Sick Puppy

Hey everybody, this is going to be a quick post to tell you about my weekend. Saturday morning I woke Mom and Dad up at 5:30 a.m. with the noise all parents of pets dread - the Horka sound. Mom let me outside and went to start cleaning the carpet in the bedroom. She kept smelling a nasty smell in the kitchen but couldn't find the source so she thought I only did it in the bedroom. Mom can't see without her contacts in and she hates wearing her glasses but she finally decided to just deal with the glasses because she couldn't see me when she looked outside to check on me. After Mom cleaned up the mess in the bedroom, she came outside and sat with me! How many people do you know that would sit outside in the very early hours of the morning with their sick dog? It felt good to sit out in the cool night air. Finally I decided I was okay enough to go inside and Mom told me to get up in the bed. Usually if I lay right in the middle of her spot on the bed, I have to move but not that morning! Mom and Dad moved around to make sure I was comfortable. After a few minutes of laying in bed with Mom and Dad petting me and worrying about me, I had the feeling again so I stood up. Dad at first was trying to convince me to lay down, but Mom said NO! and her and I ran to the patio door again so I could go outside. Mom knew the signs and I made it outside in time. THEN Mom AND Dad came out and sat with me for a long time. When we went back inside Dad walked through the living room and found the source of the smells. Mom cleaned up those messes and Dad tried to make me comfortable.
Dad had to go to work so Mom and I spent most of the day on the couch together. Mom was really worried about me because usually when I get sick like that, I'm okay after a few minutes. I couldn't keep anything down all day long. Mom said it was really hard watching me go potty, too - we won't get into the details of why. Mom got some Saltine crackers out and gave me a couple and that seemed to help a little. She knew that all the advice people out there tell you not to give your dog food for 24 hours in this case, but watching me throw up clear liquid made Mom think about all the stomach issues she's had over the years and she knew I needed something in my tummy to help soak some of that up. I was glad she did because I started to feel better. I was drinking a little water, but not a lot so when Dad got home from work they went to the store and got me some of that Pedia-Lite stuff for human babies. I tried it, but it tasted NASTY! I knew Mom and dad really wanted me to drink it and I trust them so I kept trying but just couldn't do it. Dad tried it and here are his exact words: "THAT'S NASTY!!!! I'm pouring this crap out! There's no way I can force her to drink this crap!" So a little later Mom and Dad made a trip to the gas station for some Gatorade. That stuff is very yummy! I think Mom and Dad should keep that in the fridge all the time for me!
Mom called Aunt Gillian to see if she could come use her magic carpet cleaning thing because by the time Mom and Dad found my accidents in the living room, they had soaked in and Mom was having issues getting the stains and especially the smell out. She came and made the spots go away which also helped me. I feel so guilty when I have accidents and anytime someone would go mess with the spots or walk near them, I'd put my ears down and tuck my tail and look even more pathetic than I already was. Once the spots and the smell were gone, Mom and I felt a little better.
Mom made me a little bit of plain rice for dinner because I was hungry and she knew I better not tr my regular food, but the rice came back up a little later. That made Mom really worried that I was still throwing up so we curled up on the couch again and once she thought my tummy was settled a little, she brought the Saltines out again. The combination of the Gatorade and the Saltines made me feel really good. We were all really tired from being awake so early so Mom laid on one couch and Dad laid on the other and I curled up on blanket beside the couch Mom was on so Mom could rub my belly. Mom said when she was a little girl and had a tummy ache, she loved when her Mom rubbed her tummy. She knew exactly how to rub my tummy to make it feel even better.
We went to bed early Saturday night because Mom and Dad were supposed to go on a fishing trip the next day if I was feeling better. They both said they weren't going if I was still not doing good. Mom didn't sleep good at all because she had her Mom radar on high alert. She listened to all of us breathe all night long and was pretty sure she could hear Gunnar breathing in the other bedroom. She said I slept really good and in the morning we let Mom stay in bed for awhile while Dad gave me some more Gatorade and a few more Saltines for breakfast. Mom and Dad decided I was doing okay enough for them to go fishing for the morning and Grandma was staying home all day so she would check on me. Dad put a little food in my dish and told Grandma if I acted like I really wanted to eat, to go ahead and give me the little bit he put in my dish. If Mom and Dad had stayed home, I would have been trying to follow them like I do every Sunday so them leaving actually made me rest which was what I really needed. Grandma gave me my breakfast and I ate it and kept it down. She called Mom's cellphone to let her know and Mom said that made her relax more so she could enjoy their fishing trip. Mom caught 4 fish and Dad only caught 1 and they both had a lot of fun.
Mom wouldn't let me play fetch on Sunday and told me that I needed to relax instead. I was bored, but I really did feel like I needed to rest so I did what Mom said. She said I could play fetch as much as I wanted on Monday. Mom listened to me all night again Sunday night so she was really tired Monday morning. I laid out in the yard while Mom and Dad did some yard work and then we went inside to try to cool off. Mom was attacked by a horsefly while they were fishing so she was dealing with itchy legs all day. Mom says her left leg must taste better than her right leg because there's more bites on her left than her right leg. Her right foot is also all swollen from a huge bite so she thinks she must be a little allergic to horsefly bites.
Dad tried playing fetch with me, but I was still wasn't 100% yet so I would play a little and then go lay down. I was a lot better than I was on Saturday, but still needed to rest and drink Gatorade.
Mom told me I have to rest all day today and all day tomorrow because there are kids coming to visit this weekend! They are my mom's friend's kids and they are coming Thursday and Mom and Dad are taking them home on Sunday morning! Their Mom has to go somewhere and Mom and I are going to take care of them and then on Saturday we're going to take them for a ride in my Jeep!!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!
I'm feeling a ton better now and I have to thank my Mom for that! It's hard to take care of someone that can't tell you what is wrong or what they need and Mom did a great job watching for my "signs" and just knowing when I needed a tummy rub, an ear scratch or a kiss on my nose. Next time ANYBODY says anything about my mom's care taking skills that isn't good, I'm going to bite them!!! Or maybe Horka on them! LOL!! Mom went to Denver with Dad today for a meeting for Dad's work and then tomorrow I'm going to make sure Mom and I both get lots of rest so we'll be ready for the kids on Thursday. I might not be able to post again this week (I think I'm averaging 1 post a week anyway right now) so have a good weekend everybody! Hopefully I'll have some fun stories to share with you next week about taking the kids for a ride in my Jeep!

