The Dog Days of Summer - Alyssa

Welcome to the Dog Days of Summer! My name is Alyssa and I blog at My Husband's Watching TV. My family consists of me, my husband, our two-year-old daughter, and our two dogs. Let me introduce you to my furbabies.

First up is Emma who is part lab-part whatever you want her to be (everyone always has their own opinion). My mom got her from an ad she saw in the paper for free puppies. The conditions were horrible so she took Emma home to clean her up and find her another home...which ended up being with us!  Post-college, it was just the Em-Dog and me. She's been with me longer than my husband!  She rode halfway across the country with me while I completed my internship and got my first job in South Carolina. Then she trekked back across the U.S. when I got my job with the organization I'm still with. Emma was by my side while I bought my first house, found my husband, and when we welcomed our daughter into our family. Emma is our "shy" pup but she's still one cool chick!

Then we have Shadow (aka Shad, Shadie, Shadowiffic). He's our 100 pound black buffalo lab. Right after my husband and I got engaged, his friend called us about eight p.m. on a Friday night and said he was looking for a home for his dog...and needed to find him one by the next morning. Again, we took him home intending to find him a different home but six years later and he's still a part of ours. Shad is a chow-hound meaning he'll eat anything and everything in a matter of two seconds. He loves attention and will crawl up in your lap if you let him. Unfortunately, he just doesn't understand how big and powerful he is so a few tears have been shed at our house when his giant paw lands on your bare feet...and I'm not just talking tears from my two-year-old but from Momma too!  He's totally the social one of the two.

In 2009, my husband and I decided to try to expand our family. Long story short, it took us two IVFs to have our beautiful daughter. During that time, our furbabies endured my tears and frustrations as I thought they may be the only "kids" in my life.

When our daughter was born in 2012, their worlds were turned upside down just as much as ours were. They went from being the center of our world to having to stare at this little tiny human who would later love them more than anything in the world...whether they liked it or not.

From tears of sorrow and frustration, they now endure a two-year-old crawling in their cage with them, hugging them as tight as she can, and of course, lots of snacks she always wants to feed to "Emma and Shadie." She asks about them daily and I'll be honest that I've "bribed" to get her to stop crying about having to leave the park and go home.

As I write this post, I realize these two dogs are the rock that help hold our family together. Whether it's moving cross-country, finding my spouse, struggling through infertility, or welcome a new life to this world, they've been there through it all. Every day they greet me with an excited bark and a loving lick. It's so much fun to watch our daughter with the two of them and see the love she has for them. Dogs are amazing creatures, they roll with the punches and truly understand the meaning of unconditional love!