Pictures for my friend Miss Leslie

So, I take most my pictures for my blog on my Mac laptop. There is a web camera and all sorts of special effects can be done with this program on the Mac called photo booth. So, for my friend Miss Leslie, I am dedicating this blog to her and to my amazing photos (nothing has been going on lately with the boxers, just pee and poop. Yes, this last creepy one is of me.....).

Long week of vet visits and puppy poop

My favorite thing is a sleeping puppy.

So, it has been a long week. My foster Bert started to leak urine constantly on Sunday. So I moved up my vet appt from Wed to Mon. They took a urine sample, a blood sample and skin samples to try and figure out what was going on. Well, an hour later we knew it wasn't diabetes or a urinary tract infection. But he did have a staph skin infection and a yeast infection. He got some strong antibiotics (which cause diarrhea) but are working on his skin. I switched his food, but he has not been gaining wait. So, the blood work came back and no huge signs of any disease. So, we decided to check him for Cushing's disease. Well, the results came back last night and he does not have Cushing's. So, I am monitoring his water intake for the whole weekend. The next thing is diabetes insipidis. I could have sworn I asked about this right away and was told, No, but maybe they thought I just meant plain old diabetes. Well, anyway, I feel bad for him because he looks so sad all the time.

So in other news, the puppy likes to poop and pee everywhere. We thought we were doing a good job of potty training, but now I am not so sure. I think A and I are so used to potty training for a few days and then we are done, cause they are mostly adult dogs that we re-train when they come to live with us. But not a puppy. It is going to take quite a long time to train him, I think we have realized. Parker has had quite a few visits this week. Its fun to visit a puppy and then go home and sleep all through the night. After 7 more weeks I will be very happy when I will place Parker in his new home. The living room is a constant disaster, I mean the puppy has only a 3 second attention span. At least he likes the toys, otherwise I would have a chewed up couch, shoes, blankets, etc.

Parker, the puppy

So, Friday night I picked up Parker the boxer mix foster puppy. He is a sweetie, and we knew it would be hard, but actually it has been easier than we thought. I guess I am jinxing myself, though. We have less than 8 weeks to go before he is placed. I think the older he gets the more naughty he is going to get. So, we are in for some rough times I think.

It has been 15 years since I have lived with a puppy this little, I forget how cute and fun it is, sometimes. Its so funny because he play bows to Sadie and then she runs after him to play and he gets really scared and hides. He loves toys and he is such a good dog. We are working on potty training. He is doing ok, except it is cold, and this morning, wet, outside. Not to get off topic of the dogs, but it is sleeting and flooding all over Madison. A ran to the store to get eggs to make me french toast this morning and he said that many streets are flooding. We are supposed to get 7-10 inches in Madison today, but know I really doubt it, as it is too warm for snow.

Anyway, I think Sadie is tolerating Parker, and Bert is as well. I do not think either of them are really excited or happy to have Parker here. However, I think A secretly likes Parker. I mean he doesn't deny that he likes Parker, but it is very cute and sweet to see Parker cuddle up to A and having A laugh at all Parker's antics. I think we are really enjoying ourselves having Parker here. I am not interested in fostering another puppy anytime soon, but it is nice. Especially since he already has a home in Elkhorn with a mom and dad, 3 furless brothers (two 2yr olds and one 3 yr old), a boston terrier and a weird looking little dog. The weird looking dog reminds me of the creature that rides the fluffy white dog in Labyrinth. Anyway - its helpful to know that we are placing him after 16 weeks. More fun Parker posts to come....

Good-Bye Humphrey, Hello sleepless nights

So, Humphrey is leaving on Saturday morning. I am really excited for him but very sad. Well, anyway, I had to take him to the vet today. I could have sworn he was micro chipped, but alas, he was not. So I brought him in and he was a hit. All the ladies loved him. He was such a good boy. He sat patiently for treats and did not make a sound when they stuck the huge needle into his shoulder skin to insert the chip. He was very happy to get out of the house and ride in the car. But he annoys the heck out of me in the car, so I am a bit worried about the 2.5 hour ride to GB Sat morning. He wants to sit in my lap and does not settle down. Well, we will see how that goes. I am excited though, as after I place him I get to eat lunch at a really cool place with 2 of my favorite g-friends. Then I am coming back to Madison and will be attending a Wine/Chocolate tasting at a locate Wine-Coffee shop.

Well, the other part of my blog is the worry of me not getting any more sleep after tomorrow night. We are getting an 8 week old puppy to foster. His name is Parker and he is a sweetie. He already has a new home, but since they are new adopters, I will be fostering him until he is 16 weeks, neutered and up to date. I imagine it will be very stressful for A and I for quite a few weeks, as we have alot of stuff going on. We are going to Chicago at least 2 weekends, as it is my brothers B-day one weekend and the next we are helping him paint his new house that he bought. Then in March there are a few rescue things going on: the Oshkosh Pet Expo and the Ladies weekend in Door Cty. I am really excited for that weekend.

