Devil Spawned Pug Strikes Again.

He gave me a present on Christmas morning. It involved teeth, and an angry vocalization of sounds that only a pug could make.


And in case anyone is wondering, yes it is hard to photograph your own leg.

Snow Days!

Watch for Duke doing the slip and slide!

A Walk in the Snow

Tis' the Season

'Tis the night before Christmas and all through the town,
Every shelter is full - we are lost but not found,
Our numbers are hung on our kennels so bare,
We hope every minute that someone will care,
They'll come to adopt us and give us the call,
"Come here, Max and Sparkie - come fetch your new ball!!

But now we sit here and think of the days..
We were treated so fondly - we had cute, baby ways,
Once we were little, then we grew and we grew -
Now we're no longer young and we're no longer new.
So out the back door we were thrown like the trash,
They reacted so quickly - why were they so rash?
We "jump on the children:, "don't come when they call",
We "bark when they leave us", climb over the wall.

We should have been neutered, we should have been spayed,
Now we suffer the consequence of the errors THEY made.
If only they'd trained us, if only we knew...
We'd have done what they asked us and worshiped them, too.
We were left in the backyard, or worse -let to roam-
Now we're tired and lonely and out of a home.
They dropped us off here and they kissed us good-bye...
"Maybe someone else will give you a try."

So now here we are, all confused and alone...
In a shelter with others who long for a home.
The kind workers come through with a meal and a pat,
with so many to care for, they can't stay to chat,
They move to the next kennel, giving each of us cheer...
We know that they wonder how long we'll be here.
We lay down to sleep and sweet dreams fill our heads..
Of a home filled with love and our own cozy beds.

Remember that a pet is for life......not for Christmas.

In the Still of the Night.

Those of you with dogs know how weird it is to come home when your dogs are out. It doesn't seem like a significant change, but when your norm is 3 dogs barrelling at you every time you come home, its absence is very apparent. Sometimes it's a peaceful change, but most of the time it's lonely.

Yesterday I worked all day and then had a Christmas party to attend directly after. So the pups had a sleepover at different friends houses. I had to split them up, because its hard getting a sitter for all 3 together! My husband is gone off to work out of town as well, so I came home to complete stillness. Very odd. Even more out of place was me sleeping in a huge king sized bed.....alone. I could spread out and roll over without fear of inhaling a dog butt.

But it's highly overrated. I'll take my train wreck greeting, and hair covered bed any day.




Insert dogs here.

6th photo

We were tagged from Sara to post my 6th picture from my 6th folder. Everyone else she tagged had dog photos......Mine is rather boring and I must admit I toyed with the idea of picking a different one, but I'm going to play by the rules.

So I was selling this jacket on Ebay. That's it. It was a lululemon jacket, which I guess is kind of funny because a new store opened up in town here and I heard there was almost a 6 hour line up!

Seriously?

I think that someone is toying with me upstairs. Just playing with me to see how much I can handle before I do some serious damage! Its minus 40 today and my dog door breaks. Now I have a permanently open door right at freeze your tootsies off level. But don't fret, it's under warranty. I just have to wait for the new part to ship from California, at Christmas time!!!!

You know you've got a problem when.......

When the first question you ask the sales clerk is "would these dishes break if say, they fell from a counter onto a tiled floor?" you know you have a problem.

Then when the sales clerk looks at you like your on a pass from the hospital you think "crap I'll just by an extra set" you know you have a problem.

When your father comes over to fix your broken bathroom door and he calls to say he found a coffee mug shattered on the floor and you say "oh just one mug?" you know you have a problem.

When your yard looks like your dishwasher vomited all over it, you know you have a problem.

When it looks like you've thrown all your utensils in the garborater, you know you have a problem.

My problem has a name, and it's Duke.

Tagged!

The trio of badness was tagged on their 3 favorite things so here it goes.

Sadie
1. Patrolling the daycare aka the fun police (hey if a certain elderly wiener dog loitered around the gate too long he deserved it)
2. Grama's house - except its not so fun with the devil spawned pug there now
3. Bones - not so much eating them, but guarding them from the other dogs
4. Walks -especially if it involves the ball and biting Duke
5. Biting Duke
6. Her Momma!

