Jasmine's Spay

 Found this blog post as a draft from last March.  I had actually forgotten a lot of these details, so I thought I'd go ahead and publish it. :)

It was the day I had be dreading since last September. The day our darling Jack Russell Terrier gets spayed.

The night before I hadn't slept at all. I had been up between the thunder and a especially nagging defect I couldn't solve at work, plus worrying about all the things that could go wrong with Jasmine the next day...

On Wednesday morning, I got up to take Jazz to the vet. But before I could get there, I dropped my cell phone (again) and destroyed it. No longer little cracks in the glass, but full out hardware failure.

We went to a different vet - the one through the dog adoption agency, since the cost spay was included in our adoption costs. She had a nervous breakdown. She barked, she flailed. They finally came and took her away just so I could finish filling out the paperwork. Which of course made me more upset. And, I had to give them Jake's number since I wasn't going to be able to be contacted.
I was pretty stressed all day. At one point, I was giving Jacob a "at the top of my lungs" lecture about 4g networks (and that it's a marketing term not a technology term.). Let's just say, I probably wasn't very pleasant, being so stressed and sleep deprived.

But Jazz came home and she was incredibly groggy and sore, but fine. And sneaky. I ended up having to gate her away from all furniture, because if i turned my back for 1 minute (to write an email, to get a glass of water, to do my job) she had jumped on the couch or the bed. Sneaky little thing.

She also attempted to jump several feet in the air to eat a bumble bee. Yeah.

But she and I had a great time hanging out for 4 days. And since I wouldn't let her play with her big brother, she has learned a new trick. She jumps up into my lap and tries to put her toy in my mouth. Delightful. (Ok, it's hilarious... but it makes it extremely hard to read a book...)

And she's healing up quickly.  Should be 100% and allowed to fight brother pretty soon here.

I'm expecting!

I haven't updated in a little while, and this is one of the reasons...

I'm about 2 months pregnant!  (Due early July) I've already got a handful of posts floating around in my head about these latest adventures, but no telling when I'll have enough energy to write them.  In the mean time, I wanted to at least update my blog with this exciting turn of events.

As you can see from the photo, the dogs are thrilled too.  Actually, I'm reasonably confident they do not understand why mommy and daddy have been keeping Jazz from prancing on my tummy, or why we've been trying to teach them not to bark when they wake up first thing... but they are eagerly waiting for something. :) (Probably food.)

How to Throw a Birthday Party for your Dog

So here you are, looking for information on how to throw a party for your four-legged child, aka your dog.

First, Acknowledge.
It is important to recognize that you are crazy.  Awesome, creative, and loving... but crazy.  Don't worry, no judgement here.  Just acknowledge where you are. In crazy town.

Second, cake.  
I found a lot of recipes online for cake that could be consumed by dogs and humans (usually something like "peanut butter carrot cake".)  That sounded disgusting to me.  Instead I went the route of "making my guests uncomfortable because my cake just *looks* like something dogs eat." aka, dog food cake.  It's Reese's cereal and it looks pretty gross! It was chocolate cake underneath, which you should definitely not share with your birthday children.

"Dog food Cake" for people!

And then of course, you need cake for the guests of honor.  It's important to remember that your guests of honor might need a couple extra bathroom breaks after the party, since you gave them filet mignon dog food which they are not quite used to eating, but thought was delicious.

"Cake" for dogs!

"Nom nom we love cake"

Third, presents.
Dogs may not know how to open presents, but if you loosely tape them and put food inside, they will figure it out pretty quickly.

"Oh, we get it!"

Finally: hats!
And then the most important element of doggy birthdays. Dogs in hats!  AAahhhh!!

"Why do you do this to us, mom?"

 Make sure you take several pictures as quickly as you can, because dogs don't seem to like hats nearly as much as you do.

Happy 1st birthday to Jazz and 5th birthday to Tolpel! :) And thanks to my family (husband, parents, sister, and brother in law) for attending my ridiculous party.

Moo Cows

In our home we have two identical "moo cows". They both have equally had their stuffing ripped out of them, and have equally bit and chewed. It matters not, because this always happens.

They fight over every thing, but the "moo cow" thing is the most funny/frustrating (depending on how I'm feeling.) Even if I hand them each one toy, they both want whatever one the other one has. Oh my doggy children.

Good Fences make Good... Pet Owners

Jake and I have rescued two neighborhood puppies now. Fortunately, both dogs knew where their house was, so I just walked near them, and they showed me home, and then I knocked on the door. Both owners were totally startled that their little babies had gotten out.  I have to say.. this kinda shocked me.


Jacob and I have had 3 dogs. Our first, Tölpel, was adopted him from the pound right after we got back from our honeymoon. He's the sweetest dog in the world. But he was a runaway. They found him on the side of the road, and after trying to find an owner for a year, they finally turned him over to the pound. That's where we found him.

Then we got Kunos. He was a Basset-hound-Labrador mix and he could just steal your heart away with his adorableness!  Also a runaway.  We took him to try to find the owners so he didn't have to go to a pound or rescue. I posted information on every website, every shelter, I could find to find this dogs owners. Unfortunately, he ended up eating a large amount of fabric and we couldn't save him, but he warmed our home (and brought quite a lot of excitement, having two male dogs in the house!!) for a time.

