the doxies
September 4, 2008
pretty flowers and why Max is a nitwit
The kids and their mom sent me these lovely flowers yesterday to cheer me up on my first day back at work. When the florist rang the doorbell, the dogs went flying down to the door, barking madly to let me know that SOMEONE WAS THERE, and, as usual, I shut them in the landry room so I could answer the door without them dancing around my ankles, trying to escape. After signing for the flowers, I opened the door to let them out of the laundry room. Jordan came bolting out like his tail was on fire, in a hurry to get back to the front door to see who had been there. Maddy came cautiously creeping around the door like she was afraid of it. Max, well, Max was behind the door looking at me through the crack, and she didn't seem to realize that she could back up and go around the door. After a few minutes of calling her with no result other than more tail wagging, I gave up and went into the laundry room to show her that she could get out on her own.
Posted by oracle at 8:42 AM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2008
lots of looking
When I'm not doing homework or laundry or taking out the trash (or playing Webkinz), I am either snuggling with my puppies or taking pictures of them. Sometimes I do both at the same time.
Maddy looking at Jordan looking at me:
Posted by oracle at 7:41 AM | Comments (0)
July 2, 2008
puppies and lip gloss and concerts, oh my!
I took the puppies to the vet for their annual check-up on Monday. All the tests came back negative, and Max has lost three pounds! I knew she'd lost weight because she's visibly slimmer (she has a trim little waist again!), but it's nice to know exactly how much weight she's lost. She weighs 11.10 pounds now, Jordan weighs 10.8, and Maddy weighs 9.15, all well in the range of where they should be. The vet said they all looked fantastic and that I was doing a great job of monitoring their body weight, and I preened like a proud dog mama, of course.
I'm in love with Smashbox's O-Gloss. I picked it up after Gemma recommended it, and it is fantastic. It turns a lovely shade of pink on me without looking garish. I've only had since Sunday, but it's already one of my makeup must-haves. Which brings me to my next point.
I am also in love with Philosophy's Amazing Grace. We smelled it on a waitress at Outback a couple of months ago, and it smelled so fantastic that I ordered some from Sephora as soon as we got home. Thankfully, it smells yummy on me too, and since then, it's the only scent I've been wearing. <3 (Interesting note: I like the perfume and the shower gel, but the lotion stinks.)
I have less than a month left of summer school. I cannot put into words how happy I will be to have a break from homework, even if it's less than a month.
We're going to see Mötley Crüe next weekend! SO EXCITED. Jenny won tickets to show, so we're going to be meeting up with them at some point during the evening. If I somehow manage to get Nikki Sixx to autograph me, we're going straight to get that tattooed over before it washes (or sweats :eep:) off. Seriously.
Lately I've been making salami sandwiches with colby jack cheese and mayo on honey wheat bread. It'll take quite a while before I get tired of them, especially with a small serving of Pringles on the side. My arteries are going on strike as we speak.
Posted by oracle at 3:03 PM | Comments (0)
May 1, 2008
one year with Jordan
A year ago today we officially adopted Jordan. At that time he was very shy, hesitant with us and the puppies. Now he's completely part of the family. He still is more reserved than either Maddy or Max are, but he's much more comfortable than he was those first few months. While he still lies down by himself on occasion, he prefers to be curled up with his siblings, and he's just as likely to initiate a romp around the house as they are now. He is the cutest little man when he prances around with his ears perked up and his tilted to the side. It's very hard not to scoop him up and carry him around all the time so I can constantly cuddle him. Small wonder these dogs are spoiled.
We don't know when his real birthday is, so we mark the date we adopted him as his birthday, which makes him five today. Happy birthday, Jordan!
Posted by oracle at 8:15 AM | Comments (1)
April 23, 2008
our second anniversary trip
Our anniversary trip was fantastic. We spent the majority of our time away relaxing, doing nothing more taxing than reading and coordinating internet time, although we did make a trip out to pick up some books and have dinner.
