Life is Screaming By

I just cannot keep up on blogging lately to save my life. Time is just going by so quickly. It's like the Texas summer heat is melting time away. It seems like more often than not lately I am doing bulleted posts. In all honesty, I feel like I am blogging just to journal recent events more than anything. So here goes the latest gossip in my world.

Dogs

• Maggie's puppies are doing great. They are fat little pups and growing like weeds. I swear they are growing so fast you can almost see it. Tonight I noticed that Bolt is starting to open his eyes. I wouldn't be surprised if they are open by tomorrow night. That is a very exciting first step to becoming a super adorable puppy and being less slug-like, as my husband likes to say. One of my all-time favorite things is puppy breath. I learned the other day that if I hold the pups up to my nose, they will lick my nose and I get to smell that sweet puppy breath. BB took a picture of Molly licking my nose tonight.
  
• I don't think Maggie digs this whole mama gig. If she doesn't have to be with her puppies, she's not. She's in the box long enough to feed them, obviously, and then she's outta there. She will go hours between checking in on them. Up until today, she has seemed really depressed about the whole thing. Tonight I saw the light back in her eyes since the pups were born. I'm not sure at this point if I will breed her again or not. If she doesn't enjoy being a mom at all, breeding her again wouldn't be right. Maybe she will enjoy the pups more once they aren't just little leaches.
  
• Sadie is doing really well. She isn't quite 100% yet, but she's getting there. Its a real bitch knowing her hurt. I often wonder why my dog was plagued by this heartache too. It is so unheard of in the BC world to lose an entire litter, so why did it happen to MY dog? The bitter part of me can answer that question.
  
• I have learned that breeding is a very messy business. Did you know that dogs bleed for weeks after they deliver their babies? I wish I had known that before I had to wash my couch cushion covers and bedspread. Its no big deal though. I have a whole arsenal of cleaning supplies and I know how to get stuff out. I have also learned a lot about what you should have on hand when whelping. I've started a Breeding Box for next time so that I have everything I could possibly need on hand.
  

Baby Bean

• Baby Bean is doing great too. She loves the puppies. We have took a couple pictures of us with the puppies tonight. I will have to post them up later.
  
• BB is doing really well in school. Her teacher says she is potty training like a pro. She has also adjusted to the new school and sometimes asks if she can go on the weekends. She is such a bright little girl. The things that come out of her mouth astound me because they seem too profound for a 2.5-year-old. She cracks me up. On Sunday we had to take Mags to the vet because she had the runs really bad. While we were checking out, Maggie pooped (read Her.shey squirted) all over the floor. BB told the guy in line behind us that Maggie pooped on the floor because she didn't feel good. Oh man, sometimes it takes all I have to keep from laughing.
  
• BB also loves to take pictures with the camera. Her dad and I gave her an old digital camera so she could take all the pictures she wants. She actually does a pretty good job. What can I say? My kid's got talent!
  
• BB can totally hold her end of a conversation. She talks so well for her age and she strings sentences together with no problem. Additionally, she is a very polite little girl. She knows how and when to use please, thank you, and no thank you. She is such a sweet little thing.
  

Chelle Belle

• Well, I'm on chlomid. I went in for a follie check on Tuesday and Dr. D said it is working. I had one follie at a 14 and a bunch of others developing. I am going in for another check in the morning, so we'll see how things are going to pan out this month. He put me on 50mg and I wonder if that is going to be enough, considering I was on 100mg back in 2006-07. But again, I guess we will see tomorrow. This whole business with the dogs has pretty taken my mind off stressing about TTC. I feel like I'm just going through the motions without the emotions this month and I am perfectly okay with that.
  
• Working out is going great too. J and I are on our 7th week, and I am definitely seeing a difference. My legs are hard as rocks. There isn't an ounce of fat on them anymore! I know I will probably never get rid of my pooch as long as I'm doing medicated cycles, so I don't feel bad if that area doesn't show as much improvement. I am seeing the fat reduction everywhere else though, and it feels so good. I want to lose another 9 lbs still. That would put me back at my pre-infertility weight, and that would feel AWESOME.
• These days I just feel like I've been run ragged. There isn't enough time in the day to do all the things I need to do, let alone the things I WANT to do. I'm exhausted a lot of the time, and lately I come home from work and fall asleep because I am just so tired. I wish so much that I had more energy and could do and be more. Some nights I push myself a little bit harder to really play with Baby Bean. Not just watch cartoons with her, but run around with her. Although snuggling and watching cartoons is one of our favorite things. My baby is a snuggler and so are her daddy and I.

I guess that's it for me. I can't think of anything else to say at the moment. Besides which, it's bedtime. Another day gone in the blink of an eye. I hope everyone out there is doing well. I think of you all often and pray for you just as much.

Bolt and Molly

Sorry to keep you all in suspense about Maggie's litter. It has been a hell of a weekend. I haven't slept in 6 days. I hadn't eaten for the 5 days before yesterday. I lost 4 lbs during this whole experience (which isn't a bad thing, considering I've been trying to lose weight.) My days all blur together, and I have a really difficult time concentrating or even remembering anything at this point.

But onto Mags!

Friday afternoon Maggie's milk came in and she starting showing signs of impending labor. I slept on the couch beside the whelping box that night, expecting pups at any point. All that happened was Maggie tried to lick my face off all night. She snuggled into me and wouldn't let me rest, which I didn't mind. I love my pups.

Saturday afternoon Maggie's water broke at around 1:00 in the afternoon. I called the breeder and she told me it would be 1-12 hours before I saw a pup. 11 hours later at midnight, Maggie started pushing out the first puppy. I was immediately beside her in the whelping box and on the phone with the breeder. After 20 minutes, I had the first puppy out. She was stillborn. Ten minutes later, we were in the car on the way to the emergency vet for a c-section.

You would think emergency vet would mean services were rendered quickly. Not so at this vet. I was there for an hour and a half being checked in, waiting in a room for them to take Mags for x-rays, waiting forever for them to bring her back, waiting forever for them to come talk to me. They finally came back and told me she had two more pups, both in the birthing position. They told me to take her home and let her try to have them on her own. If there were no puppies by 2:30 a.m., to bring her back and they would put her on oxitocin and calcium to see if she would deliver them. If after an hour she had not, they would do a c-section. I was so mad. I wanted those puppies out alive! I had already lost a whole litter. I didn't need to grieving dogs.

I took Maggie home, hunkered down on the couch and continued to watch Wives and Daughters for the third or fourth time that day. At around 2:00, I started to doze off. "I'll just close my eyes for a minute and remember to wake up and keep checking on Mags."

At 3:00 I was woken by the sound of a puppy crying. I don't know when he was actually born, but I missed the whole thing. He was already cleaned off, and all of the birth mess was cleaned up. I told Mags she had done good, pet the pup, and then went back to the couch to await the last pup. Again, I dozed off. At 4:00 I was woken by the sound of another puppy.

Thank God. Thank sweet merciful heaven! I had two live puppies.

I went back to sleeping on the couch for another couple of hours, just in case Mags needed anything or there was another puppy that hadn't shown up on the x-ray. I don't know what time I stumbled up to bed. I barely remember fumbling to get into my PJs.

The next day I was greeted by this:

I was so happy and so relieved. But at the same time, I ached. I had 6 dead puppies and a grieving dog. It was so difficult to sort through my feelings. To be honest, I still haven't. Some of that could be exhaustion though.

We decided to name the puppies Bolt and Molly. The male has a little lightning bolt down his head, and my daughter's favorite cartoon is Bolt. I named the female Molly because Wives and Daughters is one of my all-time favorite books, and I was watching the movie when she was born. Also, anyone who has been following the blog since before I brought Sadie home 3+ years ago might remember we almost named Sadie, Molly.

Bolt and Molly

As for the pups helping Sadie, Mags would let her near the puppies the first day, but then when Sadie tried to sniff or lick them, Mags would snap at her. At one point they got in a fight, and Sadie came away with a bloodied and fat lip. Sadie still mopes around, and she still won't let me sleep at night because she needs love, but that's okay. I'm here for her, and she knows that.

