Pepper Breath

I gave the girls green peppers that we had left over from our chili dinner.

PEPPERZ ARE DELIZIOUS! YAYYYYZ!

 

P to the U!

That would be the result of the peppers… Happy pigs with a sudden urge to snuggle and mom’s face melting off.

WARNING: Do NOT leave piggies unattended with any large animals you may have.  Even the best dogs are still dogs and if given the opportunity, they will snatch smaller animals up.  Be very careful– Faith is gentle and I was within grabbing distance, so my worries were small, but that by no means, means it’s a good idea.

Whatz you doing down dere?

 

I givez up.

Luka was also being, though it happens very little, adorable towards Faith– But she was having none of it.

He makez me sweepy.

That was all– Nothing big, just had some cute pictures.

~Jaina

Bring on the Stress

Welcome to my world.  I need a vacation.

The last few months, I’ve been pondering bonding Baxter and Watson, seeing as they both seemed to like one another, I figured it would be a good experience for them and for me.  And then you might recall this post: One of these things is not like the other…

Where I discovered that Watson may not be the droid I’m looking– er, male I thought he was.  Since this put a bit of a damper on my plans, obvvvvviously, I’ve been unsure what I want to do, so it’s been put on the back burner until now.  They shouldn’t have to live alone and I don’t want to keep saying I’ll do it, only to not– So, I made an appointment.

I originally made the appointment for Baxter, thinking it would be easier and less stressful for him to be neutered than Watson spayed.  Well, I took them to the vet, to have him take a look and confirm that everyone is actually who they say they are.  Despite the vet having an issue understanding what it is that I wanted, he did confirm that Watson is female (surprise!) and Baxter male.  He also recommended that Watson be the one given the surgery because it would not only prevent pregnancy, but also be a preventative measure against uterine cancer.

iz gud

I’m all for prevention, but that doesn’t make it any less nervewracking.  After Phoebe’s passing over a year ago that was so sudden, as well as the loss of Paisley, it just would be too much to go through it again with Watson.  She’s already a skittish bunny, I just don’t want her to be afraid and I don’t want her to have any complications.

Too much drama. :/

All I know is that I will be a nervous wreck tomorrow, until someone calls me to tell me she’s ok and ready to come home.  Of course I have a stupidly busy schedule tomorrow, so I’m having to ask my family to take care of her until I can do it myself.  ARGH!

I guess, until I find out more, keep your paws crossed that there won’t be any complications and she’s on her way to being healed soon so she can live in a nice hutch.

~Jaina

Dharma

I apparently only post, when I have good or bad news.  Luckily, this is good news.  At least for me, Buddha may disagree at the moment:

Meet Dharma

Dharma is my new pig.  Dharma is very excited to be here.  Buddha is acting like she doesn’t know how excited she really is that Dharma is here.

Let’s just say, Buddha has been the Lone Ranger for a while and having Tonto enter the picture after all the prairie has been homesteaded is not an easy transition…  But Buddha is just going to have to understand we now have a “preserved prairie” area.

Iz mah prairee!

I’ve been reading up on how to introduce piggies to one another and apparently no one can agree on what’s best.  Thus far, I feel like I’ve done everything wrong, despite being aware they might not like one another right away.  Dharma has been nothing but friendly since she got here and seems to be aware that Buddha is indeed Queen Toad (I say toad, because she’s being one right now) and hasn’t done anything to dispute it.  However QT has taken it upon herself to remind poor Dharma as often as is piggishly possible.

It’s very hard not to have high expectations of one’s pig, when she’s been perfect up till a certain point.  I know Buddha has every right to look at this as a WTF?!?! moment, as her home/territory/prairie has essentially been invaded.  Right now, I’m trying to let them share a space for a little while and then I think it might be best to let Dharma sleep in Buddha’s old apartment until they get used to one another and I’m not afraid to go to sleep for fear of waking up to bloodbath.

Trust me, they don’t look like they could maim– Until they bite you.

I did at least do a few things right this evening.  Having them meet on neutral ground with a cucumber common denominator.  For a short time, it seemed like it was all going to be fine and then Buddha decided to have a hissy fit and I got to deal with that, like I don’t deal with that sort of behavior at work every day!  I also let them both sit on me for a while, of course, both prefer laying on my neck or sitting on my shoulder that was interesting to see, but they finally settled down for a while and didn’t bite me or argue that whole time.  Not sure why if they can’t deal with each at the moment.

