Pounce!

After a warm bath I am all snuggled reading in my bed, and I hear it. 

The Fly!

I hope that Lee who has been chasing bunnies in her dream does not, but she does. Slowly she stalks her way up the bed, feet on the headboard, looking into the light at the fly. She snaps at it. She noses it. The fly leaves the light and tries to hide in a dark corner. Lee leaps over me as she is on the hunt. The fly comes back to the light and I sit up just fast enough to not get jumped on as Lee pounces on her pray. Again after snapping, the fly heads to the dark side of the room. Lee is after it. I see the fly on the wall. I close my book, wind up and smack! The fly falls to the ground. Lee pounces again on the fly and then eats it. She then settles herself back on the bed and I return to my book, both happy that the house is once again safe. 

Peace

After driving me crazy with all her in and outs this morning as I tried to have my breakfast and get my chilli in the slow cooker, we had our walk and now we are resting quietly. YAY!

Neglect - by Lee

Yesterday I was very happy because my Lady was home. I love when she is home. It is much easier to guard her when she is home. While she gave me lots of love and we played with my giraffe, she did neglect me. She did not take me out for a long walk. She told me she was cancelling the day due to lack of interest. I think she was just being neglectful. I told her repeatedly I needed to go out, I kept asking to go out in the backyard. She said it was annoying and we went upstairs to bed. While I love a bed nap. I wanted my walk with her.

This morning she is up and dressed but she says the Man is taking me out cause she has to go to work for a few hours. Sigh! I hope tomorrow she is less neglectful.

Feline Friday - Baggy Update

Last weekend was a trip to the vet for follow up blood work for Baggy. The yelled the whole time there and back in the car. I had to dump him out of his crate to get him weighed. He is basically the same weight, 17 lbs. He was amazing when they took his blood. There was no screaming. The technician said he complained a little, but was pretty good.

Last night Woody called. I was out, but this is what was reported to me. His kidney levels that were too high have lowered. We are to keep doing what we are doing. This means he gets to say on his expensive kidney diet.  So happy it is working! He is really loving the soft food too.

Nice way to end a very long week!

More about baby Hailey

Several weeks ago I scanned in and posted pictures of baby Lee.

I thought I would now share the notes, written by her first foster mom in Ohio, that came with the picture:

It was almost impossible to get pics of this little girl! She is for sure my little spit fire and is all over the place! She is the runt but you would never guess it! She is full of life and loves to run in the grass!! She is also doing very well with crate training. She is for sure a thinker and problem solver, always looking for something to pounce on!! She is always in the middle of the puppy play pile! Her coat is getting so glossy and inky black! She is going to turn into a very striking looking dog for sure!


Looking at this 2 years later, what is true.
She is calmer, but still loves to run and is a great thinker and problem solver. She does hunt still (and her hunting has been reinforced with one catch). She is beautiful:) She is easy to get a picture of . . . when she was sleeping.

The crate training is probably the only thing there that didn't work out. Visit an early post - Did I mention she is cute - posted October 14, 2010 for more about that (http://kten-haileychronicles.blogspot.ca/2010_10_01_archive.html)

Wordless Wednesday

The boring life

Go New York!

I must admit, Lee has settled into being such a wonderful dog that she doesn't always have adventures. I am sure this is a sign that we need another dog . . . and an email came into my box from someone looking for a home for their dog. My husband who thinks the pack is perfect (clearly he is wrong on this) said this dog had shifty eyes . . . it didn't. He just is being a pain in my butt about this other dog. I got my revenge by writing NY on my face before the Sens game tonight (FYI I am not a hockey fan, I am only a fan of the season being over. For the season to be over, the Sens need to lose, so I am the fan of whomever is playing the Sens).

This is now the debate in our house. It is not a debate it is more a conversation that goes something like:
Me: "How about this dog?" showing a dog from a local rescue that may be appropriate and explaining all the reasons why this dog would be perfect.
Him: "No." Then he makes up something about it being ugly.
Repeat until I have shown him about 15 dogs. This repeats about every 3 days.

You see since about the day after Gemi died, I have been looking at other dogs. Of course in those first few months another dog was NOT going to happen. I couldn't have handled that. But I still fell in love with one or two dogs from local rescued and checked in with them every couple days to see if they had homes yet. I was always very happy when they found the perfect home.

