Sunday, January 18, 2009
Even Our Animals Are Faithful
Paige: Mommy, come look at Pablo (the hamster), he looks so cute.
Me: Hi Pablo, what are you doing? (Pablo seems to be cleaning himself with his front paws)
Paige: Mommy you are so silly. Can't you see he's reading his Bible?
We tend not to argue with Paige to much. She walks around armed with these hulk hands most days.
She has been trained by the best.
These two have been her primary instructors.
They know what they are doing. They are professionals.
Here she is just daring you to say her hamster didn't read his Bible this morning.
Go ahead, I dare you.
Me: Hi Pablo, what are you doing? (Pablo seems to be cleaning himself with his front paws)
Paige: Mommy you are so silly. Can't you see he's reading his Bible?
We tend not to argue with Paige to much. She walks around armed with these hulk hands most days.
She has been trained by the best.
These two have been her primary instructors.
They know what they are doing. They are professionals.
Here she is just daring you to say her hamster didn't read his Bible this morning.
Go ahead, I dare you.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
She's All Better
Jo Jo has recovered from her illness and is feeling much better. She is a one pound dynamo running around the house happily attacking the feet of those who walk by while she is playing. She has a sweet disposition and the cutest little bark (that she hardly ever uses).
She is playful and fun and kept attacking my camera carrying strap while I was trying to get a picture of her. She is so fast it is hard to get a picture that isn't all blurry.
She got spoiled while sick and has only been eating baby food (Gerber's chicken and gravy is her favorite). We reintroduced dog food to her yesterday and she didn't seem all that excited about the change. Up until a few days ago we were feeding her off a baby spoon one bite at a time. Yes, this little dog has been just like having a newborn around.
You know what? We have all loved every minute.
She is playful and fun and kept attacking my camera carrying strap while I was trying to get a picture of her. She is so fast it is hard to get a picture that isn't all blurry.
She got spoiled while sick and has only been eating baby food (Gerber's chicken and gravy is her favorite). We reintroduced dog food to her yesterday and she didn't seem all that excited about the change. Up until a few days ago we were feeding her off a baby spoon one bite at a time. Yes, this little dog has been just like having a newborn around.
You know what? We have all loved every minute.
Labels: animals
Friday, July 18, 2008
The Contract
When our oldest daughter, Samantha, was around 9 she asked her Dad if she could get a little dog for her birthday. He told her no, that we already had a dog. She pleaded and begged and finally he told her that she could have a little dog all her own when she was 12, and old enough to take care of it herself.
She promptly took pen to paper and made up a contract stating that when she was 12 she could get a little dog all her own. We signed it. And then forgot all about it. Until she turned 10 the next year and happily proclaimed that she only had two years to wait until she could get her dog.
What dog, we asked? The one you told me I could get when I was 12. "We never told you that" I said. "Oh yes you did" our oldest daughter proclaimed smugly. "Seeeee" (as she produces the signed contract we had obviously forgotten about from the year before).
The contract jogged my memory and I knew we were in big trouble. She had saved it between her mattress that entire year. The next year she turned 11 and happily proclaimed she only had one year left until the dog would be hers.
Sigh. What do you think the odds are that she will forget about this by her next birthday I asked hubby? "Slim to none" he replied. "Yeah, I thought so" I said defeated.
I felt we really had enough on our plate without adding another animal. However, a deal was a deal. As her twelfth birthday approached this past April talk of the dog was at a fever pitch. The contract we had signed was hanging on our daughters wall. There was no getting out of this.
In March we told her we would honor the contract and get her a dog when she got out of school for the summer. That way she would have all summer to train her puppy and take care of his/her needs as she would be completely responsible for the dog.
We started looking and had a hard time finding her "dream dog" somewhere in our price range. I refused to pay $1,500 for a dog. We searched rescue agencies online and the local dog shelter weekly but never found just what she was looking for. Until three weeks ago.
We found her.....
All one and a half pounds of her. Meet Jo Jo. Our daughters dream come true. Her cute little 9 week old puppy.
