Mopey Baily, Scawwie Mesa and a Big Carl Sandwich. All normal nightly events

Mesa takes on Big Carl

and Baily attempts to stop the fun- per normal

The truth about Big Carl

So we have decided to adopt Big Carl. No big surprise there! Now the trouble is the actually adoption. When we fostered him, it was through a group called The Brittany Foundation. His tags have his number on them if something were to happen and he were to get loose. When I contact the people I am fostering him for, I am told that he is actually with Strangest Angels and that I have to fill out their adoption paperwork. Not a big deal, both groups were at the adoption event so there may have been some confusion (which ok I admit I am not 100% comfortable with).

The biggest issue for us is his neutering. We mentioned when we were first fostering him that he was still in tact and no one responded. Now that we are trying to adopt him, they keep telling us he is fixed but have been unable to supply us with paperwork documenting so. He clearly still has his testicles so I know he isn't since rescue doesn't have it in their budget to supply the implants or do a more expensive surgery leaving them there. They also would have told me this is the case. Instead they are now pushing me to pay the fee but have yet to supply any medical history so I am holding off. I don't want to loose the little man but I am weary of the rescue group/groups now that I am getting them from. I had researched them when we first got home and didn't come across anything fishy.

I just wish this was all going smoother! On a funny note, the rescue group/groups called him Cat Von Dweezel

All I wanted to do was lay on the sofa and relax after my first day back

But this is how I ended up:

and about 10 minutes later

Mesa has become quite the cuddlebug lately. She still doesn't realize that I don't need 50 lbs of dog right on top of me though :)

And we're back

We got back last night and it was great to see the pups again. Big Carl has been doing well but Baily has decided to become a brat. She wants nothing to do with him. No growling or anything like that, but if BC tries to lay near her she will get up and leave. Its so cute to see him cuddle up close but then she looks at us like "Help me, get this rat away" and just ups and moves. We are working on this but any suggestions on how to get around this obstacle would be great!

Adventures in Dogsitting

Check out all the pics Alex took while watching our pups. They even shared the bed in fairly equal proportions!

 Puppy Pictures

Vacation Blues

I'm trying to be good and stay away from my computer during this vacation but with my foot its hard to get out and about. More so since we are up in AK and it is a whopping 12 degrees and the place is blanketed in snow and ice which is not ideal for crutches. I am a bit homesick being up here but I am missing the pups! Our dogsitter Alex has been sending us updates and lots of pics of the pups so we are able to see how they are all getting along. Right now they are playing musical bones with the nylabones!

But it has also been an entertaining trip as we have a house up here that we rent out and recently got new tennats. Here is a move out issue we had: 
                     Former renters told new renters they had given their dogs a moose carcass to chew on in the backyard but it had been buried under the snow. They wanted to remove it after the snow melted. New renters aren't from Alaska and made them dig up the frozen moose that day :)

Wordless Wednesday

We always have the worst timing

So when we adopted Baily, we left for vacation a week later. Luckily a friend of ours in AK had been wanting a puppy so she willingly looked after an 8 week old, un-housebroken pup. The only issue that came our of it is that Baily thought she was a yellow lab (our friend had two). When she went to daycare a month later, they told us she only wanted to play with the yellow labs. Crazy Baily.

This time, we brought in Big Carl and then left two days later. We are now up in Alaska doing a late holiday with the family. Our wonderful dogsitter is with our three who are settling in together but it isn't the easiest situation. Carl still has some accidents in the house but luckily everything is tile or hard wood so it isn't the hardest to clean up.

Baily still isn't too sure about whats going on. Mesa has accepted it. Big Carl thinks life is great and that Mesa's jowls are chew toys. We got a smaller bed for Carl that both of the girls keep trying to sleep on but they seem very confused as to why it is so small.

The great food debate

I know this can be a hot button topic, but with out new addition we are figuring out how to feed the pups. Mesa has a sensitive tummy that acts up if we feed her anything with chicken in it. She also has sensitive anal glands that don't do well on grain free foods. Baily has a stomach of iron so she is good on whatever we feed. We tried the girls on a beef based food but it was a bit too rich for Mesa. Baily hated lamb based food so that was out as well. During a training class we learned Mesa would do ANYTHING for smelly fish so we started feeding Holistic Select Anchovy, Sardine and Salmon food. The girls LOVED it (Baily is also a huge fan of smelly fish).

We had been feeding this for a while when we saw Canidae came out with a Beef and Oceanfish Meal food. As whole beef is the first ingredient you have to remove the water content and you see that the oceanfish meal is actually the top ingredient. As the girls aren't allergic to red meat and I feel like they may be missing something because of feeding them a fish only food I switched them to the Canidae. This has been working out amazing. The girls have such shiny coats, small bowl movements, no room clearing gas and best of all no anal gland issues!

Now we have Big Carl who seems to think that the kibble size on Canidae is too big for him though he does try to chew on the huge nylabones. We bought him Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit which is a bison and fish food. He is loving it but it hasn't been long enough to see if it will help him gain the much needed weight (we can see his hip bones).

What are you guys feeding your pups?

Here is a pick of how BC slept on the sofa last night. Comfy?

More on Big Carl

Since some of you inquired, Big Carl is a planned foster failure. More of a foster to adopt situation. Because we have two other dogs we didn't want to outright adopt on the off chance that one they settled in for a week and personalities really came out, we realized it wouldn't work for the rest of his life we always have the option of fostering until he finds the right fit. Though it looks like things will work out just find. Take a look at our greeting committee!

Our biggest obstacle right now is toys. Big Carl really wants soft fluffy things, Mesa and Baily really like to kill soft fluffy things. Right now BC is settling on wresting with Mesa to blow off steam. Her jowls are fun to chew on apparently.

We have some news

So the DH found a meetup fundraiser BBQ thingy for dog rescue that some friends were going to down the street from us so we decided to stop by. The rescue had a bunch of chihuahuas that they pulled from LA shelters since they were on the euthanasia list. The DH has always loved small dogs so he spent a while taking pictures while I shopped.

Anyone see where this is leading?

So I went back to the DH and he pointed out a dog and told me how cool he is. He also told me that we should see if we can foster him. I looked at my DH and said "you are finally willing to get a third dog but you want a 5lb chihuahua?" Well seeing how I love rescue dogs I would like to introduce everyone to Big Carl:

This dog is the DHs dog but he is afraid of men so for now he is always in my lap. We did learn he loves cheese so the DH spent a long time hand feeding him cheese so Big Carl is warming up to him. The girls are adjusting to it. Baily doesn't care and Mesa keeps forgetting he is here because she wants the cheese. Right now we are all on the sofa relaxing and watching the playoffs.

Walking in two months? Thats a pipe dream, so I need your help

So according to my MRI yesterday here is my list of issues:
 Multiple fractures
 Tissue damage
 Swollen tisue
 Swollen bones (didn't know bones could swell)
 Tendon damage

Long story short, its gonna be a lot longer than 2 months. Should have suspected so when the Dr. gave me handicapped parking through June.

Here's how I need your help, any recommendations for good dog books to read? I know I can only stare at the TV for so long and I love reading but need some suggestions. I'm also thinking of taking up knitting since its something I can do while sitting in front of the TV. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Also, if you have the time vote for Baily in the Bissell MVP contest. She would appreciate it :)
http://mvp.bissell.com/mvp_PetDetail.aspx?id=8589946979

oh and for those who wanted the sellers name I left a comment to my last post with it :)

More eBay loot

We love Nylabones in this house because they last longer than anything else. So I found a seller on eBay who has a variety of Nylabones and bought 8 different ones. Here's hoping they last for a bit!

In here we have a plain ring, plain wishbone, plain galileo, bacon bone, chocolate bone, chicken bone, liver bone and dental dino :) Let the chewing begin!

A typical night at our house

I have read about how a lot of you bought/got FlipCams lately and it reminded me: I HAVE ONE! So I decided to pull it out and give you a peak into what its like here at night (well for a couple minutes at least since we don't let them get out of hand!).



