Back pain and other annoyances...

I wrenched my back late last week and over the weekend it decided to clench up like a vice grip. It is amazing how helpless I have become...just taking the puppy outside to go potty is like some sort of medieval torture. Flying tomorrow is going to be a real joy.

Marly got in big trouble this morning...she is finally hitting her "push it" stage where everything she knows she isn't supposed to do she will now do blatantly and aggressively. For instance, being in the kitchen - she will run through the kitchen just to do it while you are watching. Or getting up on the counters or tables - she completely ignores us now unless we use physical contact to remove her from them. To add to this, she is also tall enough to reach the kitty food on the breakfast nook table, so now I have to find a new place out of doggy reach (I am thinking the guest bathroom counter since that bathroom already belongs to the animals - the litter box is kept in the bathtub there). She got scolded this morning for dumping the kitty food bowl over and getting it all over the place and then again for chewing the (unplugged) plug of the Christmas tree light cord. Since then she has been pouting in her crate and refuses to come out. OK by me...at least I know where she is and that she isn't getting into anything in there.

Of course, Sadie has also been reverting back to some of her naughty puppy ways...mainly, I have caught her in the kitchen, feet up on the counter, scavenging when she thought no one was looking. What am I going to do with these two? I am so blessed that they are both sweethearts with good dispositions and I know once Marly grows up some more she will be a good dog like Sadie usually is. Until then, there will undoubtedly be more distinct moments of wanting to strangle them both!

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Unrelated to my household (t least in any sort of direct way), the neighbors got another dog/puppy. He is absolutely adorable. Scooter. He is a 5 and a half month old Rottweiler and is going to be a gigantic monster of a dog. He is as sweet as can be. Their other recent addition was a Doberman named Dixie. She too is a sweetheart...she arrived just a few weeks before I got Marly and is about the same age as Scooter. Both are rescue dogs. I have been trying to "meet" the pups over there with whichever dog I have out at the time whenever I see them outside so that they are used to me and my animals. Unfortunately, their Great Dane, Molly, is too random in her dislike/aggressiveness towards other people (apparently she is OK with dogs) so we are still steering clear of her. It seems she is overprotective of her family, particularly the daughter who trains her and primarily cares for her. The other plus is that these folks alos have a cat, so all the dogs are used to being around them and though they want to play and chase them, I am not worried about them trying to eat my cats (or anyone else's). 

I was speaking with the dad over there this morning (I am terrible...I have NO idea what his name is!) and he was saying that they are going to be building a 6' privacy fence around their yard soon! WOOHOO! This elliminates my need to build one. Granted, I can't leave my pups unsupervised outside ever, but with their dogs blocked off, I no longer have to worry about Sadie taking off to go play with them if she is off-leash. I can't wait!

 January 1, is coming up quickly and I am considering another attempt at the 365 photos thing. Now that I am more established in the use of my equipment I think I will be a bit more motivated to keep up withthe photos. And after watching the Flickr group, I have a lot of great ideas to work from if I can't come up with anything on my own on any given day. I am going to see if I can get Neil to do it with me...

That's enough rambling for now. I need to go scrounge up something for lunch and get gifts packed up to be shipped this evening.