Happy Friday everyone, get your tissues ready!

I currently have two pups, Powder and Sugar, but today I wanted to talk about my ferret, Cooper. I think I've mentioned Minnie and Cooper before (my dad helped name them, he was a little excited about his newly owned Mini Cooper) but I can never talk about them enough!

Minnie was my first ferret and she was an angel. Cooper came a year or so later and he was the biggest brat ever! Minnie was extremely lazy and independent, Cooper was wild and overwhelming. While Minne was my first, Cooper was a challenge and quickly became my baby bear. He was so goofy and stupid (lol), he loved jumping on things even though he never made it and would fall down. I honestly have no idea how he never got hurt. Ferrets do this super cute noise, it's called "dooking". This is not to be confused with the noun, dookie, that's something completely different. He did an alarming amount of that too though! Whenever Cooper was playing or running, he would always dook and spaz out. It was seriously the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life! 

Ferrets don't live very long, typically about 4-7 years and unfortunately, I lost my Coopie after around 3 years. He was absolutely fine one morning and then couldn't even move to eat or go potty that same night. We took him to the vet and they let us know that Cooper had gastrointestinal disease and most likely wouldn't make it through the night. This was EXTREMELY hard on me, it broke my heart. I spent the next 36 hours cuddling with him, I got no sleep. Just a month or so later, I also lost my Minnie. 

I fall in love with animals so easily, they're all amazingly different! Anytime I lose a pet, it's seriously like I'm losing a member of my family but I also think of how lucky I am to have had that pet in my life/family, to begin with. I miss my stupid dooking bear every day, I miss how he would lick my arm and then bite it the very next minute. Love you Coopie! 

I pretty much grew up with dogs. Our first family dog was a German Shepherd, and we got him when I was probably around 5 years old. The weird part is that I never really consider our family dog “my dog”, it was more like “our dog”. Since I’ve always had a family dog, I never realized what it was like to raise a dog. I would play with our dog and then be like “Okay, I’m done with you for now”. I would walk away and forget about the dog until I wanted to play with him again. That type of mentality changed last year when I got Robin. 

Raising your own dog creates a different but much stronger bond. I can’t be like “Okay, I’m done with you for the day” anymore and not feed him, or clean him, or take him to the vet. You literally have to raise it, and teach him/her what is good and what is bad behavior. It requires lots of patience, but I honestly have no complaints. I actually believe I’m a lucky dude for having this particular dog. I got him when he was only five weeks old, and he has never cried at night. Not even on his first night with me, which is extremely rare in puppies. Just like me, at 10:30pm he goes “Nigh night homies, I'm going to bed!”. Robin has also never chewed on any of my furniture or shoes, and he is very social with other dogs and humans. Robin is also pretty independent for a small dog. He will come get you to try to play with him, and if you ignore him, he goes “cool, I’ll go play by myself then! Nooo problem. I’ll have fun with or without you man” and he goes on and does just that. 

I didn’t really believe it before, but there is actually a special bond between a man and a dog. You learn from each other, especially when you raise the dog. It is crazy to think so, but Robin reminds me of an important life lesson every single day. When it comes to love and care, actions are more important than words. Dogs love their owners every day no matter what.They don’t tell you, but they demonstrate their love every time they see you. At least once a week I step on Robin and he holds no grudges against me. He immediately forgives me every single time. Regardless of his size, Robin shows me that he takes care of me. If a dog (no matter the size) stares at us while walking down the street, Robin will bark at that dog to let him know he is there. Every time I wash dishes, he sits next to my feet and faces the opposite side. He literally watches my back while I do the dishes. As I write this loop on the couch, he is sitting on my shoulder like a freaking bird. I would like to think that he is trying to take care of me by watching over my shoulders, but I honestly have no explanation for this behavior. He does some weird stuff sometimes. Regardless, I’m proud of my dog and even though it was by luck, I’m happy we found each other. The funny part is that he is actually turning one this month. Happy Birthday buddy. 

Robin when he was 5 weeks old

Robin now

The last few years, I have majorly been in the mood for traveling. Growing up, my family and I went to some awesome places in and around California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah. We had a blast as kids, and that's actually a ton of awesome places, but I promised myself I'd try to make it a goal to see some regions outside of the Western U.S., and so during the last few years, Michelle and I did exactly that! These photos below are from a trip we took to South Africa:

Here is the problem with traveling though: it takes TONS OF TIME to plan it out. Don't do last minute traveling. Sit down and treat it like a hobby. Look at your life in the next 12 months. You know yourself better than anybody else -- when are you going to need a nice break during those next 12 months? Map it out, plan something small, or plan something big. Make the emails and phone calls, to get it planned out. And BAM! suddenly you have something fun on the calendar 6 months from now, and after the initial planning you don't even have to think much about it. Give it a shot! Way worth it.

BONUS POINTS: use that same strategy for also doing things that you don't really wanna do, but know you should do. Once it is on the calendar, your brain will be like: "welp, it's in stone, I gotta go do it!" Cool right? Now go trick that brain!