Abby the Painter

Abby's a great helper.

Looking sweet and obedient.

I like this one because she has that wild look in her eyes - that's her true personality, don't be fooled.

Abby's Christmas Vacation

We are back from a two week vacation. Abby had a blast. She got to play with all manner of other dogs: Yellow, Jet, Shadow, Hunny, Babs, Deuce, Oakley, Pete, Zoey, and Boomer. Several all at once, too. And by "play with", I mean: chase, start fights, boss around, and tear up their toys. Kind of like that bully when you were a kid whose mom was friends with your mom but you dreaded hearing that they were coming over to play... sigh...

"I got the ball... Don't bother me."

Here she's the smallest of the 4 dogs, probably a first in her life.

Oh yeah, she caught something called "flacid tail syndrome" after swimming in the freezing cold lake. Don't laugh.

The drive back: not nearly as spacious. We really needed to bring that deer head with us.

Abby's Opinion of the Kitchen Renovation

She's thinking: "When is all this nonsense going to be over?!? What happened to hiking, swimming, playing fetch..."

Abby's Night Out

Even though Wednesday was Abby's birthday, we didn't plan any sort of celebration because.. well, she's a dog right? She doesn't know what day it is... However, what I did do is leave the garage door open (while she was out in the yard), then forget to close it when I let her in, then continue to be absorbed in a very complicated homework assignment. When August came home, maybe an hour or so later, he says "Where's Abby?" and from my desk I go "uh I don't know..." "The door's open"... AAAGH. "Was she wearing her collar?" "uh.... no?"

(We've gotten in a bad habit of taking it off her because she makes a lot of noise jingling the rabies tag as she scratches her neck at 2:30 in the morning...)

So, the hours from 5:30 - 6:30 were spent making laps around the neighboring blocks, whistling, calling, etc.. - all the while knowing that Abby never really goes anywhere when she's out alone. She's a pack animal. Unless of course if someone were to walk by, and especially if they had a dog of their own. In that case I have no doubt that she'd follow {harass} them all the way home and never think twice about her old pack.

Around 6:30 I went in to make some flyers. Of course the printer is out of ink. By #4 they are completely illegible. I put up those 3 on nearby stop signs, and then drove to Kinko's where I bought 100 more copies. At this point August is convinced that she's been kidnapped by a bad person to be turned into a cage fighter. Or at least picked up by someone who loves her so much they just keep her.. (ha ha.. yeah right..)

By 7:30 I'm taping up the 1st of the new 100 flyers and my phone rings. Its a neighbor from 3 houses down, and I happened to put one of the original flyers on the stop sign right in his yard. Coincidence?? :) Turns out he was in his yard when Abby made her escape. No doubt she headed right for him to say hello. He promptly loaded her up and took her to the Humane Society, which I did not think to call because we were absorbed with whistling and calling until well after they closed... They did post her on their "Lost&Found" website later in the evening..


So August retrieved her at 9:00 am the next morning. They did not lecture him on responsible dog ownership as I assumed they would, but she did have to be registered as a canine resident of Longmont (cost: $25/yr). This I find hilarious, since I'm not sure what city services she uses. I suppose she used the humane society, but we had to pay an additional $55 for her overnight stay.

Regardless of the fees and wasted paper (what can I do with 100 "Lost Dog" posters?), we were very relieved to find out that she was safe and very thankful that God had answered our many fervent prayers! Other morals of the story:

1. Dog collar is now a permanent fixture, even though it now makes twice the amount of noise as she has to wear an additional "City of Longmont" tag.
2. We should probably get to know more of our neighbors.
3. Is it safe for me to have children? Will I get absorbed in something and not realize they've wandered out the front door? Maybe we should have them implanted with some sort of LoJack tracking device, just in case...

Birthdays All Around

Dear Abby is officially two years old. Not that she acts her age or anything... What is that in dog years? 14? She may be a little bit developmentally challenged. We love her though.

Its been a busy birthday week, my new sister-in-law yesterday and sweet Papa tomorrow - its his 90th! Too bad only perhaps one of the three will see this post.

Regardless, a very happy birthday to all!!

The Blog's Name

The name of this blog "A House for Abby" is somewhat of an inside joke that probably only I (Mary-Hall) get. Its not even funny, so I won't bother to explain it, or else you'll all know how strange my sense of humor really is.

Truth be told, its not a house for Abby at all. Its definitely more like "a house for Mary-Hall" but anyways... To some extent it is "a yard for Abby", but actually not really, as she gets yelled at for running through the flowerbeds, etc. If Abby got to choose, I think she would probably elect to move back to Marshall where the house and yard were already in bad shape, and she basically had free reign of everything. Poor dog. Here's a picture of Abby's new home, which she stays in while her guardians are at work. guardians.. a ha ha... Its a really big pen. You can't even see it all in that photo. But she spends 95% of her time right where you see her, staring at the gate.

A now a few more photos of Abby, our baby: