Jude

Mom's new dog, Jude. A Havanese. At 4 months old he weighs 4 lbs. A far cry from Solomon at 4 months. He weighed about 35, 40 lbs.
He is a cutie.

Puppy love

I finally went out and spent some time with those rascals and got a few pictures of them. They are very hard to photograph! I had to lighten almost all of these pictures just so you could see their faces!



It was such a nice day outside we got to just hang out together and 'visit.' I don't spend a lot of time with these three, but they are sweet. And a little bit feisty too! They will untie your shoes for you if you have shoe laces. :)

3

We only have 3 puppies now. Last Friday we lost that second little male. It was sad because he was a sweet puppy. The other three are fat and sassy (as I've heard it put before) and doing very well. I'll have to get some pictures of them now that they are almost two weeks old!

More puppy trouble

We have a second puppy who is in trouble. Our veterinarian gave her a vitamin shot and wouldn't remove his dew-claws because this little one is too weak right now. Instead she gave us a feeding tube and a syringe and taught my dad to feed her through a tube. He and Mom fed it once, and it died on them, but they revived it. Mom thumped it's chest and rubbed it and lo and behold it came back to life. I think that's pretty impressive. Anyway, I've got it now and am holding it in my lap and keeping it warm and I'm glad to report he is breathing and every once in awhile he lifts up his head and moves around. His fur is already kind of thick. He's very soft. I hope he makes it.

Puppy count currently stands at:

4. We lost the littlest male last night. I think we knew from the beginning that he was in trouble and might not make it. We bought him a little bottle and some puppy formula from PetCo (where the pets go!) and brought him upstairs and tried to warm him up and get him some food, but he just wouldn't or maybe couldn't suck from the bottle. So we tried to feed him one drop at a time, but he still wasn't really eating. The other puppies were moving around a lot, being very vocal and nursing a lot, but this one wasn't able to move very much and was very quiet and obviously wasn't able to nurse.

I feel kind of bad. It's very common to lose a puppy or two in any litter, especially when you didn't even know your dog was pregnant to begin with! We're still getting over the surprise. We've been breeding puppies for years now and I've made it my new policy not to get worked up over the puppies and to not get attached. But we did try to help this puppy and it makes me happy to know that at least we tried.

The good news is that Brandy is an excellent mother and the other 4 are doing very well. They're fat and happy. I can't wait till their 2 and half to 5 weeks old. That's the fun age. They're so cute then and fluffy. I'm sure I'll have pictures to show soon.

Puppy count

The count is up to 5. She had the last one around 11 pm last night. They all seem to be doing well.

Now the big question is: Is Jazz going to have puppies too? Brandy went into heat first and we never saw her and Solomon mate. We never saw Jazz mate either, but she is rather large. I guess we will just wait and see.

I went to see Penelope at Sarah's house tonight. My mom and sisters and I all went over for a movie night. It was fun to be with the girls. And Penelope was a cute movie. I liked the Penelope's clothes. :)

I have to finish my homework this weekend. Ick. I can't wait to take classes I will actually enjoy. I've pretty much changed my mind about dental hygiene. I am thinking nutrition now. Or perhaps education. I'm really leaning toward nutrition though. Maybe I can teach it when I finish. Right now I'm just tired and I don't know what I want to do or be. Sometimes I just don't want to think about these things. You know, like decisions. But they have to be thought about sometimes. I just get worried that I will make the wrong decisions and regret something. But then, it's not like I make decisions alone. My parents are pretty involved in most of the decisions I make. By that I mean that I get their advice in most things.

I wish I was a little more spontaneous and happy-go-lucky. Are those traits that can be cultivated or are you mostly just born with them? I like to have a plan before I do things. I have said to myself several times that I'm going to do something spontaneous like go out and get my ears pierced a second time or getting my hair cut or something without telling anyone, but I never do. Maybe that will be one of my goals this year. Do something completely spontaneous without telling anyone. Of course, getting my ears pierced again is out as far as that goes because when you've been thinking about doing something for over a year it's not really that spontaneous. And I'm growing my hair out so I won't cut it off now.

