Life with the Dogs

Good luck Jenson!

2011-05-19T19:16:00.004-06:00

I guess I am not really a blogger anymore...

But for completeness, I am pleased to report that Jenson has now traveled back to Guide Dog for the Blind's Oregon campus for formal training! I am so excited for his future, whatever path he chooses! He is a fantastic dog!

Happy Birthday Jenson!

2011-02-19T16:35:00.005-07:00

The big (and I do mean big... 70 pounds big) man is 1 year old! Or well, he will be tomorrow.

There have been a lot of changes around here, but Jenson and the pets have all rolled with the punches amazingly well. And heck, I think they are pretty stoked that our temporary new living arrangements include a big fenced yard! We have moved out of my beloved townhouse in hopes of helping it show better leading to a quick sale. The dogs and I weren't going to help the place look its best, so thankfully we were invited to live with some friends for a few months until the end of the school year when I will relocate for vet school.

So here are some pictures of Jenson enjoying the novelty of a yard to frolic in!
Watching him play really reminds me of how much of a puppy he is. When he is working he can seem so mature and serious that you almost forget he is a puppy, but at home he is still the #1 goofball that I adore!

And just so the old dogs don't feel left out, here are Ellis and Gelly looking good in the sun (and giving a glimpse of their fantastically adorable Valentine's collars, if I am allowed to say so myself)!
Enough with the pictures already, mom!

Why I sleep with one eye open...

2011-01-30T18:10:00.003-07:00

Jenson has been turning all the nylabones in the house into weapons. If he weren't such a sweet lovable guy, I might be concerned! I've heard of dogs who do this, but I've never experienced it first hand. I do however find it pretty entertaining! Sorry for the photo highlighting the nastiness of the dog hair crusted bones...

I'm sort of sad though that all three of these toys will probably need to be retired in the next week or 2, as they are getting pretty small. Although I won't be half as sad as Jenson will be... these are his favorites! For the nylabone experts out there, you might recognize the original shapes (a souper bone, a giant bone, and that huge femur thing), so it is pretty impressive how much they have been chewed down. The two bigger bones I have had for at least 5 years, but their day has just about passed. But hey, that's less to move!

Pro shopper

2011-01-17T14:02:00.005-07:00

Jenson thought the day off from school would be much more exciting than just errands... but he was such a good boy anyway! I'll spare you the details of how the new computer mouse I bought has changed my life...

"I know they are 75% off, but do the rugrats REALLY need more toys? And besides, if Auntie S finds out you bought more toys, she'll kill you! Or worse yet, she'll kill ME for not stopping you! Now if we were talking about toys I'm allowed to have... then I could change my tune a little." --Jenson

And for the record, the real stop at PetSmart was to use the scale... Jenson is 66 pounds! I may or may not have bought a few clearance toys...

Now in three collectable sizes!

2011-01-07T22:11:00.001-07:00

Jenson is now 10.5 months old, and the biggest dog in the house. Or at least the tallest. Last I weighed him a few weeks ago he was 63 pounds, but he has filled out some over the holidays (haven't we all?) so I am guessing he is pushing the upper 60's at this point. I always think my puppies are going to end up huge, and they never do, but Jenson might actually end up huge!
I tried hard to get them lined up evenly so there would be no perspective distortion on their sizes. I think I captured their size differences fairly accurately! I love all their eyes in that first picture (if you click on it). I feel like they are looking into my soul!Jenson continues to be a great puppy... sweet, goofy, eager to please, great in the house, great at work, great everywhere really! Plus I don't think I have ever laughed harder watching a puppy entertain himself. He makes the funniest noises while chewing his bones, and then tosses them in the air so he can take a flying pounce at them. Gelly, Ellis, and I just sit back and crack up watching him!

Now that things are settling down a bit, I hope to update on some yet to be had adventures soon! And get some more pictures of Jenson looking handsome in his puppy coat!

Overdue updates

2010-12-24T11:05:00.008-07:00

Well, I have been doing a poor job with updating lately. Those of you who follow my other blog or are on facebook will perhaps understand that I have been rather busy and totally pre-occupied! Incidentally, if you would like to be added as a reader to my other blog (which is about my long journey trying to get into vet school, and now that I have been accepted will be about my transition and journey through vet school), leave a comment (moderation is on) with your e-mail address and I will add you if I at least sort of know you ;)

As for updates, Jenson continues to do great! He can play a little rough with other dogs at times, but is otherwise a real pleasure to have around and has been well received by puppy sitters. Unfortunately due to the fact that I have been away with family for holidays and traveling for interviews, he has spent a fair bit of time with sitters, but it is a good thing for him to learn to adapt to new environments and handlers so hopefully it is more of a positive than a negative for him! He has been absolutely perfect at school, sleeping under my desk all day and walking with me at lunch (or playing on the softball field). My camera with all my recent photos (including the Lights of December Parade) is unfortunately in the pocket of a coat that is in Colorado while I am in Arizona. So all I have to offer is a not terribly recent picture of Jenson at work that was on my phone. I promise more photos when I am back home!Ellis and Gelly... they are about the same. They handled a 15 hour drive to Arizona remarkably well (Jenson stayed home). Sweet and totally adorable, and naughty and totally adorable (you can guess which is which!). Again, picture issues due to the aforementioned location of the camera. But my sister got a new phone with a fun app that I was playing with... My dogs look pretty cute with a retro touch!
So that's the short version of the current state of affairs... Maybe January will bring some new adventures to report on when I will be less pre-occupied by life!

Holiday Collar Winners!

2010-11-30T19:10:00.004-07:00

I know you have all been waiting on pins and needles (or, not) waiting to find out who will be getting the collars, but alas the day is here!

I was too lazy to do anything creative involving dogs drawing names or whatever, so I used the random number generator on Excel to choose 3 numbers between 1 and 19... and the verdict is:
#4 Katlynn and Ryder
#13 Maddie and Jorinda
#16 MK and Caesar

If you guys could drop me an e-mail at emily***** at gmail dot com with the stars replaced by the letters that are bolded above (in the order they appear... sorry I was feeling paranoid tonight) and give me your mailing address and 1st and 2nd choices for collars, you will have your collar shortly! I hope they fit and you enjoy them!From left to right: Red Poinsettia, black with holly, Poinsetta with white.

Fall photos

2010-11-26T08:44:00.001-07:00

Holiday Collar Giveaway

2010-11-18T20:11:00.001-07:00

Well, I admit it... I failed at the 30 for 30 challenge. At least I tried!

Anyway, instead of continuing to struggle to post every day for the rest of the month, how about a giveaway instead?

I've found myself with a little more leisure time to do things like crafting lately. I had gotten some requests from friends for holiday dog collars, but I failed to ask them what fabrics they would like. So I just made a whole bunch and let them choose. And then there were some left-overs. Ellis and Gelly each chose one, but that still left me with 3 extras.
This is where you all come in... entering is simple. Just leave a comment saying you want to be in the drawing. I will draw the winners on November 30th.

The drawing is for one of the collars pictured above that will fit your average lab or golden type dog (I estimate 14" to 20" necks... for reference, Gelly is 55 pounds and has a 17" neck, Ellis is 70 pounds and has an 18" neck). So they would probably fit fine on a more medium sized dog too, but possibly not an enormous lab. They are handmade unprofessionally by me with love. After I post the winners I will have you e-mail me with your mailing address and a first and second choice on the print. I will do my best, but you may end up with your third choice (so don't enter if you would be unhappy with your third choice ;) ). I'll probably do some more collar giveaways at some point, so if you don't want a holiday collar, don't have an average labish sized dog, or do not have a dog that can wear a special collar (like, say, a GDB puppy), fret not, there will be something for you at some point!

Happy Birthday to my Sister

2010-11-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

Since I can't come up with anything dog related today, I thought I'd wish my sister a happy birthday and show a picture of her cute little dog, Daisy! She takes up considerably less room while snoozing on the couch than Ellis.Poor Daisy: Not only did she lose her best friend (aside from my sister) this year, in a short week she will be dealing with my little turkeys for a week!

Contentment

2010-11-14T10:18:00.001-07:00

Frisbee is home. And totally content with that! Note the matching Turkey collar...

Little Turkeys

2010-11-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

His and Hers turkey collars. They are a little silly, and with the size of the print relative to the collar width, they are a little abstract. Since I don't eat turkey, this is how I will enjoy my turkey this year!

Frisbee the Boomerang!

2010-11-12T16:20:00.005-07:00

(Thanks Carin for the title!)
Weren't we just here? Yes, yes we were. This time the puppy was leaping off the truck rather than leaping on though.We were a little surprised to see Frisbee emerge with an e-collar on, given that he was neutered a few weeks ago now. But it turns out there were some complications with his neuter surgery so he is still very swollen and painful (and wants to lick his poor sore self). It was a little sad because as soon as the initial excitement wore off, it was clear that he is uncomfortable with his "situation." Let's just say he was well endowed before the surgery, and now it looks like he is even more well endowed and not neutered. Ouch! The drivers loved him though, and said that they had him up front with them much of the time. He is a very lovable dog!

Jenson said hello too. I had been telling Jenson that he might have some play dates with Frizzy, so he was pretty disappointed with the fact that Frizzy won't be able to play for a while. Jenson was also generally bored with the whole scene... all the attention was on puppies arriving and puppies leaving. Where was the love for the puppies who are just plain old here and awesome, he wanted to know.

Driving home I sat in the back seat and cuddled with Frizzy (sitting on the seat!). It seemed so right and natural to have him next to me! And we took the e-collar off for the ride :) And then I saw our handsome man!
So hopefully he is starting to settle in back home by now... I'm sure I will see him soon and often! Welcome home big guy!

Not sure...

2010-11-11T20:34:00.002-07:00

If it is a little too creepy to have this hanging over my bed or not..
We'll see if it stays!

A dog for every piece of furniture

2010-11-10T21:00:00.003-07:00

I have a dog for every piece of furniture, and every dog has a piece of furniture. Well, except Jenson. He has lots of dog beds.

Over the last year or so, Ellis has become my couch buddy. He and I spend most of our evenings hanging on the couch. None of the other dogs even try to get up, somehow they just know that it is Ellis' place. I never thought I'd be that person that has a big old labrador snoozing on the couch, but I guess I am. Ellis isn't terribly big at least (68ish pounds).

And now, over the last few months, it has apparently been determined that Gelly is my bed buddy (better than a bed bug!). I can't fall asleep with her on the bed (she is totally in the way!), but every night, about 3 in the morning, she gets up and curls up with me. She sometimes wakes me up a little, but I am so out of it I just go with it. But I have to admit that I sort of like waking up with her curled by my side (or sometimes on my pillow). Ellis tried this a few times last winter, but somehow it never stuck. And now I think he just defers to her.

So it is sort of nice that I have times and places to cuddle with both the pets without the other in the way.

The dogs are definitely growing on me ;)

Ummm... what the...?

2010-11-09T17:39:00.002-07:00

Jenson was pretty ambivalent about the first snow of the winter.

And on an unrelated note, there is a small update on my other blog for those who read that one too.

OK, Find it! OK, now what????

2010-11-08T19:55:00.004-07:00

So I took Gelly to a "dog games" class the other week... Gelly loved every minute of the class, and all the games and obstacles that were set up for us. We rotated through 6 stations, and she excelled at all of them. Smart little stinker. The trainer was really impressed by her intensity (easy to be impressed by it when you don't have to live with it!) and general level of training and obedience. Go figure, as I feel like I hardly ever train her these days. Heavens knows she would love it if I did more!

Anyway, with the shortened days upon us, I thought it would be fun to play some of the games that don't require big or expensive equipment at home. One of them was a "scent game" of sorts... I bought some buckets at the dollar store so we could work on the game. The problem is that I really don't know what the next step is! But perhaps some of you have ideas?

The set-up is there is one designated "scent" bucket which right now contains a treat. On command the dog checks out the buckets and finds the treat. Shuffle the buckets, and repeat. Gelly was a quick study. I am thinking the next step is to teach her to somehow indicate the scent bucket and then get the treat, but I'm not exactly sure how to do this. Shape it with a clicker? Command her to down when she is near the bucket? I guess I could do some research or wait until we go to class again (it is a drop in class, different every week... I actually took Ellis last week, but he is sort of a dork and the games weren't as fun that week either) to ask, but maybe one of you SAR trainers might have a suggestion?

Anyway... this is what it looks like right now. I know she skips a few buckets, but I think she probably could smell that the treat wasn't in there, and I promise that she would have gone back to them if she didn't find the treat in another.

That is cute old Bailey behind the x-pen... Ellis was back there somewhere too. Not that they need to be contained or separated, but I didn't want them to interfere with the game. I love watching the clips I took of Gelly if for no other reason than to see her wagging tail. And I love the look she gives me at the end... the "OK, now what???" look.

Fall doggies

2010-11-07T14:16:00.001-07:00

This posting every day thing is already getting hard, and this is only day 7!
This picture is from a week or so ago... I love how Jenson's extra large ears are really pronounced!

I am currently watching my friend's 14 year old and now totally deaf dog for the weekend, so Jenson is off with Frisbee's co-raisers helping them pass the days until Frizzy is back home. They have threatened to not give Jenson back... but I am willing to fight if needed to re-claim him!