Well, enough about all that. I got into work SO early this morning, due to workload that I need to get to bed, like NOW! We went out with some friends for a Valentines Dinner and it was really nice. Happy Valentines Day! :)

Snow is not good for me or the Boxers

So, I have not blogged in awhile. This week has been crazy. First, another family inquired about Humphrey on Monday. Then the first family came to visit him Tuesday during my lunch hour. She brought her GABR adoptee Ollie and she and Humphrey got along SO great. Her only concern was that if Humpy jumps on her elderly mom, he could knock her over and cause her to break something. So, I wasn't sure of she was going to adopt him. However, she e-mailed a few days later and let me know that she wanted to adopt him. YEA! I cried, I will miss him alot. He is my special guy. But, he needs a home where he doesn't have to be crated and where there is another dog for him to play with all the time. He does not get that here. I will be sad when I place him next week, I will be very sad, but know that he is in the best home.

So beside the foster dog stuff, Madison got 13+ inches of snow on Tues-Wed. I hate snow. We had a half day of work. We could barely make it home. This has been the worst winter in Madison history. We are pushing 80" of snow since Nov. Ick. And now, it is snowing like crazy, again. The snowflakes are the size of pomeranians. Plus, the dogs do not really like the snow. Bert is constantly peeing on the first stair once he steps out the door. Humphrey's entire tongue is constantly covered in snow. I am always worried that his tongue is going to get frost bitten. Currently our patio is yellow and brown. Its really pretty. I am supposed to go wine tasting tonight. I hope I make it - I do not like to miss wine tastings.

Pet Expo, Puppies and Poop

It was a crazy weekend. I picked up a Boxer named Billy at the Dane county shelter on Thursday night. I call him B2, as I have previously had a foster named Billy. B2 spent Thursday night with us, and then I was going to transfer him to another foster home, via a friend, on Friday. Well, he got along well with Sadie and Humphrey, and OK with Bert. But Friday afternoon Bert and B2 had a tiff.

There was a Pet expo in Milwaukee this weekend and I was scheduled to set up, as I had most of our exhibition stuff. So, my friends invited me and B2 to stay at their place Friday night, along with another friend who was setting up the booth at the expo as well as transport B2 up north for me. We had a great time! I played some Wii bowling, and I threw a little too hard a few times and I think I pulled a muscle in the arm/shoulder. It still hurts. It was awesome staying over, I love their house and my friend made us a really great breakfast in the morning. I am so thankful to have great friends like them. Then it was a long day at the Expo. I got there at 8am to set up and stayed until about 2pm. I came home and then had a holiday party to attend. I was exhausted this morning!

Today I went to another friends to help with some visits for a foster, Jazzi, and 2 of her puppies, Parker and Miles. Jazzi is about a year old and her pups are about 6 weeks old (in the pic above, puppies are much younger). I played with alot of puppies today and cleaned up a fair amount or puppy pee and poop. It was so much fun hanging out with my friend, Jazzi and the pups. But, I am VERY tired. It was a 'go go go' weekend and I may watch some of the Superbowl (for the commercials) and the head to bed early.

My Dad, Frosty and Kito

Today is my Dad's B-day. He was a dog lover and a WONDERFUL father. He passed away 4 years ago last October and not a day goes by that I do not think of him. I miss him very much. Anyway, how does my dad relate to dogs - specifically Boxers? As a child, we always had a dog. One time my dad brought home a toy poodle form his work, and we had her for a long time, her name was Sheila and she bit everyone in the house, multiple times. Anyway, pictured above is Frosty, Sadie and Kito. Frosty is about 11 yrs old in the picture. We only had Sadie 3 months at that point. Kito was my brother's Boxer (7 yrs in the picture). Kito was given up by a girl who no longer could care for him, a daughter of a friend of my Uncle's.

Here is the story about how we got Frosty and how she picked her own name. A brother of my mom's best friend was breeding Boxers (ick!) and his female Tasha gave birth to 3 boxers, a fawn and 2 white females. One of the white females died right away. The fawn was given to the stud owner and the other white one was left and available for purchase. My brother and I begged and begged to get her. So, finally they gave in and we got to bring her home. We had no idea what to name her. She was so cute and white! She looked like a little bunny. She was so small compared to our other dog, at the time, Maggie. Maggie was a 130 lb bullmastiff. Anyway, we had the white puppy at home and we were wondering what to name her. So, my dad had the idea that we all pick a name, write it on a little piece of paper and have the puppy pick her own name out. Well, I picked nieve, which means snow in spanish. My brother picked spider, my mom picked Frosty and my dad picked Samantha. So we placed all the pieces of paper on the floor and we let her go and she ran, picked up a piece of paper and ran. We caught her and then took the name out of her mouth. It was FROSTY! :) She was definitely a Frosty and she loved her name.

They say that death comes in 3's. For my family it did. My Dad died in October 2003. Frosty died of heart failure at the ripe old age of 11 in Feb 2004. Then 1 week later, Kito, my brother's Boxer, died of heart failure at the too young age of 7. We were all very heartbroken at all the death. It was a very hard time for all of us. But, I have pictures and memories of all the dogs that I have love in my life and I thank my dad for teaching me to be kind to dogs and always having them around while I was growing up.