She stawted et...

Omnomomnomomnom... I did wuht now?

I read on a few of the pig websites available, that behavior you really want to stop in its tracks is if there’s a lot of teeth grinding and raised hackles.  That’s great–

The only problem with that, is that I have two cowlick furred pigs.  I couldn’t tell you if their hackles were raised or if they were having a bad case of static electricity.

At least I can tell if they’re grinding their teeth, which thus far, aside from the nipping hasn’t been a problem.  Buddha did it to me when I removed her from the situation she decided to be annoyed about, but then realized who she was talking to.  Of course, I might have mentioned a sudden shortage of cucumber if she didn’t get over herself.

I’m trying to be realistic, but I really want them to be friends.  They’ve only known each other a short while and it is unfair to be expect Buddha to immediately be OK with someone moving in with her.  I’ll just have to be patient and understanding.

But I want this now!

Until then (or after a trip to the emergency vet),

Jaina

Buddha’s Spa Day

You know what’s really hard?  Giving a Guinea Pig a bath…  I know I’ve commented on it before, but I think it merits repeating.

Giving a Guinea Pig a bath is very hard.

And anyone who attempts it and survives should be awarded a medal.

<.<

>.>

Thanks to school and work and just general laziness I suppose, the fuzzy upstairs pets have been a little on the neglected side in terms of cleaning out bedding and trimming nails and such.  I like to try to clean everyone’s home out every week or week and a half, but alas, as stated above, it didn’t quite happen that way.  It’s actually been more like two weeks and it’s definitely shown.  So today, since I’m still on break and wasn’t scheduled to work at either of my jobs, I took the time to clean my room and everyone else’s too.

Evie and Uno rejoiced at the opportunity to take a spin in their exercise balls around the room, Faith watching them protectively from her new orthopedic bed:

Dog Not Included

It even has that stupid little tag in the corner that I’m itching to cut off.  So stupid– Like a dog is going to look at that and exclaim excitement over the type of foam.  I digress.

She got it for Christmas and loves it, I think she’s starting to prefer sleeping on that compared to jumping on my bed.  Good and bad for me I guess, as I’m glad she’s comfortable, but sometimes miss her being on the bed with me.

So while those two puttered around in their balls, I cleaned up, cursing Uno and her aim, for so effectively getting her bedding on EVERYTHING on my cabinet.  I do not understand why she does it and how she gets it over the netting I have around her two story condo, but it never fails.  Finally got those two cleaned up and moved on to my favorite little Guinea Pig and realized what a mess she was.  I felt really bad too, thanks to me her fur was in a state and her toenails needed clipping in the worst way.  So I cleaned up her house and then bundled her into the sink for bath time:

You. Are a horrible person....

She wasn’t happy.  And I wasn’t thrilled to see how brown the water got just from setting her in it.

Is that shampoo? It better stay there.

I SAID LEAVE IT IN THE BOTTLE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!

After what seemed like ages, I finally felt she was clean and squeegeed out the rest of the water, wrapping her up in a towel.  Her hootin’ and hollerin’ all the way.

Stop taking pictures and get me OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took her downstairs wrapped up in her little “robe” where I did a bang up job of making my mom think she had died (holy cow) and then got her ridiculously long nails trimmed.

I REALLY WISH THIS WAS YOUR FACE!!!!

This was all too much for her and by the time I got back up to our room, the only way to calm her was to give her an orange.  All that work and she got orange all over her face.  Oy.

And to wrap it all up– You know what else is hard?

Giving a Guinea Pig a haircut.

It’s harder than it looks, nerve-wracking and really just reaffirms how much of a hair stylist I’m not.

You call this a cut and curl? Please. I want my money back.

At least she can see now, before she looked like a calico sheepdog.  She still has plenty of fur, don’t get me wrong.  I just trimmed her around the eyes, screamed once when she bobbed her head when I was perilously close to her ears and scolded twice when she nibbled the hand with the scissors.  She didn’t take me very seriously.  I’m sure it’ll all grow back in about two seconds, but at least I made the effort.