Mom's Sewing

I have a couple of Mom's sewing projects to share with you. She's very proud of herself. There are a few flaws on both her projects, but for her first projects, they aren't bad.
This first one is a pillow. Mom says it's not that exciting of a project, but it was a good confidence building project for her first project.


This was her second project. Mom hates white everything and this house has white walls and white curtains. Mom is an artist and all the white is driving her crazy. Right now Mom and Dad can't afford to paint the house, plus Mom isn't ready to start choosing paint colors yet. It takes her forever to choose paint colors! So, the reason she decided to start learning to sew was to make custom curtains for the house. She wanted unique curtains. She found a pattern for these cool valances. The patterns said it was a "Sewing for Dummies" pattern. Mom says it must be for smart dummies because she kept getting confused. She'll be ready for the next one though. This one is hanging in our laundry room. Mom says the first one goes in the room that has a plant hanging in front of the window to cover up the "mistakes."
She really likes the curvy shape of the valance so she will be doing all the other valences this same way. She's taking a break for a few days and then her and Dad will go choose more fabric and hopefully soon I'll have another room to share with you. Mom says it probably wasn't a great idea to use print fabrics for her first 2 projects. Mom usually doesn't do things the easy way though. That's probably why the "Sewing For Dummies" pattern was confusing to her!!!
Maybe if Mom gets really good at this, she'll be able to start a sewing business. If she does that, she's going to get a new sewing machine though. The one she uses now is her Mom's old one that is older than my aunt and Mom is just a few years older than it. A couple of you asked about what kind of machine it is and really all she knows about it is it's a Brother with a BUNCH of missing pieces (my aunt had it for the past few years and lost a bunch of the pieces - luckily it wasn't any of the important pieces.
the air conditioner just turned on again so I'm going to go lay in front of a vent now. I now remember why I don't like the month of July. Sometimes I think the thermometer telling us what the temperature outside is, is going to say the same thing as the one that tells Mom what the temperature in the oven is!

