Dallas and the Big Stick

Our puppy will never be bored if there's a good stick somewhere nearby...

Dallas Barked

Dallas barked today. There was absolutely nothing there, to bark AT, but I'm sure if something WERE there, it would have been really scared.

She is currently in the backyard, eating a tree stump. There are worse things. We choose our battles carefully... (and she STILL hasn't gnawed on any furniture!)

The Tooth Loser

Dallas is losing teeth. We expected she'd be growing new teeth, but for some reason I never realized that meant losing baby teeth. Check out the bottom right tooth she lost - there was about a 4 hour span in between these two photos. In the morning she had the tooth. In the afternoon, it was gone.

Where do all these teeth go? Do dogs swallow all these baby teeth in their daily meals? Is there a bunch of buried baby teeth in my garden, or wherever they fell in the yard? Maybe I should check the vacuum bag.

Mama Robin

Don't Let Me Fool You

Papa Chris

Zombie Doggie

This was actually several days AFTER the anesthesia wore off... this is just how she sleeps normally..

Cone Head

Ever since her spay, Dallas has been walking around the house with a blue surgical cone stuck around her head. I put it on her while she was still heavily anesthetized, so she could get used to it slowly. And she's been trying different dramatic ways to get it off: rubbing against trees, stepping on it, shaking her head back and forth.  Nothing works, which is good, since its meant to protect her from biting or licking her sutures.

 She gets particularly frustrated when she steps on it, then can't figure out why she's not able to move forward in a walk, and just looks pathetically stuck.

Chris has been calling her "Alien Girl" but I think she looks even more like a blue-bonnet wearing "Baby."

Today I removed the "bonnet" finally! I thought she'd be thrilled and I don't think she's even noticed.

Social Butterfly

More people in my neighborhood know my dog's name than know mine. And that's saying a lot, since I just started a wine club for my neighborhood.

And our friends now come to visit our dog. And bring her gifts. Check out this funny video of our friends Clay & Naomi and the gifts they brought for Dallas, as she chooses between them...

Bath Time

Saturday, Feb 5 we gave Dallas her first bath. Mental note to self: wear a bathing suit next time.

Spay Day

We got Dallas spayed yesterday.

We walked into Animal Control and Dallas honestly looked like she thought she'd won the doggie lotto. There were playmates EVERYWHERE! What a great place! Limieu, a great big black lab behind us in line had to be carried in, she was so terrified. (Me to Limieu's Owner: Limieu- is that a famous French painter? Owner: No. Hockey player.) Oh. Of course.

Anyway, Limieu looked terrified: tail between her legs, refusing to move, crying, and enormous eyes. Until she saw Dallas. Dallas had one thing on her mind: to play with this giant beast who was 1.5 months older and 3-4 times heavier than Dallas.  In about 3 minutes, Limieu's tail was out behind her and she was jumping on Dallas and smiling (yes, dogs smile). Her owner was so grateful and I was so proud!

Then a snauzer type dog further behind us in line entered, and went into a non-stop anxious yip/cry. So I brought Dallas out of line, and over there. Once again, that dog calmed down & quieted, too. I'm so proud of my companion dog- making the world a better place in her small doggie way.

When I picked her up after her operation, Dallas was so groggy, and as the vet tech handed her to me to carry to the car, she woke momentarily long enough to slowly kiss my face once, before she crashed out asleep in my arms again.

She's now in recovery mode. Wearing a sporty victorian collar on (no longer plastic, they're made of cloth these days, which looks much more comfortable), she is currently on pain meds. and has been pretty groggy all night and morning. She refused to eat or drink anything last night, but today spent six hours on a meal that she typically downs in under 5 minutes. I'm just thrilled that she finally ate a whole meal, and has kept it all down.

Dallas Arrives

Check out Dallas in the first few hours in her new home with us on 1.21.2011. I wanted to be sure to capture it, since it was a Friday morning and Chris was at work.

Wino

In some ways, Dallas takes after her mom, like in her excellent taste and style...

But her sense of humor is just like her dad's...

Not exactly the Princess and the Pea

You'd be amazed all that a puppy can do in her sleep.

For example, right now, she is sacked out completely on top of a toy. Not a soft, plush, stuffed animal toy she has, that would make sense to sleep on. Oh no, she is genuinely dead to the world on top of a hard, chewy, cold toy. And she's not exactly using it as a pillow. Rather, its stuck up underneath her right shoulder, so her little body contours around it, on her side, but her head hangs down, off of it. I mean, really.... how can THAT be comfortable?

Yet, there she is. Fast asleep.

I wish I could sleep like that. Airplane rides, car trips, I could get so much more done, if I could just sleep anywhere/time/place, like my dog! I would arrive places fresh and ready to go, no more jetlag! Wouldn't the world be a better place if I could just sleep like Dallas?

Then again, while sleeping, Dallas also has been known to:

• snore
• cry
• run (yes her little lab paws really get quite a sleep-jog going!) and she even gets out of breath in her sleep
• growl (which is especially funny because she doesn't ever growl in her awake life.)
• chew (I'm not sure if she's trying to lick, dreaming of eating, or just grinding her teeth like half of America.)
• talk (I'm not sure what else to call this... she kind of makes "aroooo" noises in her sleep, but also often in her awake life, too, like she's got something to say.)

Sometimes I wonder if she's truly getting any rest at all.

Dallas, sleeping.

Let the Games Begin

Dallas has begun testing us.
I mean, really testing us.

She's been with us for nearly two weeks now, and I caught her digging a whole halfway to China in the backyard. I still don't leave her alone out there (even though we have a fence) for more than 5 minutes, and continue to watch her through the window. So apparently she digs FAST. So now we're working on how not to dig.

Another thing she does is not come inside when she's called. I mean, its cold out there. Like record-breaking cold for NC. And I'm a California girl- so its REALLY cold for me. But apparently her internal thermometer is broken because when I call her to come inside, she refuses to budge.

I remember my mother nonchalantly just leaving, when I was a kid. Oh, she never really did, leave me. But if I wouldn't come, when called, she told me that she would leave, and waved "good bye" and no matter how engaged I was in whatever I happened to be doing, I'd come running, fearful that she really would leave me. Perhaps it was a cruel tactic, but it worked. I spent my childhood with one eye on my mother, to make sure she never got lost.

I tried that on Dallas yesterday. No luck. I could almost see her waving "see ya later alligator!"

Now that we've mastered "sit" and lie "down" we are working on "come" and "stay" which seem to work a lot more effectively if I have treats in my hands... additional proof of this testing period.

Dallas in her Snuggie, exhausted after a long day of testing her parents.

Waiting for DooDoo

I honestly can not believe the disproportionately large percentage of my days now spent waiting for doo doo...