching on www.petfinder.com
I had already decided I'd like a lab-golden mix and took a look. I still wasn't sure on which puppy was looking for us. A few hours later I decided to take another look, and then I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt which puppy Buddy was sending to us--it was Piper. Piper is actually the name I had selected when we had our appointment with
Buddy's breeder (thinking we wanted a female)--but Buddy chose us:) Piper is my favorite character on one of my all time favorite shows, Charmed--so that's how we knew Piper was meant to be with us!

Welcome to our family Piper--we love you and are very excited for all the fun we'll have together! 




Here is the info from his adoptive site, we found him on  Pet Finder.  Unfortunately the video link is now gone:( 

 

  

About Piper

Piper is an eight week old golden retriever/lab mix pup who came to rescue from an overcrowded shelter in Kentucky. Piper, his mom and sisters were surrendered by a family who could not care for them. Mom is a petite yellow lab mix. Dad has chosen to remain anonymous, but we sure think Piper looks like a golden retriever, don’t you? At eight weeks, he weighs just under ten pounds.

Piper is in a foster home with other dogs, including Heavenly Hearts beagle Lily, who has stepped in to act as his surrogate mom. He loves his people, too. Cuddling is one of his favorite things, and if you can’t pick him up, he’ll make himself comfortable resting his chin on your shoes. Piper is happy-go-lucky and confident, he settles quickly in his crate for the night, and he is making great, fast progress on housetraining. He is adorable, eager to please, very social, and super smart. He is looking for a family to love for the rest of his life.

Piper’s adoption fee is $275, which includes his first puppy vaccinations, microchip, and neuter.

 http://search.petfinder.com/shelterSearch/shelterSearch.cgi?animal=&breed=&age=&size=&specialNeeds=&declawedPets=&children=&status=&id=&internal=&contact=&name=&shelterid=WI74&sort=&preview=1

Buddy---Forever Our Angel! "He's such a special doggy!"

Camping

(note, just click on any picture to get a full screen:)

Buddy and his Stoggie!

Buddy's really an angel:)

Walking along Lake Michigan in the Upper Peninsula

Always watching out for us!

Doing The Butt!

It's all about the simple things!

Loving his Boat Rides!

Loves to Open Presents (and rip apart the wrapping paper:).

Loves to Swim!

Loves to go camping!

Dining at an outdoor Cafe with us in the Upper Peninsula

Going for a bike ride with us on the Elroy-Sparta Trail

Bringing me flowers on Mother's Day--only he wouldn't give them to me!

Captain Buddy!

Loves the park and going down the slide!

His Eyes, truly the window to his soul!

Baby Buddy's first full day with us and his forever pals, Cookie and Cimba!

Baby Buddy!

We'll love you and miss you forever Buddy--you will always be a very vital part of our family, hearts and soul!
Born: November 4, 2000
Home with the Angels: February 20, 2009
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I just wasn't sure how to do this. I know I'm going to write a dedication to our beautiful boy when the time is right, but for now, I just want to talk about Buddy. I recognize that not everyone is a "dog" person, and that's ok. I also recognize there are people who have and enjoy their dogs, and that's ok too. And then there are those of us who have our dog companions and we love them and cherish them with every fiber of our soul.


This is Buddy:

A pure bred. His official name for the American Kennel Club is Waterstrike's Buddy Holly (Waterstrike required by his breeder, and Buddy Holly for my dad:). We have many names for Buddy:

• Little Guy
• Scuzzie Butt (the evil twin of Cookie our family golden, aka, Fuzzy Butt:)
• Duffus
• Deeeeeeeeeeee (my Little Angel's first word--since she couldn't say Buddy:)
• Budsies
• Buddy Bear
• Bud
• The Big Black Beast (our perspective of what he must have looked like to our girls as babies)
• Schnout-the main nickname

Everyday Buddy:

• Loves to sit in the sun, when in the house, he'll find that one little ray and bask in it! He always understood the healing powers of the glorious sunlight!
• Kong
• D.P. (doggie park with Grandma and Grandpa, Cimba and Babe)
• Tummy Rubs (especially the "special" ones Grandma gives--she's always had females, and sometimes forgot he's a boy:)
• bike rides
• boat rides
• camping
• car rides
  
