Say Hello to Our New Little Friend...

Meet "Bailey"...our new little friend!!! Bailey is 12 weeks old and weighs 2 1/2 pounds. Her mother is a Yorkie, father unknown. I can't remember if I've mentioned before that my daughter and her husband are foster parents for our local animal shelter, they usually take care of mommy dogs that are brought into the shelter with a litter of pups that are too young to adopt out, so they go to a foster family until they are old enough.

And that's how Bailey, her sister and mommy ended up at my daughter's. I lost my little pocket pet "Emmie" a yorkie-poo, ayear and a half ago and had no plans to adopt another...I've even held out from adopting one of the many many ones my daughter has taken care of this past year. But Bailey and her sister hooked me from the minute I met them.

With Duchess and Gus, did I really need another dog??? NO, but do we ever add a dog to our families because we need them...again no,... it's because something about them just grabs us, and the fall into love begins. (I'm pretty sure my daughter knew exactly what would happen when she brought them to visit for the first time!).

Here are a few pics of Bailey doing her best to get Duchess to fall in love with her like everyone else has...

not happening yet...

nope, not yet...Duchess is just too cool to fall for these shenanigans..

Now Gus is a different story...Gus actually believes...totally convinced...that Bailey was brought home especially for HIM!!! He lovessssss her, completely, without question, total adoration.

This is one of Gus's bones that ended up under my puter desk and they were both determined to get it out, so down on my knees I went to retieve it for them...as soon as Gus had it, around and around the room he went trying to keep Bailey from getting it, with her chasing him, full growl going to let him know she wasn't giving up...as you can see, she finally wore him down after about 50 laps (no exaggeration) around the family room.

That bone weighs about half of what she does.

Now granted, the first couple of days we said "Easy Gus" more times than not, he was just so darn excited with "his new present" that he tended to get a little rambunctious, and he had to learn that he couldn't play with her the same as he plays with Duchess...but learn he did. He is so kind about sharing his toys, he will even bring them to her and try to get her to latch on so they can play tug of war..which is more like he tugs her around while she hangs on....he does it real slow so he doesnt' lose her.

They constantly rough house and "play" bite each other's faces, and Gus doesn't even get upset when she latches onto his lips. When it's time for her to go "potty", he looks like Tigger, bouncing straight up in the air all the way to the yard, until I set her down then off they go, he leads the way, she follows and they both do their business.

They are now our favorite form of entertainment!!!

My daughter found a new home for Bailey's mommy, but she still has her sister even though she is definitely old enough to go back to the shelter, she soooo wants to find her a good home as she's really gotten attached. I'd show you pics of her but I lost the ones I had when my puter died last weekend. Bailey's sister looks nothing like her, she's at least 2x Bailey's size, coal black, wavy hair...she kinda looks like a black Shitzu. And ohhh, is she sweet, SHE is extremely loveable (Bailey just wants to play, forget the lovin')...she will make someone an awesome new family member. If you know anyone that would be interested, email my daughter at

mm308206@hotmail.com

I've linked up this post to www.tidymom.net I'm Lovin' It Fridays...go check out her site to see her yorkie "Cullen"

Man's Best Friend -- Dutchess & Gus Update

"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too!"

--author unknown

If you've read my previous posts about Dutchess and Gus, you'll know that Gus is the one on top...this is his favorite position when playing with Dutchess (sometimes she lets him and sometimes she doesn't). He is neutered, so get your mind out of the gutter,... he likes to wrestle and chew on her ears, he will try ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to get a reaction out of her.

Gus has been teaching us alot about training a puppy, (he's now 8 months old, FINALLY potty-trained, it's been a long haul). ALL of our previous dogs and puppies have been easy-peasy compared to him...(check back to previous post 2 and previous post 1 to see all he's taught us up to this point).

I thought I'd share a couple more very important lessons we've learned..

Lesson #15
Praise, reward, repeat
Praise, reward, repeat

Lesson #16
Correct, replace, praise
Correct, replace, praise

I had to include this pic of Dutchess...her expression says it all, you can just imagine the heavy sigh she let out right before the photo was taken. (also in previous posts, Dutchess is our dog pound rescue, she has now been here a year, and could not be more perfectly mannered,... it's very hard to believe her previous owner gave her up)

Gus Post Surgery

It's been awhile since I posted any news about Gus & Dutchess, so here's an update. These pics were taken the evening of December 16th, just a couple hours after Gus came home from his surgery. As you can see, he is not usual, full of vim and vinegar self.

When I called the vets office in the afternoon to check how he was doing, the vet's assistent told me he was just "wonderful"...she went on to tell me that "we would need to keep him very quiet for the next few days and limit his play and activity"....HA, are you kidding me???

I explained to her how hard this would be as he was "a holy terror" and she was truly shocked, her comments were, "but he's such a sweetie" "I just love him" "I can't imagine that" "he's just been a pleasure here"...so then I asked her what kind of drugs they had him on and could I get a prescription for home use? (I thought this was a very reasonable request), she didn't seem to think so.

His lethargy lasted for that evening only, by the next morning he was going full tilt, doing his best to engage Dutchess in a wrestling match and in general making it very difficult to "keep him quiet". I have to say that Gus is a "moaner" in his sleep, he doesn't do the whole running and wolfing in his sleep as most dogs seem to do, he will do a lot of whole body stretching and moaning as if he is just completely wore out and it just feels so good to lay down, and he has done this since we brought him home at 7 weeks of age. So the night of his surgery, he did much more moaning in his sleep (it sounded like he was in misery) and we did feel really sorry for the poor little guy, right up until the next morning when he tried to hurdle the couch and then started running circles around the family room. If we yelled "GUS, stop it!" once, we yelled it a thousand times.

You can also see by the pics that even Dutchess felt sorry for him and shared her bed, she has since regretted this as he has chewed a hole in it, tries to bury his toys in it by balling it up and has confiscated it as his own (she now has her own new bed). Can't you just see the orneriness written all over his face in the last pic?!

Gus Update

Gus is now a little over 5 months old so I figured it was time for an update as he is growing fast (already 30#). His bladder also seems to be growing FINALLY and the house training is going really well now.

The following photos were taken about 6 weeks ago, also included are a few more lessons learned from Gus...

Lesson #11

Any food is fair game until it is actually swallowed by someone else.

Lesson #12

Take a nap whenever you can. (when not napping Gus is almost always at full throttle)
Lesson #13

Don't bark unless it's important

Lesson #14

Chasing one's tail is sometimes unavoidable

Gus is absolutely in LOVE with the gator and believes it is his job to be on it whenever the motor is running, if you try to take off without him, he comes at a dead out run and dives for the passenger seat (Lesson #15: be prepared to slam on brakes when operating heavy equipment with Gus around (he also believes he should be on the farm tractor AND the lawn mower)).

The following pics show Dutchess' new hiding (from Gus) place. It's her only defense as he won't leave her alone. I'd say she's a pretty smart cookie, of course this won't work long as fast as he's growing.


Gus has an appointment thursday for neutering, Larry assures me this will be quite traumatic for him.