Resolutions for a New Year and Teddy

I decided to speak less this year and listen more. I am making a real effort to open myself to what the universe has to say with me, through the people I meet, the animals I come in contact with and the nature I visit. I had an epiphany moment recently when I watched a short video my kids took of me visiting the neighborhood fire station. It was embarrassing, not just because I hated the way I sounded but also because I blabbered on at length. Even though I am often bursting with enthusiasm, I’m going to try and share myself by listening to others. I had a great opportunity on New Years Day to practice this new resolution when I met someone who actually speaks a lot more than I do. I just sat back listened, smiled and enjoyed what she had to say and it was fascinating really. I poked in appropriate questions to show I was really listening and interested too so we had a lovely time together. I guess time will tell if I am successful at my goal.

My Christmas present is doing well but still not fully house trained. My dog Teddy is pure love. I am so in love with this furry little dog, despite his need for much training. There is just so much to learn from our dogs. Each day is like a gift to them and they live so beautifully in the present. When Teddy wakes up and I let him out of his crate, it is Christmas, Easter and his birthday all rolled up in one. He is positively joyful, every single day. He is so happy to see me that despite his voracious appetite he will leave his food to have me pet him. He is the cuddliest animal I have ever known and his fur is luscious, beautiful blue meryl, soft and silky. When I go to pet him he first leans against me and then sort of melts on to my foot and then just gives it all up and rolls right over to his back ready for a belly rub.

Though Teddy has learned much since he came to live with us three weeks ago, he still has a way to go. He needs to learn that we are all friendly and will not hurt him, so he needn’t pee submissively. He needs to learn that when we go to pet him we are going to do just that and not strike him. How anyone could possibly throw this gorgeous animal away is beyond me but people do worse to their own children. Teddy was found tossed away in the woods with his puppy siblings, and a blind beagle. One of the pups was run over by a train and is now buried at the rescue where we adopted Teddy. Who knows what kind of treatment Teddy received before he was rescued? He was starved and covered in fleas and ticks and he is still catching up on his weight. Teddy is a work in progress but so are the rest of us and I’m going to be patient and in the meantime I’ve taken the rugs up.

Good luck to the rest of you in your goals for 2011.

 

Pugglicious

This is a story of Princess Tula the Puggle.

Impossibly cute, I know.

"I'll even ocassionally fetch a stick like I'm supposed to."

Sometimes I put myself in time out, under the bed.

"who, moi?"

"I shall sit where I please, including on your arm."

"What can I get into next?...that is the question.

I am sorry, well at least a little bit.

See I told you I was sorry... let's kiss and make up.

What's this thing, is it friendly?

Are you sure we can't play, I love to play!

I know I am only the princess but I would rather be the queen.

Gone to the Dogs

Over the course of the last two days my four girls and I have gone twice to a big dog show in our town. What fun we’ve had seeing all the numerous breeds of dogs up close and personal and meeting with their owners and handlers. I also found the owners naturally very proud of  their particular breed and are happy to answer questions and talk about their dogs.  Before we got our first rescue dog eight years ago, the girls and I studied dogs for six months. I mean we really studied dogs. Being a homeschool family we try to take every opportunity we can to get kids to research things that interest them and the dog topic has always been a favorite in our home, except for my husband who just is NOT a dog person. We love him anyway. We learned an amazing amount about dog breeds, temperaments and which dog is good for which type of family. We have also read many stories with dogs in them so we had lots to talk about with the dog fanciers.

We observed lots of fascinating things today. For example, the handlers actually put “the bait” in their mouths during the time the dog is being judged or waiting to be judged. What this actually means is that the handlers put dog treats in their own mouths and then remove it and feed it to the dogs. I just hope I didn’t see it the other way around but I’m not entirely sure. I love my dog but I generally don’t put it’s food in my mouth at anytime even though I know that their mouths are supposed to be cleaner than ours. I also saw more grooming on these dogs than I see with three teenage girls in my house. The amount of hair drying, hair spraying and primping was astonishing! I am so over joyed that at most we have to bathe our doggies in our own bathtub and on a good day brush them. In the end I must say that the whole experience was fascinating and I’m glad it’s not my hobby. I’ll stick to the two lovely mutt dogs I have at home.

A Letter

Dear Sarah,

Having recently perused the dog rescue sites on the internet I truly
appreciated your article today. I was deeply saddened by the number of
wonderful dogs I saw who were dumped at shelters or with rescue
organizations because someone didn’t do their homework; page after page
of certain breeds. Your article was MUCH needed and timely I think.
Unfortunately the people who need it most probably won’t even give it a
glance but if even one person reads it and it changes their mind about
that wonderful “zippy brilliant breed” as you put it so well you might
have save a dog from an ugly fate.

I hope you don’t mind but I’d like to share with you about our dog,
Emmy. When my fourth daughter was only a toddler I found myself pining
for a dog. Instead of going right out and getting the first puppy I
saw, which frankly can be tempting, I persevered for six months.  I learned not to
take my children into the pound as they would cry when I would not
bring home the cute puppy they saw when we visited each time. I
agonized and read book after book about the right breed. The one I
found most helpful and accurate you mentioned in your article was, “The
Right Dog For You” by Daniel Tortora. I have since shared this book with a number of
friends. I investigated on the Internet. I even visited a couple of dog
breeders. I also asked all my friends who had dogs how they choose
their dogs.

