DonnieBrook's Subtropical Adventures 2

Hi Victor! Nice to see you in the neighborhood! What's happenin' in your world tonight? Pretty chilly down here today....good day for me to finish planting my new plants while Hank babysat the babies! They are really spunky today and wanting to be wrestling again. I figure we're about 2 days away from feeling ok about letting them be together. They are moving much better today and it seems that they have no pain anymore. Animals are so resilient! Here's a shot of them in their separate travel crates with their blue neckrolls on yesterday on our day trip.

Sweet babies! I'm so glad they are feeling better, Louise.

Thanks, Candyce! They really are super little puppies.....very happy about life! I'd sure hate it if they weren't as playful and happy as they are. What is great is that they will stop any mischief if I say, "Ah, Ah" to them. There is no meanness or aggression in them......just a love of physical romping and playing.

Their neck rolls are too cute!

Boy, Marilyn, are they lifesavers as an alternative to the hard plastic Elizabethan collars! They serve the same purpose, but function more like a pillow that keeps them from getting to forbidden places. Because they're soft, they don't crash into things with them. One more day and then they come off and they can return to training for the Worldwide Wrestling Federation. LOL

Wish I had known about them when Robs had his paw operated on---he was traumatized by the plastic collar! And speaking of Robs, my next door neighbor, whose gdaughter & boyfriend were dogsitting, called yesterday. She said she walked into our house---an impossible thing to do if we're in the house with Robs, & there was Brenna, on the rug with Rob, his head in her lap. He's such a doll if we're not around---he's just too protective with us.

Oh, so cute, RobinDog!

Getting ready for a big storm here, Louise!

I def should have gotten a soft collar for Wall-e when he was neutered. I had some bruises on my legs from him hitting me with that dumb cone.

Sweet image of Robindog, Marilyn!

Jen - the soft cone was what my son's Dog, Donnie, had, but it got so floppy that it tripped him up whenever he walked. If you need one again (hopefully not), get the inflatable type that you blow up. They work just great! PetSmart carries them down here. They sure aren't cheap! $25 each on top of the wasted $15 the vet charged for the hard plastic cone that lasted 10 minutes. They are reusable and very well made though.

The collars were officially removed today and the girls were allowed to wrestle and play. It was so sweet to see them curled into each other sleeping this afternoon. I pronounce them "cured". LOL One thing I don't get though, Carli - who has been very well house-trained for quite awhile - has peed in the house 3 times in the last couple of days since she was spayed. What's up with that????

Irritation? Bladder infection? Call the vet, Louise---doesn't sound right. Wish I could see them play---nothing like pups to brighten your day!

Hi Marilyn. I did follow up with the vet and she said it sometimes happens when the catheter irritates the area. Carli seems to be back to normal today, so we're just going to keep watching her. They had a ball out there in their fenced area today, running at top speed all around the obstacle course of flower beds.....but they also looked like grazing cattle eating everything in sight...dirt, leaves, mulch, sticks...whatever! And of course Carli loved digging in the Florida sandy soil. I think it will be a bit easier at the farm since the ground is so much more "resistent" to puppies! We will have to fence part of the back yard where we had the RU as soon as we get there.

Here's a view of one of the new beds that will be beside the paver walkway to the door when it gets put in next week. The beds are still rough around the edges, and the edging you see here is just temporary to lay out the boundaries.

a shot looking over the walk-through gate next to the sunroom.......

oohh pretty.. how are your temps Louise

The girls just after their collars were removed......lounging on "their" loveseat in the sunroom. The vet took a look at Carli's tear ducts while she was under anesthesia, and we are hoping that massaging the area on each eye twice a day will help get rid of the tearing/stain problem. We don't want to do the "Angel Eyes" remedy, because it involves antibiotics that my NH vet discourages. When we get to NH, he will be able to do the painless diagnostic thing he did to determine what was going on with Molly. This vet here thinks that the massaging could work out some tissue that is blocking the duct slightly.

It was pretty chilly this morning, Allison. We had to put the heat on for a couple hours. The week ahead is supposed to be in the 40s at night and in the 60s during the day. I actually like it like this. It is good for gardening and walking, since the humidity bothers us both a lot.

On our walk tonight we learned that there was a home invasion on the street next to our neighborhood last night. A man got in bed with the woman who was sleeping in her bedroom. When she screamed and cursed him, he ran out of the house. She is a single Mom and she told the news reporters that at first she thought it was her 7-year-old daughter climbing in bed with her, and when she realized what was happening, she was just thankful that nothing happened to her or her daughter. Another attempted home invasion happened to one of our friends mid-day last Friday. They have an expensive home on the River around the corner from us, and a young guy tried to throw a chair through her slider with her in the house. Hank is finally agreeing to be more careful about locking doors and windows and turning the alarm on now. That will last about a week. Scary stuff. It's all a part of the hard-hit economy here with so much unemployment.

I wouldn't mind a 60 day!!!!

please lock your doors!!!... hate to hear those things

Stay safe, Louise!

Ooh, hate to hear that, Louise! But glad the pups are doing better---love the garden, with the pinks & white!

How about outdoor lighting DB?

