We adopted our Great Dane, Claire Danes (formerly known as Shorty), in September 2021 from the Humane Society in Fishers, Indiana. To be clear: We were not looking to adopt a dog. The loss of our Newfoundland, Ayla, a few years earlier was still raw, tender, and very...
I can't believe it. Our Newfoundland girl Ayla is turning 12 years old tomorrow. If you are not familiar with Newfoundlands, they are BIG and they are fluffy and they generally have a life expectancy of 8 to 10 years. This means Ayla is meanwhile a very old lady. But...
The last few days have been very sad for us as we said goodbye to our sweet, almost 18-year-old, Siamese-Mix kitty, Marilyn. We thought we'd create a little tribute post to remember the fun times we had with her and share some of our favorite pictures and memories....
New Year’s Eve is the last great celebration of the year, and it’s the perfect time to shake off the stress of the holidays and just have fun. You’ll reminisce over your fondest memories of 2015, and you’ll anticipate what 2016 will bring as you watch the ball drop...
Our Ayla is getting up there in age, and will be 10 this coming February. Although she's still as wily as ever and she'll still steal a plate of a food right out from under your nose. But she doesn't seem to hear or see as well as she did a year ago now. And she's not...
Now that we have a super fabulous and rather large office to run our marketing agency, Arma Communications, from, we've been thinking about taking Ayla in with us. Our lease has no stipulations about dogs, and we'd usually take her in on days when we wouldn't have...
We've been back in Florida about 1 1/2 years now (hard to imagine) and Ayla's skin and and coat have seen a bit of turmoil. It's hard for a dog with that much fur to avoid having issues in a climate like Southern Florida -- but thankfully she does appreciate the air...
If you keep up with me on the No Ordinary Homestead Facebook page, you know that we recently had a rather emotional and unfortunate journey. I really wanted to post something about this experience because the message of this post is now very near and dear to my heart....
Losing a member of the family is never easy and this week we had to part with a pet who has been part of our family almost since day one. When Stefan and I started dating back in March of 2000, we knew very shortly after meeting each other that things were going to...
Hello friends, As a dog who has recently migrated from the country to the big city, I know a thing or two about changes in lifestyle and what it means to become a city dog. you A dog living in the city needs to be given the time to head out for a stroll with its...
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