Sigh

Wally came to visit again!  We had a good time for 6 of the 8 hours, but the last two were a little rough.  Here are some photographs of the end of my evening.  I think they say it all.

  Click to enlarge for captions^  Rated PG-13

 Here is the 50 lb- 4 month old puppy on the other side of the divide

 We tried switching sides once

But doesn't he look so cute when he is sleeping!

Seriously though- Wally is a great puppy.  I would gladly watch him again, Copley was just getting a little annoyed with him and he has this thing about chasing Kerri.  Then Kerri wouldn't shut up if I wasn't holding her and Wally kept trying to leap into my lap to "play" with her and Copley became overwhelmed with the urge to hump things while Wally was around.  If Wally's parents are reading- your dog and mine were equally annoying- fear not.

I am going to go now and try to recover from this tornado.  Also I bought a bark corrector thing that emits a high pitched noise when the dogs bark.  I said I would never do such a thing but you say a lot of things before you get a chihuahua...

~Annie

I'm a PUPPY!!!!

Kerrigan has been doing so well lately that sometimes I forget she is still a puppy.  She has not peed in the house in several months, her teething seems to have subsided and her attention span grows longer by the day.  Sometimes I am reminded that she is still a puppy and it is going to show from time to time.  This past Thursday was one of those times.

It all started when our dryer broke.  Then the next morning a sprinkler pipe broke flooding the neighborhood and to top it all off that morning our dishwasher wouldn't drain.  While Ben was trying to deal with one of the water issues he turned the shutoff valve for the house and it broke!  I think you get the picture- the house was falling apart.

Repair people were here from when we got back from obedience class at 12:30 to about 5pm.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day so I spent a lot of the morning hanging out with the dogs outside.  Kerrigan whined and whined and whined.  She got pissed when I went inside to do anything, she got pissed when I stood on the other side of the fence to talk to a neighbor, she was intermittently pissed because she could not go inside and play with the repair people or lick the dirty dish water off the kitchen floor.  She calmed down (mostly) when I told her to be quiet but it was one of those days when you know your dog is just reinforcing the stereotype of a yappy chihuahua.  On the other hand I am happy to report Copley thoroughly enjoyed his time outside.  He was able to partake in many of his favorite activities- laying in the dirt sunning himself, chewing a bully stick and ridding the yard of stray pigeons.

Finally it was getting a little chilly so I put the dogs upstairs on the other side of a doggy gate that usually is meant to keep them downstairs.  With so many people coming and going it would have been bad news for them to be "in on the action."  This set up resulted in less barking but as you can see from the picture below it was a lot more of the same.  Copley resting and keeping an eye on things while Kerri (aka The Blur) just spazzed out.

The thing is that overall she did great.  She quieted when asked, was able to redirect her attention to me and remained polite to Copley and our company throughout.  She has just been doing so great lately that it is a bit of a shock when she acts like the 7 month old puppy that she is.  For now I am trying to just be grateful that she is doing so good and just block out that whole five hours where she didn't even so much as sit down for a second.

What We Learned Today

Today we learned some important lessons-

1. There is a reason that we but non-toxic cleaning and gardening products
2. The dogs believe fertilizer is both delicious to eat and fun to roll in
3. The Home Again pet emergency helpline is very helpful

The dogs ate and rolled in fertilizer that was left sitting out in the yard today.  I called the Home Again poison control helpline thingy and  they looked up this particular kind of fertilizer.  As it turns out this stuff only causes what their vet described as "mild GI upset" and I was advised to feed them to help pad their stomach from the onslaught of fertilizer and to bring them to the vet if they started acting unusual.

We got lucky because a lot of fertilizers (even organic ones) are really nasty and it could have been bad.  This is the reason that we try to buy pet safe and non toxic cleaners and gardening products, you never know when you are going to mess up like this.

"Not my fault- the puppy made me do it"

Blogging

Much to my surprise people seem to actually be reading this blog.  When I started I figured that no one would read it so this is an interesting surprise.

