36 posts tagged “sadie”

Survival...

Jun 27, 2008
2 comments

So, I have survived my crazy week of travel with our new team member. She, by the way, is fabulous and I can't express how much I enjoyed having some company on the trip. Getting home last night was...a nightmare really. Bad weather all over the place made for lots of late flights and cancellations. I finally crawled into the house here around 12:45am.

Today has been full of work stuff - wrapping up things from this week, conference calls, scheduling for July, etc. But, for the most part, I am done now and must move on to the insane amount of housework that has to be completed before 8pm tomorrow!

Laundry: I have to get the guest bedding and towels washed! All other laundry can then be done as time permits...but those first two are a must!

Cleaning: Vacuuming the entire place will happen this evening. There is dog and cat hair in and on and around everything. I will also try to get all the dog bedding washed before tomorrow evening so that it doesn't smell so stale in here. It doesn't stink, but it all could use some refreshing. And the bathrooms...they both need to be scrubbed. Top to bottom. Inside and out. I should probably do a quick scrub of the kitchen floor too while I have the supplies out.

Organizing: My office and bedroom look like a bomb went off. I need to get things put away. Granted, Dad probably won't be hanging out in my bedroom, but the office? For sure!

The car will go to the wash/detail place tomorrow morning to get cleaned and I will do a quick grocery shopping trip on my way home.

Then, to the airport. Dad gets in sometime around 8:00pm tomorrow evening. Hopefully, he will have an uneventful trip. Traveling these days is crappy as it is...weather doesn't need to compound the crappiness.

Totally unrelated - I got the shoes that I ordered from Simple Shoes. They are adorable, turquoise canvas style shoes. I am going to wear them around the house later today to see how they feel...but just from opening the box, I love the way they look!

Marly's ear is markedly better. She missed her ear drops last night due to my late night arrival home and my being too tired to wrestle with her, but this morning she let me do them and was such a good dog about it. I think she is realizing that the drops are making the itching and soreness go away. The report is that they were good girls at the kennel...however, I think the ladies there just love Sadie more than anything and would say anything to get her there more often. Even up to and including the fact that they charge for Marly at the 30-60 pound dog price. Ha! Both pups seem contentedly tired today which is nice since I have so much to do and don't have enough time to take them to the park today (besides which the weather isn't cooperating for that either).

Oh yeah, Neil put up some old photos of Marly...I already forget how tiny she was when she came to live here! She will be 11 months old tomorrow.

More random stuff...

Jun 16, 2008
1 comment

So this weekend on our little vacation Sadie surprised the living daylights out of me by bounding down a really steep embankment and then by proceeding to charge right into the stream and start splashing about. She even beat Marly into the water! Though, she still made it clear that she does not like to be in water where she can't walk about - she tried to follow Marly into an area that was a bit deeper and immediately turned around and stood on a rock in the middle of the creek and whined at Marly until she came back.

Getting back UP the embankment with Sadie was a bit trickier, but we got her there by placing her feet about half way up where there were some rocks she could get a foot-hold on.

Then this morning at the dog park she actually chased tennis balls with Marly! She out-ran Mars the first few trips, but then slowed way down. It was nice to see her active, but now she is gimping pretty significantly this afternoon. Doggy daycare tomorrow and Wednesday will be good for her. She can still play but it won't be so strenuous.

I have an insane schedule between now and my dad's arrival:

Tomorrow - Wednesday: I am in Pittsburgh working
Thursday: hair appointment over lunch and then a meeting with a branch manager locally here in the afternoon
Friday: jam packed with con calls and prepping for my trip the following week
Saturday: Marly to the vet in the morning for shots and to pick up heart-worm medicine, then in the afternoon I get to sit around and wait for the glass repair people to come and glue the chip in my windshield
Sunday: pack for my work trip
Monday - Thursday: in Winchester, VA for work (training a new team member to boot....whhheeeee)
Friday: more con calls and trying to wrap up work stuff before my time off
Saturday: car into the shop for routine maintenance and oil change. Dad arrives Saturday night

So, somewhere in there I need to get the car over to the detail shop to get cleaned since it is a disaster from our trip with the dogs, clean the house, and get all the laundry done. Heh.