Maggie is doing really well. She has taken to her mama role like a pro. She never leaves the pups for more than a minute, and she runs right back if they even so much as squeak while she's away.

I have so much going on in my head that I still want to post about, but I don't have the time right now. The important thing is, we are going to breed Sadie again next year. We're going to try again. The hardcore infertile in me won't give up on getting my mama a living litter just yet.

I am just so glad I have at least two puppies.

She Cracks Me Up

Because I can't seem to log into the blog more than every other week, this is going to have to be another bulleted list post, as once again, there is much to talk about. So let's start with the important things, Baby Bean.

Baby Bean in Bullet Point

• Last week as Hubs and I were in the bathroom getting ready for work I heard what sounded like the lid on Baby Bean's diaper pail slamming shut. I waited for a second and then heard it again. I walked down the hall as Baby Bean emerged from her bedroom, diaper-free and stated, "I took off my diaper. It was wet. I put it in the garbage. I'm going to use my big girl potty now." And so she did! Hubs and I were laughing so hard. Baby Bean has never done anything like that before. Although she has done it a couple of times since.
• We are deep in the throes of potty training. I bought BB princess and Tin.ker Bel.l underwear and told her she couldn't pee in them because none of them liked to be peed on. We've been working on this the last couple of weeks. Usually I will put her in Big Girl Underwear and remind her constantly that if she needs to go potty, to go use her Big Girl Potty. Well, she always tells us she peed after it is too late. But this past weekend instead of going potty, she announced, "I pooped." In her brand new Tink.er Bel.l underwear. I told her it made Tink sad because she didn't like being pooped on. For the rest of the day BB kept telling people she pooped on Tink.er Bel.l. Oh my gosh that kid can make me laugh!
• We took BB to her very first movie in the theater on Saturday. She got to see the new W.innie the P.ooh movie, and she LOVED it. For the most part she sat quietly through the whole movie. I wish I had taken a picture of her walking hand-in-hand with her daddy into the theater as she carried her movie meal (in a box similar to a ha.ppy meal). That image was one of the most precious things I have ever seen.
• BB is growing up so fast and her vocabulary and language comprehension just blows my mind sometimes. She will say the most profound things. Like last week I went to the chiropractor and as we walked in and saw the doctor she said to him, "Mama is here to get adjusted." I have never used the term "adjusted" around her before. I was amazed. Also, a few weeks ago when we left the chiropractor's office there was a man standing outside dancing around in a hamburger suit for the deli next door. BB yelled to him, "Hi! Do you need a hug? Come here!" Again, I about died of laughter. We took her back to eat there that night and she got to give the hamburger a hug.

The Dogs

• Well, its official, both dogs are in the family way! I took Mags to the vet again tonight to check one more time for pups. The vet palpated her and declared he could feel pups. The vet tech and I looked at each other and squealed. Everyone who has come in contact with Mags instantly loves her because she is such a snugly, loveable pooch. The vet tech said she just might want one of Mags pups after meeting my dog. I know she won't take one, but it was cute of her to say that.
• I may have anywhere from 3-7 pups placed already. Two or three are for sure placed, and I am hoping the others will be placed once the puppies are born and everyone sees how cute they are. My plan is to post pictures at work in hopes that people there can't resist. Otherwise, I have a backup plan.
• Anybody want a puppy? :D
  

Me

• The exercise regime is going well. I've gotten in some serious time on the treadmill at work four days last week, and already both days this week. I do my resistance training at home with an exercise ball, and let me tell you, that works those hard to reach lower ab muscles. I love that ball. In addition to working out, I have been doing really well about packing healthy lunches to work. It saves me money and some major calories. Tonight I swore I could see that my face is already looking thinner.
• I realized yesterday that my cycles started to get weird after Hubs and I got married and I became a much less active person. Before we got married I was always out and about and hardly ever home except to sleep. I'm hoping that with hitting the gym at the office 4 days a week and doing resistance training at home it will help with TTC and make my cycles like they used to be. Although I have to say the last two months have been promising. I haven't had "normal" cycles like this for a year. They aren't my single days normal, but at least they aren't all FUBARed like the last 12 months.
• This month marks 1 year since we were able to start TTC again. After this cycle, we will officially have been trying for 12 months. More on that in a later post.
• It is really stinking hot here in Texas and it is driving me insane. We had 9 days over 100 in June (JUNE, people!), and so far have had 14 over 100 this month with the prediction of the rest of the month being in the 100s. We usually don't hit the 100s here until August. I have to say, the heat is hard on morale. I started wearing skirts to work because pants are too hot. Before this summer, I was not a skirt or dress girl. I now own four skirts so I can wear a different skirt each day of the week and have Friday for blue jeans. But honestly, I'm considering finding a casual skirt for Fridays because blue jeans and 100+ temps = HOT AS HELL! Oh yeah, and our AC units (in Texas you have to have one AC unit for each floor of your house) run 16+ hours a day and can't keep our house below 80 during the hottest part of the day. EIGHTY! I am begging for fall already. The weather this year has been brutal with our week-long freeze in back in February and hotter than average summer.

Well, that's it for me. I will definitely be posting again later this week cause I have some stuff I have got to get off my chest. Hope all is well with everyone in the blog world!

Overdue

I realize it has been two weeks since my last post. My how time has flown. There has been so much going on around our house that I didn't realize how much time had gotten away from me. So here are a few updates of our little household.

Dogs
What do you feed two pregnant dogs who refuse to eat?

Answer: Anything they will.

But in all seriousness, I contacted a couple of breeders to ask this same question, and of course have been all over the web researching. Everyone seems to recommend adding chicken and rice to their normal diet. I am now cooking chicken breasts and rice cooked in chicken broth in bulk.

I tried adding canned food. I tried changing their food. The canned food worked for a couple of days, but both dogs turned their noses up at any type of dry dog food. Adding the chicken and rice seems to make them remember they are hungry, and so they end up eating dry food as well.

As for whether or not they are both pregnant, only time will tell. I took them to the vet a week ago and he said they were both exhibiting outward pregnancy symptoms, but would not say they were pregnant because apparently dogs have false pregnancies where they will experience every pregnancy symptom in the book including lactating, swelling bellies, and labor, but then there will be no pups. So he said all he could do was tell me to come back in 3 weeks and he would do x-rays. I think I will pass on that though. I will just wait to see who has pups and how many, since I know their respective estimated due dates.


Baby Bean
Our little family headed up to see my parents for the 4th of July weekend. We took an extra day off work to make it an even longer weekend. While there we spent some time with all of my siblings, which is a feat considering none of us live in the same states right now, and watched an awesome firework show put on and sponsored by my own little brother.

Before heading home, a few of us went to see the newly renovated zoo.

Baby Bean loved the carousel, as always. She rode a seal.
I love this picture because she still looks so much like a baby.

All of the grandkids posed for a picture on this super friendly bronze lion.

All of the dinosaurs around the zoo were pretty awesome.
They were animated and growled.

Baby Bean checking out some monkeys.

Baby Bean and her cousin sharing a double stroller.

And last, but not least, Baby Bean and her new pool. God help me, for I will and do spoil this child. I cannot help myself. The smiles these things puts on her face is worth all the money in the world to me.

A side note: this pool has 13 different sections that needed to be blown up. Each palm tree had two. It took me over an hour to blow it up with an air compressor.


The Project
A few months ago I was watching a cartoon with Baby Bean that gave me the most fantastic idea to create a quilt that I would then sew charms onto for some of the big events in her life. When I got a bonus at work a couple months ago, I used it to start buying supplies such as silver letter beads to spell out her name; numbers for her birthday; charms of a mom, dad, a little girl, and two dogs to signify her family; and so on. The idea is also to buy charms from everywhere we go on vacation or any fun places we go. When we went to Cancun in May, I bought her a dolphin and seashell charms.

