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The Adjustment Period

Any time you get a new dog, whether it’s a puppy or an older, “used” dog (Hubby’s term for rescue dogs), there’s an adjustment period as everyone gets to know each other.

I’ve never gotten a puppy from a breeder. It would be cool to have a puppy because they are so darn cute. But puppies are essentially a blank slate. You don’t really know what their temperament will be, how big they’ll get, if they’ll be loners or like other dogs, etc.

When you get a “used” dog that’s an adult, if you get them from a rescue organization where the dog spends a period of time with a foster family, there’s a lot you know about a dog before you commit. And that can be important, especially when you already have two dogs in your family.

We had a very specific reason for adding a third dog. Belle, our 2.5 year-old Brittany needed a playmate. Meg, our 10.5 year-old, just couldn’t keep Belle entertained. Not that Belle was being bad, she is the best dog in the world, but we could tell she was bored.

So, after thinking about it and searching long and hard, we decided to adopt K, a 3.5 year-old female Brittany, to add to our pack.

The biggest concern when putting adult female dogs together is whether there will be bad dominance issues. The way dogs work, there is always a pecking order as to who is the top dog, who is number two, etc. It’s a natural thing. Some dogs are better off in one-dog homes because they are very dominant and, if placed with a similarly dominant female, very serious fights might ensue.

K has been with us for two days now. Meg has no issues with K as long as K doesn’t invade her personal space bubble. But that’s not a problem because, as we had hoped, K is more interested in Belle. The two of them have been wrestling and playing and tussling, but not in a bad way. Once there were some growls and snarls, but that’s because Belle was tired and K didn’t get the “back off and give me a break” message.

Still, we are watching them closely.

The biggest adjustment for me is going to be K’s morning thing. She’s even more of a morning girl than Belle. We have quite a routine where Meg and Belle usually stay in bed, even when Hubby gets up and leaves, until about 7:15 AM.

So, this morning, when K tried to get me up at the ungodly early hour of 5:11, I told her to go back to bed. I was thinking, I’ll teach her that we don’t get up that early. She tried again. Again I said, “No, K. Go back to bed.”

A short time later I heard running water. Not water, pee.

Yep, K taught me a lesson this morning. When she insists on getting up, she has a good reason.

I sure hope she adjusts to our morning routine soon.

All in all, things are going very well. Most of the day yesterday was spent clearing the yard of the gazillion leaves that had fallen. So I don’t have any pictures to share. But I did take some this morning of K and Belle playing, which I’ll post later. The two of them seemed quite happy, chasing each other around the yard, sliding to a stop in the piles of leaves, wrestling for a bit then chasing each other some more.

As they figure each other out, I am pretty sure K and Belle are going to be very good company for each other. And Meg seems quite happy to watch the two of them cavorting around like crazy dogs, while she gets to go about her business. As long as Mama and Dad give Meg plenty of love and keep the younguns from getting on her old nerves, all will be just fine.


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Our Special K Made It Home Today

We were finally able to get K today. It’s not like she was in dire straits or anything waiting for us. She was living with a wonderful foster family who loved her a whole bunch. But we were anxious to bring her home.

I made Hubby drive home so I could document the journey. This was taken not long after we left her foster home. She’s looking a bit worried.

She still looks a little worried here, but she did relax gradually. She is a very good car passenger.

K has really long legs. So when she sits, she sits very straight. This is not the most flattering position. I’ll have to teach her how to sit like a proper little lady so all her stuff isn’t hanging out.

She really seems to like Hubby. Which is good, ’cause he likes her right back.

After the usual doggie greetings, the chase was on. Belle and K are both very fast.

I have a feeling I’m going to end up with a lot of blurry pictures.

It really is great to see them running together. K is exactly what Belle needed.

They even found a pile of leaves to wrestle in, which was quite comical to watch.

I know this isn’t a fabulous shot, but it’s the best I could do with the three of them today. Maybe I’ll have better luck tomorrow.

Welcome home, K!
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Mornings At My House

I am not a morning person. Either is Meg. She and I are a lot alike in that regard.

Belle on the other hand, as I have mentioned previously, is a morning girl. And that makes her a perfect Alarm Belle.

I finally decided to take my camera to bed with me (don’t worry, Hubby is away) to document how Belle wakes me up in the mornings. Now, this picture makes her look like her legs are enormous. But it’s just a perspective thing.

I am not holding her in place. I am petting her. If I don’t, she beats on the bed as if she were playing bongos. Which is totally cute, but can be very annoying to a non-morning girl.

