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This summer has been super busy with Taylor taking a new job as "Director of Institutional Relations as DSC" (and leaving coaching!), traveling to the Northwest, introducing Megan and Catie to Daytona Beach, and of course... rescuing too many dogs!



Here are some pics of our summer so far :)

Taylor in his new office (the windows go all the way to the other side of the wall--so nice!!)... with his new wardrobe :)

Long story--and kind of sad to talk about. We adopted a 4th dog again when a rescue of mine, Max, had spent too much time in boarding with no interest and didn't seem to be a healthy dog. He spent almost every day at our house and only slept at the kennel, but his health continued to decline... so we brought him into our home for good. His health didn't improve, and after a couple of weeks of IV fluids and everything we could possibly do, his blood work showed that his kidney and liver functions had completely shut down and he was dying (and suffering). :( Taylor and I were with him when the vet put him to sleep, and it was so heartbreaking. I just held him, sobbing the whole time--and my sweet hubby stayed with us the whole time and kept telling me to picture happy thoughts so Max wouldn't worry (I couldn't have done it without Taylor)...and then he fell asleep peacefully, and we let him go. His ashes are in a box next to Tubbs on my desk, and we will never forget him. He wasn't a Childress for long, but we loved him as one of our own. :(

A few days after losing Max, we headed up to Seattle for our Northwest vacation... here we all are at a Mariners game after watching Ken Griffey Jr play...and watching the Mariners win!

Taylor and I then headed to Canon Beach, OR to our favorite hotel...The Stephanie Inn... where we relaxed and didn't do much other than eat and sleep for 4 days! It was wonderful :)

We finished up our trip with a visit to Portland to see Grammy and Poppy. They took us out to a delicious steak dinner at their favorite restaurant, The Country Kitchen... and I have never eaten so much in one sitting. It was so much fun :)

One day after returning from our vacation, we got to see Megan and CATIE! They came to visit for a few days, and I fell in love with my little niece even MORE, if that's even possible! She is just too cute... she "talks" all the time and smiles the sweetest smile I've ever seen! She is beyond precious! The sun index was really high when they visited, so we didn't spend too much time on the real beach (next time we'll schedule their trip when it's a little cooler here...and we'll have one of those giant tents so she can be there without being in the sun), but that didn't stop my mom from bringing out the beach toys and bathing suit for a photo op!

And finally-- here are the Daytona dogs who have been keeping my days filled with lots of activity and drama...(and keeping me just on the brink of being completley stressed out... ;))

Momo- The 15 year old girlfriend of the high school boy that surrendered Millie (the black Lab) to me called because her 5 year Lab kept trying to kill her small dog. I met her and picked up this little man, "Momo." He's a Yorkie/Chihuahua/ Poodle mix :) He found a home right away and he is now living with a family with 2 little boys in New York, and they adore him!

Annie- Annie was listed on a free ad posted by a breeder who no longer needed her. I called the breeder, and she explained that Annie's puppies had been born with speckled noses, and that was unexceptable--so she really had no use for her, now that the puppies were 7 weeks old.

She assured me that Annie was healthy--but after picking her up, we found that she was very overweight, heartworm positive and could barely see due to a severe eye infection. BUT, she is all better now and can see just fine--and is at the vet as we speak getting spayed. She's still looking for a home... it's not as easy for a slightly chubby 5 yr old lady like her--but we'll find her one :)

MacKenzie- When we called to arrange Annie's pick up, the breeder asked if I had room for one more...A man had sold her a 2 year old purebred Lab to be a breeding dog, but he hadn't sent in her AKC papers yet, and she was just taking up space. So, of course, I said yes. MacKenzie had a bad case of demodectic mange, but luckily that isn't contagious and it's very treatable. We also had her spayed--and found out during her surgery that she had already been spayed. Not to be too judgemental, but this breeder was a disaster! Ugh...On a happy note, MacKenzie went to her new home in CT last week, and is now named Abbey :)



Wrigley- Wrigley's family posted him on a free ad on Craigslist because they were moving to an apartment and could only take 2 of their 3 dogs, and since Wrigley was the biggest, he was the one who had to go. Besides being 20 lbs overweight, Wrigley was in good health and after waiting close to 2 months, he went to his forever home last weekend. He's living in Northern Massachusetts with a really nice family and has become best buddies with their 2 year old little girl.
Chip- Chip is a 9 year old Chihuahua/Daschund mix who had lived with his mom since he was 8 weeks old, but due to her health issues, she didn't have time for him anymore. No one in her family would take this little guy, so I told her I would help. He is adorable, and I am hoping his foster mom will keep him ;) He has to wear baby socks at night to keep from chewing at his feet... but other than that, he's doing great and goes to the beach every night for a run with his foster mom and canine foster brother.