Blind Cafe III

2010-11-06T19:22:00.003-06:00

No picture of this one, because, well, it was pitch black! Jenson did a great job meeting and greeting the diners before the dinner and show for both nights of the Boulder Blind Cafe III event. And on the second night, we also attended the event ourselves. He handled walking in the pitch dark like a champ (just clung to my leg as we were seated) and did great through the dinner and concert. The other diners at the table enjoyed having him at their table too. The proceeds from this event are being donated to our puppy club, for which we are incredibly grateful! The donations are primarily being used to help defray the costs of harnesses for dogs in our club who graduate, so that is very cool that we are now able to do this when previously we could not.

Working hard or hardly working?

2010-11-05T22:12:00.001-06:00

Jenson has settled in to school life nicely! After a couple of slightly rough days of learning that I can't be with him all the time and that he really is OK if I am across the room, he is doing fantastically all day! He sleeps quietly under my desk on a tie-down during class and barely gives notice to the 25 some-odd teenagers filing in and out of my classroom every 53 minutes. He is already loved by the staff and students and is also doing great learning to ignore kids in the halls (hard for such a lovable, friendly guy!).

I can't believe he has been here for 3 weeks already! It feels like he just arrived, but at the same time he fits in so well it feels like he has been here forever!

Frisbee and "his" kids

2010-11-04T17:02:00.002-06:00

I love this picture of Frizzy... shows what a gentle soul he really is! This picture is from one of his visits to an elementary school with his other mom.

He'll be back home a week from tomorrow!

Jenson and his long legs!

2010-11-03T16:35:00.000-06:00

Jenson got to run around the softball field today... he had a blast!

Election Day

2010-11-02T16:49:00.001-06:00

Jenson accompanied me to vote today... he is such a good boy! And a cool sidenote is that the guy who was getting us set up on the voting machine said his daughter used to work for Leader Dogs, so he was excited to meet Jenson!

And don't you just love that there is still Frisbee fur stuck on his coat? It was a hand me down... and I haven't actually washed it yet. Oops!

2 years and going strong!

2010-11-01T16:41:00.002-06:00

OK, I've been out of the blogging for a while now... but thought I'd try to get going again by taking the "November Challenge" and writing an entry every day.

This may get boring for everyone, but I'll try! And I am cheating by doing November 1st and 2nd on the 3rd... already off to a fantastic start!

Anyway, on Halloween I celebrated 2 years with the pets, Gelly and Ellis. It was a beautiful day, so we headed out to the open space for some good old fashioned romping around.They really are wonderful dogs. Neither of them is perfect, but they are wonderful just the same! I can't believe it has been 2 years already though... time goes so fast when you are having fun!

Beautiful, Beautiful Boy

2010-10-29T22:46:00.003-06:00

Frisbee is one of those truly beautiful dogs, inside and out. From the day he arrived, he was different. He was an old soul, and we all knew it. It was a privilege to be part of his raising team! He was a very special puppy!

It is a disappointment that he simply did not have the body required to even try to become a guide dog, but somehow this ending is perfect anyway. He will be retuning home to his co-raisers where he will fill a void that has been waiting for him to come along to fill. He will still get to work with his mom and her visually impaired students and have a positive impact on so many people! And maybe that is what he was meant to do, although I know he could have been an excellent guide dog as well.

We all just can't wait to squish his big blocky head and kiss his face again! He will be hitching a ride on the puppy truck in just a couple of weeks!

Welcome to the New Boy!

2010-10-17T12:19:00.004-06:00

Everybody say hello to Jenson!Jenson is an almost 8 month old male black lab who will be finishing his puppy raising career with me. I am absolutely thrilled to have been given the opportunity to raise this guy... so far he has been just amazing, and I've already fallen completely in love! To say he is sweet is an understatement!

He is fitting in nicely already, and really has been nothing but a pleasure to be around. I weighed him on our way home Friday, and he is 52 pounds... just a hair lighter than Gelly, but easily 3 inches taller. It is almost like he is walking on stilts. I tried to get a picture to capture his fantastically long and uncoordinated legs, but this is all I got... you can sort of tell how long they are in comparison to Gelly's "normal" length legs.
Our first "kitchen rug" photo session went fairly well... he was a quick study! Gelly hasn't forgotten that we just did this, and therefore was less than enthused and Ellis, well he's just Ellis. Sorry sweeties!

I can already tell that the next 6-8 months are going to go by way too fast! Monday Jenson will be starting at work, so fingers crossed that he will do as well there as he has been doing at home.

Hello and Goodbye

2010-10-11T19:16:00.004-06:00

I haven't posted here in ages, and really haven't been following other blogs much either... sorry!
[Frisbee, 14 months, Gelly 3.5 years, and Ellis, 4.5 years laying down in the kitchen]

But I thought I'd at least pop in to say "Hello" to anyone who still has us hanging out in Google Reader and let you know that baby Frisbee will be headed back to campus to find out what path is the right one for him. It has been a wonderful year with the big guy!

New, semi-off topic blog...

2010-07-14T15:30:00.005-06:00

I've set a lofty (and probably totally unrealistic) goal: 365 Geocaches in 365 Days. The dogs will surely be along for at least a few of them!The yellow dogs and I all nearly died of heat exhaustion finding 2 today... The black dog was sad to be left home but he was the lucky one!

3 peas in a pod

2010-07-08T22:58:00.002-06:00

Room for Two

2010-07-07T18:11:00.002-06:00

A number of years ago Costco had these extra large "cuddler" style beds that were big enough for my sweet Maggie. Beds of this style are always crazy expensive at pet stores, but at Costco they weren't. But I didn't buy a bed for Maggie when I first saw them, and a week or two later when I had decided that I would get her one they were all gone. Not to be seen there again (at least by me) for years. Until last week! Since I had always regretted not getting Maggie one (I know she would have LOVED it!), I bought one right then and there for the new kids. Unlike the last slightly similar bed I bought (I know, I need to stop buying dog beds!) this one actually fits both of them! They don't usually sleep together like this, but we are having a little cold snap so I think they were cold.

My birthday boy Ellis!

2010-06-20T08:44:00.003-06:00

Ellis is 4 years old... definitely not a puppy anymore! But at the same time, it feels like just yesterday that he was my little puppy.

He still has an air of "I've got stories to tell" about him, but he is now mostly his goofy, happy, sweet self. He is comfortable in his routine life, and has even come to enjoy the occasional adventure away from home, such as the little geocaching jaunt during which I took this picture recently. His health has also been very good with absolutely no skin issues in the last year and only occasional digestive issues. I still don't know if he has any actual food allergies or irritable bowel syndrome, but I do know that the food he is currently eating along with a nearly stress free life have been good for him!

Although I am still confronted daily with the challenge of 2 pets dogs and a guide dog puppy, I am also confronted daily with the joy of having 3 unique personalities in the house. I truly have a dog for every situation! I just wish there was a way to have all my dogs in every situation :)

So anyway, happy birthday big boy! I hope year 4 is another good one for you!

Goodnight Sweet Ellie

2010-06-17T19:40:00.002-06:00

Ellie
January 26, 1997 - March 6, 2010

I meant to pay tribute sooner, but alas here I am now. Our family lost another canine member a few months ago. Little Ellie was my sister's companion for 13 wonderful years, which wasn't even close to long enough. Like all our beloved dogs, she has left a terrible hole in everyone's hearts, but has also left us with so many wonderful memories! I have even forgiven her for nearly killing my parakeet when she was a pup ;). You will never be forgotten, sweet girl!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-26T19:06:00.006-06:00

New version...I guess that makes this no longer wordless!

The wild child's new collar

2010-05-23T18:24:00.002-06:00

Hope my first mobile update works!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-19T22:31:00.003-06:00

The Bean is Three!

2010-04-26T19:58:00.004-06:00

I'm a few days late, but Gelly is now a big three year old! Looking back at what I wrote last year, I can say that my hope has started to come true: she is settling down some. She still has plenty of energy, but she isn't as stir-crazy as she once was. She pretty much rules the roost but only has me partially wrapped around her little paw. She is stubborn and independent, but at the same time wants to be within about 2 feet of me at all times. Of all the puppies I've raised and the pet dogs I've lived with, she is by far the most "velcro" in nature. This is especially ironic given that unlike so many other dogs, her goal in life does not seem to be to please me! Gotta love her anyway.

So now, my hope for the next year... so perhaps I can look back a year from now and see a change! My hope is that by this time next year her naughty tendencies will have started to subside (I know she will always be a little naughty). I hope I can trust her alone in the kitchen if there is food on the counter (fat chance, but I can hope, right?) and I hope that she will not need to be confined during the day. As much as I hate having my things destroyed, I hate even more the idea of her getting hurt or eating something that could cause an obstruction or be toxic. I hate that she and Ellis can't hang out during the day, although honestly I am probably more bothered by it than either of them!

So we'll see where we are next year! Happy birthday kiddo! Even if you never change a bit, I will always love you, little Angel.

9 months for Frisbee!

2010-04-22T19:53:00.005-06:00

The title pretty much sums up this post! Frisbee is still doing great, and we are all in just as much love as ever, if not more! He did great at a recent evaluation with our CFR and as best as I can tell is on track and right where he should be developmentally and training wise. I really must get a current weight on him, but I suspect he is over 60 pounds and is very tall now.

He also got a great report from the sitters, which is always nice. And not always a given. Some of my less proud moments with puppies at sitters include one sitter who puppysat for an unnamed puppy of mine as her first puppysittee and not only had a rough time, but has not come back to another meeting, ever! Ummm, not proud. Or another sitter with a different unnamed puppy who told me that she would not puppysit that particular puppy again (but feel free to call again at a later date when I have a different puppy...). Again, not proud. So it is nice to be told that they had a fantastic time and that our puppy is "extraordinary!" Incidentally, both unnamed puppies above are now wonderful adult dogs living out their destinies in their chosen careers :)

I am going to make a big effort on the next few weeks to go on some more interesting outings and to take some fun pictures! I know I still have at least 5 months left with him, but time is just flying by and I need more photos for his scrapbook ;)

P.S. In case you were wondering, no, I did not take that beautiful photo. His sitter is getting into hobby photography and loves taking dog photos and was kind enough to send this one along. I am sensing some stiff calendar photo contest competition next year!

Taking the new collars for a walk...

2010-04-17T17:11:00.008-06:00

With some very sweet dogs attached too! I have gotten behind with most things, including keeping the dog's collars current! Gelly's was ok since it wasn't seasonal, but poor Ellis was still wearing snowflakes! So today, the first day I've had off and was home in what feels like months, I made them new collars. Flowers for spring of course! If you are interested in really seeing the latest creations, you will probably need to click on some of the pictures.

After getting the sewing done, I first took Gelly on a little geocaching adventure, revisiting 2 caches we had previously failed to find. We did find one of them, but not the other. Gelly seems to really enjoy going for walks in different places, and it is definitely more mentally stimulating for her. An hour walk in the neighborhood just takes the edge off her energy, but an hour walking around looking for caches in different places tuckers her right out.

Anyway, when I just have one dog with me, I still like to have them ride on the floor of the front seat... mostly so they are within arms reach so I can pet their velvety ears! Also so I can gaze at their cute faces while at stoplights.
We then hit the pavement on our hunt as it was starting to drizzle. Neither of us minded too much.This picture was near the one we found...
And this one was near the one we didn't find, again.

Back home it was Ellis' turn for some alone mommy time and a walk. He is much more of a homebody and seems to prefer to stick to familiar walks where he knows what to expect. So we took off for the nearby park.

It is fun walking them individually... I just rarely seem to have time to do it these days!

He is so good about checking in with me, and will always stop and look if I say his name. He is so eager to please!
The sun was out for Ellis' walk, so in this case being second wasn't too bad of an option I guess.
So other than walking, we are all having a pretty lazy day! Frisbee is off with a sitter since I am dogsitting my friend's dog (who is 13 and does not like puppies... Gelly is plenty of puppy for her!) and the co-raisers are out of town. We thought it would be good for Frisbee to spend some time at another house anyway, and he is such a wonderful nice boy that we thought he would be a nice gentle introduction to guide dog puppies for a family that is new to the club and was just qualified as sitters a few weeks ago. Miss the big guy though!

8 months old, spring, and the Blind Cafe

2010-03-22T21:02:00.007-06:00

Frisbee is 8 months old! And is STILL such a nice boy! He has always been strangely mature, but he is becoming even more mature and just better grounded in general.

