Hey y'all, welcome to my curls. My name is Renee and if you are new to my channel, welcome. Y'all, it seems like my dogs have taken over my YouTube channel. I know that's crazy, but seriously, they have taken over my YouTube channel. You all know Pollix who has taken a big net behind me. Maxi's actually on the couch beside me. I wanted to share with you all some of the life lessons that I have learned from adopting shelter dogs. They have taught me so much about life and love and friendship and I just want to share what I have learned with you. Shelter dogs are wonderful dogs. They are so full of love and they have taught me so much. And so I want to share what I have learned about adopting shelter dogs with you. My husband and I over the years have adopted four shelter dogs. We've actually had five dogs and four of them were adopted from animal shelters. The first dog that we adopted was Benson. He was a two. We weren't really sure of his age, two to three years old. He was a solid black miniature schnauzer. And then a couple years after that, we adopted Benny, who was a nine year old senior salt and pepper miniature schnauzer. And then of course you all know Maxi, who is a white miniature schnauzer. And we adopted him when he was 10 months old. And then there's Pollix. Pollix didn't fit into our family puzzle. And clearly you can see that we had only had miniature schnauzers in our life. And then there was Pollix. In this video, I'm going to go back in my archives. I'm digging deep into my old videos because I want you all to see some of our other adopted dogs. Benson and Benny are no longer with us, but Maxi and Pollix are here. So here is what I have learned over the years from adopting shelter dogs. One of the first things I've learned from adopting shelter dogs is to do what makes you happy. If you want to run and play or chase a ball or chew a bone or lay in the yard, relax on the couch or even how if you want to do it. Oh, yeah, they like, now what we do. There is no reason to live a stuffed up unhappy, grumpy life. Look at your dogs. Look at the way that they live playing alone with their toys, playing with each other, running around the pool. Being in the car with us, they just do whatever makes them happy. And so I have enjoyed watching them. I laugh, it makes me smile, it warms my heart to just watch them do their thing and be happy. Oh, and an important thing my shelter dogs have taught me is to get a good bed. My dogs always love a good bed. Oh, Pollix loves his bed. Yeah. I have talked about their dog beds in so many videos. Maxi and Pollix have the calming donut beds and they have taught me that a good bed is worth the money that you spend on it. Let me tell you a little story. Randy and I have had the same mattress for, I don't know, 12, 13, 14 years and he has been on me for the last probably three years. He wanted a new mattress. And I don't like to spend money. Y'all know that. And so to me, the mattress was fine. I didn't want to spend the money. I saw nothing wrong with our old mattress. I slept like a baby, but he wore me down y'all. I gave him to him and last summer we bought a new mattress. We spent a lot of money and got a really good mattress. And I will tell you it is some of the best money that we ever spent. I love our new bed. I love our new mattress. Maybe I'm just getting older. I don't know, but I am loving the new mattress. So my dogs have taught me spare no expense. Get the best beds you can afford and just enjoy the heck out of it. My dogs have also told me to play, play, play with your best friends. Get out in the yard, play, snort, roll, growl, chase each other, do everything that you want to do. Spin time with your friends. We have always had more than one dog in our house. Not always. Most of the time we have always had two dogs in our house and there was a long stretch of a lot of years where we had three dogs at once, three miniature snailsers. So at any given point on every single day, somebody was playing with somebody. Maxi plays with Pollix. Benny would play with Benson. Benny would play with Maxi. Maxi would play with Benson. And sometimes, Benson, Benny and Maxi were all playing together. There was always a playing ruckus in our house, but I loved it. They made me laugh. The dogs had such a good time playing together and every day, at least once a day, Maxi and Pollix play. Pollix loves to go up to Maxi. Wave is big old white tail. Shake is booty and it is on. It is play session on. And they will take this play in all over the house. You never know where you're going to find them. Sometimes they're rolling around under the dining room table. Most of the time, they're on my bed. They get on my bed to play. They'll roll around in the living room floor. It is just a total joy to watch them having a good time. And so they have taught me to spend time with my friends, spend time with the people that I love and just play. And there is nothing wrong with taking a good Judy every once in a while. I say, take a Judy and almost every one of my videos and you all comment and send me messages. What is taking a Judy? Let me explain it to you. Years ago, my mother-in-law, Judy, fell asleep in church and my sister-in-law took a picture of her. Well, it was Christmas Eve and so we were all getting ready to come together for our family Christmas dinner. So my sister-in-law sent the picture of my mother-in-law asleep to everybody in the family. So when Judy got to Christmas dinner, we just had a hoot and a holler and we just gave her a really hard time. But somewhere along the line, that term caught on. And so now when anybody in our family takes a nap, we're taking a Judy. And so it's just something that sticks even my friends know what I mean when I say I'm taking a Judy and you can go to Judy's house every single afternoon and she has taken a Judy. You can find me on the couch almost every single night before bedtime taking a Judy. There is nothing wrong with taking a Judy. My dogs love to take a Judy and they do it every day all day. So if you want to take a Judy, do it. Cuttle up with your favorite blanket on your couch and do it. Take a Judy. Something else my dogs have taught me is anytime is the perfect time to enjoy a good Cheeto. We love Cheetos in our house. I swear my husband is addicted to puff Cheetos. We always have Cheetos in our house, puff, crispy, or we even have Cheetos popcorn. You can open my cabinet at any given point and we have Cheetos. And it's funny because the dogs know the sound of the Cheeto bag coming out Randy can unroll those Cheetos and the dogs come running. They love Cheetos. So enjoy the Cheetos y'all or whatever your favorite snack is. I know that I do. I know that Maxi and Pollock's do. All of our dogs who've ever lived with us have always loved good Cheeto break. So take a break. Enjoy your Cheetos. And the most important thing that my dogs have taught me. Not gonna cry. My dogs have taught me life is short. Spin your life doing what you want. Do the things you love. Spend your time with the people that you love. Tell them you love them. Show them you love them because life is short. Eat what you want. Do what you want. Play with who you want. Take a Judy when you want to. NAP when you want to. Greet the people that you love at the door and show them that you love them because life is short. So that's what I have learned from living a life with a home full of adopted shelter dogs. I love them to pieces. They have showered me with love and I hope that you learned the same thing from your dogs. So until next time. I'll see you later.