Friday, July 13, 2012

Top Stitch is the Bomb.com

We found out yesterday that YoYo is donating 100% of this entire month's proceeds from her Top Stitch Store to The REMI Project.



YoYo has some pretty badass sewing skills. Her blog is full of things that she's made for herself, friends, and her store.  She also has a fantastical little boy named Tyson. I'm sure if Tyson and REMI were to meet, they'd have a blast together.


We thank you YoYo and Tyson from the bottom of our hearts! Even if we didn't receive anything, we're grateful you thought of us!

Please go visit her store, not just for The REMI Project, but because it's all hand made.  Hand made is always the way to go. :]


- Ariana

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Remi & the Alpha Female

Remi, Ariana, & Leana's butt :]

Remi's been obsessed with Elliott since Day One. In a way it makes me sad, but I understand how important it is to have an Alpha Male and that is exactly what Elliott is to Remi.
But now since I have been unemployed for a little over a month, Remi and I get to spend a lot more time together.

He use to consider me just another member of his pack, but now he actually listens to me. I tell him to sit or lay down and he practically does it on command. I say practically because it doesn't always work haha!
I'm not the pack leader but being married to the Alpha Male makes me Alpha Female right? I'll take it. :]

As the days go by and Remi and I get to know each other better, I realize how important it is to spend time with your dog.  Remi is learning how to work with me and understand me, as I am with him.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our lives and our employment that we forget that our pets need our attention.  Dogs get crazy excited when you get home from work. Why not take a walk or hit a park and have some awesome fun with him/her? The best way to show your dog that you care is to give them all of your attention. Plus a walk around the block or the park helps your dog release some of that bottled up energy from waiting on you to get home from work.


Remi's favorite is playing fetch. He thinks it's his duty to watch you throw his ball/rope/kong and then bring it back to you.  We've been playing in the backyard with his Kong ("Ultra King Kong Dog Toy") the last few weeks.  He gets really jumpy and vocal with me so I'll just assume he's excited and having a blast! Yes, Remi is very vocal.  He grunts and does what I think is a type of pouting but without the lips haha.  Why should Elliott & I be the only vocal species of the house right? Sometimes it sounds like he's talking back after he's been told to sit or calm down. He's a very animated dog.

We're still working on the 'Come' command when Elliott is around. He completely disregards that I'm still Alpha Female. He'll get it sooner or later. I hope!

I might be joining up with some cool people to do a book giveaway. Stay tuned.

-Ariana

Thursday, June 7, 2012

We were nominated for an award

Our good friend Marilla from CupcakeRehab has nominated The REMI Project for the Illuminating Blogger Award at foodstoriesblog.com.  Boy are we excited, we've never been nominated for anything!


We're not sure exactly what made Marilla nominate us, but we have a pretty good idea! -wink-
We are grateful to share what we've learned through helping REMI and hope to be an inspiration to those who adore dogs like we do!

The rules of this award are as follows..
1. The nominee should visit the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/) and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way that we can create a blogroll of award winners).
2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting & including a link to their blog.
3. The Nominee should include a courtesy link back to the official award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/) in their blog post.
4. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.
5. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their illuminating, informative posts and nominate them for the award. Many people indicate that they wish they could nominate more so please feel free to nominate all your favorites.
6. Notify your nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/).

So to follow the rules, one random thing about us, or better yet REMI is that he is madly in love with KONG toys. He has two and can't seem to tear them apart like he does with his bones. :]

Our nominations, more like Ariana's nominations because REMI doesn't have too many inspirations just yet are..
  1. Daniel at Manhattan-Nest.com for all of his Designing Skills.
  2. Xenia at Raisedbyculture.com for being such a Strong and hard-working Mommy.
  3. Lori Deschene at Tinybuddha.com for being so positive and caring to share the good word with us!
  4. Last but never least, our friend Marilla at CupcakeRehab.com for being loving, caring, and very attentive to REMI and his life! You truly inspire me (Ariana) to be more and more everyday..not just for REMI, but for ME as well! <3 (We couldn't think of five people, Sorry).
Whether we win or not is not a big deal. The fact that we were nominated makes us smile!

Thanks for this Marilla!

-Ariana

It's been a while

REMI 06.06.12


It's been a couple months since the last time I posted about our REMI dog.  I figured it's time to share a lot of new things that have happened to REMI.

The good news is his Mange is under complete control. He takes meds every single day and no longer struggles with Elliott to take them.

He is an inside dog now. Prior to getting fixed, he lived in the garage of our home.  It worried us because we live in Houston, TX and the heat was coming. Thankfully we were able to afford his surgery.

Not only is he an inside dog, but he's a spoiled little guy.
He is your typical little brother. He's constantly picking on his two older sisters, Leana Little (Jack Russel) and Jayla (Boxer).

Since he is a puppy we don't allow him to run crazy when we are not home. His crate was moved from the garage to our Dining Room. Yes, our Dining Room. He loves to chew on just about everything, not furniture..at least not yet.

His crate always has towels, blankets, or old bed sheets for him to keep comfy.  He has this funny habit of bringing his bed stuff out to the living room or onto the couch he loves.  Randomly the other day I found one of his bed sheets in the middle of the bedroom.  I think it's kind of like a little kid that carries their blanket around.

He has learned to sit and to park his butt down on the floor.
He has learned the routine his two sisters have grown accustom to. Ex: Breakfast & Dinner time, Recess.
He understands the words 'Outside' and 'Vamos a fuera' which is Spanish for let's go. Yes, REMI is bilingual haha!

