Last week I wrote my first post in a series called Bentley's Story. It is the story of how we adopted our boxer Bentley. He has been with our family for almost a year and lately I've been feeling compelled to share his and our story. Bentley adored human attention when he first arrived at our house. He still sleeps like this at times! I ended my first post with him joining the transport from North Carolina to Minnesota. Across America Boxer Rescue rescues dogs from all over the US. They have this awesome transport team that drives dogs from the southern states to families in the northern states. I'll tell you more about it in another post. As I said, Bentley was found as a stray and was pulled from a shelter and placed in a temporary foster home. He was in his temporary foster home for one week before joining the transport to us so his temporary foster family gave me little information on him except that he was about 1.5 years old, super friendly, good with other dogs, and … [Read more...]
Bentley’s Story Part 1 #PedigreeGives #ad
Bentley's Story Part 1 has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and PEDIGREE®. All opinions are my own. Please note, this post is the first in an ongoing series. Unless otherwise noted, this is the only post that is compensated. #PedigreeGives #CollectiveBias If you're a regular reader of Toys In The Dryer, you know that my family adopted a Boxer named Bentley about 10 months ago. I first introduced you to him in a post titled Introducing Bentley. I was so excited about him joining our family that I wrote that post less than 24 hours after he joined us and used crappy cell phone photos. I really knew nothing about him either! Now that he's been with us for a while, I can finally tell you his (or rather, our) story... Bentley's "mug" shot as I call it. This is him in the shelter. Bentley is the 4th Boxer that Hubby and I have owned. Our first three were retired, champion show dogs from the same breeder/handler. Hubby and I had always considered rescue but had a good … [Read more...]
My Pregnancy Story #AstroglideTTC #ad
Ok, so the title of my post is a bit misleading. This isn't the story of my pregnancy, rather it's the story before my pregnancy and my difficulties trying to conceive. Not many people know this story because I don't share it often. After all, getting pregnant for me wasn't nearly as difficult as some of my friends but I did have issues. When I was in my early 20's I had an abnormal pap smear which lead to having a colposcopy and biopsy. The biopsy came back positive for pre-cancerous cells and I had to have a LEEP procedure to remove them. As un-luck would have it, I became one of those rare women to develop a cervical and uterine infection post LEEP procedure. In fact, infections are so rare that it took a month of excruciating pain and three different doctors before someone believed me. The infection became so bad that I spent 4 days in the hospital combating it. Fast-forward a few years and I tell my OB/GYN that Hubby and I want to get pregnant. She warned me that I might … [Read more...]
Blood Donation Process #GiveLife Part 2
The American Red Cross supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood supply. The Red Cross provides blood for patients in approximately 2,700 hospitals across the U.S. Yesterday I walked you through the process of blood donation with the American Red Cross. What happens to the blood after you donate it? Being a Red Cross Minnesota Social Media Advocate, I was able to take a tour of the North Central Blood Services building to see what happens to blood post donation and all the steps (and checks!) it goes through before it reaches a patient in need. Here's a very simplified look: ***WARNING: There is a lot of blood (in bags) in these photos*** Blood comes into the center through triage. Here donations are inventoried and sorted by component (cryo, plasma, whole blood, double red cells, platelets...). Those components with a shorter life span are processed first. The blood center has to inventory and keep track of EVERYTHING that comes in and goes out including their waste and … [Read more...]
Blood Donation Process #GiveLife Part 1
Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood. More than 41,000 blood donations are needed every day. Although an estimated 38% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate, less than 10% actually do each year. March is American Red Cross month. As a Red Cross Minnesota Social Media Advocate, I was given the chance to tour the North Central Blood Services building. I donated blood (for the very first time!) and learned what happens to the blood after it is donated. It was fascinating and I'll take you through the process! First you'll decide to donate blood. I hate needles so this was my first time donating. This is what I looked like on my way to the donation center. Once you get to the blood donation center, you'll check in what a photo ID. You'll get a name tag, and if you are a rookie donor like me, you'll get a rookie sticker too :) You'll be asked to read a packet with all the rules to blood donation. It lays out who can and can not donate based on … [Read more...]
Introducing…Bentley!
My family and I are proud to introduce our newest member...Bentley! He's an (approximately) 1.5 year old Boxer boy who we are fostering-to-adopt. He was found as a stray in North Carolina and transported to us in Minnesota this past weekend. The rescue group, Across America Boxer Rescue, is based out of MN but takes dogs from across the US, thus we got a dog from NC :) Despite him being here for less than 24 hours, he has definitely made himself at home and is blending beautifully into our family so far! We can't believe how calm and gentle he is for his age! Don't get me wrong, he's still a puppy and easily excitable, but he's neither a jumper nor a mouther (bonus!). As you can see, we've got some work to do to fatten this boy up. Right now you can see all his ribs and his back bone. Once he puts on some weight and fills out to his full grown self (boxers finish "filling out" around 3 years old), he's going to be one BIG handsome boy! We had some concerns that … [Read more...]
