Animals

Okay I have some catching up to do. I don't think I ever posted about Jessie's dream come true! She is a huge horse-lover, and for her birthday we gave her a riding lesson. I had it all set up for a couple weeks later, but as it turned out the horse she was going to ride was injured a couple days before the lesson. I promised Jess I'd find her a horse to ride SOMEWHERE, but it was not easy! Everyone I could find who taught lessons wanted the kid to have their own horse. So then I decided to call our neighbor who is a rancher to see if he knew someone who might have a horse my little girl could ride, and he said she could ride one of his! So a couple weeks later we met him out at his property and met Darcy the horse.Natalie came with us too, she's not as horse-crazy as Jess, but she does love them. She's actually the one who got Jess interested. It was a fun day!

So then the other animal. This is Brandy.Brandy is our new dog! We got her in September, and she's a one-year-old Vizsla. And we LOVE her!
So here's the story of Brandy. Jason has always loved dogs, and we've been planning to get one ever since we got married, but we never had the yard for it. Then when Jason started having so much more pain and stopped being able to work, he started talking about how nice it would be to have a dog to keep him company. Then we saw a TV show about different dog breeds and it talked about Vizslas. How they are great indoor dogs because they don't shed much or smell stinky, and they're happy to follow you around and snuggle with you all day.
So a while after that we happened to check the petfinder website, and the Cedar Animal Rescue had a vizsla! We called right away and went out to see her. The lady at the rescue center showed us some other dogs as well, and we actually ended up picking a different dog, a very calm Jack Russel named Roxi. She didn't work out though, she was so sheddy and so shy, she wouldn't even go near Jason and she just cowered in the corner all day. So we took her back after just a couple days and "exchanged" her for our orignal choice, Brandy! (yes, she came with the name.)
As soon as we got her home we knew she was the dog for us. She ran around happily sniffing everything, but not barking or jumping on us, and as soon as she spotted Jason in his bed, she hopped up and snuggled up to him. It was like she knew exactly what she was here for. We can't believe what a perfect dog she is. She's not too big or too small, she really doesn't shed or smell much, she almost never barks, and she LOVES US so much! She spends most of her time on the bed with Jason, and he gets so much comfort and fun from her. He loves having her to keep him company on the long nights when he can't sleep, and the long days when we're all busy with life and he's stuck in bed. She's such blessing for him, we're so happy that Heavenly Father led us to her.