Scare

Yesterday I had a bit of a scare with Grace.

Now, I have had my share of doggie injuries and ailments, that I have treated at home successfully. But, yesterday was something else, and I felt a little overwhelmed. Blame it on being pregnant, hubby not being home, whatever, but I ended up taking Grace to the E-vet. Luckily, my brother is staying with me during his spring break, so at least I wasn't freaking out alone!

So, rewind. Yesterday afternoon, my brother and I were outside hanging up a bird feeder and the pups were out in the yard with us. We were outside for about 15 minutes, cleaned up and we all came inside. Then, my brother went in his room and continued playing his computer game, with me sitting on the floor talking to him, with Grace beside me. She then started in incessantly licking her "girly parts" and I am thinking she must have a yeast infection or something. I try to keep her from licking herself, but she was insistent on it, even started itching the area. I looks closer and it's red and a bit more swollen then usual...

Then I looked at her in the eyes and on one of her eye lids/eye brow area I noticed and small raised bump. "Humm that's new" I think. I touch it and examine her, nothing stands out too odd, except the licking. Things escalated quickly after that...

From the time we came inside to this point, maybe 20 minutes, give or take, had gone by, and I am starting to notice the spot on her eye has gotten bigger and I am thinking her lips look swollen. She is also starting to itch everywhere. So I got up to the kitchen to find some Benadryl, thinking "ok she must have gotten stung or bit by something", unfortunately there was none to be found, and Grace's face, eyes, and snout are clearing swelling at this point and she is starting to itch anything and everything she can.

My brother and I load her up in the car and head to the Walgreens around the corner, where I run in like a crazy prego lady and buy the medicine and run back to the car. Her eyes and lips are so swollen, her eyes looked like she could bearly open them and she was developing hives. Not to mention she is going crazy in the back seat rolling around and itching. I shove 2 pills down her and we head home.

I only waited about 15 minutes, before I called the E-vets number because she was so uncomfortable; pacing, whining, painting, swelling, hives and it was starting to scare me. I started thinking the worse, like her airway was compromised, or she was going into anaphylactic shock.

We made it to the E-vet, and she was less itchy, but still swollen. (I only had one crying breakdown on the way and I blame it on the pregnancy hormones) They took her back and gave her a "Benadryl like" shot and a steroid shot, observed her for about 20 mins, and brought her back to me.

Left is her normally, the right was her face after the swelling started to go down. (She was wet in the right picture, because I wiped her face down with a wet rag)

She was still a little swollen in the face, but seemed much better and they doctor explained that she most likely did get bit/stung by something and Grace is just very very allergic. In the future, if she is stung again, I now know this and won't be as freaked out. I can just give her the medicine, try and keep her calm and watch for any warning signs of distress.

We got home and the pups and I cuddled on the floor, Grace passed out asleep, we watched a movie, all while it started to pour rain outside. What a way to end a Saturday!

This morning, she is much better, just some minor bottom lip puffiness, but mostly back to her normal self!

CGCA

We have been in a lull lately, not really doing much besides our usual everyday stuff. Work seems to be consuming all my time and I hate it. Not to mention, today is the second time in 2 weeks I have some kind of stomach bug. So I took off work but all I get to do is sit here and recover.

Luckily, for me, for the next couple weeks I get to do something with the pups. Our training facility is offering the AKC Community Canine test and since Riley and Grace both have their CGC, I would like to do this with them. The only catch is, it is a long while in between classes/test, so I am attempting to practice in class and take the test with both dogs together.

This past Saturday was our first practice class. It was a bit of a juggle at first, figuring out how I was going to practice with both. First, I tried switching them back and forth, one in the kennel, then switch. But that was too much of a hassle. Second, I had my friend, who works there, who was watching the class, hold one dog while I worked, and she could practice with the one she had. But she eventually had to go answer the phone.

What ended up working the best, was me working both Riley and Grace at the same time. I do it at home all the time. I guess I thought class would be different, I don't know. Grace knows the drill, we practice most of what the test requires weekly, in and out of class, and she tends to be more of a quite personality (most the time haha). Riley, is the more of the squirmy, social butterfly type, so it take a bit more work with him. He can do it all, it just take a bit more reminding.

I think our first class went really well and I look forward to the others!

We have two more practice classes then the test. I have no doubt Grace will pass and Riley I have high hopes for, with practice.

Pink or Blue?

Grace and Riley helped us once again to make a special announcement!

Baby Savoie is a BOY!

It was a bit of a task getting the paw prints on the shirt, considering I knew we only had one chance to attempt it and I had only one old white shirt. I think we managed pretty well!