We've been having alternating snow (like nearly a foot of it) and super warm and sunny days (that melt snow very quickly) which has been great fun for all the dogs! Today was sunny... and from the picture I bet you don't believe me that we got 10.5 inches of snow on Friday, but I swear we did!Perhaps the most interesting outing of late was an event called the Blind Cafe. It took Frisbee a little by surprise that we were led into a COMPLETELY DARK room, but once he understood that he just had to trust me and keep walking he did great! I honestly don't know if I have ever been in a place that was so dark, and if I was, it certainly wasn't for a few hours like this! And when I say completely dark, I mean absolutely. no. light. There is no "wait for your eyes to adjust." We were led to our table by a blind waiter who knew exactly where our table was (???). the meal was then served family style. So we somehow passed the bowls of amazing food (all vegetarian! yay!) and served ourselves. Thankfully our water glasses had lids and straws, otherwise there could have been some issues. It was really interesting trying to get food into your mouth, and also really interesting being surprised by every bite... you had no idea what you were about to eat! Or at least I didn't because when I served myself all the dishes ended up in a big pile in the middle of my plate. There was then some original poetry reading and a musical performance by a great band. Interestingly all the band members were sighted and had to practice for weeks (months?) to be able to play in the pitch dark. They were fantastic! After dinner and dessert (which was also very interesting to eat...) and the concert a candle was lit so we could all see the space we had been in for the last few hours... it was quite different from want I was picturing. And the whole time Frisbee was snoozing under my chair... such a good boy!

So other than that, not much of interest has been going on. Work, online class, volunteering, and generally trying to wear out the dogs takes up most of my time. The dogs are all doing well, although Ellis has developed some sort of wart-like bump on his ear that is causing me to obsess a little, as I am prone to do! It doesn't seem to be painful or bothersome to him at all, but because of my paranoia I'll be taking him to the vet if it doesn't resolve soon! I guess when you have this many dogs, it will always be something with at least one of them.

Hit or miss...

2010-03-05T19:13:00.001-07:00

I recently had to retire a dog bed (errr... the dogs chewed a few holes in it and that was apparently the signal that is was ok to obsessively pull stuffing out every time I turned my back... I made a few repair attempts, but gave up. Into the dumpster it went.). So the last time I was at Costco I of course had to look at the current offerings. They had the usual big fluffy round ones (of which I got one) but they also had these new snuggler style beds. I hemmed and hawed (sp?) at length about the suitability for my dogs and whether or not it was big enough, and then decided that it just seemed so soft and cozy that we had to try it.

At first it appeared to be a hit! Both Gelly and Ellis took turns trying it out and fell in love...
And then it turned into a miss... they were both in love, and unlike the big round ones that they can curl up on together, this one just isn't big enough. So maybe it is better to just worship the sun and follow the sunny spot around the kitchen.

7 month old Frisbee

2010-02-26T22:23:00.008-07:00

The blog... has become boring. But just in case anyone besides the pharmaceutical pushing spammers is still reading, here are some pictures of the ever adorable and wonderful 7 month old Frisbee!Nothing much to update on... he continues to be a great puppy and a joy to have around! All his raisers are totally smitten over him :)

And on a totally unrelated note, I tried the embedded alt tags... let's see if they work!

edit: Anyone know why the alt tags aren't showing up in mozilla firefox but do in internet explorer?

Frisbee is 6 months old!

2010-01-23T15:35:00.006-07:00

To celebrate Frisbee's 6-month birthday, I took him geocaching for the first time. He was a good sport and enjoyed the walking, but I think the nuances of the game were a bit beyond him. We even solved a pretty complicated puzzle cache (should have brought a calculator!) that taught us some history about a Boulder hero and took us to a nice park I had never been to before.[Frisbee sitting in front of the memorial plaque for Admiral Burke][Frisbee sitting in front of a large anchor sculpture that is part of the memorial]

There really does seem to be something special about 6 month old puppies for me... it is always at about this age that we really start to click and that I really start to feel much more bonded to the puppy. I've always adored Frisbee (how could I not adore the sweetest puppy ever?), but this week I realized that we are just fitting together perfectly. This is where the real fun starts for me.

5.5 Months Old

2010-01-08T19:20:00.002-07:00

That's right, the little guy is already 5.5 months... only he is turning into a big guy! I think he is still at least 5 pounds shy of Gelly (need a current weight, but I think he is 45ish pounds), but he is as tall as her and much less delicate in frame. Poor Gelly... she is destined to always be the little one.

I really should do some sort of major update, but there isn't much to update on. Frisbee continues to be a fantastic puppy, easy going, adaptable, and smart. He is wonderful at school and everywhere he goes! I have to keep reminding myself that he is so young still, because he is so trustworthy and easy to have around. And he reached a major milestone... he sleeps in now!

Hopefully I will have some good adventures with the pups this weekend and take some more interesting pictures, but until then (or in case I don't come through!), here is the kitchen rug update.
[Ellis, Gelly, and Frisbee laying on the kitchen rug]

I know I am biased and all, but I am pretty sure I have the cutest puppy ever! And the old dogs aren't half bad themselves!

The look of "hard core" relaxation

2009-12-29T11:30:00.006-07:00

Scenes from the last few days...
[Ellis snoozing on the chair with my new "Snuggie" ;)]

My sister has two toy poodles... Ellie and Daisy. Ellie is not terribly old for a small dog (about 13 years), but has been in poor health for the last year or so. She is proving to be quite a tough little dog though! She is the slightly darker one in the photo below. You can also see the stairs that she has to allow her to still get up on the furniture.[Ellie and Daisy napping back to back on the ottoman]

Gelly does her fair share of sleeping too, but she is generally a much "busier" dog, so she has been spending a few hours a day working on her new toy... actually a repeat of the same toy from last year which held up incredibly well and was very popular. We still have it, but it is pretty nasty at this point so some new ones seemed in order. Ellis got one too, but he isn't nearly as into them as his sister.[Gelly chewing on the "bristle bone" toy]

And since I was telling Cabana's mom about the toy and how I make cheap "refills," here is a close up. I make the refills using plain rawhide flips that I cut in half and drill a big hole through the center. They work just as well as the pricy refills. I wouldn't ordinarily give my dogs rawhide as I know they would just swallow bones whole causing who knows what problems, but in this small quantity and in a way that it doesn't usually come out easily it seems to be just fine for them. I stole the bone to take the picture, so you can see the rawhide flip after about an hour of chewing.[Close up of the bristle bone toy and 3 rawhide refills and 1 refill from the bone company for comparison]

Also in the vein of relaxation, I played Monopoly for the first time in years. I lost, but we had the cutest banker ever! "Baby Daisy" as I call her took her job very seriously! Daisy incidentally is nearly 8 years old. The "Baby" name prefix just sort of stuck.[Daisy on ottoman at edge of the coffee table in front of the money]

So that has been my vacation!

Geoadventures

2009-12-28T17:06:00.002-07:00

The dogs and I have been getting in some hard core relaxing for the last week due to a bit of bad weather at my sister's house... but we finally made it out for some errands and a couple of geocaches. We were "first to find" for a few of them that were just hidden in the neighborhood![Ellis and Gelly in the snow in front of the first cache]

As usual, the dogs have been being great houseguests at my sister's place... and the family may even have me calling Gelly "Angel" a bit again. She really is acting much more like her original name these days... she could even be mistaken as an angel a good deal of the time! Not that I am sorry for her overall improved behavior and sweetness, but I hate that I am having regrets about her informal name change. She still responds to both names. Maybe she will just have 2 names.

'Twas the night before Christmas...

2009-12-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

... not a creature was stirring, not even a FrizzyBee.

Happy Wright Brothers' Day!

2009-12-17T19:47:00.006-07:00

Frisbee would like to wish everyone a happy Wright Brothers' Day![Frisbee in front of door display of a paper bi-plane on a blue sky background with clouds][Closeup of plane shows Frisbee as the pilot]

My school was having a holiday door decoration contest. The directions said that it couldn't be religious... so because they are too smart for their own good, my students decided to choose a winter holiday that in no way, shape, or form had any religious connotations. A quick internet search yielded the result they needed: Wright Brother's Day is December 17th! So really, I have basically no comment here... but suffice it to say that my AP students are a little silly and when they said Frizzy could be the pilot I went along with it! Sadly the student council judges didn't see the humor in it like we did ;)

Douglas the Guide Dog

2009-12-13T22:41:00.005-07:00

[Douglas in his harness standing by his partner]

After a whirlwind trip to California, the short story is that I am so thrilled to have met Douglas' new partner and I don't think they could have made a better match! It was an indoor graduation which wasn't ideal, but it was very nice just the same. I got to spend really the better part of the day with Douglas and his new main squeeze which was absolutely wonderful. It was so nice to see how much they have bonded already, and how much their personalities compliment each other! Although I was a little teary in the beginning, seeing how great they are together dried all the tears and by the end I was just so excited for the team. I think there may be something extra special about a first guide, and that is what Douglas is for his partner. These boys will go far together! I wish them many years of safe travels and exciting adventures!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T20:58:00.007-07:00

As always, I am thankful for many things. But since this is my dog blog, I'll just give some doggy highlights!

I am thankful for my amazing pets! We've come a long way in the last year and if it is possible, I love them more every day that passes.
[Gelly, Emily, and Ellis sitting in some leaves]

I am also thankful for having been given the chance to raise yet another amazing puppy, Frisbee. And along with Frisbee, I'm thankful for having such fabulous co-raisers who have allowed me to continue to raise puppies when life was seeming too busy to continue as a solo raiser.
[Frisbee in his puppy coat sitting in a layer of leaves]

And last, but certainly not least, I am so thankful that Douglas has apparently continued to be the amazing, healthy, confident, smart, and motivated dog that he always was with me as a puppy. He has been matched with a partner and assuming all goes well for the pair in the next few weeks, he will be graduating as a guide dog! I can't stop grinning thinking of this little puppy all grown up guiding his partner safely down the street!
[Baby Douglas trying on his puppy coat for the first time at 9 weeks old.]

And yes, plans are already in the works to get out to California for graduation! There is pretty much nothing in the world that could stop me from seeing one of my pups graduate :) I am going to try and not cry too much...

Transitions for the Frisbee

2009-11-15T09:25:00.010-07:00

Frisbee is transitioning into a big(ger) boy and is also transitioning to spending more time with me and his other primary co-raiser (as opposed to his starter co-raiser). He has spent the last few days with me and not only did spectacularly at school (which means staying quiet and sleeping lots by my definition), but has settled more into our routines. Since he got his last puppy shots last week, he is ready for more outings. So he went on his first "real" outing with me... where else but the fabric store! It was a very successful outing including walking around the different aisles and getting a few pets from new people. I think he is going to be a champ at this with a little more practice :)

[Frisbee sitting in front of some bolts of fabric.]

On this visit we got some more snow. I was feeling lazy (and also working on a big assignment for my class) so didn't do much in the way of playing in the snow with the dogs, but they did enjoy some time in the micro yard. Gelly and Ellis can get pretty rambunctious, so Frisbee kept his distance a little.
[Ellis chasing Gelly in the snow with Frisbee standing to the side]

It is amazing how fast Frisbee is growing and maturing. For a nearly 4 month old, he is surprisingly mature in many ways. I wonder if he might be one of those "old soul" dogs, but it is probably too early to tell. He can be pretty goofy and silly too! He is now about 30 pounds, so has nearly doubled in size since his arrival. For better or worse, the big dogs are engaging with him more these days. It was sort of nice that they were mostly ignoring him, but it is sort of nice that they will play with him too. It just makes for more challenges keeping things calm and under control in the house!

He will be with his other raisers until after Thanksgiving, at which point I will have him about half the time. So I had to sneak in some documentary "kitchen rug" photos to document the three dogs with Frisbee being 4 months old.
[Ellis, Frisbee, and Gelly sitting up][Ellis, Frisbee, and Gelly laying down][The yellow ones, little Frisbee and big Gelly][The boys, Ellis and Frisbee]

I can't wait to spend more time with this very special puppy! He is so different from especially my last 2 puppies that I know there will be new and different challenges, but I look forward to learning and growing with him!

Shameless plug...

2009-11-03T20:32:00.001-07:00

Hi Facebook fans! I entered Ellis in the Halloween photo contest on Entirely Pets Facebook page... the prize is a $100 gift certificate (think toys and treats!!! He promises to share if he wins!). So now we need your votes :)In order to vote you have to become a fan of Entirely Pets, which you can do by going to:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?filter=nf#/EntirelyPets
And clicking the link up at the top of the page. Regardless of any prize we are trying to win, they seem like a quality company and give puppy raisers and guide dog users a discount, so I figure that is worthy of being a fan of anyway!

Once there you can click on the Halloween photo album and vote for Ellis by using the "like" button on his picture.

After the first day of voting he is actually in the lead, and most of the votes weren't even from my friends ;). So the proud momma in me is totally tickled that other people think he is so cute... but really I think it is the awesome hand crocheted scarf my mom made for him!

Fingers crossed... it would be really fun if my little boy who loves dress up actually won! I've been working hard to curb my dog toy buying obsession, but it doesn't count if you use a gift certificate so I could buy more toys, right? ;)

One year later...

2009-10-31T10:45:00.010-06:00

The anniversary of my pets' adoption will always be easy to remember... Halloween!

This was us a year ago...[Ellis and Gelly (aka Angel) being handed over to me by the puppy truck driver, dressed as a surgeon]
[Ellis, Emily, and Gelly posing in front of the truck]

So I was considering a highly sentimental and emotional post regarding the last year with my new pets, Ellis and Gelly (aka Angel), but then I didn't know what exactly to say. There have been ups and down, but far more ups than downs. I have no regrets about taking both dogs back and given the same opportunity would do it again, but I still struggle with missing my old girl Maggie. They are no replacement. But at the same time, now that I have had these guys for a year I realized that I am starting to feel differently about them... they are becoming more a part of me. They are also growing closer to each other. It was a pretty unrealistic expectation that they would be best friends right off the truck... they really didn't know each other at all and were suddenly expected to just love each other? Being good natured and friendly dogs of course they got along great, but especially in the last few months I have seen their attachment and affection for each other grow.

