HELP!!!!

Holy crap it is cold here. Yesterday was bad enough, the temp hovered around -35F for most of the day, and today....get this -39F. Yes, you read that right, it is 39 degrees below zero. I'm pretty amazed at how well I'm handling it. Last year I wanted to cry. For those who are even thinking about thinking that because I was born and raised here that I should be some super woman with great genes to withstand this...there is no way. I walk outside and I swear that my body feels the need to donate all of my heat, because within 30seconds I get cold. We usually don't get weather like this until the end of January-February, and luckily it is only supposed to last about a week. For all of you out there, think warm!

Yeah, sorry about that

But now I am back. I've had a few mini crisis' in the past, and I am embarrassed to say this, in the past two months. But life is good right now. I do have a few stories about the pets, which I will post over the next couple of days. The first is about Lilie's toe, or rather, her dew claw. About a month ago Lilie tore her dew claw, and I had been so wrapped up in my own dramas that who knows how long it went unnoticed. We took her the vet, who had to rip the nail away :( I can only imagine how painful that must have been. But, after a week and a half of antibiotics, her toe is growing back! Sure it is a little deformed, and we don't know what it will look like in a year, but we're happy to say that Lilie is no longer licking her toe excessively. She's feeling better!

Stay tuned, the next post will be about the cats, the dogs, and the Christmas tree.

Mom...I Gotta Go

This is what Lilie was crying at 12:30am the other night. I was woken from a deep sleep, with ear plugs in, as Lilie was whinning loudly from outside my door. I got up, went to the back door to let the dogs out, and it seems that Lilie REALLY had to go. There was a nice size puddle of urine on the floor. Have I mentioned lately that I love my pets? They sure know how to treat me well.

Jasper and his two paw touch

Jasper is one of our adorable cats, and he does a very adorable thing with his two front paws. As we walk by him, he often, and I mean often, runs by us, pauses long enough to tap us on our legs with his front paws, then runs off. That's it. That's all he does. At first we were completely surprised by this behavior, and then I started thinking it was rude (he would often do this around supper time), and now, I just get a big ol' kick out of it (no pun intended!). It's things like this that make raising all of these hellions worth it. I just look at him and smile.

By the way, this is Jasper helping Husband hang a light fixture in the bedroom. Both of our cats love to get in the way! But, at least now when I talk about Jasper you have a face to go with the name!

Copper-sitting

Husband and I are dog sitting for one of our friends. Here are her facts: she is a year old, weighs less than my cats, and is a pure-bred Beagle....yes, I said Beagle. Copper is having the time of her life here; two dogs to play with ALL the time, and two cats to harass until they catch on to the fact they can jump onto furniture higher than she is. Luckily for me, Husbands work schedule worked out just so, that I only had to manage all FIVE pets one day. The first night she howled, I turned to husband and asked if, since she was one it would stop. The second night Copper didn't stop moving until after 9:30, and that was only because I gave her a chewy. The dogs are having a blast with her. Lilie plays really well with her, half the time Sadie is policing them. Lilie only had to be scolded twice for not sharing, Sadie already knew the drill. Copper has only gotten hurt twice, which really is a miracle considering she weighs something like a sixth of my dogs. Lilie accidentally bit her little stick legs too hard. Copper's leg went in the air, and I "tough" loved her and told her to walk it off! All in all its been a fun experience and we enjoy having her. Although, lucky for Husband I won't be bothering him at all for another dog...filling five food bowls, and feeding five animals separately is a LOT of work.

Not The Butter

Anyone who has spent a fair amount of time around me knows that two of my favorite foods are butter and salt...weird right? Don't worry, I don't go around eating these two things together and only these two things. But fresh popped popcorn, hot vegetables, all these things deserve the deliciousness of butter and salt. So, here's the scene: I come home Thursday after work. Lilie goes to the water dish to quench her thirst, Sadie heads for the water dish in the kitchen. But wait, there isn't a water dish in the kitchen. And then I see it, my tub of butter lay right side up, lid showing signs of a break in from the cats, and Sadie, with butter on her chin. Not the butter! So you see, nothing is safe in this house.

It Always Brings A Smile

It snowed, it snowed, it snowed! For some reason the first snowfall always brings a smile to my face. There is something about it. I guess there is just so much anticipation for the start of winter just as there is for spring. I never realize how ready I am for winter until it snows. This year winter was late...I know for all of you lower 48ers this seems a tad on the strange side. I remember my freshman year of college there was snow the third week of September and it stayed, see nothing to complain about. It's always fun to see the dogs run outside and greet the first snowfall as well. I swear there was a little more hop in Sadie's step this morning. I suppose it's not unrealistic to thing her feet were cold! Now comes the cold, the slick roads, and the high heating costs, but it'll be worth it, until February. And then spring will come, in May.

