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 May 2009

Sorry I haven’t been updating Greta’s blog, but things have been hectic here. But Miss Greta is back. It is spring time in upstate NY. We experience a few sunny warm days mixed with freeze warnings at night.

So today was in the upper 60’s and sunny. As I have mentioned before, Miss Greta does better in the cool to cold weather than she does in the warm. And today appeared to be a bit too warm for her. So with that said, I will stop posting and just show you pictures of Miss Greta, taken today. My husband and myself were working out in the yard and of course Miss Greta joined us. So here she is…..

 

…..And here is Miss Greta looking at her ball on the ‘other’ side of her invisible fence. It is a God sent. She will NOT cross it.

 

I hoped you enjoyed her pictures. Miss Greta is 2 1/2 years old now and is just a big puppy. Although she is a small shepherd. She only weighs about 70 lbs, if that. But she is in very good shape.

Well, until next time, be a responsible animal 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………….

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……………