Duke
1. Swimming
2.Humping other dogs (no gender preference)
3. Swimming
4. Bones
5. Swimming
6. His Momma!

Mira
1. Cuddling
2. Doing her leg stretches
3. Food!
4. Running around aimlessly while the other two chase the silly ball
5. Belly rubs
6. Her Momma!

Walk it Off

We had a great walk yesterday with our herd. Minus the incident when Roscoe decided to go all Lion vs Antelope Nation Geographic style on Mira. It was definitely a Dermax night for her dis plastic hips!

The rear view mirror view!

When it All Comes Together

I want to promise him a soft place to lay forever.

Helping with rescue is hard. It's heartbreaking, it's frustrating, and it's physically exhausting. Several of my friends foster and I see them go through the same emotions and that can make me just as sad.

Saturday we helped send many great dogs to their forever homes. Letting your foster go can be difficult. Wendy said it best on her blog (http://crazyandlittle.blogspot.com/) when she described it as feeling like your telling your foster their not good enough to stay. And even though that is not the case, you know that someone along the way has said that to them. And as I brush the coat off my foster dog, that I know grew in because of all the cold nights he spent outside, and as I rub his calloused joints that I know came from sleeping on the concrete shelter floor, and as I run my fingers over his scars that I don't want to know about, I am sad all over again.

To cheer up we went for a walk in the coulees with our little "pack". Along the way we saw a dog that looked very much like one of our former fosters. Sure enough when we approached, the couple confirms that he was in fact an old foster dog, who came from a very disturbed home. As he runs up to us tail wagging I pet his soft glossy coat and hear the smiling couple tell us how wonderful he is, I have to laugh. This comes at such an appropriate time when we are all questioning the fate of our fosters. To see him happy and confident just confirms what the rescue is doing for them.

So as I scrub the "marking" off the leg of my couch, and wipe up this evenings dinner that obviously didn't agree with my fosters stomach. I'm smiling because I know that in the end it's all worth it.

And on a high note, the second time he hit the Christmas tree, which would be confusing to even the most seasoned dog, so I think we are heading in the right direction!

More Bad Luck

I came home tonight and immediately took the dogs for a walk. While we were walking I noticed Mira's tail was hanging limp. I tried to pick it up and when I let it go it dropped as if there was no muscle tone left in it at all. After a frantic call to Kendra, we have to go in for X-rays tomorrow. My best description of it was "it looks like one of those fake tails you pin on yourself for halloween, you know it just hangs there". And of course as soon as I try to photograph her she gets all suspicious and won't cooperate. Wait until I betray her by leaving her at the vet tomorrow again! Poor Mira

Mira not wanting to sit on her broken tail
This is how it "hangs"
Back views

Has anyone seen anything like this before?

I'm also on my 3rd replacement phone. Yes that's right its the 3rd one that hasn't worked. Apparently there is a policy that you must try 4 times before they let you change models. Not give you your money back but pick another crappy windows based phone. Anyone who is wondering - get the iphone. sigh.

Worst Week

When I got a letter from my governing body in the mail this afternoon saying I failed my audit I actually laughed. It was the fluffy icing on the top of my week from hell. Suspended from practice! No job. Nice.

I think it started when I came home on Monday and discovered that I hadn't shut the door to the spare room which contained all my Christmas presents. The ones that I had so carefully chosen months before Christmas and painstakingly wrapped with love. Destroyed by viscous dogs, angry at me for being late. Amongst those gifts was a 50 piece box of Lindor chocolates. I emphasize was. I found every single foil carefully unwrapped and discarded for the contents within. They also had fun with a gift intended for Dustin's niece, a stuffed dog set. Interestingly, there were 4 dogs in the set and I only found the mauled remnants of one.

Then I got sick. Mucus plugged hacking my lungs out, staying home from work sick. Except for the 3 hours that I had to go in for as there was no coverage. I hope none of you got prescriptions from my pharmacy today from about 9-12 or you might have taken home a little more then you paid for!