This is our very tired daughter with her little dog. He doesn't really like to sleep at night yet.
I told her this is good training for when she becomes a mom. She bathes her, gives her medicine each day (she seems to have a low blood sugar problem) and rocks her to sleep. She is working on the potty training but the blades of grass are still bigger than the dog so she isn't real sure about going outside yet. She prefers the newspaper.
She is a really sweet dog and we have all fallen in love with her. Samantha is doing a great job and I can see that she will be a really good mommy some day. That's if she doesn't decide to go to law school first. Her legal mind is a little scary. and fun. and remarkable. Man I love that kid.
She promptly took pen to paper and made up a contract stating that when she was 12 she could get a little dog all her own. We signed it. And then forgot all about it. Until she turned 10 the next year and happily proclaimed that she only had two years to wait until she could get her dog.
What dog, we asked? The one you told me I could get when I was 12. "We never told you that" I said. "Oh yes you did" our oldest daughter proclaimed smugly. "Seeeee" (as she produces the signed contract we had obviously forgotten about from the year before).
The contract jogged my memory and I knew we were in big trouble. She had saved it between her mattress that entire year. The next year she turned 11 and happily proclaimed she only had one year left until the dog would be hers.
Sigh. What do you think the odds are that she will forget about this by her next birthday I asked hubby? "Slim to none" he replied. "Yeah, I thought so" I said defeated.
I felt we really had enough on our plate without adding another animal. However, a deal was a deal. As her twelfth birthday approached this past April talk of the dog was at a fever pitch. The contract we had signed was hanging on our daughters wall. There was no getting out of this.
In March we told her we would honor the contract and get her a dog when she got out of school for the summer. That way she would have all summer to train her puppy and take care of his/her needs as she would be completely responsible for the dog.
We started looking and had a hard time finding her "dream dog" somewhere in our price range. I refused to pay $1,500 for a dog. We searched rescue agencies online and the local dog shelter weekly but never found just what she was looking for. Until three weeks ago.
We found her.....
All one and a half pounds of her. Meet Jo Jo. Our daughters dream come true. Her cute little 9 week old puppy.
This is our very tired daughter with her little dog. He doesn't really like to sleep at night yet.
I told her this is good training for when she becomes a mom. She bathes her, gives her medicine each day (she seems to have a low blood sugar problem) and rocks her to sleep. She is working on the potty training but the blades of grass are still bigger than the dog so she isn't real sure about going outside yet. She prefers the newspaper.
She is a really sweet dog and we have all fallen in love with her. Samantha is doing a great job and I can see that she will be a really good mommy some day. That's if she doesn't decide to go to law school first. Her legal mind is a little scary. and fun. and remarkable. Man I love that kid.
Labels: animals, Girl stuff
Monday, July 09, 2007
It's A Dog's Life
We have a problem with possums in our backyard. I saw a really big mama with a bunch of babies hanging off her a few weeks ago. Let me tell you, even the babies are not very attractive.
My neighbor,Pat, has a dog who likes to umm, shall we say, euthanize the baby possums.
One morning Pat got up to find yet another dead little baby on her patio. When she took a closer look she noticed this baby had fleas jumping all over it.
Pat was very concerned by this and immediately put her dog on Frontline so she would not become infested.
What did I do? I thought about getting Frontline at the pet store but I had so many other important things to do (like Blogging) I never got around to it. To be honest, I wasn't that worried. We had never had fleas before so I just figured our dog would be OK.
Wrong!
One afternoon the kids were playing with the dog in the house. Suddenly one asks "What are these little black jumping bugs all over Sydney?".
My Mommy radar was immediately activated. Upon further inspection I made the most shocking discovery.
We had fleas! Yuk.
The dog was banned to the back yard where she sat looking in like a woman who had a scarlet letter placed upon her bosom.
I called the vet. He could get me in the next morning for a grooming appointment but we had to come by that evening to pick up a pill to give Sydney to kill all her fleas.
Did any of you know they had such a thing?
