December 22, 2005

If you haven't already...meet Nalu. Our baby boy. Only 6.5 months old and capable of stirring up tons of trouble. We got Nalu from the Orange County Animal Shelter, who took Nalu and his 4 siblings (abandoned by the roadside in Riverside County) in and fostered them until 8 weeks of age. The shelter rarely gets puppies, especially ones so young. Thus, when they arrive, people snap them up quickly. If any of you have toured a shelter before, you know what a sad sight it is to see that it is mostly older dogs that remain at the shelters, waiting for a good home. We thought about getting an older dog, and we may still do so later on, but we thought it would be a good learning experience for us to have a puppy…and good practice for the future!

So, to get a jump on the puppy arrivals to the shelter, I began to visit on my lunch hour to scope out who would be the newest member of the Yosh fam. One day I arrived to find Nalu and his siblings in one cage, and I just fell in love with them. I had to get up early on a specific date to adopt him, to go wait in line at the shelter. I arrived 2 hours early, and there were a few people already in line! And, after I arrived, there had to be at least 50 others in line. For only 5 puppies! Originally, I had my eye on the black male puppy that had one blue eye (leading the vet to suspect there was a bit of Australian Shepherd blood in the bunch…they all looked like black Lab puppies at 8 weeks old), but in conversing with the fellow puppy-hungry folks discovered that one woman desperately wanted that puppy. She, unfortunately, had become blind in one eye, and felt a special connection to that puppy. How could I argue with that? So I picked out the only other male in the bunch. Took him home a few days later, post-surgery (for that VERY IMPORTANT neutering), and he became Nalu, or “surf” in Hawaiian. Gotta pay tribute to Landon’s roots. And it’s a name that’s different, and fun.

Anyone who says having a puppy is expensive sure isn’t joking around. I can’t even count how many times we’ve been to the vet, or how much money I’ve spent on toys that he really didn’t need, or ruined within 5 seconds. Nalu was sick quite a bit in the beginning, and after many diagnostic tests (which probably weren’t necessary) I believe now, his bouts of intestinal illness were likely a result of him just being his puppy self, consuming any piece of anything on the ground. The vet went crazy with the tests. First they thought it was some intestinal parasite (yikes!). Then they thought it was the food. Then they thought it might be some kind of illness, like kennel cough. Sheesh. All that, and now, he’s perfectly fine. Once we learned to watch like hawks what he puts in his mouth.

I don’t have kids yet, but I definitely feel like I’ve gotten a taste of parenthood raising Nalu. The discussions about what to feed him, how to discipline him, how to train him…Landon and I have grown so much together in this process of raising Nalu, and we have learned even more about ourselves in this process, getting glimpses of how we will be as parents. It’s no longer just about the two of us. Can’t leave whenever we want to…go away whenever we want to…have all the extra time to ourselves…without making arrangements for him. Now, it’s about the three of us. We were concerned about leaving Nalu at home by himself during the day, since we both work full time Monday through Friday, but luckily, came across a fantastic thing known as dog day care! We have Nalu in dog day care twice a week and it has been a lifesaver, albeit, an expensive one. ($30 a day!) Imagine a puppy that has to roam around the kitchen for 8-9 hours a day by himself, compared to a puppy that gets to romp and play in a safe, protected, clean warehouse facility with toys, food, water, over 50 other dogs to romp and play with for 8-9 hours a day. Big difference! On a night after day care, Nalu is awake only to get his bath, eat his dinner, and then it’s back to sleep until the morning. The facility is called Wags and Wiggles, and is located in the next town over, Rancho Santa Margarita. It’s a wonderful place, with amazing staff. http://www.wagsandwiggles.com/. You should check it out! They have a separate dog training department as well. Nalu has successfully graduated puppy kindergarten (with Landon there to take plenty of photos!) and level 1 obedience (which he probably shouldn’t have passed since he failed the whole “jumping up” on people part). Now, we are set to go on to agility class. Not that he’ll actually compete in anything, because he’s a mutt, not a purebred, but it will be so fun to see him go up ramps, through hoops, etc. He’s definitely got the energy for it, and the smarts to make it work.

Nalu started out at 8 pounds. Now he is 45 pounds. We don’t want to even think about how big he’s really going to get. He’s already taken to sleeping on the bed and takes up almost ¼ of it. But, you can check back here for more photos of him, as he grows and hopefully, mellows out. (yeah right!) That’s it for now. Can't believe Christmas is 3 days away!-emy

December 21, 2005

Hey all, welcome to the blog! Eventually, this will serve as my Leukemia and Lymphoma Society / Team in Training blog, as I am about to embark upon my second year with their triathlon team, (meaning I will be hitting you all up for funds soon...but for a great cause!), because I figure this is a much easier way to get you supporters updates on my training, like I did last year. But for now, I suppose this will just be just random musings from ME until Team in Training starts up in late January 2006. Which means you may be hearing about my husband, or my family, or my job, in addition to how excited I am to be a part of TNT again. The experience last year was life-changing and incredibly memorable, thus, I'm back for more! The Orange County/San Bernardino/Riverside Chapter was huge last year and the head TNT people predict a record turnout this year, even just for the triathlon team. FUN! Also, since I've recently taken a new job (2 weeks so far and going strong!) that serves the pediatric population of Orange County, many of whom suffer from these diseases, this cause is even closer to my heart as we begin 2006.

We're about to head out on vacation to hang with the fam for Christmas and New Years, so that's it for now. More later! -e.m.y