Happy National Mutt Day!

Today is National Mutt Day! I'd like to dedicate this blog post to my family dog/my parent's dog Fern Louise.

We got Fern Louise at one of those huge Pet Adoption Fairs that I found on Pet Finder in 2010. It was in a mall parking lot. My parents and I had lost the second of our two greyhounds a few months before and my mom and I were missing having a dog. My dad wanted to wait until we made the move from New Jersey to South Carolina but I didn't want to wait that long. The house just wasn't a home without a dog!

My mom and convinced my dad to take us and there we found a scared and sad looking terrier mix, sitting like a bowling pin in her chain link enclosure. Her shelter name was Mustang Sally, she was estimated at 10 months old, and she was rescued by the group who had her from a kill shelter in Georgia. It was the second day of the adoption fair and we were told someone was going to adopt her the previous day but pulled out.

We became that scared little dog's Furrrr-ever Family. My mom liked the name Fern Louise, which she had gotten out of a book she had once read, 1000 White Women. 

Fern came with her fair share of baggage. She can feel a storm coming hours before it hits, she's terrified of loud noises (gun shots, fire works, thunder), she's dog aggressive with dogs she doesn't know. Despite that, she has friends- my riding instructor's 3 dogs (a Boston, a Carolina Ditch Dog [mutt], and a Golden), another friend's Lab, and not to be forgotten, Olivia. She loves to play and wrestle and frolic with Olivia for hours- but we did have to be careful with introducing them.

Fern is a good dog, a sweet dog, and my family is happy to call Fern ours.

Fern the race horse with her jockey
costume

a bed to call her own (shortly after adoption)

"I'm allowed to be here, right?" Answer: No.

Fern in my old stroller

Fern and my late cat, Chucky

Fern and Santa at a Christmas parade

Fern in her Christmas dress

Fern and my cat Harley in their Christmas duds

comfy in bed

living the life

"oh hey there"

Fern and Harley

Christmas 2012 visit with Santa
Fern and Harley (and me)

Fern, Brian and I - Christmas 2012

Fern and her friends

even though she's too big for a lap dog... she still tries

Playing with her buddy