Annie the Mini-Pin

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I started fostering dogs in 2009, a year after I vowed in front of 140 of our closest friends and family during our wedding, to not bring home any more animals until we have a home with a yard. First came Max, then Orly, followed by Four, Benny, Lucy, and finally, Jonny. Six dogs in seven months shared three things in common. They were all pit bulls. They were all homeless. And they were all in dire need of getting out of a high-kill animal shelter where they wound up through no fault of their own.

Sure my husband Jason delights in reminding me that I have broken one of my wedding vows, but lucky for me, and the dogs, he has been amazingly supportive. And then I got pregnant. It was during the end of my second trimester last year, after a particularly unfortunate foster dog named Jonny, now called Sunny, got his forever home, that we took a break from animal rescue.

That was…

Until I recently saw a shaking and terrified Miniature Pinscher being dragged through the front doors of Brooklyn Animal Care & Control. Her people were about to pay the $35 fee to relinquish her because they no longer had time. I was eventually able to talk them out of leaving her at the kill-shelter, but not without giving them my phone number. One week later, here she is.

Annie dutifully waiting to be examined by a vet.

Annie is about 3 1/2 years old and is a very timid girl who never got walked (look at her nails in the photo), was most likely bred and only gets excited when she sees a crate. Sad, right? Well sad no more.

After some proper vet care and some much-needed TLC, this little girl will be ready for her forever home! Annie is great with dogs, cats and even babies. I tested her out on mine. Do you have space in your heart and home for this little orphan Annie? Please feel free to share her story with your friends…

The Mini-Pin meets a Great Dane.

From Euth List to Forever Home

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Update

I received the below email last night from Karin right before I went to bed. Norwood, is now called Marley.

I can never thank you enough for bringing me Marley. We are soooo happy together. Turns out he is a HUGE mushpot. I start to rub to his ears and he literally falls to the ground like a ton of bricks. I have to video tape it and send it to you. It makes me laugh every time. We went out in the rain early this morning to go to the bathroom and then came back inside and we both fell asleep on the couch together until my friend woke us up about 20 minutes later. Amazingly enough the thunder & rain did not bother him at all. He’s very playful and not much seems to bother him. He loves to chase bumblebee’s, smell flowers, and is so gentle with his toys. What a difference a few days make. I can’t wait for his kennel cough and neuter to be over with so I can take him to the doggie parks.

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Norwood is a two-year old pitbull who recently found himself on the euthanasia list at Manhattan Animal Care & Control for contracting kennel cough. Karin Jordan of Keyport, New Jersey looked into those eyes and saw so much more than a silly cold and asked me to save him for her. There is nothing I like more than pairing pitties with parents so it was a no-brainer on my part.

Norwood’s shelter mug shot.

I have met many pitbulls at ACC who are gloom and doom. After all, it’s a tough place to end up for an unwanted animal. But not Norwood. This gorgeous guy really blew me away when I went to get him out yesterday. The boy, despite his URI, had bounds of playful energy, even in the 8×8 discharge room. His tail was wagging throughout and he greeted Karin with a huge hug. He’s a spirited little fella who I have no doubt will mold beautifully to the rhythms of Karin’s life. I am so thrilled that they found one another!

Karin and her new pup.

NYC AC&C New Hope Liaison Fired for Doing Her Job Well

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I was away on vacation when friend and fellow animal rescuer, Emily Tanen, was fired from her job as the New Hope Liaison at New York City’s Animal Care & Control.

Emily Tanen was fired from her job at AC&C for caring too much.

Because of the photos Emily took of at-risk dogs she then promoted via social media sites like Facebook, hundreds of dogs found forever homes and escaped being killed at the overcrowded city shelter. However according to AC&C, who is contracted by the Department of Health, Emily violated her contract by having people pose with the dogs in the photos.

One of Emily’s many heartbreaking albeit lifesaving photos.

While I am so sad for what Emily’s absence will mean for NYC’s homeless dogs – especially pitbulls – I have no doubt that she will go on to do tremendous and beautiful things.

Fellow writer and friend Michael Mullins covers the story in depth here.

Mourning Our Vacay

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Back to reality. We came back from vacation two days ago and I’m lamenting returning from this trip more than any other vacation I have ever been on before. And we only went to Las Vegas! We’re not talking the tropics here people (just the Tropicana).