It took me a couple of weeks, and an experienced eye can tell it has been a while since I've touched a sewing machine, but tonight I finally finished the quilt!

Baby Bean showing off her new quilt. She LOVES it.

The Family Square.
Dad, Baby Bean, Mom, Maggie, and Sadie.
I left room to add to the square later, if our family is added to.

TTC
I'm still on break from this game. I'm still doing acupuncture. I'm not doing anymore fertility treatments. I haven't been charting for the last two months and don't think I will until after our puppies have all been sold and are gone.

I've been exercising, but am going to start doing even more this week because one of my BFF's and I decided that instead of going out for lunch every day, we are going to brown bag it and hit our office gym. Brown bagging instantly means I eat better.

I also just had the most normal cycle I have had for the first time since last August, which gives me some hope that things are getting back on track. I have decided that if I'm not pregnant by the end of the year I am going to request a laparoscopy just to make sure there is no scar tissue preventing anything and to make sure everything else looks good. Until then though, I'm going to stay pretty zen about all of it. I don't miss stressing about every little thing in my cycle, so I am glad to have a reason to not really keep track of it (i.e., pregnant dogs/impending puppies).

That's pretty much it for now. I am way behind on my blog reading again, but will hopefully have some time to catch up a bit this week.

One of Us Had Better Get Pregnant!

As you can tell by the fact that my last post was over a week ago, things have been pretty on the go around here lately. I attribute it to the fact that the weather is decent and the days are longer, which makes me spend more time with the fam. Baby Bean has been going to bed almost a full hour later than she does in the winter. Most nights I don't even put her in the bath until the sun starts to go down at almost 9:00 at night. Some nights she doesn't get to bed before 10:00. I just can't help it though. I like keeping her up late with me. However, that means I get to bed later than normal too, most nights not getting to sleep until after midnight. So, blog posting and reading takes an obvious back seat. But that is not what I wanted to tell you all about tonight.

Over the past month I apparently subconsciously picked up on signals from my dog that she was about to go into heat. I knew it would be some time soon, but I have been putting off getting ready to breed her by reading up on breeding, welping, and raising puppies. I have been putting off buying the necessary items for having puppies around, the biggest one being a large enclosure followed by figuring out what I want to do for a welping box. (For those who don't know, welping is delivering puppies.)

Just before we went on vacation, literally the night before, I got the hair-brained idea to run to Lo.wes to buy a dog run. I'll get into the whys later (or maybe not, because who really cares why I felt the urgent need to buy it). Since we got back from vacation, I have had a nagging feeling it was time to read up on breeding, dog pregnancy, and all that jazz, so last week I finally found a book and downloaded it onto my Kin.dle (after downloading and reading through four different book samples).

The day after I found the right book, I noticed my Mags was in heat. Huh. Weird. Then last weekend I decided to take my dogs to the vet this week to get them flea and tick shots that last 6 months, rather than doing monthly flea and tick treatments that require me to bathe my dogs, greasy from the meds, 24 hours later. While at the vet, I asked them to ensure Mags really was in heat. The vet offered to do a smear to see how far along in her cycle she was because I was planning on taking her to my MIL's house to breed with her male the weekend of the 10th. After getting the results from the test, he told me I should take my dog this weekend (today) and leave her for the next week because she was far enough along in her cycle, she would be ready for breeding as soon as Saturday (again, today).

I had planned to take this weekend to just relax after a hectic weekend of constant cleaning, cooking, and entertaining all last weekend, but as we all know, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." As soon as I left the vet I was on the phone to my MIL asking if Mags could spend the next week with her. Thankfully, my MIL was very wonderful about it and told me to bring her on down.

Right now my precious pooch is spending her first ever night away from home while I sit home without her. Sure we have spent nights apart when I go somewhere, but she has never gone somewhere to spend the night while I sat at home without her. I would like to say I am sad and lonely, but that wouldn't be true. You see, I have my Sadie dog who is soaking up being an only-dog tonight, and Mags, well, she's getting some action. ;) Maggie and Tate were getting along very well while we were there. :D

I do find it rather ironic that the month I decide to take a break from TTC is the month my dog goes into heat. That even though we didn't stress about getting me pregnant by timing everything just right, I did get to worry about timing everything just right for getting my dog pregnant. I chuckle every time I think about it. Even funnier is how closely our cycles coincided. It's weird how things go sometimes, isn't it?

But here's the kicker: if Mags does get pregnant, her pups will be born around the middle of August. We had been talking about taking my little brother on vacation with us in September, but if I have a litter of 1-month-old pups, I'm not going anywhere. I talked with my husband about waiting until Mags went into heat again next, but we had also been talking about going on vacation again in May, and if we waited for Maggie's fall heat, her pups would be born right around May. Again, I laugh.

So, as with my own conception plans, I have just handed it all over to God, and am letting her get pregnant in God's time too. All I have to say is that one of us had better get pregnant this year.

Happy Birthday Mags!

A little over a week ago, I opened the mailbox one night after work to find the following card:





I have never before gone to a vet who sent my pets cards for their birthday. I really love our vet. It made me laugh when I saw it. I took it inside, found Mags, and opened it up for her to see. She seemed to care less about the card and was more interested in the fact that I was so excited.

I can't believe it has already been 4 years since my little pooch was born. I remember the day the breeder told me I could come pick my puppy out of the litter. The pups were only 3 weeks old and had just barely opened their eyes and ears. It was dark and cold that November night, but it was the beginning of a very beautiful relationship between Mags and I, and the breeders and I. Every weekend after I picked out my pup, I was allowed to go over and see my little girl grow up, and talk with the breeders for a few hours.


This picture is Mags at about 4 weeks old. I absolutely loved going over and visiting her and the breeders. Sometimes Hubs would come along, but usually it was just me. I always took the camera.


This picture was taken at around 5 weeks. My pup was so adorable. She was the runt of the litter and the most head strong of the group. She was the most curious, and the least likely to be pushed around. The breeders told me the runt was usually the smartest and the snuggliest. They were right. Mags is my snuggle bug and she is probably the smartest dog I've ever had. She can pick up a new command in a few minutes.


I love this picture because it was taken by the breeders. This was on a day that Hubs decided to stay home. Does it look like I minded? And look at my little sweetie checking me out.


We brought Mags home when she was 9 weeks old, and on Christmas Eve. She was by far the best Christmas present I got that year. The relationships that were forged by the purchase of this puppy are irreplaceable and are lifelong.

So on this special day, I would like to tell tell my little pooch:

Happy Birthday Mags!

Mowing the Lawn with Mags

Somehow, for the past 30 years of my life, I have gotten away with never once mowing a lawn. I always had my dad, brothers, or husband around to do it. When Hubs and I got married, we got a dog, and then moved to a townhome with a yard for her to play in. It was always my responsibility to pick up poop so he could mow. That was the deal. However, when we bought our house last year and he would be derelict about mowing the lawn, it would sometimes make it difficult for me to find all of the presents in the tall grass. That always turned into a circular argument about me not being able to find the mines because the grass was too long, but he would have mowed the lawn if I cleaned up the dog logs, but I would have picked them up if the lawn wasn't too long. Sometimes we argue about this for hours.

A couple of weeks ago, Hubs asked me to pick up the dog logs. I told him I would, and then it rained... and rained... and rained. It rained for 8 days straight. I'm not exaggerating either. It rained 24/7 for 8 stinking days. You know that rain that recently flooded Georgia? Well, it started here.

Needless to say, our lawn got really long, and there was no way I could find all of the puppy pressies, so I offered to mow the lawn. It was a total shock, I'm sure. I had never touched a lawn mower before, and here I was, offering to mow our massive back yard. Hubs had to show me how the mower worked and how to pivot around corners, and he told me how to make sure I didn't miss spots.