Meg is never ready to jump out of bed all happy either. Can you see that she’s got her feet covering her eyes? And can you see Belle getting disgusted because I STILL haven’t gotten out of bed?

Now can you see Meg covering her eyes? She’s such a goof.

That’s K’s bed in the background, by the way. Just a couple more days and it’ll be filled. I’m interested to see where she fits in the whole morning routine.

On a completely unrelated note…

I had to share one of my favorite Fibro Duck pictures (the seagulls totally wanted to eat Spotty Dotty). Some people have asked me why the Fibromyalgia Association UK chose a duck to bring attention to Fibromyalgia. Although I’ve been doing my part to take fun pictures of Spotty Dotty for a while now, I couldn’t answer that question. But now, I can. Here’s what they say on the Fibromyalgia Association UK’s Web site…

… people with fibromyalgia are like ducks out of water. Before developing fibromyalgia they were hard working, fiercely independent people. After fibromyalgia their pain and fatigue prevents them from performing many of the tasks they took pride in. They have to rely on others everyday and stress about the things all around them that have to go undone. They are forced to live a life that is alien to them – like a duck out of water. The duck can survive on land but its movement isn’t quick and fluent the way it is in water. So the challenge is to draw attention to fibromyalgia by using the duck in places a duck wouldn’t usually go.

Wanna see all of my Fibro Duck pictures on Flickr? I’m not the only person going this, you know. You can see more Fibro Duck pictures, too, taken by other people around the world.

Here’s another of my Spotty Dotty shots that I find particularly interesting, if I do say so myself.


I like the next one, too, ’cause it shows my “runner” shirt (like I am really a runner) and my 5k ID number.

Okay, I’ll stop. I’m thinking no one is probably having as much fun looking at these images as I’m having creating them. Besides, I need to get to work. Well, FFFF…

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You’re Doing What?

“You’re doing what?” is essentially the reaction I got from Mawsie (my Mom) when I told her about our exciting news.

This is not the best picture of Mawsie, since she looks all pissed off (she doesn’t like dogs). But it’s recent, so I decided to use it.

Anyway…

She didn’t take the news as well as I thought she would. I mean, you’d think she’d understand that, with Eric having just moved out, things are a bit quiet here at the ToadMama Maryland abode. I know he hasn’t been gone long, but this empty nest thing is, well, weird. It’s so, um, boring?

Yeah that’s it. Without the proverbial patter of little feet running around it’s just plain dull. Meg, at 10.5, is down with dull, to a degree, but not so okay with a bored 2.5-year-old Belle harassing her. I try to keep Belle entertained, but playing with adult people is apparently just not that much fun. If the grandkids lived closer and weren’t always so busy, they could come liven things up. But, if they did, it would just be boring again when they left.

Considering that I am still relatively young, Hubby and I thought long and hard, then longer and harder, and made the decision to expand the family. There’s just something about a third little being calling me “Mama” that tickles me.

Yep, believe it or not, we’re adopting another baby girl. And we’re naming her Kay.

She’s about 3.5 years old. It may not look like it, but she is a Brittany, like Meg and Belle. She has a fairly uncommon liver and white roan coat. The “roan” just means she’s got patches of fur where white and colored hair grow together. So she can’t be described as white with liver markings and ticking (aka “dots”).

We (Meg, Belle and I) went to meet Kay on Sunday. Belle, who is always bashful with new dogs and people, took a little while to warm up to her.

Meg was fine with Kay from the start. They’ll need to figure out who is top dog, which is normal, but I don’t foresee any major issues. Meg and Belle went through the same thing.

Kay is larger than Belle, who is a tiny little Britt, but not quite as big as Meg.

I do believe Kay will be the perfect playmate for Belle, but I also think she might just become Meg’s occasional (we hope!) partner in crime. Both were equally intrigued by the open door at the foster family’s house because there was a cat in the room beyond.

I didn’t realize, until I was reviewing the pictures, that Kay does the same weird neck thing that Meg does. Instead of turning her head left or right and looking over her shoulder, Meg will often just lift her chin straight up and back, like Kay is doing in the picture above.

Hubby and I are both quite excited about the expansion. I would love to post a picture of Hubby and I looking excited about the expansion, but he’s off work this week, hanging out at the WV place. So, you’ll just have to trust me.

Kay is moving in on Sunday, November 8. Hubby, the girls and I can’t wait.

As for my Mom… she may like to pretend she doesn’t like dogs…

…but she can’t seem to resist sweet old Meg. Meg is, after all, her oldest Granddog.

