The Puppy Chronicles, Part 3

Do you remember that '80s movie with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, "The Money Pit?" It's about a couple who buys what appears to be a nice house, only to find out there are tons of things wrong with it and they're forced to spend tons of money on it.

Well, that's what Mia became during her 3rd week with us.

First of all, as I mentioned in my last post, she had to have surgery to fix an umbilical hernia. We had to pay for the surgery and the pain medication. Cha-ching!  She came through the surgery well, though she had to endure the "cone of shame" afterwards.

Next, via a stool sample, it was determined that she has a parasite that is common among puppies.  So, we had to pay for some medicine to treat that. Cha-ching! Cha-ching!

On Sunday, she overexerted herself while playing with Yadi.  She tried to jump up the step into the kitchen (our family room is sunken and about 6 inches lower than the kitchen), mistimed her jump and hit the step.  She yelped.  I went over to check on her and she yelped again when I picked her up.  After that, she was moving around kind of gingerly.  Later on, she started crying and yelping and making terrible noises.  We thought that maybe she had hurt her paw or something, so we called the vet.  The vet - who is new to us but is awesome - came in on a Sunday evening to check on her and make sure she was okay.  She was examined and x-rays were taken and it was determined that she just overdid it and tweaked her tummy.  But we had to pay for the emergency visit and the x-rays.  Cha-ching! Cha-ching! Cha-ching!

So, it's been an interesting week, filled with lots of veterinary bills, a few more accidents and a better relationship with Yadi.  He's snapping at her less and playing with her more, which is a treat to watch.

So, while our new puppy may be a money pit, she's so cute and has such a great personality, it's worth it.

Let's just hope we can go a while now without any more visits to the vet.  He's a nice guy, but I'm not interested in putting his kids through college just on our bills alone.  :)

Thanks for reading!

The Puppy Chronicles, Part 2

Mia has been a part of our family for a week and a half now.  Everyone is settling in to a new routine.  Mia has adjusted to her new home and we have adjusted to frequent potty trips outside and frequent accidents inside.  Having a puppy is not unlike having a baby, though at least the baby has a diaper and doesn't pee or poop on the rug.  However, she's so cute, it's hard to get too mad at her when she has an accident.

A few quick stories about Mia this week:

• She has discovered one of her favorite places to rest: on the air vent in the family room and kitchen.  I guess that cool air feels good on her belly and her fur.  Here's a picture of her relaxing on one of the vents:

• On Friday morning, I let her out of her crate before going to work, so that she could have a little freedom before getting cooped up again until someone else in the family woke up.  She followed me around the kitchen as I made my lunch.  I then noticed her sniffing around where her food normally is in the kitchen. (It had been put up on the kitchen table to keep Yadi, our other dog, from eating it.)  I went over, grabbed her food, and put it down so that she could eat, only to turn around and see her peeing on the kitchen floor.  I picked her up and took her outside as part of our normal routine to train her to go potty outside.  When we came back in, I grabbed some paper towels to clean up the pee and some spray to neutralize the scent so that she wouldn't pee there again.  As I did so, I looked over my shoulder to see her peeing again, this time on the rug by the front door.  So, I grabbed her and took her back outside again.  Before I could clean up one accident, she had another and I kept running her back outside.  It was like a bad comedy routine and I'm sure that any of my neighbors who witnessed the outside portion got a good chuckle out of it.
• On Friday night, we went out for pizza.  Before leaving, I put Mia in her crate in the basement and she did her usual barking, crying and whimpering.  When we got back from dinner about an hour and a half later, we were surprised to be greeted at the door by both Yadi AND Mia.  Apparently, her crate door must not have fully latched and she managed to get out.  Somehow, she also managed to get all the way up the stairs and nudged open the door from the basement to the kitchen, which must not have been fully closed.  We couldn't believe it!  My wife put her on the middle of the stairs to see if she could go up them.  She could, but it took a ton of effort and about 20 seconds for her to get up just one step.  For her to have made it up the entire flight of stairs must have taken a long time and a lot of energy.  Needless to say, she was pooped and took a long nap after we got home.
• We noticed a hard spot on her belly and, after getting confirmation from the vet, it was determined that she has a hernia.  She'll be going in for surgery on that this week.  Less than 2 weeks with us and she's racking up the vet bills.  Cha ching!
• Yadi is still not too sure about Mia.  In general, he keeps his distance from her.  Mia often comes over to him and tries to get him to play.  Most of the time, he growls and snaps at her.  However, there have been a few times when he's decided to play with her and it's a treat to watch the two of them go at it.

I'm sure we'll have more adventures to recap in my next blog post.  Until then, thanks for reading!

The Puppy Chronicles

Long time readers will recall that, when I started this blog, my family had 2 dogs, both shih tzus: Allie and Yadi.  Less than a month later, we had to put Allie to sleep, a sad event that made us a one dog family.

Well, guess what?  We're now a two dog family again.  Everyone, meet the newest addition to the Golden family: Mia!

She is another shih tzu and we just got her yesterday.  She is 9 weeks old and only weighs three pounds. 

So far, she's doing great.  She's been hopping around, exploring the house and getting to know us.  So far, she seems fascinated by almost everything, but especially the HVAC vent in the family room.  The air came on and blew her fur.  She jumped back and then looked the vent for a while, before cautiously getting close enough so that it would blow her fur again.  This routine repeated three or four times. It was pretty funny.

Yadi has taken the addition of a second dog well so far.  He's mainly been keeping his distance from her and observing her from afar.  However, this is sometimes difficult because she likes to follow him around.  He has, however, figured out that if he wants to get away from her, all he has to do is jump up on the couch because she can't do that.

The kids are excited about having her and my daughter has even been quick to help clean up the potty accidents.  We'll see how long that lasts...

In the coming weeks, I'll report on her progress, antics and relationship with her big brother, Yadi.  I hope you'll take the time to read the updates as I post them.

Thanks for reading!