Undoing my unpacking. Never even knew that was possible.

But this WAS our first real vacation with our son Mylo, and it was a family vacation at that. And by family I mean five other people and 10 hands who helped with all the demanding baby needs! And it is perhaps that which I miss the most.

But it wasn’t all easy-peasy. After all, we were hit with a time difference that took it’s toll on Mylo the first two nights. My husband Jason wrote about his late night forays on the Vegas strip trying to coerce our son to sleep. Did I just use the words “sleep” and “Vegas strip” in the same sentence?!

The boy has become a rapid ball of energy with fierce opinions, amazing physical strength and the stamina of a marathon runner. Every time I turn around he is disheveling the cabinets, jars, drawers and potted plants in our home. Yes it’s amusing but it’s also downright exhausting.

The peaceful days of cooing at my newborn baby, of holding him in my arms and planting gentle kisses on his face, are gone. These days, Mylo only sits still long enough to breastfeed and even then, usually has ants in his pants.

Sometimes I want to run away from home, if only for a second. Sometimes I daydream about cultures in which the extended family aids in child-rearing. Other times I just want to return to Vegas… with my family. Never thought I’d say that.

The family.

Mylostone – First Swim

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We introduced our son Mylo to a swimming pool for the first time during our recent family vacation to Las Vegas. With the help of Swimways’ Baby Spring Float that we purchased from BabiesRus before leaving, the little guy totally dug it!

Because the dry dessert sun has a reputation for turning up the heat in Vegas, pool temperatures start off real cool and by the end of the day are about as warm as a bathtub. Mylo didn’t appreciate being submerged in the cool water the first day but on our second day he began to get the hang of it and proceeded to float and splash around as happy as can be.

My man and my boy in the pool at PH Towers.

It was a different experience for me – being in a Las Vegas pool with my husband AND my baby, a place where pools are notorious for skimpy swimwear and hard partying – both of which I have rocked and partook in in the past. And the pool where we stayed – at the relatively new Planet Hollywood Towers Westgate – was no different.

Luckily Mylo is too young to understand why a group of 20-somethings were doing cannon balls while holding on to their buckets of beer for dear life.  Hey I’m 33 and I’m not sure I understand it. Wait, yeah I do. It’s Vegas.

Mylostone – First Flight

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My son Mylo flew on an airplane for the first time two days after his 9 month birthday. I told him the story of how he was named on a plane and then, just like that, I had on my lap what every passenger hopes for when they see small children boarding a plane… a sleeping baby! The boy slept 90% of the time while I struggled to get just one second of shuteye. Boo. But I was at least able to watch Biutiful starring the godly, Javier Bardem, uninterrupted, which is something that, since having a baby, never happens anymore.

So where did that plane take my precious cargo you’re likely wondering? Now I don’t know whether to laugh or laud this, but, Las Vegas!! Yes, Sin City.

Vegas here we come!!

What can I say other than it’s in my blood. My folks love Las Vegas and travel here at least once if not twice per year. My grandmother loved Las Vegas and if I’m lucky, if not a little sorry, my son will catch the bug for this outrageous and outlandish city some day too!

Why I Hate the Kentucky Derby

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It’s springtime. The air is filled with the sweet smell of flowers and fresh starts. But because the first weekend in May is marked by the Kentucky Derby, followed by the Preakness Stakes a couple of weeks later, year after year I find myself struggling to get through this season.

I loathe the Kentucky Derby. Correction: I don’t just loathe the Kentucky Derby. I hate the ENTIRE race horse industry.

But I didn’t always.

In college a somewhat dorky albeit really funny boy invited me to a Kentucky Derby party in Camden, Maine. I shocked all my friends and practically the entire campus when I accepted.  It was a chance to put on a pretty dress, get out of the tiny town our school was in and drink Mint Juleps for the day – all while laughing my ass off with this boy.

I sipped on minty bourbon alright and watched in awe as these gallant creatures darted around the track. A horse named Real Quiet won the grand prize, a lush blanket of 554 red roses for him and oodles of money for his owner, but it was the horses that didn’t win that I couldn’t get out of my head. “What about them?” I asked aloud. “They get turned into meat,” my date told me.

