Mid-week Parties and Rescue Dogs!

One of the awesome things about having blogger friends, is blogger-friend parties :)  I mean, you know there will be an endless supply of delicious food and lots of stuff to talk about!

Tuesday night, Elina had a little party at her condo so that we could enjoy some time on her patio before it gets too cold!

There were friends, bloggers, and some blogger +1’s, not to mention a delicious spread of eats

warning: crappy dark iphone photos..

Off the top of my head, some of the delicious items were:

• Elina made pepperoni monkey bread (hot out of the oven), and Russian cheesecake pops!  Both were amazing.
• Shannon brought a savory cheesecake topped with homemade tomato jam.  That jam was delicious, we were brainstorming different uses for it :)
• Cara made some zucchini roll-ups stuffed with goat cheese, pistachios, and mint.
• Megan and Meghan picked up some tasty Whole Foods treats, such as slices of baguette topped with ricotta and sour cherry jam…this combo was AWESOME!
• I made a quick batch of Feta and Roasted Red Pepper dip the night before, and just kept it in the fridge at work during the day.

It was a beautiful night and I had a fantastic time talking with everyone!  The one downfall of mid-week parties is being extra tired at work tomorrow, but it’s worth it sometimes :)

Big thank you to Elina! 

The other thing I wanted to talk about was my Fur-baby.

Tomorrow marks our 1 year anniversary of when this little bundle of love came into our life!  (yeah I jumped the gun on twitter…it’s actually the 30th, but that was a Thursday last year!)

I just wanted to that this opportunity to just remind everyone that if you’re thinking of getting a dog PLEASE consider a Rescue!

Before I started looking, I didn’t know that much about Rescue dogs, and so I’m sure I’m not the only one.

I think sometimes the word “rescue” or “shelter” dog gets a bad rep.  Some people think it means troubled dogs, or dogs with behavior issues, or the not-as-popular breeds.  Now, unfortunately there are many dogs out there that are troubled and have issues…not that their born that way, but the poor things ended up in bad homes and weren’t properly cared for.  Still even some of those dogs just need a little love and attention to become your perfect pet :)

On the other hand, there are also TONS of dogs out there that were surrendered for nothing that they did, but simply that their owners couldn’t care for them for some reason or another.  Sad but true.  A lot of people get pets when they really shouldn’t or aren’t ready.

Sure, it might take a little more effort than just buying a puppy from a breeder or a store, but putting in that extra effort can be incredibly rewarding.  Even better if you find a great shelter or rescue to work with…they want to make sure to match you with the dog that best suits your life.  They don't want to risk someone ending up with a dog that they might take back to the shelter.

There are also rescues for ALL breeds!  I knew I wanted a Shih Tzu or something similar, so I ended up working with a rescue that focuses on small dogs :)  Getting all Rescued and Rehomed was very thorough and worked with me until we found a perfect match… 

This was him right after we brought him home:

I seriously don’t think I could have asked for a better dog for me and Brian.  I’ll still never know why he was brought to a shelter, but the woman at the rescue found him there (at a high-kill shelter) and brought him home to eventually come to his forever-home with us.

He was house broken, calm, loves car rides, LOVES to cuddle, always wants to be near us, we can leave him home with free range of the house and not have to worry about him getting into anything, doesn’t chew on anything except his toys, and just makes me SO incredibly happy every time I see his little face.

Well anyways…enough typing.  Just wanted to say how amazing this year has been with our newest family member, and it makes me that much happier to know we saved him :)

 

I think he needs a furry sibling… ;)

Dogs make me happy.