What's in a Name? - Part Two

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Finally, back to explain the meaning of the "More" in

"The Other Boufs: Mommy, Daddy, Katie ... and More"

Well, first and foremost would be the impending arrival of our son Timothy in November. I'm currently 31 weeks pregnant. Obviously, I'll need to change the name of the blog slightly after he gets here.

...and the rest of the family that I recently realized almost qualifies us to host the next Ark. Yes, pretty soon we will have 2 parents, 2 children, 2 dogs, and 2 cats.

The Doggies:

Chris and I had been considering getting our first dog for awhile and in June 2004 we got a call from Chris's parents down in NC that they were currently taking care of a stray puppy that they thought would be perfect for us. A momma dog and her puppies had been running around for a few days around their golf plantation and it turned out that they all got hit by a car except for one. Chris really wanted a lab and I didn't want TOO big of a dog and kind of preferred a black dog. Well, Lucky fit all the criteria for both of us. As an adult he's about 55lbs, which although considered a large dog - is nowhere near how large SOME labs can be.

Lucky - 4 months old:


Lucky - last November being a daddy to our new puppy Sophie:


Sometime around last October Chris and I both got an e-mail from someone at work about lab puppies that needed a home. We hadn't been fully looking for a 2nd dog, but had talked about it. It turned out that when we finally decided to call, the puppies had all been adopted, but once we had decided to go for it we started searching on petfinder. Our main reasoning was that we had watched my mom's and another friend's dog a few times when they went on vacations and Lucky loved having a second dog to play with. Definately got a lot of energy out for him when we didn't have the time to play with him for hours in the back yard. We found Sophie in a local animal shelter. She was originally from West Virginia and her whole litter had been brought to NJ for adoption. She was from a very interesting litter of lab mix puppies. Two were yellow labs, one was black with white (like Lucky, but not quite as cute as him), one was all over black and tan brindle, and our Sophie was mostly black with tan brindle on her face, legs, and paws. She will also be around 50 lbs - full grown.

Sophie - 3 months old:



Sophie - last week - about 1 year old:

The Kitties:


Well, when I created my blog (and the name) - we had two cats Bailey and Caely. Bailey sadly passed away this past August at almost 14 years old from suspected liver failure. I got Bailey from the local farmers market pet store in fall of 1995, when I was in 11th grade. My mom took care of him for the 4 years I was away at college and then he came to live with me in North Jersey for 3 years until Chris and I bought our house in South Jersey - where he spent his final 5 years. Bailey was an AWESOME cat. I think I would have actually paid to clone him if it was a possibility. He wasn't quite as friendly once the doggies arrived into our home...but he was his old self whenever they were outside. I have some ADORABLE kitty pics of Bailey but unfortunately my ancient scanner is on the fritz...so I'll have to just post some pics from the digital age.

Here's the fatty enjoying our new house in 2003:



We noticed Bailey losing weight over a few weeks and then all of a sudden he looked so different. The night before Katie's birthday party at the end of June we noticed he could barely walk. I took him to the vet on Monday and was basically told he probably had a few days left. The antibiotics they gave him helped a lot in the beginning and he actually had another good 4 weeks in him. During those 4 weeks, he was great to be around. He was super cuddly, slept with me every night, and even began to enjoy laying around with the dogs. His very last weekend he even ran outside for one last hurrah to lay in the grass and bushes.

Katie really enjoyed her last few weeks with Bailey since he let her carry him and pick him up to help get on the bed. Pics below are Katie with Bailey the day we got home from the vet, since I didn't know how much time left we really had and then Bailey with Caely.


And my great last pics of Bailey. I absolutely can't believe he passed on only 4 days after playing outside with so much energy...but I think he knew and just wanted to enjoy it.

Click to play Bailey - Last Hurrah


Then there's Caely. A waste of space...although I have many more pics of her I'll leave it at the one I have of her above with Bailey. Mostly cause I'm getting sick of writing this never ending post. I got Caely in summer of 2000 after moving into my apartment after college. She has always had mental problems. She is petrified of anything that moves. We don't see her at all unless we are in the bathroom, sitting at the computer or laying in bed...basically as long as we're not moving and a threat to her. She's not bad at all...just a sad waste. A shame, since I wasted one of my favorite girl names on her (I love Micaela with Caely as a nickname but Chris hated the name and told me I should name my cat that since he wold never allow a daughter of his to have that name..he also didn't like it cause he thought it was a made up name...funny in the current climate of Mikayla/Micaela/Makayla popularity). Again, my kitty pictures are not digital so, the one above basically shows what she looks like now...

SIDEBAR: Oh my freaking goodness, after writing this blog for over an hour...Katie just decided to turn off my computer...thank you, thank you, thank you blogger for saving this in autodraft...

Ok and FINALLY...

Introducing Toby:


I had decided that it wasn't a bad idea to wait to replace Bailey until after the baby came, but I was feeling really bad for Caely because she seemed to be really missing Bailey. While afraid of any human, canine, or other moving object - Bailey was her pal. I was a little nervous because after having one great cat and one worthless cat - you never know what you're going to get. Well, we sure got lucky!! Toby is terrific. He is SO super friendly...he follows us from room to room - wants to be with us and even likes the dogs (they on the other hand are being pretty annoying in their excessive amounts of attention they are paying him). He even comes when he's called. I think Bailey was watching out for me from above. One downside is that Caely isn't as thrilled with him as I had hoped. She will coexist with him in the same room, but if he looks at her or gets too close she has to start up with her groaning and whining. Hopefully she'll warm up to him in time. She is getting slightly better with him though. The only other is that he's pretty annoying at night. He likes to play with and eat my hair and generally attack may head/face when I'm laying down in bed. So, he's banned from the bedroom for now..hopefully when he outgrows his kitten antics he'll stop with his fascination with my hair.


As for HIS name. There was something about his pointy little face that made me think of Toby ... but we took a day or two to decide. He came to us named Milo... I asked Katie - How about Elmo since it was close and she loves Elmo and she said NAAH! Later than day we were on the couch and she randomly turned to me and said "Mommy...how bout...Winnie the Pooh?" LOL. Well, I think that would be too much of a mouthful and Winnie alone just reminds me of Winnie Cooper. So when I said Toby the next day everyone seemed to like it (Katie, Chris, and my mom). Unfortunately, I came up with some possibly better ideas the next day, but Katie was pretty set on Toby at that point. She had a really hard time saying it at first (kept coming out as Coby - which I had a dog named) and once she got it down pat, there was no changing it because she was so proud of herself. My other ideas - as I was commenting to Chris that Toby kind of has a butter face due to some coloring around his nose was to name him Butters..like the South Park character. Although his personality doesn't fit that character..the name is cute. My other idea (which Chris didn't like anyway) was Weasley (ie. Harry Potter) since he's orange. We also though about Leo - the redheaded Little Einsteins character which Katie thought was a GREAT idea...but then I thought..well on a cute name basis, Leo is kind of on the same level as Milo...so Toby it is, and we love him.....especially Katie (doesn't hurt that he lets her carry him around everywhere) and even Chris. Oh and Candi...since you don't like "people" names for pets unless they represent a tv character...you can just call him Tobias :).

2 comments:

debi9kids September 14, 2008 at 3:10 PM  

So sad :(
I know how much you loved Bailey. So hard to lose a pet :(

Anonymous,  September 15, 2008 at 1:31 PM  

lol, your "arc" also included a "raaabbbbiiiitttt" for a while too! Toby is a cute name for him, and it def seems to fit, but I think i may take you up on your offer to call him tobias...just cuz it'll remind me of arrested development and make me laugh :) candi

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