November 2011Monthly Archives

Holidays 2011

Marzipan

Well it’s time for the holidays again. Today is Thanksgiving. This picture was from last week. I’m on the left, my sister is on the right. We were making Marzipan with our family. We do it every year, it’s a family tradition. We have a good time and I love getting together with the family… the human family.

The dogs are not allowed to come, unfortunately. But the dogs get to do lots of fun things even if they don’t involve marzipan. Which is probably good since marzipan has so many calories.

The dogs got to go to the dog park this morning. I took Levi, Tatum, Jet, and even Chase. Though Chase is grumpy around other dogs so he doesn’t get to go much. Actually, I probably won’t take him again anytime soon. He thinks he wants to see other dogs, so he runs up to them, then after five seconds he growls at them and acts like he’s going to attack. So he got to be on the leash most of the walk. I wish he was more dog friendly but he’s just not. So he gets to do things that do not involve any other dogs.

I didn’t find any guitar chords at the park… no one was playing. It was kinda dreary today. The fall colors are all gone, and there’s no snow yet, so it’s in limbo. I’ll try to get some pictures up. But I am full of Thanksgiving Dinner (without the turkey since I’m vegetarian). And I think it’s time for bed!

Cynthia

November 24, 2011

Daily Posts

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Holidays

A New Chair

Jet on the Chair

Well, I took a risk and went out and got a chair. It’s not a new chair. In fact it’s about 20 years old. The lady said it’s be re-upholstered a couple of times, too.

I’ve been wanting a recliner since we moved our TV room upstairs. The room is too small for a couch, but we’ve really needed someplace else to sit. There are two of us humans in the house and sometimes we both like to sit on a chair instead of the mattress on the floor (yes there’s a mattress on the floor for the dogs, not a biggie. LOL).

Used furniture is always scary. Do you watch Big Bang Theory? Where they found the chair on the curb and something was moving in it? LOL that was a funny episode. So the chair is a bit dirty, hopefully I’ll get the gumption to find our little carpet cleaner and clean it up. But it’s in good shape and it’s comfy. It’s really pretty, too. The dogs were very interested in it when it came to our house. And it reclines, which I really super like! But it looks like it’s been well taken care of and it’s nice to have another chair in the TV room again. I’ve covered it with a sheet so that the dogs don’t ruin it.

Levi and the Chair

We can’t really afford a $500 recliner, so this will be it for a while. I could always wear some nursing scrubs when I sit in it. The dogs don’t care. It smells different but I’m sure it’ll take on our own house smell pretty quickly. Hopefully not by being peed on by Muffit.

Cynthia

November 21, 2011

Daily Posts

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Chatter

Understanding Tatum

Tatum At Dog Camp

When I got Tatum from Houston Collie Rescue back in 2007, I knew she was special. Though when I say special, I don’t mean she was exceptionally smart (though she is very smart) or would go far in dog sports, or would excel in anything I was going to do with her. No.. not in that way. Because she came from rescue, a hoarder with 70 collies running amok in her back yard. So right from the get-go Tatum had issues, and I also knew that in a way, they made her special.

She’s special because she is very timid when I take her outside, but she recovers really fast when she’s at home. She bosses the boys around, but what girl doesn’t? She growls at the other dogs if they get too close to her on the bed or on the couch. She’s a bit full of herself sometimes, and at other times she likes to be on her own.

Tatum is hard to quantify, really. She loves to do agility training, though at trials she’s not so sure. She doesn’t like people all that much, but she likes us okay, and will nip at us in her herding collie way to get us to play. And the louder we squeal, the more she likes it. I couldn’t place her in a home where, if she nipped, they would punish her or think she was doing a bad thing. Her nipping is for play, and she needs people who understand that, even it hurts!

She needs someone who understands her growling, too. It’s not aggression at all, it’s just that ‘stop touching me’ thing that even human kids do. She’s very picky with food, but she loves Tuna! She needed someone to build up her confidence and help her to accept people as good things, and as part of her life.

She’s not a dog that could be put in just any old home and be expected to adapt. She needed to understand people rules, in a good way, to build her confidence and help her live a happy life.

Some dogs are special and need special homes. When I met Tatum, I fell in love with her. I was afraid no one else would really understand her. And so we kept her. And we understand her. And we just adore her to pieces.

Tatum

Pretty Tatum

Happy 12th Birthday Levi

Happy 12 Levi!

Today is Levi’s 12th birthday. Wow.. he made it! And he’s doing pretty good, for a 12 year old collie. I took Levi to the vet on Thursday last week, because he still is in pain once in a while and he worries me. He had lots of checks. They aspirated all his bumps (he has three, one is quite big), and they are all fatty. They took chest x-rays to check out his lungs because he’s been having a weird wheezy cough. None of the other dogs have it, so it’s not bordatella. He had full blood work, which came back good.

He’s been licking his bum, too, but he came back okay about that, too. He doesn’t do it enough that he’s red or raw. The vet said maybe he’s cleaning his own anal sacks. Which I guess is fine, though kinda gross.

So he’s now on adequan and rimadyl. I know rimadyl can be bad long term, but he needs some help with his arthritis. He’s also on duralactin and glucosamine. I still want to get him some acupuncture, too. And the other dogs are not allowed to push him over, or he spends the day on the memory foam toppers on the bed and sleeps. Because he gets sore. My poor baby boy. I just adore him.

Here’s a video of him doing agility from back in 2008. His weaves never were good. Maybe his back always did bug him, I don’t know. I hope not. But I didn’t force him, I just tried to make them happy. He did so good at agility, except for the weaves.

He loves his birthday pizza, so do the rest of the dogs!

Levi's Birthday Pizza

Going to Daisy Peel

Jet Flyball

Even though this is Jet’s flyball picture, we are going to an Agility seminar this weekend. Daisy Peel. Do you know her? I hear she’s really good, she follows Linda Mecklenburg’s training plans. So we are going to try her out.

I’m not a big seminar person. I don’t like them much… sitting around listening to different types of training that I may never actually do. But when Jet was having a bad weekend last June, I kinda panicked, and signed up for this seminar. After that trial, he started doing really well and now I’m not sure I’ll really get much out of it. And it’s supposed to snow tomorrow, and be cold, and it’s a 45 minute drive. UGH. I hope Jet’s not too cold, I’ll bring his coats and warm bed for his crate, but still I’ll worry. I don’t think I’ll be wearing yellow box sandals this weekend, I’m going to have 20 layers of clothes on!

So, if I have time, I’ll post about the seminar this weekend. Or next week, or whenever I can.

Agility, Jet, Seminar