our collective digital self
Posted by Michelle on Oct 8, 2006 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle
Last weekend, we headed over to Weaver Street Market in Carrboro because they were having a Dachshund Day Celebration on their front law. Hilarity abounded as Annabelle was the star of the day and even co-winner of the limbo contest!
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Posted by Michelle on Sep 22, 2006 in Hayley, pups & other pets
More Annabelle puppy photos … can you tell we are hopelessly in love with this pup?!?! More cute photos from her third month including ones with Jeff, Hayley and Buster. Hayley found one of her stuffed animals was a twin to Annabelle, which was very funny!
A few of my favorites, link to the full gallery of photos below…
Tired from a long day of frolicking
Tag!
I am so cute and I know it.
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Posted by Michelle on Sep 8, 2006 in pups & other pets
Annabelle says, “I sleep with the big doggie!”
She loves Buster and Molly, following after them wanting to play and bite their tails. We are very happy Buster is accepting her happily!
Posted by Michelle on Aug 23, 2006 in Hayley, pups & other pets
Weighing in at 1 lb, 13 oz, Annabelle came home to drive us all insane! She is a playful feisty puppy who just so amazingly small we are paranoid about losing her! Hayley is being a great help and I’m proud of her.
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Posted by Michelle on Aug 10, 2006 in Hayley, pups & other pets
We went to visit the puppy Annabelle on Thursday at the absolutely wonderful breeder out in Zebulon. She is just adorable and it was love at first snuggle! We played with her for about an hour, the silly little thing is rather sweet but very fiesty! She loves chew on blankets, nibble on our fingers and flipflops and generally scamper around.
She is just so small – she can’t weight more than three pounds. We played with her littermate sister, saw her other littermates, mom and dad. Mom Daisy is a red mini-doxie, dad Levi is a black and tan like Sam and both are very attractive friendly dogs.
Just over eight weeks ago, Annabelle (or Belle for short) will be ready to come home next Friday!
I’m posting my favorites here but there is a link on the bottom to the full photo gallery.
Puppy kisses
Two cute girls
Please refrain from eating Hayley’s hair!
Puppy tummy!
Annabelle and her litter mates!
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Posted by Michelle on Aug 8, 2006 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle, pups & other pets
Today (08-08) is our 8th wedding anniversary. I know I know… all those eights (including the 8 year old sweetiepie Hayley), we need to go play the lottery with eights. Normally we like to buy a joint gift for the family. Imagine my surprise when there was a card from my adorable husband Jeff with a website address inside!
Inside the sweet card was a link to a powerpoint presentation that had photos of my (our) gift … a mini-dachshund puppy! She won’t be ready to come home until next week so Jeff made a cute little presentation with photos of her and funny quips (have I mentioned how much I love my silly sweet husband?). She is eight weeks old to boot – another eight!
She is so cute and tiny – she won’t get much bigger than 10 or 11 pounds full grown! She is red and smooth haired. We are going to visit her this week and then bring her home next week.
We haven’t picked out a name yet – Jeff wants to call her Petunia but that doesn’t really sit too well with me. Hayley wants Ivory after Ivory Latta or Matilda because she adores that movie. I like Betsy or Mia. Hayley and I like Annie as well also she likes Belle after one of the princesses. We’ll keep thinking until we can find something we all agree on.
UPDATE: Hayley has decide the puppy will be named Annabelle. We’ll decide when we meet her if she is an Annabelle, Annie or a Belle! She of course made me go to a pet store today and get a pink collar with rhinestones 🙂
I turned the powerpoint presentation into a pdf to put it on our server. Here it is: The cute presentation of the newest Hillison.
Posted by Michelle on Dec 15, 2005 in pups & other pets
Sam our dachshund had been very lethargic, clingy and not eating well. We took him to the vet and the results weren’t good. He’s had a heart murmur and needed ultrasound on the heart, plus one on his stomach. He was so sad, just so droopy and all he wanted is to be on or next to me.
The ultrasound showed a bladder stone and something more serious – a blockage in his stomach and intestines. We love our vets so when they said he needed this taken care of now, we said go for it.
The surgery went well and he came out of it fine. We hoped to bring him home the next day.
I was taking a shower the next morning, getting ready to take Hayley to Saturday morning basketball when I had just knew Sam was gone and that the vet would be calling soon. I just knew it but I shook it off.
I finished my shower and called to Hayley to see if had brushed her hair and had her shoes on. And Jeff told her to tell me basketball was cancelled. I thought maybe bad roads but then I knew I was right, he was gone.
The vet had called Jeff and said when they came in this morning, he had passed away in his sleep. It was all just too much for him. I will never forget sitting in a towel, Jeff’s red eyes and him saying “Sam didn’t make”. We cried alone in the bathroom before talking to Hayley.
We are off to say goodbye and make arrangements.
–later–
The viewing was emotionally rough but I’m glad we got to say goodbye. The staff was teary eyed and the head vet who owns the clinic was really nice and hugging us all. We know he was in good hands with kind people up there which helped us. Hayley handled it well, she cried a lot but seems ok. Jeff has cried his eyes out.
He was snuggled in the blanket we brought up with him and he looked just asleep. We got to hold and smooch him, which really was nice. I was worried about seeing him especially with Hayley but it was great. Holding him one last time, cradled in my arms how I loved to have him and kissing him goodbye meant a lot. We all showered him with kisses for his journey.
Dr. McNamer, the vet who saw him the first day we brought him in sick and who did his surgery, wasn’t in but the head vet said she was taking it pretty bad too. She was really wonderful and called us with updates so often. She stayed late one night to get him antibiotics and she skipped lunch to do the surgery as quick as could be done.
