It was not only America’s birthday, but my Mother’s (I won’t tell you which one for fear of death). We got to visit our family, including two of my cousin’s and their families that we haven’t seen in a very long time. It was overall, a very nice day and I was happy to have it off, because this summer already seems like it’s lasting forever when it’s only just begun.
I do remember the days I longed for school to be out and I was free from the academic for a short while. Though, that was before I was an “adult” and being paid to care for other people’s children, instead of someone caring for me. Now I’m actually looking forward to school starting again.
How times change.
Anyway, it was a good day and I was happy to see my family and enjoy good food and a relaxing day.
That is, until we got home.
The dogs had been good, despite it being a long day in the house and us forgetting to put the trashcan out of reach, which I’m sure was a temptation beyond all temptations. We let them out to do their business for a while and when it was time for dinner, we discovered something was amiss.
Luka and Mystic were gone.
Dumb
Dumber
Apparently, someone had come into the backyard during the day and left the gate open, which of course gave the dogs the opportunity to run away. Before I go off on a rant about inconsiderate boobs, let me tell you something that will shock you.
Luka came back.
It happens!!
Let me allow that to sink in for a moment.
……………………
Are you scraping your mouth up off the floor? I was. Mom wants everyone to think that he wanted to be good and came back for that, but in all honesty. He hadn’t been fed yet. It was, as we call it at our house, “dog o’clock” and Luka most likely realizing that with his rumbling tummy. Regardless of his motives, I am very proud of him for coming back when he could have easily run and been in danger of being hit by a car. He was a good boy, albeit motivated, boy.
Mystic on the other hand, didn’t seem to care it was Dog o’clock, one way or another and headed for the hills. Although generally she’s a very good dog, she’s spent so much time going from family to family to family her training has been limited. When the opportunity to explore arose, she took it. It was just a horrible day for it to happen. She had already been gone for half an hour and could be anywhere. All of us piled into our cars and spent over an hour searching our neighborhood. I, of course, was in tears most of that time, thinking about all the things that might happen to her. She’s afraid of loud noises and raised voices, which—it’s the 4th of July. That’s pretty much all that happens. I was afraid that she would get scared and run into traffic and that I would find her lying in the street. I’ve also heard stories of cretins stealing people’s dogs right out of their backyards and using them in dog fighting rings. Mystic might look and feel like a tank—but she wouldn’t hurt a fly. I can’t even imagine her going through something like that and so the thought made me twice as worried. I had been around our neighborhood what felt like six hundred times and frustration was beginning to set in. I decided one more time around the elementary school and then I would just have to go home and see if I could leave a message for the animal shelter. So I head back that way and guess who comes a derp, derping up the street?
My darling tank of a dog.
Derp.
I threw open the door and hollered at her to get in the car, to which she obliged and we finally got to go home. And I had to fix my make-up. She did what I figured she was going to do, head for a playground. She loves kids and people, but I wasn’t sure of her patterns since she hasn’t been with us that long and she hasn’t run since we got her.
I just want to say, I’m used to having to track down dogs. It’s not the first time someone has wandered away and it’s not the first time it’s made me have a meltdown. However, someone was in our yard. I don’t know if they were there to steal something or simply back there to find a lost golf-ball but either way—thanks for being a jerk; because of you, I spent an hour of my life looking for my dog and wondering if she was going to be ok.
I’m really just happy she’s home and I guess she was too. She’s been very snuggly with me since then, which is unusual since she usually sticks with Dad, but she came upstairs to my room and snuggled with me while I watched a movie and has followed me around like we’re attached. I kind of love it, I’m just afraid it won’t last now that she’s not in danger of becoming a pancake.
And yes, I purchased them all new ID tags. they should be coming shortly.
The rest of the week was filled with work and boringness. That’s ok. I can’t take more than that.
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.
I got busy, life kept going, I didn’t update, so shoot me.
I’m here now.
