The Best Day Ever

This day was about two years ago now. I’m bad at blogging

Last fall for my dad’s birthday we went to Martin Creek Lake to cookout and be together. We grilled hot dogs, drank beer and laid on quilts by the lake. We camped for years as a family there, but this was the first time I was able to bring the dogs! There’s a very small island on the lake connected by footbridge to the mainland. There are easy trails to ride bikes or walk on–even primitive camping sites. (No thanks, I’ll take plumbing.) We strapped on our shoes and headed to the island.

For the first little while I had the girls on their leashes, but they could hardly contain their excitement being in a new place and wanted to lead the pack. I trusted my instinct that they’d stay on the trail and let them go free. They trotted ahead of us and stopped when I called them to wait. They greeted everyone on the trail and even spooked some deer. The trail split off and ended in the lake and Ginger wasted no time running in. I could NOT believe it! This was the first time I’d seen so much personality in her while simultaneously watching her willingly leap into a body of water. She sprinted up and down the small shore soaking herself in lake water and plopping down to cool her belly. Pepper eventually followed suit with a little coaxing–out of character for the retriever in her and her love of rain. I was too giddy watching Ginger to take the time to grab my phone to snap photos of her in action, so these of her cooling herself in the reeds will have to do.

Seriously one of the greatest days.

Do you camp? Cause if you’re ever in East Texas you should make a day trip out to Martin Creek!

xx

Melody

Family Photos

 

Bet you thought I meant my human family, lol. NO. THIS is my family. Dogs. If it makes you feel any better, we took these after we took human family photos over Christmas. Notice I’m not wearing a sweater because Texas decided it would just kinda gloss over winter this year and head right into what it thinks is “spring.” Which, I mean, is fine I guess if you don’t own 62 sweaters and velvet leggings you want to show the world.

This was pre haircut in February and it was having a DAY. I could NOT get that turn out to tame and it was flat and weird and ugh. Even with short hair I still have issues.

You wouldn’t believe how difficult it was to get these girls to hold still for a minute while we took some photos. They were too excited to not be in a fence and wanted to get loose and play with my family. Crazies.

I’m wearing: jeans-American Eagle, booties-Shoe Carnival, shirt-stolen from Shelby, velvet kimono-local boutique

HAWT FIRE. My mom is adorable.

 

Anyway, happy finally Friday! I’m going to the enormous Round Top sale with friends for a girls’ weekend. I AM SO EXCITED. Sometimes I look back on my life and say, “God, no wonder I was depressed. I had no friends!” And then I think about all the cool stuff I get to do and the people I get to love in a healthy way and just get the warm fuzzies. Life is cool and hard and weird! That should be the tagline of this blog.

Did you see my collab post with Infinity Jars? Check it out!

 

Love you!

xx

 

Oh, Suzanna

 

We grew up with cats. We were a cat family. I can’t honestly remember a single time in my life as a kid where we didn’t have at least one cat. Allie, Spot, Pippin, Penny, Shakespeare, Ashes…we had a lot of cats. Cats begat kittens and those kittens went to some of my friends’ homes. So I guess you could say we were a cat community. (Quick! Someone write a script for a horrible sitcom called Cat Community.)

I loved cats growing up, but I always wanted a dog. A friend of mine growing up had a neighbor with the sweetest Golden Retriever you’ve ever seen. Abigail. Her ears were like velvet and I’d beg to go over and play with her every time I visited my friend. My obsession with dogs runs deep. It wasn’t until I got married, though, that I finally had the freedom to get one. And oh! Did I get one. Pepper quickly became my child and my best friend. She’s the greatest dog I’ve ever had.

Volunteering with animals in some way was always in the back of my mind. I just couldn’t bear the thought of seeing one hurting or being put down, so I never acted on it. But somehow, before I even moved to Dallas, I started following Paws in the City on Instagram and falling in love with every dog that was available for adoption. Earlier this year I applied to volunteer with them, got a call back, then forgot to call back. My b. But three weeks ago I got an email about two dogs looking for fosters. One was Suzanna. A cute little golden puppy wearing a blue tutu. I thought, why not?, and applied. I got a call back immediately, had a home check that Friday, and picked Suzanna up the next Tuesday. It was a whirlwind.

I had to hoist her up into my backseat and after adjusting for a second, she curled up in the floor for the short ride home. She didn’t exactly agree with Pepper right away, snapping at her if Pepper gets too friendly with her face, but they’ve come a long way in the six days they’ve been together.

Suz came to me with a double ear infection, skin infection, a highly contagious respiratory infection and had just had a litter of puppies. (I don’t know where they are. 🙁 ) She’s finishing up all of her medicine this week and is doing so much better. She greets me when I let her out of the kennel, tolerates Pepper now, and eats like a grown man. She licks and licks and comes to me for pets. She’s the sweetest puppy someone could ever ask for.

Paws in the City doesn’t think she’ll be in foster care too long because of how adorably young and cute she is, which simultaneously makes me so happy and so sad. But this is why we foster animals, right? To find them the right home! If everyone that fostered an animal adopted it, we’d have no fosters. Because believe me. If this gal isn’t adopted by someone soon, she’s going to be mine. But even if someone adopts her, I’m glad I got to care for her for this little while. And I’m glad she’s the one that lured me into this whole deal. It’s made me happier and more whole and I just feel great about everything.

 

To apply to adopt Suzanna, or any other Paws in the City animals, visit this link. They’ll thank you! And to see more of Suzanna and Pepper, follow me on Snapchat! @melodyrich

 

 

xx

Where I Annoy You With Pictures of My Dog

For Christmas, my parents bought me an SD card adapter for my iPad. I desperately needed one as my laptop’s hard drive was full and it was so cumbersome to upload any pictures to anything. After literal years of having photos on my SD card, I had them on my iPad in about 20 minutes. *PRAISE HANDS* I found these photos of tiny, baby Pepper from the first week or so I had her. Let your heart be melted this morning.

She used to love doing this for some reason. It was adorable. Look at her tiny foot!

Fat belly

HER BELLY.

Every time someone new would meet her, they compared her eyes to chocolate chips. She’s still got ’em.

Somebody stop me from getting another puppy. Please. Would you look at her fat pink belly!? Her little puppy hiney!? Oh my godddd. You guys. It’s so funny looking back on these photos. She was just as energetic and derpy then as she is now. She just has a tiny bit more control over herself.

I love this dog. If you want more, I gave her a few of her own hashtags over on Instagram.

#peppermichelle
#mymorningswithpepper
#pepperportraits 

You’ve been warned.

 

 

xx

Ice Cream Puppy Date

When it started to get a little warm, Shel and I decided it would be fun to satisfy our ice cream cravings with a trip to our dangerously close Dairy Queen. Pepper loves car rides so we brought her along and treated her to her own cone. 🙂

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To my surprise, she ate it like a human and then got confused when we told her to eat the cone. She nudged it around the yard for a bit and finally ate it. This dog is the coolest.

What treats do you like to give your dog? I heard Starbucks has a Puppycino! Maybe I oughta try that. 🙂

 

 

xx

Lazy Day

Sometimes when you’re in the floor trying to take cool pictures you get tired. And sometimes you lie down in the floor and stare out the glass door. And then sometimes your puppy comes and snuggles next to you because she thinks you’re crazy or maybe dying and wants to be with you during your last minutes.
And sometimes you document that because you have nothing better to do.

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Do it sometimes. It’s nice.

 

 

xx