Then my beautiful new phone died. After numerous attempts at contacting the "help" desk, I'm sure my file is flagged irate customer, I actually got a new one from the store. No I couldn't just go to the mall where I purchased it from, I had to go to the frigin' industrial park not once but twice because they are the only ones apparently knowledgeable to do an exchange. I mean literally taking my defective phone and handing me another one in a box. So now I'm in the processes of uploading all my info into the phone again. This requires me calling all the software companies that I downloaded from and telling them that I have switched devices and am not trying to steal their software. This is fine except today apparently is the U.S. thanksgiving and NO one is answering the phone!

Then I get home to discover that I missed garbage pick up and am stuck with an overflowing garbage bin until next Friday. So this weeks garbage will be piling up in my garage, and I'll probably never get caught up.

I also missed my doctor's appointment tonight, as the appointment info was in my defective phone that I had to give to the freaks up in the industrial park. They then told me they could schedule me in to walk in clinic tonight. So I go home and drive back 2 hours later only to be told by the Dr. that she couldn't help me in walk in and I would have to schedule an appointment with my regular dr. This was followed by me bursting into tears and demanding the prescription that I know I needed, which didn't go over so well. Needless to say I left sans prescription and an appointment for 2 weeks from now with my regular dr.

Upon returning home tonight I sank into my couch and instantly caught the distinctive whiff of vomit. Now I'm washing my couch cushions while quietly sobbing waiting for my husband to get home. Who by the way had to be coaxed home as he was avoiding his crabby wife.

I guess when you hit rock bottom, there is no where but up.................right?


The remaining mauled stuffed dog - I believe it was some sort of Maltese.

The individually unwrapped Lindor chocolates
A panned out view of the destruction - yes those are all wrappers

Hidden Gems

Their out there, lurking in the dark shadows, waiting for a labbie paw to smash them into a mashed paste. But I can't get to them, the darkness is in their favor. I have to leave them before the sun rises, and when I return the sun has set on them, leaving them to hide in the dim moonlight. What are they? They are the poos that linger in the back yard. I know their out there though, I can smell them. It has come to the sad reality of blindly sweeping the ground with a bagged hand to reach them. I'll get them. I'll get them all............

The Good Ol' Dayz

I have a new smartphone! Its very cool, it's called HTP diamond. It has been refered to as the windows version of the iphone, which is what I wanted because I can't make myself switch over to a Mac yet. Anyway I was cleaning out some old files to update my new phone and found some very cool pictures. Last year Wendy had a dog walking business and she would take pictures of their adventures. Enjoy.

By Any Other Name

Names. It seems we have picked the most common dog names in existence. Mira was the only one who got an original name and that was because we didn't name her. I really thought we were creative with Sadie, that was until I went to the kennel to pick her up and after giving her name, the lady laughed and asked which one! Apparently she had 5 Sadies that weekend. Actually for whatever reason we originally gave Sadie the name Heidi. We left her with my parents while on vacation and at some point we decided to change it. I had to call my dad and tell him to start calling her a different name half way through the week!

Some times we change the dogs names just for fun. This week we have been calling Duke Drago pronounced Dr-ahhh-go. It came from watching the T.V. show the Dragons Den. I said I wanted to call him Dragon and it was shortened to Drago.

Other times we just call them by breed. The terrier. The lab, or labbie, and the mixed breed.

Nicknames. Sadie got poop, pooper this came from obvious reasons during puppyhood. See the worms post. Mira is Mirabelle and Duke is Dukie, or Dukeman, not very original.

I think you could call any of my dogs by any name you choose and you would get the same reaction as if you had called them by their proper names, which is usually a whole lotta nothin'!!!

Ohhh Dukey!

For a dog who loves water so much, you'd think he wouldn't be so miserable in the bath.


And just what did Mr. Duke do to deserve such a harsh punishment? Well he ran inside to greet my company tonight right after he tromped through his own feces. And when I say greet I mean jumped up and made two smelly footprints on his jacket. Nice. Boy dogs suck.

