10/25/2005 Update

To give you a quick update, Aimee is doing great! She was a bit restless the first night. She was up all night walking around until we finally had to put her in her crate so she would sleep. The second night she zonked out right away. By Sunday, she was more than fine. Aimee now sleeps on the couch on the first floor (The main floor of our house.). She hogs the sofa.

Aimee has two names: Aimee and Mina. The name Mina comes from the movie Dracula. Mina is the main love interest. As Dracula is one of Mary's all-time favorite flicks, the nickname was not a hard choice. We also thought it would be easy for Aimee to associate the two together as they sound very close, and hopefully Aimee's hearing would work in our favor. So far, she has not had any problems putting the two together. She is probably the most loving dog we have ever had the joy to come across. She follows us everywhere. Of course, the constant fawning we do over her probably does not help our case either! Aimee has pretty much settled in and picked all of her favorite places to sleep and lounge. She loves looking out the windows and will readily go out on the deck to see what is going on in the world. She is a power chewer, so we give her plenty of things to work out her energies upon. I laugh at the way she thoroughly takes pleasure in tearing up her toys. I will be going to JoAnn fabrics later this week to buy some canvas to make her "destroyable" toys. I took several pictures of what her toys looked like before she ripped them up and pulled out all the stuffing. It is amazing how Aimee will carefully pull out the stuffing as if she were saving the material for something else. When I make Aimee her new toys, I will use the stuffing from her old toys. Aimee also loves Bully Sticks. A six inch piece will keep her occupied for one to two hours. As the sticks are not rawhide, but actually are good for her, we have discovered these treats are a great diversion. I even found a wholesale dealer for these and other such treats on the internet. I made my first order a few days ago. I will have enough for a few months. Hahahahaha.

Aimee is a miracle dog for us. We love her to pieces all the time. I took her to my work everyday last week. She is a real butterfly when it comes to attention. Every officer in attendance thought she was a beautiful dog and could not help but pet her whenever she was allowed to run for a few minutes in between classes. Aimee was put on a tether in a corner of the workout area. She often follows me every where I go, and when she cannot see me she barks to me to make sure I am coming back. It is quite comical to have a dog love you so much. Mary has the same "problems" with her when Aimee is home with her. I am not sure who is having more fun, Aimee or us. I take Aimee out with me whenever I go somewhere. She really loves to go for rides. As I many times cannot take her into a store with me, Aimee will wait for me on my side of the truck until I return. She has the cutest look as she waits. What is really interesting about her is the way she selectively ignores you when she is doing what she wants to do. We think this may be a carryover to previous days when she had owners who thought less of her than you or us. She flinches occassionally when we pet or play with her when she does not see us moving to her first. This may be because of her hearing, but she seems to have the same problem once in a while when she sees us coming. We are confident Aimee will lose her fear the more she sees we truly love her and would never hurt her or let anyone else do such.

We tried out a high quality, all-organic Nutro dog food. Aimee has had no reaction to it so we may have successfully found an alternative to the other food. Occassionally, we will give her other treats that are not of the junk variety. She gobbles everything in sight while not showing any signs of distress. She does dig a bit still, so we are keeping an eye on what triggers the habit. We are thinking she has a natural skin issue, so we have been using oatmeal shampoos, benadryl for the tought moments, vitamin E in her food, and a Skin-So-Soft lotion that really seems to work for her.

Well, this email is long enough for now. I will write more later as Aimee has given us much to write about and be thankful for. Thank you so very much for working with Aimee for the year you had her. She is really a great dog, and you have much to do with that. We deeply appreciate all the time, love and effort you put into Aimee. Mary and I both know it cannot be easy to love a dog for a year of your life to see her go to someone else at the end. I freely speak about the great work of MPR to everyone who asks about Aimee. You can be sure we will support the work whenever we can.

Thank you again. Give a squeeze to all for us.

Jim and Mary

Cute Aimee | Sweet sweet Face | Trusting Girl

For those of you who love the happy, sweet, silly and affectionate nature of the pit bull, Aimee is the perfect example of all of those qualities. She has been through a lot in her life, but she has shown us all at MPR what a true bully should be. She loves people, loves kids, loves to play and wants nothing more than a human family to share the rest of her life with!!

Aimee came to us like so many others as a sad little girl sitting on death row. Click HERE to read the story of how MPR (and a very generous sponsor) helped to turn her life around. . . .

Aimee has adjusted perfectly since her rescue and recovery. She is in great health, has a gorgeous blue coat, pretty brown eyes and a sweet smile, plus a very fit and stocky little body.

Aimee does not want to share her family with any other dogs or cats, but she is all any family could need or want in a pet and promises to provide that perfect family with loads of unconditional love, lots of laughter and snuggles galore.

So loving | Adorable Aimee | Pretty Girl