Little surprises in life...

The hubs and I woke up this morning and found a pile of throw up at the end of the bed, under our blankets. Neither dog would own up to it... so we had to put our detective hats on (figuratively of course, although it would be pretty cool if we had real detective hats exactly for this purpose).

Buzz's diabetes has been pretty unregulated, but he's doing better - and even better than that, he's gaining weight. Not sure if it was him. He normally doesn't like to burrow under the blankets, but it was storming last night and he was scared - so he burrowed.

Bella is known around town as pukey-mcpukerson. She throws up a lot, mostly due to nerves (she's a super anxious dog) or excess bile production (though both dogs are on a medicine to help curb this, but puking still happens). She's also a notorious burrower. She loves to be under the blankets and between my legs (weird, I know)...

The 'mess' was near my legs, which led us to the pukey-dog (Bella), as that's her spot, and she would probably have freaked out if Buzz had burrowed down to that spot.

So our conclusion is that the culprit is Bella. She's been acting fine all morning, so we are assuming it was a fluke caused by the storm and her nerves. At least she's not diabetic, so the loss of food in her stomach won't cause any severe side effects.

Buzz was so over Christmas.

However, Bella was not.

Christmas Pictures!!

I finally got around to taking Christmas pictures of the pups! It went a little something like this:

The final version! Buzz and Bella, Christmas 2011

...and now compare that picture to last year's Christmas picture, taken right around the time Buzz was diagnosed with diabetes.

Buzz and Bella, Christmas 2010

what to do?

Buzz humped Bella last night. Not the I am the boss! type of hump that Buzz is accustomed to getting from Bella, either. No, this was a I want to hump you type of hump.

I had a male dog growing up, neutered of course. He used to hump people, but there were never really any dogs around for me to see him behave with.

And Bella has humped Buzz, of course, but that is a more dominating type of hump.

But this, this was something entirely different. At least, I think it was. My hubby is freaked out that Buzz is 'attracted' to Bella, his (adopted) sister... but I tried to calm him down and tell him that Buzz is neutered (he was neutered before we got him and unfortunately got his, ahem, balls snipped right off) and Bella is spayed, so surely that is not the case. There are none of those hormones in these dogs!

We got him off her and then he tried again. And again. And again. He was determined. He wasn't playing and he wasn't even scared when Bella thought he was playing and started trying (play) bite him. His... member... was fully, um, out...

My husband thinks I'm going to embarrass Buzz with this story. But I just want some reaffirmation that it was/is nothing serious. Right... Right?

Bella hates feet.... seriously.

Bella has been on this 'kick' where she hates if we put our feet on the bed. If we sit down, and THEN swing our feet up, she's fine with it... but if you dare step foot without putting your butt down, be prepared to deal with the wrath of the Bella monster...

Oh, and Buzz tried to save his poor dad and was almost eaten to death by the Bella monster... watch if you dare! (and please excuse the basket of clothes in the background - they are all clean but waiting for my hubby to hang up, which of course is taking forever. :) )

They're all bark....

Since D has been out of town, Buzz and Bella have been FREAKING OUT at every. single. sound.

A car pulled out of a garage 3 roads over? BARK! You are not pulling it into MY garage! BARK!

Anyways, I ran the dishwasher before I went to bed last night and it must have turned over about an hour later.

Well, Buzz and Bella were fast asleep by that time - and this woke them up and must've scared the living daylights right out of them because they went CRAZY.

Howling, yelling, screaming, screeching, barking, etc.

I went to open the bedroom door to show them that there wasn't anything to be scared of...

...and they BOTH STOOD BEHIND ME, as if to say, 'go check it out, mom! and let us know if someone is here to kill us!'

Ohmygoodness. It was so funny.

I walked in and out of every single room so they could see no one was in there (Buzz was convinced there was a goblin in the office) and they never once got in front of me to protect me.

What babies.

At least my dogs don't wet the bed, though (right Meagan?)... :)

Hatteras Vacation

Hi all. We just returned from the Outer Banks - Buxton, to be exact - and are sad to be back to reality. But, here are a few adorable pics of the pups on the beach.

