Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

I told you all I wouldn't be posting any more stories about potential new family members until I knew for sure. With that in mind, meet Tootsie:



Tootsie (she's going to get a new name, I think... Tootsie just doesn't seem right for her) will be 8 weeks old when we get her next Wednesday. I just spoke to the agency who said our application looked great and barring any huge issue with it we're cleared to go get her. It's going to be about a three hour drive to get to where she is, but we don't care.

I'm horribly excited.

Girls Not Eating After Winston Died

If this is in the wrong forum I apologize but I wasn't sure where else to put this.

We lost Winston almost two weeks ago when he was hit by a car and I've noticed recently that the two girls (Miya and Takoda) aren't really eating. They've always been finicky but not to this extent. Last night I tried giving them each 2 cans of canned food, which they normally love, but Miya only nibbled at hers and Takoda, while she ate more, didn't do much better.

Personality wise, they both appear fine... still the same lovable dogs they've always been. My son and I had them outside yesterday playing fetch with Miya and keepaway with Takoda and they were as full of energy and life as they've always been.

Physically, Miya doesn't seem to be losing weight, but Takoda has (maybe because we're exercising her more; during our last vet visit we were told she was getting tubby), but not to the point she looks unhealthy.

We've tried changing their dried food, to no avail, we've given them new dog bowls, also to no avail. Tonight I'm going to cook them some rice with boiled chicken and see if that sparks an appetite, and I also am going to feed them some Gravy Train, which they used to really like.

Other than that, is there anything else I can do, or should I not really worry? Some people say that they'll eat when they're ready, that their survival instinct won't let them starve, but that doesn't help much.

Any advice that anyone can give me?

How To Create An Avatar?

Okay, maybe I'm dense (well, my wife would argue the "maybe" part) but I am not seeing an option in my profile that lets me setup an avatar. I did a forum search but the only post I found about specifically creating an avatar goes back to 2005 and the option it talks about doesn't appear in my profile.

... so what am I doing wrong?

Let's Introduce Ourselves

After all of the support, sympathy and help you all have given me the past several days I thought I'd pop in here and actually introduce myself.

*ahem*

My name is William Clay Hamilton, but I go by Clay. I'm 38 years old and live in Chenango Forks, New York, and I work at a hospital here doing technical support. I'm married and have been with my wife since we were in high school, which is going on 21 years. We have an 18-year old son who's about to start his third semester of college.

We've always had animals. We have two lab huskies (we call them purebred Huskadors) named Miya and Takoda, and until this past Sunday we had a Doberman/Shepard/?? mix named Winston (RIP). We also have two black cats named Angel and Nala, but they literally are so identical looking that you can't tell them apart.

In our spare time my wife and I are avid video game players and we like to watch movies and are avid readers. I also play a bit of bass guitar and fancy myself to be an amateur photographer... I'm also a huge military aviation nerd; my wife and I took a weekend trip to Washington DC in May to see The Blue Angels.

Here's a picture of us that was taken last year at Disneyland.



And here's a sample of some of the pictures I took at the airshow in May::

Roxy

When Winston died we told ourselves we weren't going to actively look for another dog right away, but would take our time with our feelings and when the time was right we would find the right dog to complete our home.

Well, today, it seems we found that dog. Meet Roxy:



Roxy is a four-month old Doberman/Hound mix. My wife had just been randomly looking at dogs on petfinder.com when she came upon this little girl and she said that Roxy spoke to her like Winston did. We filled out the adoption application today and I've already spoken to the woman who runs the rescue agency and told her how recently we lost Winston, which she's okay with.

I'm awfully excited but at the same time I kind of feel like I'm cheating Winston's memory. He's only been gone for four days and here we are looking to bring another dog into hour home. Winston was a one-of-a-kind dog that filled our house with so much spirit and life; we can never replace him but we can absolutely take another dog into our home and give her all of the love that we have.

My wife and I talked about this in great detail... we're not trying to replace Winston, because we know we'll never be able to, and we don't think we're rushing into this. In fact, I think the prospect of another dog has done alot to help us with our grief. We felt the same tugging at the heartstrings with Roxy that we felt with Winston and we firmly think we're ready for another companion.

I'll keep everyone informed.