November 2009 – “Happy Thanksgiving”

Well here we are again in upstate NY, waiting for our first snow flakes to arrive. Not that we are in a hurry! But it is that time of the year for us. Actually, it has been pretty mild. In the 50’s and sometimes in the 60’s. That is warm for us in November. Thanksgiving is next week, and we’d like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. It isn’t quite Thanksgiving yet and I have started my Christmas Shopping. The sales are great and there is no snow on the ground. Not to mention that our family is very large, so there are many to buy for. Christmas is, by far, my most favorite time of the year! I feel like I’m a kid again. (and that was decades ago)

Well on to Miss Greta. She is still a sweetie. And I have some pictures that I took tonight to show you. This first one is Miss Greta laying on the rug by our bed:

This next picture of Miss Greta, is her ON the bed:

And lastly is a picture of Ren, our 14 year old chihuahua, who is almost all white/grey now from old age:

Mr. Ren is thankfully still with us. He can hardly hear and can’t walk too well on his left back leg. He sleeps most of the time, but gets spurts of energy once in a while. They only last about 5 minutes. Mr. Ren is still smiling and seems to be adapting to his old age. We still keep him and Miss Greta apart.

We feed Mr. Ren Eagle Pak for senior dogs. And we don’t feed him anywhere near what we use to. We find that if he eats too much, he gets sick. Miss Greta on the other hand, still gets her Eagle Pak twice a day. In the morning it is mixed with a scrambled egg. In the evening it is mixed with cooked ground hamburg and cut up cheese.

Miss Greta is still VERY active. She still loves being outside. She’s been out quite a bit these last few weeks, as we were outside raking leaves. Miss Greta still lacks the social graces when visitors come to the house. Unfortunately, on Christmas Eve, she will have to stay in her crate. We will be having family over for dinner and presents, which will be about 20-25 people. And we always have Santa pop in unexpectedly for the little ones. Can you imagine what Miss Greta would do if she saw SANTA! 🙂

Well, until next time, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And if I’m not back before December 25th, have a happy and blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Miss Greta Loves Her Frosty Paws Ice Cream

Well it is that time of the year in upstate NY. SPRING/SUMMER TIME! We are getting are flowers planted and bbq’ing outside. And of course we stock up our freezer with some icecream. At the end of a hot day, and just before the sun goes down, my husband and I go outside on our patio and enjoy a cold refreshing icecream. And it can be just about any icecream. From cones, to banana splits to just plain icecream in a dish. When we are done with our icecream, we usually leave a bit for our dogs, (not if it is chocolate), and let them feast on it as well. And yes we let them lick it right from the bowl. If you are a dog lover, you won’t be saying or thinking “YUK” right now. 🙂
So since they love icecream so much, we now buy them “Frosty Paws” which is icecream specially made for dogs. And just in case you are wondering, yes I’ve tasted it. And for that I WILL say “YUK”!! It comes packaged just like Skippy Cups. And it looks like vanilla icecream, just not as white. It tastes like cold, moist dog biscuits. BUT THEY LOVE IT!
So hear are some pictures of Miss Greta eating her Frosty Paws “off of a spoon”. (and no “YUKS” please)

And here is Miss Greta after eating her icecream. She is all happy with herself now.

We buy the Frosty Paws at Checker Hill Farms on Freeman’s Bridge Road. Actually we get her Eagle Pack and everything else from there too. I believe that Frosty Paws are sold in places like Pet Smart as well. Believe it or not, Price Chopper use to sell them a couple of years ago. But we haven’t seen them in a long time there.
So now we know for sure that it is summer, even though the calender shows differently, cause the Frosty Paws are on the scene.

Miss Greta…Still just one big puppy!! 2/10/2008

Miss Greta is still doing fine after her spaying. She is right back to her normal self. My husband took her for a nice long walk this morning. Miss Greta loved it.  So now my husband is taking a nap and Miss Greta is still raring to go!!! I wish we could bottle some of that energy cause I could certainly use it!:)

Every morning my husband leaves for work before I do. So before I leave for work, I let Greta outside for a while. Getting her back in is another ordeal! It is a good thing that we don’t have neighbors around, as for sure they would have me committed. I will open the door and call her to come in and she just stands there and looks at me like I had 2 heads. Then just turns the other way a pretends she never even saw me.