• rolling over
• sitting up
• shaking hands
• his baby
• treats
• walking
  
• jogging (aka J.O.G.G., our second name so he didn't get too excited ahead of time)
• chewies
• sitting right on my lap (taught to him by Cookie, the master)
• So happy and excited about life, love and fun
• follows us around the house
• always truly watching over us
• the butt!
• loves sitting on his red bench in front of the front picture window and watching outside
• loves to slither off the couch and plop on the floor
• foams at the mouth from pure excitement and joy at the dog park
• would often sleep with Our Little Angel, and kick her at night to wake her from bad dreams
• his whole last month with us, he chose to sleep in our bed, right in between us
• loves to carry around our boots and shoes, even brought me my boot his last night at home with us--he also looked up at his leash and insisted on a walk on his last night home with us--there was a snow storm, and the roads were slippery, so I walked him around and around the cul-de-sac--he loved it, but thought I was a nut:)
• when J is stretching, Buddy knows it's time for jogging and would nose him and ask for a massage and chest rub
• J's morning mediation: Buddy is there with him, and asking for more chestrubs, and when J would leave for work, Buddy would come back to bed with me.
• Buddy loves to sit on the newspapers, or if J's reading it, he'll plop on the paper on his lap!
• puts his hind legs on the floor and his front legs on your lap, because he's loooooooooong!
• as a puppy, he'd say, "emmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm." (my coworkers loved it and we'd say it at work too:)
• he was a nut in obediance class--$300 of glorified fun!
• I was his poop coach--it takes encouragement to get him to go outside when the ground is wet:)
• when he needs out in the middle of then night, he will very gently lick my arm
• loves to smell my breath in the morning (I know, ick:) This started when I was pregnant with my Little Angel and wore a splint at night for my TMJ
• loves to eat snow, but it didn't agree with him--our neighbor's thought we were crazy yelling "no snow!"
• When he was plagued with ear infections, he'd flop his poor ears all night long
• when he sits to get comfortable, he says "hmmph."
• loves to tear open gifts and tear apart wrapping paper (taught to him by Cookie/Sweetie, aka, The Master!)
• As a puppy, we'd walk to Piggly Wiggly and he'd carry his treat all the way back and wouldn't let go!
• He's a very sloppy eater
• love's to lick the leather on our couches
• Loves to carry two or more babies around--he always strives very hard to put as many of his babies in his mouth as possible:)

VERY FUNNY Buddy moments:

• Buddy LOVES goldens and would often take off to go play with the ones who live behind us. One summer night while sitting by the camp fire after dark, he suddenly took off and we heard the neighbor lady scream 'AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, BUDDY!" He jumped an all fours against her patio screen and fell in! (She was home alone, so I'm sure that was pretty scary, since he came out of no where and into her house:). J came walking back home with the screen door to repair it:)
• One time my Buddy started walking down the basement stairs to go seem my husband, only to discover that my husband was walking up the stairs with a large window. There was no room for Buddy to go around, so the only place for Buddy to go was back up. Buddy walked BUTT FIRST back up the stairs--it was so funny!
  

Messages from our beautiful boy to help us through his transition:
The Monday before Buddy transitioned, I was taking him for a walk--four geese were circling us--I thought it was beautiful and told him so. On Friday after we retured to the car after saying goodbye, four geese flew right overhead--we knew that was a message from Buddy! And yesterday when we returned to the clinic to pickup Buddy's remains, we were waiting at a stoplight and almost there, when my little Angel said, "look mommy, four geese!" And there they were right next to us in a small area of water! Also, a book was gifted to us called DOG HEAVEN," and page six describes, "Dog Heaven has clear, wide lakes filled with geese who honk and flap and tease. The dogs love this. They run beside the water and bark and bark and God watches them from behind a tree and smiles."

The day after we said goodbye to our beautiful boy, our 3 year old Fairy Girl picked up a picture of him, crying and crying and said "he's such a special Doggy, he's such a special Doggy!"

Buddy is Truly our Angel!

Then there's the part that not everyone understands--dogs are truly very highly evolved souls--pure spirits, truly living in the now--how very much your dog companion truly and deeply loves you, gives of himself unselflessly, and the lessons they are here to teach. The lessons are very personal to us, so I won't go into it --but very simply put, Buddy has always offered us, and will continue to offer nothing but pure and unconditional love, peace, simplicity, fun, joy, and laughter!!

Buddy, we know you're still with us, and feel so blessed for you to be such a vital part of our lives. From the bottom of our hearts Thank you Buddy--we'll always miss your physical presence, but we truly understand you're still with us and will continue to learn and grow from you. Our lives are infinitely better because of you, Buddy Bear!

Love you forever Buddy!

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