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

Family skiing adventure in the Alps - our return to Alpbach

When we discovered Alpbach last year, and easily had one of the best weekends of our life, we knew it would be a place to come back to.  We spent a week in Alpbach this summer, and we had already put a ski trip in Alpbach on our calendar for this February.  It was just the family this year, and being pregnant, I wasn't hitting the slopes this time around, but we still had a fantastic weekend.  We are convinced that it's hard not to have a great time in this place we are calling "our home away from home."

The farmhouse we like to stay in was unfortunately booked during our visit, so we tried out a new Gasthaus on the other side of town, called Haus Luzia.  This one wasn't a barn, but it was equally quaint, charming, and ridiculously affordable.  We really fell in love with our host, and the location was great and convenient. In fact, it was nearly perfect with only one detail that will keep us from staying there again.  Let's just say I will never underestimate the phrase "non-smoking" on a hotel listing again.  Austria is a fabulous country, but they are a bit behind on a few things and the lack of smoking rules is definitely one of them.  We worked around it though, and still enjoyed our stay.  We were surprised how easy it was to walk to town from a seemingly distant location. In fact, we pretty much walked everywhere - we had to do something to walk off all that rich Austrian food we ate!

This weekend was all about being together as a family, teaching little r how to ski, introducing our new buddy Lando to the Alps, and relaxing away all the current stresses in our lives. We spent all day on the slopes, and every evening we had reservations to eat at one of the town's fine dining establishments.  The best part was, Lando was welcomed pretty much everywhere we went including dinner. Instead of going on an on about how great it was, I'll instead share our weekend through pictures...

skiing with daddy - this picture makes little r look like a pro
(the poles didn't last long though)

Big R earned a gold star for his patience helping little r ski -
he started out going up the tug line with daddy...

while I strapped on my snowshoes,
so Lando and I could watch slopeside

then he finally got brave enough to do the tug line by himself 

talk about brave! heading up the "flying train" to the  BIG mountain with daddy

Lando and I waited patiently - they were gone a loooong time

My guys were up on that mountain somewhere! Finally they made it down with little r in Big R's arms. I asked how long they were like that. Big R said, "pretty much the entire mountain" - oh well, we can try it again next year!

We spent the next day on the BIG mountain - Wiedersbergerhorn in Alpbach.
I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip!

little r was really excited for another day of skiing

The views from the top were stunning!

I didn't get to ski, but I still went along for the fun

Big R literally carried little r up the puma lift
- sheer determination, daddy!

and he used a leash as a tether to help him ski
down the mountain - it worked really well!

This trip included quite a few hot chocolate breaks :) 

And puppy breaks were in the mix, too :) 

Views we experienced as we walked into town from our Gasthaus

yes, we were VERY spoiled - it's a beautiful place

One of our favorite parts of the trip was having our
new buddy along - he loved the snow
and we loved his company

So, yeah, our winter adventures in Alpbach were brilliant this year.  Don't get me wrong, we certainly had our moments, as skiing with a three-year-old never disappoints in that category.  But overall, we could not have really asked for things to have gone much better.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and don't worry, there will be more to see next year when we go back!

xoxoxo

Our War Hero is Famous!

Ok, maybe not famous exactly, but the newest furry member of our family is certainly making the news in our neck of the woods.  And we couldn't be more happy or proud of our retired Military Working Dog.  One of our good friends works for public relations, and when she found out we were adopting Lando, she immediately wanted to do an article on Lando's story.  Her article is making waves across Facebook and is also front page on both JAGCnet and Army.mil.

Although we have certainly known all about the amazing MWD program, it never occurred to us that we would be adopting one of these a wonderful war heroes.  It turns out, not only is the program huge in the military with around 2,500 MWDs deployed with troops overseas, but adoption of the retired MWD veterans is also becoming a sought after affair since President Clinton signed a bill in 2000 allowing civilians to adopt retired MWDs.  In fact, awareness of these well-trained heroes seems to be making the news everywhere including this article written just last month for the Washington Times.

It is actually hard for me to believe we have had Lando for barely a week.  He fit into our family so perfectly, I can hardly remember what life was like without him here.  He is a huge sweetheart that wants nothing more than to please and protect you.  He greets everyone with a nudge of his nose and melts my heart on a regular basis with how quickly he attached to us as his family.  What is even more incredible is how amazing he is with children and our cats.  He has a gentle patience about him that immediately puts you at ease.

I think Lando has made himself right at home here.  He already has his favorite places to hang out in our house, and he is in love with his new dog bed.  They take great care of the MWD's but they sleep in kennels most of their lives, so I'm sure his therapeutic dog bed feels like a little piece of heaven for his old bones.  He walks little r to school every day, and he enjoys spending time with Big R in his office.  Something about seeing all those soldiers in green turns this pup into mush.  We are so happy to provide this war hero with a comfortable home for retirement.

We are the luckiest family in the world to have adopted Lando.  A good friend of my said that Rani had a hand in all this, and I think she might just be right.  Well, Rani, if you are listening, you will never be replaced in our hearts, but we thank you for helping bring Lando into our lives to replace the huge void that was created when you had to leave us last summer.  We are falling completely in love with this sweet boy...

Our War Hero is finally home

"Sit" quickly became, "I think I'll just take a break"

It is almost hard to believe, but the much-awaited day of bringing our war hero home is finally here.  Military Working Dog (MWD) Lando retired from a very full and courageous career with a beautiful ceremony, which ended with his leash being handed to our incredibly excited family.