Maggie is a border collie, so she LOVES to heard. I had seen Mags attack the lawn mower when Hubs mowed many times and laughed my butt off. One time I got it on video. He always told me it was funny, but it made it really hard to mow in straight lines. I had no idea how strong that little girl was until yesterday when I tried to mow the lawn. I took a little video of my experience of trying to mow the lawn with Mags. I hope you get as much of a kick out of it as we do.

Please Don't Paint the Puppies

The past couple weekends, Hubs has finally gotten the bee in his bonnet to do some of those house projects we've been wanting to do since we moved in, like finishing our floors and putting up base boards. Of course, with all home improvement projects, it snowballed from something as simple as finishing the floors eventually leading to us needing to redo our kitchen before putting on baseboards.

When we bought the house, somehow the cheap crappiness of our kitchen went unnoticed until we moved in. Hubs had returned to our previous home to paint it to sell while I stayed here, by myself, two days after moving in to unpack. This was when I realized our kitchen cabinets were made out of balsa wood and were complete and total crap. I sat down at one point and cried, convinced the previous homeowners were in their brand new house laughing at us for buying this place. Hubs wanted the best deal, and he sure got it. With a lot of work, and a little TLC on our part, this place is going to be fantastic when we're done with it.

Hubs is an awesome handy man. He is such a perfectionist, and I am so glad for it because I certainly am not. Everything he does is precisely calculated and perfect. Even when he hangs pictures he's a perfectionist. I want a picture on the wall, I slap a nail in it and throw the picture on. He measures the wall's width and height, the width and height of the picture, calculates where the center of the wall is, where he wants the top of the frame to hit, etc. It cracks me up.

At any rate, we also decided we wanted to put up a couple half walls, which also needed to be done before anything else could be finished. He put them in and my job was to paint them. One of the walls went up without a hitch and he was pleased with his work for the most part. The other took some tweaking over the span of a week before he was mostly okay with it. I had primed, applied texture, primed again, and painted the first wall before he finished the second wall. He finished the second wall over the weekend, so Sunday night before I went to bed, I hurried and got it painted. I filled up the paint tray, grabbed a roller and a brush, and sat down to paint it. Mags came over to say hello between bites of kibble. I reached over and gave her an affectionate pat on the head. When I pulled my hand away, I saw this:


No, she does not usually have a white stripe down her head. For a split second I was horrified, wondering how I would ever get the paint out of her fur. Then I remembered it was water-based, and then proceeded to laugh my butt off. The good new is, it all came out with a few rubs of a wet paper towel. I have always called her my Project Puppy because she is always right by my side when I'm working on projects around the house. I guess that night she really dug in and proved she could help out. What a good pup!

Wacky Weekend

I was just about to start writing this post when I looked down at my belly and realized I can see Baby Bean breathing. That is the coolest and craziest thing ever. It is so sci fi to see your belly breathing separately from you. lol

This past weekend has been kind of crazy. A couple of weeks ago after Hubs had taken the pooches out for their daily dose of Fetch Until You Drop, we noticed that Mags started favoring her right shoulder. I debated over taking her to the vet or just waiting to see what happened. Over the next few hours, she seemed right as rain. However, if she was sedentary for an extended period of time, she would act sore and stiff when she got up, sometimes favoring the shoulder again. This behavior has been on and off ever since. Some days she is just fine, and others she seems stiff and sore. I determined it was probably a soft tissue injury and that she should probably be on some kind of pain medication, so I finally took her to see the vet on Friday.

First of all, I LOVE our vet. The woman obviously loves animals very deeply. She kept snuggling Mags and giving her kisses right on her wet nose. I loved it. After examining my baby, she also determined it was a soft tissue injury and prescribed a week's worth of remadyl. On top of the pain meds, she told me that Mags is not allowed to play fetch for a month. A MONTH?!?! I almost cried! That is Maggie's favorite thing ever. The vet was firm and told me that if I didn't keep Mags from playing that the injury could turn into arthritis or worse. The good news is, the meds seem to be helping the stiffness, but the downside is she hasn't been eating very much. My poor little baby pooch. :(

When Hubs and I first bought our house, our realtor gave us a $50 gift card to Ho.me De.pot. We decided on Friday that we had probably better use it, since we've had it for almost a year (I seriously can't believe we've almost been here for a year already!!!!). I wanted to buy decorative wall shelving for the baby's room, so we got in the car and headed to HD. I didn't find what I was looking for; however, we did find a $300 Christmas tree on sale for $75. After discussing it and making sure there was nothing else we wanted, we bought the tree. Once the purchase was made, I realized what a sweet deal we just gotten. The thing is 7.5" tall and is prelit with LED lights. Plus it looks nice. It will be exciting to decorate it next year and put Baby Bean's pressies under it. :)

That night at around 4 am (technically Saturday morning), one of our smoke detectors frizted and started going off. I know this sounds weird, but we invested in some seriously expensive smoke detectors a couple of years ago after attending a fire safety seminar. They are the only smoke detectors 100% guaranteed to go off in case of a fire and are the only company in the US who can legally make that claim. That being said, we also have the stupid cheapie smoke detectors installed that came with the house (a whole two of them). With that in mind, I was absolutely freaked out when one of the alarms started going off. The expensive ones don't fritz. After about 5 beeps, the alarm stopped, which gave me a sense of calm because I realized chances were high it was a fritzing cheapie and everything was fine. I was right. However, I could not calm my mind. I was so afraid that one of the expensive ones would start going off any moment and that our house was really on fire. Luckily it wasn't, and the expensive ones stayed silent. I hope to never wake up to the sound of a smoke detector going off again.

Yesterday was a total low key day. We went shopping for a changing table and came home empty handed. Shortly after we walked through the door, I was sacked out on the couch for the next few hours.

In pregnancy news, I am totally ready for this baby to come out. First of all, I can't wait to hold her, snuggle her, and love her to bits. I'm looking forward to Baby Bean snugging with Hubs and I on the couch. I am so excited to start dressing her in all of her new clothes and putting her in her swing and bouncer. I am also really ready for the heartburn and its backup to end. Even sleeping upright doesn't prevent the backup anymore. I am totally ready to stop being so sore I can barely walk. I am ready to lose the water weight and to stop dreading post partum. I just want the next chapter to begin already! Only a couple more weeks! :D

Clarification

I realize after my last post (or maybe even couple) that I need to make a bit of a clarification.

First of all, I do NOT ever physically abuse my pets. I don't believe in hitting animals for any reason. They don't understand why you are hitting them, and it only makes them scared of you.

When I say I am angry about something (like Mags pooping on the floor) it means I audibly voice my displeasure in her current choice of activity and in a very negative tone of voice. She gets the hint.

When I say I "lost it" that means I screamed at the top of my lungs and swore like a sailor. I am not a physically abusive person and I don't throw things.

At no point during Maggie's displeasing bowel releases was she harmed by my hand. My husband does not hit my animals either.

I understand my dog is sick, but that does not mean that I have to smile and praise her when she poops on my floors. My first instinct is to clean up the mess ASAP to keep it from setting in and then ask myself why she is sick. I do everything in my power to keep my pets healthy (as evidenced by my last $200 vet bill for vaccinations). I've said it before, and I will say it again, my dogs are like my babies. I treat them as well as I can. I am a completely responsbile dog owner (yes, that means I carry poop bags on dog walks and clean up after my pup). I do the best I can by them, and that is all anyone can ask.

I did not put white berber carpet in my house. I purchased the house just over three months ago and it came with brand new, white berber carpet. If I had my choice, I sure as hell would not have picked berber. But as it is new, it would be completely wasteful of us to change it out, and we have a million other places our money needs to go (like trying to make our house energy efficient so we can avoid any more $450 electric bills).

Maggie is in good health right now and acts completely normal and happy even though she has diarrhea. I called the vet first thing this morning before I did anything else, and they were not concerned. They did tell me to put her on a bland diet, and I will have you know her bland diet is almost as yummy as mine. Her menu tonight will consist of pumpkin soup (per the vet) and boiled chicken. She had a generous helping of rice this afternoon.