The dogs did very well on their first real vacation with us. No one was carsick, there were no accidents at the bed & breakfast, and even though they barked ferociously when they saw the owner's dog, they were amicable enough after the initial furor was over. They do need to get used to traveling, however. Jordan settled down quickly enough in the truck, but Maddy and Max took turns squeaking the entire trip there. They were a little calmer on the way home, thankfully, but I'm still determined to get them used to car trips before our next anniversary. Aside from the traveling, the hardest part for them was staying off the furniture. At home they have their run of whatever furniture they can reach to curl up on, so not jumping up on the chairs was a challenge for them, as was refraining from burrowing under the blanket I put up on the bed for them to lay on. Max in particular had a hard time not doing that, but eventually she gave up (with a huge sigh to let me know she was Not Pleased).
(picture courtesy of Mike)
When we got there on Friday we unloaded the truck, got the dogs settled, and ordered pizza before settling in for our four days of leisure. Saturday was spent in our suite, punctuated only by a quick trip out to get drinks. We debated walking to the nearby gas station but opted to drive because of the angry-looking clouds overhead - a wise decision, as it turned out, because as soon as we pulled onto the road, it started pouring. It would have been quite an uncomfortable walk in that downpour.
Sunday we had intended to spend in our suite as well, but we decided to make that our main trip out. We stopped and picked up some more books and magazines, just in case we ran out, and then had dinner before returning to the bed and breakfast for the evening. We watched The Descent shortly after we got back, and it's a good thing I hadn't seen it before our last trip there. There is no way Chicken Little here would have wanted to go see the caverns fresh on the heels of that movie!
Monday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday - lots of napping, reading, and relaxing, with a trip out for drinks thrown in for good measure. I did walk to a local grocery store, but that was the only real change in our routine.
We didn't have to check out until noon on Tuesday, so we were able to have a nice leisurely morning, sleeping in and taking our time getting everything packed up. We made our now-customary stop at the Blue Ridge Pottery studio so I could pick up more things for our kitchen.
(picture courtesy of Mike)
Posted by oracle at 6:05 PM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2008
I could talk about them all day, really
I love my pups to little tiny pieces. Even when I'm irritated at them (it happens occasionally) I'm still always ready to scoop them up for a snoogle, and I know that even if I've just yelled at them (this also happens occasionally), they'll still be ready to give me puppy kisses. HOWEVER. If Jordan does not stop eating his way through trash bags (particularly in Mike's office!), it is entirely possible that he will finish out the rest of his days as a wee pair of black-and-tan slippers. I really need to keep a better eye on him.
Posted by oracle at 9:43 AM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2008
my little scavenger dog
We had pizza over the weekend, and when the box was ready for the trash, I put it behind the trash can, thinking it would be safe enough there until I took it down to the garage. That would have been the case, I'm sure, if Jordan wasn't such a little scavenger. I was changing over some laundry when Mike asked what the weird noises from the kitchen were. When I got upstairs and poked my head in the kitchen, I saw that Jordan had gotten the pizza box out from behind the trash can and had dragged it into the dogs' bed in the corner of the kitchen. He was lying there with one of his paws on it possessively while he was industriously tearing up the cardboard, and he was quite put out when I took the box away from him. Really, nothing under two feet high is safe from him.
Posted by oracle at 7:51 PM | Comments (2)
October 17, 2007
snips and snails and puppy dog tails
Jordan got a clean bill of health at his follow-up appointment Monday, and, in spite of the feedbag of treats I brought with us, he still does not think much of going to the vet's office. He had to be coaxed into taking treats from the vet and the ladies in the front office. Let me repeat that: Jordan, my little scavenger boy, had to be talked into taking treats. It wasn't all bad though. There was no poking or prodding or needles this time - all he had to do was give them a urine sample to check and we were done.