Grace is for the most part the more compliant one and had no questions on why we were asking her to put her paws in paint. Riley on the other hand, was wondering what in the hell we were doing! As a result her prints turned out way better then Riley's, his turned out more like a blob.

In the end we got some priceless pictures and a great gender announcement!

Somehow in the protest, Riley got a little paint on his face.

Belated Gotcha Days!

We hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! Ours was pretty low key, staying home and going to bed before 10:00pm, but that's the way we wanted it.

With the start of this new year, we begin with celebrating Grace's 3rd Gotcha Day! 1/8/11 we welcomed this wonderful dog into our family and I love every minute she has been with us.

Not to take away from Grace's limelight, but, can it really be 5 years?! Riley's Gotcha Day was 11/3/08! We celebrated his 5th Gotcha Day! I do not feel as if it has been that long, time truly flies by.

I haven't officially celebrated their Gotcha Days, as it has been a little busy around here, but I will do something special for them soon and I will make sure to share it with you. I will leave you with a short video of my spotted duo :) Grace was trying ever so subtly to get Riley to play with her.

Here's to many more Gotcha Days for my spotted duo! LOVE THESE DOGS!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Just a picture of my boy, Riley. I just love his ember eyes!

I have taken a step back, and realized how blessed I am and I don't want to miss a thing, even the little stuff. This is most likely my last post until the new year, as we will be busy celebrating with family, so I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and New year!

I will leave you with this outtake from trying to take Christmas pictures of the pups, enjoy!

Riley and Grace have something to share.

I hope y'all forgive my lack of blogging, but we have been a little preoccupied as of lately and Riley and Grace will tell you why!

That's right! We are pregnant and Riley and Grace are becoming a big brother and sister!

Between, not feeling very well, exhaustion, work and daily life, I hadn't had time to sit and blog. I want/need to make a little time each week to write something down. Not only is this a blog, it in a way is journal of our life and I need to make a better effort to write something... anything. I want to be able to look back and see where we went and what we did.

So my personal promise, which will benefit my fellow bloggers as well :), is to write more! I guess in a way I am making my New Years resolution!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Grace Update

Yesterday I took Grace to the vet for her limp. And in true doggie fashion, by the time we arrived, Grace had stopped limping. The vet examined her leg, moving it in every direction, this way and that, Grace didn't react to any of it and everything was moving properly. So, good news is that nothing is broken or jammed, and the vet thinks it is just badly bruised.

Yesterday afternoon and most today, Grace was walking much better, only a slight limp. To my disappointment, this evening she started limping bad again. I am thinking (hoping) her paw just gets sore towards the end of the day. I iced it again and am keeping her activities limited.

I will keep y'all updated on her progress.

Limp

When you come home to your dog limping and there are no signs of trauma or disruptions in the house, can be very frustrating and mind boggling. All I can think is, how in the heck did you do this to yourself? I almost feel like a detective, walking around the house looking for clues, any hint of what she did. My search has found nothing...

The dog in question is sweet Grace. Poor girl. Although, she seems just about unphased by her hurt paw, "trying" to get the zoomies and play with Riley. I say "trying" because I wouldn't let her and she seemed so confused on why, but I think she forgave me when I gave her extra cuddles.

I poked, prodded, squeezed, pulled and examined her shoulder, leg and paw and found no signs of discomfort other then the limping, but I think the limping is being caused by something with her toe(s), because when she stretches, she won't extend her right toes... I went ahead and iced her leg last night and as of later this morning, she is putting weight on it off and on, but still favoring it. We have an appointment to see the vet this afternoon and hopefully it is just a sprain and we get sent home with nothing more then an anti-inflammatory.

Being such a good girl and icing her leg.

Labor day 2013

How the pups are spending their labor day weekend! Lazy, lazy, lazy! But that is ok, as long as they are cute doing it.

There also may or may not be some bully sticks involved later.

Wordless Wednesday

Black and White Sunday 8/18

Sky high view from on trip to San Antonio

Black and White Sunday

Poor sheep never had a chance.

Summer time treat

We have had a watermelon sitting on our kitchen counter for weeks now. Originally, we were going to eat it for July 4th,  and I had the best intention of cutting it up into fun star shapes and everything, but that never happened. So, it has just sat there... day in and day out and I just didn't want to throw it away. So, the dogs got a yummy summer time treat!

Riley didn't really care for it. He would lick it and then wonder off, and come back, back and forth. I believe the only reason he kept coming back was because Grace was so into it!