I also sobbed for half an hour last night before I went to bed because it absolutely broke my heart to leave my baby outside. I literally walked between the bedroom and the back door for an hour, debating over whether or not to bring Mags in for the night. In the end I determined it would be better for both of us if she just stayed outside where she could do her thing the minute she needed to without the possibility of being scolded and without the possibility of me needing to be awake for an hour and a half during the night cleaning carpet when I need to be resting (now more than ever).

I firmly decided before going to bed that I cannot make my dogs outside dogs, and told my sweetie so before turning in. When he saw how hard it was for me to leave them out overnight, he didn't put up even a hint of a fight.

The last couple of weeks have been really hard and stressful for me even without my dog being sick. Work has been hell. My hormones bring out Psycho Bitch with little to no warning. Our bills are ridiculous and depressing, and they never seem to stop adding up and conspiring against me.

The bottom line: I am doing the best that I can. I am trying so hard to deal with everything that is going on right now, and it is just not easy. So please, don't judge me. I am not a horrible person. I realize my last post may make me sound like one, but I am a dramatic person who can sometimes have the tendency to blow things up and make them sound way bigger than they are.

So there you have it, clarification for all of our sakes.

Dilema of the Week

It seems that my dogs have decided to conspire against me and my plan to be rid of my debt before the baby comes. Every time I feel like I am making the tiniest bit of a dent, one or the other or both of my dogs needs a trip to the vet for whatever reason.

Friday afternoon I came home to go to lunch with my sweetie. As we were on our way out, Mags popped a squat in our dining room (aka "The Dojo" and "Catch All Room") and let a mass of liquid out of her bum. No warning, no odd behavior, and no going to the back door that was a mere 50 feet away to indicate she needed to be let out. Yep, I was angry all right. Sure it was an accident, but she is house trained and gave us ZERO indication that she need to go out, just popped a squat between us and let loose. This was the first time in my pregnancy that I threw up and the first time EVER that I have thrown up cleaning up after a sick animal.

Last night I didn't sleep well because Maggie was restless, and since she gave no warning sign on Friday, I was constantly afraid of being awoken by a foul smell and the sight of more brown goo on my white berber carpet. So when I heard her intestines gurgling around 5:30 this morning, I promptly put her outside.

This evening I headed upstairs to look for a document for work, and Mags preceeded me up the stairs. As soon as she reached the landing, she popped a squat and... you guessed it! Brown goo out the bum all over my white berber carpet. I absolutely lost my temper this time (btw, that means I yell at the top of my lungs, I do NOT hit my animals). Twice in three days with NO WARNING. It took me forever, three batches of carpet cleaner in the steam cleaner, and a quarter bottle of pet carpet cleaner to finally lift the stain.

As much as I don't want to take her to the vet because I know it will cost me AT LEAST $100, I am afraid that is where she is going to go have to go. I have no clue why she is sick. We haven't fed her anything outside of her dog food. Our only guess is she has been eating something outside, but what?! And how can we stop her from eating anything while she is out there? Sadie seems to be fine. Neither of them acts strange and are just as up for fun and games as they always are.

So now I am faced with multiple dilemmas:

1. My sweetie is sick to death of the dogs pooping and peeing in the house, and I am not far behind him.
2. I don't relish the idea of them doing their deeds in the house after the baby is born.
3. I don't relish the idea of their hair all over the house when the baby is born.
4. My sweetie is sick of the guest bathroom smelling like wet dogs because that is where I bathe them.

That all makes a strong case for making them outside dogs. However:

1. Maggie is my baby and my "Snuggle Bug." I love snuggling with her, and she noticeably lowers my blood pressure on bad days.
2. Maggie has always been an inside dog. While it wouldn't be a big deal to Sadie to become an outside dog, it would be to Maggie.
3. Growing up my dogs were always outside, and I hated it. They are a part of the family to me and should be with the family. I want my dogs to be inside at least part of the time (and especially at night) to interact with and be part of "the pack."

It would absolutely break my heart to make my babies outside dogs, but the more bad things that happen with them inside, the more I am going to be pushed and inclined to make it so. It is something I am seriously having to consider now, and it makes me want to cry.

Tonight will be Maggie's first full night outside. I don't dare let her in the house because I know whatever ails her has not yet passed. It is going to be a rough night for me, but I don't know what else to do. I guess I get to make a trip to the vet tomorrow. I should just hand them my credit card and tell them to keep it.

Update: After sobbing for a good half hour before going to bed because I had to leave Mags outside overnight, I decided I could not make my babies outside dogs. Last night WAS rough, but after an hour of going back and forth between the bedroom and the back door, I decided it was best to leave her outside so she could do her biz if she needed to, and that the decision was best for both of us for the time being.

I called the vet first thing this morning, and they told me just to put her on a bland diet, as she is acting completely normal outside of her digestive problems. I have administered a couple doses of pep.to, and gave her a hearty feeding of rice. Her dinner tonight will consist of pumpkin soup (per the vet) and boiled chicken. She will also sleep inside tonight in her crate, as I can't bear the thought of her spending another night outside.

Adjusting

It has been almost a full week since we brought little Sadie Roo home, and it has been a very adventurous one for everyone involved. The first few days and nights were rough, but we came to the realization that we now live on a quarter acre lot and while we are housebreaking Sades, there is no reason she can't be out in the back yard during the day to prevent in-crate accidents and constant howling and wining. She was born outside and lived her first 6 weeks outside, and so wants to be outside most of the time anyway. So to keep everyone happy, she now gets to spend a few hours during each day just running around the back yard, sleeping under the porch, playing in the grass, and doing her "biz" whenever she needs to. Then she gets to spend a few hours in her play pen where her crate is located. Hubs says she will spend almost all of her time in her crate all on her own. I'm glad that she realizes her crate is her safe place and willingly goes into it.

Yesterday I noticed that Sadie had some blood mixed in with her "leavings". I had a kitten once that had the same problem, and after running a whole slew of tests, it was determined that his problem was just that he had an irritable bowl. I didn't know if Sadie had the same problem, so I called the breeder today to see if he had known if any of his other pups had had this problem. Much to my dismay, he got defensive with me and proceeded to tell me that Sadie had never had diarrhea when she was living with him. I beg to differ! He pulled her out of her pen the day we picked her up COVERED in diarrhea. He handed her to me covered in crap so that my arms ended up being covered in crap until we bathed her. Then she had diarrhea in her crate on the way home. Needless to say, his attitude made me slightly angry. Don't freaking lie to me and think I am stupid enough to believe it when I've seen the truth with my own eyes. Not only that, but I didn't call him to accuse, only to ask if he had seen the problem before.

I called a vet this morning and got her in this afternoon. They ran a bunch of tests, all of which came back negative. She is running a slight fever, so their best guess is that she has some kind of virus or bacterial infection. She is now on three different oral medications for the next 10 days. Poor little sweetie.

Maggie is not adjusting well at all. The only thing she will do is hide under our bed. She wants nothing to do with the puppy and nothing to do with us either. She refuses to come when called, and when she does she will come part way, stop, wait for you to command her to come again, come part way, stop, wait for you to call her.... this goes on for way too long. She feels that she does not have to obey Hubs or me. Not only that, but she has barely touched her food and refuses to go to the bathroom if the puppy is outside. I realize her world has been VERY traumatic the last 4 months, so I am very patient with her and am trying really hard to figure out what I need to do to help her confidence levels. I make sure she gets her own mom time, and we snuggle all night long now. I did notice a vast improvement today, however. Hubs put both dogs out for a few hours, and when I came home tonight Mags didn't tuck tail and run when I started paying attention to the pup. She actually came over and socialized with us. She didn't run away from the puppy when Sadie affectionately nuzzled her.

I knew the first week would be the hardest, and I knew I would be glad when it was behind us. I was right. Its only going to get easier from here.

Welome Home Sadie Roo!

