Meet our newest family member! Nico!

Meet Nico, our newest (and most energetic) furbaby! Nico is between 4-5 years old and is an American Bulldog mix who is simply adorable. Nico came from one of the local animal shelters, which sadly is a kill shelter and we got to him just in time! Last week a friend of ours shared the information about Nico on facebook and the fact that he was an urgent case in need of adoption. Even though Dork_Syd and I had said we were going to wait, something about Nico made us change our mind. So last Thursday we filled out the adoption application through Bully Paws. Saturday we drove up to an adoption event to meet Nico. Since that went well, we then drove back home and then went BACK so that Nico and Snickers could meet. That meeting also went well! Sunday a Bully Paws volunteer came by and did a house visit to verify that our house was acceptable for a bully breed. Monday, around lunchtime, we found out that our adoption application was approved so we could pick up Nico!


So today, I took off work and went to get our newest family member. Bully Paws took him to the vet, where I met them, so that he could get a clean bill of health. For the most part, our boy is a healthy guy. He needs lose 10-15 pounds. They also put him on medicine for intestinal worms and gave us an antibiotic for him for his skin since some of his skin is in rough shape. Some of his teeth are also worn down almost to his gums- which might be why he has shown very little interest in the Nylabone we got him (we might have to get one that isn't for such a tough chewer). So he came home with us! He's gotten a shower (it was easier than trying to get the big boy into the tub) and he was SO GOOD during it- even washing the sore areas of the skin he was fine, he just leaned against my legs. He LOVED being towel dried. In fact, even when I thought he was dry enough he kept coming back for another rub down.

Behavior wise it's going to take a couple days to really know since he is in a new home so is excited. Right now the biggest obstacle is that he has no obedience training- or if he once did he's completely forgotten it. He also doesn't know his name since Bully Paws named him. Right now we have to alternate having him leashed to the banister and in his crate because he keeps trying to jump all over the furniture and me. He also wants to chase the cat. However, while he clearly wants to get closer to Snickers, they are getting along fine within about a foot and a half of each other as long as Nico doesn't start jumping around. If he starts jumping around Snickers gets skittish. So yes, our work is cut out for us but it's really not that bad- he appears to be fully crate trained which is nice, especially since we're going to be working on crate training Snickers now that we've gotten her anxiety under control (the majority of the time).

Anyway, welcome home Nico!

Mailbox sign

For some reason that I can't really explain I have a very strong dislike for our mailbox, and while it is

inexpensive to replace we just haven't gotten to it. However, I decided that I was going to take a step to make our mailbox look nicer-- so I made a new house number sign to hang underneath the mailbox. I did this partially because I wanted to, but also because the numbers aren't super obvious on the post when you're driving by. The next step is to paint the post and replace the mailbox, but that will come later.


So to make the sign I got the correct size wood plank from our local craft store- in this case I believe it was the 10 inch one. I also ordered new paint markers- which I am ridiculously excited about and have to resist the urge to go around the house and draw on every surface. So to make it I found some Basset Hound images online and traced them trying to find one that I liked. Once I did I traced it and colored on the other side of the tracing paper from the design. I flipped it back over and traced the outline of the basset directly onto the wood. This left a decent outline which I then outlined again with a pencil to make it darker. I repeated the process with the numbers. Finally, I used my paint markers to color in the basset. I repeated the process on the other side. After I left the design dry for a couple days I used an acrylic sealer from the store that is good on wood to seal it. It has yet to rain since we put it up though, so now we're just waiting for a good storm to see how it holds up :-) I really like the sign, although the dog doesn't reflect all the furbabies of the house anymore, it will stay just a basset.

So there we have it, one step closer to making our mailbox look nicer.