Buzzkill.

What I had learned made ME “Real Quiet,” and so we made the two-hour trip back to school in near silence.

That was my first Kentucky Derby party and also my last.

It’s not that I love animals, even though I do. It’s that as far back as when I was a toddler in Nigeria, I was acutely aware of the injustices done to them, and it has always haunted me.

The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, Belmont Stakes and all of  your local thoroughbred race tracks directly contribute to the horse slaughter industry.

Of the racehorse industry, William C. Rhoden wrote the following in the New York Times:

The most significant source of racehorse deaths is the slaughter industry, one driven by overbreeding and demand from the lucrative global meat market. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, more than 100,000 American horses are slaughtered each year in Canada and Mexico to satisfy horse meat markets in Europe and Asia.

Breeding operations produce thousands of so-called surplus thoroughbreds. What happens to the excess, the often anonymous horses? Some are sold to owners who take them overseas. Some wind up racing in Japan. Some wind up in slaughterhouses.

I’d like to point out that thoroughbred race horse, Real Quiet, the same horse that won the Kentucky Derby in 1998 and forever changed my view of this brutal sport, died this past September at age 15. While he didn’t go off to slaughter, he also didn’t retire at pasture. Tired and broken down, he spent the rest of his life as a breeding stallion.

Real Quiet

April 2011 Takeaways

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At the beginning of this year, in an effort to support my resolve to blog more, I started something new: monthly takeaways. Call it a recap, a reflection or a review. The monthly takeaways are one part blog therapy and two parts a measure of the growth and progress I’ve made in my life (or not). After all, a month left behind means my son is one month older, I am one month older and therefore, hopefully, one month wiser.

My hope is that these takeaways will be fun and interactive and that you will join me by posting about your takeaways from this past month, in the comments below.

For one reason or another, there weren’t many things I learned last month. Either because I just plain didn’t have the time to jot stuff down and snap photos, let alone reflect on life. Alas, here’s what does stick out…

My April Takeaways

1. I am officially fertile again. No, I am not pregnant! In fact, the total opposite happened… I got my period for the first time in 17 months.

2. My husband Jason gave me his cold this past month and I passed it on to our son Mylo. Fluids and snuggles eventually did our bodies good. Coddling the baby to bed did our sleepless nights bad.

3. This takeaway deserves a post all its own, but I’ve yet to write it. After getting over our two-week colds, we decided to sleep train Mylo again. Only this time it required moving our bed into the living room. While sleeping on a mattress as if we’re back in college is not ideal, the sleep training has been a success.

Oh two bedroom, where art thou?

4. Mylo truly has a zest for anything physical. Toss him onto a bed of pillows and he bellows with laughter. Drag him around by his feet so his shirt “swifts” our hardwood floors clean and he snorts and giggles the entire time. He’ll cut a rug to Adele and Fuse until he sweats and he just ADORES being thrown in the air.

He’s an active one I tell ya.

5. Despite making no money this past year, Uncle Sam surprised us with an unexpected bounty. That or having a kid really does bode well with the taxman.

6. We moved our car out of the expensive covered parking garage we’ve parked in for four years to contend with the rat race of alternate side of the street parking. Not only is it one less bill per month, but it also ended a complicated situation we had gotten into by letting a homeless man and his dog sleep in our car at night.

7. Mylo went to his friend Gratia’s 1st birthday party in the park on a particularly blustery April afternoon. Mylo had his first taste of a cupcake and learned how to play bang on musical instruments. I learned to keep my mouth shut when it comes to the contentious topic of schooling your children. When I told a couple who is moving to an area of Brooklyn Heights that would have them zoned for the most desirable public school in the borough, they informed me that they’re actually “hoping to get into” Saint Ann’s where tuition ranges between 23 and 30 thousand dollars. Well didn’t I feel like a loser?!

Mylo taking in the festivities while watching the birthday girl celebrate.

8. My brother-in-law Damien flew in (like the wind) from California last week. He adores his nephew and has even offered to watch him while we step out for a couple of hours but is adamant about not changing diapers. Somehow I managed to get him to put a onesie on the baby, though. I told him, “It opens in the crotch, figure it out.” It took him seven minutes and a ton of negotiating to get the boy to sit still, but he did it. I feel a diaper change coming on in his near future!

