Living Pretty With Your Pets: Simple Stylings
Today I have the pleasure to introduce you to someone I actually had the chance to meet last week in Atlanta after only talking to her online for months.
Please meet Summer from Simple Stylings and her adorable little family. I have to tell you that Summer really as gorgeous in person as she appears on photos and I really wish we would have had more time to chat last weekend because I have the feeling we could get into all kinds of trouble together. She is “that” kind of girl.
She is also very stylish and talented. Did you see her patio for the One Room Challenge (click HERE) or one of my favorites, her pallet desk (click HERE to see).
Hello Julia’s readers!
I’m so thrilled to be here to hang out with you guys and the ultimate animal lover herself, Â Cuckoo 4 Design!
So let me introduce you to our crew: Sunny and Furby, Â the very best of friends.
Sunny our Labradoodle is eight years old and Furby, Â a Bichon and Lhasa Apso mix, Â is 13. Since they’ve been with us so long I only have my hands on a few of their baby pics that I had printed out. So imagine Sunny looked just like this:
{image via} |
And Furby looked like this:
{image via Pinterest} |
 Cute right? I miss those puppy days! Not the potty training part but the sweet puppy smell and playfulness.
I got Furby when I was just out of college and I was dying for a pup of my own. Other than her all I cared about was paying my bills and spending the rest of my money having fun hanging out with my friends.
Inevitably Furby went everywhere with me. Road trips to the beach, Â friends houses, Â shopping when we could, Â everywhere! She was my companion and walked with me through so many different times in my life.
Fast forward five years and I decided it was time for her to have a companion. I was more settled now and had a normal job where I was working all day and I thought Furby could use a friend. We were so used to being together that I thought she would be lonely. So along came Sunny…
Sunny pretending to sleep, Well, Â remember that thing I said at the beginning about them being best of friends….NOT!
I brought Sunny home to introduce her into to our little family and Furby was mad. I mean, Â not eating, Â hiding from us, Â wanted nothing to do with Sunny at all, Â kind of mad.
I was so upset and didn’t know what to do. I researched and talked to people about how to get them used to one another but nothing worked. It went on for weeks and Furby still wasn’t eating well so I started to freak out., About the third or fourth week of it I realized that it wasn’t going to work and I just couldn’t put Furby through it anymore. The very next day I put an ad in the paper to find a good home for Sunny. I still couldn’t believe that I was doing it. I had several people call right away and I agreed to let a lady meet her.
I was devastated. I cried and prayed but went to meet her anyway. I watched the lady play with her and if I remember correctly she was going to surprise her kids with a puppy. But a feeling came over me and I knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let her go.
Determined to find some way to make it work I headed home with my sweet pup. I don’t know what happened, Â God must have answered my prayers, Â but a day or two later everything changed. Something finally clicked and ever since then Sunny and Furby have been inseparable.
Determined to find some way to make it work I headed home with my sweet pup. I don’t know what happened, Â God must have answered my prayers, Â but a day or two later everything changed. Something finally clicked and ever since then Sunny and Furby have been inseparable.
Although Furby rules our roost (Sunny never had a chance) they love being together. They love swimming in the lake and especially going for boat rides.
The next twist to the story was bringing my son home! I was a little (a lot) worried about how these two would take to a kid given the last experience but they welcomed him right away, Â his protectors really. They are actually both great with small children so that was a huge weight off my shoulders too.
I would be lying though if I said it wasn’t hard to be a single mommy with two dogs and a house to take care of but I wouldn’t change anything…other than Sunny’s constant barking :), I love watching my little man play with the them. He’s so funny! I hear him talk to them as if he forgets they are dogs. And he LOVES walking Sunny and is so proud of himself when he’s able to hold her leash!, Poor Furby 🙂
You can see where we all usually end up in the morning…on mom’s bed. Sorry for some of the iPhone pics but that is the ONLY way to capture two dogs and a bouncing 6 year old 🙂
Now that Sunny and Furby are “seniors” they do a lot of chilling out and snuggling with us. Furby can’t hear anymore and I can see some signs of her aging but for the most part she is still as sassy as ever.
It’s really hard to think about what life will be like with out her one day so I just force myself not to think about it right now.
So this is us. Most of the time I don’t feel very “pretty”, Â usually the house is one huge mess, Â but I know that these two sure make our lives a whole lot prettier!
It’s such a treat to be here today! Thanks so much for having me Julia! I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!
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To read more animal posts you can click HERE.
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Such cuties, the entire family! You can also read her son’s sweet adoption story by clicking HERE, which just proves once again how sweet and amazing Summer is.
So head on over to Simple Stylings and pay Summer a visit. You won’t regret it, I promise.
(Psssst hey, my next post will be from Germany)
Tschüß
(Youleeya)
LOVE summer- her warm spirit just comes through! and i agree that my house is always messy due to dogs and kids, but i wouldn’t trade it either. 🙂 all the cuddles, licks, and love are worth it.
Awww, I enjoyed meeting Summer and now I like her even more! How precious are all of them? That’s one good looking family!
Awww. I love how it all worked out in the end. What a great story. Love that last photo especially. So awesome!!
Thanks so much you guys! I really appreciate you all! Julia, you rock! Love this series!
They are the cutest! I’ve always wanted a labradoodle!
What a beautiful family!!!
I couldn’t agree more. So true!
What a cute story and and even cuter family!!
/what a great story! We had the same thing happen when our older Shih Tzu , Nicky,had to welcome a golden retriever puppy. He hated him for a year! He is finally more tolerant and occassionally wants to play with him ( the golden’s a year and 8 months) now, but he was just too much puppy for poor Nicky. I can see that one day they’ll be buds, but it has taken sooo long! Your son is adorable, and so nice to meet Summer!xo Nancy
Such a cute and adorable family. I am happy they decided to get along for Summer’s sake and for her future and now little man.
What a precious family!
Thank you for sharing your story; so touching. Have a wonderful time in Germany, Julia!!
Sweet puppies!! So glad they figured out how to get along; there’s nothing better than a good doggie friendship 🙂
Aww, love Summer’s sweet story, cute family and fur babies!
Wow! Summer’s pets are absolutely adorable! I love how cute and furry they are, but what really blew me away with cuteness overload are their baby pictures. I guess, all that effort with the potty training and other stuff are worth it once she sees them waggling their tales following her wherever. Her story as a single mother with two dogs is amazing and inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing it with us! 😀
Sherri Briggs @ The Pet Glider
Summer is awesome! Thanks for reading.