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How many dog toys does a dog go through in a lifetime? Many many, I think we'd all agree.
I know that even my parents' Jack Russell Terriers go through them like they were actually eating them (yes well, they were...)
Here is a site we can all have fun with: Licked Toys - the first dog toy graveyard. What a brilliant idea!
It's just a fledgling site but I think we can all come up with a photo or two of a crunched hedgehog or a destroyed tuggy to add to their collection.
A few months ago, Akemi asked me if I'd answer a few questions about entrepreneurship for her website, which I was happy to do. It turned out to be more fun than I thought.
A snippet for you:
What is the best part of being an entrepreneur for you?
It’s such a cliché but it comes down to being able to build something from nothing that solves people’s problems. There’s no feeling like it.I also like that if I am going to work hard, I might as well do it for my own benefit since I put my all into whatever I do. And finally, I’m not sure I could work for anyone else now – I would be such a horrible employee. I have too many opinions about how things should be run, particularly around company culture, and I’d drive everyone crazy.
The rest is here.
So, Wednesday started off with minor adventure.
I forgot to take Ruby for a quick pee before our car ride home. Jonathan said she goes every 3 hours or so; however, nervous doggies need to go every hour or so. But she was a trooper and pee'd on the garage floor, not in the car. I was impressed.
I thought that if that was as bad as it was going to get, we'd be in good shape.
Once at home and in the rush of excitement of kids met dog, dog meet kids, kids demand dinner, mom supplies dinner, cats freak out, mom despairs with the noise and mayhem (the usual dinner time commotion), I forgot to tell Ellie and Erin that while the cats can be let in and out of the back yard, dogs need to go with someone (we have no fence). So when I suddenly looked up wildly from my dinner-making frenzy to ask where Ruby was, I nearly fainted when Ellie said "Oh, she's outside - I let her out because she wanted to go". Note we have no fence.
We'd only had her 2 hours and she was already off wandering goodness knows where, having a ball, never ever to be seen again. What was I going to tell Jonathan's kids? I teleported outside to find Ruby standing on the deck staring intently at the hugest deer I'd ever seen in our backyard (who was staring hard at her) and my heart stood still. My mental image at that very moment - Ruby disappearing off like a streak into the distance pursuing a ton of galloping mayhem (or vice versa - it was one mean looking deer.) Why me!
So thank goodness for a dangling leash to step on is all I can say... Disaster averted.
Then Ruby ate a blue crayon that one of the girls had dropped on the floor and ran off with Efelant - Erin's most favorite cuddly elephant.
That was in hour 1.
I was worn out.
But things got better from there and Ruby was a delight to have in the house, even if in that third-child-with-wheels way.
We introduced Ruby to our local river (a great way to tire out a Goldendoodle puppy, I must say) and we kept the Embrace staff on their toes with puppy potty runs (so many volunteers, it was great!). I practised my frisbie and soccer skills and Ruby behaved herself as best a 3.5 month puppy can - in fact, better than I expected.
All in all, a success of a puppy-sitting weekend.
One last story to round out the fun. On Sunday, we took Ruby and the girls to a local pond (to wear out the puppy - again!) and in a momentary lapse in attention of leash length on my part, Ruby bounded up to Ellie at the water's edge and pounced at her, scaring her into falling forward into the mud. The wails began as only a four year old can give forth...
It wouldn't have been so bad if my mothering instinct hadn't kicked in and in rushing over to her, I accidentally allowed Ruby to make a game of it - " let's squeeze some more noise out of this play thing by jumping on her in the water..."
Well,you can just imagine the scene - me soothing Ellie with my mommy-caring noises while holding her at arms length (so much mud!) and desperately trying not to let any form of amusement cross my fact (because once you start, you know you cannot stop). And John laughing in the most discrete way in the background while I tried to palm off Ruby to him.
Anyway, it all turned out fine after I hosed down Ellie back home and soothed her with promises of ice cream and that I wouldn't tell anyone what happened (oops.)
After Ruby had gone home, I asked the girls if they'd like to have a dog in the family and Ellie nodded solemnly "Yes, I'd like a dog. A very small dog." And then she smiled and gave me a hug.
Well, that's a good start I think.