Funny Story

I have a funny story to help everybody smile a little.
Yesterday, Mom and I were hanging out watching Food Network and we saw an old lady and a kid started walking up to our door. They rang the doorbell and of course Sasha and I went into guard dog mode. Mom opened the big door and left the screen door shut and Mom had to grab my collar because I was going so crazy, I was stepping on Sasha. The lady was a little afraid of me. Mom wouldn't open the screen door or tell me to stop barking because she knew who the people were. The lady was holding a Bible and the kid had 2 bibles. The lady started talking about some invitation to a conference that she wanted to invite Mom to. Mom saw the title on the invitation and it was something about what to do when the end of the world comes. The lady was trying to talk to Mom and I kept on barking and barking but the lady wouldn't listen to me. mom didn't call me off and tell me it was okay so I knew Mom didn't want the lady here so I kept on barking. Finally the lady asked, "Do you ever put her on a leash?" Mom said "Not in the house!" Later she thought of something else to say since I am trusted off leash outside the fence and out when we're playing. She should have said "Not usually!" The lady left the invitation in the screen door handle and left. Once they pulled out of the driveway, Mom got the invitation out, let me smell it and threw it away. I heard Mom tell Dad that since they had 3 Bibles she knew they wanted her to invite them in so they could sit and read from the Bible but I guess since Mom doesn't keep me on a leash while I'm in MY house, she didn't want to read the Bible with Mom.
Last weekend one of Mom's friends came to town with her kids. Her daughter is 12 and her son is 6. I played the entire day with them and was exhausted when they left. Yesterday Mom got an email saying they're coming this weekend for 4th of July!!!! I'm excited because I really like playing with kids, but mostly because Mom and Dad are talking about doing a bbq and those kids thought it was fun to feed me pizza so I'm dreaming about the hamburgers and hotdogs they'll be feeding me this weekend! I can't wait!!! They are also going to bring their swimsuits to play in my pool with me! There were pictures taken, but Mom and I aren't going to post them for because of some family issues of their's. Just picture a couple of cute kids playing with me and that will have to work.
It's time for my afternoon nap. I'm doing a lot of resting so I'll be ready for Saturday! I can't wait!!!!!!!!

New Toys

Hi everybody! Happy Friday. This past weekend Mom and Dad deserted us dogs for almost an entire day and the really bad part is they took MY Jeep!!!! I wasn't happy, but the next day they went to do some shopping and brought home some new toys for us. Here are pictures of us with out new toys. In this picture you can see the collar Huskee and Hershey sent me for my birthday - kinda. Mom has been trying to get a good picture of me in it to show Huskee and Hershey how good I look in it, but I haven't been very cooperative.

My toy is an orange and black rope with orange camo tennis balls. It's a lot of fun to play fetch and tug-of-war with it. Mom said they got the small one because they knew the tennis balls wouldn't last very long so they didn't want to spend an extra $4.00 on something they knew wasn't going to last long. 4 days later, the balls are split a little, but they still bounce and are still attached to the rope so Mom is thinking small toys for me seem to hold up longer.

Sasha got one of those cool loofa dogs! I love this toy, too! It had 2 squeakers in it!!!! I didn't know it had 2 when I read about these on other dog blogs!!! Well, it now has 0 squeakers in it because that is usually the first thing Sasha does to toys.

