Whoopi is the leader of this whole operation. She is the sweetest dog you will ever meet, but she is the boss, we know it, the other dogs know it and most importantly she knows it. She doesn't abuse her power though. She is my old hound dog lady. I adopted her from Virginia Beach Animal Control in 2004, when I was 19 years old. It is hard for me to even call myself her Mom, because I feel like she is as mature, if not more mature than I am. I like to consider us more like best friend roomates, but for some reason I'm the only one who knows how to make food. She turns 14 years old January 10th, 2018 and basically this is all for her. I want to make the last few years of her life the best years any dog could ever ask for. She still runs around like a puppy and wants climb every mountain, so you know what, I'm going to let her
Chickpea is the ultimate sidekick. I actually accidentally kick him (not hard) several times a day because he is always standing so close to me legs that I cant even see him. Basically, he's the best. We got chickpea because he was dropped of at the grooming shop that we owned and never picked up. Which was perfectly fine because he was in HORRIBLE condition, completely dehydrated with severe eye, ear and skin infections and the fleas, oh my gosh. When we finally got in contact with the "owner" they stated that he was an outside dog and they were looking for a shelter with a drop box to dump him in?!? We let them know that there was no need for that and he has been our littlest baby boy ever since. His health improved so quickly and now he is so vibrant and full of life. Even though he is way tinier than our other dogs, he has no problem keeping up with the pack. We treat him just like one of the big dogs and he thinks he is one. He is also our best guard dog, sometimes a little too much so. I cannot imagine our lives without him.
Chickpea Then
Chickpea Now
Ramona, oh Ramona. She's the class clown of the family. She thinks everything is funny. You definitely can't say she's bad, but she has way of doing things like jumping on your bladder first thing in the morning, sticking her dirty beard in your cup of water or only wanting to play as soon as you sit down to dinner. Then she looks at you with this clueless look and you can't be mad, because honestly she just doesn't know. Lauren found Ramona on the highway. She darted across traffic and got bumped by the car right in front of her. No one else stopped, but Lauren and Whoopi were able to coax Ramona out of the woods and take her to the vet. Miraculously, she just only had a dislocated back leg and coccidia and she was good as new in no time. We were able to track down where she came from, she had escaped from a foster home over 90 miles away! We still don't know if she ran the whole way or hitched a ride or what, but we talked with the shelter and let them know that we would like to keep her if she was up for adoption and they gladly said yes. She and Lauren have been inseparable ever since!
Denim is my little lover boy. I don't think I've ever met such a sensitive soul before. When we decided that we were ready to add a fourth dog to our family we searched far and wide for the perfect fit. We were taking all kinds of things into consideration, size, how they would do with travel, making sure they weren't too dominant for Whoopi or too rough for Chickpea. About two months into the search I saw on online plea for a rural shelter that had an over abundance of hounds. We went. It was about 25 degrees with a snow storm on the way and all of the dogs were being housed outside. I knew then that we were leaving with one. We met with a few and then we met this beagle. He didn't have a name. He was a dumped hunting dog. They said he was really scared, that they had to trap him to catch him. They said he couldn't walk on a leash, that he could only do well if he lived outside in a pen and that he bit. He sat in the middle of the room and shook, too scared to make eye contact with us, but he liked our dogs. They liked him too. I touched his back, he didn't love it, but he let me. That was it. he was mine. We couldn't bring him home that day because he had to be neutered and it killed us to know that he was spending another night shivering. We found out that he had hearworms and he started his treatment the day after he came home. He is now heartworm negative, he doesn't live outside in a pen and shocker, he's really happy about it. He is actually the best dog ever at walking on leash. He is super polite, completely housebroken, literally not one accident. Oh, and he doesn't bite. He is the sweetest, most loving, loyal dog I could ever ask for. He is an expert snuggler and just my best little buddy. And he loves to swim!
We are Beth and Lauren. We Met 7 years ago because we both worked at the same Animal Shelter. We then took that love of animals and opened up our own dog grooming salon. We have had great success and consider ourselves very lucky to be able to have a job where we are able to bring our dogs to work with us everyday, but the guilt of them sitting in a back office instead of being out in the world living life is just getting too much for us. We have made the decision to close our doors and live life. We are very excited for this next chapter in our lives!
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