Doggie Updates
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
It’s been awhile since I’ve updated you all on the furry ones in the family, so here we go: (please read to the end because I have an unrelated question I need some help with at the bottom of this post!)
BUDDY
Buddy had surgery (again) and (again) it was to remove a growth, but they think it’s benign. I, personally, am glad it’s out. It was getting bigger and I was worried about him. No cone this time. If he turns around, he can’t reach the stitches with his mouth. That’s the good news. The bad news? He can scratch the itch with his foot.
So what does the vet suggest? That we put a man’s shirt over his head and tie it – seventies style.
Do you have any idea what this did to my poor boy’s ego? Not to mention the fact that his front paw kept getting stuck in the armhole. They also suggest a sock over his back paw. Do you think that lasted long before he pulled it off? It was difficult enough getting the sock on without Bailey getting into the act, wanting to play tug of war with the sock.
Not to worry though. I’m a good mommy. I went out and bought my boy his very own doggie shirt so he can be comfortable, safe and stylish while he heals. 
The amazing thing is that Bailey seems to sense, as my youngest daughter said, that Buddy’s red shirt isn’t just so he’ll look good for the ladies. She isn’t jumping on him or causing him trouble. She just loves him.
SPEAKING OF BAILEY …
She’s training … and she isn’t. 98% of the time she doesn’t pee or poop in the crate. She holds both overnight from 9:00 PM – 5:45 AM. Then she holds it until I let her out for breakfast at 7:40 AM. She eats, then she pees and she poops. Then she has some out time to play then back in the crate. I’ll let her out a few more times in the morning/mid afternoon and only sometimes will she poop, but then around 2 PM she poops again. At 4 PM, she has dinner, she goes out to pee and poop; and then she has some more out time. The back in the crate. Then she goes out again an hour or so later and only sometimes will she poop. (Last night she ate at 4 PM and pooped after; we went out at 5 and she peed only right before we left) came home at 9 PM and she’d pooped IN the crate). She gets her last walk around 9 or 9:30 PM and she’ll usually pee and poop. Then we’re good until morning. 
This works if she gets NO real freedom. In other words, if her play time she’s on a leash and the leash is hooked to the leg of a chair. She’ll play and be good. But if we put gates up in the kitchen, so she can have confined “real out play time”, she will immediately find a place to poop as soon as I blink. Seriously. 
Nobody can be as routinized as I am with this puppy and yet … nada. She’s 21 weeks old exactly. Here she is with her favorite toy squirrel - we call it her “Squirrelly- face”
I’m frustrated but I’m determined to house break her! (I took her to the vet yesterday and she said that though Bailey is five months old, she isn’t maturing all that quickly, so maybe that’s why she isn’t “getting” the housebreaking yet. And that if she stays this way in a month, they’ll put off spaying her for a little while longer. So perhaps there’s a reason - which makes it easier to deal with. And when I mentioned all this to her breeder, she said her mother matured more slowly too. Interesting stuff.)
Why do pets make us willing to put up with anything? This one has me wrapped around her finger.
With this face is it any wonder why?
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I’m going on vacation on Sunday … can you all recommend LIGHT romance for me to read?????
