One whole, very awesome year - Happy Anniversary, Lando!

Today is an exciting anniversary for us.  Exactly one year ago today we adopted our beloved war hero, Lando (here is a link to my post about the adoption and here is a link with the news article about him that made him famous - haha).  We had no idea how much he would enrich our lives.  It has seriously felt as if he has been a part of our family for years because we all grew attached to each other so quickly.  He really is a perfect fit.

Adopting a military working dog is a novel idea.  It really took very little consideration on our part, but we also took a pretty big risk hoping he would have the personality to get along well with all the facets in our lives, especially with little r and our kitties.  Right around the corner we'd have a newborn to add into the mix, so we knew we needed to be ready just in case it didn't work out like we had hoped.

A photo from the day we met Lando

Turns out, we had absolutely NOTHING to worry about.  Lando is a hero in every way.  He is the best company, most loyal companion, and a trooper of a play mate.  The cats took to him immediately, and his relationship with little r needs no words.  And when baby c came along, he could not have been more gentle.  We are truly the luckiest family to have found him, and we love that we are giving him the retirement life that he deserves.

We are happy to say that he is incredibly healthy.  The boy had more than a few extra pounds on his bones when we adopted him, and his arthritis was horrible.  We started feeding him better food made with venison for natural glucosamine to keep his bones and muscles healthy.  He walks little r to and from school nearly every day, and the boy gets a pretty fantastic workout all day long going up and down the stairs to keep up with little r.  Lando is a stealthy old boy now.  He lost a ton of weight and his arthritis rarely flares up anymore.  A dental from a fantastic German veterinarian also handled the worst of that "hot garbage" breath we were oh-not-so-fond of.  All in all, we hope that the love and affection we are giving him will keep us with our family for several more years.

It's amazing how attached you can get to a pet.  We all love our sweet war hero so much.  What an amazing anniversary!  I hope we have many more to celebrate with our old boy.

sweet Lando boy