Big R and I decided back in October that adopting Lando would be a perfect fit for our family.  The process took quite a bit longer than even the MP's anticipated. They were hoping he'd easily be a part of our family by Thanksgiving, but 4-6 weeks quickly turned into several months.  Worried the "powers-at-be" were doubting our abilities to care for Lando, in actuality, the review process is put in place to make sure the dog is fit for adoption.  This is a lengthy process that is taken very seriously.  Luckily for us, Lando is an easy-mannered, well-trained and obedient sweetheart.  Despite his military history, he appears to have suffered no PTSD or any other issues related to his service.

Lando's retirement ceremony was SO cool.  I can think of no better way to describe it.  We have been excited beyond words since we found out last week that the ceremony was scheduled for today.  The entire MP detachment company assigned to the working dogs, and a few of our closest military friends, were there to see him retire in style.

Lando taking a snooze during the National Anthem

During the ceremony, MWD Lando was presented with an Army Achievement Medal for his exemplary service.  And his achievements really are pretty incredible.  He was born in September of 2001, and Lando entered training for military service in December of 2003.  After his training, he was stationed here in Germany where he was attached to different MP companies until his retirement today. During his career as a MWD, Lando deployed four times (to Afghanistan, Kosovo, and twice to Iraq), where he supported Soldiers with his explosive detection capabilities.  Lando was present in over 300 Combat missions where he discovered a total of 15 explosive caches.  Impressive, right?  It gets even better...  In addition to his deployments, Lando also provided support for the U.S. Secret Service including protections of the Secretary of State, Vice President, and the President of the United States.  Big R's favorite of Lando's accomplishments though is that he was selected as "Top Dog" in the Patrol work category of the 2008 USAREUR Military Working Dog competition.  I'm proud of him and I just barely met the 'ol boy!

Lando proudly showing off his medal

Achievement Medal, Certificate of Adoption,
and retirement ceremony pamphlet

At the end of the ceremony, they asked us to join them on stage to present us with the Certificate of Adoption and to thank us for volunteering to give Lando a safe and happy home for retirement.  I don't think anyone in the room would have argued that this dog has earned every minute of lazy time on our couch.

We were all too happy to take his leash, especially little r

It was clear that Lando was going to be missed

Lando is the biggest sweetheart!

...and he loves his toys

I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship :) 

Once we finally made it home, Lando instantly made himself comfortable.  For a dog that has lived in a kennel nearly all his life, he was probably overwhelmed with the comforts of a warm home with a snuggly bed. Our other furry creatures are getting along pretty well. Poor Lucy isn't sure what hit her, but she's quickly coming around. And Sergeant, well, he's a dog-lover so there was never any fear there.  We were happy that Lando took to the cats right away.  If anything he seems relatively indifferent, so our fears of the cats being chased or harassed or even EATEN were easily dispelled.

Little r did all he could to help Lando feel at home right away.  He helped me bring out the basket of Rani's old toys, and show them all to his new friend.  Lando loves them all.  I think his favorite right now though is cuddling with Big R on the couch.

One toy...

...and little r decided he needed ALL of the toys...

I think Lando just found his favorite place in our home

We are beyond excited to have not only a dog again, but to have adopted such an incredible new friend.  I hope he loves living here with us as much as we are going to enjoy having him as part of our family.  I also hope he's ready for a relaxing but very fun retirement.  Although he's seen more of Europe than most of us could in a lifetime, we are looking forward to having his companionship on our wild family adventures. 

We might be adopting a war hero

As my fellow dog-lover friends know all too well, not having a dog in your life can be tough sometimes. You get so accustomed to having that unconditional love and companionship to be a part of your every day lives. It is true that it's a huge responsibility, but once that responsibility becomes part of who you are, there is definitely a void there when it is gone.

All that said, even though we have missed Rani and having a dog like no other, bringing a new dog into our lives now doesn't really make much sense. We travel regularly, for one, and we have many other factors going on in our lives that make bringing a new puppy or a young dog into our lives less than optimal. So, we had decided that we would wait until we move back stateside before looking into adopting our new friend.

That's when a great opportunity presented itself, and Big R and I couldn't turn away. Despite my tiresome mantra of "we can't get a dog right now, we really need to wait" I felt myself dialing a number to inquire about a dog. But this isn't just any dog. The facebook posting said, "do you want to adopt a war hero?" The military has a whole troop of working dogs that assist Soldiers in their duties all over the world. Those dogs work hard, and then they retire and need a loving home to retire to. That's where we step in...

He immediately felt like part of the family

This particular dog was trained for explosives and has been in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Lando has lived in Germany most, if not all, of his life, which is now 11 years. It's true that adopting an 11 year old dog might seem crazy to some people, but to us, we couldn't think of a better way to bring a dog back into our lives. He's healthy, agile, active, and friendly. His favorite thing to do when he's not working is snuggle up on a couch.

Big R learning some commands - Lando is trained better than we are!

We were excited to meet Lando to see if he and the situation was as wonderful as it seemed. And this dog was exactly as we had hoped. He's definitely an old boy, but his friendly and immediately took to little r. He ran the agility training course like it was nothing, and his training is, of course, impeccable. The decision became easy. Big R and I looked at each other and we just knew this was a good fit for our family and for Lando.

little r and Lando were instant pals

Lando running up the tripod stairs with ease

jump the barriers? don't mind if I do!

Because Lando belongs to the government, we have to go through some paperwork and review for approval of the adoption. The MPs had all of the paperwork on their end completed, so we just needed to fill out our requirements and get things handed in so that the review process can begin. The only challenging piece on our end was getting written approval from our landlords. They don't speak a lick of English and my German is torturous at best, so I had a feeling it was going to be interesting. Interesting or not, I ended up with a signed letter in my hand last night - we are on our way!

The review process can take as long as 4 to 6 weeks, but we are hoping it will be much quicker than that this time around. Hopefully just after Thanksgiving we'll have a snuggly new member of the family. We can't wait!

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