As for little updates-

Ellis: Ellis is doing great! I still feel terrible that his former partner had to go through the pain and trouble of having a dog that did not work out, but I can accept that he is in the right place now and am happy about that. In the last year he has undergone a pretty amazing transformation. Yes, he will probably always be a little neurotic, but no, it is no longer severe enough to really be interfering with his daily activities and happiness like it was a year ago. He will always be special for so many reasons, but he is happy and loved! I am also happy to report that his health has been excellent, especially since switching him to a limited ingredient fish and sweet potato food. His recurring bouts of diarrhea have been nonexistant since the food change and his skin has been infection free! I look forward to his next "well-dog" check up in December!

Gelly: Gelly is also doing great, and continues to be my little princess. Anybody who knows me can tell you the last thing they would expect me to have is a little princess. But I've got one! Gelly has been working hard to train me for the last year and I think I am finally starting to meet her high standards ;) She is doing much better with her house behavior, and although she still has to be confined during the day, seems much better adjusted to her mostly stay at home life. I think it would be a stretch to say that she has mellowed out, but she is far more easy going than she was and has really curbed her attention seeking (negative) behaviors. I think she still wishes that she could be physically attached to me, or at least live between my skin and clothes, but she is happy curled up by my side whenever she can be. And her health has been excellent too, although health was never really a concern with her. No cause was ever found for her demodex mange infection, and after 6 weeks of treatment the infection seemed to be clearing. And now 8 weeks later the hair is starting to regrow. I still wonder if there could be a connection between the allergic reactions (vaccine and maybe an insect sting) and the infection, but I will probably never know and hope to never see the demodex on her again!

And of course there have to be some documentary "kitchen rug" photos. I dread the day that I start to see gray on their muzzles!

[Ellis and Gelly, arms crossed][Gelly and Ellis again, lying in the kitchen]

And since this is Halloween afterall, the dogs have Halloween collars...
[Ellis' collar with jack-o-lanterns and stars on a black background]
[Gelly's collar has an all over orange pumpkin and jack-o-lantern pattern]

And since he loves "dress up" so much, Ellis as Harry Potter! I took just him (no need to torture Gelly with a costume) to the HPWT Halloween party where he won first place in the famous person category. He chose a jolly ball for his prize (nearly jumped up on the table to grab it, so I know that was what he wanted!) which I still need to let him break in!
[Ellis wearing a black velvet coat, yellow and burgundy knit scarf (thanks mom!), glasses, and a little lightening bolt on his forhead].

So here's to the next year! And the year after that, and the year after that...

First big snow

2009-10-28T15:34:00.001-06:00

[Frisbee running towards the camera through the snow, ears flying up]

Frisbee's second sleepover

2009-10-09T21:22:00.005-06:00

Since Frisbee's primary starter raiser is out of town, I have had him since Wednesday and have been enjoying (almost) every minute of it! I really can't say enough good things about him! So instead, I give you a few pictures...

Frizzy's first day at school! After a rather excited entrance, he settled in famously and has been incredibly easy to have around for a 2.5 month old![Frisbee under my desk at school]

After school Friday he walked up with me to the homecoming powderpuff (girls) football game. He met lots of students and learned very quickly that being calm meant he got lots of pets! Smart boy. [Frisbee sitting on the sidewalk in front of the football field]

And now, he is exhuasted. The big dogs seem to be accepting him quite well. They won't really play with him, but they are pretty tolerant and even let him into the evening dog pile.[Gelly, Ellis, and Frisbee all curled up on the same big dog bed by my couch]

I am thrilled that I "get" to keep him until Monday, as I can't seem to get enough of snuggling with him! The only thing I would like for him to work on this weekend is pooping on more of a schedule... for a puppy that seems to need to poop a ton, he sure is resistant to pooping! Loves to pee though. Really loves to pee. But knock on wood, no accidents (pee or poop) so far this visit!

Fall cabin get-away

2009-10-05T21:10:00.002-06:00

The big dogs and I spent a weekend at a friend's cabin. Relaxing, hiking, reading, and sleeping where the only agenda items. Oh, and pictures of the dogs too of course.
[Emily in a lounge chair with Ellis and Gelly on dog beds on the cabin porch, the hills and blue sky in the background][Ellis squinting in the sun with blue sky and clouds behind him]

[Gelly posing on an old log]

[Close up of both dogs' faces]
[Another picture of Gelly on the log]

The dogs definitely enjoyed spending the weekend running, sniffing, and snoozing, all without the constraints of leashes! The joys of private property way in the boonies!

Does he have what it takes?

2009-10-01T20:14:00.005-06:00

Douglas has made it to phase 10! It went so fast (because of their new training methods or maybe because of his extreme intelligence?) that I barely had time to even think about him being gone and in training! So now the real breath holding begins. I honestly think that he is meant to be a guide dog, but you never really know if that is what he is going to choose or if he will pass all the final tests. I whispered in his ear the day that he left that I love him and will be proud of him no matter what, but I would still love to see him graduate.

Fingers crossed that he will pass his tests and not have to wait too long to find his perfect match! I will now be holding my breath every day when I check my voicemail... the next news will come by phone, good or bad. And it could come soon, or it could come in months!

Sleepover with Frisbee

2009-09-27T08:09:00.007-06:00

First of all, the three F puppies in Colorado: MYL Frisbee, MBL Fandango, and FYL Flicker. Flicker is also being raised in my club, so it is going to be great fun watching the two of them grow up!

After 3 days bedded with newspaper on a truck, a bath is always top priority. I wasn't actually present for the bath, but reportedly he was the easiest pup to bathe, ever! He just sat there and put up with it. I like how his little "nosehawk" is especially prominent here.
I got to kidnap Frisbee for a night this weekend, and I can now say that Frisbee is as darling in personality as he is in looks... pretty much as darling as they come!

It should almost be illegal for puppies to be this cute and sweet...
And you all knew this picture was coming...
[Ellis, Frisbee, Gelly on the kitchen rug]

We all had a great time during Frisbee's first sleepover... he even did lots of sleeping during the night (11 pm to 7 am!). I can't wait to see who he grows up to really be, but if the first few days are any indicator, he is going to be fantastic!

Oh! And he weighs 16.1 pounds... so as chunky as he looks, he is actually a pretty little guy!

Anyone want to play...

2009-09-24T19:52:00.005-06:00

FRISBEE?

Male Yellow Lab
Denzel X Audrey
DOB 7-21-09

More pictures from the truck to come at some point...

pitter patter of little puppy feet...

2009-09-16T17:44:00.001-06:00

I finally officially got the news! We will be getting our new little charge next Thursday... a male yellow lab, letter "F"! We're calling him Franklin for now... wouldn't that just be a kick if that really is his name?

I am so ridiculously excited to meet him, but of course there is always a catch... I am not in a great position to have a baby puppy right now (between work, school, and my other volunteer activities), so Franklin is going to be basically started by another raiser in the club who truly has a gift for the baby puppies. When he is about 4 months old my co-raisers (same ones that co-raised Douglas and are fantastic!) and I will take over the raising duties. I think this is going to be a fantastic situation for everyone, including Franklin. He will get to settle in and learn about life without the stress of having to go to work with me. Granted going to work with me means basically sleeping all day, but it is still a big environment for a young pup. I'll probably end up really missing having the baby puppy (even though I am not crazy about the babies... they are so much work!), but I know I can visit him as much as I want and probably steal him some too!

So 8 more days and I get to meet him! I will have to take a few hours off work, but I can't imagine not seeing him get off the truck :)

Always beautiful...

2009-09-11T19:54:00.007-06:00

...even if you have some mites visiting your face at the moment.[sun shining on Gelly, hairloss around one eye is visible]

I really thought that for once in my life I was going to have a dog that was a picture of perfect health. And really, in the grand scheme of things, I think she is pretty healthy. What is less than ideal however, is that Gelly has a demodex infection around one of her eyes. Localized infections like this aren't generally serious or a major concern, but the fact that she is an adult dog (2.5 years old) makes it a bit more unusual and slightly more concerning. Demodex infections are relatively common in puppies who do not have a fully developed immune system yet. Adult dogs will have some mites on them all the time, but usually their immune system is mature enough to prevent an infection from taking hold. I am thinking (hoping) that her immune system is just a little low right now because of those allergic reactions she had last month (the vaccine reaction and the assumed insect sting), and that she doesn't have any of the underlying conditions often (usually?) associated with a demodex infection in an adult dog. These possibilities range from unfortunate (thyroid problem) to catastrophic (cancer). At this point the vet is not concerned enough to suggest any additional tests for her, but I of course have been obsessing and worrying. Gelly on the other hand couldn't care less... demodex is not itchy, or contageous, so really she doesn't have a care in the world! She and I are both hoping this is just one of those freak things.

This episode is reminding me beauty is not superficial. The slightly vain side of me is sad that my always picture perfect puppy isn't looking so hot right now, but she is a beautiful dog. Even if she loses all her hair, she will still be beautiful (but please don't lose all of it!).

Ellis on the other hand, he really is beautiful, inside and out!
[Ellis, close of up face]

Splashing good times!

2009-09-09T15:37:00.011-06:00

The dogs both got to go to a pool party hosted by another puppy club in the area at a public pool that is closing for the season.

It was a splashing good time as always, and both my dogs got pretty into it! I didn't get many photos, mainly because I was in the pool myself half the time, and the rest of the time I was accidentally in video mode instead of still photos. I did pull out a couple of frames for posting. Gelly was actually more into jumping into the pool, but I didn't capture any of those. I did get a good clip of Ellis though!
[Ellis mid leap into the pool]

[Gelly and some unknown black lab wait for me to throw the toy]

Unfortunately Gelly spent so much time wet and sprinting around on the pool deck that she tore up a few of her paw pads. She isn't too bothered by it, but is walking pretty gingerly. Bummer, but not too big of a deal. And in her mind, it was probably completely worth it!

What can I say? He's Gifted!

2009-09-03T18:26:00.003-06:00

My blog has been pretty quiet lately... the dogs and I are adjusting to school life again. But meanwhile, Douglas has been thriving in school himself. The smart boy has made it to phase 6 already! I'd like to claim credit for this, but really, it is the new training methods at GDB that are doing the magic! I'm just sitting back and watching :)[Douglas in the kitchen, 5 months old]

Hopefully I'll have some more news soon... perhaps even of a new puppy!

Dog Pile

2009-08-22T21:35:00.003-06:00

The view from my couch tonight...[Ellis, Gelly, and Dallas curled up together next to me]
I wonder if Dallas' raiser will mind if I just keep her... we are all quite fond of her!

OK, who invited the Bobbsey Twins????

2009-08-19T18:11:00.007-06:00

Visiting this week is a very special little puppy... Douglas' sister and Gelly's half sister Dallas!

So here is Gelly, Dallas, and Ellis. The look on Ellis' face cracks me up! He is tolerant about the pictures, but that is as far as it goes. The three of them have been very, very easy to have around. Nobody has even tried to roughhouse with anybody else and Dallas has been absolutely amazing at work this week! She is definitely helping smooth over the slightly painful transition from summer to work.[Gelly, Dallas, Ellis]

I can definitely see a family resemblance between the little girls. Side by side you can definitely tell them apart, but when I showed up at school with Dallas everyone thought I had brought Gelly! Their coloring, size, and faces are incredibly similar, but Gelly is a smidge smaller and her coat is shorter and smoother.[Close up of Gelly and Dallas]

In other news Gelly is totally recovered from whatever that allergic reaction was. I guess it isn't uncommon, but I hope to never see it again! And in yet more news, Ellis is responding very positively to the food change and this week for the first time in upwards of 2 months I have gotten to pick up normal poop! I'm sure my neighbors are equally thrilled too... I was doing my best to scrape up his output, but well, you can guess how well that was going. He is now eating a limited ingredient herring and sweet potato kibble suggested by his agility trainer. I am still holding my breath a little to see how he continues to do on it, and to see what happens to his skin, but I am guardedly optimistic. If it seems like it is going to work for him the big question is going to be whether or not I switch Gelly too for simplicity. It is more expensive than the other food, but it sure is convenient having them eat the same food!

that bites...

2009-08-17T21:07:00.007-06:00

...or at least that is my best guess as to what happened to Gelly last night causing her face to look like this:[Gelly's swollen face resting on my leg, photo taken after some of the swelling had gone down]

I have no idea what happened, but whatever it was, it happened very suddenly, causing (in my opinion) pretty significant swelling on her muzzle and around her eyes. My first impulse was to panic. My second impulse was to pop a couple of benedryl into her. Luckily I knew her dosage from that vaccine reaction situation a few weeks ago ;). My third impulse was to call an emergency vet and make sure that this wasn't going to kill her. They weren't terribly helpful, but I did gather that she would probably be OK. Of course without examining her they could not give me any more advice. My fourth impulse was to get on Google... and then I started to calm down. I guess this sort of allergic reaction is fairly common and will generally go away fairly quickly. And since she didn't seem to be bothered in the least by her predicament, I decided to just monitor her and skip the trip to the ER unless the situation got worse.