All I know is that I need to sleep now, because this whoooole ordeal exhausted me.  I do know for sure that one of her favorite movies is Superman, because she didn’t take her eyes off the TV the whole time I was drying her.

I understand Buddha.  Christopher Reeve was a hunk and one of the best versions of Superman ever.

Time for Superman III just for laughs?  I think soooo.

Until then!

~Jaina G.P.S. (AKA: Guinea Pig Stylist)

Luka’s First Christmas and Other Assortedness

Well, we had another Christmas come and go today.  It was also Luka’s very fist Christmas extravaganza and let me tell you– He handled it like he knew what it was all along.

We started the celebration yesterday, by making Snickerdoodles and Banana Bread, both of which turned out quite nicely.  Surprisingly enough, Luka actually acted like a little gentleman and didn’t need to be kicked out but once– simply because he has a tendency to lay down right behind you.  Good for knowing where he is, bad for not tripping on your face.

Can you... Just. Dwop whatever dat is pwease?

He was very interested in what we were doing and was also pleased with the scents that were being emitted by our oven.

 

Lemme jus check de wecipe, 2 cups sugew, 16 cups cookees...

He was very helpful.  Not.

 

Yes, I was.

He really wasn’t.

He was also helping me wrap presents.  Sort of.

 

I was on twash dutee!

He really was.  Not.

 

Faith was just waiting for anything at all...

And then the big day came–

 

All of these were our presents, but there were probably twice as many dog presents earlier.

Yeah, Faith is going in for the kill...

Faith waits for no one apparently and went immediately for the smelliest present she could find.

 

And then try to open them before anyone else can have some.

But Luka learned quickly...

 

And learned effectively...

And voila-- Happy Puppy...

Verrrrry Happy.

Faith-- Meet Faith...

You can’t really tell in the photo, but the toy does look like Faith, in a tug toy kind of way.

 

HALP! SHE HAZ DE PWESENTS!

So he got a monkey.

Sharing???

Nahhhh.

It was a good Christmas– The puppies were happy, the other assorted animals were happy and all of the presents I gave seemed to go over well.  I love Christmas and I’m always sad to see it go– but, there’s always next year to look forward to and more shopping to stress over :0)  I can listen to Christmas music for little while longer and then it’s off to whatever holiday comes next… Easter?  President’s Day?  Who knows.

Anyway, all of us here at the Doggy Bloggy wish you the best of the rest of this beautiful holiday and the happiest of New Years (I actually have plans!  Wha-whut-whut?!).  Also, whatever weather occurs, we hope it isn’t overwhelming, as winter weather often is!

Off for leftover turkey!

 

Merry Christmas!!!

~Jaina & Faith & Luka and all the rest!

 

We Wish you a Merry Christmas…

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Merry Christmas one and all.  Faith, the gang and I hope everyone has a pleasant and spirited holiday and that 2011 starts out wonderfully.

I’ll post photos later about our own celebration and what and alllll the toys the fuzzy faces got.  Because, frankly– They got way more than the rest of us.

Until then!

Jaina

New Camera, New Snow, New Post

So, today was my birthday!  I turned 23 at 6:37 pm this evening– and no, I don’t feel any older.  It was a lazy day, I got to sleep in for the first time in a long time, it was lovely.  I got to snuggle with my Faithy and do my own thing before my mother got done with work and we went to lunch at Olive Garden.  It was surprisingly good!  My parents got me some lovely presents and then we all came home and napped, because frankly, the weather has been dreary and we’ve all been working too hard.  I had a final symphony concert to play in for my college tonight, so that took a little bit of time, but it was a good day overall and we made it through the weather, since we’re also currently under a blizzard warning.

I guess we’re going to be getting around 6 inches between now and 6pm tomorrow.  I’ll believe it when I see it.

The other thing that happened this past week was I got my new camera!  I’ve been wanting a Nikon D90 since forever and my Mom was able to find a deal for me to buy the package I wanted, so now I have one!  I haven’t had a whole lot of time to play with it, since the class I’m in right now, is particularly homework heavy.  But, today was my birthday and I had my homework done, so nuhhhhh!

Thanks to that, I went outside and shot some pictures:

Very first photo I took with my new camera!! He looks thrilled.

Third picture I took... Still not happy.

Action Shot!