And now, of course, we have little Jazz who's mommy wasn't taken care of... she was in a 100% kill shelter before PawfectMatch rescued her and then gave her to us.

But with respect to the first two dogs - both were runaways.  Or in the case of Tölpel, I suspect he was a wander away - he doesn't really run unless there's a rabbit.  Both of those sweet sweet dogs should never have come to our home. Both should have had long lives with their original owners.  And how many dogs in our own neighborhood have almost had the same fate of life in the pound, hoping someone would rescue them?

Jake and I chose to get Jazz from a rescue instead of the pound.  When we realized how many dogs are euthinized, we thought a going to a rescue would really save 2 dogs, because now they have room for another one.

I guess the point is, not everyone wants pets.  Pets are not people. I get that. But if you're going to go through all the trouble to HAVE a sweet and loving pet...

1. Please don't leave them unsupervised in the backyard where they could possibly dig under a fence or run through an electric fence. Know where your dog is.  I'm not saying none of ours have ever made a bolt for it. But we were there and went and found them.
2. Please keep your dogs up to date on their vaccinations and microchip them. That way if they do ever get away, they can be returned to you and won't end up in a pound!
3. If you are thinking of getting a pet, please consider a shelter.  In this area, I know of http://catangelsnc.org/ and http://www.pawfectmatch.org/ which are both great shelters, but there are so many great shelters and so many wonderful pets needing a home.  And it's in these shelter's interest to find a pet that matches your personality and activity level, because they want this to be a permanent arrangement.

New puppy!

I know I haven't been so domestic diva-ing lately.  (but will be coming back soon, I promise!)  To be honest, I've been just trying to survive.  Jacob started a new job a few months back, and then his softball season picked up as well as several other responsibilities... and then we got a new puppy!!

Everyone, meet Jasmine.  Or Jazz as well call her.

Having a puppy is a very new experience for us.  Suddenly we have middle of the night potty breaks, lots and lots of chewing, and puppy jealousy!  Tölpel, who has always been very obedient and somewhat uncaring of toys now wants whatever toy Jazz has.  And she will take whatever he has out of his mouth if she can. Even when she has an identical bone already.  But they are so loving and we are really enjoying it.  And the two of them are really starting to get along.  They play together and even cuddle sometimes.  

  

And "mommy" and "daddy" are loving it!

The Pitbull "Incident"

This past weekend, Tölpel and I were attacked by 2 pitbulls. In my front yard. It was a horrifying experience. Jake was out of town, and we were going to the farmer's market. I had my hands full, and the leash wrapped around my wrist when these two pitbulls came from nowhere and started sniffing Tölpel. I got pretty scared and started to try to walk away. At this point, both dogs jumped on Tölpel and started biting his neck. Tölpel began to try to fight back, while screaming (you know, that awful high pitched noise they make when they're hurt)... and I cannot drop the leash. He can't get away.

I'm screaming "GET OFF MY DOG GET OFF MY DOG" at the top of my lungs and against everything I know that I'm supposed to be doing in this situation, I reach behind the head of the more agressive pitbull and pull him off of my dog. I quickly grab Tölpel and hold him. The pitbulls are surrounding me, trying to nip at Tölpel's feet, and the neighbors are all looking.

My neighbor from 3 houses down, Neil, has come running at this point with some sort of pitchfork/shovel thing and he tells me to take the dog inside. "I can't" I said through tears. "This one is following me." He comes and waves his pitchfork at the dog. The dog doesn't run away, but it distracts him enough that I bolt for my front door. I found my keys and got a bleeding Tölpel inside the house. By this point, the pitbulls have scattered. Neil comes and makes sure that I've gotten in the house ok, and tells me to make sure that Tölpel is ok.

I start checking Tölpel all over, but I can't find where he's bleeding from. It's not bad, and surprisingly none of the skin on his neck is broken (where most of the biting was). I called Jacob and my dad, and they tell me to call animal control. At this point, the doorbell rings. Neil had called the police.

The police officers informed me that they had caught the dogs, found the owners, and animal control was going through the vaccination records of the pitbulls. They realized that the blood was coming from Tölpel's ear, so they had me turn it over for them, and then they took my statement and ran my id and sat with me until animal control came. She informed me that the pitbulls were from responsible pet owners who had thankfully had the dogs vaccinated. We looked at Tölpel and decided he didn't need stitches, and a small scrape on my arm and determined it wasn't broken skin. She let me know what to do if either of our conditions changed, and she filed her own report on the whole situation.

We're both fine - Tölpel's ear is almost healed. And he seems to have forgotten about the incident - although he was certainly upset and behaved a little strangely the rest of that day. He got a big bone for being such a brave boy. I have been really struggling with fear though. Fear of going in my own yard. Fear that the dogs will be back in my yard when I get home at night. I've talked to Jake about it, and he put things in pretty good perspective - "For a girl that's been through a tornado and a pitbull attack in the last month, you're remarkably unscathed."

And after hearing some other horrible dog stories lately, I realized that the owners weren't lying when they said "They really are sweet dogs; we can't believe this happened." Of course, I didn't know that at the time, but in hindsight - they didn't bite me. They didn't break the skin where they were biting Tölpel. They didn't attack me when I picked Tölpel up. No one required stitches or plastic surgery.

Jake came home early and he and my brother in law repaired our fence, so that I could feel safe at least in the backyard. And I'm making Neil a cheesecake.