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!!

August 2009 In Upstate NY

Well here we are in Upstate NY in August. One would think that it should be hot here, but that is not the case. It has rained practically all summer long.  Which is very discouraging to all of us since we wait all year to have our cookouts, our gardens and summer clothes.

Our tomato plants rotted out. Including some of our flowers. Today it is cloudy and only in the 70’s, with a high humidity and thunder storms are forecast for later today. Of course!

Miss. Greta is doing just fine. I’m sure she appreciates the cooler days as she does not do well in the heat. She still uses her pool when she is outside. And she still is on the Eagle Pack diet. Miss Greta continues with her bad behavior when people come to visit. We put her in her crate until our company is settled, then let her out. She get crazy for about 2 minutes then she settles down.

Ticks have not been a major problem for us so far this year. We have pulled out about 4 so far. We have bird feeders and Miss Greta love chasing them. She also loves chasing the squirrels and chipmunks. Speaking of chipmunks, we have many. There are holes everywhere. So we invested in a cage to catch them in. When we catch them, we drive them about a mile from our house and release them in the woods. We have caught 2 so far and are working on the third.

I took a video of Miss Greta today on my new Flip Video Camcorder. I love it. It is no bigger than my cell phone and I highly recommend it to everyone. So with that said, here is her new video:

Hope you enjoyed Miss Greta’s little video. Next time I will take a little video of Ren, our chihuahua. Yes he is still with us. He will be 14 years old. Considering his age, he is doing pretty well. He sleeps quite a bit and is a bit deaf. But all and all, he’s doing fine.

Well, until next time, enjoy the rest of your summer and be a responsible pet owner.:)

Miss Greta is 2 years old!

Hi! And glad you came to visit Miss Greta!
First, here are some pictures of Miss Greta at 2 years old:

Ok, so there you have it. Our very own Miss Greta at 2 years old. Greta is her same old self, but has grown up some. Although she is still very much a puppy yet and thinks the world revolves around her, we have been getting her to listen a bit more. Well actually it is “I” that tries playing the more authoritive role. My husband is just a big mush. Greta thinks that my husband is her play toy and my husband doesn’t do too much to discourage that. So when the house is left to just Greta and myself, we practise commands that she responds to quite well.

I use to have a difficult time getting her back in the house in the morning before I went to work, but now I just clap my hands, say “good girl” and she comes right in. And no treat needed either. She will sit for me and lay down on command. But she will just do that with me.

The invisible fence is still a blessing. She knows her boundries and does not go over them or even near them to give her the correction. When we put her correction collar on, she gets very excited and she knows it is then time to go outside.

We still feed her Eagle Pack Dog food, mixed with ground beef or turkey twice a day with her daily dose of ShedX which keeps the shedding down and her coat shinny and beautiful.

She still loves her crate. We just bought her a new bed for her crate and she loves it. It is very thick and soft compared to the one she had before. She can scense when we get ready to go to bed at night as she will head right for her crate. Of course during the summer, with the humidity, we would have our a/c on to keep the house cool. But we would also have a fan in the room she sleeps in to keep her even cooler. (aren’t we just pathetic?) Only in America, huh?

We also give her the beef soup bones that we get from our butcher. She loves them and it occupies her for a long time.

She is still very protective of small children. When our grandchildren or our friend’s smaller children come over, she becomes very very protective of them. And of course she goes into her hearding mode and is at their feet constantly. But then again, that is her job.

Miss Greta is still overly friendly when people first arrive. Still embarassing of course. So we keep her outside or in her crate until everyone comes in and gets settled. Miss Greta seems to be able to handle that better. And so do our guests of course.

We still have Ren, our little Chiahuahua. He is still hanging in there. Mr. Ren can’t hear too well anymore and walks with a limp. His back leg is arthritic. And yes, we still keep the two of them apart by a gate. The do visit one another at the gate wagging their tails and smelling each other. But we don’t dare put the two of them together. Miss Greta would be way to much for the little guy.

We are in the most beautiful time of the year in upstate NY. It is fall and the leaves are magnificient. The smell in the air is crisp and clean while making way for the winter. Miss Greta does much better in the cooler weather. During the hot humid days of the summer, she would play for a bit outside and then actually go to the door letting us know she wanted inside. She would lay in her pool outside, but I guess it wasn’t quite enough. But now until next June, this will be her time.

So until the next time, be a responsible pet owner and love your animals and treat them with respect.

And with this being a presidential election year, get out there and vote! For the man you think will do the best job for you. Remember, WE employ them, so check out their resume very closely before you “hire” them for the next 4 long years. And then let’s say a prayer that we pulled the right lever!

Till next time………….

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.

Springtime In Upstate NY With Miss. Greta & Ren

It is the middle of April in upstate NY. The days are reaching the mid 70’s and there is plenty of sunshine. The trees are starting to bud and the spring bulbs are peaking through the heated ground. Everyone is busy raking and getting flower and vegetable gardens ready for our “breath of freshair”. After being in our homes for almost 1/2 year it is truly like a re-birth.