So since she hadn't gotten into anything that I could tell, I figure it must have been some sort of insect or spider bite that she had an allergic reaction to. It looked more scary than I guess it really is. It is so hard to see your baby girl swelling up like a balloon! But anyway, she was a bit restless during the night (causing me to not sleep much) and by morning she looked about 75% better. By the time I got home from work she was looking basically normal, but as her mom I could tell that she was still a little puffy. I expect that there will be no trace of the incident in another few hours at the rate she is improving. I really wish I had some clue what caused it, but for now I will just chalk it up to being one of those freak things.

Wesnesday Surprise!

2009-08-12T11:04:00.003-06:00

Not only was I surprised to see the phase report today (they sent it a day early because so many raisers will be leaving early to travel to Fun Day), I was thrilled and surprised to see Douglas on it! This means that he must have now been neutered and is no longer under breeder consideration. Not a big surprise, so I'm glad they didn't take too long to make a decision. I was thinking there was a chance that he would show up next week since there is another recall this weekend, but I guess there was an instructor available for him, so he is off and running!

He is listed in phase 1, which is mostly just the preliminary exams and such. But given that he has already spent a month on campus, I expect that all of this was already done as part of his breeder evaluations and he may be starting actual training right now. Or at least this post on the GDB blo g from yesterday gives me that impression. Incidentally, not that I am stalking the dogs or anything, the featured dog, Armani, just showed up on the phase report in phase one this week too. I wonder if Doug and Armani are friends? Stringmates perhaps?

So now I am going to sit back and HANG ON TIGHT... this will be my first dog in the accelerated training program and it could go really fast! Like just 2 months fast! But then, assuming that Doug makes it through training, there is no way of knowing when a match will be found for him. Just in case I am going to mark my calender for graduations... I can't help but be optimistic for Douglas' future!

The puppy parade continues

2009-08-08T18:35:00.007-06:00

The puppy parade continues... Puppysittee #4 in as many weeks is here. Meet Samba! Two of the puppies (Montego and Logan) never made the blog... guess I was too busy! They have all been fun puppies, but definitely remind me that puppies take a lot of energy!

These photo shoots also remind me of the importance of starting puppies young with the kitchen rug photography. My dogs just sort of get it... they've been through the routine more times than they can count. They don't especially enjoy it, but they will humor me for at least a short period of time. The visitor puppies, well, they just don't get it.

This was the best shot... but you can tell Samba is about to pounce on something (me?).[Samba, Gelly, Ellis]
[Samba standing up, Gelly and Ellis wait]
[Samba laying nicely but not looking, Gelly, and an increasingly impatient Ellis with his head down]
[Total resignation. Samba getting up to leave, Gelly resting her head on Ellis, whose head is on the ground. "Are we done yet?"]

Anyway, it has been fun getting to know more of the club puppies better, but hasn't done much for cutting down on the number of dogs in the house. I was apparently one of the only people/sitters in the club without all sorts of funds to go on all sorts of exotic and prolonged vacations ;( So instead I got all the puppies (and sometimes pet siblings, and sometimes more than one puppy at once).

One interesting observation... when toys roll under the couch my dogs seem to understand that they are now out of play. So sorry, must wait a week or 2 for mom to fish them out. They are dead to them. To the visitor puppies it is a tragedy! Toys must be rescued, now! They will spend significant amounts of time trying to paw them out or will try and wiggle under the couch to get them. They always fail. And by the end of the stay they also seem to understand that those toys are dead to them too.

And a little health update on the pets... Gelly's vaccine welt went down after 2-3 days and has not required further treatment. Ellis is still on antibiotics for his diarrhea and is doing OK, but I would not say his poop is back to normal. I'll be talking with the vet about where we go from here. He may need the other antibiotic, some supplements, different food, or more tests (the possibility of irritable bowel syndrome has been mentioned, since this has been an ongoing problem). The irony is that if I had had to guess which of Ellis' medical problems I would be fighting with this summer, it would have been his skin infections. At the time of his retirement the GDB vets mentioned that he may need allergy testing because of his recurring skin infections. A few of my blog readers may even remember some mention of a skin infection 2 years ago. Although I never elaborated on the blog (and was extremely careful with posted photos to make sure the lesions were not visible or photoshopped out... boy I'm really coming clean here!), he had a very serious skin infection that required several months (yes, you read that right, months) of treatment and nearly career changed him just weeks before his recall date. Although there have been a few small skin flare-ups, they have resolved on their own before I've had a chance to seek veterinary treatment. Ironically as a guide he needed treatment for his skin several times but never needed treatment for his tummy! Go figure. This dog has kept us all guessing for the last 3 years, that's for sure.
But regardless of his tummy (or skin for that matter) troubles, Ellis has really been blossoming even more in the last few weeks... he is such a funny, silly, dog! He didn't earn the nickname "party boy" as a puppy from one of my raiser friends for no reason after all. It is so good to have him coming back! And as long as I am gushing about Ellis, I should mention that Gelly has really been impressing me lately with her improved maturity! I still don't trust her unsupervised in the house and she still jumps all over me when I get home, but she really has been a lovely little housemate lately. She is, and always will be, my little doll. I may kid around that she is up for adoption (anybody looking for a cute little lab?), but in my heart I know she is meant to be with me :)

addendum

2009-08-04T19:06:00.006-06:00

In some ways you just have to love the irony here...

So remember the lepto vaccine that I debated so heavily about? Yeah, well Gelly had gotten the second booster on Monday, and today I noticed a huge welt at the injection site. I know localized reactions are not generally considered very serious, but this was larger then I had ever heard of before so I called the vet. The vet on duty today was concerned when I described the size, so she wanted to see her. After a quick exam we discovered that the swelling is not only unsightly but painful for her too. I was told to put her on benedryl for 2 days... and if the swelling has not gone down they may want to put her on antibiotics to make sure an abscess doesn't form. Yummy.[Concerned Ellis examines Gelly's welt][close up of the swelling]

The photos do not really do it justice, but I tried! The swelling sort of fills your hand nicely if you cup your hand around it to give you an idea of the size.

I suspect that the benefits still outweigh the discomfort, but doesn't it just figure that it was the vaccine that I wasn't sure I wanted to do? And unfortunately since lepto is a bacteria (versus a virus) the immunity is not long lasting so the vaccine must be repeated every year. Perhaps pre-treating with benedryl in the future will do the trick.

On the plus side, Gelly is nice and subdued this evening from the antihistamine ;) The welt hasn't improved but at least she is behaving herself!

baccilli and cocci and spirochetes, oh my!

2009-08-03T19:57:00.013-06:00

First off, unrelated to the title, after 11 days little Presto is back home with her raisers tonight. She never did figure out my love of sleep, so I plan on sleeping in tomorrow. She is a great puppy, but it did take a few days to recalibrate my brain for 5 month old puppy. You forget how far puppies come between 5 months and recall-ready 14 months! She did find her first geocache though, so she is coming along nicely!
[Presto in an awkward puppy sit]

But on to the bacteria! After much debate in my mind I went with the vet's (who is also my friend who I respect tremendously!) recommendation that I vaccinate my pets for leptospirosis. It's a spirochete, by the way. There have been more and more cases of "lepto" in the area, and since my dogs go hiking and swimming, and since it can be deadly, and since humans can catch it too, I caved. So Gelly got two boosters of the vaccine recently and should be protected for the next year. When Ellis goes in next for an exam, I will start him on the vaccine too. I say I caved, because I have heard it suggested that overvaccinating animals could be a reason for the drastic increase in cases of lymphoma recently. It may just be hype, or there could be some truth to it. I can't stand the thought that Maggie was probably overvaccinated and that is perhaps why she is no longer here. The good news is that many vet schools are now suggesting much less frequent vaccinations. Adult dogs only need the standard DA2PP and Rabies vaccines every 3 years they are saying.

Bacilli and Cocci: Ellis has them and so do you! But guess what, Ellis has more, so he wins! Or well, he loses. He's got too many. Ellis. Sweet Ellis. When he first came home after retiring he was doing really well, and I thought that maybe he had outgrown his tummy troubles. But then the fantasy sort of trickled away. At first he was having bouts of diarrhea every month or 2, but they were not serious and I was always able to get him back on track with some canned pumpkin and yogurt. But then the episodes were more like once a month or every few weeks. And in the last month, he has had bouts of diarrhea every week, without a return to normal in between. I finally admitted to myself that it was more than I could handle myself. So in went a fecal sample. As I sort of expected, he had an "impressive" overgrowth of clostridium (a bacillus), but to make it even more interesting, he also had an overgrowth of an unidentified cocci as well. Fun! So he is now on antibiotics to try and reset his system. The day after starting the meds he was doing great, but things are sort of falling apart again despite the continued medicine. So we are in a wait and see holding pattern here. If this doesn't work, there is another antibiotic that he was on for extended periods as a puppy for this problem that we may have to resort to. It is actually a milder antibiotic that can be used for longer periods... we came to call it the "magic powder" because it really was fabulous! I just hate the idea of extended use of antibiotics and will be forced to wonder about underlying problems causing the tummy trouble.

But to change that depressing tune, here are the cuties with my gardening mishap. I neglected the garden for a few days and the zucchini got out of control. The big ones are destined for zucchini bread.
[Ellis and Gelly with 3 huge zucchini/squash]
Just a few more days of crazy cramming for my final exam at the end of the week, then a few days of rest, then back to work! Or back to my paying job that is... I've been working all summer, just not getting paid!

Gelly the Geocacher is back!

2009-07-31T13:35:00.010-06:00

I took Gelly on a little adventure this morning checking out the area around some apartments a friend of mine may move to from out of state. It was a great chance to get back into the geocaching too! There were tons of caches within walking distance of the apartment, but we only looked for 3. We found all three! Two of them were almost too easy... the only challenge was trying to not look like a dork signing the log.

After checking out the available unit and test driving the doggy relieving area, Gelly gave the apartment her paw of approval.
[Gelly looking at the apartment]

We then pounded the pavement trying to figure out the best places to walk and which intersections were simplest to cross. Check out her nice loose leash walking! That obedience class might have actually helped her pulling... I fully admit that her pulling has been an issue since her career change, and that it is my fault. When you are in a hurry to walk dogs and squeeze in some exercise, it is definitely easy to just let her get away with bad leash manners (especially when you are managing another dog at the same time!).
[Gelly walking]

Two of the caches were more "urban," meaning that they were in the parking lots of some stores.
[Gelly waits as I sign a log]
[Gelly near another cache... with a Starbucks behind her]
I think Gelly and I would agree that geocaching is hard but fun work! This one was down a nice walking path by a creek.
[Gelly panting and laying down with the geocache and GPS]

I like walking with both my dogs, but I really love taking them individually to different places. Since Ellis had agility class last night, it was Gelly's turn to go somewhere with me. It is definitely a challenge (at least in my brain) to feel like I am giving each dog enough of what they need to be happy and thrive. They are such individuals too! There is no "one size fits all" plan to keep them happy and healthy.

It's Mini-Me!

2009-07-24T08:44:00.008-06:00

Gelly's little redder Mini-Me came bounding into our household last night for the next 10ish days.
Little Presto is sister to blogging pup Paris and is a ball of sweet fun! She is also Blossom's puppy who was raised in my club and sister to Pearson (also in my club), who was recently spotted by a CA raiser. Although I didn't spend huge amounts of time with Blossom, I did know her pretty well, and I can't say Presto reminds me much of her. Maybe she will more as she settles in a bit more? She is definitely an active little pup like her half siblings Gelly and Douglas... I guess I just expect that now... I wonder what I would do with a different type of puppy now? But nonetheless, she is very well behaved and is a nice addition to the house. Because really, life is just not crazy enough with only the 2 resident dogs and two foster kittens. I did forget how much work 5 month old puppies are though... and that they don't sleep in to 11!

It is fun to be a sitter again and get to spend time with different club pups... but not the same as having your own pup :( Hopefully in the fall there will be a new little pup!

Well gee.

2009-07-16T12:34:00.001-06:00

I had been waiting for today to see the phase report, only to find out that the dogs going to breeder evaluations will no longer appear on the phase reports until they are dropped from breeder evals and entered into a training string. At least he (and I) have company in this situation... Of the 15 CO/UT dogs that were on the truck, there are 5 that are being looked at by the breeding department. I think he is the only male in the group. And really, I know he has a snowball's chance in hell of making it as a breeder (male, black, litermates already cc'd), but little Douglas babies would be so cute (and smart, and wonderful too). I know he would enjoy being a breeder (ahem), but in some ways I would rather see him as a guide, assuming that is what he wants to do!

So until I hear more about the boy, I leave you with a picture of baby Douglas.He was a cute little guy!

Safe travels Douglas!

