An Unexpected Visitor

Today, as I was in sacrament meeting, I was just chilling, and glancing around, you know, like you do. As I was looking in front of me, I noticed a visitor I can honestly say I had never seen at church before.

You can’t really tell, but I tried to point out with the arrow, but there’s a puppy there! The people here were visiting my ward, and they’re training a guide dog. He was so cute, I wanted to snuggle him, even though it wasn’t allowed. Take heart, though, I didn’t break any rules, and I didn’t touch him.

A Dog that Doesn’t Know How to Dog

Tonight, after picking Cookie up from a haircut (Look how dashing)

I gave her a treat, a bone. She put it in her mouth and then proceeded to stare at me for like, 15 minutes.

She didn’t attempt to choose it, or do anything with it, she just held it. Finally, I tried to take it from her.

She didn’t let me take it, but then she went into a different room and didn’t come out, so I knew she wasn’t going to come near me, since I’m trying to take people’s bones and all. What a weirdo dog.

Dogs lives are too short. Their only fault, really.

This morning when I woke up, I learned that our beloved family dog, Gretl had passed on. She was the best dog. She was a German Shepherd that we’ve had for about 15 years now. I love this picture I have of her.

This pic is her in a nutshell. She would snuggle up to anything, even if there was no space on the bed, and she would push you off of it. Adorable dog, and she’ll be greatly missed.

A Bath for Dogs

We were hanging out around here, just chilling, and Cadence came up to me, and I was petting her a little, and I realized “this dog is smelly”. I don’t know what she smelled like, necessarily, but she just smelled bad, so I told my sister she should give her a bath. We decided to use the giant bath tub in my house to give them a bath, then maybe the little jokers could swim around. We filled up the tub with water, and then got the dogs.

We washed them, of course, with some baby shampoo:

And then when we were done, we wrapped them in some towels, and surprisingly, they didn’t struggle against the towels or anything, they just let themselves be dried off.

After we let them shake themselves off outside, they were basically dry. The good thing about having small dogs that don’t have any hair is that they dry off basically instantaneously.

So now, they smell nice, and I don’t mind having them around. And if she starts to smell again (Cookie never does, as I get her professionally cleaned pretty often) then we’ll just toss them into the tub again.

Winter Coat

Today, my sister’s dog was acting lethargic, and not full of its usual energies, so my sister was convinced that her dog had caught a cold. Whether or not that’s true, I don’t know, because I don’t know how to tell if dogs get colds, or even if they do, or what to do when they get one. We went to Petsmart at 9:30 tonight, to find the dog some clothes. She was sure that if she only got the dog a sweater or coat, it would be healed, and would never be sick again. She spent some time, comparing the clothes, and finally, chose a few. This is one of them, an extra small plaid coat with a hat, in case the dog wants to protect her ears.

As soon as she put the coat on the dog, we took this pic, because the dog looks both ridiculous and adorable. Hopefully the coat stops the dog from getting anymore colds.

NEVER Leave the Dog Alone

So last night, I left Cookie alone in the house for a bit while we went to the store. I figured, we’re just going to run into Target, buy a few things, and then come home, so things should be just fine. Usually, when we leave her alone and not in her cage, she dumps all the trash cans over, and roots through them, and eats the tissues, so I try not to leave her alone, but I keep hoping that she’ll grow out of that, and act normal. (Weirdo) We took longer in Target than anticipated, but I thought we’d be ok, because I shut the door to my bedroom and the door to the basement, so there were only so many places she could be at. After Target, I ended up heading to the mall to get a tank top, and then Husband and I went shopping for costumes. The whole time, I kept hoping that Cookie would go against her better judgment, and do nothing.

When we finally returned home, the first thing I noticed was the leaves. On the ledge where my letters are, I have some leaves up there, to add some decoration, and they were hanging off. I then noticed that the letters were askew, and some were on the floor. What the heck did this idiot do?! So, immediately, I say her name, and ask her what she did, and she just BOOM, hits the floor, and basically tries to army crawl out of the room, because she knows what she did was wrong. I opened the door right away, and she ran outside as fast as she could, knowing she was in trouble. I left her outside for a while, so that she’d learn, but I doubt she did. I don’t know how to fix her of this, she so far she doesn’t seem to remember or care that it’s bad until she gets caught. Maybe that’s how all dogs are. Or maybe she just needs a little longer in our care; she hasn’t been with us for too long still. Hopefully, she can start to learn them, so that we can let her out of the cage by herself and don’t have to worry about her ruining the house.

