I kind of disappeared off the map, didn't I? Let me catch you up.
Apollo graduated from puppy class!

He graduates from Intermediate next week and then it's on to advanced! I'm working on getting his Canine Good Citizen award, which really doesn't mean a whole lot other than my dog will be cooler than yours
I also had a foster dog who got adopted a couple weeks ago, named Jessie.

She was wonderful and Apollo loved her. She went to an awesome family that had a three-year-old daughter and a huge fenced in backyard in a great neighborhood so I'm thrilled for her!

However, Apollo missed her. Which leads me too...
Introducing Phoenix!

She's my rescue red doberman pinscher. She has natural ears AND tail! Here's her story:
A woman saw an ad for doberman puppies. She went to look at them and Phoenix was the last of her litter. They were keeping her in a dirt pen with no food, no water and would not touch her (hence the natural ears and tail, which I'm still super stoked about!" She bought her on the spot. She took her into her local pet store and one of the mamangers saw this skeleton of a doberman who wouldn't even walk and offered to take her and find her a home. So there she lived with the amanger's 8.5-year-old doberman and 1.5-year-old pit bull.
I applied to adopt her months ago, but never heard anything back. There was a woman who beat me to it, but she apparently canceled on the day of the home visit. During a big adoption event several people applied to adopt her, but they all raised red flags. One guy who applied used to have a rottweiler, but gave her away! Another woman wanted her, but her boyfriend wouldn't let her because she had a tail.
Turns out this little dobie's foster mom works at another branch of the same pet store I work at!

I named her Phoenix because it means "rebirth and immortality." It's strong and different and since phoenix' were firebirds and she's red I thought it fit perfectly. She's timid and incredibly sweet. As I write this she's curled up behind my legs asleep. I wanted to do shutzhund training if I got a doberman or a german shepherd or a breed like that, but I think she would pee herself.

So I think I may do volunteer search and rescue with Apollo and turn Phoenix into a therapy dog.
And her and Apollo get along great!


Another update: I am now an accredited dog trainer! I am absolutely loving it! You may be asking yourself why I'm putting Apollo through training still if I'm a trainer and the answer is, I get something out of it as a trainer since I haven't taught the upper level classes yet and I enjoy meeting the people and the dogs! And of course Apollo gets the socialization out of it. I am so happy with my job and I'm very lucky that it worked out.

One more story and then I'll be done.
This weekend Lexington's Petsmart opened an enhanced adoption center with the Lexington Humane Society. It's really nice! It's a free standing center with a play room and a meet and greet room and bigger kennels for the dogs and cats. Anyway, I took Apollo and Phoenix with me to the grand opening. There was a woman who made comments about Phoenix that I did not hear and I wish I would have The cashier she made comments to happened to be a friend of mine. The woman said "I cannot BELIEVE they did not dock their doberman's tail! I have a dobie at home and HER tail is docked!"
Well, good for you. Cunt. Why is it any concern of hers whether my dobie's tail is docked or not?
I wish I would have heard her so I could have said "Oh, I'm sorry. This is my rescue doberman who lived in a place where the people cared so little for her that they wouldn't even feed her, let alone touch her."
I wonder if she knows that the only reason tail docking started was to let people know who was a working dog and who wasn't. And also back in the 1700s it was believed docking a tail would keep rabies away. Tail docking has no purpose whatsoever. Ignorant bitch.

Anyway! You're all caught up! Tell me what's going on with you all?

This sums up how I've been feeling lately.

Look what I bought today!

She's a Brazilian rainbow boa. I got her at the Lexington Reptile expo today! They said she's about five to six months old. I'm so excited about her. I have wanted a Brazilian rainbow boa for years, ever since I saw one at the old pet store I worked at in Cincinnati, before I actually worked there.

One problem: I can't think of a name! I almost named her Lucille, but I decided it probably wasn't a good idea to name her after B.B. King's guitar. Then I thought of Freya, Kali, and Isis. I'm not crazy about Freya and Kali, although cool, doesn't really fit her. She's a total sweetheart and Kali was the Indian goddess of destruction. The only one I've really been crazy about is Isis.

But I still want to find cool names! I want it to be something unusual and exotic, just like her. Suggestions?

So here's what's going on in my life.

I went to Beaux Arts Ball as slutty Harley Quinn


I saw nikonphoto80 there, although briefly. It was a blast, as always.

In other news, my other dumbo rat, Charlie, had babies. Now that I think about it, I don't think I ever posted pictures of Charlie because I could never get a good picture of her. I'll have to try for that. She has a white body, with a gray cap and two gray spots on her back. I must have bought her when she was pregnant. Anyway, she had eight of them and they are as cute as they can be! I'm keeping two of them:

I don't know if they are boys or girls yet, but I should know soon. I already have names picked out if they're girls. Stella and Harley. If they are boys I have no clue what I am going to name them. Aren't they precious?!

I'm falling to pieces.

In other news...

Here's a better picture of my now two day old tattoo (i.e. not while I'm still bleeding and the green has had time to come out a little more)

I just got my first tattoo yesterday!! I was actually going in to get a microdermal in my back replaced, but by the time I got there I had convinced myself to get a tattoo instead!

It's for my mom. When I was 8 she got a shamrock with my name under it over her heart. Years ago I decided to get a matching one since we're so close and she's done so much for me. I'm so in love with it.
Afterwards the tattoo artist told me "Welcome to your new addiction." He could not be more right.

So I was in a car wreck Monday night. I was coming home from work with my dog in the backseat. He was moving around kind of oddly so I turned for a split second to see if he was okay. I hit the little groove things on the side of the road, and went to gt my car back in the lane. I lost control and hit the cement divider at 70 MPH. Then I went across three lanes and hit the snow bank on the other side of the road.
I'm okay and the dog is okay. I have a sprained wrist and holy hell does my body hurt. My phone is less okay. It basically exploded in the crash. Luckily I had it insured so I should be getting my new one today. My car is totaled. Regardless of the fact my airbags are out, the front end of my car was lying on the other side of the road, my front axle broke and I couldn't see how bad the rest of the front end was since it was buried in the snow bank.
There was a truck driver who pulled over immediately and called the police. I called my mom from his phone and she had to come and get me from the gas station on the nearest exit since she wasn't there before the tow truck got my car. The police officer waited with me. The truck driver told me I was lucky to be standing because I hit the wall so hard. At the hospital the fourth doctor said "So the other doctor told me what happened. Apparently you had this horrific car accident about two and a half hours ago and you just walked away? Nothing's broken so you're free to go."
I'm on two pain medications. 600mg Motrin and Utram, which I've never heard of before but they described it as "A narcotic, but not a narcotic."
The dog is fine. I checked to make sure he was okay before I checked out myself. I'm fucking lucky, and really luck doesn't really seem to cover it.

I got a job at a pet store!! And I also got my purple belt in karate yesterday. So needless to say, I'm flying high right now. Finally everything is coming together.

Now all I have to do is get through senior seminar. Just one month left...