2009-07-10T21:59:00.008-06:00

Recall day is a day that I both look forward to and dread. I look forward to it because I am always so proud that I have raised a wonderful dog that is ready for the next step and can't wait to see where formal training will take them. But I dread it because it means saying goodbye to a (nearly, in this case) constant companion who has grown to be part of me. I always feel like I am sending away a little part of me with each puppy. Sometimes I wonder if I will have enough parts to keep sending them away like this, but over the years I have found that the parts actually regrow each year. I still cry every time though ;)

As has become my tradition, I spent the morning before the truck was scheduled to arrive taking pictures, pictures, and more pictures. He is a very handsome boy (I know, I am so modest!)... and he was just glowing today!
[Douglas in his puppy coat, posing on the lawn][Douglas on my parents' doorstep][Douglas and Emily with flowers at my parents house]

But all too soon Douglas, his co-raisers, my parents, and I all found ourselves at the pick-up location. After all the baby puppies had been handed out to their new raisers, the truck was cleaned up and it was time to load the big dogs.[Emily giving truck driver Lee info on Douglas as Douglas waits patiently]

Douglas was deemed a "big boy" even though he is still only about 66 pounds and was given the very front lower kennel. Being the optimistic dog that he is, he hopped right on the truck and climbed into his kennel, which was complete with a pre-loved nylabone. He laid down and seemed to enjoy hanging out watching the rest of the dogs get loaded up.
[Douglas in his kennel on the truck]

I know he is being a good boy for the drivers on the 3 day trip to San Rafael... or at least I hope he is! He does very well on car rides, likes crates, and there are no "in season" girls on this trip, so what could possibly go wrong?

I can't wait to start seeing his name on the phase reports... but I keep reminding myself that he may not progress like the other dogs in the string since he will be evaluated by the breeding department first. Fingers crossed that everything goes well and that he will become the awesome guide (or breeder) that I know he could be!

Take me out to the ball game!

2009-07-06T22:48:00.007-06:00

As Douglas' final days with me tick away, I am in panic mode trying to fit in all the outings I kept meaning to do!

So tonight, it was Rockies baseball with my dad.
[Dad, Emily, and Douglas as we were arriving at Coors Field]

[Emily and Douglas at our seats]

[Douglas with the field behind him]

[Douglas' face at our seats]

[Douglas sleeping on the cement during the game]

I love doing really big and challenging outings with the pups shortly before recall... it helps me feel better that they really are ready for the next challenge! I think it is safe to say that Douglas passed this "test" with flying colors. What a good boy he turned out to be! Oh, and the Rockies won too!

The boys help with home improvement

2009-06-23T18:26:00.007-06:00

I had the "fun" task of replacing my garbage disposal this afternoon. Never knew how much I depended on that thing until it died!

Douglas helped me go buy the replacement... there were so many pet dogs at Home Depot today. More work on dog distraction is never a bad thing, except I wasn't really in the mood and Doug was especially excited about the situation. Sigh. And for some reason all the employees were way more interested in Douglas and guide dog puppy training than usual. One even asked me for contact info so he could get involved!

Anyway, back home I quickly realized that the new unit was never going to fit where the old one was (I have a crazy small kitchen and the plumbing is very "unique" under the sink) so had to go exchange it. The second one basically fits but I have more plumbing work to do tomorrow. The boys were intensely interested in the process...[Ellis and Douglas check over the new parts... quality control]
[Ellis left, Douglas right, resting their heads on my leg][Ellis still resting his chin on my leg, Douglas is now bored and curled up next to us]

Princess Gelly was not interested in helping... she watched from the sidelines.
[Gelly on a dog bed in the kitchen]

It is safe to say that pretty much every home improvement project around here has involved multiple dogs underfoot... making it much harder and more time consuming. I know I could put them away somewhere while I am working, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

What??? I'm three years old already?

2009-06-20T08:04:00.007-06:00

I think it is going to be a tradition to try and take nice photos of the dogs on their birthdays each year... should be a fun retrospective after 12 some odd years! And it is a bit of a novelty for me to actually know my dogs' birthdays ;) The only catch may be the fact that Ellis hates having his photo taken... and as handsome as he is in real life, he looks like a doofus is most of the pictures I take!

But nonetheless, I did get a few keepers!And he was pretty cute here checking out my slow growing garden...
So the sweet guy is 3 years old! He sure has packed a lot into those three years, and I am happy to say that he really is turning back into the sweet and wonderful dog that I missed while he was away and that I have missed since his return. Really in just the last month I realized that he was feeling more and more "normal" to me. He is far more engaged with my activities and is much more tuned into me. He is one of those dogs who knows when you are sad or stressed, and knows just what to do to make you feel better.

Sometimes I still pinch myself to make sure that he really is here, and really is my dog to love for the rest of his life. Happy birthday Ellis!

The difference between Black and Yellow

2009-06-19T16:54:00.006-06:00

I know how people love to theorize about the differences between black and yellow labs... but I really can't say that I can tell any difference at all. Each dog's personality has been so unique that I simply can't make any generalizations.

Except for maybe one...[Ellis (black) sitting in the shade while Gelly (yellow) suns herself]
Black dogs get hot more easily! OK, not exactly the sort of personality difference people are always trying to claim, but that's the best I can do! I brought the big dogs over to where my garden plot is by the community clubhouse and tied them to a chair while I watered and moaned over my ungrowing plants. When I looked back, Ellis was panting away in the shade while Gelly was laying down basking in the sun!
[close up of Ellis in the shade]
I do feel for the black dog... Maggie always had this issue too!

New rug and another blog

2009-06-14T19:27:00.012-06:00

It is with sadness that I announce the death of my fun, brightly colored kitchen rug. It had a good long life of more than 5 years. It withstood 5 puppies and 1 dog. It bounced back after bodily function related traumas (almost exclusively due to Maggie's illness). It was a wonderful rug. But it was no match for the teeth of a bored labrador (name withheld to protect the guilty!).

So I would like to introduce my new rug. Not nearly as fun, but nice enough I suppose. Much to Ellis' delight I have a matching one in the hall and livingroom which is allowing him to move more freely around the house. He came back home with a phobia of my wood floors, so he has to hop around from rug to rug to go to different rooms. With the addition of an extra rug in the living room you can hardly even tell anymore![Ellis, Gelly, and Douglas on the new green striped rug]
I would also like to invite you to read about some of my other adventures which are described in a private blog. These adventures are animal related, but not puppy raising related, for those that are interested. I hope it will be interesting to some and also help explain why I have been so incredibly busy recently!

I am currently working on a post over there about the last week which I spent on a reservation in South Dakota...[Scene of a veterinary medical clinic set up in a cultural center]
If you are interested in following along, send me an e-mail or leave a comment here with your e-mail address (moderation is turned on, comments with e-mail addresses will be deleted). While I appreciate all the readers that regularly visit "Life with the Dogs" I will only be inviting readers who I either know or "know." Thanks!
Edit: I should clarify, by "know" I meant all of you who I have gotten to know over the last few years, mainly though this blog. If you regularly comment and/or have a blog that I follow, I feel like I "know" you even if we have never met in person! I just want to have some idea of who I am letting into my more personal life and adventures :)

Douglas has a recall date!

2009-06-05T18:29:00.000-06:00

Douglas will be headed in for breeder evaluations (which are now done first, versus after a month or two of training, as I understand it) and then presumably formal training on the July 12th puppy truck. It will have been exactly a year since he arrived. I know he is ready for the next step, and really, the timing is fine since I have so much going on in other parts of my life right now, but it is of course bittersweet too. Not only will Douglas be greatly missed, I will not be applying for a new puppy at this time either. It is so sad to leave a puppy truck empty handed!

He is ready... aside from being an obnoxious teenage boy when he is around his sister Gelly (or any other cute girl I'm afraid), there are no real issues to work on. He is confident, obedient, enthusiastic, smart, motivated, opinionated, creative, and just plain handsome. I am really looking forward to seeing how he does once back on campus! As far as I know he will be the first of his litter to return, so hopefully he will do Debra and Eric proud! Oh, and his raisers too! But if chooses to not be a guide, he has many options ahead of him, so really he and we can't lose :)

So as I head out of town for the week (without any dogs of my own... hundreds of other people's dogs and cats and horses though! more on that another time), I leave you with some highlights from Doug's last stay with the co-raisers. I really couldn't have asked for better people to help with the boy... they give him so many more opportunites to grow and shine than I ever could. We have turned out to be such a compatible match that we are already discussing possibilities for another shared puppy. Just need to sort out the timing and some other things in my life!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Douglas travels to different schools with his other mom to work with visually impaired and multi-disabled kiddos. He definitely has some favorites, including this young girl.
[Doug getting love from a girl in a wheelchair and her friend]

His shopping cart practice translated really nicely to being walked by his friend in her wheelchair. She loved to give him commands to walk and turn which he had no way of understanding, but he is smart enough to know to follow and watch out for the chair so it all worked out![Douglas walking with his friend]

And it isn't just the young that he has a way with, it is the more mature too!
[Doug gives a senior center client a big slppy kiss]

And the last photos are from the cabin... I gather he is going to get to go back up there next week. Lucky boy! But then the other dogs and I have been invited to stay up there sometime too, so I'm not too jealous.[On the porch, getting settled][Hiking with dad][Napping on a cushy bed on the porch in the evening]

Everyone behave yourselves (especially Gelly and Ellis... please be nice to my friend and not destroy my house!)... see you in a week!

Remembering Maggie

2009-05-30T08:35:00.000-06:00

It has been 365 days since I let my sweet Maggie go. I miss her as much today as I did a year ago, and still tear up thinking about her at least once or twice a week. Now more than ever, I am certain she really was a lifetime dog. She had such a tremendous impact on me while she was here, and I know will continue to have an impact on me for the rest of my life. With any luck (plus all the hard work I've been putting in lately), there are going to be some big changes in my life in the next few years... and when all is said and done, I know I will always have Maggie to thank for being my inspiration, in so many ways.

And for those of you on Facebook, I posted a video of some of my favorite Maggie memories... Blogger won't upload it though!

There are three beds in my livingroom...

2009-05-29T17:34:00.008-06:00

But only one bed is closest to me! It feels good to be loved. They just have to be next to me!

It also feels good to have properly exercised all the dogs today for once. Tired dogs are good dogs... no statement is truer when dealing with three labs under the age of three. I am going to have to get some photos or videos of Gelly and Ellis swimming and diving (dock dog style) one of these days. I love seeing the joy dripping from them!

And, I'm officially done with the 2008-2009 school year! Now on to the summer festivities... 2 online classes and lots of vet clinic volunteering! Oh, and of course lots of adventures with the dogs :)

Douglas the Geocacher?

2009-05-25T18:04:00.007-06:00

I feel horribly guilty about this... but today while out doing some errands with Douglas I got the urge to look for a geocache I had previously failed to find with Gelly... and wouldn't you know it... Douglas was the lucky charm and I found it!And yes, that dog turd looking thing in front of him is the cache. Pretty fancy.

And Douglas would like to shout out to his blogging friend Fullerton: "I feel your pain!" Err... correction... I guess that is Fuller's brother Forte in the picture.
Douglas is not into fabric stores either. At least he is quiet and well behaved about it.

Happy Birthday Big Guy!

2009-05-09T08:19:00.000-06:00

Today Douglas turned one! He is really turning out to be a fabulously nice dog with lots of potential I believe. He is still very enthusiastic about life, but is definitely maturing. He spent his birthday with the co-raisers... which in general is probably much more interesting for him. His other mom is an orientation and mobility instructor in my school district, so Douglas gets to visit all sorts of schools and visit with kids of all ages. He is proving himself to be an excellent little attitude adjuster for some of his other mom's students. Students who are usually resistant to have their O&M lesson will eagerly walk with Douglas, and one child who is usually nonverbal actually said "dog, Douglas, walk, good dog." Everyone was amazed! The O&M lessons have also been valuable for Douglas... he is learning that canes are not toys ;)[Douglas with co-raiser and a group of 3rd graders during a presentation]
So Happy Birthday Douglas! I hope you have enjoyed your first year as much as we all have, and I hope that you will be making someone else happy on your second! There is still no word on a recall date, although there will be a few more dogs added to the July recall. It looks like all the dogs older than Douglas' cohort are already on the list, so the remaining dogs for the truck will come from his cohort. I initially wanted him to go in July so I could get a baby and have her settled in a bit before the school year started, but I have decided that I will almost certainly be taking a break after Douglas, so now I am ambivalent about when he goes back. Since I am so busy and borderline overwhelmed with all that I have going on, not having a puppy to also worry about would be nice, but getting to keep him until fall would also be nice... These are usually the best months with these pups! Mature, trained, fun.

Who's socializing who?

2009-05-06T21:39:00.006-06:00

[Ellis, Douglas, and Gelly peer into the pen with kittens Gravy and Garden looking out]
For the kittens' last week with me (they are 2 pounds and already spayed/neutered, but recovered back home waiting for their next shots) I moved them to a big dog crate downstairs so they could experience more action and be a little less fearful. After their mom went up for adoption a few weeks ago (good luck Grace!) they started acting more fearful, so I wanted them to do better before going out. Sometimes if I have a few minutes I put them in Gelly's day pen to run around more... the dogs are endlessly entertained. The kittes started out hissing at the dogs and the dogs started out barking at the kitties, but they all seemed to have moved on. So who has socialized who here?

