Lazy weekend...for the Dogs

Scott spent most of the weekend working on the patio extension. It's almost finished! This will give us more room to entertain. And we won't feel so cramped.

This is the old one.


And this is the extension.


We (Ha Ha...We, like I do any work!) still need to lay the paver stones but for right now, the Dogs are enjoying their very own sand pit. Orson has one of these...but his is staying!


Lola and her dang tennis balls. Boxers aren't known for being ball obsessed, are they????

Then she napped in the shade.

Penny could care less...it was a beautiful weekend and she worked on her tan.

Sherman dug up new spots to cool off. He's the smart one.

I took his stitches out and once the hair grows out, you'll never know he'd beaten up by a girl! The pink stitches were humiliating.

"I'm still tuff..."

Baby pics of the one & only Diva Dog..ME!

"Hey Everypup (and GirlGirl).

That sweet little Suki asked us to all post some baby pics and as my brother & sister lost theirs, Mom said I could send you all some pics of ME! PD (pre-diva). So here ya go!!!!

Here I am at 2 weeks old...just 8 days after I met my Mom for the first time. See how my jowls are coming along. My dot isn't quite formed and my head looks kinda like an egg, but I'm pretty darn cute! Well on my way to being a Diva.

This is the day Mom & Dad came to pick me up. My brothers were very lazy but I was ready to go....see ya later suckas!

I did kiss my brother goodbye. I wanted him to come & live with me but he was going to the Big Apple.

Yes, I loved my big sister Penny right from the start. She's no Diva, but she's my bestest friend in the whole wide world.

This is the second night at my new house with my Uncle DJ. Isn't he handsome? He's very nice to me and let me sleep on him for a looooong time.

I loved my Daddy right from the very beginning. Aren't all Divas daddy's girls???? I still like to sit in his lap.

This was my first day of puppy school. Look at how smart I am! Beauty AND brains...us Divas are VERY smart.

I still run with Penny like this....'cept now I'm much bigger & faster.

My brother Sherman pretends like he hates me...but that's just an act. He knows you're never supposed to bother a Diva. He gives me lots of space.

We love baby pics! So if any of you have some to share, we would LOVE it. Sherman & Penny wanted me to tell yinz guys that they don't have any & our Mom didn't have a good camera when they came home. But if you have any Gotcha pics (when you came to live with your family), we'd love to see those too. Mom's gonna try & dig up some fun ones of S & P!

Review of the Spot Bot

First, thank you all again for caring about our little Princess and sending her lot of healing thoughts. She's definitely on the mend and although she's still a bit "loose", she's back to her normal peppy self and hasn't vomited since Tuesday night. She's enjoying a bland diet of yogurt, canned pumpkin and boiled buffalo meat. (I got a great deal on organic, free range ground buffalo. It was supposed to be mainly for us, well Scott actually (I don't do weird meat), but he didn't like it. The Dogs are thrilled about that. 10 lbs of buffalo all for them. Spoiled beasts!) By the weekend she should be as good as new.

"And I don't look like a Camel any more!"


On to the Spot Bot.

When I told Sherman about it he got very excited. "You brought me DOT SPOT??? Thank you Mom!!!"

Sorry buddy...not Dot Spot, Spot Bot (you see how he could be confused).

The Spot Bot is a compact deep carpet cleaner. I used to have a Little Green. The first day I used it I broke the little hand attachment and had to duct tape it together. It never really worked right & it got really funky & stunk. So I just threw it away.

But I wanted something else to spot clean the carpet because 3 dogs & a very clumsy Jenny make a very dirty carpet. So I got this:

It's way cooler than the Little Green. You just fill the tank with solution, put that little circular thing over the stain & turn it on. 3 minutes later...Voila! Spot gone. I got a chance this week to try it out on fresh pet stains and it works beautifully. I used it on the muddy paw prints and it was great. And I used it on an old stain of unknown origin that I have scrubbed & scrubbed with Nature's Miracle and couldn't get out. 3 minutes and the stain was gone. I used the hand attachment on smaller stains & was pretty happy.

