Wednesday, November 16, 2011

nervous nervous

I live just outside a small town. A really small town. Population: Maybe 30. In the last seven years, there have been two homicides within walking distance from my house. In the last seven years, our house has been broken into twice, and it was me to find the place destroyed both times.

Lately, strings of robberies have been happening almost rapid fire around here. Our neighbors boat was stolen for scrap metal last night, and there have been a few houses broken into, even one today.

The other day when I was taking out trash, there was a green truck parked outside my house, at the corner of the property. Not only parked, shut off. The person turned the truck back on and left when I came out of the house.

I'm getting scared that I'm going to come home to a complete wreck. I even think about taking my laptop with me to work every day, just because it's a really expensive Mac and so much of my life revolves around it.

I worry that I'll come home to find my barn stripped of metals or the puppy or the horse stolen or whatever.

The only plus side is that I have sporadic hours at work and could be home at any time. But I still worry.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Mom, I'm ITCHY!!

My poor little Helden-pup has been itching up a storm. I look him over and I can't find any fleas or flea poo. I treated him for fleas anyways, and treated the carpet with a spray and have been vacuuming like crazy, even got Greedy-cat a flea collar, for after she recovers from her surgery that she had three days ago.

So my attention is now turning to other possibilities that could be causing a skin reaction. My first thought is that he might have dust allergies, and the best way to deal with that is keeping the house meticulously clean. (And when you live in the country, and have a wood burning stove that constantly spits out ashes, that's basically impossible unless you do nothing but clean all day, every day.) And another possibility is that he may be allergic to the Sodium-laurel Sulfate in the puppy shampoo I used on him, so I ordered him an all natural, organic, hypo allergenic puppy soap on a natural pet store online.

I also thought that maybe he's allergic to corn or grain products in his dog food, because dogs don't naturally eat that sort of stuff, and they are known allergens in many dogs. I'm too poor to invest in Blue Buffalo, but I've found a comparable (and cheaper, costs about the same as Purina One, which I am feeding him now) chow called Taste of the Wild at Tractor Supply that I will switch him to.

I also want to switch Greedy to a grain free diet, and see if that helps control her vomiting.

As for Siaga, I brought home more hay from work and he started coughing again, so I completely immersed it in water yesterday, instead of spraying it down, and the water (though the hay did not seem dusty or moldy) was a rather murky green brown gray color. It was gross.

Heres to hoping that I solve my otherwise healthy pets problems, eh?

Saturday, November 12, 2011

He has a name!

Puppy is no longer "puppy" and is now named "Helden."

Helden is German for Hero. :)

Friday, November 11, 2011

No time!

With the time change, lack of sun, work, and splitting my time between training and keeping new puppy and taking care of Greedy the cat after her spay surgery, I have no time for riding now. It sucks.

On the plus side, I don't know that I've ever been happier. I have a healthy horse, healthy cats, puppy, a job a love, and much more.

November is the month of gratitude, and I am grateful.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Puppy pictures!






I am thinking Gabe for his name, I think it fits. Short for Gabriel. :)

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

PUPPY

Got the puppy, starting crate training, he's so adorable.

Very energetic, very happy.

No idea what to name him.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Waiting.

I hate waiting.

I'm waiting on the Humane Society to call me back. I really hope they let me adopt the puppy, he was so adorable and sweet and loving.

But I really hate waiting. I've stressed myself out so much that I've had a stomach/headache all day, only got a few hours of sleep and was wide awake and up at 3am. Yes, I really hate waiting. It makes me feel trapped and claustrophobic in time.

EDIT: I called the shelter twice today. The first time the lady said she'd have the main lady call me back, she never did. So I called back a few minutes ago and she said the main lady had left about an hour ago, but she sounded very upbeat and positive when she said the other lady really wanted to talk to me. Hoping!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

I don't understand

This morning I woke up an hour early (to compensate for the return to Standard time) and went to feed the horses and pick their paddocks before swinging home, changing my clothes, picking up my nephew, and hi'ing off to the Humane Society.

We returned home without a puppy. Why? It wasn't because they thought we couldn't afford it. It wasn't because they thought we were bad people or wouldn't take care of it. It wasn't because we had too many pets already.

It was because we don't have adequate yard fencing to keep an inside dog.

Wait, what?

Yup.

No fencing, no inside puppy. No puppy at all. I explained that we could line the horse paddock in the back yard if necessary (entirely possible) but that he would be an inside dog primarily and would be only outside on a leash when going for a walk or doing his business.

Dad was so upset he called them and asked why they would rather keep and euthanize a happy, energetic, sweet puppy rather than let him go to a good home that would take care of him and keep him in even better conditions than the shelter keeps them in? (Have you ever been in one? They stink. Like really bad. And the puppy needed a major bath, his coat was thick with grime and just yuck. It's not that it's a bad place, just that they can't keep them all in 100% entirely ideal conditions.)

He asked "Do we need a kennel to have an inside dog?" The lady he talked to on the phone said "No you don't need a kennel."

So I don't understand.

She's supposed to call back later or tomorrow to give us an answer, and if it's no, then I'm going to keep thinking that that little darling that sat on my foot with his head on my knee and his eyes staring into mine won't get a good home and will be put down because there isn't a better home for him.

I'm confused and upset and sad. This sucks.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

5 + 1 = 6 Pets

Mom has finally been talked into allowing us to get a puppy. I'm taking the adoption form to the Humane society tomorrow during their open house in hopes of getting one of two possible puppy options, both are Shepherd crosses, one is 10 w. and the other is 11 weeks.

I'm so super excited, I miss having Beauty around. I still look for her when I go outside, but I'm finally moving on and I'm ready to immerse myself in the world of dogdom again, only with a much better training base. :) (because I wasn't capable of doing serious dog training with a 1 and 1/2 year old husky mix when I was in 2nd grade.)

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Just stand still, won't you?

Yesterday's ride was not much of a ride, all about standing still and not going anywhere. We ended up going places, when he'd move off or I'd ask him to take a few steps and stop him again, sometimes he would want to move off again as soon as I had stopped his feet (especially going in the direction of grass) And I would shut him down with a one rein stop and flex him to both sides.

With his flexing from the riding, he's got more flex to the left, and makes it a point to touch my shin with his teeth, as if to say Yeah, lady, you're teaching me how to bend right around and nab you a good one. He did hit that spot on my shin that is still recovering from my big fall several months ago, felt like he had touched me with a fire brand. To the right, he is not as giving, and wants to fight it sometimes, and I have to lean forwards and hold my hand behind his elbow and tell him to touch my hand, sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't and he just goes around in circles and shakes his head and backs up and suchforth. He's better on the right than the left from the ground, however, which is interesting to note. He also likes to stay flexed after I've flexed him, an ok problem to have, as Clinton Anderson would say.

In the mean time, I'm considering changing his stall over to a no-bedding sort of deal. Even wood shavings are getting too dusty for the poor boy. I also tried a bale of hay from the stable, that none of the horses there seem to have a problem with, but even though it's not as dusty, so that I didn't hose it,after less than a full day of feeding it to him, his cough got about 5 times worse, to where he was coughing with no exercise, instead of after 45 minutes of work instead.

He also got his flu vaccine, which he took well. :)