Mia's 3rd Birthday

Back in 2011 after Chris and I had settled into our new house we started to have many discussions that ended with Chris asking, "Can we get a dog?" After Chris's many pleads we started our search. We knew that we wanted a bigger dog, not too big and we definitely 

wanted a puppy. I came across a Craiglist ad for a girl who found a puppy on the side of the road and couldn't afford to care for her. We saw a couple pictures and fell in love with her. We decided to go pick her up. When we first saw her, we didn't realize she was that big of a puppy. I know my husband was thrilled but all I was thinking of was messy baths, muddy paws and dirty floors. Nevertheless, we fell in love with this gorgeous puppy and named 

her Mia...or Mia bo Bia. Below are a few pictures of Mia's first night at home. 

Soon after getting Mia we realized that she had a skin issue. Here she is at her first vet visit. She was 10-12 weeks old and already weighed 24 pounds. Daddy is giving her cuddles because she did not like her shots one bit. It wasn't until 2 visits later that we found out she had demodectic mange. She was treated and it went away. That wasn't the last of her skin issues though. Over the years we have dealt with several skin problems. We just recently learned that all her skin flare ups were from a food allergy. Luckily we are just
now getting that under control. 

 Our baby was growing really fast and it wasn't long before we realized that Mia was a special character. She was always very skittish and scared of sudden movements or sudden loud noises. We thought that it was just because she was found on the side of the road when she was a puppy and was terrorized by previous owners or by cars passing by. Sadly, she never overcame that paranoia

Mia is even scared of the camera flashing. Almost every time she sees me about to take a picture she runs and hides. It's so difficult to capture a good pic of her. This is her and me at our Christmas Party in 2013. 

And her is our big baby today! Three years later and we are still just as happy as ever to have our big fur baby. She has been quite a handful and has tested my patience many times but I love her unconditionally despite her quirkiness. We have learned so much since we have had her about dog skin problems, allergies, training dogs, etc. We couldn't be happier dog parents and love our chunkers so much! :)

 We love our Mia bo Bia!