OK, I adore all my rescue dogs, but there is something about this guy that has me completely in love with him! I named him Dallas because we rescued him the week my sister moved to Dallas, and I was running out of name ideas! Dallas has the coolest story of any rescue I've taken in... he was rescued from an awful rural shelter between Daytona and Jacksonville (I'll spare you all the details, but it is very high kill -- and it has adoption hours for only 2 hrs/day in the middle of the work day....dogs at this shelter have literally no chance of getting out without a rescue intervening). One of the few volunteers at the shelter watched one day as the shelter workers made their way down the row of kennels, sticking a pole with a needle attached to it through the cage doors to euthanize the dogs who were out of time. When they arrived at Dallas' kennel, he kept waving the pole out of the way with his paw, over and over again, until the shelter workers got impatient...and instead of opening the door to touch the dog, they skipped him and said they'd get him the next day, so they woudn't have to stay late that afternoon. The shelter volunteer called a rescue friend of mine immediately, and we decided that a dog with that much will to live deserved a second chance!!! So, I took him into our rescue, and he is currently going through heartworm treatment--and sitting at my feet as I write this. He's a tougher one to place, being 100% mixed breed and having some fear issues (if I throw a toy, he hits the ground and runs in the other direction!), but we're not giving up on him. He is the SWEETEST guy and soooo gentle. He'll find a home soon :)

Brody- A shelter in New Smyrna Beach that I work with called me one night (2 nights before we were leaving on vacation!) about a dog they didn't think they would have much luck placing- a 9 year old Yellow Lab who had been left in their overnight drop box with a note on his collar telling his name and age, and that's it. That's all I had to hear, and I was up early the next morning at the shelter to get him OUT of there! I have to admit, I was convinced that Brody was an angel sent to me from my Tubbie... it was Tubbs' exact same story, and he was the same color, etc... and deep down, I just knew he would inevitably become a Childress. BUT, unlike our sweet Tubbs, Brody was in perfect health. He had no temperment issues and he ran and played like a 2 year old Lab. I posted him on our website and within a couple of days, I had 3 different people interested... serves me right for thinking I have such a handle on God's plan ;) So, this would-be Childress went to his new home in New Jersey last week, and his new family loves him and can't keep him out of their pool!

Matthew- Matthew was rescued from the Putnam County shelter (the one where Dallas came from), and he is 100% Lab--so sweet, loves people, and no issues whatsoever. He is being treated for heartworms, and he already
has a home with two little girls waiting for him up in Massachusetts!

Cash- Cash was rescued with Matthew from Putnam County, and he was the quickest placement I've ever had! We got him out of the shelter--he was totally healthy, so we got him neutered, and he went on his way to a foster home in Rhode Island last weekend... and a new family met him the day after he arrived with his foster parents, and he has already been adopted! I love this picture of him... I was at the vet for a long time with the 2 rescues below.. and he was so good and just hung out in the examination room for a couple of hours. At one point, the vet was laughing and called me over to look, and he had climbed up to the top shelf of a cabinet (at least 5 feet off the ground) without knocking one bottle out of place so he could nap and watch what was going on through the window on the upper part of the door! Luckily, all of us Lab lovers find these types of antics endearing! :)

Addie- Addie was rescued by accident when my rescue friend drove up to Putnam County to pick up the Spaniel in the pics below. She called me and said there was a Lab/Bassett mix who was being used as a nursing mom to all the orphans at the shelter...and they had used her for so many months that she was now emaciated and barely had any milk left. Without milk, she was of no use to the shelter, so she was slated for euthanasia that afternoon...How could I say no??? :)
She is heartworm postive TOO, so she's being treated for that, and then we'll get her ready to find a forever home of her own :)


Finally, here's Stephanie (named after our hotel in Oregon :)). She is the toughest case I've dealt with yet. She came from the Putnam County shelter, and when I came to meet her, I was shocked by her condition (those pics aren't worth posting, too sad-- we'll focus on how pretty she is now!). She had so many matts all over her body that she could barely walk, and she wouldn't look anyone in the eye. The girl who picked her up that day for me had tried to cut through some matts, but had hardly made a dent... I was rushed, as usual, and got ready to leave, and then I turned around and walked back into the vet and couldn't leave until the last matt was gone. I couldn't deal with the idea of her having to spend one more night in that condition. The vet techs let me have a room to myself and let me borrow the sharpest clippers they had (I had never shaved a dog before, so I had to pretend I knew what I was doing --haha), and I went to work on this poor girl. It took about 2 hours, but I got the matts off, and she never tried to bite me, even though I know it really hurt--which is a huge plus ;). After we could finally see her skin, we found all types of cuts and infected wounds, etc... it was pretty awful. I went in the next morning and gave her a really long medicated bath, and she actually fell asleep in the tub when I was rubbng her ears. She is being treated for heartworms now, as most of mine seem to be heartworm positive these days, and then she'll come to the doggie resort across the street from me. After only 5 days, she has started wagging her little stub of a tail, and wiggling when I come to visit! She'll find a home really fast, being such a beautiful girl--and what we discovered to be a purebred Springer Spaniel under all that fur!




SOOO-- that's what's been going on here... and as sad as some of these rescue stories sound, it really is completely worth it to see a dog who comes to us in such rough shape go off to a home where they will be loved for the rest of their lives. I am learning that I need to get a bit stronger about saying "NO," but it's just so hard looking into their desperate, trusting eyes, and knowing that without my help, they don't stand a chance. I'm trying to figure out a balance...so hopefully one day I'll have it all figured out-- that or I'll just live on a huge farm with hundreds of dogs... haha--just kidding, I'm not THAT crazy yet. And we still just have 3 living in our home, so that gives us some sense of normality. I just keep repeating that famous quote to myself-"Saving one dog won't change the world, but it will absolutely change the world for that one dog." That seems to help me... sometimes. Ok-- enough writing for the day-- time to get back to work!