Missing Mel

Today I reminisce about a boy I miss. Mel. No, he didn't get adopted, but he did move on to another foster home. There was a...let's say "unfortunate incident" with one of the resident cats. =( Sad, yes. But everyone is okay. It was a bit of a wake-up call though that we needed to lessen our foster load and no matter how much we adored Melly, the one who couldn't co-exist with the cats had to be moved. (He and the cats have been living separately pretty much the entire time Mel was here, but there were some Houdini crate-escaping moves by Mel that led to the "unfortunate incident.")

This is the first time we've had to part with a foster before their adoption (aside from Sula's pups, of course) and it was HARD. ={

So here are some of the last photos we took while he was with us. All the reports from his new foster home have been wonderful, which makes me miss him a little less, just to know he is loved and fitting in so well in another home.

This series cracks me up. It was unintentional, yet it totally captured the essence of Mel.

There he sits...

With all this activity around him...

There's my Melly, holdin' steady. :)

With his boy. Time for kisses.

Mel definitely tops the list when it comes to awesome-ness around Grady. He remained gentle and sweet no matter what the boy was up to, and never seemed annoyed or even particularly startled by anything that Bugga dished up.

I fondly remember one night, in particular, when both Mel and Grady got scolded--for separate infractions of course--and Mel quietly approached a fit-throwing Grady and reached up and kissed him so gently as if to say "I feel you, pal, I hate it when Momma and Papa act like that." ;)

I love how my shutter was obviously set to Mel-speed for these shots, and not Bugga-speed. =)

Grady was "being a dog" alongside Mel. Mel loves to lay on his back, sometimes he wiggles around like he's itching a scratch, other times he would just lay there with his legs folded gently and dangling over his big barrel chest. Golly, I miss me some Mel. ={

Anyway, you'd think it wouldn't be so darned hard to get 4 dogs to sit and look cute, in the same direction...but man oh man, it is! So I thought, hey, it was a fail, why not butcher it further with some flickr fun. ;)

{Sally looks gooood in a top hat, if you ask me. Pai had to settle for a Rudolf-nose. HA!}

This was their last day all together. Having 4 adult dogs in the house was surprisingly easy aside from technicalities like the difficulty of cuddling with all 4 simultaneously. I never did figure that one out, and that makes me sad. It's like a brain-teaser puzzle I couldn't solve and it's driving me crazy, I'm sure there's a way! =) Oh well.

Here's wishing Mel all the best, we love you still boy and we'll surely see each other again!