I Had A Date With My Dog

I had a date with Sadie tonight! It was our forth agility class. Today we learned to spin. I know, sounds glamorous. I did learn something tonight though...that agility is great because you don't get tested on the previous class lessons...the bad thing is, you don't get tested. I only say this because, if you don't practice, then your dog doesn't get better. However, you have to be your own motivator, because their really isn't any failing (unless you consider not graduating). I need to start working with Sadie more, but at least now we have a list:

• work on the beginnings of a front cross
• work on the spin
• work on stays
• remember to say "wait" and not stay

Sadie is a great agility dog, I'm really the one holding her back.

I Know You're Out There

So, sort of contrary to what my "no comments" tab tells me, I know that I have visitors to this blog because of the counter. If I do have faithful readers, or just a visitor who happens upon this site every once in awhile, I'd love to get feedback. I'm sure there are plenty of readers who have animals. I'd love to hear stories about your little ones. So, every now and then, leave me something to indicate how I'm doing...even if you hate what I've written. In my case, no news is no good, and bad news is better than nothing. But to those you do read, thank you!

What the ****?

And that's putting it mildly. First, take a look at Sadie, how vicious does she really look? Take a good hard look.

Now, to be honest, I did pick a pretty cute picture, and as a disclaimer, she is my little baby. But I do know that she is no angel, and that she can be a bit protective. Now the point of this all. I took the dogs to work today. I am well aware that Sadie barks at people when they walk by the car. I've also had all of my coworkers tell me that it wasn't a big deal, to quite worrying about it. "She's just doing what dogs are supposed to do, barking is how they communicate." That said, the following note was placed on my windshield (no editing on my part took place):

"Please don't part these dogs here. They are loud and act vicious to people who pass by. You are giving a bad image to all dog owners and especially those who have to bring them to work. Please park you car on the outskirts of the parking lot where few people pass, not always in the center, where everyone passes by. Thanks. P.S. Your dogs bumped on your hazard lights (how appropriate), and they act so vicious that I don't dare stick my arm in to turn them off, so your car may be out of batteries by the end of the day."

Okay, here my problems with the note:

1. The note was left open, facing everyone who wished to read this tyraid.
2. There was no name, no contact information. I believe this is cowardly. Had the person been nice, and respectful, I would have loved to chat with them to find out more information. Instead I'm left questioning how inappropriate her behavior really was.
3. I am a good pet owner. And anyone can attest to that. I love my dogs and take really good care of them, that's why there were in the car and not in a kennel for nine hours today.
4. How the heck does this person know I don't have to bring the dogs to work? And, to be honest, no one really has to bring their dogs to work, they just prefer not to kennel them all day.
5. I don't always park in the center of the lot. To be honest, this was the second time I've done this.
6. How awful is it for a person to be thankful that the hazard lights were turned on.
7. And why would anyone, under and circumstances, other then the dog dying, put their arms into a strangers car. I think this part of the note sounds pretty smug.
8. The fact that they obviously believe I'm a bad pet owner.

Things that I like about the note:

1. They remembered to say please twice.
2. They remembered to say thanks.

I really wish that I could have had a civil talk with this person, who I think is a student, and a female. Now I'm left to my own inner anger about the whole thing. Later that day I had someone I knew, and the dogs did not, walk by the car. Sadie acted like I thought she would, bark at him until he passed the car. During this whole incident the windows were all the way rolled up with the doors locked. I know that I wouldn't have felt so threatened that I would have had to write this note. I just think this person handled the whole thing completely wrong, and next time should have the balls to do the right thing: leave a short polite note asking me to contact them. Do you all feel like I'm out of line? Let me know. It's okay, I promise I won't bite.

First a Quilt, and now a Curtain?

My mom and one of our longtime family friends drove up to visit me this past weekend. FYI, I live 350 miles away, and they came up for the weekend. Takes a special person to do this trip three or four times in the summer. Don't see them in the winter, no one wants to test their luck with the road. Anyway, this isn't this point. Mom was up here the beginning of September with my sister. The two of them politely informed me I was making a quilt for this girl we knew who was pregnant, who just happens to be the daughter of the woman that accompanied my mom this weekend....follow? So, I spent the beginning of the month quilting, whipped out this adorable blanket in two days. Then this weekend my mom informed me that I was going to make a curtain to go with the quilt. When asked why neither of these two women made the curtain...well, it's all so simple of course, they don't know how and don't want to buy a sewing machine, so why not drive for seven hours? Crazy, I know. But I do love the company. On the second day they were here they take out the fabric, and wallah, they didn't buy enough. And as it turns out, luckily for me no on in town carried enough fabric so I was able to relax (sort of) the rest of the weekend! I had a lot of fun while they were here, and unfortunately this will be the last trip of the year...mom got snowed on they way down.