Sasha doesn't look like that anymore though and we'd show you a picture, but she's been hiding under the bed since Mom brought her home from the GROOMER!! I hate when Mom takes Sasha to the groomer. I get very jealous that Sasha is going somewhere without me and then when Mom comes home without her I get really worried and then Mom leaves again and comes back with a weird looking and weird smelling smaller thing. It takes a long time for Gunnar and I to inspect her to make sure Mom brought home the right dog. Whenever Sasha gets groomed, she hides from Mom for the night and part of the next day under the big bed because she's mad at Mom. I don't blame her

Mom has been busy on some new hobbies, too. She is teaching herself how to sew. Her mom tried a long time ago and lost patience with Mom. It wasn't that Mom is a total Dummy when it comes to sewing, it's her Mom had little patience. Mom can hand sew pretty well and you've seen some of her cross-stitch stuff. My Aunt Gillian had their Mom's old sewing machine and let Mom have it so Mom could see if she could teach herself. My mom has a special message for all of the moms out there that sew and have lots of spare time (do we know any mom's like that?). Mom says if you make a book with very detailed pictures for beginning sewers, she would pay a lot of money for it. It took her all day yesterday to figure out how to thread the machine. She found a bunch of videos on You Tube that helped a little, but her machine is a little different than all of the videos so she had to figure out a lot on her own. If any of the sewing moms out there have any advice or tips for Mom, she would really appreciate it. After she got the machine threaded, she remembered a lot of things, but when she sets up the machine, she sets up the computer next to it so she can Google when she gets confused. It's actually kind of funny to watch. She has to take a lot of breaks so she doesn't end up throwing the sewing machine across the field in front of our house. That works out great for me, especially since Sasha is hiding. She's making a pillow right now because she thought that would be the easiest thing to start out with. Once it's done, I'll show you a picture as long as it looks like a pillow. It looks like Mom is going to need a break again so I'm going to go find a toy to play fetch with.

Have a great weekend everybody!!

Go Visit Huskee & Hershey

I know I haven't posted in awhile and I was plannign on sharing some more pictures of my mom's plants, but instead I want all of you to go to Huskee & Hershey's blog and send their Mom lots and lots of good vibes. Shane (that's Huskee & Hershey's mom) is very special to my mom and of course to me and she needs the power of DWB right now. If you have already gone to visit them, please keep the good vibes going and go send them some more love and support on their blog!!
WE LOVE YOU SHANE, MARK, HUSKEE, HERSHEY & CHLOE!!!!!!!!!! (I have to go find Mom a tissue now.)

Roses

Hi everybody!!!! I kind of took Maggie and Mitch's advice to delete everything in my reader and start over so I'm pretty caught up. I didn't delete everything, I just scrolled through looking at pictures and read anything that looked like it was really important or would make us laugh until our sides hurt. I'm glad we have such funny friends!!!!
Last week Mom and I went out and took pictures of her rose bushes. There's a bunch!!! At our old house Mom couldn't get flowers to grow and now she's got a bunch of rose bushes and other flowers growing. She would get jealous when some of you would show off your flowers and gardens and Mom didn't have anything to share. Not any more!!! Today we'll start off with the rose bushes. Mom is working on doing some work on the rose bushes so when you see a bunch of brown sticks in the rose bushes, just ignore them because a lot of them aren't there anymore. Mom and I work on them a little bit every day, but it gets too hot to work on them too much and once in awhile Mom gets scratched up pretty bad and needs to take a couple days to heal.
We didn't get to share Peony and Iris pictures with you because the wind blew all the petals off! Mom's Lilac bushes bloomed earlier than any of the other ones in town and didn't bloom very much and then they were done and gone. There's lilac bushes all over town blooming so Mom is confused why her bushes quit so early. We have a feeling it is the same reason the rose bushes have a bunch of dead stems. Our house was vacant for almost a year when we moved into it so everythign got a little neglected. Mom has been doing lots of weeding and pruning and talking to everything so hopefully next year the Lilac bushes will bloom longer and later.
Okay, now to show you the roses. Here is a pink normal size bush. See those 5 buds behind the one flower? Those buds had opened up 2 days after we took this picture. Here is a red rose bush that opens up really wide to show a yellow center.

