Yoo-hoo!

Yoo-hoo!! Millie was in heaven. No worries, Brent had drained it before she got anything. We know, we know, dogs and chocolate never mix. 

The Blog Backlog Burden

OK, so I haven't been updating my blog. I have lots of excuses, but mostly now it's just the fact that I have so much to blog about with both dogs that the thought of sitting down to write it all out is feeling overwhelming. So, instead of going into lots of detail (as I'm well known to do), I'm eliminating my burden by simply making a list of all the things I woulda, coulda, shoulda blogged about over the last 3 months. And to make it go faster, the list isn't even in chronological order b.c that is stressing me out too.

 If anyone wants to know more than what I've included here, just comment and let me know! Hopefully I can get back on track having ridded myself of this backlog burden. 

1. Millie turned one on Oct. 12. I cannot believe she is getting so grown up. 

2. Millie achieved official "free roam" status, as Brent and I call it. She is no longer kennel-bound, even when we aren't home. We credit Bailey's maturity for setting the example of what you can and cannot do when "your people" are gone. We do close the bedroom and guest bath doors before leaving and have to keep things away from the counter...she is a definite counter surfer

3. Bailey has a form of cancer...mast cell tumors. Fortunately, it is contained in her skin for now. She had 2 surgeries during October, as well as 6 additional office visits. It was a lot of work and mess and pain for her, but she is doing great now. She starts chemo treatment (a mild one designed to reduce the speed of tumor growth) next week. I'm a little nervous about it, as it's an injection and not a pill like I first thought. Bailey doesn't know she is sick, that's the most we can ask of our almost teenager!

4. Last week, Brent and I thought it was time to say goodbye to Bailey. She got very sick and was acting very strange. She was digging holes and laying in them (at 4am), digging holes and vomiting in them, then covering them  up (bizarre!), shaking, fast heartbeat, etc. She wanted nothing to do with us and even scarier, nothing to do with food...treats, bread, peanut butter, nothing. We thought she was asking us to leave her alone and let her die in peace. Turns out, we overreacted. She must have just eaten something that made her really sick. We still have no idea what it was, but she got better about 12 hours later, so we are not complaining. 

5. Millie has fleas. And ticks. Well, I should say had. This all happened, mysteriously, while I was out of town and Brent was left in charge. We got some meds from our BFF Dr. Brantley (we should be his BFF considering how much we've paid him in the last few months...not to mention what lies ahead with chemo). Apparently a very small percentage of dogs can experience some side effects from this flea medicine (Comfortis), but it is very rare. Bailey experiences side effects from all medication, no matter how rare they are. And, as our luck would have it, Millie is already showing signs of following suit. About 8 hours after giving her the medicine (of course that equated to the middle of the night), she woke us up puking and salivating like nobody's business. At first we thought she had eaten something, then we remembered the medicine. I looked online and of course, a very small percentage of dogs in the study experienced vomited and extreme salivation. But, it said it was minor enough to not take them off the study. So, we let it run its course, which fortunately was only about two hours. 

OK, that's all I can think of, which is funny because I thought there would be so much more. But, nonetheless, now it doesn't seem so daunting to try to update this more often. 

Next post will be a photo montage. Enjoy!

Another Day in the Life as Millie's Mom

Imagine my surprise as I am vacuuming my kitchen today when I looked up to see this....dripping, wet mud prints all over my floor. I'm just glad I hadn't gotten around to mopping yet (well, wasn't even planning to mop until...)




Not sure why it even surprises me anymore. Notice the mud-stained towels drying in the background. We've gone through about 10 this week. Millie has more towels than Brent and I combined!

Not Quite Grown Up Yet

OK, so I spoke too soon yesterday when I said that Millie was all grown up. She is in fact 10-months old on this date, but has managed more than once today to prove to me that she has not yet outgrown her puppy ways.

Case-in-point #1: Still Muddy







I took these pictures after the THIRD time I cleaned her up today from getting in the mud. The pictures do not do justice to the amount of mud caked onto her legs. We barely even have any mud in our back yard right now (Brent filled the one big hole we do have in the yard and installed temporary fencing around it to keep you-know-who out of it), but Millie managed to not only find other mud, but also to get it all over her. Three times. All I can say is thank God for the water hose and her loving to be sprayed down by it. Otherwise, I'd have red clay all over my house (more so than I already do). No towel alone could ever remove that Georgia red clay from her thick white fur.

Case-in-Point #2: Damn Puppy Teeth



The past few weeks, she has definitely re-entered a heavy chewing phase. Not that it ever went away to begin with, but it had gotten a little better. I've tried to keep her gnawing at bay by giving her lots of rawhides and toys. Still, she prefers things that cost much, much more money than that. Like, for example, my glasses. Mind you, this is pair #2 that she has demolished. The good news it that I think I salvaged the lenses, so hopefully I will only have to pay for new frames. And, since she ate my last pair, I was smart enough when I purchased these (one month ago, by the way) to buy the cheapest frames they had. Insurance won't pay for them this time though, so it's "real" money now. Which leads me to case-in-point #3....

Case-in-Point #3: Time-Out for Bad Behavior



When she outgrew her crate, we knew we still needed a safe place for her to stay when we were not home. Safe for her and safe for us (see Case-in-Point #2). So, Brent built a custom gate (we haven't stained it yet) and we made our laundry room her new "kennel." Fortunately for her, she is rarely in it because I'm almost always home and she has proven (so far) that she can behave during the night and sleep in her dog bed next to our bed without causing too much damage throughout the house. But, on occasions like today when she cannot seem to behave herself, it serves as her Time-Out zone. I put her in there after discovering the eye glasses incident, and the fact that, afterward, she could not tell by my tone that she was in trouble and tried a variety of other tactics like biting me, jumping on the couch and harassing Bailey. That behavior landed her in time-out, where she still sits as I type. Mind you, her kennel is complete with big fluffy bed, a handful of toys and a giant bowl of water, so she is not suffering too badly. But, every few minutes I am hearing the miserable groan of her wanting to be out. Hopefully that is the sound of her internalizing her bad behavior and vowing to never do it again.

I know, fat chance.