Posted by oracle at 7:01 AM | Comments (1)
October 4, 2007
Jordan + the vet != bff
Poor little Jordan. He has a bladder infection of some sort (one that involves lots of bacteria and blood in his urine), and has to be on antibiotics for the next ten days, after which I need to bring him back to the vet for a re-check. And if he doesn't officially hate going to the vet yet, he will soon. The vet had to check his bladder during the exam yesterday, and the second she was through he climbed up my arm and onto my shoulder and then tried to climb on top of my head. He had to have an x-ray after I peeled him off of me so they could make sure he didn't have any kidney stones. When they brought him back to me the vet told me that he'd peed on the x-ray table. (If the way he smelled was any indication, he probably expressed his anal glands too.) Jordan wanted nothing to do with anyone there after that, and he kept trying to head for the door while I was waiting to check out. The dogs' trainer (they have a trainer now, but that is not a story for today) was there during part of our visit (not because of Jordan's appointment - she was going to give me a spray to use when I work with the dogs on their separation anxiety, and it was more convenient for her to meet me at the vet's office) said that I need to bring a small bag of treats when I take any of the dogs to the vet so they won't associate it only with getting poked and prodded. Maybe that will help make his follow-up visit a little better for everyone.
Posted by oracle at 7:38 AM | Comments (0)
September 7, 2007
even sadder than before
The teeth cleaning results: Jordan had to have two teeth extracted. Well, technically they only extracted one - the other tooth FELL OUT when they started scraping off the tarter, which was apparently the only thing holding it in. My poor little man. He was so happy to see me when I picked him up, and on the way home he curled up in my lap and mooshed his nose to the window for the entire trip, only moving when the truck jolted or went around a turn. Now that we've been home for a bit he seems to be doing okay, just very sleepy, which I think is probably from a) the anesthesia and b) the pain pills the vet sent him home with, but that won't keep me from fretting over him every few minutes until I know for sure he's feeling better. In other news, he has to have soft food until the sockets heal from the extractions, so he'll be eating a mix of canned food and his regular kibble (softened in hot water) for the next week. This means I need to give the other two a smidgen of canned food too so we don't have any squabbles. They're like toddlers, minus the diapers.
Posted by oracle at 7:08 PM | Comments (0)
the saddest little man
I dropped Jordan off at the vet this morning so he could have his teeth cleaned, and he was the most pitiful thing you have ever seen. After he got through sniffing everything within reach in the vestibule he wanted to be picked up, so while I was filling out the paperwork (of which there was more than I anticipated, btw. I naively thought I would just walk in and drop him off, which, no) I held him while he looked around and quivered. Then the vet tech came out to take him back, and he wanted nothing to do with her. He tucked his tail between his legs, crouched as low to the ground as he could get, and pressed himself against my legs. When I stepped away so the tech could get him, he hid between, then behind, my legs, trying to stay as close to me as possible. I ended up holding him while she put their leash on him, but he still didn't want to go with her. He dug his little paws into the floor and wouldn't budge, and since it was a leash/slip-collar combined, she could only pull so much before it would start choking him, so she was trying to get him to go with her without strangling him. That's the picture I saw as I left him there - my little rescue puppy who took so long to completely warm up to us, not wanting me to leave him there with the nice, but strange (to him), people who're going to do bloodwork, give him anesthesia, clip his nails while he's asleep and can't fight about it, and then clean the hell out of his teeth. I'm sure I was more upset about it than he was, but I'm still going to give him extra snuggles and fuss over him more than usual this evening. Hopefully he'll have much nicer breath when we pick him up.
Posted by oracle at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2007
weekend accomplishments
the results:
go to grocery store on the way home - yes and no. I didn't go on the way home, but Mike and I did go on Saturday after we took the puppykins to the vet
eat a hamburger - yes x 2. Mike and I went to Five Guys a while ago because we'd heard a lot of good things about their food, but we weren't impressed. While I didn't think the food was horrible, I certainly didn't think it lived up to the hype either. At any rate, we decided to give it another try on Friday, and I'm glad we did because their burgers were MUCH better this time. I liked them so much that we ended up going back there on Saturday while we were out running errands, and I liked that burger just as much as I did liked the one from the day before.
go to a wine tasting - no. Friday afternoon was rough, and it quickly became apparent that the wine tasting was not going to happen this weekend, so we're going to try to go to one on the next non-kid weekend.