New Roommate

Yesterday, a new roommate was dropped off at our house. Cookie is a resident at Casa de Vieve for the time being. She was dropped off, looking like this, a little scroungy:

So I knew I had to get her in for a shave and a haircut. (2 Bits) I got her into the dog groomer, and they shaved her all off, gave her a shampoo, and attached a bandana, and then I picked her up. Now, she looks snazzy:

So far, we’ve had no problems, but we’ve been together for less than a day. I’ve had her outside of her cage for most of it, and when I went to my meeting tonight, she knocked over a garbage can, a can of aluminum cans, tried to break into a bag of her bones, but she still looked pretty please for herself. I know I have a long way to go with training, but so far, I think we’ll be ok. We’re besties.

Cookie

This is Cookie.

I’m taking care of Cookie for a couple of days.

Cookie bit me in the face today.

I don’t care for Cookie.

Cookie and I aren’t friends.

That's gonna leave a mark

I have added a new entry to my awesome list, and it came courtesy of an article I read in Runner's World. It talked about running with your dog, and how great it can be. I thought, what a great idea! Sarge is just old enough to be running but not too old that he'd be that tired at the end of a run. So I took him out on Thursday, and it was pretty awesome! He ran like a champ, and kept ahead of me the whole time (Tugging on his leash, he could outrun me in a heartbeat) and when we got down, he wouldn't even do the cool down walk, he just kept trying to run! And afterward, he was panting and drooling like a crazy dog. It was a little funny.
So I decided that this morning, I would take him running again. It was earlier in the day, so the weather was cooler, I thought that would be helpful. Trying to get him into the car to get to my running park was a freaking joke. I don't know if he thought I was trying to kill him, but I assumed that after our car ride on Thursday, he would understand what we were doing, but he was fighting me tooth and nail not to get in there. I shoved him in there, and then he fought me the entire way down there, totally assaulting me! The run was better this time, with it being cooler, but I feel in my shoulder now from him tugging the leash away from me. I'm just not fast enough for him! It took forever to get him back in the car to go home, I do not understand this dog! And trying to get out of the car, he was trying to get out of my car door before I got out there, and it hurts to have a dog climbing over you to get out first. They have claws!
When I finally got him in the house and everything had settled down, I was feeling some aches and pains. I checked myself out, and I found scratches all over my body from Sarge. There are scratches up my back, some on the side of my body, many on my legs, it is ridiculous! Had I known this morning that my crazy dog would have caused me bodily harm in trying to get him in the car with me, I probably wouldn't have taken him. And as much as it pains me, I'm retiring my runs with Sarge. No offense to the little guy, but it's not worth pains all over just to get him some exercise. I'll just stick with the Frisbee throwing and walks for now.

Best Idea Ever

I was at the local Radio Shack the other day, and I thought to myself, "Self, they have remote control cars here!" So of course, I peruse the section (which was only like, 4 cars) and what do I see but a cutie little truck that could very easily serve my purposes. I bring it to the cash register with my other purchases, but I didn't see a price tag on it. I asked how much it was and lo and behold, it was only 5 bucks! Holy cow what a deal, so I snatched it up on the spot.
I got it home and put the batteries in it, got it all ready. I turned it on, thinking it could be a great toy for my dog Sargent to play with. He likes to play with everything, so I thought they'd have a good time. Turns out, Sarge is actually just afraid of the truck, so he runs from it like a little girl. That's actually a way better game! I spent the rest of the afternoon playing 'chase Sarge' with it. That's a great game, and it's definitely one I play all the time. I don't know what the dog thinks will happen if the truck catches up to him, but I for one, can't wait to find out.

Like I don't have enough already!

