Our furry canine kids

This post might not be appreciated as well if you're not an animal lover.  You might think we are a little crazy.  But I've been wanting to put a bunch of pics of our pups up here for awhile and to document some of our favorite things about them.  So proceed if you want :) It's long and there's LOTS of pictures!

Samson is 3 and a half now.  It's been almost 2 years since his leg was amputated. For those of you that don't know - he broke his leg when he was little and as he grew, the leg became more and more deformed and caused him more and more grief.  So we made the decision to get it amputated.

This is basically the picture that made me know I needed to get to know Tanner when we started out on our online dating journey :)

He wouldn't eat or drink for awhile after his surgery.  He wasn't that impressed with my coaxing either.

We took Samson on a trip to Escalante the month after he had his surgery.  Holy moly he was a trooper.  We sure wore him out but he is no quitter, that's for sure!

Samson is like the most loyal dog ever.  He just wants to please and is super obedient.  Always has been.  He's always been awesome around other people and dogs and kids.  He's way mellow.  He puts up with kids climbing on him or Rozzi stepping on his face, etc.  He just has the sweetest disposition.  He's a great cuddler.  He'll let you hug him and lay next to him and he won't move.  He loves it too I think. 

He loves playing with other dogs.  He gets along great with them all.  Sometimes he gets his butt kicked because he's so meek and also being down one leg and all.

Him and Rozzi play great together.  Rozzi is kind of a punk and always likes to take out his good leg.  But he definitely will egg her on as well.  I don't think we'll ever be able to only have one dog again.  It's so great for them to have each other.  More on the two of them later...

Samson has probably spent 80% of his life with a ball or toy or stick in his mouth.  Oh my gosh this dog LOVES fetch like nothing you've ever seen.  He'll poop out from walking less than a half a mile, but if you're throwing a ball in the park or stick in the lake - he'll go forever.

And he LOVES the water.  Oh my gosh, if there is an inch of water to be found, good luck keeping him out of it.  He would live in the water if he could.

I love how they both run in the water. 

He also really likes to leave the ball on the grass and roll over it give himself a back massage.  It's funny.  He doesn't do it quite as much as he used to because Rozzi doesn't leave him much time to himself with toys in any way.  She's kind of a pest, as previously mentioned. 

He is a really happy dog.  All you have to do is talk in a happy, high pitched, exuberant voice - or just say his name basically - and he is WAGGING his tail.  And he has a serious tail.  Like it pounds - the cupboards, the floor, your leg.  Anything.  And it actually can kind of hurt.  It's awesome. 
I love his color and his size.  I love how if he hasn't seen you for awhile and if he loves you (he's done this with us, my dad, Carson...), he'll run up to you and you start petting him a lot and he just whimpers like the most precious thing ever.

And Rozzi is just a completely different beast all together.  No two dogs could ever be more different.  Oh my gosh she is a spaz.  So much energy.  She's still a lot of puppy.  She's one and a half and is a fighter too!  Almost exactly a year ago she ran away while we were celebrating our anniversary and it was awful.  3 days she was gone and then one day - someone called and said they had found her wandering around over by the river. Best day ever.  She was covered in ticks and burs so we had to shave her...

Which was sad because her wavy, beautiful brown long hair is one of my favorites.  Even though it is constantly re-carpeting our floors everywhere.  And then Christmas day last year she was hit by a car and spent the night in the animal ER and it was one of the saddest, worst days of my life.  I know it sounds crazy over a dog - but we were completely at a loss and more heartbroken than I thought possible over the thought of losing her.  Oh man that was ROUGH.  But she beat the odds and is still kicking.  The van had much worse damage than she did - she took of almost the whole front fender.
She's still a little traumatized by loud noises (from her homelessness around the 4th of July) and cars  (which we couldn't be happier about) but mostly back to her old self.

But I get ahead of myself.  It was actually the day after Christmas that we brought her home.  She was a big, funny, fluffy, hard puppy.  Oh man there were some rough times in there that I didn't know if I was gonna make it.  It was well into 6 months before she wasn't waking us up more than 3-4 times a night to go out.  Before then it was just cleaning up pee ALL the time.  Maybe that was our fault but it was tough regardless.