Now, here we are approaching month 9 (I can't believe that) and even though I am a little busy with work, I think it would be a great time for a new pack member (Lee could have company while I am working). However, someone is digging his heels in on this. It took me 5 years of bugging to get dog one, and about 1 for dog 2 and only a month for dog 3. I am not sure how long this one will take, but looking at my family history and current health situation, I think I have at least 45 more years, so either I will get my way cause he caves or he dies  . . . so it is a win win for me:) (Can you feel the love!)

Until the time when our pack may expand (fingers and toes crossed), I will keep following the local rescues and falling in love and maybe, just maybe the perfect one will come along!

My weekend by Lee

I was too busy to write earlier, sorry to my faithful followers. I had a busy weekend.

Saturday it was raining and I do not like the rain and I did not want to go outside. So I went on the treadmill for exercise. I didn't love this as my Man tried to make me do it without a cookie. I also didn't like this because my Lady went out with Gheera. I was a lot jealous. I didn't think it looked fun to get stuck in the cage, but I was jealous he was going somewhere I wasn't. When they came back Gheera was very cranky and he smelt like the vet. My Lady told me that he needed blood work and was not happy to go. I guess I should feel bad for Gheera as I hate going to the vet.

The rest of Saturday was quiet. We watched the hockey game and I didn't have to wear my stupid shirt and the team won, so this made me happy.

Emma and I jumping at the pit

Sunday was my big day. It was not raining and I really wanted to go out. I bugged my people but they ignored me and just went about their cleaning. Finally we went. I was so excited in the car and so excited to get to Bruce Pit. There were so many friends and my Uncle Chris and Emma and our friend Darlene came and we had a great time running. I was very tired after.



I had time for a little nap before agility. I was happy to be going out again, but thought it was a little strange to just be going with my Lady. Usually my Man takes me. This weirdness plus the fact that I was tired, made me not as agile as usual. If I could have left 20 minutes early I would have been the happiest dog on the planet. My Lady says we won't go to the pit before agility again as it is just too hard for me. I spent the rest of the evening sleeping. I am still tired this morning. (My love for life is being dampened by the snow).

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

Feline Friday

Baggy: "Maybe if I go out really slowly, Lee won't notice and I can stay out!"

Hockey

For game 4, Lee was not made to wear her hockey t-shirt. She was so happy. She was so happy  she sat and actually watched the game for awhile (probably longer than I did!). I don't think it is the hockey that caught her attention rather the crowd noises.

Oh what a girl!

Wordless Wednesday - Sens edition

Bad Lady

I have been feeling like a bad Lady lately. Because I didn't think that my life was crazy enough with work and other stuff, I thought it would be the perfect time for a huge lifestyle change. I am working with a natural path to help rebalance my apparently unbalanced body (to find out more about those adventures, feel free to check out my other blog at: http://theshakytree.blogspot.ca/).

We are now at week two of this body makeover and I must say that this makeover has been all consuming, coupled with some major changes at work (coworkers having babies) and I feel like I have been a neglectful lady. Hailey has been getting her daily walks (in fact I have been trying to make them longer when possible). She has been going to agility. We try to hit a pit once a weekend. She is getting lots of cuddles, but I haven't been as "playful" with her. We are not working on a new trick. I worry she is not getting the attention she deserves. I am not sure she notices (see the picture of below of how she was when I was writing this, I think the storm stressed her out and tired her out), but I still feel bad. I hope after another week of this adjustment period I will be able to work some free time with Lee back into the schedule.

Agility 2

I missed the first week of agility 2 because I was away for work, so while this was my first visit, it was Lee's second. Agility 2 is longer courses and some obstacles she didn't do in 1. Overall I was very proud of her and how she did. Her last run was a simple course of 4 jumps and the tire (she doesn't like the tire). However, by the end of class she was so tired she initially just wandered to the door asking to leave. Turns out a good hour long run at Conroy and a 1 hour agility class can tire her out!

Here is one of her runs from the middle of class:

Houston, we have a problem

Several weeks ago I mentioned the bunny spotting in our yard. Life had been quiet on the bunny front until yesterday. Ironically it became a problem after I had the thought "How nice for her to have the yard to play in."