The 7+ hour day is over. Whew! We left this morning around 10:30 to go pick up our little Sadie Roo. The breeder told us it was okay if we brought Maggie, and I am so glad we did because I think it really helped keep Sadie's trauma level low on the way home. We got to the breeder's around 2:00 this afternoon, and were taken back into the kennel where my sweet new little pup was sleeping soundly in a mess of puppy crap and pee. Oh yeah, she smelled fantastic! I did have one little surprise, however. I paid $500 for a red and white Border Collie puppy, and to my surprise, my pooch had been upgraded to a rare tri-colored pup! The red and white BCs are already rare among their breed, but the tris are even more rare, and so cost twice as much ($1K!). Alright then, I'll take it!

We were at the kennel for about an hour while the breeder gave Sadie a quick flee bath, a set of shots, and a list of do's and don'ts for us. He seemed really pleased with the knowledge I already came equipped with, and said that I was asking all of the right questions, in the right order, and split seconds before he went into the topics on his usual "new puppy owner" shpeel. He did give me a few pieces of good advice that I had not thought of before though.

After Sadie's flee bath, we took her to meet Mags. Maggie wasn't quite sure what to do with the pup at first, but a few seconds later went into displays of dominance, which is exactly what we wanted to see. We let the two romp around the breeder's office while he got Sadie's pedigree and shot records all taken care of, and about 20 minutes later we were on our way home.

Sadie braved the car ride extremely well. Her and Maggie spent about the first hour of the car ride licking each other's snouts through the crate, until Sadie got tired, curled up, and went to sleep. Maggie followed suit. About half an hour before we got home, Sadie started to whimper. I looked back into her crate and realized she was doing the "I've gotta poop!" dance. A few seconds later, we were driving down the freeway with all four windows down looking for the next exit.

Sadie seems so tiny to me, and I can't believe that the breeder thought she was ready to be separated from her litter, but there isn't much I can do about it. I think the next two weeks are going to be really hard for me while her little brain is still developing. House breaking is going to be a little tough since when I try to scold Sadie for going inside the house, Maggie thinks SHE is the one who is being scolded and she thinks its the puppy's fault, which means she doesn't dare go near the puppy afterward.

Maggie has absolutely established her dominance, and once she felt like she had made that clear, she felt free to play with the puppy. She spent the first part of the evening playing interception between the puppy and me, but she seems to be adjusting to her enough to romp with her and drench Sadie's head in her saliva whilst doing so.

The next couple of weeks should be interesting, and I am just praying that Sadie is as easy of a puppy as Maggie was. I hope she trains quickly and easily with very little direction, and I hope her barking and howling are at a minimum to keep her on Hubs' good side. For now, she is fast asleep in her crate, and I hope she will sleep for a good long time yet so I can catch a few z's myself.

Below is a short little video of the two pooches hitting it off. Enjoy!

A Litte of Everything

This post was actually supposed to be my last post, but then the whole dizziness story took over, so I'll give this one another try. I thought it would be fun to post about a few different things, rather than just one subject, so each paragraph will contain its very own subject matter.

I will start out by saying that the dizziness has persisted into its third day. I had really, really hoped that it would just go away, but much to my dismay, it hangs on and persists. Granted I have yet to fall over again, and it seems to kind of come and go. One minute I will be fine, and the next I will feel dizzy and slightly nauseated. However, I refused to spend my weekend sleeping and sitting or laying down, so I went about all of my normal activities anyway. I figure if it is still hanging on tomorrow, then I will call a doctor. I would have thought that it was caused by the new contact prescription and my eyes trying to adjust, but I actually have yet to wear the new prescription. I only opened my current pair of lenses about a week ago and refuse to waste them, so I will wear them until I normally would have thrown them away before moving onto the 'script. UPDATE: I went to the dr today and she said the dizziness was brought on by a nasty migraine and could last a couple more days yet. Fantastic!

In response to a couple of comments on a previous post about my "blooming size" I should have stuck a sentence in there that said I am currently pushing from a size 4 to a size 6. While this doesn't seem big to most people, I was a size 0 when I got married over 2.5 years ago, and the excess fattie tissue is driving me insane. On top of that, I have been asked the horrifying question, "Are you pregnant?" in response my weight gain. I don't want to be accused of being something I am not; therefore, the weight MUST be shed, and to my relief, seems to slowly be making its way back off my frame. I just wish it would go faster!

I have noticed that since we have been in Texas, Maggie has been a better mood meter of my current feelings than I give her credit for. I noticed that during the week when I decided to give up on my dream of motherhood, Mags was as depressed as I was. It didn't matter how much I tried to fake to her that I was fine by trying to razz her or play with her, she saw right through my fake exterior and continued to be depressed. It wasn't until I came home from work one day, completely determined to be in a good mood and let the whole baby thing go, that her mood perked up. All of a sudden my Happy Baby was back. She wanted to play, be feisty, go on walks, and was in an overall playful mood. The difference for both of us was night and day. I am almost ashamed that I tried to trick her into not being depressed when she knew exactly how I felt. I sure love my little girl. I've said it before, and I can never say it enough, but there is nothing in this world like a good dog, and Mags is one of the best.

I realized this weekend that AF is due to rear her ugly head tomorrow, just in time for our "team building" activity at the lake for work. Not only that, but she will be here and in full swing for my doctor appointment on Thursday. I guess I'm not too bummed that my coworkers won't get to see me in a swimming suit tomorrow. I am able to hide my insecurities (i.e., fat) well when fully dressed, and I would really like to keep that thin perception they all have of me intact.

I have found a new favorite food craving the past few weeks that I just can't get enough of: edamame. The first time I ever tried edamame was at a Pei Wei with my dad and two coworkers from a previous job the week before we moved. All four of us were hooked on the tasty treat and couldn't eat enough. I hadn't had it again between now and about a week ago. It tasted every bit as good as I remembered. I've had it as a snack about 4 times since then. My favorite way to eat is to just cover it in some kosher salt and heat it up in the microwave. Tasty!

My latest house accomplishment was to install a brand spanking new, quiet in-sink-erator (disposal). I think something crawled into the one that came with the house and died because every time I would get near the sink it would smell like rotting animal carcass no matter what I did to get rid of the smell. About a month ago I shelled out $130 for a new, quiet, low vibration, super disposal and finally got around to putting it in today. Yes girls, I did it 98% all by myself. I had Hubs stand over me to help me out when I didn't completely understand the directions, and with the exception of one install step (Hubs had to hold it up to the sink while I secured it), I did the whole installation by myself. Yep, I am quite pleased with myself. :D

Well, on with another week. Here's to hoping its a good one for all of us.

Roo

Okay, so I was barely home yesterday, and when I was I didn't have time to post, as promised in my previous post. I am sure that you all care and are so distraught that I didn't post yesterday. :p

As per my promise, this post is all about my first Border Collie, Roo.

In 2001, the day after Thanksgiving my childhood dog of 14 years had to be put down due to old age. Brisbee was a black, tan, and white Sheltie. I had picked her out when I was only 8 years old, and grew up spending every single moment I could devote of my life to her. While I was sad to let Brisbee go, I knew that had lived a long, full live.

I am the type of person who loves my dogs like they are my children. I spoil and pamper them. I spent oodles of money buying them toys, dog training, high grade dog food, etc. However, my life is so empty if I am not sharing it with a pooch, which means I can't go long between one dog passing and getting another one. Life is just too damn depressing for me if I don't have a canine companion. I don't get one dog to replace another. Replacement is impossible. I get one dog to fill the gigantic void left by the other dog passing.

In February of 2002 I decided I really needed a dog to fill the empty chasm in my heart, and had decided I wanted a Border Collie because they are the smartest dogs in the world. Yes, they really are. I am not just saying that. For weeks I perused the thrifties looking for BC pups, and then one day I found a breeder who sold red and white pups for the same price as black and white pups and decided I was ready to take a look. My dad and I hopped in the car and went over to check out the two female pups that were left in the litter. The second the breeder opened the gate, Roo came running straight for me and never left my side the entire time we were there. Her sister never came over to even check us out, which sealed the deal as far as I was concerned.