Ok, everyone, brace yourself for some exciting news. I got a new puppy this weekend! We'd been talking about getting one for a while, my sister wanted to get a Lab, I wanted a smaller dog, we couldn't ever decide on getting one. Finally, this weekend, we had some time, so we just decided to go for it. We hopped in the car and went on down to the animal shelter.
We looked at the dogs they had there, and they were not that many choices. We knew roughly the animal we wanted to get, but not for sure, depending on what we found there. We saw a few ones that were cute, but not really what we were looking for. We saw this one little fella-a border collie mix dog, which is one we wanted, but it was a male-and for some reason, Pops doesn't like the male dogs. But he was so cute, we got dad to bend after sending him some pictures of the dog. We made our choice, and adopted him!
We even knew his name after a few minutes with him. We named him Sergeant. Well, his full name is Sergeant Spots, and we call him Sarge for short. He is a live wire. He jumps around all over the place, he bites all the time (ok, it's just puppy playful bites, so they don't hurt) and he is just generally so much more energetic than our other dogs. He's only 5 months old, so I imagine he'll calm down after a bit. We took him on a walk today, and he got tired after a while, I'll have to work his stamina up a little.
He's a fun little dog, and I'm glad we got him. I can't wait until he's acclimated into the family, and the other dogs are still getting used to him, and I think jealousies are getting smaller between all of them. I'll keep everyone updated on any goings on with him.

Ooh...ouch!

All right, time for everyone's favorite time! Ok, probably the only person that likes this is me, because it makes for a pretty easy blog entry to write. Most of the videos I see come from The Ellen Degeneres Show, and this one is one of them. I laughed so hard at this, and I hope you do too!

Video!

I would love to see that happen in real life. As sad as it is, to see the end thing, I think I would die laughing while holding my dog close. Of course, the only thing my Troop does in her sleep is snore. Which is pretty cute, its just like she's doing these tiny little grunts. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

In the Recovery Room

Tonight, a tragedy happened in la Casa de Vieve. There I was, minding my own business, running, watching a movie, when all of a sudden, it happened. Out of nowhere, and quite certainly without provocation. Don't worry, everyone, it was not me who was the victim. It was Tiny Troop.
I don't know exactly what happened, we're still piecing together witness stories. As far as I can tell, Gretl (the big German shepherd we have) was eating something when Troop just happened to be walking on by. Gretl was clearly feeling territorial over her food, and decided that attacking Troop was a good idea. She lunged, and bit, and (this is where I came in) Troop did a little dog cry, it was so sad. I checked her over, but I couldn't see any damage. I consoled Troop, scolded Gretl, and assumed we were done.
Oh no, we weren't. A little while later, Troop came back downstairs, and I looked, and lo, she was bleeding! On her cheek, blood just pouring down. I quickly assessed the situation, and discovered she had a big chunk of her face ripped out-and quite deeply, in fact. I did what I could to clean her up, but I'm no doctor. I think the bleeding has stopped now, but the hole in her face remains.
I know I shouldn't blame Gretl for this. She's a dog, and dogs hold onto their items, I get it. But I can't help but feel bad that the giant dog we have attacked the tiny one, and drew blood. I am guilty of having babied Troop tonight-I'm carrying her everywhere, and giving her treats. Sheesh, you'd think I was the one that hurt her. But she's recovering well, and hopefully, the good health will just heal that sucker right up.

Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really

This day was actually pretty sad. Technically, last night was sad, and today is just a continuation. Last night, our dog Sweet Pea passed away. (Can that phrase be used for dogs? I've only heard it used in respect to humans. Whatev.) She was one of the three dogs we have. I've written about the other two, Troop and Gretl, when they've done something to warrant a blog, but Sweet Pea was our chill dog. She never did anything bad, or particularly good, she just was here. Its kind of a blessing for her to have passed, she was getting old. I think we had her for 13 years, give or take, so thats defnitely up there in years. The past few weeks, she had been getting sick, and generally had just been getting bad, so it's kind of a blessing she's gone; she doesn't have to suffer or anything anymore.
It was really hard for me, when I heard she was gone. I knew it was coming, but that doesn't make it any less hard. My dogs are like little members of the family. Actually, in my case, I like the dogs more than I like some of the members of my own family. Luckily, I still have Troop here, since she's my dog, and I think she'll be sticking around for a while. Which is good, because I don't think I could handle saying goodbye to another pet.

PS I would have included a picture, but my computer is retarded, and I couldn't get it to work.

It's my bed!