Related Post:
Adventures in puppy-sitting - prelude
Here's a guest post from Lea going through a pet health moment in her household.
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About 3 weeks ago we noticed that our dog, Lyger, an 8 year old Lab mix was favoring his left foreleg, and appeared to be limiting his shoulder movement. The initial vet visit wrote it off as a strain, prescribing aspirin, but there was no improvement.
A week later, we returned to see another veterinarian more adept in canine orthopedics and after a series of radio graphs, it was found that Lyger had a slight lesion on his neck, caused by a bulging disc.
After just 7 days on Rimadyl (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory), he is doing much better! The vet was pleasantly surprised as he admitted to me today during the recheck that he was anticipating this requiring steroids and possibly surgery, but that it appears to be minor.
So, it's temporarily painful, but the good news is that it looks like we'll be avoiding surgery.
When I asked the veterinarian what may have caused this, or what can we do to prevent further injury he responded with two points that I'll summarize:
Point one:
This type of disk degeneration is hereditary (I found web documentation that it's most common in Labs, Dobermans and Shepherds) but the condition is compounded by small injuries over time-typically jumping off of something, like furniture.
"So like him jumping down past 3 steps off of a porch to chase a squirrel?" I ask.
"Exactly!"
Point two:
It's ideal if a harness can be used instead of a collar, that can cause sudden stopping injuries or strain from pulling.
Good to know, as Lyger is a notorious puller.
Lyger now has a standing prescription for Rimadyl at his veterinarian's office, because he is more likely to have issues with this again now. Like people, dogs with "bad necks" or "bad backs" typically have chronic issues. The things I should be careful to look for are any sort of lameness, dragging of limbs, or walking on his 'knuckles'. These are signs of serious neurological problems, and indication that Lyger should see a vet immediately.
So this weekend, we'll be installing a few rails on the porch to keep Lyger from making any more flying leaps, and hope that this remains the extent of this condition.
Related Posts:
$4,825 Claim: Dachshund herniates a disc
OK, so I'm behind in my blogging.
Besides an update on how the pup-sitting went on the weekend, I have a great pet health story coming up. But all my good plans were thrown for a loop this weekend when a freak storm (yes, it was freaky) knocked down some serious tree parts 2 houses down, tearing down 2 power poles and blocking the road for 2 days. Luckily no people or pets were hurt and no property was damaged but it was lights out for 6 lucky houses in the neighborhood - ours included.
And of course, as luck would have it, the Illuminating Company had sent their emergency staff off to Toledo thinking that that was where the action was going to be; hence, no power at home on Sunday night or Monday until past midnight (and that was a miracle I think.) Harumph!
In a pinch yesterday, I rented a generator to save the food in our fridge and 2 freezers (I like to cook in bulk and freeze it all and Costco is our best friend) and I did manage to get in some work done in the heat of Monday night, eating melted chocolate ice cream :), but it all rather threw me (and the girls and the cats ) for a loop (John stayed at work late in his lovely air conditioned office - envy envy.)
So while I try to catch up this week, you can check out see some video footage of Ruby, the talkative Golden-Doodle, over at my Facebook profile to keep you amused. She certainly did have fun at the office.
It's that time of year again - blogger awards. I know, very silly but it's fun to expose people to the embrace blog.
So get out there and vote for this blog just to raise our profile with a few new folks. Goodness knows, I'm hardly going to kick Lolcats off their mighty perch!
How'd you like to puppy-sit a 12 week old Golden-doodle for 5 days? Sounds like fun, doesn't it! And that's exactly what my family is going to be doing starting in just a few hours.
Jonathan in our office and his family are going away to a wedding this weekend and I felt sorry for poor old Ruby going into kennels at such a young age. So I volunteered us to take care of Ruby for the duration.
I grew up with dogs of all ages and sizes and of course, the girls (Ellie aged 4 and Erin aged 2) adore dogs, particularly Erin, so I'm thinking that it's going to be a fun experience all round - and it's only temporary.
My expectations of the weekend are as follows:
the girls will be a bit hestitant to start with but will quickly make friends with Ruby, making her the star of their universeWhat do you think - doggy disasters or puppy perfection all weekend?
I'll keep you informed.
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