At Roo's first vet visit my vet pointed out that Roo had an overshot jaw. This means that her top jaw was a lot longer than her bottom jaw. You could put your finger between her top and bottom teeth when her mouth was closed. I didn't care. Roo picked me, and I was so in love with my pup. To this day I think she picked me because she knew I would love her no matter what, and she was right.

Over her short 3.5 year lifetime we attended hundreds of dollars worth of dog classes just because it was time for us to bond. She was always the top dog in her class. She was the only dog who would stay when I told her to stay and would walk out of sight. She always caught on to new commands faster than the other dogs. But above all of that, she had a love and respect for me that even Maggie doesn't exhibit. She would always look me right in the eyes while we were training with a look that said, "I love you so much I will do exactly what you tell me to do." We were so close that I started taking her everywhere I could possibly take her, including on long hikes up in the canyons. She was my baby dog. When I fed her, I held her bowl in my hands because it was "our time." I would even sing to her while she ate. She had this way of wagging her tail when she saw me that just exuded her love for me. She would wag her tail so hard her whole body would bend in half and her tail would smack her in the face. It always warmed my heart beyond words. Whenever we would sit down next to each other, she would put her paw on me, signifying that I was hers, and she did this from the first day that I brought her home.

When I got married Roo stayed at my dad's house with his dog whom she had grown up with and was bosom buddies with. It seemed cruel to separate them, so I didn't. Then one day, after I had been married for three weeks, my dad called me and told me that Roo wasn't eating. Since she had been known to do it before, I didn't panic. I told my dad just to watch her over the next couple days and let me know if anything changed. However, I decided the next morning that I had better go check on her. When I called her over to the gate I knew instantly that she was extremely ill. I packed her into the car right away and rushed her to the vet, who has been a family friend since before I was born. He wasn't sure what was going on, but told me he needed to put her on an IV. She ended up spending the whole weekend at the vet on IVs, and on Monday we thought she was well enough to go home. Her condition never improved, but just kept getting worse. It was about the third or fourth day that I really started to panic and wonder if she would make it.

The last day of her life my vet called me at 7:00 in the morning and told me he hadn't been able to sleep all night because he was thinking about my dog and wanted me to bring her in for x-rays right away. It was at this point I knew we were in trouble. When the vet called me in to look at the x-ray I knew it was worse than I thought, and it took all I had to keep from crying. Roo had a genetic defect that caused her to have a hole in her diaphragm, and the x-ray revealed that her intestines had made their way into her chest cavity. I still held out hope that my baby would make it. My vet had to leave town that afternoon, so he handed me Roo's x-rays and rushed me to another vet with a note, asking them to perform surgery ASAP.

When I got to the next vet's office, they locked Roo and me in an examination room for about an hour before we were finally seen. They told me that they didn't think Roo stood a chance, that they could operate, but that it would cost me $8,000 and her chances of survival were only 10%. It was at that moment that I realized my dog might not see the end of the day. I asked to be left alone to call my dad and husband to decide what I wanted to do. I looked into Roo's copper eyes and just bawled. I just didn't understand how my dog who was not even 4 years old could be dying. We had so much ahead of us, it was impossible that she could be dying. I was supposed to have 10 more years. I called my dad, and as much as he loved my dog, he told me that I needed to consider putting her down. Of course I cried hysterically and told him I couldn't do it, she was too young. Even writing it about it is making my sob.

I decided $8K was too much, but that I was not willing to let her go yet, so I packed her back up in her crate very much against the vet's wishes and drove her to my apartment where I carried her in her crate up three flights of stairs while I sobbed. Because of the situation, Roo had lost control of her bowel movements, and I had decided if I was going to put her down, she wasn't going to be covered in poop, so I took her home to bathe her and let the knowledge that our time was fast coming to an end sink in. While I sat with her and cried, Hubs called around to different vet's offices to see if we could take her for a second opinion. One vet gave us hope, so we carried my baby dog back to the car and off to the vet.

The new vet's diagnosis was not as grim as the previous one, and the price tag started at only $800 to open her up and see what they could do. I told Hubs I could not let Roo go without trying, and opted for surgery. I will never forget those last few minutes I had with my little Roo. She was laying on her dog bed near the surgery, her eyes never left me. I don't know if she knew it was over, or if she didn't understand why I was abandoning her in this strange place. It took every thing I had in me to walk away, sobbing and wondering if I would see those bright copper eyes looking at me ever again.

A few hours later I got the phone call. Roo was not going to make it. Too much of her intestines had died, and even if the surgery was a success, her life would be miserable. I asked them to please keep her alive long enough for me to come tell her goodbye, then called my dad and asked him to meet us at the vet's office. When we go the vet, the escorted us back into the surgery where Roo lay unconscious on the operating table. I sobbed and pet my baby girl for the last time, and then allowed them to put her down. I just could not believe that my little dog was gone. How was it possible that her life was cut so short?

I am also one of those people who believes that everything happens for a reason. I believe that Roo and I were supposed to be together, and as horrible as it sounds and makes me feel, I feel like her life was supposed to be short so that I would end up with Maggie. Mags was born 13 days after Roo died from the same mother as Roo. Maggie was also the last litter from Red, who also happened to be the breeder's favorite dog (so much his favorite that he had Red tattooed on his arm). Maggie shares a lot of the same characteristics as Roo, yet she is a completely different dog. I love the days when I can look at Maggie and see a part of Roo. Because I have Maggie, Roo is not gone. A little piece of her lives on in Mags.

Two Weeks in and Couting

The first two weeks in the new house are behind us, and I have to say I am so glad. I'm glad because the only boxes left to unpack are garage goods and pictures. I'm glad because most of the projects we could afford for the house are almost complete. But I am mostly glad because I realized this week that I really do love this house, despite its very strange quarks. The best news of all is that only a couple of things have come up missing, and its not the mover's fault. I also have not yet found anything else that was broken or damaged and can now finally submit my claim to get my antiques repaired.

It is so refreshing to have finally found a place for everything and to finally see that this house is ours. It has been fun to see all of our projects transform our house into something outstanding. We're still a long way away from being done, but the little things we have done so far have just made it a wonderful experience for me. I found that even the smallest things, such as changing a door knob, just made me giddy with excitement and happiness. The only down side is that the money has temporarily run out. The upside to that is that even though I can't afford to do 100% of everything I want to do, I was able to get in the things that were most important to me. My last big expense for the next few months will be to buy new blinds.

This next week will be full of hanging pictures, finishing the floors, cleaning up, finding homes for the remaining items, and replacing the last of the electrical outlets. I just can't wait to have everything all done so that we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of our labors, or spend our free time taking Mags for walkies.

Work has been going really well too. I gained another new friend when my newest coworker started two weeks ago. Together we learned the ropes of the company, met all of the important people, and went through training. The addition of this new friend also helped me feel like I fit in. I no longer felt like I was the new person on my team who was on the outside of their friendship looking in. We share many things in common, such as the fact that we were both relocated and are trying hard to sell our old houses in a less than stellar market.

The stress from the move is finally starting to ebb, and I am really starting to feel like this place is home. I just love it here. The humidity even makes my hair curl, which is awesome because it cuts way back on my styling time in the morning. :D I also just can't get enough of the awesome food around us. We actually just went to the grocery store for the first time today. That's right, I have not cooked one thing in my new kitchen yet. We have eaten out for every meal for the last six weeks! I'll give the home cooking a try for a bit, and if it doesn't take, we'll go back to eating out for every meal.

Mags is also starting to get her feet under her. She still stresses a little bit and has taken to hiding under beds a lot, but she is also starting to realize our gigantic back yard is her personal play ground and grazing ground (yep, she grazes just like a cow). Every time we move past the front door at all, she gets all excited because she thinks we are going to take her outside to play ball in the massive green field next to our house. We take her with us in the car whenever we can, and sometimes take her places we probably shouldn't, like the home improvement store.