CSI: NY marathon - no. Mike and I were both too tired for a marathon of anything on Friday night, so we just watched three two eps. And somehow we ended up watching CSI: Miami instead of CSI: New York. I'm still not quite sure how that happened.
take puppykins to vet - done! Maddy and Max are fine and healthy (they were going in for their annual heartworm checkup), Max is about the same weight she was last time we took them in (she gained a pound and some ounces after that so I started reducing her intake, etc., and I'm glad that worked. Now I just need to take her out for more walks so she'll lose a little more weight, and then she won't be at as much of a risk for back problems), and Jordan did much better than I expected. This was his first vet visit for a checkup since we've had him, and I thought he would growl his way through the entire thing, but he only growled twice (his tail was wagging both times). Our vet says that somewhere around 3 - 4 is about right for his age, and that he's at a good weight now (11.something vs the 9.something he was when we got him). She did recommend that we clean his teeth though, since he has a little bit of inflammation around one of his teeth in the front, so we're going to get that taken care of sometime in the next two weeks, and then my little man will be all set until it's time for his next checkup.
clean up kitchen - done (with Mike's help)! Saturday was the beginning of something new for us: my housekeeping standards have been on a slippery slope for a while now, so I'm starting on a 30-day deadline to get the house clean and uncluttered from top to bottom.
watch a Bond movie - no, but not for any particular reason. We just didn't get around to watching one this weekend.
have friends over - done! Amy came over on Saturday and helped me get things ready for a Pampered Chef party while Tyler and Mike drank wine, smoked cigars, and played video games.
smoosh nose to window to see if package from Land's End (that'll be an entry all of its own) has come yet - done, but no, the packages haven't arrived yet. In fact, the tracking information tells me not to expect my stuff until Wednesday. Boo.
hibernate - sort of.
As far as the addendums go, I did get through a lot of the laundry (and put everything away except a load of towels), Mike steam-cleaned the carpet in the living room, and I started on the stuff on my side of the bed, but there is still much left to do there before I can say I am through.
Posted by oracle at 8:37 AM | Comments (2)
August 23, 2007
is there anything cuter than little baby wiener dogs?
I think not.
Posted by oracle at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2007
birthday puppies!
Today is Max and Maddy's third birthday. They are officially not puppies anymore, but that won't keep me from referring to them thusly. Also, I can't believe they're only three years old. It seems like we've had them FOREVER.
pics after the jump
then:
and now:
Posted by oracle at 9:21 AM | Comments (3)
July 31, 2007
heaven with whiskers and bear paws
I'm spending the last few minutes before I leave for class playing online. Maddy is curled up on the back of my thighs, Jordan is curled up against my hip with his head on my waist, and Max is right beside him with her head on my back. I love moments like this.
Posted by oracle at 5:18 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2007
a life goal observed by someone who is not me
As I have documented once or twice before, I love dachshunds. One of my goals is to have a small herd of them, and I consider that goal achieved now that we have three. (Not that I don't want four, because I'd love to have tons of them. I just need a fenced-in yard so I don't have to deal with a fuckton of leashes all at once. When it comes to townhosue living, three is plenty enough wiener dogs.) When the delivery guy arrived with our pizza last night, the dogs, as usual, went tearing downstairs, barking furiously at the top of their little lungs, sounding as ferocious as three dogs under 15 pounds can collectively sound. After locking them in the laundry room, I answered the door and apologized for the welcoming committee. The delivery guy's reply? "It's okay. You've got a herd of them, I see." I did a little dance after I shut the door, because, HA! I OFFICIALLY HAVE A HERD OF WIENERBABIES.