Such cute pups. You have done a nice job in a very short time with their new outdoor playroom. Scary hearing those sort of things happening so nearby. Better safe than sorry so locking up sounds like a good idea.

We have always locked doors. what's up with not locking?

Allison, Jen, Pat and Lucy - don't worry, the doors are locked and the alarm has been set at night and when we are out. And Lucy - about the outdoor lighting - we will have a double spotlight put in for the new area when the door is put in next week, and we have a motion activated spotlight on our breakfast patio and in our garage. Of course, Hank is always turning off the patio light for some reason. He needs to shape up!! LOL This is an area where no one has had to lock doors, but this is a different time and things are radically different from when I grew up here, sad to say!

Marilyn - glad you like the colors....I do too!

Pat - thanks for your nice compliments on the progress in the fenced area. I will be so happy when the girls get out of their "eat everything in sight" phase. They are eating my cypress mulch and anything else they can find. Makes me nervous.

EEEk! They are like my dale twins, Skip & Jazz-----they dug up & ate all my bulbs & chewed the wisteria vine to a nub---don't ask me how they lived---those 2 were tough as nails!

Here is a pastel my neighbor did of them---they were notorious, escaped from the fenced -in yard----we had to get an electric fence as well---that finally kept them home!

Oh, they are adorable, Marilyn!! My girls are definitely following closely in their footsteps!

By the way, did any of you know that ingesting an apple seed can be fatal for dogs? After I learned of the extremely poisonous plants I had in the fenced area, I researched which plants could actually kill the dogs, and I was shocked to see some that made the list. Poisonous plants are usually given a number from 1 to 5, indicating whether ingesting the poison produces just irritation to skin, etc. or can actually cause death. The deadly ones are given a "1". Brugmansia, vinca, azalea, rhododendron, apple seeds, and some more I can't recall right now are all 1s. Scary when you have dogs who do not discriminate in their choice of things to eat outside. Liver and kidney damage and some heart damage is what causes death from ingestion of these. At the moment, my girls are really into eating the old cypress mulch I put on the beds last year. The bigger the piece of bark, the better. My vet/neighbor said that blockages from swallowing large pieces of anything hard is the usual problem she sees.

This message was edited Feb 14, 2010 10:17 PM

Oh, no---we live in an old apple orchard----at least 5 of the trees still produce drops---hope the pooches aren't trying them!

I know that apples fall into my son's yard and his dog shows no interest in them. I think that it is mainly a problem for little puppies who are teething and mouthing everything. It is good to take a look at one of these lists since so many things we have in the garden down here (and some in NH) are very dangerous for pets.

Today's joy is digging, digging, digging. So much for the new grass in several spots. But they have so much fun being puppies, and it's hard to interrupt their natural instincts. Let's hope this fascination passes. Cesar says, let 'em dig, but only in one spot. Yeah, right.

Caesar must have a staff of 20, so they can watch where each dog digs---here, the dogs go out, & the dale digs wherever----Suey has never dug a hole.

Well, we decided to "join 'em instead of "beatin' 'em", so we are trying Cesar's method. We boarded off a 4X4 area where Carli was digging yesterday, and we buried two of their rawhide sticks in the dirt there. Then we decided that we'll squirt her with the hose if she decides to dig outside the "sand pit". We took them out there and wouldn't you know, they grabbed the sticks and chased each other all around the yard and had no interest today in digging. That's ok....tomorrow's another day. LOL

Before you come home Louise.This is what we are dealing with

Hi JoAnn. Looks like DG is having trouble with images again. I can't open your photo. I'll look forward to seeing it whenever......... Does it seem to you guys like things are going downhill on DG ever since Dave left?

its super annoying.
i cant remember when there was so many problems.

I agree. Bummer! That's Big Business for you, I guess. I had hoped for better.

Hi Louise. Sounds like the puppy training is keeping you busy!

They said it would take days for the photo migration. 1 1/2 million forum pics!

Hi Victor. You're not kidding. We had NO IDEA what it means to be the parents of two puppies without any older dogs to keep up with them and whip them into shape. Just like toddlers, they require watching most of the time to keep them out of trouble. BUT, I was just telling Hank how adorable and fun they are as they out-maneuver each other running around here with one stick. You can give them each the same "toy" - or in this case, a rawhide puppy stick - and they won't have anything to do with one of them. They just want to tussle over the other one. They make me laugh so much!

About the website - I guess it is understandable when you consider how many photos there are! Thanks for that information. I shouldn't judge what I know nothing about!

That is funny - and cute! Reminds me of the two younger cats. When I feed them - with two separate bowls - Sniff will leave his bowl and try to muscle Spooky out of the way to get his - all the while keeping his own off limits to Spooky! Hilarious.

Aren't they fun?! You can count on them to keep you laughing all the time! I tried putting down 2 plates of food for them, but they prefer to share one plate. I've never seen this before, but each of them makes sure the other one has enough. It's very sweet how loving they are to each other. One minute they're rolling and tussling, and the next, they are cuddling and sleeping on each other. It was very tough to separate them for a full week. They would touch paws through the crate dividers.

OMG---how sweet!

So sweet! It is easy to see how they fill you with so much joy!