In the end, I met a man walking a Brittany Spaniel with a baby on his
back. I asked him how the dog was with the baby and he said very
gentle. My first goal was to get a dog that would love children and
would always be friendly. According to Tortora, the Brittany Spaniel is
great with children so I went to the rescue site online. To make a long
story a little shorter, we visited and found a litter of mixed puppies,
lab and spaniel. I knew had found the perfect dog.  Emmy came to us at five
months having never lived inside or being with people much. Though we
loved her right away, it took some days for her to respond to her name
and it took me a full six months to house
train her.

I took her for dog training classes and excuse me while I brag she was
the quickest to learn everything they taught us. She is extremely smart
and has continued to learn quickly. I have taught her a number of fun
tricks which she loves to show off to friends and family. She is a high
energy dog who thinks she’s one of the kids. She adores children and is
happiest while running with them all in the back yard. I can not tell
you how we love Emmy, she truly is an important family member for us. I
think the kids sometimes take her for granted but when we went away on
a one month tour of the United States they missed her terribly and were
very happy to be reunited when we got home.

I certainly hope you will educate someone to think twice about bringing
a dog into their lives, rewarding as it is, it isn’t something to do
without much thought, planning and preparation. Thank you very much for your important article.

In honor of Emmy I will republish her very own photo album, so please visit and enjoy.

He’s Baaack!

Great news for us all today. Cream Puff was spotted and has been re-captured and is happily sleeping in his home.  He has been gone for a week without a trace. Today Tony was just thinking it would be time to clean out the cage and I was missing him again this morning during breakfast thinking he surely must be dead. Honestly speaking this is the first rodent I have had any feelings for, he is just so cute and cuddly.

It happened like this. We were all upstairs fighting with children about doing schoolwork in a timely manner without the fussing and complaining when Tony who works from home on Wednesdays went downstairs and called out in a shocked voice, “Hammie!” The word didn’t sink in at first, I thought maybe we had sprung a leak or had a wall caving in. Then when it registered we were all off to capture him. I was determined.

We got him in our mud room and within a couple minutes discovered he was behind the freezer. I tried to get him with some sunflower seeds but he wouldn’t quite sidle up to me. Mia, ever the animal girl, ran to get a carrot and that did the trick. He held on to it while I gently pulled him out from underneath the freezer. We covered him in his plastic cage and the put him in his deluxe home.

He seemed fine, in fact, he seemed fatter. We couldn’t figure out what this creature was eating while on the lam but when he got back in his cage he dumped the contents of his cheeks which ended up being bits of dog food as well as apple peels. He must have found the bits of dog food under the freezer and the apple peels are certainly from what the girls leave downstairs when they are watching T.V. He was very thirsty though and took a long drink.

I told Sara not to hold him today and maybe tomorrow either, I’m afraid he might bite her as he seems a little wilder. I guess that’s what a little freedom will do to a hamster.  I’m just glad he’s safely home. Funny thing after we found him I found a bare spot on the carpet in one of the rooms downstairs, apparently he was chewing on it to make a bed somewhere. Perhaps that was what he was doing when we caught him. All I have to say is Thank God Emmy didn’t get him!

Mimi

Bye, bye Hammie!

My most favorite little rodent escaped yesterday. I am so sad. I really don’t get too connected to the rodents we have in this house which so far luckily have been only pets. Sara got a pet hamster for a Christmas present. I took her to the pet shop and let her pick him out and we really lucked out. He was definitely the sweetest, fat little docile creature.
He never even attempted to nip which hamsters are notorious for.

We also happen to have a wonderful dog, however she eats small rodents which has been helpful keeping down the vole and mole population in the back yard but isn’t helpful when one has a lost pet in the house. We have seen no trace of Cream Puff so I’m afraid Emmy must have had an extra snack yesterday, boo hoo.

This is Emmy with her tutu and wings, she even is decked out with a stylish bracelet. The girls understand that she isn’t bad to eat a rodent, it is her nature. Maybe, just maybe little Cream Puff will show up no worse for wear but I’m not too hopeful at this point.

Emmy

I really never thought I’d be so stressed over leaving my dog to go away on vacation. I abhor those articles on dogs that speak of them as “children”. I wanted children and I had them, they are my four girls. My dog is a cute and smart little mutt who we all adore, however she sleeps in the laundry room and isn’t allowed on the furniture or in the bedrooms. She is happy most of the time as she has her family to play with be with just about every day. She goes out when she wants and stays in when she wants. We often take her with us when we go because she loves to travel and is great in the car.

So I’ve been scrambling to find someone to keep her while we go away on our trip to England. My one dear friend is perfectly willing but just got a puppy and I feel we might not be friends anymore after three weeks with my dog and her puppy. Emmy is a wanderer and an escape artist and that is the main problem and reason she couldn’t stay with my other dear friend. She can leave most yards. Mostly she’s trying to get out to find us. Thank goodness I managed to find her a great location today. This is a family and I am not making this up, has five dogs, four cats, a ferret, two sugar gliders, a giant iguana, four snakes, two bearded dragons, a tortoise and a few others I guess I didn’t see today. Emmy was as happy as a hog in doo doo running with the pack and I know they’ll take good care of her.  What a relief.  Now I can focus on getting the humans ready to go.
On another subject, I looked at my blog on homeschooling from yesterday and realized it’s too long and too preachy. Oh well, I guess I’ll get better at blogging as I do it.  In the meanwhile, it sure is fun and if you’re here, thanks for reading.

Mimi