Right now I have to go pack for my trip at oh dawn hundred tomorrow morning. If I am lucky, I will be able to catch a flight that will get me home around 7pm on Wednesday...if not, I am stuck not getting home until after midnight. *sigh*

Happy dogs... (photos by Neil)

May 25, 2008
4 comments

Sadie & Marly (wet)

Yesterday we took the pups to the dog park and then down to the lake for a little water fun before heading back home. Sadie has decided that swimming can be fun with a friend...she followed Marly right on out into the deep water and actually SWAM! She was so proud of herself on the way back to the car - her head was way up high along with her tail and she was prancing.

Sadie (happy)

Prior to the water, we let the dogs run around and chase some balls at the dog park. Sadie isn't really into chasing balls or even playing with the other dogs. She is pretty much just content with being outside and doing her own thing. I don't know - what do you think? Does that look like a happy dog to you? Hehehe! Unfortunately, Sadie has had a bad case of the runs the past few days. She is still eating (though not as much as normal) and drinking lots of water. I think maybe it is the lake water that has given her an upset tummy. The dogs went to the lake last week as well. I think I might forego letting Sadie swim there again until her system gets back to normal.

Marly (wet)

Marly loves the water. She is truly the quintessential labrador. From her companion behavior of following me around everywhere and hanging out with me, to the love of water, to the love of anything edible (or non edible for that matter!)...she is definitely all lab! It is too bad that I haven't found a nice secluded beach where I could let her off-leash to go swimming. I am still looking though. There must be one around here somewhere. We also had the displeasure of pulling Marly's first tick off of her. EEEWWWWW! I gave her a pretty good going over to make sure there weren't any more last night and then again today during her bath. Sadie, of course, got checked too. After the baths, both dogs got a new application of Advantix. I had them on a monthly schedule (as in the same day every month), but I think it may be that the stuff was wearing too thin at the end of each cycle, so now they will be on a 4 week cycle. With Marly's thick, dark fur it is really hard to look for/find the darn things, so I just hope the new application of the chemicals will kill any that might have been missed.

Of course, that had me looking at the stuff I use on the cats. Bandit is on Revolution, which is flea and heartwom (and other parasite) prevention stuff...but it doesn't do anything against ticks. I am tempted to switch him back over to Frontline Plus (which is what the other cats are on) that kills fleas, ticks, and chewing lice (edited - Frontline does not kill the mosquitoes...that is a K9 Advantix thing). So now for sure, I will call the vet on Tuesday and ask their opinion as to which is the larger threat/problem for an outdoor kitty around here.

Today was a lazy day of sleeping in and movies (though I did venture out this morning to get the plants watered). Tomorrow, I think will be more of the same with a trip back to the dog park thrown in along with a bunch of laundry. Tuesday morning I leave for VA Beach for work...*sigh* Even the long weekends are not long enough.

Pennsylvania

Apr 29, 2008
1 comment

I am back in PA. This time in the Western part of the state...a couple hours outside of Pittsburgh. It is amazing to me how dilapidated this entire area is.

I understand Pittsburgh can be a great city with some fabulous museums, sports, art, etc...but so much of it has been let go. I know the economy here is rough - has been - since the decline of the American steel industry. But still, it is an entirely different perspective to witness it first hand.

There has also been a strange little cold front that is blowing through (same with back home too)...temps dropped over 10 degrees from this past weekend and are then expected to rise almost that much with this upcoming weekend. The overnight low tonight is supposed to get down to freezing here. Strange. Good thing I remembered to bring my jacket!