Of course, not many people can resist Meg.

UPDATE: I just HAD to add this picture, which K’s foster Mom e-mailed me just minutes ago.

That’s K waving “hi” to her new family.

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Giggle Incitement

Something happened earlier today that really made me giggle.

As most of you know, I work from home. My dogs are pretty good about just hanging out, not bothering me as I work, but every now and then nature calls and they’ll come tell me they need to go outside. Keep in mind, I’m all alone in the house except for the dogs, so they have no choice but to come to me.

This is Meg, my 10-year-old Brittany. The one that is famous world-wide for her Meg’s Dilemma slideshow. Meg has a very expressive face and definitely her own personality that never fails to keep us entertained. Her nickname, by the way, which she answers to, is Crazy Dog.

When Meg wants your attention, she’s relentless. Earlier today, I was working away, when Meg came and sat next to me. I was busy, not paying her any attention, so she put her paw on my knee.

I ignored her. The paw pressure increased.

Finally, I looked down.

That’s when I almost choked. Because this is what I saw…

The dog was wearing my bra.

For real. The shoulder strap was around her neck and it was hanging down right in front of her chest. I didn’t have my camera at hand, so these pictures are a recreation, but it really happened.

Not only was she wearing my bra, she’d put it on herself!

How does that happen? My bras were in a heap on the floor by my laundry room, queued up to be washed. I’m guessing she was sniffing around in the pile and somehow managed to get herself entangled.

Now, I don’t know if she came to tell me she had to go out or to say, “Um, Mom. A little help here? Can you get this thing off of me?”

She was a bit indignant that I was laughing at her, but happy I was available to remove the foundation. She was even a good sport about wearing it again so I could take these pictures.

That’s my Crazy Dog…

UPDATE: It gets weirder. If it happens once, it’s probably an accident. Right? Well, it happened again! I was in my office, signing off the work computer for the day when both dogs popped in. I walked down the hall to the bedroom and when I turned around, there Meg was wearing the same bra. Now, that’s just bizarre. I made her walk downstairs, tripping over the thing, so she could show Hubby. I’ll never understand dogs.

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Not Entirely Truthful

I ended yesterday’s post by telling you I had to go to the dump and plant nursery. That wasn’t entirely true. I had other things on my agenda, too. I just didn’t want to elaborate, for personal reasons. I didn’t want you all to worry.

I had to take Meg to the vet. She’s been having odd troubles lately that I’ve been sort of worried about and sort of not. ‘Cause, sick person that I am, I find it funny when she goes to pick up her bone and bites her foot instead. Or she goes to gobble up her dinner but ends up sniffing around the outside of the bowl instead. Or she goes to walk up the steps and stumbles, missing the first step.

The look of confusion on her face kills me. But it’s not right to laugh at her strange difficulties. So I took our aging canine (she’ll be 10 in June!) to the vet.

He had one word for me… presbyopia.

As with people, a dog’s vision can diminish as they age. Focusing on objects close-up gets harder and harder.

“For real?” I asked the vet. He nodded solemnly.

“So, what can we do about it?” I asked.

“Well,” my vet explained. “We should consider corrective lenses.”

I thought he was pulling my leg. After I finished laughing, making an idiot of myself, he went on to explain that of course, we couldn’t expect her to wear corrective lenses all of the time. I mean, she is a dog. How practical is that? But it would help her tremendously to wear them at mealtime, when she really needs to focus, and maybe one or two other times during the day when she seems to be having difficulty.

“You’re serious?” I asked again.

“Yes,” the vet assured me.

That’s when he went to the back room and got a sample pair for us to try. They look just like people glasses, but they have a special strap that goes around the back of her head and under her chin to keep them in place.

I was afraid to tell Hubby how much it all cost. We haven’t spent that much on eye wear for the entire family in years. Which means I can’t reveal that here, either. I’ll just say these are not dollar store reading glasses.

Meg’s not crazy about wearing the glasses. It’s definitely going to take her a while to get used to it. But she ate dinner last night without difficulty. So I think the expense was worth it. Now I just have to remember to clean the food spatters off on a nightly basis. She’s a gobbler, so food flies when she eats.

There’s nothing wrong with Belle’s eyes. Thankfully. Of course, she’s much younger.

She is camera shy, though, and refuses to smile for pictures.

Speaking of Belle, it’s going to be quite a challenge teaching her to go easy on Meg when the glasses are on, that’s for sure. Because Belle loves to play. But we’ll do our best.