Bronx.

I have hardly had anytime to update - 2 weeks ago my husband and I got a puppy. My husband has wanted a dog as long as I've known him, while I am a 'cat lady'. I could live my entire life never owning a dog and be perfectly happy. We had 2 dogs and 2 cats growing up and I liked them fine, but I've just always liked cats more. My husband likes bigger breeds, particularly German Shepherds and Huskies, while I like smaller breeds, especially Pomeranians. Since I already have three cats, it was his turn to get an animal he wanted. We had contemplated it in the past, but we already had the max allowable pets at our apartment complex, and secondly, we didn't think it was fair to have a huge dog in a 900 square foot apartment. After we bought a house, it became possible to get a dog, but we wanted to wait until after the holidays so we could go home without worrying about a dog.

So for the past two months I have been scouring the classifieds and pet finder for a puppy. Normally I wouldn't mind adopting an adult dog, but with the cats, I wanted a puppy. We did find one Husky puppy for adoption in the next town over, but after doing some research, these dogs just really aren't good with cats, often killing them, so that was a no go. So I decided to try to find a German Shepherd. These dogs are impossible to adopt as puppies - they get adopted so fast. So buying one was our only option. I found some in Phoenix (3 hours away), but they were crazy expensive since they were AKC registered, something I really could care less about. I'm not breeding my animal, so why pay for a piece of paper. I finally found some pups in Tucson (1 hour away) and showed my husband immediately - and he liked them. They weren't papered, as the mother dog was not papered, but they were fully blooded Germans and that's what we wanted.

I called the owners and decided to drive up that day (Feb 11). The puppies were perfect - they were 10 weeks, had their shots, and had the black & brown markings we wanted. My husband took about 30 minutes picking out the perfect puppy and finally settled on one. We already knew we wanted to name him Bronx after my husbands hometown in NY. He was shy and scared the first day, but is already a great dog! He sleeps in his crate with no problem, the past three days he has not had an accident in the house. The only time he will have one is if we're gone for more than 2 hours (in his crate), but when we're home he goes and waits by the back door. He loves to play - he caught onto fetch after day one of being with us. He is still a little curious about the cats, but is learning to leave them alone. Leash training is a little more difficult, but he is getting better. And he just loves my husband, follows him around whenever he is home.

It's a lot of work, but I love him so much already and I think he will be a great dog!

Definitely, Maybe.

The hubby and I have been in Arizona now for a little over a month, and while we're enjoying staying with friends, we're getting a little anxious to find a place of our own, mainly for the sake of of poor cat Mitters who is terrified of their dog. Every morning, my husband wakes up, searches for jobs, applies for jobs, and waits to hear back from people. Right now, we have a few options. The first one is a generator job in Phoenix. The hubby has been in contact with someone up there for a while, but the person who does the interviewing has been on vacation, but he was asked if he could make it up there for an interview next week, so we should know more then.

The other option is a little more radical: Border Patrol. Today they opened up applications for the Northern border, which really wasn't where he (nor I) wanted him to do BP, but he went ahead and applied and has a test date for August 24th in Idaho. Yes, 1200 miles was the closest testing station for the northern BP. We're hoping the Phoenix job, or a different one opens up for him and we don't have to make our way that far just to test. Another downer -- the training schedule. It would require 5 months basic training in New Mexico, 15 months on the job training in the southern border, and then finally going to your job on the northern border, which we requested Eastern New York/Vermont.

In all honesty, I hope the Phoenix job works out. It's very affordable to live there, and the job pays well. And there is a hockey team near by, which isn't a necesity, but a definite plus.

I would like to apologize for my extended absence from blogging. My computer was sent in to be repaired three weeks ago and I usually get on my hubbys' computer every morning for a bit, but haven't even logged in here for a week or so. Anyway, that's all the updates I have for now. Hopefully I'll have good news soon!

Welcome to the Grand Canyon State!

A week and a half ago, the Hubby, our three cats, and myself made the 1500 mile trip from Tennessee to Arizona. After our walk through with the apartment manager, we dropped off our cable box and got on the road at 11am. The first day was fairly uneventful as we traveled through Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. We stopped for the night in Dallas, TX. After I hit up WalMart for some cat food and stopped by Wendy's to grab some dinner, we watched some TV and went to bed. We woke up the next morning at 8am and loaded up the kitties and our bags again to continue our travels further west. I had never traveled directly from Tennessee to Arizona, so I took and unfamiliar route which put us in Texas for the majority of the trip, which wasn't so bad since the speed limit was 80 mph in some parts. After some rush hour traffic in El Paso, we were finally in the worst state in America: New Mexico.

I hate New Mexico so much and have never had good luck in this state, so why should I expect it to be any different this time? I had about a half tank of gas when we entered NM, so I thought there would surely be a gas station along the way. I saw a sign for a town and decided to look for gas with my GPS, but it said there were none close by. So I thought we'd just continue and find one...well, that never happened, so I had to turn around with intentions to head to a gas station 40 miles away. While heading to that gas station, we ended up in that small town where there were supposedly no gas stations, only to find a gas station there. I was annoyed, but glad that we didn't go too far out of out way. After we filled up, we continued in New Mexico, which was right on the border with Mexico, we actually had no American phone service and the Hubby recieved a text from AT&T offering him a deal for international service, haha. I was really glad we did go back for gas because there wasn't another gas station for probably another 150 miles and we would've been screwed with no service. We did get to see some illegals being busted by Border Patrol though, so tha was interesting.

The cats faired alright -- Mitters barfed like he always does (car sickness, I guess), George had one accident on day 2 (we were driving for 14 hours, so I wasn't mad), and Lola was a little angel :] We arrived at our friends house at 10pm AZ time and took showers and went to bed, we were so exhausted!

Since we've been here, the Hubby has continued to look for jobs, submitted a few resumes, and is hopefully going up to a UAV company this week to talk to someone. Our roomates have been great, only asking us to pay for food. They have a bulldog, and while it was rough at first, the cats have gotten more comfortable around him. I hope the Hubby can find a job soon and we can get a place of our own, but for now, this works. I of course miss my friends, AZ just seems so far away from everything and everyone I love. Hopefully when we have our own place, then I can have some visitors :]

Sorry this was so long, I will try to keep everyone updated if anything blog worthy happens, but as of right now, life is fairly uneventful!