Puppies!

We've added a couple of members to our family lately.

The first is Silvie. She's our foster puppy, staying with us until her family can take her back. She's part Shih-Tzu/part Dachshund. I think. Either way she's cute and is full of energy.


And this is Cam our 8-week-old puppy.


Look at that adorable face! He's part Yorkie/part something else. Dachshund we think. He's adorable. And has puppy teeth and claws! He keeps the other dogs entertained and they let him chew on them. Which is a good trade off I think.




Of course we can't forget Charlie, who looks huge and mellow compared to the other two. He's loving having other puppies to play with. They have a lot more energy than we do. Also, they don't mind rolling in the grass and getting chewed on. Something the rest of us haven't developed a taste for.

Tackle it Tuesday

Don't ask me why I started back blogging again with the topic of housework. Ugh! Anyhow, today is Tackle it Tuesday. I think the only reason I got so much done was because I was actually off work today.

So I tackled grocery shopping, banking, cleaning the bathroom, doing all the floors, and tackling that big mountain of laundry that has taken over the laundry room. "Calvin" was out of shorts yesterday so I knew I had to get something done.

Also, I took Charlie, the black beast, for a walk. We walked Sissy to the Boys and Girls club, about a mile away. And it's 81 degrees and pretty humid. He hasn't stopped panting yet. We both needed the exercise, and it ain't nearly as hot here as in Arizona. Still...I think I might reserve our walks for later in the evening. I have to admit, however, I was pretty proud of the dog. Considering I haven't been very consistent about taking him for walks and teaching him to heel, he did very well and didn't chase down any neighborhood dogs or neighbors. Yippee for us! It's not that he's an aggressive dog, he's just super friendly. But he weighs almost 90 pounds. So friendly or not, 90 pounds of Black Lab coming at you tends to put off most people a bit.

Continuing with the protection theme...

I give you Dog Vader.



Sissy took this picture. Clearly, we have too much time on our hands.

At Least I'm Safe from the Trash Man and the Snow Plow

Our family is good proof that God has a sense of humor. You have to be a character to be a member of it, pets included. Case in point, our black Lab, Charlie.



Labs are not known for being great watch dogs. They're more likely to lick you to death or beat you to a pulp with their nonstop tail than to attack you. But for whatever reason, Charlie has taken it upon himself to be a watch dog for two things: our trash and our snow.

Now, he has no problem with the mail carrier. I don't know if it's like this in other places, but here, we don't have real mail trucks. We have carriers who drive their own personal vehicles, from the passenger side no less, with little flags attached signifying they are delivering the mail.

When our mail lady has packages for us, she pulls into the driveway and honks. Her lap is so full of mail that it would be hard for her to get out of the car. So we come out to see what she has. We being Charlie and me. He has to look in her car to see if she has anything for him. She pets him but that's it. Still, he keeps hoping someday a package will be for him. So he likes the mail carrier.

The trash man is another thing all together. The best I can figure is he thinks the trash guy is taking our stuff. Which he is. But it's stuff we want him to take. Or rather, I want him to take. Charlie would probably like to examine all of it thoroughly before it goes to the street. Regardless, from the moment the truck comes around the corner until it disappears down the street, Charlie's at the front window barking and growling and carrying on, letting us know that someone is taking our stuff. Of course I pet him and tell him he's a good dog for letting us know that.

His battle with the snow plow is a little more adversarial. After our last big snow, the kids and dog went outside to play. The plow was coming up the street for the first time.

Charlie heard the rumbling, which probably sounds quite a bit like the trash truck. He stopped and started barking at it. It kept coming at him, despite his protests, which grew louder. The final insult, though, was when it threw a great wave of snow on him--which he hates--that sent him scurrying back to the house.

War was declared but from now on, Charlie would be safely behind the living room window.

But at least I know if someone is trying to steal my trash or my snow.

Charlie the Conehead

This is our dog Charlie with his conehead. He got it off Friday and was very happy. However the vet was not so happy with him. He had dislodged the drain that was supposed to be in his ear. It was sutured in and somehow Charlie had gotten it out, despite the cone. It seems like ripping out something that was sewn it would be painful. But he doesn't look too unhappy, does he?

This was Charlie's second surgery on his ears. Part of the problem is because he's a lab and they have floppy ears so the air doesn't get in there and dry things out. But Charlie is worse because he has allergies. He's allergic to everything. He has to have a special pet food with no animal protein in it. No dog bones for him. He gets apples and pears and ice cubes to chew on. When Charlie's allergies act up he scratches and rubs his ears in the lawn, thus creating hematomas (giant bruises) and getting cuts and dirt and debris in there. So I have to bathe him weekly and clean his ears out twice a week, plus put in antibiotics. This last time, his hemotoma got big enough he had to have it surgically removed. Except that he had too much scar tissue from the last surgery so the doctor could only put in the drain to siphon off the fluid. Which Charlie managed to take out somehow.

This picture might give you an idea of how he does that. He runs across the lawn and dives head first into the grass, twisting until his ears hit the grass and he forces the cone back. He went through two cones in three weeks, both of which I ended up duct taping to hold them together.

It's a good thing he's cute. And happy.