So with that said, I will start my Greta update with her counterpart, Mr. Ren the Chihuahua! Here are some pictures of Ren while he has his short burst of energy:

Ren does get bursts of play time ‘maybe’ once a day. It lasts only for about 5 minutes…then he’s off to the water dish for a drink and back to sleep. He’s old now with a little arthritis in his back legs and a bit hard of hearing. But all in all…he’s a trooper. He weighs about 9lbs, which is actually larger than most chihuahuas. This particular breed has been mixed with a terrier blood line for disposition. Ren is very obedient and an all around good dog. ONLY PROBLEM…Ya just can’t potty train them. If we take him outside, he will do his duty. But if WE don’t take him out, he goes on the bathroom floor. So it is really US that is trained.

Due to their short hair, they don’t tolerate cold very well. So if you see people with a chihuahua with a sweater on and it’s cold out…the sweater is a must. They also burrough under blankets and even my clothes that I am wearing to get warm. Sometimes you will also notice them sleeping with their nose between their 2 front paws. That is so their warm breath is felt on their face. They obviously love the heat and it is very well tolerated during our summer months.

Now Miss. Greta on the other hand does excellent in the winter months. She tolerates the cold very well. The summer’s are killers for her. It is only springtime here and only in the mid 70’s and Greta is panting continuously. Today we had to take her pool out so she could cool down. Here are some pictures of her from today while we were outside ‘putting winter away and taking summer out’! 🙂

Miss. Greta just loves it outside. She has her favorite outside toys. Miss Greta is relentless when it comes to her toys. She is truly obsessive compulsive. We hardly get any work done outside. She is at us continuously to throw her toys so she can run after them. But when we notice her panting too hard, we just have to ignore her and stop playing with her. It doesn’t stop her from pestering us, but we do not interact with her.

We still love the invisable fence. It is truly a God sent. We put Greta’s collar on her everytime we go outside. It gives us a piece of mind. She knows the boundries and does NOT go but a few inches before she reaches them. We have had people with dogs walk by our home and she will sit there and bark but NEVER crosses that line.

Miss. Greta is really shedding pretty good right now. She isn’t actually blowing coat, but there is hair everywhere. We brush her just about every other day but the fur just keeps coming. And it’s not even really HOT here.

We still feed her Eagle Pack with cooked ground meat and eggs twice/day. She still sleeps in her crate at night and also if we are not home. Miss. Greta is still relentless when people come to visit. We’ve given in to the fact that she will always be that way. I guess we just aren’t very good ‘parents’.

Miss Greta’s new thing is when I take a shower. We have sliding glass shower doors on our bathtub. So when I get in the shower in the morning, she nicely slides these doors open, with her nose, just enough to get one of her toys through and drops them into the shower. Then I have to get it and throw it out through the shower doors and out the bathroom door so she can try to catch it. I can’t help but laugh at her during this entire process. So what use to be a 10 minute shower, turns into a 30 minute one.

Well, that’s what’s new with Miss. Greta and Ren for now. I will be back with new updates………..

A Miss Greta Update

Well, here we are in upstate New York and just waiting for Spring to arrive. There is still little snow on the ground. But due to the rain, it is very muddy to say the least. This makes for a messy outdoor run with Miss Greta. There are only certain parts of our back yard that is yet solidly saturated with mud. So we try to pick the areas she can romp on. And that is a difficult task.

Greta is still Greta. She is still just one big puppy with a lot of energy and lovable personality.  Here she is with a “new” toy. It is a squeeky fish that is also made out of that canvas like material. One of the only ones she can’t chew threw.

We also use to have two bowls for her. One for her water and one for her food. They were both kept on the kitchen floor. We found that it was becoming difficult for her to eat as she grew larger. She would actually pick the food up with her mouth and then lift her head to chew and swallow. So we ordered this from Foster and Smith which has made a great difference in her eating. Both bowls are made of a heavy ceramic which is much easier to clean. She is much more comfortable eating now.

Now even though we have both a food bowl and a water bowl for her, she still prefers the good old toilet for fresh cold water!

Now isn’t that a sight? 🙂

Miss Greta is still very playful and still just loves her toys. She would play fetch ALL DAY if only we had the stamina to do it.

Miss Greta still sleeps in her crate at night and loves it. We are sure that she would be fine out of the crate at night while we sleep. But she prefers her crate. We still feed her Eagle Pack with gound cooked meat and 2 scrambled eggs. We continue to mix a teaspoon of Shed-X in her food which keeps her coat beautiful and cuts down on her shedding.  Anyone who owns an animal can certainly relate to that! When they start shedding, my vacuum cleaner is never put away.

My husband continues to take her for walks which she totally enjoys. But one thing we find is that she NEVER gets tired.

She is still a maniac when people come over. She cries, whines, barks and jumps all over everyone. We are still waiting for that to get better. IF EVER! Miss Greta still loves to chase the birds at our bird feeders and chase the squirles and rabits. She never catches them and we don’t know if it is because she is just not fast enough, which we find hard to believe. Or if she just does it for the fun of the chase.

We still don’t put her and Ren, the chahuahua together. I know I have said before that I would take some pictures of Ren and post them. But Ren isn’t quite as animated as Miss Greta is. Pictures of Ren would mostly be of him sleeping. That’s about all the poor guy does. He does engage in some playtime, but it only lasts about 2 minutes. Then Ren is back to his little bed or on your lap for a rest.

Well that is my update for now. We will be back………..

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 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……………