Watermelon; best when eaten with whole face is shoved in.

Grace was going bonkers for the watermelon! She would have eaten the whole thing if I'd let her!

Grace showing off her watermelon beard.

At least someone enjoyed the watermelon! The rest is back in the refrigerator for future doggie eats.

Back from a blogging break

Hey all! I am back! Sorry about the lack of posts, but I needed a break. Life had gotten pretty busy and stressful, and something had to take a break, and unfortunately it couldn't be life. I needed to take a step back and slow down.



Right now, I am stuck in the house, as I just got my wisdom teeth taken out. Riley and Grace have taken their cuddling jobs very serious! My husband has also done a very good job taking care of me, providing me with ice packs and ice cream. Since I am now on day 3 of recovery, I am a bit more functional and I figured now would be a good time to get back on the blogging band wagon. So here we go!

Although, we will see how coherent my train of thoughts are, as I am on a few different medicines!

* * *

Not too much has been going on dog-wise. I have continued going to our agility and obedience classes but haven't been competing, although I hope to change that soon. Riley is doing very well in agility class, he is listening more and more to my directions. Along with Riley learning to listen to me, I am learning to listen to Riley. I am learning he likes for me to do front crosses and he's not a big fan of rears. Also we have been practicing weaves and he is doing 12 poles dependently! We had a little set back a few weeks ago, when he went through the weaves and got caught up, and kind of hit his shoulder pretty hard. After that he was a bit hesitant. We had to go back to basics for a few days, to get his confidence back up and now he is back to normal weaving self, which is what I am most happy about!

Grace is doing very well in our obedience class. Half the time I am helping assist our trainer with the newbies in class, so this gives me and Grace a perfect chance to practice her down stays with major distractions. I am going to be working hard on her heeling, as I would like to earn her RE title. Her heeling is pretty good, but I would it a bit more focused/crisp.

The above picture is of Grace and her look-a-like Rocky. I have watched Rocky and his owner progress over the past couple months and they have come a long way together. Rocky was a rescue from a bad background,  on day 1, he was extremely leash reactive and had no focus, in the picture above, was his first day of Intermediate class, after graduating Basic. His owner was so giddy on how far he has come, not only staying in a down stay (his weakness) but doing it so close to another dog. It makes me happy to see the relationships between an owner and their dog blossom.

* * *

My husband and I have also been working a lot on our house. For one, we had to get a new AC unit, unfortunately, but we knew it was coming. We have also been doing some updating to the inside. First, was our half bathroom, it took us about 3 weekends to finish but it is a %100 improvement and we love it! Although not everything went smoothly during the renovation, it all turned out good in the end.

Another improvement we did, which went much much smoother then any of our other projects, was replacing our kitchen sink faucet.

We have also finished (finally) our patio! It was a bit of a fiasco ordering our patio furniture but in the end, it came and we LOVE it! This has been one of our longest and most involved projects, about a year in the making, but in the end it is exactly what we wanted and we use it when ever we can.

Got to have a picture with the dogs!

My husband also got the grill he's been eyeing for a long time now, The Big Green Egg, and we have been grilling when ever we can. He even built a custom table/cart for it.

Cooking our first meal on the grill.

* * *

Last but not least, we had family and friends over for the 4th of July. Riley and Grace got to spend some time with a little human friend, our God-son! They do so good with him and his antic, it makes me happy for the day when we have our own little one running around.

And to end my rather lengthy and random blog post, here are some pictures I took of Riley and Grace in honor of July 4th. Thanks for reading or even skimming (I don't blame ya) over my post. I plan on posting more, now that life seems to have calmed down a bit, or maybe I've learned to handle it better.

Spring time projects

 A rare non-dog post! Gasp!

(kinda)

Since we've moved to our new house, a little over a year a go, we've been putting most out focus on the neglected backyard. This weekend, we took on the area under the pergola, it was mud, weeds and ants. We decided to dig out the area and replace it with sand and rocks, with the goal to have it cleaner and easier to maintain (weeds/ants).

Hubby digging out the area.

Of course Riley had to help. He thought the weed fabric was the best thing ever and absolutely needed laying on. It helped, by keeping it from flying away from the wind, but it wasn't in the right spot. Grace was too busy hunting for lizards during this project, she missed out... Or maybe Riley missed out on lizard hunting... who knows.

Finished product!!! Great weekend project!

Here are some before/after pictures of our project area. The only thing left we have left to do is plant some hostas/shade plants in the flower bed area next to the house (under the windows to the left, you can't see too well), potted plants, patio furniture and a grill.