Yeah for Sadie!

I have recently enrolled Sadie in agility classes...you know, the dogs that can go over A-frames, jump, and go through hoops, that sort of stuff. One of my ex-coworkers does agility and she had worked on me for a year to try it with Sadie. I didn't know if I had the time, or was willing with the money commitment. I decided to start training with her at home with the basics, and she had so much fun. Sadie is extremely food driven, which makes her extremely easy to work with, she is extremely motivated to please, and is pretty intelligent. All and all she is going to make a good agility dog (I think, as I am sure we all do about our "kids"). I just need to keep an eye on myself, and keep me motivated. So far we've had two classes and Sadie has done very well. She already knew a lot of the foundational stuff that we had to work on, so we're busy building on that and making it stronger. I have to teach her a trick, and so we're working on "dead cockroach". It's a bit of a challenge just because Sadie needs to lay on her back with her paws in the air.....not something that comes natural. I think after two weeks she has it down pretty good...once again, just working on it to make it stronger.

Lilie will probably never do agility. She is much less motivated, which I do like cause I can be pretty lazy. When I first started working with Sadie, I was surprised how eager it made Lilie to work. She does get really jealous when I work with Sadie, so I do a few easy things with her that are easily rewardable. So I guess that my life isn't all work with no play. I do sometimes enjoy the rug rats that I have!

There's Something About Leo...

And it ain't pretty. Leo is our two year old cat whom we rescued from the animal shelter in Michigan. We loved him, cared for him, and have even paid his vet bills and provided him with many expensive meals, and he has yet to thank us. I know what everyone says about cats, "Oh they're so independent, isn't it nice!", or "Cats are soooooo easy to take care of, they practically take of themselves." I wish that were true. Leo is motivated by one thing only, food. All of his behavior stems from this one true passion. Here are a few ways husband and I have altered our lives/adapted to Leo so far:
1. Safety locks on all of our lower kitchen cabinets, and one up high that contains all of our bread/chip type items. We are so far ahead of the game when we have kids.
2. Listening to constant whining (I call his incessant meows whining) for a minimum of thirty minutes prior to every feeding. Many of you may be wondering why Leo has to call attention to the fact he needs food. Well, Leo isn't capable of making good food choices, i.e. he eats everything in site, so to keep him from being obese, he gets feed twice a day, once at 6am the other at 10pm. Don't worry, he isn't actually starving, he weighs a healthy 15 pounds.
3. Large paint cans that I have to lift off of the tubs we keep dog and cat food in.
4. For those faint of heart, don't read this. Due to the situation outlined above, Leo wears a shocker collar at night. Trust me, I thought long and hard about this, I too felt tremendously bad for him. But after a year of getting woken up at 4:30am to scratching at the door, tugging of the door, and yes, even body slamming the door, I decided that getting enough sleep to deal with him far outweighed the guilt I had about the collar.
5. Allowing the cats on the kitchen table and counters. Leo is the first animal that I have ever dealt with that absolutely doesn't care about cause and effect. No punishment (besides animal abuse, and even, who really knows) deters him from doing bad things. I had to make a choice between my own mental well being and having to wash to table/counters every time I wanted to use them, or pulling my hair out of frustration. Fortunately for me I chose mental health and now the cats have the run of house.
6. Being one of those pet owners who spends lots of money on expensive food. Through no fault of my own, and this totally being husbands fault, we have two cats that are both on prescription food, for the rest of their natural, 14 years left, lives. I find it hard not to put a price on love, but I do it every day.
7. Vacationing. Hopefully one day we'll find someone generous enough to want to handle the special needs of all our animals, most notably Leo.
I'm sure there is more I'm missing, and if I remember I'll let you know. But I think I've left you enough to chew on at the moment.

Poor Sadie

Sadie has some how hurt her nose. I noticed yesterday that the hair by her nose had somehow been torn out. She has an open wound. It is getting worse. I am trying my hardest to block the maternal instinct in me that is telling me to rush her to the vet. I know that she doesn't need to go and this will pass, but I feel bad for my baby. Hopefully neosporin will fix the problem and she'll be good as new. Just another day I guess. My mom tells me the only reason I find all these things to worry about in regards to my pets is directly related to the fact that I'm not busy with real children yet. She's probably right.

