Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The honies

The honies Category: Pets and Animals

Never a dull moment - that's the motto of our lives. Springtime brings plenty of projects and it's the same in this house! But to give you an update on a few of the puppies...

We still have 3 pugs -- two males and one female -- for adoption. They are really something else. The boys are happy, healthy dogs with great attitudes toward life. They love their cuddling time and they're both pretty good on the leash. They are mostly housetrained in that they will use the doggy door to go outside when they need to. If they are in the crate or the pen the night before, they will wait for me to open it and then run outside with the others to use the bathroom. I'm very proud of them! Little Carmen, however, has an issue with the stairs on the back porch down to the ground. They are very scary. So she will sit on the top step while the others use the bathroom, wait for their return, run back inside with them and use the bathroom on my kitchen floor. If I try to pick her up and take her out, she pulls one of those expert escape moves and backs out of my reach lightning quick. She's the kind who will come up to you when you're not looking, but will dart out of reach when you go to grab her. The boys, however, revel in all the love and attention they can get and they work so hard to prove just how good they are. In the next two weeks I'll finish up some of my larger projects and in the meantime, we're going to start working on some basic commands while they're so eager to please!
Four-month old Rizzo went with me to visit family the other day and we worked on sit over there. She did very well with it! I was very proud of her! She's a little imp, always into something with that strut of hers. The other morning I was trying to wake up, but just couldn't seem to get out of bed. And I added some more furniture to the bedroom which, in the pugs eyes, made a lovely bridge over to the dresser. So as I was torn between sleep and awake, she sauntered over the bridge to the dresser and stuck her head in a partially open drawer and started pulling out unmentionables. Ugh. So I had to get up, rescue my clothes from her and get the drawers closed. Then I tried to relax again. Next thing I know she's on the dresser again and now she found the cosmetic bag and drew out a large powder brush. It was longer than she was tall, so she had to hold her head back really high to be able to halfway run back to the bed with it. Once successfully back onto the bed with her new treasure, it wasn't mean mom who took it from her. No~ it was mean Isabella. Hmph.. what to do now? One more trip to the dresser sticking her head behind the stereo resulted in hidden treasure. A crinkly bag with a cord in it! Crinkles and cords in one shot!! It was the jackpot. So she brought her grander treasure over to the bed. It was promptly stolen by Isabelle, but at least Rizzo got her powder brush back! Life was good till I gave up on sleeping and took all their toys away.

The females are all working their way into heat again. Tiki is in full blown heat and Cooter is beside himself. He has been known to open crates from both the inside and the outside, so we had Tiki in a crate where the bars have the little hooks on them. Still didn't stop him. I came in from working on the yard just as the door swung open and Tiki was leaping out. I caught her in my arms and put her back in, put a blanket over the crate and put Cooter in another crate. Sheesh! That boy is good! Might as well rename him Houdini!

Daisy is in heat again and has decided that Gator is the man for her. He's more than willing to oblige, but I have bad news for both of them - ain't happenin. And I remind myself that this is just the beginning.... so glad we already had Petunia spayed!! No matter how many black females we could have sold if we bred her one more time!!

The only mating we might consider is Mariah and Gator (the french bulldogs) and we're currently in contact with his breeder to check into that option.

Speaking of Mariah, she had an issue with her harness. Evidently, the price tag was torn off, but the little bit of plastic didn't come off with it and was irritating her where it poked her skin. She started rolling in the back yard to scratch herself, but I didn't realize what was going on. But she would roll and roll more frequently. Then I took her over to Mom's house to work on something and she finally got her point across. She got her motor going in the kitchen, took off at top speed and when she hit the doorway from the kitchen to the living room, she flipped over onto her back and slid 3 feet. She had Mom very impressed with her slip n slide skills on the carpet. Then I finally figured out something might be bothering her and that's when I found the plastic piece.

Now that the plastic piece has been cut off, she still enjoys her occasional roll in the dirt. But at a much more relaxed pace. She finds the longest patch of dirt in the yard, lays on her back and scootches the entire stretch on her back. When she rights herself, she looks like she has a monk's haircut of brown dirt. Then she sniffs and finds just the perfect spot, and then scootches along her belly, swimming in the dirt. Once completely covered with this precious substance, she shakes it all out, looking like pig pen. I guess it could be worse - she hasn't rolled in anything that smells nasty!!

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