So here we go:
Watson:
Is doing WONDERFULLY! Less than a week after the surgery, the vet said she would be healed enough for me to start letting she and Baxter hang out. I was a little surprised by that, but after looking at the surgery site, her fur was already growing back in and it was little more than a scab. That was exciting news and to be perfectly honest, I feel like she’s mellowed out quite a lot. I still wouldn’t stick my hand in her cage and poke her, but she doesn’t freak out as easily and she is actually quite snuggly now.
Baxter & Watson Meeting:
I didn’t actually get any shots of them getting together, since I was too busy chaperoning, but I did get some cute pictures of Baxter anyway.
Yes... I'm on the couch.
Still on the couch...
And now I bathe.
As for their date– It went pretty well. Baxter’s still a little forward with Watson, but at least now we can be sure there will be no baby-making. I think they like each other a lot, so I can only hope to get the money together quickly so they can live together. I think it will go well.
Valentine’s Day:
Let me make it clear– I hate Valentine’s Day. I think it’s overrated, over-advertised and I’ve had relationships that didn’t go as I had hoped start on it, so I’m always happy to see it gone. The only enjoyable part for me, is half-priced candy afterwords. However, my Mom seems to have caught the ‘crafty-plague’ and the last few holidays, we’ve done more in the way of crafty or baking to acknowledge them. Apparently this included Valentine’s Day. So she bought all these supplies and things and I showed up. The weekend before, we sat down and made about a billion (felt like a billion) little chocolate cherries and brownies and then glitterfied some plastic heart containers for those really nasty conversation hearts– What? They taste like chalk!– For her coworkers and the little ones I work with. The house is still covered in glitter from that incident. Although the glitter didn’t stick as well as we had hoped, they turned out pretty well.
I think everything turned out all right– Her coworkers enjoyed them and so did the kids– and I guess a few couples need to go into therapy because of the fights that ensued after tasting the chocolates.
Dad got to be involved, even though he hadn’t intended to, when we discovered one of our canister’s lids had inconveniently become stuck and wouldn’t come loose– especially when it was needed at the time:
We'll try anything around here...
Now it was a quest...
Ta da! THAT took ten minutes longer than it should have.
Ah, the spoils of battle.
It was a valiant victory. Against powdered sugar.
Of course, while we were working hard, there were some people that were hardly working.
Sorry about the quality, at the beginning. I was using my new camera and I still have a ways to go at being proficient, so it took me a while to get it into focus. :0/
He was howling for a variety of reasons (not just us winding him up) but the fact that not only had he been banished from the kitchen- but that his plan of rolling ALL of his new tennis balls under the gate and into the kitchen had failed in making him unbanished. So not only was he still banished, he had also lost of all his tennis balls. Which, let’s be fair, is a travesty.
When he finally DID become unbanished:
He found a really fun game to play! All by himself! He was so proud. He does this, will just start doing something completely odd and out of the blue and act like he’s done it forever.
I don’t get him sometimes, I’m just glad he’s happy.
Well, I think that’s all I have in me for an update. Not a whole lot has happened on the home front and I’m days away from finishing my undergraduate, so I don’t think I’ll be able to focus on anything that’s not school related until Wednesday afternoon. That makes me overjoyed– not.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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,
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...
Since I started working at the daycare and having to get up as early as I do everyday, my stomach has decided, that although eating breakfast after 8am, usually means I feel like I’m going to die, not eating anything around 6:30am, also means I’m going to die. My stomach puts up a racket and will not stop until I put something into it.
I’m not really a fan, since I usually prefer to sleep as late as I can before I become late for work and that typically means I have no time to eat. Sometimes, if we have them, I’ll grab some Mini Muffins to stave off the bubbling attack of doom my tummy will thrust upon everyone else in the area, but if we don’t, I’m out of luck. So my latest tradition has been stopping by McDonald’s on Thursday mornings to get the Egg McMuffin of deliciousness and perhaps a few extra Sausage McMuffins of deliciousness for two fuzzy faces we all know and love.