We gave her the pill and within 30 minutes all the fleas on her body were dead. I was a little worried about what was in the pill to do such a thing but the vet assured us it was safe. This surely must be one of the greatest inventions of modern time. Any pet owners should definitely understand what I mean.
Sydney went in the next morning for her grooming appointment. The fleas had eaten her up quite a bit by she looked so pretty and happy when she got out. They even brushed her teeth and clipped her nails. A total body spa for doggies. She thought it was fabulous.
A few days later Zach comes in to me and says that Sydney was bleeding on the side of her face. When I looked I discovered that both sides of her face were bleeding and had pretty deep wounds. We suspected she had been in a little altercation with one of the many little critters that scamper across our yard.
Back to the Vet we ran.
He shaved the sides of her face to figure out what was going on. It turns out she had been bitten so badly by the fleas she had some "Hot" spots that had been aggravated by the grooming process. They were itchy and Sydney had scratched them raw.
To say it was disgusting would be an under statement.
The Vet fixed her up again and this is what she looked like when we brought her home.
She did not find the large satellite dish around her neck quite as amusing as we did. As you can see from the second picture we had been trying to cut it down a little. The thing was so big she kept running into everything and freaking herself out. I finally got it cut down and she was more comfortable.
I felt sorry for her but she was acting so funny we all got a little chuckle out of it. She kept tipping her head and then freezing like she was listening for something. We decided there were three possible reasons for her behavior.
1. Her satellite dish had picked up communication from an alien ship where dog's are in charge and she was determining if she could be beamed aboard successfully or not.
2. She was receiving the signal from a local radio station that was having a best dressed dog competition and pondering whether her neck attire would qualify.
3. She was completely annoyed with those in charge and could not believe she was being subjected to such cruelty.
I am putting my money on #3.
Yesterday the satellite dish was removed. She is healing well and hopefully we will have no more (expensive) visits to the vet any time soon.
Here she is happy as a clam and back to her favorite spot on the couch.
Enjoy your day!
My neighbor,Pat, has a dog who likes to umm, shall we say, euthanize the baby possums.
One morning Pat got up to find yet another dead little baby on her patio. When she took a closer look she noticed this baby had fleas jumping all over it.
Pat was very concerned by this and immediately put her dog on Frontline so she would not become infested.
What did I do? I thought about getting Frontline at the pet store but I had so many other important things to do (like Blogging) I never got around to it. To be honest, I wasn't that worried. We had never had fleas before so I just figured our dog would be OK.
Wrong!
One afternoon the kids were playing with the dog in the house. Suddenly one asks "What are these little black jumping bugs all over Sydney?".
My Mommy radar was immediately activated. Upon further inspection I made the most shocking discovery.
We had fleas! Yuk.
The dog was banned to the back yard where she sat looking in like a woman who had a scarlet letter placed upon her bosom.
I called the vet. He could get me in the next morning for a grooming appointment but we had to come by that evening to pick up a pill to give Sydney to kill all her fleas.
Did any of you know they had such a thing?
We gave her the pill and within 30 minutes all the fleas on her body were dead. I was a little worried about what was in the pill to do such a thing but the vet assured us it was safe. This surely must be one of the greatest inventions of modern time. Any pet owners should definitely understand what I mean.
Sydney went in the next morning for her grooming appointment. The fleas had eaten her up quite a bit by she looked so pretty and happy when she got out. They even brushed her teeth and clipped her nails. A total body spa for doggies. She thought it was fabulous.
A few days later Zach comes in to me and says that Sydney was bleeding on the side of her face. When I looked I discovered that both sides of her face were bleeding and had pretty deep wounds. We suspected she had been in a little altercation with one of the many little critters that scamper across our yard.
Back to the Vet we ran.
He shaved the sides of her face to figure out what was going on. It turns out she had been bitten so badly by the fleas she had some "Hot" spots that had been aggravated by the grooming process. They were itchy and Sydney had scratched them raw.
To say it was disgusting would be an under statement.
The Vet fixed her up again and this is what she looked like when we brought her home.
She did not find the large satellite dish around her neck quite as amusing as we did. As you can see from the second picture we had been trying to cut it down a little. The thing was so big she kept running into everything and freaking herself out. I finally got it cut down and she was more comfortable.
