Monkeys, monkeys everywhere

Gramma (Billy's mom) bought Kiernan this super cute monkey outfit for Halloween. For those of y'all in the DFW area, however, you know that it was about 50 degrees today so Kiernan broke in his very warm monkey outfit a bit early over at Fiona's.

A-dor-a-ble! ;)

Well, it can't all be good news...

Alas, it is not all puppies and rainbows over here at the Boettcher-Burkes.

We took Kiernan into the doctor yesterday for his 9-month checkup and, although there was good news, there was some not-so-good news as well. First, ever the optimist, I'll report the good news: Kiernan is nearly in the 75th percentile for height. He's grown 2 1/2 inches since his 6-month checkup! Wow!

And the not so good? He's actually LOST weight since his 6-month checkup and is now in the 3-5th percentile for weight. Poor little monkey! You can imagine that Billy and I were very worried about what might be going on with Kier Kier, but the doctor assured us (after being told in no uncertain terms that we are NOT going to give him formula; sidenote: I'm always amazed by the things that both doctors and vets are not that knowledgeable about) that with a month of pretty constant nursing we should be able to get Kiernan back on track.

Between that and Kiernan getting a vaccination, we were all ready to call it quits at the doctor's office. We'll go back in a month to check his weight, but please everyone say a prayer that he makes a complete turn around and gains weight like a champ!

The notorious seven (or is that Seven?)

My husband is a patient man. My husband is a kind man. My husband is an animal lover. However, my husband had no idea of the *scale* of pup madness he was getting into when he said "I do". Examples you ask for? How about the litter of seven GSP pups I brought home on Tuesday? We're down to only one pup at our house (named Seven, of course) and she'll probably be adopted by this weekend. So Seven plus Early, the Ridgie foster, and we're at our lowest foster number in quite a while. Like at least a couple months. Go ahead and add saint to that list of husband qualities. ;)

Here are each of the seven pups. Of course I managed to find the time to shuttle everyone to Fiona's!

Our beautiful little girl, Seven:

The death of a cell phone

With a little help from Kiernan, my cell phone took a plunge to the floor that, I'm afraid, it cannot recover from. Fear not, for Sprint (after a little cajoling and fit-throwing) has come to my rescue with a new phone. That curious noise you hear in the background? That's Billy's grumbling about how it's time to upgrade to an iPhone.

In the process, I did get all my old pictures off my phone and thought I'd post them here. Quality is a bit hedgy because obviously I'm not Fiona and this is just a camera phone, people. But enjoy!

Our foster dogs by Fiona

Well, we all knew that I wouldn't do them justice. Of course these are from Fiona!


These are shots of Quinn, our 3-year-old Australian Cattle Dog foster. I just love the photo of him running! He's a very loving pup and he's made big improvements since being at our house. We're proud of the little monkey!

These are shots of Saba, our Australian Cattle Dog foster. This was the pup that Billy found when he was out running one morning. She's a very sweet girl, even if she does want to eat the kitty.

These shots are of Cooper, our 3-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer foster. Unfortunately, he's heartworm positive so he'll be with us for the next couple months while he's treated.
A total doll!

As Gramma says...

I buy him books and buy him books and all he does is eat the pages! ;)

Ransom and Rawling

No blog update would be complete without a picture or two of some foster pups. Here are the two little GSP boys, Ransom and Rawling, who are now in their new adoptive homes. Rawling is the liver and ticked, Ransom is the liver and white. Aren't they just adorable?

More like his daddy every day

Now, people comment on how much Kiernan looks like Billy practically every time we leave the house. If it weren't for the blue eyes (which are still holding in there! yeah!) I would probably demand a DNA test for this little monkey.

After reviewing some pictures from that August visit to Austin, however, we have found another convincing reason why Kiernan is most certainly Billy's son. For those of you who, after a night out drinking with my sweet husband, have had the pleasure of learning a brain-numbing amount of intricate detail of the Roman empire or been puzzled by the depthless knowledge Billy has of useless trivia, I give you Exhibit A:

* I don't know when Kiernan would have started the boozing, but you can see from the picture below that his gift of gab is being bestowed on his cousin Bailey. He's probably telling her how to rebuild a carburetor with nothing more than floss and an aspirin tablet.
Exhibit B: Now we've moved onto the I-love-you-man part of his night of drinking. You can see that Bailey is not going to fall for any of these cheap lines.
Finally, beginning to sober up, he looks a bit nonplussed by the presence of the camera. It's much easier to deny the next day without documentation. Pesky, pesky documentation.

It's been a while...

Alright, alright, I know I've been slacking. However, unless someone can teach a foster dog to type, I'm afraid you're at the mercy of I-get-to-it-when-I-get-to-it.

To make up for my slacking, I'm finally posting some updated pictures of Little Boy. This is a picture from the August birthday party for his Aunt Tammie (Billy's sister). As a side note, isn't it funny how Kiernan ended up with two Aunt Tams? Seriously, it's not a very common name and somehow Billy and I both have sisters named Tamara.

And yes, he is the cutest little thing I've ever seen! ;)