So here are some of the stupid tricks I’ve tried: Ready? I have actually rang our door bell and pretended someone was here. Oh sure she perks her ears up and she looks at the house, but that’s about as far as that one goes. Then I take ALL of her toys to the door thinking that will lure her in. I jump around, squeak them and act all excited. Again the stare and off she goes. I have also resorted to taking pieces of cheese and making a line from outside coming into the house. (ya know like Hansel and Gretel?) Honestly, that does seem to work. So it takes approximately 20-30 minutes of MY insane behaviour to get her in! And yet I love her to death. Go figure!

I have some new pictures of Miss Greta with her favorite toys. This is Greta walking around with her toys in her mouth looking for anyone to play with her.

Here she is with TWO toys in her mouth. She actually tries to get every one of her toys in her mouth at one time.

And here is Miss Greta just trying to look cute and hoping that will draw some attention to herself.

Yup, it’s still all about Miss Greta. Our home revolves around the girl. Of course that is fine since it is just myself and my husband. But when visitors come…watch out!!! Greta just sees new playmates when anyone walks in the door. Maybe that’s why we don’t get many guests anymore! 🙂 Just kidding! Although it is difficult when the smaller grandchildren come over. Miss Greta is definitely in the herding mode then. She won’t leave them alone!

All in all, she is a sweetheart and we love her to death. Oh and the chihuahua, Ren is still here too. We NEVER put the two of them together. Miss Greta would pummel him in 2 seconds flat. And Ren is just a little old man who can’t hear too well anymore. I think that Greta thinks Ren is just one of her toys! So for now, they  live separate lives in the same household!

Till next time………….

How to get more life from these “squeaky toys”

In my last post, I showed you pictures of Miss Greta’s squeaky toys and the one that survived and the ones that didn’t. Well, my mom was over for a visit and I was showing her Greta’s toys and that I was going to throw them out. She had a great idea! She said that as long as the “squeaky thing” still worked and all of the fiber fill was still in tact, she suggesting just taking it and placing it all in a sock and knot it at the top.Well, I went to my husband’s dresser and pulled out one of his socks. I stuffed the sock with the fiber fill and the squeaky thing and knotted the top. SHE LOVED IT! It was like a brand new toy for her that still squeaked. And she doesn’t chew threw it. Of course I can’t say that any other dog won’t be able to rip it apart, but Greta didn’t. So if you have any of your dogs toys that they have ripped apart, just take it and put it in a sock to give it more of a life span.  Of course I just used a plain white sock but I’m sure we could use colored socks or socks that have those funky designs too.Of course, my husband now has one lone sock in his drawer, but at least we can’t say that they got lost in the laundry! 🙂  

Greta’s Toys

Greta loves squeeky toys. Now that she is a week post-op from her spaying, she is full of life again. So I went out and bought her 3 new squeeky toys. She has had many, but she squeeks them until she rips them open and the “squeeky thing” come out. Here is her first one. It is a duck that actually sounds like a duck when it is squeezed. This one lasted about 2 hours. So no more quacking for this toy. And if you notice you will see Miss Greta’s paws. I was taking these pictures on the table, so she just had to be up there looking too.
:

Here is the second toy:

This one lasted about 24 hours. As you can see, she pulled the stuffing out and the little squeeky thing.

And here is the third one:

Now this one is still hanging in there. It isn’t as cute, cuddly or original, but it is made out of a heavy canvas type material that seems to last. She has a similar one that has lasted for months. It doesn’t squeek anymore, but she can’t chew through it.

I use to sew her squeeky toys so she could get more life out of them and so we could get our monies worth out of them. But that was a great waste of time. And these are just a few of her inside toys. She has specific outside toys as well. They are bones and balls that are made from that heavy rubber. We also have a frisbee for her, which she loves, but we haven’t found one yet that she can chew through.

So Miss Greta is doing fine after her spaying and everything seems to be back to normal.

So until nex time……………

Greta Gets Spayed

On January 14, 2008 we had Greta spayed. We dropped her off at the vets that morning about 7:30. She clearly has no loyalties, since she went more than willingly with the assistant at the vets office. And can I say that she never looked back either. She just thinks it is “all about her”! And of course it is. 🙂 The vets office called us about 1pm to tell us she went through surgery fine and that we could pick her up about 4:30 that evening.

Before we decided to have her spayed, we did some reseach on the pros and cons involved. We also discussed it with our vet who was definately in favor of spaying. The vet said that if we did not spay Greta and she continued her heats without breeding her, the vet would garentee Greta would develop cancer by 7-8years old. So my husband and I made the decision to have her spayed after her 2nd heat. And when I say that “I” and my husband made the decision to have her spayed, I was reluctant. I am a naturalist at heart, but not to an extreme,and feel that there is a normal function for all living things. For example: Women don’t get hysterectomies just because they will never have children. And yet we do it in the animal world. So, science won out and I caved and Miss Greta got spayed. My husband is the more logical one and usually follows things by the book and also respects the experts. Not to mention that I think if me and Greta were drowning, he would save Greta first. So I know that he also loves Miss Greta and is looking out for her best interest.