It's Begining to Smell a Lot Like.....Anal Glands

Gag me. Mira is having anal "issues". She randomly dumps the contents of her glands onto whatever she is laying on. Last night it was my bed! I had to change the sheets. I have never smelled anything so putrid in my life. For those lucky enough not to know what I'm talking about think musky decaying corpse. Enough said.

We are going to see our vet to empty them. Until then she is getting some pumpkin. I'm glad I called Amanda to see how much pumpkin to give her because I bought a 5000ml can and was just going to fill up her food dish with it! Apparently you only use like 2 tablespoonful. I wonder what would have happened............

Yes, they have shut down a store!

The Prairie Dog Canine Rescue had their first annual Mircrochip Clinic today. I had the very important job of spraying the "pink stuff" between appointments. It was mostly a success, with the exception of a few no shows. However, we filled them in with a little impromptu recruiting from the neighboring pet store. Sorry Julia, she got a very manly pitbull that I sent over! To kill the time between appointments the girls and I starting telling our runaway stories. This is why it is so important to have your dog mircochipped!

I remember getting a phone call from my frantic neighbor saying that the dogs had broken out of the yard and were running amuck on Whoop-up Drive, which is a fairly busy road in our little city. She said she couldn't get them back in the yard. After attempting to call friends and family to round up the crew without success I decided I had to leave. Which in any normal profession wouldn't have been a big deal, however without my humble presence in my store, the whole store has to shut down, literally. I made several attempts to get reinforcements but after contemplating the risks I told them to shut it down and was outta there! I mean really, there are several other stores in a 10 mile radius that could perform the exact same service. Fortunately when I got home, my cousin had finally rounded up the last of the crew and they were safely home. When I got back to work my boss wasn't very understanding, he said "Sandy you can't just leave" which I promptly responded with "that's funny cause I thought I just did.................."

Morning Routine

I'm sure everyone has their own morning routine. Ours never varies. Sometime between 6am and 7am I hear the scratching of claws on laminate pacing from one side of the bed to the other, precisely 5 minutes after this commences I hear the whining. I'm sure if Mira could talk she would be chanting "feed me Momma, feed me Momma". If that doesn't get my attention she will jump on the bed and push her wet nose into my face and proceed the chant. Yes, I get up.

We go to the pantry with now all 3 jumping and wagging like I've been missing for years and I measure out the required amounts. Then I throw the measuring cup on the counter and go back to bed. Did you catch my error? Remember I have a food scavenging counter surfer.........

I always forget to close the pantry door!!! Every time. Seriously. So our routine continues. I hear a crumpling of wrapper, usually he goes for the breads, I'm not sure why. Then I hear the frantic scraping of feet and the sharp thud of a labbie head bounding through the dog door. This follows the sharp high pitched barking of the fun police who has her suspect in hot pursuit. Usually I chalk it up to a loss. I mean by now whatever prize he has claimed has been in his mouth, and drug through the land mine of our backyard. And it would require me getting up and going outside in the frigid morning air.

Today he choose pita wraps. So much for taco's tonight.

Dog Park

We had a great time at the daycare's Dog Park today. We were all enjoying the warm sunny November day until Amanda told us that we were all going to burn because of global warming!


Lacey knew who had the cookies.
Vito trying to be brave.

Sadie found the cookie pocket.

More cookie pockets.

Little Lacey.

Dustin and Mira.

The dogs didn't even get a time out today! Wooo hooo!

Who's Bad?

The dogs were soooo good last night. We kept Mira away from the door and she didn't do her frantic barking! Duke and Sadie "greeted" all the little kids and Duke didn't even knock one of them over! and Sadie loved all the attention.

I however wasn't so good. But it was pretty fun!