Butt shot

He had snow on his face.  Of course, it was only after all of these photos that I realized I have a movement setting on my camera, so I could have caught a few photos of him bounding after Faith around the yard.  Maybe some other time.  Would have been nice to see before we got a million inches of snow, but at least I’ll be able to catch his reaction to feet of snow, rather than the powdering we got a few days ago.  And maybe he’ll do more than this:

One of these days she’s just going to eat him.

Well, gotta go eat my cheesecake, I am the birthday girl after all!
Until then,

~Jaina

Snow

So it snowed.

A little.

Which, I suppose I should be thankful for now, since we’re under a weather watch for Mother Nature to explode on us today.  Since we’re having our extended family Christmas today, I’m hoping that holds off, same kind of weather happened last year and we had to turn back after it took almost an hour to travel what would normally take thirty minutes.  Kept us from seeing our family.

Anyway, Luka will be coming with us again, as he’s still too little to wait in his kennel all day– He was so good last time, I don’t know if he has enough goodness left to make it through today. All my cousins are excited to see him again, especially the little ones.

I wanted to catch his first reaction to snow on camera, but I apparently neglected to plug in my  camera battery from the last time I used it and my new phone won’t let me record video without a memory card.  So, I was out of luck on that and forced to take photos with my phone’s camera, which actually, isn’t too bad for a camera.

I haven’t heard anything about the Nikon I ordered through Best Buy (I’m watching you BB, you’ve messed with the WRONG hobbiest!) so I wasn’t able to use that either, obviously.  I’m hoping it comes soon so we can take some photos of Luka for the Christmas card.  We make our own and we try to be funny.  In the past we’ve used Ozzie, Yuri and Faith photos that made them look guilty and implied they had eaten Santa’s cookies.  Which really doesn’t need to be implied.  But, you know.

Anyway:

Iz wet!

Faith has seen snow many times and really isn’t a fan, but she thought she’d stick around for photos.

As Luka falls off the deck...

She may have laughed a little at that…

 

Don't EVEN look at me little Toad Boy!

It’s hard to tell if she likes him– Some days, she seems very sweet with him (at their vet appointment, she got very concerned when the vet tech took him away to show him to the other vet techs, like “Where are you taking my punching bag!?!”) and others, she looks like she just wants to eat him.  I don’t know.  Sometimes I feel like that too.

But then he does this:

And then I love him.

Well, we gotta get going, but I thought I’d share some of his first snow pictures, even if they are from a phone!

Until then,

Jaina, Faith & Luka

 

Original of that last photo-- Wish my leg hadn't been in there...

Puppy Thanksgiving

Yes, yes, Thanksgiving was last Thursday…  You all must know by now I’m not very good at timely updating.

Whatever.  How do you like the new layout?  I wanted to make it Christmas-ee since Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year.  Not for the presents (don’t get me wrong, I love presents!) but that it seems like, for one month out of the year, people are cheerful and good to each other.  Maybe I’ve idealized it.  Maybe it’s the Christmas carols.  I just like that Christmas is a time of celebration and family.  I look forward to it every year and all the traditions my family has to go with it.

I’m a little worried my Greenery Theme is gone for good, since WordPress seems to have phased it out of their theme options, but I downloaded the CSS file from the original designer’s site, so hopefully, if I decide to go back to it once the holidays are over, I can.  The trees and the grassy meadow in the header just always said “Faith” to me, so that’s why I chose it for her blog.  I digress.

On to Thanksgiving!

Because Luka is still young and working on the potty training, we asked my Aunt if we could bring him along.  She’s been an animal lover for as long as I can remember and understands their importance to us, so I don’t think it was ever going to be a negative.  Faith had to stay home and even though I felt guilty, she got enough Busy Bones to make her life complete for the day and really, it was probably a much needed rest from needle sharp puppy teeth anyway.

So we packed him in the car, bringing things for puppy to chew on that weren’t still being paid off and headed for the Thanksgiving feast awaiting us.  Luckily he was actually very good and only had to stop for a potty break once.

I gotz wotz of toyz annnd Iz vewy good!

When we got to my Aunt’s house, we walked in, Luka in my arms and the reaction was much like I had just had baby…  I can only hope the reaction is like that when I do have a baby (and that said baby isn’t quite as fuzzy).  Of course, I understand their enthusiasm, I can’t help but scoop him up and kiss him until starts struggling to get away from all the affection!