Apparently this evening Neil bought each of the dogs a hickory smoked beef thigh bone. This is after they got to go to the park again today and chase squirrels. *laugh* According to Neil, Beth got to witness just how fast Sadie can be. She doesn't show it much these days with as stiff as she is getting, but for a squirrel? Oh heck yeah! Tomorrow there are a couple trips to the dog park planned...I am jealous. I want to go too!

Sadie bone

Now it is time for me to finish up the work I was doing this evening and maybe read a bit before I head to bed. Unfortunately, traveling out of this place doesn't work well so I am stuck here until Thursday. *sigh* Too bad I wasn't thinking at 4am on Monday while I was packing and didn't also throw in some project stuff I am working on. I am sure I will come up with something to fill my time.

Marly's Meet-up

Apr 20, 2008
4 comments

Well, aside from being VERY loosely organized (to the point of us almost not staying around long enough to meet anyone at all), it was a great day yesterday. Neil, Beth, and Chloe came along which made it lots more fun because I had help so Sadie could come too! We scoped out the park...there is good lake access but the immediate park area there is heavily used...I think I will continue to go back and explore farther along the trails out there for a bit more secluded/less used area.

The meet-up was supposed to be for 10am...it was after 11 and we were just getting ready to head out when one of the folks found us and said a couple other people were on their way to find us too. It was a labrador retriever group which was fun...the most amusing part of the whole thing were watching people's jaws drop when they learned that Marly is only 8 and a half months old. She was the largest dog there - looking to be even larger than the only male who was full grown a (I think) 4 years old. Louie...he was an adorable chocolate lab. He little sister was some sort of a black lab mix...a tiny thing. We called her the bonsai lab. Heh. Then there was Raven, the nine month old black lab. Raven was very lean - I asked her owner about it and she said it was because her husband did not want to have an overweight lab. Which I totally understand, but this pup was SO lean and still so young. It worried me some. Sadie and Marly rounded out the group. We let Marly off-leash for a bit with Louie and Raven to go swim. It was her first time in any sort of open water - I have never seen a happier pup! Even Sadie decided she liked these dogs and that she wanted to play with them in the water, but she doesn't like to actually swim so she mostly splashed around near shore and got super-duper muddy.

My only gripe about the meet-up (aside from the poor planning) is that the other two dogs who were off-leash kept running over and bothering people who were not in our group. There are leash laws since it is a state park...neither one of the owners bothered to leash up their dogs or even really go after them, even after repeated times of bothering these folks. They just stood there calling to them - obviously the respective dogs were paying NO attention to them. I dislike that because that is what gives dog owners and dogs such a bad name. Sure these dogs were harmless, but they were wet and big and wanting to play and other people don't need to be bothered by that. The way I see it, if they wanted to play with big, wet dogs they would either have one of their own there and already be doing that, or come over and ask to play with us all. I leashed Marly up the first time she ran off...and Neil and Beth both helped me out in corralling her before she got too pesky with the other people there at the park.

I did get some flexi-leashes so that next time even if they have to stay leashed up, they will still have some running/swimming room without me having to join them in the cold, muddy water.

Everyone was nice enough, but I am not sure if we will bother giving this group another shot or not. I guess I didn't realize just how much it really bothered me - the not controlling/leashing their dogs - until I started writing this.

Next weekend is Bark in the Park...one of the big Charlotte parks is opening a new off-leash dog park within it. I think we might go check it out.

*****************

Today I mowed the scary jungle that I call my yard. Tomorrow I will break out the weed-whacker and edge everything. I borrowed my neighbor's blade-whacker too, so I can start to work on hacking down some of the overgrowth on the hill-side. I would like to at least get it to where you can't really see any of the tall weeds when you are standing out on the patio. It will make the whole yard look much neater.

Lots o Stuff

Apr 14, 2008
6 comments

Last week when I got home from my regular work trip, I found that the monitor on my desktop here had cooked itself. There is something wrong with the power supply. Bah. So now I need to try to dig up the receipt or at least the date I bought the darn thing so I can get it repaired or replaced via the warranty.

