21 posts tagged “dog”
She just tried stealing my bread straight off my plate while I was sitting here eating! Bold move, even for her!
On Saturday morning Neil and I headed out to get some photos of the trestle bridge in town and whatever else caught our eye.
The vet declared that Moo's ears look "good"! YAY!
She is on the ear drops for another three days (so through the weekend), only on the antihistamine (three times a day), and the ear cleanings are getting weaned down to just once a week over the next month or so (assuming that by cutting back the ear goo doesn't start to get bad again).
The food trial goes 12 weeks - that alone is going to bankrupt me, I think. After just over a week I am almost half way through the bag due to feeding both dogs. But, he said we should know around 8 weeks if it truly a food related problem. So, in the meantime, I am searching for a local store that can get the Nature's Variety food. Both dogs did fabulously on the salmon and I would like to put them back on that.
So, for now there are no more vet visits unless other problems pop up, or if the scratching and head shaking doesn't continue to improve.
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Today is the last day of the agonizingly long conference calls. They are spinning out of control a bit...all over the place and a very large waste of time (mostly). Later I have to go to the grocery store to pick up something to make for dinner. I think sandwiches and soup and salad is the extent of things for this evening. But it still requires a trip out of the house (again) after all these freaking calls. I don't want to go anywhere.
It seems like just yesterday we brought her home...
Today Marly decided to make a dash out the front door and chase Bandit all the way across the cul de sac, through the neighbors' yards and into the woods back behind those houses. I finally got a hold of her and brought her home. I just hope Bandit recovers and comes back too.
The more I work with Marly and take her places, the more I am beginning to realize that her meeting-new-people issue is really just at the house. A territorial thing and especially outside in the yard. Inside she usually gets over it much faster and settles down. Maybe because inside it is easier for people to appear that they belong there because they can settle in more easily by sitting on the couch or being in the kitchen (where the food comes from). Outside usually everyone is just standing around talking. Her MO is to sort of hide behind me and bark at whomever I am talking to. She will strain her neck to sniff at them, but is careful not to get close enough for them to touch her. All the while her tail is wagging like I have never seen and she is smiling - she has a totally happy posture (with the exception of the hiding behind me part). The only thing that truly worries me is on occasion she will put her fur up during the process. She does this when she is playing with Sadie too, sometimes. I am not really sure what to make of it since I know it is typically an aggressive or fearful show.
It is almost done. Just waiting on things to arrive so I can get them wrapped and then packed back up to ship to my family. My only hangup is one last gift - it is for a friend's mom. What do you get for a perfect stranger who has everything? Suggestions anyone?
Tonight we go get the tree...last night dinner took priority and the tree place that we wanted to go to was closed after. We hit up Target instead where I bought a new/better tree stand, outdoor lights and gutter/shingle clips for them (YAY! I can do lights across the peaks on the roof now!), and Neil picked up a lighted, moving penguin. Yes...a penguin. It slowly flaps its little flipper wings. Personally, I think it looked a bit like it was staggering and offered to set up an empty six-pack next to it - maybe even attaching an empty bottle to one of the flippers. Hehehe! Really, it is cute, just very silly.
Per vet orders both Marly and Sadie are on fish oil supplements (I had already started Sadie on them, but wanted to make sure Marly was old enough to have them) and Marly also gets to have some plain, active yogurt for awhile to see if it helps settle her tummy. She eats way too much stuff that she isn't supposed to (like leaves, shoes, dirt, cat fur, etc.) and has pretty constant runnies. Luckily nothing so bad that she is making a mess of the house like Sadie did a couple years ago. Aside from that she got a clean bill of health yesterday and at 16.5 weeks old is a whoppin' 41.6 pounds!
Marly was three months old yesterday. I am going to try to get a good photo of her today. Right now we are working on the 'sit' command along with 'stay'. We are also working on staying out of the kitchen. She does pretty well with all of them when I can get her attention. Yesterday I learned yet another valuable lesson in not paying enough attention to what she is doing when she is loose in the house. She got a hold of a loose corner of carpet in the entry way and pulled it up. Luckily there wasn't too much actual damage, but she frayed it enough that the carpet no longer reaches the tack strip to hold it down there. So, it looks like the carpet will be replaced in the next year or so (once she is through this "puppy" stage) and until then I am going to have to be really careful when I vacuum that area. The good news is that I was seriously contemplating tiling the entry, dining room, living room, and kitchen anyway, along with both bathrooms and the laundry room. A huge job? Yes! Worth it in the long run for durability and ease of cleaning with two dogs and two cats running around? Absolutely!
And speaking of house projects...I bought eight Leyland Cypress today that will go in two groups (I think) along the back part of my lot. They grow extremely fast and will make nice screens so that in a couple years the backyard will have much more privacy from the neighbors that are up the hill from us and look directly into our yard. Eventually the cypress will get to somewhere around 50' tall...but that is a ways off even with how fast they grow. I couldn't find the red maples I wanted. I will check the big nursery in town next weekend. Otherwise, they may have to wait until spring time.
Yesterday Neil and I participated in the fall session for PhotoWILD! 2008. Apparently they are doing the regular spring session as well toward the end of April...we may do that one too. All entrants can submit photos for the contest next May. In my free time (what's that?) I will be sorting through the photos I took and posting them to Flickr. I am sure some will make it here as well, but if you are interested in seeing the bulk of them, head over there.
Clyde's little adventure doesn't seem to have deterred him much from his desire to go outside...though, he isn't quite as pushy about it all as he was previously, but he is still right there at the door every time I take the pups out. Naughty kitty!
Not much else happening. I will be in Knoxville a couple days next week. Other than that, just trying to get back on track with getting some projects completed around here.
WOOHOO! Marly made it through the night!
Either I was finally so tired I didn't hear her, or she actually slept (or at least was quiet) all night. And there weren't any accidents in the crate this morning. Granted, this could be a fluke. Maybe it was a somewhat delayed reaction from her shots the day before...but whatever the case, it gives me hope!
Yesterday (and we will again today) we worked on going for a walk. She already does fairly well on a leash - most of the time - but if she gets overwhelmed with a new area or if there are too many other distractions she sits. And that is that. She doesn't budge without quite a bit of encouragement. We did make it to the end of our road yesterday, but this morning the new little outdoor kitty was following us and Marly want more to play with the kitty than to go for a walk. We will try again later when the outdoor kitties are off hunting.
All in all things are going well. Neil will be back tomorrow which will be nice. Now am off to try to convince the kitties not to tease the puppy when she is in her crate. They like to investigate which, during the day when Marly isn't always sleeping, can create quite a ruckus.
Today is Marly's first trip to the vet. It ought to be interesting - Sadie is going too for her rabies shot (finally!), so hopefully she can help keep Marly calm. My biggest concern is the whole puppy carsickness thing. Sadie used to get so sick as a puppy that she would start salivating and drooling all over the place before we ever even got IN the car. A sort of Pavlovian reaction from getting sick on previous rides. And then inevitably she would barf all over the place (even if she hadn't eaten anything). I have my fingers crossed that Marly will not get so sick (or maybe not sick at all). We'll see. At least now I have the Xterra, the back of which will be much easier to clean than the back seat of my old tiny Honda Civic.
Unfortunately, I haven't had time to sew any clips onto one of the blankets so I can secure it to the tie-downs in the back, so for today I will just have to drive very slowly/carefully so they don't slide around too much in the back. Sadie is big enough now that she can brace herself around corners and such and her weight holds the blanket pretty much in place, but Marly, she's still just a wee thing!