April showers bring ....

2009-05-01T17:20:00.000-06:00

green grass to romp on...and May flowers!OK, I admit several things:

1. Yes, I am obsessed with making collars. I have finally refined my materials and techniques to make a durable, professional looking product. Since I can only make so many collars for my own dogs, I am seriously considering trying to sell them on Ebay. The fabric only collars that Maggie used to wear were simply not cutting it for dogs that actually have leashes attached to them (Maggie was always on a harness because of her neck surgery or a halti before that... extreme prey drive and me at the end of the leash never mixed too well). The new generation of collars are based on nylon webbing with fabric and interfacing stitched to one side like a ribbon.

2. Yes, I did make matching collars for my dogs. I really am not into dressing up dogs in clothes, but collars don't count. Please forgive my indulgence. Aren't they cute? Almost look like twins ;)

3. Yes, that is a flowered collar on Ellis. For whatever reason, I've always thought of him as a girly boy. Even a pansy at times. Having Douglas in the house has only cemented these feelings. But with that said, I think he is secure enough in his own manhood to pull off a flowery collar in style! Very 2009 of him, I think!

In other news, Ellis has started agility classes, and after 2 classes I can say that he is really having fun and is a very fun dog to work with! A certain big black dog who will remain nameless got a lot out of agility, but she was a definite challenge to work with... Ellis on the other hand is attentive, responsive, and very willing to try things. He is also hilarious, and has had the class in stitches more than once. I am so excited to learn more with him!

And in yet other news, Douglas and Ellis got to go to the puppy meeting at an outdoor mall this week. Douglas is with the co-raisers, freeing me up to take Ellis. I was very pleased with how well Douglas did, and really wasn't very distracted by my (or Ellis') presence.
[Douglas hanging out with one co-raiser while we chatted]
[Douglas and his other co-raiser cross the street]

Ellis also did great! I know, big deal, the retired guide dog did great... but really, situations like this have become somewhat challenging for him. He seems to experience pretty significant anxiety when out on public and also when he is around other dogs (like agility or on hiking trails), so this was a doubly hard situation. But, after some initial whining and vocalizations, he settled down and was able to walk around with us. Since he is a pet now, he didn't get to go in the stores like the puppies, but he was happy to sit back and watch all that was going on. He is still in the throws of adjustment, but I have been pushing him more lately and he is rising to the occasion. I feel like we could be just months away from him "letting it all go," allowing himself to really settle into his new life.

And our goofy parting shot for the week... Douglas and the goose that has taken up residence in our parking lot. I don't know, don't ask. The only perk to the goose is that all the dogs have had to learn to relieve with a goose watching (distraction practice, anyone?), as the silly thing is always hanging out right by my doggy relieving spot! You may have to click on the picture to see the goose...
And doesn't Doug look like a baby here? This was just a week or 2 ago, and he is nearly 12 months old!

So that's the story from here!

Happy Birthday Gelly Bean!

2009-04-24T16:11:00.005-06:00

Gelly is TWO years old today!And two pretty incredible years it has been! From guide dog puppy, to grief counselor, to almost a breeder, to a pet. I am still not totally convinced that she likes being a pet, but she is a fun little companion who is starting to find her place in life I hope.

I haven't mentioned it on the blog yet, but she started a "precision obedience" class a few weeks ago. We both are enjoying it and she is reminding me just how smart and eager to work she is! The class is designed such that one could go on and compete in obedience eventually if one wanted. Not sure if we will, but it is great learning some of the specific training techniques and seeing Gelly learning new things! The class is all positive reinforcement (no training collars or corrections really) which is a big change from the competition obedience training I used to do as a kid with my first dog, and I definitely like it much better! I think Gelly would have to agree too... she does love food. It is also a really good excuse to get her out of the house and around other people and dogs. It is easy to forget that it is still important to keep her socialized even though she is no longer has service in her future.

The two years have gone by so quickly... I just hope the next 12 years don't go as fast! But I do hope that a year from now I can say that she has mellowed out a bit... that would be just fine with me.

Sick as a dog

2009-04-18T12:30:00.009-06:00

No, not the dog... Me! But Nurse Ellis is doing a great job taking care of me. The poor guy is so worried! It is funny how some dogs just know when something isn't quite right, and Ellis has just shown himself to be one of those dogs. After sleeping for 12 hours last night I finally dragged myself downstairs to the couch, and without any prompting Ellis jumped up and laid down with me. He has never once been invited or gotten on the couch before... but somehow we both just understood that it was OK today. I do wish my couch was just a tiny bit bigger though... but I am too touched by Ellis' sweet gesture to tell him to move.

The cold medicine is starting to kick in... so Nurse Ellis has allowed me to get on the computer for a little bit. He is only allowing it because it doesn't require me to get off the couch!I'm crossing my fingers that I will be feeling better tomorrow and can make it to the workshop and puppy truck!

Bliss is...

2009-04-14T18:54:00.007-06:00

... my little brother nowhere in sight, a stuffed toy in my mouth, and a brush on my fur.
This is the life. Please don't ever let it end.

-Gelly

Big "D" is 11 months old!

2009-04-09T17:55:00.003-06:00

Douglas really is growing up! I think even Gelly and Ellis are proud of their big little brother. We all adore him and have such high hopes for his future!
[Gelly, Douglas, and Ellis (on the chair) in the livingroom] Despite growing up, Douglas has stopped growing. I am honestly completely surprised by the way his growth just stopped 2 months ago! But at 60ish pounds he is a nice size, so no complaints. I figure he will still fill out a little more, but the rapid growth certainly seems to have ended.
As usual, there isn't too much to report. He continues to impress me with his eagerness and enthusiasm for all things related to life. He is learning to contain some of that enthusiasm a bit more which is nice, however I think we are seeing some of the side effects of his hormones. My only other boy was neutered at 10 months and never really acted unneutered, but Douglas is a little more full of himself I'm afraid. Let's just say that I'll be totally floored if he gets cc'd for lack of confidence. Confident he is. He is with our co-raiser this week and then next week I'll get him back and will take him to our annual spring puppy raising workshop. I can't wait for my baby puppy fix! Except that I know it is going to "force" me to put in an application for a puppy this summer... I seriously think one of my favorite parts of puppy raising is the planning and anticipation of a new puppy!

Snow Day! Take 2!

2009-03-27T11:48:00.010-06:00

Since it snowed all night and into the morning, school (and therefore my work) was canceled again today! This means that I got 2 extra days tacked onto spring break. Not sure if we'll have to make up the days at the end of the year or not, but for now this was a great gift! I've really been needing some down time lately, and down time I am getting!

Except when the sun came out, I could no longer tell the dogs that we had to stay in!

First Douglas got his first real snow walk experience (the dustings really didn't count). We sometimes talk in our club about how every dog, even a future guide dog, deserves a puppyhood. Yes, these puppies have a lot of expectations of them, but that does not mean that they don't ever get to just be a puppy.It took Doug a minute or two to really process that he was on a long line and it was OK to just let loose, but he figured it out quickly enough!
And then they got to all go out to the open space... needless to say Gelly and Ellis had so much fun running and running and crashing through all the snow. I wished I had brought my snowshoes... but the dogs didn't mind!The official total was 18 inches for Boulder. It's been 2 years since we've seen this much snow!

Snow Day!

2009-03-26T18:13:00.007-06:00

I'm just as bad as the kids... I love snow days!!! The dogs and I had a very lazy day... did some sewing (new collars for the pets!), watched Twilight (to keep up of course), cleaned a little, and mostly just laid around. The dogs didn't complain too much... although I suspect they would have enjoyed a long walk, but it was a little too cold and windy for my tastes.

I tried to get some good Douglas photos... but none turned out all that great. He came out really dark against all the white, and he looks totally irritated in most of the photos!But with his coat off, he had some fun with his brother and sister.We have had such a terrible lack of snow this year, so 15 inches were a welcome gift!

Happy Spring!

2009-03-20T20:17:00.003-06:00

To celebrate the first day of spring, more daylight hours, and a Friday all at the same time, the pups and I went to find a geocache that is just a few miles from our house. It made for a long walk, but we are all the better for it this evening! Everyone is nice and tired now :)

I don't walk the three of them together very often (once a week at the very most), but they actually do amazingly well together and fall into a nice rhythm very quickly. The cute thing is that they all sort of have a position... forming the classic Oreo configuration.
The system that I have worked out has Douglas on his own leash, Gelly and Ellis on either end of another (GDB style) leash on their respective control devices (gentle leader on Gelly, harness on Ellis), and the Gelly and Ellis connected with a leash coupler (thanks Jamie!) by their collars. Keeps everyone marching along at the same pace and in a nice neat pack. We do get a few looks and stares (and someone shouting "Three Amigos!" out of their car today), but it is really quite relaxing for all of us I think. The picture below shows my motley crew shortly after finding the cache... if you look closely, you can see their elaborate leash setup... that's a lot of hardware for three dogs!
Things I learned on this trip... being inconspicuous looking for a cache is hard to do with three beautiful dogs in tow (although in a way they did come in a little handy because I was able to pretend I was picking up poop while rustling around looking for the TINIEST microcache I've ever seen). Also... one should consider round trip mileage when going for an adventure like this with hungry dogs and human. We missed dinner time by nearly an hour!

We are up to 43 caches... maybe we should try for a new goal of 100 before Doug's recall... and when we hit 50, I'll hide my first one I think!

Please, may we go out and play?

2009-03-18T21:13:00.009-06:00

[Douglas, Gelly, and Ellis looking out the back door]
The dogs and I are all craving more time outside! This was the scene I walked in upon last weekend while cleaning. I think the dogs have the right idea!

I'll hopefully have some more interesting things to post about one of these days! We had a puppy meeting last night with our CFR. Douglas did well... he was his usual happy enthusiastic self, but was deemed age appropriate, of a good weight, and generally on track! He is just over 10 months old, so not really time to start worrying about recall yet. The next truck is in April, and then I gather the one after that is in June (instead of the usual July), so I suspect he will be with me through the summer and go back next fall. Just fine with me... he is a wonderful, sweet boy, who will only get better and better with age. It does get the timing off a bit for a new puppy though... begging the age old question of double up (with continued help of the co-raisers of course), go through the challenge of a new puppy at the start of the school year, or request a transfer next fall. These puppies are so addictive that I simply can't imagine not having one by my side!

Oh, and P.S. to all my faithful blogging buddies: There are so many fun and interesting posts from all of you from the last week or 2 that I am getting caught up on, but too overwhelming to try and comment on everything! But I am still reading and cheering on all your victories, fun, XL puppy coats (who knew they even had those?), recall dates, calendar photo entries, etc. Keep up the great work everyone!

Edit: I just realized why I like the above picture so much... it reminds me of this picture from 2 years ago... just swap out Douglas for Maggie and put the dogs outside looking in.Gelly was a cute little Angel... and oh Maggie. Sweet MagPie.

a blog of their own...

2009-03-05T18:28:00.001-07:00

I started a new blog for my foster cats... Look for an update over there on my latest... the "G" group! This is my first "queen" and kittens (3 of them). Kitties will no longer need to invade the dog blog ;)

Happy March!

2009-03-01T18:39:00.015-07:00

March is upon us! Therefore, it is time for new collars for the older dogs!Ellis is sporting Maggie's March collar (I don't think she would mind) and I admit that I didn't make Gelly's... I found her's in the $1 bin at Target. That is actually cheaper than I can make one when you factor in the hardware and fabric! Plus, it is super cute on her (even if it is a little on the narrow side)...
I'm really itching to get the dogs involved with agility this summer. I had been thinking that Gelly was going to be my big agility dog, but Ellis seems to be a natural! When Maggie was playing agility I used to have her "practice" by walking on the rock planter walls at the nearby park. Gelly doesn't really get what she is supposed to do yet, but Ellis understood immediately. I'm pretty sure they actually do some agility training with the dogs in formal training. Or maybe they just do exercises to help them understand where all their feet are. Either way, Ellis is very good at walking in a straight line, even over uneven rocks. Agility, here Ellis comes!

In other photo news, I have started back into the digital scrapbooking again (having a properly functioning program helps!). Here is the latest creation...
[This layout was made using all freebies! Template from http://www.bunnycates.com/blog/ ... this was the March Challenge template. The papers used were from the "linen" collection from http://www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com, and the leaf cut outs were from http://cottagearts-net.stores.yahoo.net/]

Nothing to update on Douglas, really. He has been splitting his time between me and his co-raisers and doing well both places and with the transitions. I seem to have completely forgotten to ever take pictures of the big guy! So here he is doing nothing a few weeks ago...
We worked on the "go to bed" exercise (note, at this point it has nothing to do with him laying on the bed he is laying on in the picture above) at the last meeting and Douglas pretty much stole the show. Not necessarily because he was the most advanced with the command (although he was one of the most advanced), but because of all the dogs, he loved the "game" most. He was an absolute crack up with his enthusiasm and constantly wagging tail. I don't think he could have been cuter if he tried! I wasn't sure how he would do with all the other dogs around, but he didn't care about the distractions... all he cared about was playing the game!