Our lives are finally starting to settle down, and our house is finally starting to feel like a home. We are certainly in the home stretch, and then I will put together my little slide show of the before and after photos. But now its time for a little Me Time. I think tonight I will read some blogs and then I am going to play the Sims until bed time!

Bad Dog!!!

Moving is a big deal for any dog, and can sometimes be a very traumatic experience. I know and understand this, so in anticipation of our move, I hit the local Petco to buy the doggie version of a Glade scented oil plug-in with what they call "Doggie Appeasing Pheromones" (DAP). This scent is supposed to calm and soothe dogs during traumatic experiences. However, we thought that Mags handled the move like a champ and that we didn't need to use the DAP to soothe her. I even said as much to a coworker this afternoon. This is her second move in her short 2.5 year life, and I thought that this time around we weren't going to experience any strange dog behavior.

The first time we moved it was from our apartment to our town home. She had been to the town home many times before we actually moved, so she had the chance to become accustomed to the new place. However, during the first week that we were in our new place, Mags peed a gigantic yellow puddle in a hidden corner of the living room. Fortunately for her, Hubs was out of town and had no idea she had done this. Unfortunately for me, it was on some seriously crappy berber carpet that soaked up stains like that was what it was meant to do. It took me months and gallons of floor cleaning chemicals before the stain was finally eradicated.

On top of her pee stain, she also decided that she all of a sudden liked drinking out of toilets. She NEVER drank out of a toilet in our apartment, but for some reason decided she liked the flavor of the new toilet water. Especially when it had been treated with bleach tabs. We adjusted quickly to this new like of hers by learning to always put the toilet seat down. Then one day, she decided to chew on one of our wooden stairs. She had NEVER chewed on anything that wasn't hers let alone furniture! But thank heaven that was the extent of her moving trauma last time.

This time around I figured she was doing better because she had moved once before, and after three weeks of her excellent behavior, figured we were in the clear for moving trauma. WRONG!!!!

I want to breed Mags one day and keep one of her pups so that I always have a little piece of her when she passes on in 12+ years from now, so I haven't had her fixed. She went into heat this past weekend, which is seriously inconvenient because all of her doggie undies are in the storage unit with all the rest of our stuff. No big deal though, I just went to Target and picked her up some new supplies. This might be a bit TMI, but I just take little girls undies and put a pantie liner in them to keep her from spotting everywhere. After removing her underoos one night to take her out to do her biz, I realized the pad was missing. I didn't think too much about it because she usually rips them out and tears them up all over some place in the house. It wasn't until the second pad went missing that I realized I hadn't seen either of them torn up anywhere.... She had eaten them. WHAT THE DEUCE DOG?!?!

Tonight Hubs and I went out for some dinner and a bit of shopping (I bought the AWESOMEST red leather coat at Wilsons for half off!). When we returned home, I walked into the kitchen to find the garbage bag tipped over, and the kitchen floor covered in torn up garbage. Maggie has NEVER gotten into the garbage ever! I just about died. I couldn't believe it. WHAT THE DEUCE DOG?!?!

Needless to say, I don't think she will be getting any supper tonight since she has already helped herself to the garbage, and I'll be lucky if I don't get woken up by the sound and smell of her puking later tonight, and she will be crated when we leave the house for the interim, which hasn't happened for about two years now.

Seriously, WHAT THE DEUCE DOG?!?!

Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend my little brother came down for an entire weekend visit. He headed down Friday afternoon after he found out I had left the office for the day. I layed around while I waited for him to get here, and for Hubs to get home from his business trip. After a rough week, I decided that I deserved a little bit of shopping. So once my brother got here, we headed to Best Buy to exchange some software, then to the mall where I spent $80 on eye shadow (yeah, its worth every penny, but that's a post for another day). After the mall we headed back to my office to pick up my office's corporate ski passes so my guys could spend the next day skiing for free. We rounded out our shopping adventure with a trip to the pet store, where I spent $35 in doggie products for Mags, including shedless shampoo (to help curb Maggie's obsessive shedding problem lately), some special paw pad pampering soap (because her paw pads are dried out from the cold [kind of like my hands]), and a bit of ginger doggie cologne. Spoiled pooch? Oh yeah. Later that night my little bro's girlfriend came down, and the three of us set out to buy the best tasting pizza we could buy before Hubs got home.

My baby brother, the morning he headed out to Iraq.

The next morning my guys got up and went out for a day on the slopes. While they were gone, Mags and I went for a walk to the park where Maggie proceeded to not only sniff every bit of yellow snow left by other dogs, but to lick it as well. Once we got back home, I took a shower, and then Mags got her first ever in-home spa day with her newly purchased Dog Spa goodies. (She gets bathed on a regular basis, as she is an inside dog, but she'd never had a spa day anywhere but the groomers.) After our respective showers, we commenced cleaning the house until the guys came home, tired and starving. We headed out to our favorite local burger joint and ate until we were in food comas.
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Bird and Mags watching TV at our old apartment.

We spent the whole rest of the weekend watching movies, playing video games (Lego Star Wars), sleeping, eating lots of PEZ, and just plain relaxing. It was an awesome weekend.

Oops!

I just had to share a funny story from today. In my last blog I posted about hositng a meeting with the president of my company where I could not form coherent sentences. Well, I just made my problems even worse today.

On occasion I take my pooch to work with me for the day. She is very well behaved, and everyone at work loves her. No, really, they love her. I keep her in my office with the door closed and tell a few select people when she is there, and her fans all come in just to say hello to her. I'm really good about not forcing my dog on non-dog people. Anyhoo, today was one of those special days, since Hubs was out of town overnight and I knew she didn't want to be home all alone for the second day in a row. I also figured today would be a good Pooch-to-Work day since I was going to be leaving early with Hubs coming home today and my little brother coming down for the weekend.

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The new Technical Writer at my company. :)

At about 2:00 I started to really hurt because, surprise of all surprises, I'm ovulating today! Apparently one of the side-effects of my endometrial resection is that I now have ovulation pain and spotting, complete with positive OPK.

I tried to stick my day out until at least 3:00, but by the time 2:30 rolled around, I was finding it difficult to sit upright at my desk due to discomfort. I finally decided to pack it in for the day, loaded up my computer, bundled up my pooch, and headed out the front door. In the parking lot on my way to the car, who should I chance to meet, but the president of the company. Not only did he catch me leaving work really early, he noticed that I was being followed by Maggie. Luckily he was on the phone, but I still saw the look on his face. I just smiled and told him to have a good weekend.

I guess I'll find out Monday if I still have a job. LOL!

No Chasing Cougars!

I was just about to heat myself up some dinner while Hubs worked away when I looked at Maggie and remembered the nightmare I had about her last night.

I dreamed that Hubs and I were sitting on the couch in our front room when a cougar came up to our front window, looking in and sniffing around. I watched this cougar while slightly fearing he would not only smell my precious pooch, but would break through the window to come get at her. I was relieved when the cat finally stepped away from the window and walked out of sight.

An hour later we were ready to retire to bed for the evening when I realized Mags probably needed to go out to go potty one more time. I asked Hubs to go outside with me while Maggie was out there so that if the cougar came back he could fight it off. He agreed, so I put Maggie's coat on and opened the back door to let her out. Within seconds she had spotted the cougar a few yards down (because our fences had all magically disappeared) and went tearing after him. Of course, once the cougar caught sight of Mags, he was running after her to make her his tasty dinner.

As with all nightmares, I could not scream out to my dog to call her back. All I could do was watch in horror as the cougar bore down on my baby dog. Before he had the chance to pounce on her, I woke up, heart pouding and ears ringing in fear. I sat there for the longest time trying to reassure myself that my pooch was fine and sleeping snuggly just outside my bedroom door. It took me forever to allow myself to fall back asleep for fear the nightmare would continue.

Last night was the first night in about a month and a half that I didn't take a sleeping pill. Coincidence?