About an hour ago, a delivery man came to the door with flowers from her. We were very touched by her gesture. I hope she knows that we appreciate how much she did and don’t blame her at all. I told the head vet to tell her that. I know she did her best.
We’ve had a lot of tears and laughs, and I’ve slept some. Sam was the dog who was my ‘replacement baby’ all through infertility, don’t laugh. He was the one who let me hold him and snuggle him in a way the beagles never did. I just can’t believe he’s gone. I’m so grateful to have had him for the years that we did. I never thought my heart could break this much over a pet.
–later–
I sent a letter Sunday night to the vets, thanking them for the flowers. Monday evening Dr. McNamer calls. Jeff talks to her because I don’t think I can. Her voice is choked up and she too feels so bad about all of this. We don’t blame them and that’s what the point of the letter was.
Thank you so much for the flowers after our dog Sam’s passing on Saturday and even more for all your concern and care for him.
It has been a really rough weekend but a few things have made it much more bearable for us – and that is knowing that he was given the best care he could have been given and that he was in a place that treated him with love and compassion. We know you all did the very best that could be done for him.
We accept that it was all just too much for such a little dog and we are eternally grateful he just slipped away in his sleep. Having discussed pain meds with Dr. McNamer earlier, we know he didn’t feel a thing.
Dr. McNamer, thank you so much for your calls, for staying late to get us antibiotics, for doing the surgery right away and for treating him with skill and care. Thank you for answering all my questions during the diagnosis and surgery. We wouldn’t change anything we did, we know you gave him the best shot he had at making it and his passing was just the way things ended up.
Thank you to Dr. Ashford for being so kind when we arrived. Your time and compassion made a very hard visit much easier. We know you all gave him top notch care.
And to the staff who took such care with him, who handled him with warmth and kindness. We know Sam’s last days on earth were surrounded by kind people who treated him well and that makes a huge difference when your heart is broken.
Sam was a special little dog. He wandered into our lives (literally) as if it was destiny and he left far too soon but we appreciate every day we had with him. I have never known a dog that loved to snuggle as much as he did. He was a huge comfort to us, especially to me, during a tough time. It is amazing to think of the ability of a creature to offer unconditional love and help heal people, all without ever saying a word. I know we did right by him when we put him in your hands.
Hopefully next time we’ll see you all it will be under happier circumstances with our other dogs but you have earned customers for life with us.
Thank you all so much,
Michelle, Jeff & Hayley Hillison
Posted by Michelle on Jul 29, 2005 in Hayley, pups & other pets
Hayley was in a cute, goofy mood so I grabbed the camera. This will probably be boring if you are a grandparent 🙂
You can just click on the first photo and continue hitting the right arrow to scroll through them all.
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Posted by Michelle on Jun 20, 2004 in Jeff, Michelle, pups & other pets
We had an incredibly restful week at the beach. The house had some faults (not enough living room furniture and small tv) but was roomy (four bedrooms, three bath, two wrap around decks and a hot tub). It was nice to have two master suites, one on each floor so when our friends arrived, we all felt like we had some privacy.
And this year, we had groceries delivered when we checked in, that was so nice – not fighting Seamark with the hordes on day one was such a gift!
Had some good food – mexican seafood at Don Gatos, chicken and ribs at Jockey’s Ribs, crab and shrimp at Dirty Dicks, fried seafood at Sam and Omies, burgers and shakes at Fatboyz, crab sandwiches at Quagmires and pizza…. and fudge… mmmm.
And of course, I shopped at my two favorite OBX stores. The KDH cooperative where I got some cute candles and ceramics (including a tooth fairy box). Then this great silver store where their business cards are shells, I got some more candles, two great prints, little s&p crab shakers and more stuff. I got shirts and such for the neighbors kids too.
We slept so much and read a lot. Jeff and I spent so much time on the deck, just reading. Watched a few DVDs and Jeff played some xbox. And a new movie theater opened so we went to Day after Tomorrow. Pretty good for a vacation movie.
Bryan and Tammy arrived Monday about 3am. He comes down almost every year and this was our first time meeting Tammy, who was a sweetheart. She and I had a good ole time shopping while Bryan and Jeff launched their traditional Axis and Allies fest – only a short 7 hours this time.
We managed to not get fried this trip nor lose any of the dogs, so thumbs up on that! However, no more queen beds. We just can’t sleep well with two of the dogs in bed in a queen – Jeff is too long and I’m too wide, and the dogs are too wiggly for a queen.
I actually didn’t take a lot of photos this trip – after five straight years at the same beach (and others before that when I was younger) you don’t really do the local shots thing anymore. Plus we had photos taken down on the beach that we’ll get the proofs from in three weeks.
Cute Jeff with his shades
Sam trying to find a way out
Buster loves to sleep in the sun
Molly and Buster took over the loveseat
Our friend Bryan and Jeff playing Axis and Allies on my computer – this year’s game was relatively short, only about seven hours
The guys hamming it up to get rid of me and the camera
Birds overhead
Bryan and his girlfriend Tammy.
The pink girls, Tammy and I return from our afternoon of shopping (in my defense, didn’t know i was going out for the full day and still have my swimsuit on underneath from my morning in the hot tub plus no makeup)
Jeff looking off into the distance
Bryan swinging Tammy around
Look close, you can see the puppies on the other side of the glass door wanting to get out
For the record… I had Bryan down 21-0 at the half of a UNC-UVA college fball game, I decided to quit so we could get to dinner and just drop the game. In Bryan’s defense, he was used to the Madden control scheme but later I found him practicing for a rematch – one I wouldn’t give him. hee hee
Sleepy buster
Posted by Michelle on Oct 31, 2003 in pups & other pets
2003… dogs STILL don’t like costumes anymore than they did 2002 and 2001.