We kept him on a leash while we were there, just to be sure he 1.) Couldn’t destroy my Aunt’s always immaculate house 2.) He didn’t somehow MESS on my Aunt’s always immaculate house 3.) Just generally prevent any chaos he could rain down upon my Aunt’s always immaculate house.

He waited patiently while we ate our delicious meal, very happy to receive his own kibble when the time came and was actually quite patient when my little cousin’s decided they wanted to play with him.  Some with a little more love than others!

I don't think Luka realized what had just happened...

He took a shine to most of them and was quite happy people wanted to take the time to squeak his toys and roughhouse with him.  Most of them wanted to help take him out on his potty breaks as well, which, if they would come do that while he’s at home so I could focus on homework or other things that require my attention, would be wonderful.

You would not believe how often I’ve been looking at him, look down to read a paragraph from my textbooks, only to look up to see him making a puddle. >.<

I wuv it when people pway wif me!!

He was the life of the party!

 

You haz mah Duckee…

But, no messes were to be had at Thanksgiving and the car ride back was lovely as a certain someone was dead tired from playing so hard– He actually fell asleep on my lap all the way home.

I can’t say I didn’t love every moment of the snuggling.

Because the next day he was right back to his old self!

Despite all of his current faults, I still love him.  He does try, sometimes, but in typical Husky fashion, not very hard!

 

But still cute...

I suppose I should call it a night for the blog, got a few things to finish up for class and then I’ve noticed I should probably start the “Epic Cage Clean out of the Week”…  Not to mention, Evie’s having a hey-day rolling around in her ball.  She keeps smacking my door, like she’s going on a trip… It just never ends around here!

Until then,

Jaina

Luka Muddypaws

I chose to hold back on announcing the latest addition to our family because it seemed too soon after the loss of Paisley to do so.  Paisley was very important to us, as all of our pets are and as I have said on previous occasions never replaceable.

When the thought of bringing another puppy into our home occurred, it was well before Paisley’s untimely death.  We had been missing Yuri a great deal and the thought of bringing another red-headed fuzzy face, for Paisley to grow up with and give poor Faith a rest was forefront on our minds.  About a week or so before Paisley passed away, I had found an ad on an online forum from a woman who has Huskies on her farm.  She had a red and white Husky puppy with blue eyes available and for everything that we had been considering, he looked perfect for us.  We spent the week deliberating if we could handle another puppy, if we could deal with the potty training and rule enforcing and obedience training.  If we could handle Paisley’s endless energy and the addition of puppy wildness and all the other issues that come with puppies.

After thinking about it, we made an appointment with the woman and began to look for names for our potential new family member.  The Friday before we were to meet the puppy, heartbreak reached us through the loss of Paisley, her humor, her personality and her presence.  All of us were in shock and felt lost as to what to do next.  We weren’t sure if we should bring the puppy home, if we should cancel if we could go through with bringing home another puppy, so close to Paisley’s passing.  I felt, after thinking on it, that my “stretchy love” theory still applied.  We had intended to bring home this puppy and give him a life full of love and happiness, regardless.  He wasn’t a replacement for Yuri or Ozzie or any of the other family that we had lost in the last few years.  And with Paisley gone, he wasn’t a replacement for her either.  He couldn’t even if he tried, he is entirely his own fuzzy person.  He has his own personality and quirks and dorkiness.

And so, Luka became our friend and family.

And then he got a bath.

And he loved it.

In reality, he didn’t.  He hated every waking second of it.  But he also got over it pretty quickly when there were toys involved.

He is quite the character.  He howls funny, plays rough and is stubbornly refusing to learn the definition of  potty training.  He’s also still learning that the hollering response he receives after sinking his needle-like puppy teeth into someone’s skin does not mean bite harder…  I won’t be sad when those start falling out.  I’m hoping sometime in the next week or so.

Some might say he’s a catastrophe, some might say he’s a joy– I say he’s still learning and give it a week– month, year…

My only heart break is that he will never know Paisley.  I think they would have liked each other very much and would have appreciated the finer, more destructive things in life.

Love you Paisley,

Jaina