Posted by oracle at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2007
my furbabies make me smile
So, I'm not as stressed as I was a few days ago. Today wasn't as busy at work, I had dinner ready to go (aside from cooking up some potatoes) when I got home, and I didn't have any laundry emergencies to attend to, so I was able to take things a little slower than I have been. This has left me with a little more time to spend with my snuggle bears, and that always helps me in the "peace of mind" arena. I wish I had a job that allowed me to bring them with me. Instead of a lunch break (which I almost never take), I could take snoogle breaks. C'mon, you KNOW it's a great idea.
Posted by oracle at 9:28 PM | Comments (2)
June 25, 2007
easily amused
Jordan is an endless source of amusement (and pee, but that is a story for another day). The guy is here fixing our walls, and he has a Nextel. I know this because it chirped while he was downstairs spackling in the laundry room. When Jordan heard the chirp, he picked his head up from the chaise where he and the other two weasels were napping, and every time the Nextel chirped, he cocked his head to the side.
:chirp:
:Jordan cocks head to the left, a puzzled look on his face:
:chirp chirp:
:Jordan cocks head to the right, still looking puzzled:
:chirp:
:Jordan cocks head back to the left, now looking confused:
Like last night, it was hilarious to watch but loses something in the translation from action to words. I need to videotape him all day long so I can share these moments with you in the proper format.
Posted by oracle at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2007
a little black and tan goat
Jordan is hilarious. He was trying to get on top of the comforter, and twice now, instead of just climbing up like a normal dog would, he's leaped straight up in the air to land on the top of the comforter. I wish I'd been able to film it - he looked like a little mountain goat leaping on a rock.
Posted by oracle at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)
May 31, 2007
a small furry pain in my cyst
I love it when the dogs curl up next to or on me, but I wish they wouldn't plop right down on my damn cyst. 9.something pounds of wiener dog doesn't feel like much until it's on a tender spot.
Posted by oracle at 9:40 PM | Comments (0)
April 30, 2007
internets, meet Jordan
Posted by oracle at 9:50 PM | Comments (2)
April 29, 2007
three crazy little dogs
I believe Jordan will fit right in once he gets used to all of us. He's started sleeping in my lap off and on, and last night he was running around with the girls when they were on one of their tears through the house. It was cute - Maddy and Max would dance and prance around him, trying to get him to chase them and play, and after a couple of minutes of that, he would jump in, run around for a minute or two, then run back to me. They repeated this a couple of times before he got tired of it. He is still a bit wary of Maddy, but he will let her curl up with him as long as Max is a buffer between them.
Posted by oracle at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2007
adjustments for all
After 24 hours Jordan is beginning to adjust to living with us, although I'm sure it will take a while longer before he completely settles in. He isn't quite sure what to do with Maddy and Max (I think he was an only dog at his previous home), and they're not sure what to do with him either, but they'll figure each other out eventually. He's okay with me, but he has definitely taken a liking to Mike - the first night we had him he curled up on Mike's chest and went to sleep...so cute - and, if given a choice, that's who he prefers to sit with. So far he's not loud (he's barked a couple of times at neighbors and such), but that might change as he gets more comfortable with us.
For me the hardest part about the adjustment period is twofold. 1) It's hard for me to give him space to get used to us at his own pace. He's so cute I just want to grab him up and cuddle him all the time, and 2) the leashes. Walking two dogs is significantly less complicated than walking three. I'm hoping I get used to it without tripping over one of the trailing leashes.
Posted by oracle at 7:01 AM | Comments (1)
April 24, 2007
new furbaby!
As the title says, we have a new furbaby. Well, he's not officially ours yet, but he will be after his vet appointment next week, and in the meantime, he gets to stay with us. His name is Jordan, we got him from DRNA, he is a beautiful wee black and tan doxie, and it is going to take him a while to get used to his new life (read: Maddy and Max). He came from Georgia to live with us, and his foster mom brought him over for a visit earlier this evening. Everything went well, so she gave us the option to keep him until his vet appointment, and after that (and a contract signing + adoption fee) we get to keep him.