I won't be seeing all that much of him in the next few weeks because we have our high states state testing going on at our school, for which I either can't or don't want a puppy present. He hasn't made a sound in months at school, but it would be really bad if he decided to bark or whine in the middle of a test! That's more stress than I can deal with, so I have always had my puppies elsewhere during testing weeks. With the co-raisers, he's been getting to experience life at an office and also gotten to spend some time at other schools and with some visually impaired students. Doug's "stepmom" is a orientation and mobility instructor in my district and travels to several different schools and Douglas has gone with her several times. She and Doug even made a special presentation to some third graders last week! I've been promised pictures... so hopefully I'll get some soon!

So that's the state of affairs here! I continue to be ridiculously busy with work, classes, and volunteer jobs, but better busy than bored I guess!

It's a good thing I love her

2009-02-18T21:39:00.013-07:00

If you are looking for a good time, I highly suggest letting your dog eat whatever she wants in the house and then taking her in to have vomiting induced. And watch. And help the vet and techs sort through the output looking for interesting finds. Definitely recommended. Oh, and take a picture too so you can post it on your blog. [Don't worry, I didn't take a picture of the "best" parts... and cropped the final output out of these photos ;)]So there are several bitter ironies here.
1) This is not the first time Gelly has gotten into trouble while home alone during the day. Yet, I am dumb enough to keep giving her more chances.

2) Of all my puppies, as a puppy she had the best house manners of any of them. By the time she left for formal training, I 100% trusted her home alone free in the house for even a few hours at a time. (but obviously never for the length of time she is home for now)

3) Just last week while spending the day with my friend who is my pets' new vet, I was kidding around that it was just a matter of time before one of my dogs would need surgery for an obstruction. Be careful what you joke about. [It does appear that she will not get an obstruction this time though.]

I of course take full responsibility for the situation. I really shouldn't be giving her as much freedom as I do, and I certainly should not have forgotten to close the bathroom door this morning. But don't I get to be at least a little bit mad at her anyway? Or maybe I'm just mad at myself.

So what did she eat, anyway? 2 toothbrushes (one dog, one human), 1 nearly new tube of dog toothpaste (including the tube and cap), the handle and most of the bristles of a hairbrush, a dozen or so cough drops (plus wrappers), part of a bottle of ibuprofen (yes, I mean the bottle), and one tablet of ibuprofen. The speck of good news here is that I knew for a fact there were only two tablets of of ibuprofen left, and I found one of them on the floor. So the problem was just the physical junk, not any sort of toxicity issues.

It seems that most of the junk was still in her stomach, so through the magic of stuffing her full of bland canned food and giving her an injection to induce vomiting, it was easily (?) removed. Apparently filling the tummy with food helps get a more complete emptying. And since this is the the vet's office where I am now volunteering (and my friend was conveniently on duty), I was invited back to observe and help. It was interesting and entertaining on some level I suppose... but would have been much more fun if it wasn't MY dog and MY bill! Ironically, there was another dog there that had also had a bad ingestion day... although he only ate a bottle of advil, his bottle was full, so not only was he made to vomit, he also had to get a few hundred milliliters of activated charcoal pumped into his stomach and will have to spend the night on IV fluids. Suddenly, Gelly's situation didn't seem as bad (or expensive).

I was late for my class, totally stressed, and now can't get myself to go to bed. And of course tonight I picked Douglas back up from the co-raisers who have had him for the last week. Welcome home to the circus, Doug! Supposedly the vomit drug also has a sedative effect... but Gelly must have slept it off while I was at class. She doesn't appear to have missed a single beat. That's my girl. I do love her, but I also do worry about her adjustment to pethood. She loved going everywhere with me. She loved "working." She would have loved being a guide dog. I still wish that things had worked out differently for her in formal training, but they didn't and I know she was meant to come home. I just need to do a better job holding up my end of the deal.

Sigh. At least I think I am ready for bed now.

Introducing...

2009-02-16T09:08:00.003-07:00

Gelly!

Gelly is a darling little 21 month yellow lab, full of life, love, spunk, and enthusiasm!

Confession of a puppy raiser... I hated Angel's name from before I even knew it was her name. I was even heard saying at the puppy truck waiting for her that "the only name I would be unhappy with would be Angel." Naturally, the dog they handed me was named Angel. What were the odds of that??? I in no way mean to imply that it is a bad name, and in no way mean any offense to all the Angel's, Angie's, Angela's, Angelina's, etc out there. I actually like some of those names! I just personally don't care for the name Angel. I care for it even less when attached to a mischievous little labrador. Try screaming "Angel" at the top of your lungs when your little rascal is rolling on something dead in the park. Just doesn't feel right.

But Angel was Angel, and there was nothing I could do about it. Name changes and nicknames are not allowed in the puppy raising world. I really thought the name would grow on me... I mean, if names like Ilona, Promise, and Ellis could grow on you, then surely Angel could too. Well, it didn't. Or at least it didn't grow on me enough.

When I first found out that she was coming home, one of my first thoughts was "Oh no! What will I do about her name?" (my second thought was "Oh no! Why must the yellow one come home?"... I dislike yellow fur almost as much as I dislike the name Angel... luckily for her there is nothing I can do about the hair) I tossed some names around, but didn't make a decision. And then there she was getting off the truck, Angel. She responded to it and I was accustomed to calling her it. But I still hated it. I wish I had made the decision to change it 3 months ago, but given I hope to have her hanging around for another 12 years, I figure better late than never to change her name. It will be nice to not feel the need to explain that I didn't name her every time I introduce her to someone new. I know it is more my hangup than anyone else's, but there you have it!

Gelly is a play on her original name... taking the "gel" from end of the name. It is pronounced "Jelly" and I personally like it much better! I've been trying it out for the last week or so trying to retrain myself to call her Gelly, and I'm getting a bit better at it. With the help of some kibble to help her associate the name, she is already starting to respond to it some.

On paper she will still officially be Angel... too complicated otherwise. But like all good show dogs, she now has a separate "call" name. Gelly, come!

9 months, new collars, and kitty butts

2009-02-08T16:26:00.007-07:00

Life with Douglas is moving right along... he will be 9 months old tomorrow! He is doing well and just gets easier and easier to take places. He is a very confident guy, although at times that makes him a bit of a handful. I wouldn't complain if I were to get a neuter letter for him, but I don't think one is coming. Who knows, maybe he will be chosen as a breeder! He is certainly a healthy dog with an excellent temperament! He has been looking so grown up lately, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him still looking so puppyish in some of the pictures I took today.
I've been keeping my eyes out for new collars for Ellis and Angel... but just never seem to see anything that seems perfect. So I decided to get over the idea that only Maggie was special enough to make cute monthly themed collars for. So enter the pets' new February collars!Handsome Ellis.Goofball Angel. What is that look on her face??? Her collar is just so fitting for the little "angel" in general that it may be her default collar too.This picture made me laugh when I uploaded it... I didn't notice Angel and Douglas off to the side while I was taking it, although I knew they were there as I sent them out while I was trying to take Ellis' pictures. He reminds me of Maggie in so many ways, and included is his hate of having his picture taken!And I can never resist trying for pictures of the three of them. Douglas, Angel, and Ellis.
And finally, I know you were all just dying to see more photos of Fiyero's butt! And yes, that is what I named him ;) Even though I haven't seen Wicked, I thought it was a very cool name which seemed to fit for whatever reason. He is healing up nicely, but I am going to keep him for another week or so since they don't want to put him up for adoption until he is looking a little more respectable.So that's the story from here! I am definitely becoming a bit of a blog slacker here... but I just haven't had much of anything interesting to post! Over the course of the next few puppy meetings we are going to be taught the new "Go to Bed" command, so that should be interesting. I've already taught Angel the command using the methods I learned in classes with Maggie, and I must say it is such a handy command! It will be interesting to see how the methods GDB uses differ from what I have been doing and I look forward to teaching Douglas (and Ellis too!).

Mr. F is here!

2009-01-31T19:00:00.009-07:00

First of all, I would like to make a rebuttal to Douglas' last post...
1) Yes, I was mad at Angel, but I was also worried sick about her and didn't come even close to killing her! Sorry Doug, your annoying big sister is here to stay.
2) Douglas has a very high opinion of himself. Lack of confidence is not an issue for the boy. He may not be quite as perfect as he thinks he is. There are still a few areas I would like him to work on! But it is true that my co-workers think he is amazing... he really has probably been the easiest pup to have at school so far.
3) I don't think Ellis' sweetness is just an act. I think he's the real deal.

Second of all, Elise has already hit 2 pounds, been spayed, and appears to have been adopted! Therefore, I wanted to introduce my new foster cat, Mr. F. He is still waiting for a name from me, so if you have any suggestions on F names, let me know! I am naming all my foster cats according to "litter" letter... I started with A and am now up to F.
So you are probably wondering why such a handsome adult cat was in need of a foster home. I don't think I've mentioned on this blog before that I have been volunteering and being trained as a veterinary assistant/technician at a low cost spay neuter clinic. This is a different place from the Boulder Humane Society where I used to volunteer and have been fostering for since the summer.

Anyway, the spay/neuter clinic is operated by another animal rescue group, so in addition to providing low cost services to the community, they also alter and treat if necessary the animals that they take in to be put up for adoption.

Handsome Mr. F was a patient from the shelter who was treated towards the end of the day. Like everyone else today, he was neutered. But in addition to being neutered he also had to have his tail amputated. I have never seen anything quite like his tail... it was broken, necrotic, and dead. Poor guy was still purring though! They don't know what happened, but it was clear that it was beyond being saved. I got to observe the surgery... it was interesting but, um, bloody. After watching the ordeal I just sort of casually asked who was going to be watching him during his recovery, as the shelter didn't seem like the best place for him and I knew that some of the staff sometimes took animals home to recover. But as it turns out I am going to watch him ;)You may not want to read or scroll down any further if you are squeamish... Mr. F's tail was amputated nearly at the base, so careful attention had to be paid to make sure that he will not have trouble with bowel control. Because of the traumatic nature of the surgery, a drain was placed to help prevent a buildup of fluid at the surgery site. The drain is, well, draining.

(remember I warned you about scrolling down) This is how his rear end looks this evening. He was cleaned up pretty good after the surgery, but the drainage is ongoing...I'll clean him up again later this evening and hopefully things will only improve from here! He is on pain medication and antibiotics and has to wear an e-collar. A good sign is that he was already interested in some dinner. I had to take the e-collar off so he could get a few bites to eat, but he did and seems in decent spirits given his situation.

Sorry for my graphic description and photo... I'm afraid that I find the whole thing fascinating! I hope to be able to take some after photos soon. I'm starting to think that I need to start a separate blog about my foster cats...

Moving up the favorites list!

2009-01-29T17:29:00.015-07:00

I overheard my mom talking about how I am such a good boy... but I am trying to not let it go to my head. It doesn't help that I also overheard some of my mom's co-workers saying something like "I think Douglas is your best puppy yet!" But like I said, I am trying to be humble about my perfection.

But my point here is that I think I may be moving up on the favorites list. See, I think my mom almost killed Angel this week... [Angel in kitchen with sheepish look on her face] ...instantly elevating my status on her favorites list! Angel is a bad, bad dog. Since her little career change, Angel is pretty much the worst counter surfer ever, and the other day she pulled a bag of groceries off the counter that my silly mom hadn't put away. Well, not only did she pull it off, she ate everything and shredded (and ate) most of the packaging material. Then she got sick. Yucky sick. Mom was so mad. She said she would have been even madder if Angel had needed surgery to remove all the garbage she ate, but luckily (for Angel and mom's bank account) it seems she is going to be ok. I think mom would have made Angel work for the rest of her life to pay off the surgery, so good thing it wasn't needed! Although, my mom does grumble that if ever a dog needed a job, it was Angel. Too bad she got kicked out of guide dog school. I still wonder what she did?

My mom says I better not get kicked out of school too... but I tell her to not worry! I'm perfect after all, and I LOVE school!!! I don't know what guide dog school is all about, but if it is anything like high school it will be so fun and easy! Now, I know you are going to look at this picture and think, "hey, you're just laying there!", but what you don't realize is that I had ALREADY learned Boyle's law earlier in the day with another class. I was trying to teach my 5th period friends the concepts, but I guess they were more interested in staring at those black boxes. I can only do so much before I just lay down and take a nap. I hope they figured it out.[Douglas in the computer lab laying next to a row of students]

But anyway, back to the favorites. I still have a ways to go to pass Ellis on the favorites list, but I'm working on it. [Ellis in the sun on kitchen rug] That dog never does anything wrong! Doesn't every dog get the urge to pull the blanket off the couch once in a while? I mean really! I don't get how anybody can live their life like that, but to each their own I guess. My mom also goes on and on about how sweet he is.... yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sweet too! I have even been trying to be more cuddly lately to play up my sweet side, but I guess I haven't mastered all the tricks to seeming sweet yet. Ellis has them mastered I guess... or I suppose he might genuinely be that sweet. Not sure.

I guess I better get going... there are some Nylabones that need my attention! But before I go, I thought you might all want to know that I have hit 60 pounds! I guess I'm not quite the giant I was hoping to be, but I still have some growing left in me, so we'll see.