She came home shaved, groggy and full of stitches. They also send pain medication (Metacam) that we were to give her every morning for the first three days.

So the next morning, (first day post-op) she ate and drank very little and we gave her the pain medication. She whinned continuously. She also was ok on urinating but no bowel movement.

On the 2nd day post-op, we gave her the pain medication again. She ate and drank very little and still whinned continuously. And again no bowel movement, but urination ok. She seemed to be an intirely different dog. She was affraid of everything and preferred to be in her crate. Which was unusual since she only was in her crate at night of if we weren’t home. She never went in by herself. We even notice her getting on one of the beds under on of the comforters. Clearly not like Greta at all.

So on day 3 post-op, we chose not to give her the pain medication and she ate a bit more and drank a bit more. She did finally have a ‘small’ bowel movement.

It is now 5 days post-op and Greta is much better. Although she still whinnes and will still go into her crate on her own free will at any given time. Her appetite is back to normal as is her drive to play. Oh and when she whinnes, she is LOUD!

She goes back to the vet on 1/28/2008 to have her stitches removed. We are greatful that Greta has not attempted to chew on her stitches. In fact she hardly even acknowledges the area.

Here are some pictures of Greta, 2nd day post-op:

So there is poor Miss Greta, looking a little under the weather on her 2nd day post-op. But we are happy to say that she is doing just fine now. Although she has evolved into a very verbal whinner now. But we still love her to death of course.

She still jumps all over people when they come to visit. Perhaps a wee bit better, but still very excitable. But she is really still a puppy at 15 months old. And yes she still thinks she is the center of the universe and we do nothing to steer her from that idea! 🙂

Greta’s diet is still the same. But now we have added eggs to her diet. So now we giver her Eagle Pack, mixed with ground turkey, chicken or beef, cottage cheese and (2) scrambled eggs. She loves it!

She looks healthy and her coat is magnificient. We were very surprised at her weight. When we took her to be spayed, she weighed in at only 64lbs. We thought that she was well in the upper 70’s. She is solid with no fat. I guess she is just smaller than we thought.

Well until the next update…..love your dog since they are probably the only living thing that will love us unconditionally!!!

1 Year Old Pictures Of Miss Greta

Greta is 1 year old now!

On October 6, 2007, Miss Greta turned 1 year old. She is a stunning beauty and can I say that she knows it too. She has already gone through one heat cycle and has just started her 2nd. We were undecided whether to let her go through 1 or 2 heat cycles so I guess it will be 2.

She is a very good dog, and is still somewhat out of control when people come to the house. She jumps all over them and licks them to death. Embarrassing needless to say, but we just can’t seem to stop her from doing it. We did find one thing that works. When we know before hand that someone is coming over, we will put her in her crate before they arrive. One they have arrived and things have settled down a bit, we let her out of her crate and she is less invasive to our guests.

Even though winter is setting in here in the Northeast, my husband still takes her out for her daily/nightly walks. And she is taken outside to run and play. She just “loves” her play time. And of course she still thinks the universe revolves around her.

We still feed her Eagle Pack Adult dry dog food mixed with ground turkey or chicken or hamburg and cottage cheese. We had noticed her starting to itch quite a bit more than usual and beginning to shed more than she has. So while my husband was at the only pet store around that does sell Eagle Pack, he asked about her itching and if it could possibly be from the food. The employee check all of the ingredients in the Adult Eagle Pack and reassured him that it wasn’t from the food. He suggested a product called SHED-X. It is primarily for dry skin and shedding. It contains oils such as fish and soybean oils along with many vitamins. We put about 2 tablespoons in her food everyday. We  noticed she has loose stools in the beginning, but they soon became normal. She has since stopped her itching and her coat is silky, smooth and shinny.

We still have the 11 1/2 yr old  Chihuahua and he is also on Eagle Pack for seniors. He is doing very very well on that dog food. We don’t mix his food with the ground meat, we do however, mix in some cottage cheese. Maybe just 3/4 of a teaspoon. And both dogs are fed twice a day.

We also noticed that when we have TV on, she will stop whatever she is doing when a commercial appears and watch it. I guess there is something about these tv ads, huh? 🙂

She is a very protective, loving member of our family. Although I would like her to be a bit calmer, she is still very puppy and seems to always be ready to play. She still sleeps in her crate every night and is in the crate during the day if we are at work. She loves her crate!