I also find myself worrying about being judged by those readers or driving them away.  Then I remembered why I started this blog in the first place.  I wanted a place to get my opinions out.  When people tell me I am going to turn my dog viscous by feeding them fresh meat I want a place where I can tell those people that they are nuts, wrong and to stop judging me.  Cause saying those sorts of things in real life doesn't get you anywhere, after all if their logic is that flawed to begin with I am not going to be able to win that argument with reason and fact.  So here is a list of what this blog is or is not- accompanied by slightly irrelevant pictures of my cute puppies.

• This blog IS going to be funny.  It will be funny because my writing is sarcastic and I try to find the humor in life.  It is NOT going to be funny pictures of my dogs doing mischievous things.  That is because dogs being destructive and getting into things they shouldn't means that my dogs are under-stimulated, under exercised or not properly supervised.  Sure they misbehave, but I try to use it as opportunities to re direct them to a more appropriate behavior, not get out the camera.  Hilarious misbehaved hyper dogs are sad, unstable and need help.  In my opinion things like tiny dog hamburgers are much more hilarious.
• This blog is NOT and advise column.  Do your own research.  I learned everything I know from reading books (mostly) and google (be careful with that).  Anyone else could learn the same thing.
• I will try to keep my posts mostly dog related but when I also have these cute faces looking up at me I might be forced to stray into the rodent world from time to time.

 

•  Yes that's a mouse.
• I will not use this blog to judge you for your informed actions- I only judge people for uninformed stupidity.  It just drives me nuts when people judge others for how they train their dogs, what they feed them or where they got them.  There is nothing wrong with adopting a dog from the pound or getting it from a good breeder whose ethics you know and agree with.  You are not a horrible person for feeding your dog pre-made food.  On that note there is nothing wrong with me feeding a home made diet either!

•  Lastly this in NOT the blog of a professional blogger.  I have come to realize most bloggers are one of the following three things- a writer, a stay at home mom or an evangelical christian.  I am not a writer or a stay at home mom (in fact I am not a mom at all).  I have a job that does not involve any writing at all beyond the occasional e-mail.  It is more of an image and vector based thing than a word thing.  While my religious views are totally irrelevant to this blog lets just say I am never going to be using it to bring people closer to Jesus.
• In regards to the last item- I have no problem with stay at home mothers, writers or people who attend church.  I am just puzzled why they rule the world of personal blogs (not the writers- that actually makes a lot of sense).

 

Grandma and Grandpa Visit #2- Less dogs more sheep

After we got back from Joshua Tree we had a lot of other adventured while my parents were here.  One of the most exciting things was this-

That is a fuzzy picture of the 30 or so bighorn sheep that ran across the road, then we watched run through a valley and over a ridge.  When I stopped the car we were probably only 20 or so yards from them, but it took some time to pull out the camera.  In all of my time living and traveling in the southwest I have seen a total of one bighorn sheep, a long long way away, running.  At least we are pretty sure it was a bighorn sheep.  So this was a real treat.  Luckily for Copley (who has a less than rational fear of hoofed animals) the dog's didn't bother looking out the window to see them.

Then we went on a walk where Kerrigan whined, pulled, barked and even growled at a stranger.  This then incited Copley to do the same and his uncharacteristic pulling resulted in me almost falling and then yelling at them.  Since dogs don't understand yelling Kerri carried on but I think Copley got the drift and straightened up.  Or at least he knew I was upset and I became the center of his attention.  The walk back was much more pleasant if only because Copley was right by my side and I decided I would just let the 5lb Chihuahua pull all she wanted without trying to correct it.  She was in a harness, I was trying to enjoy myself, I don't think much harm was done.

Kerrigan is so good 90% of the time, but sometimes she just reminds me that she is still just a puppy and sometimes she will act like it.

Here is a picture of us on the walk (At Valley of Fire State Park- Don't think I mentioned that yet)-

Overall though this post should probably not be about the dogs.  The landscape was beautiful and we saw lots and lots of petroglyphs.  All of these pictures are taken by my Mom and she got some good shots while I was dog wrangling.  This canyon is a really amazing place.