This one Mom needs to do a lot of work to. It's a little pink rose bush mixed up in a bunch of iris plants. Towards the end of summer Mom will take out some of these iris plants and transplant them up in front of the house where there aren't many flowers (where she wants to put them is full of weeds right nowand it's going to take awhile to get them out). This little bish also needs lots of pruning. We haven't made it to this bush yet, so it looks pretty bad right now, but still pretty cute.

This bush was the last one to blume. It has pretty yellow roses. These buds finally bloomed just a couple days ago!

This bush confuses Mom. It has thorns like a rose bush, but the flowers don't look like a normal rose. PLUS, when the flowers bloom, they're a very vibrant yellow like the ones in the front, but after a couple days they start to fade to a really pale yellow like the ones in the back, then right before you thing they're going to turn all white the petals fall off into the grass.

This red rose bush has a bunch of blooms on it. This bush also has some crowding issues because there's a small lilac bush growing right beside it (Mom might move it to the front yeard, too), some tree thing that smells funny and looks bad (Mom cuts that out whenever she sees it trying to grow) AND there's also a Russian Olive Tree trying to grow in the middle of the poor rose bush! Mom cuts the Russian Olive Tree out because she hates the thorns on it.

You can't tell in this picture, but this rose bush is one of them that is 2 colors. It is a light yellow and light pink color.

Here is another redish/pinkish rose bush. This one also has a bunch of blooms and it is also the one that has needed the most pruning. Mom works on it for awhile and then has to move on and do something else for a little while because she gets frustrated and scratched up a lot.

This one makes Mom laugh. it's a pretty yelllow with a little orange highlights but if you look, ther are only 2 stems on the entire bush. The little bush to the left of this one only has a couple stems, too but there aren't any blooms on it yet.

This red rose bush doesn't have many blooms on it yet, but it has a bunch of buds. The picture makes it look kind og pink, but it really is red.

This red rose bush has a ton of blooms on it! It has the most blooms on it out of all of the bushes. It's crazy!These are roses, but Mom really likes them a lot. We thing they're called Sweet Williams, but we're not positive. The reason we think that is because Grandma thinks that's what they're called. Mom hasn't reasearched them yet (cut she's been busy focussing on the roses) so if any of you know what they are, please let us know. They came back this year so we're pretty sure they're an annual of that helps. Ignore the grass growing in it, that's not supposed to be there. Mom and Dad were trying to fill in some spots in the grass that needed reseeded and the winf and birds decided to blow the grass seed all over the place.

This is one of Mom's favorites because it one of the 2 colored roses again. You can really see the pink and yellow in this one.

This picture is supposed to be turned and we can't figure out why it won't - probably because there are so many pictures in this post. This is the only rose bush in the front of the house. This is Mom's most favorite bush for a couple reasons. It's a multi colored rose and when Mom and Dad came to look at the house for the first time, it didn't look very happy, then when they came the next week to do the inspection there were some buds and then when Mom came to do the final walk through there were a bunch of smaller sized blooms and then when they brought Sasha and I to the house later that day after the closing they were big blooms like this all over the bush. Mom says it was kind of like the bush fell n love with them when they first came to look at it and just kept getting happier and happier every time they came back. It was one of the first bushes to bloom this year and needs the least amount of pruning.

That's all of Mom's roses. I'm going to go take a nap now. That post made me really tired!

Happy Plants

We finally had a sunny nice day where Mom could take her plants outside for ther Spring cleaning. She's been trying to do that for a few weeks now. She usually takes them outside to wash the dust off their leaves and give them a good soaking and inspection. They get a good soaking of water and sun. Today the wind wasn't blowing hard so they got to spend almost the entire day outside. Mom says they're very happy plants now and they all have big smiles now. I try not to look at the plants because I'm afraid I really will see a smile and then I'll be as crazy as my mom!

I'm still trying to get caught up on my blog reading. I've decided to stop trying to make sure I comment on everybody's blog. If I don't comment, don't get worried or upset. My reader says I'm behind on 250 posts!!! It's really hard to get Mom to help me stay caught up now that she's unemployed. She always finds other stuff to do. It's really annoying!

Have a fun weekend everybody!!