My only complaint is that it cleans a little too well. The carpet in our living room is old & very well used. It's the highest traffic area in the house & we steam clean the whole thing a couple times a year. Using it on that carpet created very clean little circles that stand out like a sore thumb. But if that's my only problem...so be it.

Update on Penny

The Bad News

She was sick all night. From both ends. A few times I woke up to let her out, a few times I didn't hear her :o(. So I basically spent most of the night playing with the new Spot Bot.

The Good News

I took her to the Vet today & they don't think there is anything too seriously wrong with her. She was really dehydrated and they gave her a bunch of subcutaneous fluid. It made her look like a camel! And on the walk home, it all settled onto her left side. Hard to tell from these pics, but she's very swollen.



She's supposed to rest tonight & have nothing but water. If she doesn't vomit again by morning, she can have some boiled chicken (or in our case, buffalo) and rice. Then she goes on Flaygl for a few days & we hope to have her good as new.

So thanks to everypup who sent good vibes for Penny. They've WORKED!!!

I feel icky!!!

Penny was having some digestive issues this afternoon. I discovered the evidence tonight when I came home from work. She also had some issues on our walk and I chalked it up to the salmon she had for breakfast.

As soon as we got back from our walk, she vomited all over the front door. She then vomited a huge amount of water about 1/2 hour later.

Gave me a chance to try out my newest toy (which I'll review at a later date).


She's been pretty much laying around moping all night and has been kind of clingy. I'm hoping & praying this is just a bug and not something more serious. She's going to the Vet in the morning if she's not any better or if she gets sick again overnight.



"No more pictures...I feel ICKY!"


I hate to ask for more good vibes again so soon, but if yinz guys could send us some, Penny would be very thankful (as would I!)

It's growing!!!!!

The hole in the yard is getting bigger!!! It's a perfect spot for Lola to chase her balls around.

And the dirt pile is expanding too. Great for digging...

And keeping watch over the yard.

"Alright squirrels...just try to sneak into the yard on my watch."

The road to recovery

Thank you to all of our good DWB buddies for all of the good thoughts & vibes! We are so lucky to have such a great group of folks looking out for us.

Sherman is doing a lot better. He looks ridiculous (I've been calling him Cyclops), but his wound is healing nicely. I've found 2 or 3 more spots on his head where what I thought was dried blood, has scabbed up.

But he's back to his old cheery self...at least with me.

Penny's leg is fine. She was limping a lot on Friday & but after a dose of pain meds, she was running around the yard on Saturday morning. The tooth holes have closed and are just little scabs now. Today is the first day she's acting normal around me. She's been very standoffish.

Sherman & Penny didn't acknowledge each other for 36 hours. They are now tolerating one another, although he growls at her anytime she approaches me. Not to worry, he's not getting away with that. I get up & move and ignore him when he starts...that's the crap that got him in trouble in the first place.

They have never been good buddies. They fought constantly for the first 6 months and at least once a month for another 6 months. They got to the point where they tolerate each other. And we had no fights for at least 2 years. Sherman's always been the instigator...Penny puts up with a lot. Usually it's over food (Kongs, bullies, marrow bones, dropped cookies) & Sherman is a real PITA. But when she decides enough is enough...she does not back down. It was a pretty even match before and usually ended without any bloodshed. But he's getting older, and slower and more grouchy and he can't back up what he could before.

So, in this case, he started a fight he couldn't finish. This was not Penny's fault...she was defending herself. And he just won't get into his stubborn little head that she's not gonna be the first to wave the white flag...ever. Hopefully, he'll figure it out soon!

Thank you again to everyone for all of the support! It means more than you know!

Friday night in Pittsburgh

It started out as a gorgeous Friday night in da 'burgh. So it was a bit on the warm side...I like it hot & muggy (typical Pittsburgh summer weather).

Lola was chasing her big blue tennis ball...

Sherman was digging up new cool spots to lay in...

Penny was chasing squirrels up the big Oak tree...

And the old folks rested when they got too hot.

(WARNING: Graphic pictures ahead. No joke.)

Scott & I were shooting the breeze on the patio, talking about work, enjoying a few end-of-the-week libations...

Penny & Lola were flying through the yard having a grand old time. Sherman was resting peacefully beside Scott. Penny flew onto the patio for cover and bumped Sherman at the same time Lola flung herself at Penny.