 But how can you get mad at that face? Oh my gosh she is so cute.  Even after puppy times, Rozzi has still tried our patience - but we seriously can't imagine life without her.  Samson is awesome but Rozzi just has SO much personality.  She's hilarious.  She makes us laugh so much on a daily basis.  There are so many things we just love about her.


Her and Samson have been pals since the beginning.  They rough house constantly and it's so funny.  She had some serious kick in her even when she was tiny.

 We have some great videos of them play fighting.  They still go at it like crazy.  But one of my FAVORITE things about the both of them is how they cuddle with each other.  It is so precious.

 She looks so huge compared to Samson!

Those are kind of out of order but you get the idea.  So like I said, Rozzi is a spaz.  We'll take her to play fetch and she will run like crazy after the ball and then maybe pick it up, maybe walk it back half way - but she'll never bring it all the way back to us.  She likes to just go after it if Samson is.  She only wants toys that Samson has.  Very sibling like, huh?  She chases her tail a lot.  And she gets pretty intense about it and often will hit her face on the couch or counters in the process.  I don't think any picture better sums up her "person"ality. 

Like I mentioned about her awesome brown, wavy hair - I love how disheveled it is.  It cracks me up.

It just does that.  Even after getting wet.  Funny.  Also Rozzi is very mischievous.  For a long time we thought maybe she just was kind of a dumb dog.  We've learned that she's actually EXTREMELY smart.  She knows which food bowl is hers and which isn't and Tanner has caught her on film walking slowly over to Samson's bowl and taking a small bite out of it and then walking over to her bed to eat it.  And then going back for more.  She'll sneak stuff out of the garbage like that and then go eat it in her kennel or in the corner.

She is funny when she is trying to get our attention to go out or when she wants something.  She always rests her head on the ottoman or the side of the couch or on the side of the bed.

Please notice me...

Both dogs just want to be where you are.  They get jealous if you are petting the other dog.  They get up and move to wherever we are.  Right between the island and stove - they both lay there every time I'm trying to cook.  It really doesn't help. At all.  They might accidentally reap some benefits of being there though...oops.
Rozzi will eat anything.  She loves celery and broccoli stems.  Weird.

When the door is closed to our room or the bathroom - you can almost assuredly count on seeing Rozzi's little paws poking underneath.  She does not want to miss out on anything.  She'll poke her head into the shower when we're in there and the door isn't shutting her out.  She wasn't a fan of water initially but she loves it almost as much as Samson now.  Except she'll grab on to Samson's tail or paw his head and push it under the water when trying to swim out. 

For all her "punk-ness" she really is quite the lover too.  She loves people and wants to always say hi and be loved and loves touch.  She likes to get her little cuddle time in before bed.  She bugs us until we let her on the bed, then she'll lay there with us for a few minutes until lights go out and then she'll hop off.  She lets me stick my nose to her nose and she'll just stare at me.  She holds still while I hug her and I love that.

She's always laid really funny.  Upside down with legs up and out.  Loves wrapping herself around a toilet.  I think she just likes the cold tile but it's still kind of weird.

Another really funny thing about her is she loves watching TV.  But not just any TV.  Has to have animals.  If she hears an animal sound she comes running and will sit and watch the tube - moving her head with the movement of the animals - until they go away.  Then once the animals are gone, she's done.  She once watched a solid 10 minutes of Man From Snowy River with Tanner.  She's watched a bunch of horse racing with Tanner.  She's also been loving the North America series we've been watching the last few weeks.  We think it is hilarious.

I think the last thing I will mention specifically about her is she also loves music.  Maybe.  She loves to dance.  If she hears music playing she'll run over to me.  If she sees me start dancing, she jumps up to dance with me.  Without fail.  I love it.  

And if we don't have enough pics of our dogs, I'll add just a few more of our favorites.  They are so much fun and such a huge part of our lives right now.  I recently read an article from the American Heart Association about how dog owners have lower systolic blood pressure and lower cholesterol levels.  Tobacco use is less among dog owners.  And dog owners have lower increases in heart rate and blood pressure in response to stress and recover faster from stress.  And if you have any coronary vascular disease or have had a heart attack, dog ownership increases your chance of survival.  So basically - dogs are amazing.  Thanks for letting us share our love of ours with you :)

We LOVE our family :)