Posted by oracle at 9:16 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2007
a few dogly things
I called my sister today to coordinate picking the puppies up tomorrow afternoon and found out they had stayed up barking until 3am the night we dropped them off. Cute or not, I doubt that was appealing. Mouthy little weasels.
In other dog-related news, it looks like Dory has been adopted. While I'm a little disappointed that I didn't hear back about this from her foster home, I'm glad to read that she has a forever home to buy her treats and toys and other things all dogs should have.
Which brings me to my next point. I don't understand how someone can have a dog for 10+ years and then just give it up because they don't have time for it anymore. I can understand if the owner has to go into a nursing home or something, but I cannot understand the people that just decide they don't want a dog anymore. It breaks my heart to see senior dogs up for adoption.
Posted by oracle at 6:26 PM | Comments (0)
April 4, 2007
stay with me, lay with me, now
Our dogs are lovey little creatures, but they also have the capability to turn into furry obstacles. Sometimes I wonder if they do it on purpose. This evening the puppies were lying next to me while I played online, and after a while of this, Max seemed to have had enough. She put both front paws on my chest and leaned against my face, completely obscuring my view of the keyboard and screen. I was able to move her so I could see, but only briefly, getting a couple seconds of unobstructed laptop interaction before she leaned back against me. Maddy has her own version of this manuever as well - she comes up and curls up on my chest so her neck is against my face - and hers is every bit as efficient as Max's. They're so cute when they do this type of thing that I hate to move them, but then again, when I'm on the laptop, I'd actually like to be able to see what's on whatever site that's currently caught my interest.
Posted by oracle at 9:05 PM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2007
undogly
There are moments when the puppies frustrate me to no end (say, for example, when they squeak insistently to go out like their little bladders are about to pop, but then I end up standing out there for twenty minutes while they leisurely tour our tiny front yard), and then there are the moments when they make me laugh and I forget that I am irritated because we were just outside for the third time in the past thirty minutes. Other moments I just want to grab them up and squeeze them because they are cuteness with whiskers and paws.
Max loves to burrow. Maddy does too, but she's not nearly as dedicated to it as Max is. Max will spend 15 minutes getting her blanket fluffed just right and tucked under her just so. She does this with the sheets if she's on our bed, burrowing under the covers until she's found the perfect spot, then twisting and turning and digging and pulling and tucking until she is nested snugly in a ball in the sheets. Sometimes she skips the sheets and burrows in the pillows instead. (She prefers Mike's side of the bed for this because he has more pillows.) Max slithers in between two pillows, usually knocking one off the bed in the process, then nests until all you can see are two shiny eyes and one black nose peering out at you from a stack of pillows.
Maddy is a vocal dog. She barks more than Max does (at leaves, other dogs, people talking loudly while we're out on the deck, a neighbor who has the unmitigated gall to get out of his car! in front of his house! which, unfortunately - for both him and us - happens to be right next to ours), but more often than not, she makes her thoughts known with other sounds, some of which are next-to-impossible to translate into writing. For example, she complains. Loudly, if it's something she's particularly displeased with. If she's moved from the spot where she's comfortably sleeping, she complains to whoever is moving her, then she huffs as she gets settled into her new spot. When we took her and Max for a visit to my grandparents' house, she complained for the first several miles and probably would have kept it up for the entire trip if Mike hadn't intervened. She also squeaks. If there's food she thinks she's entitled to, if she wants to be picked up, if she needs to go out, or she just wants attention, she'll let you know. Occasionally she'll bark at you if you're not moving fast enough for her liking. And if her vocal expressions don't get your attention, she has plenty of physical ones as well. When I'm cutting up vegetables and her squeaking has failed to make a carrot or tomato migrate down to her, she jumps up and pokes me with her nose. If I'm holding a treat and taking too long to give it to her, she'll do the same thing.
And after typing all this out, it occurred to me that the puppies are quite spoiled.
Posted by oracle at 6:35 AM | Comments (0)