I know, I know– You’re all thinking, “But, Jaina– It’s Wednesday, are you so befuddled you can’t even remember what day it is?”
To which I would reply, yes– I am. However, tomorrow, I have a buttload of things to do and I’m not entirely sure I’d have time to stop and get it and eat it and let them eat theirs. So, rather than pull my hair out over figuring it out and live with two pairs of eyes burning holes into me because I didn’t do it.
We did it today.
That was an unnecessarily long explanation, wasn’t it? I’m doing it again.
Anyway. Just so you know, this is a sometimes food. I know all the experts are crying and shaking their fists at me because I’m clogging my dog’s arteries. So let me stop them now and say– Trust me, whatever arteries I’m clogging with some Sausage McMuffins are already halfway to hardened with all the crap they manage to find and eat without me knowing until it’s too late. Let me reward them for being good for ONCE, once a week. It makes them happy and they burn off enough energy during the day that I think it’ll be fine. They’re in better shape than I will ever be.
Typically I try to avoid Halloween as best I can. It’s never been a holiday I’ve been interested in and frankly, I think it stopped being a holiday the minute Snickers bars became the traditional meal. I don’t like the underlying macabre, deathly tones, I hate haunted mazes and houses, I don’t like that it gives people permission to try and scare other people.
I do like seeing the little kiddies dressed up in their costumes, if I’m going to like anything about Halloween it’s that. But, in the last couple of years, my family, meaning my Mom, has really gotten into it, at least in the realm of decorating.
We live on a particularly short street (it takes about two minutes to walk it and five seconds to drive it), which is occupied by a lot of people who can’t be bothered to at least hand out candy. Except for our lovely neighbors to the left of us– This means, of course, there are only two lights on, Halloween night and therefore the kidlets know the candy swag they may get is going to be limited. Which is sad. I remember most years there being enough people to count on one hand. So, now that Mom’s gotten into decorating, we stand a better chance of getting more trick or treaters and now that Halloween is on Sunday, I should be home for prime candy giving time.
We have fog machines. That alone should be epic.
Anyway– I thought, even though I don’t really care for Halloween, it wouldn’t hurt to have a little fun, even if it’s just with the family. And because I spend enough money on them, they can just suffer:
Someone's going to be a pumpkin...
And now she won't talk to me...
I guess today was a better day to be a pumpkin...
Yup-- Still a pumpkin.
We have lots of costumes at my work– Originally Paisley was going to be a bat, it had a adorable little wings and was poofy, but I realized it also had the ears and I think Paisley would have chewed her own foot off if it meant not having to wear a costume with a head piece. Plus her ears are already bat-like. So– pumpkin it was.
Faith was going to be a dinosaur from the beginning. It was purple, had a tail and it’s adorable on her. Duh.
Her ears are too floppy to keep the head piece up on it's own-- Time for safety pins!
Does I wook beautomous Momma?!
Tail! Wait... Tail? Tail?
AHHHH!!! DINOSAUR!!! RAWWWRRR!!!
You may now howld de paw.
I love that Faith likes to dress up. Whenever she gets a new collar she races through the house to show everyone and if it’s sparkly, even better. She always did like to dress up, so maybe she won’t hate me too much for making her wear it. She’ll get extra cookies for that.
Ah yes, the natural order of things-- A Pumpkin chasing a Dinosaur.
Can we have dinner now?
Yeah, I know Paisley is probably going to hate me for making her put it on again on Halloween and for much longer than this photo shoot took. But guess what, you only live once. If you wanna dress your dog up like a pumpkin, do it. She’ll get over it when cookies are involved. Though, I might have a problem– I saw a photo of a Guinea Pig in a costume and now I really want to get one for Buddha. As if I don’t have enough animals that aren’t going to like me in a few days. Maybe Etsy has something I can get here really fast… Hmmm.
Anyway, Happy Halloween all– even if it is a little early. I will definitely post pictures of the event.