The Brew

A few nights ago, when I got home from work the dogs did their "OMG I haven't seen you in like 8 hours" dance and routine. This followed promptly by Duke projectile vomiting across the room. Husband is laughing trying to say he is just exciting to see me. I know better. After a quick trip to the backyard I bring back an empty margarine tub. For the remainder of the evening I am serenaded by the sounds of digestion and apparently it is a very labour intensive process. I actually wish I could record it and play the sounds for the trick or treaters tonight. They would have thought we were concocting the most evil witches brew. In actuality Duke was making his own brew, and it was more evil then any witches potion!

Happy Halloween!

I can't wait to deal with the reaction of dogs who normally don't act appropriately when people come to the door. Now we get to throw in masks and small screaming children to the mix! Maybe we should pull a Wendy and turn the lights off...............

Happy Howloween!!!

The dogs went to the second annual Paws on the Run Howloween Party yesterday! I believe the attendees doubled since the first annual meeting. Which just shows Wendy's business is booming! We had a great time, I didn't get too many pictures, as I was trying to control my 3 and help Amanda where I could. We did enter the costume judging and Sadie led the group march around the outdoor play area. We had to stop mid-march to let her pee her costume, and then while waiting for judging she pooped in it as well......nice.

As predicted Sadie won the wiener dunking paws down. We were a little disappointed her fierce competition Jane was only participating in the go-dog-go parties dunk. Sadie thinks she was scared to go up against her =).

All went well, with the exception of me jumping the gun on commencing the off leash play. This lead to a certain overly eager dog to almost eat a guest's plate of snacks. And then during play Duke received a time out for engaging in overly dominant play (ok he was caught humping!) and before his time was even done, Sadie also was banned to isolation. Although I have to say, the dog she "abused" was overreacting just a tad ; ). Mira, of course, was an angel - Amanda even praised her for initiating a greeting with a fellow human guest. Of course when he went to pet her she slunked off barking.....but.

Happy Halloween!

Friendly Neighborhood Vet

I remember when I used to call our vet and our conversations went like this -
"Hi its Sandy Macdonald, with Duke, Mira and Sadie.....".
After a few calls it went like this -
" Hi it's Sandy with Duke, Mira and Sadie.........."
Then it got to this -
"Hi its Sandy........"
Now its like this -
"Hey its me, can I talk to Kendra"

It's On

Sadie has been officially challenged. Check out Sara's blog

http://digit-fetchit-herdit.blogspot.com/ Sadie won the wiener diving contest last year (see the medal!) and Jane's mad. But we are practising and ready to defend our title!

Counter Surfer

Duke is a professional counter surfer. In the past I have tried to justify his behavior from being a pound dog, and he was just used to scavenging for his food. However, he has received a constant supply of food for the last 3 years, and I can't make excuses for him anymore. He is just bad. He has learned he is not suppose to do this, so he will wait and watch for you to move out of eyeshot and then he will go for his prize.

When we first got Duke we lived next door to my parents, and their kitchen window overlooked directly into our backyard. We would often receive phone calls from my frantic mother, saying Duke had a bag of buns, a carton of milk, or a tub of margarine etc. out in the yard as he would take his stash out the dog door. Before we were trained not to leave anything on the counter tops these calls were quite regular. He wasn't particular with food either, there were things that you wouldn't even think could fit through the 10X15 hole out in the yard. One day I came home and found I had no couch cushions. Apparently Duke wanted to lay on them outside.

The dog door dash worked both ways, and often we would come home to inappropriate items inside the house. I remember coming home to a beautiful fall day complete with brightly colored leaves scattered on the ground............ inside my living room. The best was when he decided to drag a small tree inside and proceed to use it as a chewy.

Then one day the meter man came to the front door to ask if I could let him in the back to read the meter. I locked the dogs inside and gave him the all clear through the front door. A while later I went to make sure he latched the gate properly and to my horror I saw several pairs of panties scattered throughout the yard. The poor meter man must have thought we were some kind of crazy!

Mira's Mass - Part 3

Great news! The results came back for the mass aka little alien, and there is no cancer! Our wonderful vet Kendra excised all its hideousness, and despite Mira's best efforts, the wound is healing nicely. The report indicated the mass may have been viral in nature, so we have to do some watchful waiting and hope it doesn't return.