In some better news, I heard back from our volunteering department at work and found that any participation in a fundraising event (i.e. walking in it, collecting funds, etc.) is considered volunteer time and we can enter it into the volunteer management website that our company has. I had no idea! It took having volunteer time be on my annual review (a developmental item - 20 hours/year) to get me to look into it. 20 hours is nothing when compared with what I normally do each year.

In totally random news, we got a Wii. Actually, I had been looking for one for Neil for his birthday...to no avail. Then he went to the new Wal-Mart by his house and they happened to have 2! He picked them both up (which makes me laugh). His reasoning was that one would be kept at my house - his birthday present. And the other he would give to Chloe for her birthday in July and would be kept at his house. Hahaha! Anyway, the thing is so much fun! Even for someone like me who isn't very skilled or into most "regular" games or gaming systems (we have the Xbox 360 as well - the only thing I ever play on it besides DVDs is the car racing game where the object is to wreck as fantastically as possible). I really dig the interactiveness of the Wii, too...anyway, I highly recommend it if you are looking into a gaming system and want one that all levels of abilities can have fun with.

Oh yeah, the broken monitor also spurred on some additional thinking and talking about the digital storage issue here at the house. Between movies and TV shows, photos, and music...I need a better system. And my MacBook is more powerful than the PC here when it comes to actual running of programs (i.e. photo editing software, games, etc) which I don't really do that much of anyway. So, it looks like we will be installing Microsoft Home Server on the PC and getting at least one new external hard drive - 1TB! It is truly amazing how times change...I remember when 100GB was a TON of storage. I mean, who would EVER need anything like 100GBs of disk space? Ha! The funniest part is that in all actuality, I will probably pick up a second 1TB drive relatively soon to replace the two smaller drives I already have.

For Christmas I am going to get my mom a wireless digital photo frame and get her set up with a wireless router at her house. She got the digital camera last year? the year before? Anyway, fairly recently from me and uses it a lot but never gets prints made of the photos (or she just prints them out on regular paper! Silly lady!). At least this will allow her to enjoy her photos in another room rather than having to be in her office on the computer.

Marly and Sadie got new collars yesterday. Marly has finally outgrown the largest collar that I had in the house (it was an old Sadie collar that had been too big for her)...so we headed to the pet store and they each got a new one. Neil really liked the purple on Marly when she had one as a small puppy so we got her a new purple one, and then he wanted green for Sadie - I had to tell him that a) Sadie has always been red or in the red category (recently she had pink Hawaiian flowers) and that b) I would feel highly stalker-ish if we got green since Haven and Beacon are green and purple (which is an excellent color combo - you guys tell your mommy and daddy that we like it a lot!). :) So, it seems the permanent colors are in - Sadie is red, Marly is purple. At least until someday when I splurge to get them some good leather collars.

I can't think of anything else right now...thank goodness, huh? Tomorrow I leave at the crack of dawn for Philadelphia. It will be my first time staying there - I have flown through twice. It should be an alright trip. (Note: MUST remember to take my camera - I will be staying right on the river.)

Marly - 8+ months old

Apr 11, 2008
6 comments

Well, I finally got around to grabbing some more photos of the Marls and her sister. Marly was 8 months old on March 28. They were romping in the house this past weekend so the photos are not very in focus, but you get a good idea of how HUGE she has gotten (at least in comparison to Sadie, whom I used to consider a 'big dog').

Playtime

That is Sadie's play pose...all stretched out like SuperDog. The green ball there is Marly's favorite. It is a fabulous thing - one of the only toys that she hasn't managed to mangle or destroy yet. (She is a very vigorous chewer.) It has openings on two sides so you can insert treats if you like and the thing bounces wonderfully making it ton's of fun to play with.

Clifford, the big black? dog...

2 comments

Sadie will usually stand in this spot and grab at Marly and/or the ball while Marls runs laps through the living room and dining room. Occasionally she will stop (like in the photo above) and shove her ball at Sadie to encourage Sadie to play with her. Sadie's legs are getting stiff as she gets older, so she doesn't do too much chasing...but every once in a while I will catch her making a go of it after her sister.

