Toothfairy

This picture makes Elphie look like her head is bigger than her body. While that is somewhat true, it is not entirely the case. I was trying to take a picture of her for the longest time. Finally she sat still and looked at me so here is the result - Madam Elphie Bighead.

Our baby's growing up. :::tear:::  She's started losing her baby teeth. She was chewing on something the other night and for the life of me I had no idea what it was. Finally I went over and she dropped it on the floor. Lo and behold it was one of her teeth. If I didn't know better I would think something was wrong. It's pretty disturbing saving your dog from choking on its own tooth. Now more than ever I assume she's going to be looking for things to chew on. Good thing we got her a gigantic rubber donut with pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles :)

In other news, I can't wait for Fall to finally be here. It's the end of September for crying out loud and it's freaking 103 degrees today! This is probably the one major drawback about living in California - you never see the changing of the seasons. Once it gets below 90 I look forward to finally bringing Elphie to a dog park. It would just be cruel if we brought her now.

Couches and weak bladders

Yes, yes I know...I've been MIA again. Sorry about that. But here I am...and with a new Elphie picture to boot! Woo!

This picture comes after a day of spending it in her crate. We learned that she can't be trusted, even when she's just in the other room by herself, because she went ahead and peed on the couch again. So we spent the majority of Saturday afternoon cleaning up after her mess. :::sigh::: Kids! Sunday we decided to let her out for a bit but not often on the couch. She kept jumping up regardless, though, and we kept pushing her off. Finally I pushed her off and told her to lay down. In her defense, even though she was back on the couch yet again, at least she was laying down!

She is pretty cute, though. Don't tell the hubby, but she won't be off the couch for long ;)

We gave in - Elphie is now allowed on the couch. It was only a matter of time before she got her little paws up there. She's a terrier so she's chock full of energy, literally bouncing off the walls. She's only allowed up there while supervised, specifically when we're playing fetch with her, but she's so incredibly happy. She likes to run from one end of the room to the other to get a running start and then jump and barrel right into my stomach and/or face. That's a little obnoxious. When she's done playing, or when Hubby gives her the "settle down already" look, she'll just dig her nose into the blanket and lay down. It's those times that she's the most cute. You know, when she's calm?

We brought all three of the animals to the vet last Saturday. Elphie received the last of her puppy shots and in four more days she can officially be socialized into the world. We're really excited to bring her to dog parks! I just hope she won't get too overwhelmed or crazy.

I'll post more pictures soon, I promise! (I know I always say that) Have a great weekend everyone!

Elphie's first car ride

I always feel like the mother with the unruly children whenever I go to the vet. Granted I've only had to take cats, but one of the cats (aka Boq) is a real pain in the patootie. And today Hubby and I had to wrangle up all three animals and trek to a brand new vet so that the kids can get their shots. Man was that fun! By the time we got home I could make another animal out of all of the fur on my body. Things went well, though, and everybody is healthy. Elphie has a dandruff problem and the vet says that's abnormal for her age and it's due to the food she eats. We feed her Eukanuba Puppy. I guess it used to be a good brand but then the family sold it to some other company and it's no longer the high quality it was. Of course they gave us a free bag of food to try that you can only purchase at the vet. Funny how that works, huh?

Luckily Elphie is now all done with her puppy shots and within 10 days we can bring her to the dog parks. That will be fun and I can't wait! Hopefully by then the temperature will also get to below 100 degrees. It's been hot as Hates here this month. Craz-y! Because the high for today is 105 we decided to forgo taking her for a walk. She'll just plop down on somebody's yard anyway.

That's all I got for you today. I'm going to have to upload more pictures of Elphie and I'll post them in my next blog. You'll be surprised how big she's gotten!

I'm back!

I know you missed me soooooo much! I appreciate your longing and I missed you, too!

I come back with exciting stories. Ok, not really exciting, but a story. Well more of a "omg I can't believe that happened. Serves me right" type of story. Sometime Friday night, during the overnight while we were in bed, Elphie got out of her play pen. This isn't the first time it's happened and last time there wasn't much damage done at all so that's why I wasn't too upset over it. So after going through my normal Elphie & Me morning routine Saturday I started to play with her. I grabbed her bunny and went to sit on the couch to play tug-o-war with her when I felt something cold and wet. I moved the fleece blanket and what I found were two very big pee stains, one on each cushion. It probably happened hours before, too, so the pee had enough time to saturate the cushion. I wanted to kill her! Needless to say she spent the majority of the morning tied up on the porch. Luckily Hubby was able to yank the fabric off of the cushion and we threw it in the wash. He also sprayed down the foam of the cushion with some No-Go and Febreezed it to Kingdom Come to hopefully deter her from peeing there again. Both of my throw pillows and Hubby's hat were unfortunate casualties of the urinating assault, too. Luckily everything is machine washable. Or if it wasn't, I made it machine washable! We deduced that the way she was getting out was jumping on top of her crate and then over the play pen walls onto the couch, so Hubby fabricated a makeshift wall with some of his old climbing ropes and that seems to be working. Although Elphie is pretty smart so I wouldn't be surprised if she finds another way out soon. But let's hope that won't be the case.