She should be ready to go just in time for the Halloween party at Paws on the Run. Sadie is practising for the wiener dunk - watch out Jane!!!

Sadie and the Worms

I was contemplating the title of this post, and decided it sounded like the title of a fable, but then I thought, it is comparable to a fable. The definition of a fable is "a short allegorical narrative making a moral point". Well this little gem I pulled out of the past definitely makes a point.

As previously disclosed Sadie was a pet store puppy. The lack of knowledge we had going into this seems so unreal to me now. Not that I am an expert by any means, but I think I have come a long way since the naive buyer I was in the pet store. Anyway we bought her, thus contributing to the wonderful world of puppy mills, and brought her to our backyardless apartment complex. Smart move.

I thought that getting a puppy at that point in my life was perfect, as I was off work and school for 2 months. There was only the small task of preparing for the most significant test of my life. The one that I had been working towards for the last 7 years of university thereby allowing me to practise pharmacy. No biggie. Upon asking Dustin what we should name her he said "coulda been a pharmacist?"

Crating Sadie was not conducive to studying, as she would scream, kick, fling poop and urine around her cage and surrounding area. So mostly she slept on my lap, thereby allowing me to focus for a few hours at a time. This worked for the first couple of weeks, when she still was the tiny baby stolen much too early from her mother. Then she got bigger and more playful and we had to incorporate potty training into my schedule. I thought I was so smart by teaching her to ring a little bell that I hung by the front door when she had to go out. Although her definition of having to go out, was not mine and it certainly didn't schedule around potty breaks. She would ring that horrible bell every 10 minutes and I was ready to cut it off its magnificently designed string. I tried the tie out and she would tangle herself in seconds and cry. There was no allowing any sort of X-pen or run, as per the lovely people who run the condo association. I'm not sure when my breaking point hit, but at some point I just opened the door and let her run wild. Every now and then a helpful neighbor would knock on my door holding the struggling mass that was Sadie and I would politely ask them if she was bothering them. If they said no I would pluck her from their arms and release her into back into the complex and turn back inside.

Something had to have happened here, obviously Sadie is alive and well (thank goodness, I'm not sure how) but something terrible did happen and much more repulsive. We had a wedding and I brought Sadie to my parents because we didn't leave her alone when we went out. She was a little off all day, but we didn't think much. Most of the out of town guest congregated at my parents pre wedding meal. Sadie and Otis, my parents dog, were going at it in the hall and my mom decided to step in and break it up. She grabbed Sadie around the waist to pick her up and that slight amount of pressure must have been just enough to release the floodgates. A huge rush of watery diarrhea came exploding out of her and down the hall. No one, and nothing was spared. The walls, the rug, and my cousin who was in an unfortunate position were all covered.

The vet said it was the worst case of worms she had seen in a domesticated animal. Well it made sense since Sadie wasn't really domesticated at the time. It turns out the garbage at the complex had been overfilling and people were just throwing garbage on the ground outside of the bin. Sadie helped herself to the decaying compost and viola, we have the best and worst wedding story ever!!!

So what is the moral point? If your going to be a pet owner, be a responsible one! Watch your friggin' dog!

This is my Daddy

Since Mira has been out of commission, Dustin has refused to take the dogs for a walk, because he feels bad Mira can't go. At first I thought this was an excuse not to have to walk them. Today I told him I would stay home with Mira and keep her company while he walked Duke and Sadie. He again protested that Mira would be left out.

Then I see him padding and re-wrapping her foot so she could go. He has now driven over to the field to let Duke and Sadie run and is keeping Mira beside him on a leash. I guess Mira knows who her Daddy is.

Smart dog?

I think my dogs are smart. Granted I think some are smarter then others, but I don't think anyone of them are unintelligent. However, I believe we all have our "blonde moments", dogs included. Then every once in a while a blonde moment keeps repeating and you begin to doubt their intelligence level.

Case and point, we have a little electric fireplace that Sadie LOVES. She might actually be a bit obsessed with it. She knows we refuse (usually) to turn it on in the summer despite her frantic pleas. She will sit by it and pound on the handle to let us know she would like it on. Lately its been getting colder and I have allowed her to "have a fire". Smart dog right?

