Wordless Wednesday

Miss Sophie

Miss Sophie is quite unlike most dogs I have owned in my life. I often wonder who signed us up for this little dog. But for all her issues we love her and could never give her up.

She now appears to be unspayable. I previously posted about Sophie going to be spayed next week however after her trip to the groomer I noticed the signs of her having a heat cycle. I cancelled the spay app. and made a new one for the middle of February. I'm not sure how far along her heat cycle is however I did realize that only two months have passed since her last one. Meaning that she has now had 3 heat cycles within the past 6 months. I have heard of dogs having long periods of time between heat cycles but never heat cycles so often. I am going to be watching her to see if she is able to go in to be spayed at her next app. hopefully she is and then I will not have to worry any further.

Has anyone else ever heard of heat cycles occuring so often?

Updates Around Here

Well it going to start being super busy around here. My classes online have started this week and I'm trying to figure out the sites along with my workload. I am very excited to start reading my textbooks as they seem very interesting, maybe I will turn my blog into a childhood education one rather than pet. But then again maybe not. I'm still supply teaching at a daycare and having lots of fun doing that.

But enough about me....Sophie goes in to get spayed next week and I have been using this as a learning time for my siblings since they are upset that Sophie will not have puppies. I explained that people should only breed dogs if they are really really good dogs and they get the checked out for any problems that they might pass onto their puppies. Since Sophie doesn't have a very good personality ok maybe too much personality especially some traits that you wouldn't want to pass down, as well as problems with both her back knees. They understand that you wouldn't want to pass these things down and that there are tons of puppies already in shelters and rescues. I hope that explaining these things to them will help them to continue these lessons on their own.

Koda is really in need of a B-A-T-H and I really do not want to do it at home. Hopefully I get some free time to take him back to the dog wash place soon. We have really been noticing more white popping up around his cheeks, a sign that he is getting older. He still acts like a puppy and regularily gets excited playing by himself. He throws his rope, ball and snow, while rolling around and running all over the place. His personality hasn't changed at all and he still gets happy when we come home or wake up or return from the bathroom. At 7 in May he still had lots of good years left but I do worry about what I will do when the time comes.

Jack is Jack I wonder sometimes what his IQ would be if we tested it. We ran out of cat food the other day and since he eats dog food we put it in his dish until we could drive to the pet store. He was not pleased with this and somehow knew that it wasn't cat food in his dish and kept meowing and taking us down to his dish. Maybe he checked all the dishes and realized they all tasted the same, but he baffles me.

Things I have Learned

I have learned so many things from my pets over the years. Many of which could be put into practice on a regular basis.

Always be a little cautious

Greet mornings like a special friend

Snuggle more often

Give lots of kisses to special people in my life

Play outside

Make new friends everywhere I go

Bathe more often

Get excited over the little things

Always be up for anything no matter where it leads

Sleep lots

Go exploring

Play

Take time to smell the fresh air

Love

I tend to think from time to time that animals hold the secret to happiness in life.

Wordless Wednesday

My Angel Kitty Gem

Doggy Coat Care

I'm sure I'm not the first nor will I be the last to admit that I tend to slack off grooming my dogs. I find that it is just one of the last things I think about doing for them on a day to day basis. Of course it doesn't help that we live in the country so Koda tends to forever be getting burrs, sticks, grass and other forestry stuff in his hair.

In fact during his week away he has managed to get huge mats behind both ears! I normally just give him an at home hair cut to deal with all of his matting and burrs. However my technique could most certainly be improved, it sometimes looks at those a child has taken scissors and attempted to learn to cut hair!

Sophie is a whole other story all together, she seems to collect household things in her hair like tape, string, Koda hair balls, and when she does get tangles they are pretty easy to get out. She also goes to the groomers about once every two months so her hair stays a little bit shorter.

Does anyone else have problems keeping long hair unmatted and clean?

Wordless Wednesday

This is Miss Mya, I puppysat her one summer and helped her Mom train her. Typical of small dogs she was pretty tough to train for two monthes we worked on the basics. I still hear from her time to time and miss her lots.

Travelling

I normally like to bring my dogs and cat with me when I travel someplace but it seems that this christmas we did alot of the travelling and to places that the dogs or cat couldn't go to. On christmas day we travelled to my aunt and uncle's house who have a dog who last year tried to eat Sophie. So this year a friend of mine took Sophie luckily, we left Jack the cat at home and brought Koda with us.

I am currently skiing with my Mom and Stepdad along with all my siblings and finding arrangements for the dogs and cat were hard. Koda is easier since he gets along with most dogs and he went to stay with my cousin who has a lab of her own. They were happily playing as I left.

Sophie stayed at at Grandma's with Blair which she loves to do. I think it is because she gets to raid Blair's toy box and snuggle lots with Grandma. Grandma will also be checking on Jack to make sure he is doing alright at home.

Our skiing trip is going well, I have been skiing tons of time so this year I have decided to snowboard. Boarding as I learned yesterday is NOT something you can wing or learn by seeing what other people are doing. I did learn how to do all kinds of flips, rolls, handstands, and I got really good at falling. So today I took a lesson and might be ready to move off the bunny hill tomorrow after a few practice runs. Let me be first to tell you that all those boys who do tricks on the hill have worked super super hard.

Oh Hey 2011

It is shocking how fast the years go by, I can remember being suprised at the year 2000. Now it is 11 years later;last year was full of learning and new opportunities. I am very excited to see what this year will bring. I do have a few New Years Resolutions that I am sure I will be keeping.

1. Find a healthy inexpensive dog food that Koda and Sophie may share.

2. Reattempt to train Sophie to stop barking at everyone and everything.

3. Play more with my pets.

4. Learn from all of life's lessons

5. Enjoy the many changes that life brings

6. No longer dwelling on life's regrets

7. Blog more often!

I wish the very best for everyone's year.