So someday, I might just write a blog post that is about something I did that was totally spontaneous and unexpected.

Just be on the lookout...

Doggy update:

Brandy has 3 puppies now. They all look like Newfs. :)

News flash:

My dog (Brandy) just had a puppy. We didn't even know she was pregnant. Imagine our surprise! We are just hoping they aren't half collie because she went on a little overnight trip with our neighbor's collie, King a while ago. So far the first one looks very much like a Newfoundland. Brandy is very calm and seems happy. Mom and Dad are monitoring her.

I'll update later.

Reconnecting

This is Towns. He is one of Jumper and Dancer's many children. I think he was from their 3 litter. He's a beautiful boy, even though he carries a little extra weight. What a sweet, laid back and well trained dog! I was very impressed!He belongs to Josh and Denise and they were going away for a couple of nights so we brought him down to our house and watched him while they were out of town. He looks so much like both Jumper and Dancer and his face is almost identical to Hank's. Probably because they are brothers. It makes me miss those dogs so much. Someday, I will own another Weimaraner (I hope). Even though I am told every day that Newfoundlands are the best dogs in the world, there is still a very special place in my heart for Weimaraners. It was fun reconnecting with Towns while he was here.

Watching Bostons...

We have been watching Pam and Michael's dogs for a few days now. Lizzie (the beagle mix) is just too sweet. All she really wants is for you to sit with her and rub her belly. And she really would love to get on the couch if we would let her. She likes playing with toys too.

Maggie and Hoover are a little more highstrung. They are the Boston terriers and they are so funny. This really cracks me up.They go into their crates at night and curl up under their blankets and go to sleep. It is so cute!
All three of them like looking out the windows to see what is going on outside. Our windows are low to the ground so they don't have to jump very high to see what's going on outside.

I think they are all really cute. But this is the face that won me over.

Aww, look at that HUGE smile! This is Maggie and she has the biggest smile. It's too adorable.

Visitors~

A couple of weeks ago my friend Pam asked me to house sit for her while she was out of town. She was going on a business trip with her husband and needed someone to watch her 3 dogs. I wasn't really comfortable with the idea of staying someplace new all by myself, so in the end we decided that the 3 pooches would come stay with us. I mean after all, we are used to having lots of dogs around. I think that before Christmas last winter we had our 6 dogs, Django, and we watched Andy and Becky's 2 dogs, horse, goat, chickens, and rabbits and maybe Tasha...but I can't remember if we had Tasha or not...anyway, we cared for them while their owners were out of town and we got along fine. It seems like we are always watching someone's pet every so often and it is fun to spend time with the dogs that come to visit. So having Pam's 3 dogs is rather fun. :) Here is a picture of the 2 Boston terriers. There is also a Beagle mix, but I haven't gotten a picture of her yet.Their names are Maggie, Lizzie and Hoover. The Boston terriers have kind of smooshed faces so when they smile their grins are almost literally stretching from ear to ear. I am hoping to get a picture of at least Maggie while she is smiling because it is too cute! They are very sweet dogs and love to give kisses and be petted. And Lizzie (the Beagle mix) reminds me so much of Dancer and it makes me miss her a lot! She has a very similar personality to Dancer's.
I miss our weimaraners. I was at Petco last weekend and just looking at their merchandise made me miss Hank. I was thinking, oh, that collar would look so nice against the weimaraners coats, but we don't have weimaraners anymore. Just big old drooling machines named Solomon, Jazz and Brandi. Don't get me wrong, the newfoundlands are nice, but I still like weimaraners better.
I hope to have more pictures of these little goofballs to post before the weekend is out and they go back home.

Matt and Jacqueline got a new puppy!

His name is Moby and he is a sweetheart and a snugglebug. Only he just lets me hold him for a little while before he wants to go back to Matt and Jacqueline. :(

Brandi

We took her to the park today. She was nervous about being in the car I guess so she was drooling everywhere. Everywhere being on the chair in the car, on the floor of the car, and on me. This is the dog that sits and stares at you adoringly while you pet her and cries if you take your hand away. She wants everyone to pet her and feed her and tell her she's wonderful. She really does. She wants it so much that every time she is around us she gets so excited that she becomes a pest by getting jumpy and drool-y and and makes us all want to get away from her. All of us except Dad who insists that they're the best dogs out there.