I felt sorry for her but she was acting so funny we all got a little chuckle out of it. She kept tipping her head and then freezing like she was listening for something. We decided there were three possible reasons for her behavior.
1. Her satellite dish had picked up communication from an alien ship where dog's are in charge and she was determining if she could be beamed aboard successfully or not.
2. She was receiving the signal from a local radio station that was having a best dressed dog competition and pondering whether her neck attire would qualify.
3. She was completely annoyed with those in charge and could not believe she was being subjected to such cruelty.
I am putting my money on #3.
Yesterday the satellite dish was removed. She is healing well and hopefully we will have no more (expensive) visits to the vet any time soon.
Here she is happy as a clam and back to her favorite spot on the couch.
Enjoy your day!
Labels: animals
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
its not quite the westminster dog show
Last week I continued on my "freedom from clutter" quest. I decided to tackle the two youngest boys room. I spent the better part of the day cleaning, purging, and organizing. By the end of the day we had quite a give away pile for anyone who felt they really needed a little more junk.
I asked the boys if they wanted to keep all of their trophies and participation medals. Between the two of them they had dozens, some meaningful and others that they really had no idea what they got it for. Some of those were put in the giveaway pile....where Paige retrieved one....and decided it was a treasure she must keep.
Yesterday she was playing with the medal, putting it around her neck and then placing it on her dolls. It was very cute and it entertained her for quite a while.
Later in the day she is outside playing with her best friend, our dog, Sydney. Suddenly I see Sydney running around very excited...with the medal in her mouth. Paige had placed the medal around her neck and the dog had placed the hanging medal in her mouth. Tyler quickly ran out to rescue the dog, which we soon realized felt no need to be rescued. She would not let us anywhere near her. She liked that medal around her neck and had no intention of letting us take it off of her. She is usually pretty obedient, especially when you get mad, but not today.
She ran around head held high, tail in the air, like a prancing poodle. You would have thought she were competing for dog of the year.
Finally we tackled her, removed the medal, and returned it to a safe place.
The dog went and laid under the slide to sulk.
The kids gave her a much needed bath today to cheer her up.
That seemed to do the trick. She promptly ran into the house, picked up the remote from off the floor (isn't that where everyone keeps it?)and jumped onto the coach to watch a little TV.
What, you may ask, is her favorite TV show? Why Animal Planet, of course.
I really have no idea how to express to you all how thankful I am that my living room coach now smells like wet dog. Really...I am. Words cannot begin to express my thankfulness.
I asked the boys if they wanted to keep all of their trophies and participation medals. Between the two of them they had dozens, some meaningful and others that they really had no idea what they got it for. Some of those were put in the giveaway pile....where Paige retrieved one....and decided it was a treasure she must keep.
Yesterday she was playing with the medal, putting it around her neck and then placing it on her dolls. It was very cute and it entertained her for quite a while.
Later in the day she is outside playing with her best friend, our dog, Sydney. Suddenly I see Sydney running around very excited...with the medal in her mouth. Paige had placed the medal around her neck and the dog had placed the hanging medal in her mouth. Tyler quickly ran out to rescue the dog, which we soon realized felt no need to be rescued. She would not let us anywhere near her. She liked that medal around her neck and had no intention of letting us take it off of her. She is usually pretty obedient, especially when you get mad, but not today.
She ran around head held high, tail in the air, like a prancing poodle. You would have thought she were competing for dog of the year.
Finally we tackled her, removed the medal, and returned it to a safe place.
The dog went and laid under the slide to sulk.
The kids gave her a much needed bath today to cheer her up.
That seemed to do the trick. She promptly ran into the house, picked up the remote from off the floor (isn't that where everyone keeps it?)and jumped onto the coach to watch a little TV.
What, you may ask, is her favorite TV show? Why Animal Planet, of course.
I really have no idea how to express to you all how thankful I am that my living room coach now smells like wet dog. Really...I am. Words cannot begin to express my thankfulness.
Labels: animals