I spoke with the vet about Marly and her weight because for a while there she was getting really chunky! She is still a bit on the thick side, but the vet said with her growth spurt habits (getting wider and then suddenly getting taller) that I should definitely keep feeding her as much as I currently am. At least until she is 18 months old.

I joined a couple meet-up groups that I found online - Charlotte Active Dogs Meetup and a Labrador one that is based a little closer to my house. The Labrador one is meeting next weekend at a nearby park so we are going to go check it out...hopefully this will be a way for me to meet some local people that are not tied to Neil* or work. And hopefully the people there won't be a bunch of weirdos. At least the scheduled meet-up thing will be something of a motivator to get me out the door and to the park with the pup. The weekends that I can get Neil to come with me then Sadie will go too, but she just isn't as social with other dogs as Marly is or as generally active and will probably be happier just going for her regular walks. Though, she probably would like to meet the other people.

*A bit of clarification on this...right now the only people I know out here in Charlotte are Neil's friends, so I rely on him almost solely for my social life, which I really hate. Don't get me wrong, I think his friends are great and I love spending time with him, but I need a life of my own too (one that happens outside the house!). Since I don't have kids - moms tend to meet other moms through their kids' schools - I figured I could do a similar thing with the dogs. We'll see how it all goes!

Sadie is a "senior" ?!?

Mar 5, 2008
1 comment

SADIE:

Sadie went in yesterday for her annual teeth cleaning. I was so stunned when the gal checking her in referred to her as a senior dog. Senior? She is still just a pup...I swear! The pretty gal just turned eight!

Unfortunately, she lost yet another tooth. It was broken and the vet said it had appeared to have been for some time (which means in previous check-up visits no one caught it when they checked her teeth...which irritates me even more that they then look at me and grill me about brushing her teeth and act like I am some horrible person for not seeing it myself - on a tooth that is hard to see even when there are extra people holding her mouth open). Anyway, everything else looked good. She has gingivitis, but it doesn't seem to be too bad - probably thanks to the brushing sessions. Her blood work came back extra good - she is healthy as a horse except for her arthritis. The arthritis, though, is going to become an issue over the next several years - it will get worse and eventually she will have to be put on some meds for it. For now the orders are to keep her moving, but not running too much, and feed her her joint pills.

MARLY:

Marly is growing up more and more every day. She still gets into mischief regularly, but it is becoming less and less destructive mischief. The neighbor gal has offered to come over and help work with her on a few items like her major leash pulling and also the vicious door barking - between both dogs now I can't open my front door if they are both loose in the house. We are also going to work on Marly's shy/nervous barking and growling she does when she meets new people. It worries me that her people greeting is very stand-offish and semi-aggressive in nature (until she gets some good sniffing in and realizes that the people are OK). I am afraid if someone who is not good around dogs has to encounter her that things might go badly.

KITTIES:

Still no Clyde...I don't even have words to express how I feel about that. Sad doesn't cover it.

Bandit and Mr. Mouser have become close buds and hang out together. They even share the cat house when the weather is icky. Very cute boys.

Bonnie is a sweetie too...she hangs out with the boys outside and comes in at evening time to hang out with the people and dogs. I can tell she misses her brother too, but she seems to be doing alright.

LIFE:

The visit with my sister and mom was fabulous. I miss them tons already. We hung out, did a bunch of shopping, and went to a Bobcats game. Man does our basketball team suck! But it was still a lot of fun and I would go again! Today is my last day of vacation before I have to return to the hell that is my job. I plan to make the most of it...by being as absolutely lazy as possible. Too bad I have already been productive in cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, and vacuuming. Ha!