Sherman jumped up in a rage & went after Penny. Penny fought right back, with more force than Sherman could muster. Scott jumped up & tried to break it up (they were right behind him). I always do everything wrong in a fight (jump in & try to break it up by grabbing collars). I tried to get to Penny when she grabbed Sherman's head, locked on...and shook. Hard.

Back to my old habits, I reached for their collars. Scott had Penny & I tried to move Sherman out of the way, but then she broke his grasp & went after him again. I grabbed the loop on her martingale and lifted up. Her front feet were off the ground & she was still trying to get to Sherman. Penny is not a dog that will give up, ever. She never has been. She had a slight moment of clarity & looked at me dead on. I told her to get inside & marched her into the bathroom to check her out.

She had 2 big puncture wounds on her legs. She had bitten her tongue & blood was coming out of her mouth. I took her upstairs & cleaned her wounds and gave her ice cubes to lick. (I should mention that Lola was with Penny the whole time. She never tried to jump in to save her & never was part of the fight, but Penny is clearly her priority & Lola never left her side till bedtime.)

I went down to check on Sherman & asked Scott how he was. "He's suffered the worst of it, but he should be OK." I took him into the bathroom where the light was better to check him over. He had 2 puncture wounds, on either side of his mouth that were bleeding. He was licking at nothing & I thought he might be going into shock (I watch WAY too much Emergency Vet Interns!). He also had a dime sized hole, right between his eyes. I pushed the hair away & saw that it was very deep & you could see his skull. Hmmm. Is my Vet closed????

I am so lucky that my Vet is 1/2 a block from my house! They were open & know (and love) Sherman well. I told them what happened and they told me to bring him right back to be seen.

My little Bubba was so brave. They shaved the spot in between his eyes & both sides of his face. He didn't make a peep. They asked us to leave the exam room while they gave him a local anesthetic and stitched up his wound. We heard him squeal the whole time....broke my heart. But he suffered through like a champ & didn't complain about the pink stitches he received.

These are pics after his stitches! We're calling him Franken-Sherman (yes Tucker...we stole that from you!)

Don't show these pictures to Dot! Puh-lease??? She cannot see me like this!

And poor Penny's leg...she's not putting any weight on it and is taking antibiotics too.

She's very pissed at us & basically spent the night like this...ignoring her people. We did, after all...take Sherman to the Vet.

Oh, & let's not forget Scotty's wound breaking up the fight. Massive, huh?

1, 2, 3....Waaaaahhhhh!

Lola is just very confused & preferred the comfort of my lap.

If all of our blogging buddies could send us some positve thoughts, healing prayers and/or some optimstic outlooks...we'd really appreciate it!! We'll take all we can get here on Jackman Ave!

My new cameras

So I mentioned a while back that I needed to get a new camera. My old one was a Kodak EasyShare. It's completely idiot proof and being that I'm a techno-idiot, I love it. But it's pretty basic, has no zoom, no sound on videos, amazingly slow shutter speed.

I failed to mention that I had already bought a new camera but had yet to use it. It's actually a really nice one, a Canon PowerShot S2 IS.

But it's SO out of my league! It has so many bells & whistles that I have no idea what to do with and I'm so inimidated by the stupid thing, I haven't used it at all!! And it's huge!


Sooooo, I went out & bought an Canon Elph, which is so much more user friendly. And little.



My plan was to sell the Big Powershot on Ebay, but then I started playing around with it this weekend & it's actually not as bad as I thought. The pictures are great and maybe I'll take a photography class or something.


So now I have my fun little camera & my big obnoxious camera.

I was playing around with the b.o. camera this weekend...taking pictures of the dogs on the front deck...fiddling with the zoom & the various settings. The pictures turned out OK.

And I shot some video. Here's what I learned in doing that:
1. You can take a picture while filming video!
2. Pressing the shutter button does not stop the video from shooting.
3. I sound like an elephant when I walk up stairs.
4. I always sound ridiculious when talking to my dogs...not just when I think I'm making a movie.
5. Sherman pooped in the yard (he very rarely does that!).
6. I talk to myself.

Anything I missed?