Suddenly she is freaking out, just going nuts out there. The Man went to look and there just outside the fence, in her view, was a bunny. It thought if it covered its face she wouldn't see it, but she did. The Man scared it away. We brought her in and she was insane inside. Running, whining, barking, banging at the door to go out for over an hour!

For the rest of the day every times she went out, she was in a bunny hunting frenzy. At first it was just barking and running around the yard. Then she started trying to dig her way out under the fence. She wouldn't come when called. It was a problem. So we came up with a solution, one she does not love. We put her on the tie out every time she went out. This she does not love, but it prevents her from digging her way out and running around and barking.

We will see what happens today. So far, I have put her on her tie out. The man did not at the 6 am trip out and then spent a good 5 minutes yelling at her (thanks for waking the whole house hun!). Oh our girl!

The Bug

It is hard to imagine that this adorable face had a serious and stinky problem this week. 

Starting Wednesday night until sometime Thursday night/Friday morning, Lee had an upset stomach. The smell that came out of her . . . it made us all gag. She gagged herself. It was the most fowl smelling thing on the planet. It didn't seem possible. I have been exposed to my fair share of bad gas (I may have a parent who likes to experiment with eating things to see what happens/what can gross us out) and other bad smells (one summer a certain parent who was spending his days doing physical labour wanted to know how many days he could go without showering or changing before his daughter complained . . . FYI I lasted 5 days, he actually grossed himself out before I complained), so when I say this was one of the worst smells I have ever experienced, you can only imagine how horrible it was. If the gas mask expert I know had not been away on training, I probably would have called him and gotten a gas mask.

It lasted a little over 24 hours (with a minor repeat before bed last night). It was only happening at night. Have no idea what she got into. She seemed fine otherwise. This morning her tummy is very loud (but maybe that is to guilt me to getting up and feeding her and not writing this). Let's hope we don't have a repeat of this anytime soon!

Feline Friday - Habit

Nin is a scratcher. I will admit many years ago after trying to train him to scratch on appropriate things, we had him declawed. I know, many people are against this and this was not just something we did. We thought long and hard about it and did try and train him. At the time we were students and he had scratched our coach down to the wood in many places. We knew if we were every going to have nice things and Nin, his claws needed to go.

He went (and Baggy went too, didn't seem fair to have one with claws and one without). He was sore for 2 days. On day 3 or so, Nin goes to the couch and starts to scratch. He scratches for a moment and then stops, looks at his paws, shakes them and continues scratching. He has been scratching every since.

Nin just doesn't scratch the furniture, he loves to scratch our work or gym bags and that sort of thing too. He also jumps up onto the counter in the bathroom and scratches the bad cat in the mirror. That boy will scratch anything!

Nightmares in dogs?

I have mentioned before that Lee is a dreamer. She did occasionally have dreams that involved some whimpering and twitching. However this past week she has been having what I would describe as nightmares. She is yelping or howling herself and us awake. You know it must be bad when I, the girl who sleeps through fire alarms, is woken up by it. I didn't know a dog could have nightmares. A Google search revealed it does happen. As a sufferer of chronic nightmares I empathize with her.  I also wonder why it is happening. Any ideas?

Wordless Wednesday

Marking

Our Loki marked in the house when we first got him and he would mark in other people's houses if we were visiting and he marked every 2 feet during a walk. It was annoying.

Princess Gemini did not mark. Princess' don't do that.

Lee has started to mark. It is not in the house thankfully, but she has started to on our walks. She will be going along and if there is something extra smelly  shewill pee on it. It is funny because when she is marking she slightly lifts her left paw off the ground and always looks like she may fall over.

Does your dog mark?

I have a new favourite

My people left me last evening to go to a second Easter dinner. Being alone is so horrible. My lady said I had to stay because Lemew is sick and I stress him out. I don't know how wanting to be his BFF is stressful, but I stayed home and guarded the cats.

However, I got a special surprise. I got sent home a very special treat. Dustin is now my favourite. Thanks Dustin!

A bone I got to chew on under supervision

Easter Weekend

Yesterday was Easter dinner at our house. Emma came to visit, here are some pictures of the fun we (aka I) had!

Emma dressed up. So glad to have a new animal to dress up.