She is very sweet though.

Hank

He just looks like he's laughing at something or someone. He's a goof. :)

Four Day Weekend Part 1

I have a four day weekend this week! My doctor is out of town until Wednesday and I took Monday off. Becca and Jacqueline are coming over to my house to sew on Monday. It's the spring break for our local colleges next week and I'm so happy that I can get a visit in since it seems so hard to coordinate schedules with everyone. So since my camera is working I'm hoping to post pictures of this sew-fest!

I went to Jo-Ann's last night and got these fabrics. I bought linen for the first time ever! I hear so many people talk about how wonderful linen is and I'm excited to try to make something out of it. I got 2 yards so I'm thinking of trying to make a couple of bags. Plus I got some fun fabrics to use for linings. And that blue eyelet fabric may be a bag or a skirt. Or both. I got quite a bit. Oh, I'm so excited for a chance to hang out with the girls! I think I'm becoming better friends with the ladies at work, but we are so different and have such different ideals and goals and values in life and that's why I'm happy that Jacqueline and Becca are coming over. Cause we have a more common world-view.

The weather has gotten so much nicer lately! It's in the 60's today. Yesterday I went to the park with my dad and siblings and Solomon to walk. It was really nice. I enjoyed it a lot! And although he was tired, I think Solomon had fun too. These newfs tire out so easily. Two or three laps and they are ready to call it quits. They are funny dogs. The weimaraners are so energetic. They will walk or run all day long. I think maybe next weekend I will take Hank for a walk down there. He would really benefit from burning off some energy and learning to walk well on a leash. He's so cute. He doesn't like other dogs much though. He really needs that to be trained out of him. Our other dogs won't take it from him, but he snaps at Django (my sister's dog) when he comes over. He's nice to people though so that is good.

I'm just so pleased that the weather is warming up! I am a little bit worried about allergies and such since I have horrible springtime allergies. I got some Zyrtec today. I've tried several different allergy medicines like allegra, claritin, flonase, and a couple of others and haven't had much success with them. I really hope the Zyrtec has good results. I want to be outside this year. I want to go places and get pictures before we move. We still haven't had anymore people come see the house. I told one of my co-workers who asked if our house had any hits yet that no one will be more surprised than me if/when the house sells! Ha ha. I'm really hoping and we've been praying that God will bring a buyer to us.

One last thing: My Global College course left New Stanton, Pa this morning at 2 am (according to the tracker) and is scheduled to be delivered on Monday. Another reason I'm glad I have that day off. I was going to buy the green mullet wig to wear to work on Monday to see if I could get a reaction from my bosses, but I realized that I have that day off. So maybe next year. :)

Hopefully part two will come Monday evening.
Happy Saturday!

Honey I Blew Up the Dog! (Or is it Honey I Shrunk Myself?)

Solomon giving Holly a hug. No, he's not eating her or anything like that, but she did seem to have some trouble holding him up even though he only weighs about 80 lbs more than she does. :)


Hopefully I'll do some more blogging this weekend when I have a chance to work on some stuff. Until then I guess this is adios!

A Man's Best Friend

I found a few pictures of our dogs that I took last year and wanted to post. I took a few of these when I got snowed in from school. Others were taken at random times after we had our last litter of puppies.

Meet the Weimaraners!

Jumper. He thinks he is hot stuff!

Dancer. She is such a character.This picture was sooo hard to take. It was so hard to get them all in one spot and facing the same direction. This was the best I got.

Puppy Pile: the whole crew again.

And just because this picture always makes me laugh. :)

So these are the weimaraners. I already posted a picture of Hank. He is Jumper and Dancer's son from their last litter. I also have a picture of Solomon on here too. I need to get new pictures of Jazz and Brandy and post them too.