I decided to re-arrange the living room slightly and in the final decor the fireplace got moved. In its place sits a little end table.


Fireplace

Endtable - see the difference?

That same day I found her banging on the end table's leg. At first I thought she saw some food on the top, but she would then politely sit beside the table and look at me expectantly, like she does with her fire. The first time I laughed and put her on her bed by the fire and turned it on, thinking that was the end of it. Nope. She keeps repeating this little ritual and I keep placing her by the fire across the room. Silly girl.

Then again maybe she's smarter then I think and just telling me to put the friggin' fire back where it was! =)

Simple Love

The more I deal with people, the more I love my dogs.

Mira's Mass - Part 2

Mira must have started to miss little alien Monday afternoon. After discovering he didn't lay beneath the stretchy wrap she decided he must be hidden under the black threads.........

All things careless can be traced back to husbands, or men for that matter. Mira was under the unwatchful eye of her dad. I knew as soon as I got home what she had accomplished, as she wasn't weight bearing on that leg. I flipped over the paw and sure enough the stitches were dangling uselessly from shards of fatty tissue. I rushed her to our vet Kendra who was quite disgusted that her beautiful sewing job was in ruins. She decided not to stich it back up as too much healing had occurred. We were to keep it bandaged and start antibiotics.

So me with my bright ideas (bone-shaped pool) decided I would apply various substances to her bandage to encourage her to leave it on. I came up with bitter apple spray, pickle juice and hot sauce, and of course I got many suggestions from others - lavender, vinegar, dish soap. I decided the bitter apple spray would be the most convenient and applied it first. Mira immediately started in on it. Then I had my ahhh moment! I have yet to discover any food-like substance that Mira hasn't liked. Have you ever seen a dog eat a clove of garlic and ask for more? Ditto for pickles, onion, mushroom. The best part is that the other two think if she is eating it they must also have some. This results semi-chewed blobs of food spat out on to the carpet. Although this doesn't even deter Mira, she will happily eat the pre-digested sample. So I've decided the best thing would be to leave it plain and hope for the best. Although I may go to the hot sauce, but only as a last resort via Amanda's request.


Now I have to eat my words. After entering the blog I went to take a picture of Mira with her wrapped up foot, and this is what I saw. That green and white item on the floor is her cast! She's looking very proud of herself. Maybe I'll try the hotsauce after all.

Who's Your Daddy?

About a year ago we collected Duke's DNA and mailed it to a company in California for determination of heritage. I'm not sure what possessed me to inquire, it could have been the entourage of people with their backyard bred, tall, lanky "labs" telling me he had to be part Rottie. Either way we had it performed and the results concluded purebred Labrador Retriever.

Then came Mira. I believe it was the tedious and repetitive task of informing people I had no idea what she was. That or reducing her description to a German Shepard because we had to choose something. So we retrieved a sample of her cheek cells, sealed and mailed it away.

Flash forward - I received the most interesting voice mail on my phone. A gentlemen with an American accent told me he was from Metaphorphix DNA and he was inquiring about Mira. I called back but not wanting to release any details as to sway his results, I asked him first what the analysis concluded. He informed me indefinitely she was a mutt - she had no strong primary or even secondary DNA matches. This defines her parents as both being mutts. However there were 3 main breeds that they found in her mix. The first was black and tan coon hound, which is actually what the rescue labelled her. The next was a pleasant surprise - flat-coat retriever! Hello Kaleb! Then I inquired as to why he was so perplexed by the analysis. He told me the final breed that came up was no other then the - Chihuahua!! I was in line at the local petsmart and I let out a crowd inquiring knee- slapping, snorting howl! Well I said someone just commented on her dainty little feet!!!

So there you have it my beautiful Flat Coat Chihuahua Hound! At least I have an answer now, no matter how ridiculous.

Comfy?

Can you think of anything better to crawl into bed with?

I guess he partied too hard on his birthday!