Little Foot as Batman

Hi everyone! How was your Halloween? We enjoyed the cool sunny weather we were having, ate way too much sugar (lots of candy plus my sister's birthday cake!), and had fun dressing up our little guy. Here he is in his little Batman costume:

Those were the few decent pictures we were able to get of him since all he wanted to do was run around and play with his little cousin and his constant movement unfortunately resulted in lots of very blurry pictures.

Did you dress up yourself or your little ones?

Little Foot Turns One Today!

Today our pup Little Foot turns one year old! Here's what he looked like when we first met him at the shelter:

At the time he was about 2 months old. Can you imagine how tiny he probably was when he was born?!
Here's what he's grown into:

He has brought incredible joy into our lives and can't imagine being without him. We love our little buddy!!! :)

Little Foot at the Beach

Hello luvs! Hope you all had a fun filled weekend!

Since it's been a while since I last posted pictures of my pup Little Foot, I thought I'd share these from a recent trip to the dog beach :)

I wish I also had pictures or video of him running with us along the edge of the water. He did so well off-leash staying by our side the entire time!

Flower Planter Update

The idea for the balcony flower planter was to make a custom piece that would wrap around and cover the bottom gap where Little Foot likes to poke his head through. We want to be able to let him hang out there without worrying about him somehow falling through the gap (we're one story up and above a driveway).

My husband made four pieces that will fit together:

We need to move the existing potted plants out of the way and fit all the pieces together.

We still need to figure out some sort of mini-drainage system, paint it, and fill it up with soil and plants (my favorite part!). I have a view of the balcony from my desk so I can't wait to be able to look over and see beautiful flowers everyday!

The New Desk & My Home Office

Remember the new desk I was excited about getting delivered? Well we finally got around to setting it up, taking a few pictures, and posting my old one on Craigslist. The old one was a birch veneer Ikea desk I had since college and definitely showed its age. This new one isn't much fancier or much more expensive, after all we're still very much on a budget. However, it's white, clean, simple and works much better with the decor of my humble little home office {a.k.a. the corner of my living room}.

We had to include Little Foot in a shot, as he's a curious little guy and typically likes to be by my side when I'm sitting at my desk :)

Happy First Day of Spring + LF Update

image via here

Thank you for all your sweet comments regarding Little Foot! Thankfully everything went well. Here' s a recap:

Thursday morning as soon as we walked into the vet's office, he started trembling as if he knew he wasn't going to have a fun experience in there. Last time he had been there was when he was getting treated for Parvo, and I'm guessing he recognized the smell of the place. Although saddened that he hadn't stopped trembling after several minutes we kissed him goodbye and handed him over to the nurse. After about an hour of dropping him off we got a call from the vet. He told us that Little Foot's double front teeth were a problem. His adult teeth had come in but were being impacted by his baby teeth which hadn't fallen off yet. So he recommended they pull them out since he'd be under anesthesia anyway.

We picked him up that evening. The nurse handed us over his four baby teeth and gave us a cone in case he was licking too much. He wagged his tail happy to see us but we could definitely tell he was in pain. He was swollen and had stitches. Not surprisingly he didn't want to eat and remained mellow through the night.

On Friday though he had a lot more energy and as of today he's back to being a hyper little puppy :-)

Happy first official day of spring! Enjoy your weekend!

Little Foot Getting Neutered

This morning we're sadly taking Little Foot to get neutered. It's a law here in Los Angeles that all dogs must be neutered (unless you have special permission to breed) which is reasonable since there are so many dogs for adoption at the various shelters. Just makes me sad since he's my little boy and has to go under the knife. I'm also hoping his personality doesn't change too much as a result. If you're a dog owner, what experiences have you had? Did his personality change much? I've heard it becomes easier to potty train (LF is still not fully trained). How long after the surgery was he back to running, playing, etc.

New Little Foot Pictures

My sister just sent me over these pictures she took of my baby boy a few weeks ago at my mom's house. He had just gotten back from the groomer's -hence the little bandana around his neck :)

Happy Friday!

Little Foot laying with me on the couch

Tomorrow we're taking Little Foot to get his very first (professional) haircut. First time around I cut his hair myself with scissors while he was sleeping (shhhh) because he had really bad matting and we were weren't allowed to take him to any grooming place since he hadn't gotten all his shots. Cutting his body hair was fairly easy but getting the area around his face whas pretty challenging. Hopefully he does well while at the groomers. About two weeks ago we took him to Petsmart to get his nails trimmed and when we went to pick him up, he had a little bandage on one of his little feet and the groomer said it was his fault. Maybe he was too fussy and it was "his fault" but needless to say we're not going there for the haircut.