Bella loved everything about it, the sand, the water, the people. Buzz hated the water (and the sunscreen being sprayed on his nose) but loved everything else. And I discovered that they are actually dogs, not babies inhabiting dog bodies - instincts and all. They can swim (doggie paddle, of course) and Buzz even dug a huge hole in the sand (while Bella laid on her dad's lap whining about something).

First beach experience

Sound asleep

Enjoying the breeze

Adorable

Routine changes

We have started testing Buzz's glucose only once a day (instead of twice). This relieves a financial burden - seeing as how each test strip costs $1, we were spending between $2 and $5 a day on just testing his glucose levels. We just started this weekend and it has been going well so far - let's keep our fingers crossed (and knock on wood for good measure) that nothing happens to make us go back to multiple tests a day.

Also big news - Bella turned THREE on Saturday! We got her a cool dog house I saw on Gus's blog, but she doesn't seem to think it's so cool. But Buzz does, so that makes them even - Bella stole Buzz's stuffingless toys we got him for his birthday, and Buzz has stolen Bella's dog house. They are such good adopted siblings. :)

the birthday present!

so very unsure...

so i tried to coax her in using her favorite toy

'but mom, how am i supposed to get it?'

'C'mon, mom. Help me out!'

.....and she gave up.

Heading to Nashvile..

I am heading to Nashville today to cheer on some friends running in the Nashville Marathon. This means that D, my lovely husband, will spend all weekend with Buzz and Bella.

Here's to hoping they all survive. Good luck, D! :)

Buzz is home!

I'll hold down the fort while Buzz is gone....

I AM SO HAPPY TO BE HOME!!!

 Are you sure, Buzz?

umm.. YEAH!

so happy, so happy, so happy

(Bella) Wait, I don't think this is Buzz. He is in WAY too good of a mood...

(Bella) Yup, it's Buzz. Back up on his perch!

Wordless Wednesday

From our trip this weekend (sorry for the poor quality - these were taken with my phone!)...











(almost) Wordless Wednesday

Bella's first day with us

Buzz's first day with us

Family

I have a really sad story to share...

My boss is a psychiatrist and works a lot with clinical research dealing with drug abuse. When the patients come for treatment for a study, they usually stay anywhere from a week to a few weeks. One of my boss's patients has 2 dogs that are his family. Anyways, he recently found out that someone broke into his house and murdered his dogs (he has since left the study to mourn their loss).

When I heard this, I was devastated. There has actually been a lot of crime in my neighborhood the past few weeks and this story really just hit home for me (you'd think Lexington, KY would be safe - but you'd be wrong!). I don't know what I would do without Buzz and Bella. I can't even imagine what this person is going through. Who knows why someone broke in - they could've been looking for drugs or it could've been a random break in. I doubt he'll ever get closure as to why this happened.

All I know is that tonight I am going to go home and give Buzz & Bella huge hugs and be thankful that they are safe and healthy. You should do the same.

Why is a toothless dog like a tree?

..... because it has more bark than bite!! Ba dum bum pshhhh! Hardy har har. :)

Sorry I've been MIA - I'm really busy with grad school stuff... but it's Saturday and I made myself take the day off!

Speechless

Blog the Change for Animals

"Our goal: to convince people to rescue
and adopt instead of buying or selling
animals, to disavow the language
and concept of animal ownership."

Eliot Katz

We adopted Bella in August, 2008 from a rescue group called Life for Pets in Lexington, KY (http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/KY46.html). She was found with 3 of her siblings (4 others had already died) and her mom by someone who fosters for Life for Pets. She was not only the runt (and still somehow survived... she's my little fighter girl), but before she was 12 weeks old she had already dealt with demodectic mange and being filled with so many worms that she nearly died. We got to take her home the day after she was spayed/microchipped and she only weighed 6 lbs. Now at a healthy 16 lbs, she has dealt with bladder stones and a costly surgery to have them removed, but she is the best thing that has happened to my husband and me.

We adopted Buzz in March, 2010 from a rescue group called Don's Dogs in Kokomo, IN (http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/IN369.html). We know nothing of his background other than he was a stray for quite some time and we THINK he's going to be 5 years old in March. The fact that no one wanted this gentle soul breaks my heart, but I know that he's in the perfect home now, mine.

"To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less
precious than that of a human being. The
more helpless the creature, the more
that it is entitled to protection by
man from the cruelty of man."

Mahatma Gandhi