This is what I think of your bunny ears Aunt K!

For once it is not me getting dressed up!

Dancing for my dinner! Emma busts a move.

Boxing Boston mix. Lee did not like this.

                              

                                                   Loki and Gemi urns - the debate are they getting bunny hugs or bunny humps?

My people hate me

Hoppy Easter

From our pack to yours, wishing you a very Happy Easter!

A big day for Lee

As told by Lee

My Lady was home this morning and I couldn't understand why she wasn't taking me out, but then Stephanie came and I understood. I love Stephanie. I jumped up and kissed her! We had a good walk. She said I was pooped after.

I was home for a bit and then my Lady put me in the car. I was so excited I could tell we were going to Conroy. I was so excited to be there and my Lady made me wait and I didn't understand why and then I saw Uncle Chris and Emma. I was so happy to see them. It was Emma's first visit to the dog park. At first she was not good off leash so she had to be on it. I tried to get her to chase me, but she couldn't. I didn't like that everyone thought she was cuter than me.

Emma watching me run free

Eventually Emma was allowed off leash and she did a pretty good job. If people said she was cuter, I would run into the woods and Emma would follow and she would get in trouble. I thought it was funny. My Lady gave me more cookies.  Emma learned quickly if my Lady called to come cause she had cookies.

A few times other dogs were not nice to Emma or Emma got overwhelmed. When this happened I would run in, get myself between Emma and the other dog and make sure Emma was ok. My Lady thought this was great and gave me extra cookies for being such a good cousin.

After this we went and I had a big nap.

It wasn't long before my Lady called me again and said I had to go to the vet. This scared me and I was a little nervous. I was ok in the waiting room. I was scared of going on the scale. I had put on 3 kg but Woody says I am perfect. I was good during the exam. Woody sat on the floor and did it, so I didn't have to be scared on the table. He gave me lots of cookies. My Lady says I was so busy eating them that I missed getting my shot. My Lady had my microchip checked just to be sure it was still there, she said she didn't trust me. Overall I got a clean bill of health.

Then it was the scary part. Woody was very skeptical when he took me to the back for my blood work. Last year I screamed and freaked out so much that they couldn't take my blood. It was very embarrassing for my Lady. My lady waited in the waiting room on the edge of her seat waiting for me, listening to hear me scream.  After a few minutes I came out. My lady was shocked, she hadn't heard me. I got a little nervous but I was very good when they took my blood. My lady told Woody that living with a behaviour analyst can be good for a dog and that I had generalized my ability to get my nails cut to getting blood taken. Everyone was really proud of me.

I came home and was trying to rest and then there was hail and I had to hid. For most of the rest of the day I slept. While I love having my lady home, I think it is too tiring! [Editors note - she was exhausted she hardly moved from al evening!]

Wordless Wednesday- I might like water!

Song!

Lee started writing this around Christmas and is just getting around to finishing it. Enjoy!




I'm the most wonderful pup in the world
With cats meow-owing
and chasing them so they uncurled
I'm the most wonderful pup in the world
I'm the cu-utest pup of them all 
With my shiny black coat and I usually
come when called
I'm the cu-utest pup of them all


There have others before me
but  Lady still adores me
in spite of it all
There maybe others to come
but I hope the Lady re-
members no matter where she does go that

I'm the most wonderful pup in the world

With cats meow-owing

and chasing them so they uncurled

I'm the most wonderful pup in the world

I'm the cu-utest pup of them all 

With my shiny black coat and I usually

come when called

I'm the cu-utest pup of them all

How does your dog communicate?

Our dog's have all been great communicators, but all have had different methods.

Loki, aka Sir Huffs-alot, would huff. He would stand or sit beside or in front of you and huff and puff. It was very funny to watch him huff through his crazy teeth. We always knew what the huffs meant.

Gemi, did occasionally use vocalizations to communicate as well. She would sing if you had food she wanted or if you were not petting her. For other things she just used her eyes to tell you what to do.

Hailey is a much more physical communicator. She uses her paws to guide your hand to rub her belly, she smacks her bowl if she wants food and she stands and stares at the cupboard where the treats are if she thinks she needs them. Of course she will also whine and carry on if she thinks she is being abused (aka being asked to take a bath!)

How does your dog communicate?