Have a great weekend everyone! Hope to see you back here next week! :)

Little Foot Update

My baby is growing up! Remember what he looked like before? When we first got him he was a little 1.4 pound round furball. He's since grown to 3.7 pounds and has gotten his first haircut!

Little Foot and "his girlfriend"

He recently got his final set of shots and will be allowed to have full interaction with other dogs in about one and a half weeks. We're so excited about this because it means we can finally take him out walking at the dog park behind our condo, we can train him to go potty outside, we can get him professionally groomed (we did the haircut ourselves), and he can play with his furry relatives. The above picture was taken yesterday. He's taken a liking to my sister's Victoria's Secret PINK dog. We call it his little girlfriend. More pictures and videos to come!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Thank you for joining me into the new year and for your continued readership, support, kindness and warmth. Blogging wouldn't be what it is without you :)

Happy Friday

This weekend I'll be catching up on some reading, working, studying, listening to the new Norah Jones and John Mayer albums, watching a few DVDs, and among other things, watching after this little guy...

Here my mom, who came over to my house for my birthday, holds Little Foot to prevent him from running and falling off the coffee table.

It's been about 2 weeks since he was diagnosed and treated for the Parvo virus, and thankfully he's back to running around all over the house, jumping with excitement for more food, licking the floor, and chewing on and getting into things and places he shouldn't be. Although he's a handful, we're so incredibly grateful for his restored health and energy. He continues to be absolutely adorable and lovable.

Have a great weekend everyone! Hope you get to do the things you want and spend it with the people and/or pets you love!

The Best Birthday Present: My Baby Boy is Home

First of all, a huge thank you and virtual hug to everyone for your kind words, compassion, support and generosity. Hearing that Little Foot had Parvo was a scary shock that made me cry my eyes out. The doctor told us that even with treatment, about 30% of dogs don't make it, so and my husband and I were so worried that he would be in that percentage because he's so tiny and fragile. I'm happy to update that Little Foot was a strong little boy and responded very well to the treatment. We got a call on Saturday afternoon, that he was ready to be picked up. We are ecstatic to have him back. It's the best birthday present I could have gotten. We still have to be extremely careful with him and hope he remains well though. Yesterday we noticed he had unusual breathing patterns and frequently kept (what looked like) coughing (he was moving his little body like he was almost hyperventilating or reverse sneezing -not sure what it was) and had to take him back to the doctors to see what was up. She said his white blood cells were low and gave us additional medication for him. For now, we're grateful that he's eating his food, drinking water, and doesn't have diarreha. We have faith that he will fully recover soon.

Little Foot on the car drive home.


Full of energy and trying to chew on the seat belt.

Little Foot Fighting the Parvo Virus

If you've been following this blog, you probably know that last week my husband and I rescued a maltipoo puppy that we have named Little Foot. In the few days since bringing him home, we've fallen head-over-heels in love with him. Recently, we noticed a sudden drop in his energy, lack of appetite, and that he had diarrhea. This got us worried so we took him to the pet hospital tonight. We were right to be worried. We were given the depressing news that Little Foot has contracted the Parvo virus, which is a very serious disease that attacks the lining of the digestive system and is especially dangerous for puppies. Without intense treatment, the victims of Parvo die of dehydration. Little Foot is currently in overnight hospital care. We are picking him up in the morning to transfer him over to another clinic for further treatment. Please keep him in your prayers.

If you can contribute something, anything, to help pay for his treatment, my family and I would be forever grateful.

Little Foot

Little Foot had been in a crate with a bunch of other dogs at the rescue center, so one of the first things we did after bringing him home was clean him up. He was a stinky puppy!

He was a little scared because he was shaking for awhile after we finished bathing him.

We tried making a bed for him using a padded cardboard box (we haven't gotten a crate for him yet) which we placed right next to our bed. He slept fine for a couple of minutes but then when we turned the lights completely out he tried jumping out and onto our bed.

Eventually we moved over to the living room where we created an enclosed area for him using our furniture. He slept on and off by himself waking us up several times crying and trying to jump up to where we were.


This is him full of energy early in the morning. Notice his little tongue sticking out. He does that a lot! It's one of his charms :)


He eventually got tired and finally fell sound asleep in his own bed at around 8am with his buddy the piggy.


He's definitely a handful but such a cutie :)

Introducing Little Foot Vargas-Arias

My husband and I had been thinking about getting a puppy for some time and yesterday we finally decided to make the commitment. After meeting this little guy, we couldn't resist -we just had to adopt him! Little Foot is a 8-week old maltipoo (maltese + mini poodle) from a local rescue center. We are so happy to make him the third member of our family! This video was taken just a few hours after bringing him home. He's been such a good boy!

More videos/photos to come! Stay tuned!