Back to it

Okay, so I know that I've been absent, basically for the life of this blog, but I'm back. And here it is, right down to the nitty gritty. This morning Sadie had another accident on the floor, I know, again, there seems to be a pattern to this. So, my husband and I get that all cleaned up, and to work we go. I come home (he of course will not be) and I find that Sadie has popped in her kennel. Now, I want you to know that yes, I do in fact feel for her. For a dog to defecate in their personal space, where they can't get away, I know that she wasn't feeling well. However, I do feel for myself as well. And I feel bad for myself because now I have to go wash the blankets and kennel in the front yard in the rain, then bring the dripping wet mess inside and wash the blankets in the washer. All of this and a not so good day at work...what will be next?

On That Note

After writing the last blog, I was reminded of other stories involving roughage. Sadie once ate all the strawberries off the vine and my sister-in-laws house. Last night on our walk she went up to a raspberry bush and had a sweet snack. There you have it, more evidence of the goodness of fruits and vegetables.

So funny

Today my dogs did a very funny thing, or rather I did it to them. I was making some food with potatoes and had a few left over. I haven't mentioned this before, but I can get my dogs to eat just about any type of fruit or vegetable. I had already filled the pan and still had potatoes left over, and I thought, why not just put them in the dogs dinner, they've eaten them before. And then the funny happened. Lilie gently took each potato out of her dish and put them on the ground. Sadie found a way to leave them all in her dish and get to the dog food underneath. Once Lilie had finished her food we placed the potato's back into her bowl. Both her and Sadie proceeded to finish what they had saved, best for last right? Not a piece was left.

Sorry it's Been so Long

I promise that I have tons of more stories about my pets to share. Soon, I promise.

Never in a Million Years

For those of you who don't know, I was born and raised in Alaska. So, that said, I had a funny experience last night. For the first time ever in my life I encountered someone who didn't know how to apply mosquito repellent! I just thought that was hilarious, and totally took me by surprise. I now understand that I was being pretty ignorant, and I do understand that not everyone is assaulted by biting insects at their house. That however has never been my experience.

How was your Monday...

...mine went a little like this. Woke up about 5:30am to a smell that assaulted my nose and offended my senses. I thought, the cats are pretty smelly, but definitely not this bad. I walked into the living room and right there on my real hardwood floors, Sadie had gone to the restroom, not pretty. I called for my husband to help, and got it cleaned up. Then it was off to the gym to kick my own butt for fun, and then work (ugh). So, I've been at work all day, had a terrible morning, and just wanted to relax when I walked through the door. After the morning what else could go wrong? The afternoon was even less smooth sailing then earlier. I let the dogs out (there are crated all day) and poor sweet Sadie still has the runs. Lilie starts to throw up, and Jasper (long haired cat) has poop stuck to his rumpus. I clean Jasper, get Lilie outside, and start to make dinner. Lilie comes inside, because it's not possibly for a dog to throw up for 30 minutes right? Well evidently Lilie can because she did, twice more in the house. Shawn finally gets home, and he says, Jasper has MORE poop on him, lets wash him down. So, how was your Monday? Tuesday was a little better for me.

The Basics

A few facts about my "children." Sadie is our 23 month old foxhound who we love to death. We found her while in Michigan and flew her up to Alaska when we moved back. She is adorable, and a very loving, but protective dog. Leo is our almost two year old cat (also from Michigan). You will be hearing a lot about him, trust me. I'll leave it for later. Lilie is our precious black lab/german shepard(?) 15 month old. She is nothing but sweet, and gives more kisses then you really want. Lilie and Sadie are the best of friends and keep each other occupied most of the time. Jasper is our oldest child. He, like the other cat has many stories to share with you. All of the pets are pound rescued. That said, we have figured out, at least with a cats, there was a reason they were in there. I must forewarn you all that some of the stories I share may leave you with a foul taste in your mouth. I leave with you with those words of wisdom.

Just so you know

I have started this blog for the sake of my sanity. I like to call myself a mother of four, although I have no children. What I do have is two dogs and two cats, all under the age of two. Most, like my self, probably don't see the problem. You will soon see what my problem is. I didn't when I brought them all home. For now this blog is dedicated to crazy times I've had with them. If the past is any indication of the future, there will be plenty more tales to come. I hope you enjoy my pets tales, as much as this will substitute as therapy for me.