A wise guy to my left and to my right.

9. I could care less about the royal wedding. Will and Kate are a charming couple but I was really disappointed to see my country’s extensive media coverage pre and post-nuptials. Especially when hundreds of people died following the tornadoes down south, just two days before the big day.

10. If there is anyone who cared less than me about the royal wedding it was my husband. So much so that when I told Jason we were invited to a royal wedding party a day AFTER the royal wedding on our friends’ roof deck down the block, he asked, “Can I sit this one out?” Uh, NO!! And yet look who had a ball parading around like the queen?

Queen for the day.

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So, what are some of your takeaways from this past month? Please share them with me in the comments, I’d love to hear!

My Community

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We’ve been very fortunate in the childcare department. Since the day my son Mylo entered the world this past August, there’s been a gaggle of grandparents surrounding him and supporting us. And we honestly could not be doing it all without them.

I am so very lucky and so very grateful that I got to spend the first seven months of my son’s life at home with him. We made new friends, went to the movies, hung out in bars and most of all, we bonded. My time off with my son has not only enriched my life, but has affirmed my opinion of this country’s lack of  standard, paid parental leave for moms and dads — which pales in comparison to Canada and European countries.

Because we’re not ready to put Mylo in daycare and because we wouldn’t be able to entertain a nanny salary right now, we’ve relied on our families for help.

Even though I haven’t worked in over one year I’ve figured out that I don’t want to be at home full-time. Yet I also don’t want to go back to work full-time. I know, not a ton of options out there for moms like me, but I recently took on a new project (that I have yet to unveil here on my blog) that will allow me to do just that. But because of this new project and Jason’s freelancing work, our lives just went from somewhat managed to insanely busy.

Thanks to my mom who has a demanding job in academia, my father who recently retired and my mother-in-law who keeps a busy social life, we’ve been able to carry out our zany and changing schedules from week-to-week. Not only do the grandparents drive two to four hours round trip to see their grandchild, but they also come bearing food for us to stockpile in our fridge. They keep us sane and they keep us well fed.

Granna Dianna, Mylo and The Bug.

And while these three forces have been very present in Mylo’s life since birth, I have only recently seen the value in the special bonds that are being forged. When one of the grandparents comes through the door he squeals with delight at the sound of their voice – even before he sees their face. He reaches out to be held by them. They play special games. My dad speaks to him exclusively in Arabic. My mother-in-law speaks to him exclusively in French.

I should also add that this has been great for me. I am learning a lot about letting go and handing the reins over to someone else — which for a neat-freak and self-proclaimed perfectionist, isn’t always easy. It has been invaluable for me to leave the house a few times a week to go out and be “Reedu” and not just a mom with a ton of responsibilities.

Horsin' around with Sidi.

And yet I am reminded even more of how valuable these friendships are following the recent, back-to-back news of two of our family members being diagnosed with cancer. I was 22 when my grandmother died, with whom I was very close. My son would be so blessed to have one, if not ALL of his grandparents in his life for that many years.

Of being a grandmother, my mom told me once, “It’s everything I thought it would be and more.” Another time my dad asked me if I thought he’d live long enough to have a drink with his grandson. And my MIL yearns to show her grandbaby her beautiful garden in France.

First bath with Grandma Claire.

I am so touched the grandparents feel great happiness in having an active role in my son’s life. He is one lucky and loved little boy…

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What about you, are you at home full-time with your baby(ies)? If so, how do you find relief? And if you work full-time I’d love to hear how you manage it all. Please share!

Mylostone – Crawling

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My son Mylo started crawling today! It’s exciting but at the same time also somewhat surprising because he’s been scooting or doing the army crawl since he was 5 months old. So much so that I assumed he might skip moving on all four’s all together and go right into walking.

There’s something so utterly adorable about a baby crawling, though. The slapping of his hands on the ground, the widening of his eyes as he gets closer to what he’s set his eyes on (usually me). His pensiveness as the smallest distraction causes him to change course. His laughter as he passes life from a new angle and with new perspective.

It’s all so very humbling.

Slappity, slap, slap… here I come!!