Saturday night Hubby and I went to a birthday party where I had a good conversation with a vet. He heard my story, was understanding of our situation, and suggested we put in a doggy door. He explained that once we start to see the world from Elphie's perspective everything else will get easier. He told me that a couch cushion is like a pee pad - it's very absorbent. I told him about the potty box on our patio and he also suggested getting a kiddie pool and putting soil and sod in it. The grass will grow freely and the dog will be more drawn to living grass. It's an idea, but I honestly don't think our patio is big enough for something that extravagant, especially with our patio furniture and grill already there. The grass in our potty box isn't looking too good, but that could be because we're not taking care of it correctly. I think if I research on how to keep healthy grass it'll last longer and Elphie will be more drawn to using it. She's a snob and likes the fluffy stuff to do her business on. Today I was researching doggy doors, especially the automatic ones because we also don't want the cats getting out, and the one with the best reviews runs about $300 and I don't think that includes the remote collar. But like Bart the Veterinarian said, a one time charge of $300 is better than a monthly charge of $400 for a walker to come every day. It's definitely something to consider.

We're Online!

That's right, folks, we're online...from my living room! I finally got my butt in gear and dug through my closet to find my laptop. Hubby helped give me a refresher course in how to use it (sad I know) so here we are! It's pretty exciting, which is pretty sad. It's times like these that I feel super old.

I had an epiphany yesterday morning. I was in my kitchen feeding my cats and I came across a laser pointer still in its package. I know how much my cats <3 this thing so I ripped it open and allowed them to indulge. Then I thought, "Hey! What a perfect way to get the cats and the dog to interact together!" A little bit later in the afternoon, after Elphie was done eating, I pulled out the laser pointer and stood in a corner where I had all of the animals in sight. I got all three enthralled and before I knew it I had Elphie burning off some of her puppy energy running around the living room chasing the red dot and I had Nessa burning off some calories running up and down the stairs chasing the red dot. I would like to shake the hand of the person who invented this thing. He/She probably had pets of his/her own. I'm glad it's evolved from an annoying toy of teenagers' in a movie theater to entertainment for your pets. This morning I even got Nessa nose-to-nose with Elphie. That's progress, right? I'm sure in another month or two they'll be sniffing at each other without hesitation. I hope at least.

:::sigh:::

I think four months in dog equals two years in human. I feel like Elphie is in her terrible twos. She's being a brat! And I also feel like the progress she's made in house training is moving backwards. I don't understand why this is so hard.

I have to admit that I'm feeling guilty, too. I feel guilty that she's home alone during the day while Hubby and I are at work. I know, logically, that dogs don't have the same emotions that humans do, but that doesn't really alleviate my guilt. I'm sure it doesn't help either that we're still trying to figure out the best place to keep her area and the best way to set it up. Right now we have her playpen and all of its accoutrement in the living room next to our couch. We put her there originally so she wouldn't feel lonely when we're home. But now Hubby is thinking we need to move her down to the kitchen. Because she's a dog, and a puppy no less, she smells and makes a mess. I don't necessarily have a problem with the act of making a mess, it's the smell that accompanies the mess that is getting a little much. We need to open our front door to air out the place on top of spraying three types of air freshener on a daily basis just to mask the smell. At least in the kitchen there's tile flooring so it'll be easier to clean up.

On top of ripping up the pee pads we put down every day, she's starting to eliminate in her crate again. I don't know what to do. Hubby thinks we're giving her too much space in her playpen but I think the problem is she doesn't have enough space in her playpen. Right now her crate is taking up the majority of the room. So what if we switch out her crate with a smaller bed - like the dog carrier - and still keep the pee pads and whatnot in her playpen. That way I feel she'll be more reluctant to go in her bed. I know all of them experts out there say crate training is the easiest and safest way to house train a dog, but honestly it just doesn't work for us. It would be different if I worked closer to home and could leave every day at lunch to let her out. Or if we had extra money to spend on a dog walker. It would even be ok if we combined the two (me or Hubby coming home thrice a week and the dog walker coming twice a week). But since Elphie is still a puppy and does need to go out more than once during the afternoon, this just doesn't seem feasible to us. Not yet at least. Maybe in a few months it could be an option, but right now we have to make due with what we're doing, and I need to be ok with that. Once I become ok with that and I get over the guilt I'll be able to truly enjoy her in my life. I just wish this was so much easier :(