Mr. Rocky, The Newest Addition to the family

Many of you have followed Mr. Rocky’s journey along with us, but some of you may just be meeting him for the first time. So I thought I would share how this lovable, sometimes obnoxious, pup came into our lives and what we have dealt with since he joined the family.

He's an emoji!

One early morning before work, Cody let our dog, Missy, outside to do her thing. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Missy came back inside with a friend, enter Rocky. I am getting dressed for work when I hear from the kitchen, “Shanna, I found another dog!” My response, “You aren’t serious? Are you?” Sure enough here is this blond haired dog that runs right up to me.

Now if anyone knows anything about Mississippi, it rains and when it rains, it rains a lot. The day before Rocky showed up it had poured all day, but Rocky showed up at our house clean and smelling fresh. We knew Rocky had to be someone’s pet. We went to work with Rocky hanging out at the house. I left work during the day to see if Rocky was microchipped or if maybe I could find his owner. Rocky isn’t microchipped, but I saw the neighbor outside when I had him in the car. I asked if they recognized him and they told me that it was the other neighbors' dog. So I went back to work. When I got home that night the neighbor was home and I took him back.

The day Rocky showed up at only 66lbs maybe even less.

Skip forward a few days and the neighbor is knocking on our door asking if we wanted to keep the dog or else they were going to return him to the pound. And everyone knows Cody and I have a special place in our hearts for rescue dogs and we couldn’t stand to know we didn’t save this sweet dog. We were hoping to find Rocky a new home. And we thought we had. Someone took him for a few months but they were unable to give him the love and attention he truly deserves. So he came back to us to stay.

After Rocky had been back in our lives for about 16 hours, we had our first ever trip to the emergency vet. This would open a whole new can of health issues and problems he has. We have learned a lot from Rocky about preventable health issues for dogs. And we are working towards getting this lovable meathead healthy. He is definitely already happy!

Also, Missy and Rocky get along great! They are a couple of weirdos together but we are happy that she likes him so much.

Rocky is up to 82lbs now, right where he should be.

Check back for a glimpse into Rocky's health journey! We are a few months in but so far we are working towards the best health for Missy and Rocky.

The adventure continues….now with 2 fur kids….

The Next Adventure...

Well, this next adventure has arrived rather quickly compared to the last few. We are moving back to South Carolina! While I am ready for our time in Mississippi to come to an end, I have met some great friends here and strengthened a few other friendships along the way. It’s hard to believe 2 different projects and 19 months here is coming to an end.

Trust me there were times it felt like it was going to be never ending.  But we all survived.

This move to South Carolina is going to happen in a new way for us. Typically when we move, we rent a U-Haul and a car trailer, pack one house up and move in 5 days or less to the new house. This time we decided to go with a POD, we do not have a new house to move into yet. So our stuff will have a place to be stored until we find a new place to have it delivered.

We have some other traveling to do in the midst of finding a new place to live and actually moving in. The POD gave us the option to load everything up, get to the new town and find a place to rent without having to rush and try to do it in a day. It gave us some extra time to travel home to visit family and then head further north for a friend’s wedding that my husband and I are both in.

My goal is to have a place to move right into when we get back from the visit home and the wedding. So we can have the POD delivered the day we move in. Right now there will be about 3 weeks in between loading it up and it being delivered. So I have to pack slightly different than normal. All the clothes, toiletries and makeup I might want over the next few weeks have to travel with us. All the housewares and furniture that we won’t need will be waiting in the POD for the next house.

I am going to be color coding boxes for an easy unload, since I will probably forget what things are in over the next month. I am going to have a file box with important papers: car insurance, pet records, check book, etc. that travels with me in the car. I am also going to plan for a first day box with things we will need the last day in our house here and the first day in our new house. I have been scanning blogs and Pinterest for things that should go in there, so far: Bedding, TP, paper towels, paper plates, cups, plastic flatware, bath towels, shower curtain/rings, trash bags, cleaning products for quick cleaning, scissors/box cutter, hand soap and dish soap.

I am hoping for a smooth transition from one house to the next, but it could get bumpy with a new dog that isn’t sure what might be happening. Luckily, we have some wonderful friends who do not live to far from our new town. So the dogs and I will stay with them for a few days, while my husband heads to work and finds a new house.

Wish us luck in this next adventure, the moving routine is changing slightly and we might need it along the way.

The adventure continues…number 10…maybe we will stop at 11…maybe…