We still have to watch what we leave around since she thinks that everything is hers. Oh and I forgot to mention that we think that she has a foot fetish! The second we take off our shoes and socks, she will lick our feet continuously if we let her. Strange, huh?

The invisable fence has worked great! We still put the collar on her when she is outside, but she knows exactly where her boundries are and stays clear of them. There have been times when people will walk by with their dogs and Miss Greta will stay behind her boundry line and just sit and  bark at them. Our last shephard, Baron, would bust right through if he spotted another dog.  We do have a long lead for her outside, which has been used only once or twice. We rarely use it as she is a definate “hole digger” if left unattended. Well, actually she will start digging right in front of us while she is out running free. If left to her own desires, she would dig a hole clear to China! So once the snow falls, we will let her dig all she wants in the snow. No harm there!

Well, that’s the update. I will try to get some pictures up here on her blog so you can see what a beauty she is.

Until the next time……………

Greta 4/28/2007

First I’ll start out with some new pictures of Miss Greta that I took today.’

And now a picture of “Ren” our male Chihuahua…that’s another whole story.

Ok so there you have it…our 2 dogs. Ren is our 11 year old male Chihuahua. I acquired him from my son. It was originally his while he was still living at home. So Ren and I kind of got attached. He slept with me every night. Chihuahua’s are a one person dog and I guess I’m it. For example, Ren is good with my husband as well, until he tries to kiss me good night. Then we are greatful he truly isn’t a Great Dane, cause he sounds mighty vicious!

 He is truly so sweet. Not the typical Chihuahua. Even the vet is impressed with his disposition. But don’t get me wrong…Ren still thinks he’s a Great Dane! He can hold his own although we do NOT put Greta and Ren together. Greta is so incredibly active and rough as she is still only almost 7months old. And Ren is just an old man!!

Back in the fall of the year, Ren threw his neck out of place and was in quite a bit of pain. It was around the same time that Baron, our male shepherd was put down. So we were distraught, needless to say. We would have to give him water with a teaspoon since he really couldn’t move. So with that being said, we don’t want a repeat of that.Not only to watch the poor dog suffer, but to have all of those vet bills again.

Back to Greta….she is doing great. I never laughed so hard as I so with this dog. She has the funniest personality. No matter what you are doing..she’s gotta be there. If I am doing something at the sink in the kitchen, she has both front paws up on the counter watching every move. However, the other morning, when I went to take her out of her crate, she took her nice bed and shredded it. There was poly fill EVERYWHERE! And she just looked at me with her head tilted, looking cute as if she should be praised!!

 We still feed her Eagle Pack but now mix it with cooked ground turkey, brown rice and cottage cheese. We will soon be adding carrots into the mix as well. She is just growing up to be ‘stunning’. Her coat is magnificient! Now all we have to do is get her to listen!!! She is like your typical 2 year old child!

Well, I’ll continue to take more pictures and update you with her progress. So, till next time….

Greta’s “Invisible Fence” Update

Here is a picture of Greta on her 6 month birthday.

 Greta is doing “ok” with the invisible fence. She did go through it, with no problem might I add, but my husband said that it was because her collar wasn’t on tight enough. So not only do we shock her but we choke her too. (only kidding)

She loves being outside since she is so active. April 6th she was 6months old and weighs about 55lbs. She is getting very big!

We still feed her Eagle Pack dog food and treats, but I have since added cooked ground turkey to her night feeding only. She loves it! My husband takes her for a walk every day after dinner, which she looks forward to. She still sleeps in her crate at night and during the day when we are at work. I have to say that I always thought the idea of a crate was awful. I have since learned and seen with my own eyes, that not only do we love it but so does she. She actually looks forward to going there at night. It is part of her routine now, although it was never a problem for her.

We have used her “correction” collar while she was in the house  when we had company. It comes with a remote, so you can “remotely” shock her! Greta relentlessly jumps all over people when they arrive. Embarrassing for us and not comfortable for the guests. We have it set at a very very low setting while she is being “corrected” (love that word instead of “shocked”) in the house. When and if we need to use the remote, we use the words “no” or “down” so that hopefully she will learn to obey by the words alone. Although we still need to take into account that she is just a puppy yet. But a big puppy at that!

She should be coming into heat soon, and that should prove to be interesting. But I am convinced that it is the best for her or any dog. The hormones that they experience during their heat are very vital to her development as a female dog. It really is part of who she is and what her personality will be.  I’ll let you all know.

So I will continue to write and new updates regarding “Greta Girl”.