Productivity

Feb 9, 2008
1 comment

Still no Clyde. With each day that passes I am more and more sure that a wild animal got him. Last night there was a small (I think young by the way it acted) opossum on my patio. It made me wonder if maybe Clyde got into it with the mommy possum. Now, I also have to find a different place for the outside kitty food since obviously that is what this one was looking for. (It had been moved up onto the patio table yesterday so it wouldn't get contaminated while the exterminator sprayed the foundation.) I did talk to neighbors as well as the office here and put up some fliers...lots of the neighbors recognized his photo and mentioned what a sweet kitty he is and said they would keep an eye out for him, but hadn't seen him in awhile.

Aside from that I flung poop today - it desperately needed doing. The yard was getting gross due to crappy weather lately. After that I made my first hike down the hill. I have no finally set foot on all of my land. Heh. It is lovely down below with relatively easy access to the creek that runs through back there. The hill itself is rather steep and somewhat tough to get back up (then again, I am also horribly out of shape)...but I think if I work at it, over time I can create a stair/path that will make climbing back to the top easier. I also scouted out the gully area that I am going to clear out and replant with wildflowers. I don't think it will be too tough to do, actually. There is just one area that has some washout issues that I am going to have to ponder. It looks like I will probably need to build some sort of retaining wall. I wonder when Dad is planning on coming back to visit? Ha-ha!

Now I need to go change my clothes since I am covered in little sticker bush burr things and find something for lunch. Then I think I might watch a movie...I am exhausted. Marly, Sadie and Bandit were all antsy last night and made sleep hard to get.

P.S. Bandit is doing just fine...he is a little timid jumping, but otherwise surgery doesn't seem to have bothered him in the least. (He got neutered and micro-chipped yesterday.)

Whatta week...

Dec 14, 2007
5 comments

Bah. I got back yesterday from Florida and now have a nice cold taking hold of my head. It has been in the upper 70's low 80's (beth here and in Florida) all week and now tomorrow they are calling for a high of 45!?!? This weather has got to stop!

Northeast Florida was alright...I was right by the beach so that was nice. It has been awhile since I have been to the ocean (either one). I get to go again for a day next week down in Myrtle Beach.

Marly survived her first kennel stay with flying colors. After well over a year now, I still can't get over how inexpensive things are here compared to back in Seattle. I boarded both dogs for two nights, three days for $80. Which included the daycare romping and such during the days as well as several walks and getting fed their own food. It would have cost me close to twice that much back in the NW. The best part is that my pet-sitter also does pet-taxi service so on days like yesterday when I wasn't scheduled to get in until 5pm and the kennel closes at 5:30, someone can still pick them up! (Neil had other obligations this week as well.)

Both pups came home and slept hard yesterday evening, but Marly was still up at midnight and again at 5:30 (which is her new morning wakeup time). Ugh. Andrew or Amanda, maybe you can answer this since I can't find anything regarding it online...I know most places when I read about potty training and "holding it" overnight they say don't expect more than a puppy's age in months plus maybe one in hours for how long they can go before needing to be let out (i.e. 4 month old puppy can hold it on average between 4-5 hours). When does this rule of thumb stop holding as true? six months? or is it closer to a year? My concern is that she is simply getting into a routine of habit and doesn't necessarily have to go out...but then again, I also tend to forget howyoung she still is due to her enormous size (she will be 5 months old next weekend and is easily around 50 pounds - and is not fat)! When I do take her sometimes she will make a big pee, sometimes not, sometimes she has to do #2, sometimes not. I am sure I am just over worrying and over thinking all this, but more than anything, I would LOVE to sleep through the night once again someday soon.

I hate iTunes. Or maybe it just hates me. It always locks up, doesn't want to run or load right and in general is just a pain in the rear on my computer. This is my justification for wanting an iMac. It would run just fine there. I am sure of it.

Marly is currently being the Best Puppy Ever and is curled up sleeping on the couch on her blanket...no destruction of shoes or the Christmas tree...just being a good dog! Wow!

Alright, enough rambling here. I have work I need to go get done so I can enjoy my afternoon.