I have a twin bed. It's very small, granted, but I love it. When I stretch out, I cover the length of the whole thing. It is, of course, wider than I, but not by a whole lot. Sometimes, I let Tiny Troop sleep on there with me, but only if I'm willing to change the way I lay. When Troop is on there, I have to sleep on my side, knees bent, and Troop sleeps in the little crook of my knees, it's quite adorable.
My dog, Gretl, however, takes up the entire bed when she's on there, which she isn't really allowed to be. She's a German Shepherd, so of course she's big, and she's the same as I-when she stretches out on the bed, she takes up the whole thing. Last night, I was all ready for bed, and went into my room. Lying upon my bed was Gretl, but not stretched out, she was curled into a ball, which meant she only took up half of the bed, the lower half. I thought it was cute, and I was too beat to move her, so I just got into the bed also. I laid down, and my legs were right next to her. I shifted so that she could stay the way she was, which made my legs hang slightly off the edge. After I moved my legs down there, she kinda growled a little, and I of course wondered why she was growling, seeing as how it's my bed. I should be the one growling!
Because of how much room she was taking up, I didn't get to put my pillows flat, so I was sleeping in a semi-sitting up position, which wasn't too bad, but not a good position to sleep in. I fell asleep at about eleven, then woke up at one, being not at all comfortable. I was half hanging off the bed, with my upper body still sitting up. I shifted, to bring my feet back up, and Gretl once again made a menacing noise at me. Having had enough of this, I sleepily asked her why she could complain at me, when she was a visitor. (Yes, I realize, talking to a dog isn't smart, but come on. I was tired, half asleep, and she was taking up all the room!) She moved a little, to move her paws, and I took my chance. I shoved her a little with my legs, and finally, she got off the bed. Laughing at my victory, I stretched out, put my pillows in the position I like 'em best, and went back to sleep, all comfortable like.
The lesson I am taking from this, is that no matter how cute I think Gretl is, I really am going to kick her off the bed before I try to make us fit on there together. I need my sleep more than I need to be sharing my space with an overgrown puppy.
Please excuse the creepy eyes she has in this.

Tiny Troop

This has been a sad week for my little Trooper. For those of you who don’t know, Trooper is my dog. She is my favorite little animal ever. Her breeding is unknown. She’s a mix of her mom, another dog I have, who is a miniature Alaskan Husky/Pomeranian mix, and her “father” is the dog that lived in the house next door. As you can see from the picture, she is black and brown and is pretty small. I've also included Troop as a tiny baby, because I think the picture with her and the bear is too cute. You're welcome. She is quite devoted to me, she follows me around the house, she sits on the couch with me whenever I am watching TV, and when I’m eating, she sits at my feet, waiting for her turn to have some delicious food. And, although I know it’s bad to give a dog people food, I usually give her some of mine. She loves bread and otter pops and milk. I’m not sure why, but hey, I find it adorable. And most people find her little scratching at you for your food annoying, I just think it’s cute, and I laugh at it. I treat her like she’s a tiny person, and during Christmas time, I dress her up. Usually as Santa or an elf, and even though she hates it, she doesn’t gnaw it off like our other dog does. I guess you can say I probably love my tiny Troop more than I love most people.
This past Monday, Troop had apparently jumped up on the bed (all this happened while I was at work, so I don’t know every detail, I just know what I’ve heard) and mom was having none of it. So she kicked Troop off the bed (literally, she kicked her) and when she fell off the giant bed (really, this bed is like 2-3 feet off the ground) she landed wrong and hurt her leg! So for the last few days, the poor thing has been limping around the house on her three legs. It’s the left rear leg she hurt, just in case you were wondering. Right now her trying to get up off the ground is sadly funny, when she’s been sitting or lying there. Because she can’t really use the leg, she struggles to get up and while I find it so sad, it’s really kinda funny to watch. I guess I have a dark sense of humor regarding such things. To help her out during this time, I’ve been carrying her around the house on my hip, like a baby. She is getting better, slowly. At least after the first couple of days, she puts her foot on the ground to test it out every once in a while. And while it’s not good yet, soon it will be, and she will be able to run and jump around like she used to be able to do. But for now, she’s just taking it easy. And I’m wondering, does anyone know where I can find a doggy stroller?