He is also a cuddle bug! He loves throwing his buddy on you and letting you rub on him. I've always had dogs, small and big, and have always wanted a big dog that would cuddle with me on the couch. :]

His name went from being REMI, to my boo, to booboo! He knows you're talking about him if you say any of those names!

Saturday, June 2nd, REMI received his first real collar. He's had a chain collar for some disciplinary learning but since he's been so good Elliott bought him a sweet collar from Target.

Overall, REMI has been a fantastic learning experience for us. He's learned quite a bit as well.


To REMI:
You have changed us into completely different people and for that we will always be grateful!
Love you,
Mom & Dad <3


06.06.12
More on The REMI Project soon. I have lots of pictures, stories, and videos to share.
Stay tuned!

-Ariana


Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Fix him right up..

REMI has been getting better and better every day! Getting to know his personality the way we have, it really amazes us that someone let him go. He's as happy as can be and doesn't have a care in the world. He's also a very good listener..when it's convenient for him haha!

This Friday he has an appt with The Sugarland Pet Hospital to get neutered. I'm sure if it were up to him, he wouldn't allow us to do it. But thankfully, it's not and we're getting it done. Once he's all better, he'll join the rest of our family inside our house. Right now he's been living in his crate in the garage. It doesn't seem to bother him much, if anything, I think he kinda enjoys it. He also recognizes it as his Home! Soon enough he'll meet the other four legged dogs and we'll be a big ol' happy family!

So come Friday, don't forget to think a little about our REMI dog! He's made so much progress..we can hardly believe it! I also think he's madly in love with Elliott and that makes me super duper jealous haha!

I leave you with a recent picture of our REMI dog sitting in Elliott's work truck! What a stud huh?! :]


p.s. Don't forget to 'Like' The REMI Project Page on Facebook! When there's no updates on this blog, there's always something going on at the Facebook page.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

REMI can play fetch

REMI plays catch with Elliott :] from ari d on Vimeo.



Elliott's been teaching REMI to sit. It's been quite a task because all he really wants to do is kiss you and play..but he has finally learned. This is a video of REMI playing fetch with Elliott. He gets distracted really easily but he still remembers who his pack leader is. He loves the camera and you can see that towards the end of the video. Our little boy is growing up so fast and we couldn't be happier.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Sunday, January 8, 2012

REMI's 2nd Vet Visit..

Remi didn't seem too excited to go to the vet on Friday, but it had to be done. We were pretty excited to see how much weight he had actually gained and we wanted to show off how awesome our boy was coming along.

The ladies at The Sugarland Pet Hospital were pretty surprised to see how alert he was compared to the last time he was there. A couple of people in the waiting room were very curious as to what had happened to REMI and whether or not he was going to make it. As usual, we were positive about our boy and how great he was doing.

Dr. Brust was pretty damn surprised when he walked into the room and saw REMI. He couldn't believe it had only been two weeks since we had last been there. REMI was weighed and we were a bit sad that he had only gained 3.5lbs. But better than nothing right? Dr. Brust told us to feed him a cup and a half three times a day rather than just one cup three times a day like we were doing. He said his skin looked much better and that the Mange wasn't as bad as before cause he didn't smell so bad.

We told him how great he's been with us and how he eats all of his food. He wags his tail, kisses us, and follows Elliott everywhere he goes. I think he might be in love with him, haha!

Dr. Brust gave us some more meds and told us to keep up the good work. REMI also got his
rabies vaccine and he didn't seem to care too much about the needle. Dr. Brust also trimmed his nails and gave him plenty of treats.

Don't think I mentioned how much our first visit cost us. Since we want to bring awareness to dogs who are sick and homeless it only seems fair that we tell you exactly how much we're spending on our boy REMI.



Our first visit cost us roughly about $160 and Friday's visit cost us $73. The big bag of food that we bought him cost us $45. We feed our girls Bil-Jac and they seem to love it. So we decided to buy him the same brand but puppy food to strengthen him up.

Overall, REMI is doing great and we couldn't be any happier. While Elliott and I are at work, Elliott's brother, Allen takes REMI on walks and sometimes jogs around our neighborhood. People are starting to notice that the dog they see, is the same boy who was roaming the streets a couple of weeks ago. Lots of people are telling us congratulations and that we're going to heaven. We aren't doing this to look good or to make ourselves feel any better. Our only concern is to give REMI the life he deserves and the life he was robbed of when he was put on the street.

Elliott & Allen talked to our neighbor today about REMI and all the strays on our block this morning. Apparently REMI was roaming our block last summer and then disappeared for a while. Thankfully he came back at the right time and showed up at the right place. I grew up in the house we currently live in and I'm pretty damn surprised how many strays there are now. It can be a bit scary too due to there being more than one dog roaming the streets. These dogs are roaming in packs, not safe for them or for us. I'm not sure what's going on with Houston's Animal Control, but what I do know is that they are failing these dogs and all of it's citizens.

We can't save them all but what we can do is encourage people to educate themselves a bit more and stop breeding the dogs they do have. You cannot be a responsible dog owner if you're breeding constantly. We need to spay and neuter as soon as they become of age in order to keep the dog population under control. We were given the okay from Dr. Brust to neuter REMI in four weeks. Next Saturday we have another appt and Dr. Brust will scrape off a bit of skin from REMI to see how the Mange is coming along.

It's pretty exciting to see REMI and his little pink spots, his skin is seriously looking a lot better. We also noticed today that he has hair growing pretty much everywhere. Not much right now, just little patches here and there..but we are pretty impressed.


Elliott & I want to thank everyone for their concerns about our boy. It means a lot to us that there are people who care and are genuinely interested in REMI's well being.