As to the Wordless Wednesday pic, I wiped Mesa down with a washcloth after a play session and put the cloth on her head. She proceeded to walk around the house like that for 15 minutes until it fell off.

We also got an email from our house sitter up in Nor Cal asking for pics of the girls since she missed them :) Makes my heart smile to know they have such a nice impact on people

Dog People vs. Cat People

Very interesting.... http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/13/cat.dog.personality/index.html

Wordless Wednesday (and this time it is Wednesday and is Wordless)

I get by with a little help from my friends

So we have a dear friend who lives near us and watches our dogs while we are out. You may have noticed her commenting on the blog :) Well today she came over to get the dogs some exercise and Mesa being the sweet dog she is decided to roll in the mud which meant the girls needed a bath. Normally I point to the tub and say "In" and the dogs hop right in with mopey faces. Today they decided to take advantage of our friend and cover her in mud as well in an effort to get them into the tub. Now the kids are all nice and clean and can nap for the rest of the day which we greatly appreciate.

I am going to need to have a discussion with Mesa when I get home about her behavior today though!

Poor Baily

Our lazy dog is actually really bored and wants to get out of the house to play. I can't with my foot and the DH hasn't been out of bed (much) all weekend. We try to entertain them inside but they miss their super long walks. This is the face Baily keeps giving us. Anyone want to come play with her?

Watching TV Mesa Style

This is what Mesa looked like after a long day of watching TV:

Her reactions to Animal Planet today made us remember one of our favorite Mesa stories. When we first got the big TV, I was watching Animal Cops and there were a bunch of kittens on the TV. Mesa was captivated and when a cat walked off the screen Mesa went to the side of the TV, expecting the cat to come out and play with her. She looked around for a couple minutes before she gave up and went back to watching the show :) That's our special girl.

Remote Hog

So I am laid up with the foot and now the DH has a terrible cold so we decided to spend the afternoon on the sofa with the pups and we see this:

Apparently Queen Mesa decided that she would dictate what we were allowed to watch by sleeping with the remote. Animal Planet it is with a little Food Network thrown in :)

The foot

Went to a specialist today wearing my nice little foot boot from the ER and come out with this:

there is a wet cast underneath. If I am lucky I will get to walk on my own in two months. If they decide I don't need surgery when I go back next week that is. Not a happy camper. Not at all. Do they make Kongs for humans to keep us entertained while locked up?

Oh how I love eBay

So a friend of mine told me she started buying poop bags on eBay. I decided to go on and take a look and I found the best deal! Over 800 bags for 18.50. I thought about it, thinking the bags might be cheap but after looking at reviews I though, what do I have to loose? I ordered (no S&H so 18.50 was my grand total) and when they got here the DH proclaimed them the best bags yet. Apparently they are deep enough to fit his entire hand but just as wide as normal bags. They are slightly scented but nothing that offends my nose.

We will be ordering these again for sure as in the store, 120 bags cost 8 bucks! They also have larger quantities for those with dogs that go more often or with more dogs (they sell up to 3000 at a time!). They were sent to me the day after I ordered them and arrived a couple days there after. The person selling them has the name "originalpetbags" and I would highly recommend them if you find yourself spending more than you want on poop bags. Oh and they do sell them in different colors!

Who would have thought that poop bags could be this exciting :)

Almost Wordless Tuesday (not Wednesday because I love this pic too much to wait!)

She works hard for the money

New collars round two :)

So when I was searching for new collars for the girls I came across two web sites that do cute, big collars. I posted about the first one earlier. Now time for the collars that arrived today. These are from Collar Mania. Collar Mania has a  huge selection of fabric or ribbon for your collars. They do also make smaller collars for my little friends :)
Here is Mesa. She has a two inch thick collar and is enjoying destroying the last of her Planet Dog bone that lasted almost 1.5 years!

Here is Baily (moping per normal) in her 1.5 inch collar.

 

Collar Mania has reasonable prices and the collar seem to be quite durable!

Our Little Gremlin

Sorry Baily... I just had to post this. We have been trying forever to capture the snaggletooth and tonight we saw this while the family relaxed on the sofa!