the dogs

Cooper and Dolce sleeping together. Apparently on top of Cooper is the most comfortable spot in the room. lol :)







A slightly unfair game of tug of war :)


Dolce trying to be a stinker and eat out of Cooper's bowl.

My Precious Hubie

Hubie has been pretty lethargic the last couple of days. Not excited to eat and not eager to get up and play. This morning he had no interest in his food and only went to his bed to lay down.

I called the vet and got him in to find out that he had aspiration pneumonia. This was our biggest fear with the last treatment and were just trying to wean him off of it. His white blood cell count was astronomical and he had a very high fever. The vet said his chances of surviving this were really very very slim and even past that he suspects there has been some permanent damage to his esophagus. So he wouldn't have the greatest quality of life.

So. I just put my baby down. He was frustrating at times, stinky and slobbery but by far the sweetest, gentlest of all giants. I'm gonna miss cuddling with him and watching him protect Cooper and Dolce.

Mike found this:
Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog
by Lord Byron

When some proud son of man returns to earth
Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth,
The sculptur'd art exhausts the art of woe,
And stoned urns record who rest below;
When all is done, upon the tomb is seen,
Not what he was, but what he should have been;
But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to wwelcome, foremost to defend;
Whose honest heart is still his master's own,
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes, for him alone
Unhonour'd falls, unnoticed all his worth,
Denied in Heaven the soul he held on earth;
While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,
And claimls himself sole exclusive of Heaven!
Oh, man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debas'd by slavery, or corrupt by power,
Who knows thee well, must quit thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust!
By nature vile, ennobled but by name,
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.
Ye! who, perchance, behold this single Urn
Pass on--it none you wish to mourn:
To mark a Friend's remains these stones arise,
I never knew but one, and here he lies.

Newstead Abbey, November 30,1808

On one side of the pedestal supporting the antique urn he had inscribed:

NEAR THIS SPOT
ARE DEPOSITED THE REMAINS OF ONE
WHO POSSESSED BEAUTY WITHOUT VANITY
STRENGTH WITHOUT INSOLENCE
COURAGE WITHOUT FEROCITY
AND ALL THE VIRTUES OF MAN WITHOUT HIS VICES
THIS PRAISE WHICH WOULD BE
UNMEANING FLATTERY
IF INSCRIBED OVER HUMAN ASHES IS BUT A JUST TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF
BOATSWAIN, A DOG
WHO WAS BORN AT NEWFOUNDLAND, MAY 1803,
AND DIED AT NEWSTEAD ABBEY,
NOVEMBER 18, 1808.


taken today :(

We Love you Hubie!!
February 23, 2005- May 15, 2009

Yumm! And a <3 for Animals

So my mom was here visiting for awhile in January and I made her teach me how to make a few more korean dishes. YAY!!! And YUMM!!!

So tonight I made daeng jang jiggae with tubu (tofu) and mushrooms. You have NO idea how long I've been craving that. The only Korean food I had was when I made it and well its just not the same as my moms. I mean, its still yummy, but not moms. Doesn't that suck?? I don't get it. I follow her recipes and inherited her cooking genes, so shouldn't it be the same? :)

And I haven't posted anything on the knitting front in awhile because, well...I've been busy. :) Things have finally calmed down the last 2 weeks so I'm finally starting to catch up. I have been working on a vest. However, I had to rip more than halfway when I realized the pattern had an error and had to start over. So that sucked big time, but I'm finally making progress. Pictures to be posted prolly next week. Also, I do have a knitting blog that's listed over there ----> under knitting stuff, where I've been trying post all finished objects.

Now moving on to updates on Hubie. He does not, in fact, have a cardiology problem. He was diagnosed with "Myasthenia Gravis" which is an auto-immune disorder. His esophagus is enlarged and the muscles weak so it is not contracting to push the food down into his stomach. Rather his food is pooling in the esophagus and he's regurgitating it. Now it all makes sense why he throws up so much. I had NO idea. His spharynx, esophagus and hind legs have been effected. Its really sad. :( He's down to 127 lbs now which is a little scary. Anyway, we're trying him on medications now to see if he will respond at all. If he does, we'll try that for awhile. If he doesn't...I don't know. Both my vet, the cardiologist and the internal med docs have mentioned the possibility of a feeding tube. But I don't know if I could handle that on multiple levels.

There have been a few people that keep telling me that he's just a dog and I just need to him put "down" and quit wasting my money. I used to think people were crazy when they spent a ton of money on their animals. But I had no idea how much room there was in my heart for them then. There's nothing that challenges my favor of people more than those that don't love animals. How could you not? They have an undying, unconditional love for you. They know when you're upset and try to make it better. They forgive your short temper. They're abused by cowardly, heartless people on a daily basis and those pets still adore their masters. They will do anything for just a little bit of love and attention. I know they don't necessarily have to have a plush, comfy, spoiled life. But why the heck not? Why would you even bother getting a pet if you didn't intend to spoil them?

When Mike and I adopted Hubie, we accepted every responsibility that came with him. We didn't know that he would have a lifelong disease or cost us thousands of dollars. And yeah it sucks, but adopting him means we've agreed to give him a chance at life. I'm gonna do what I can until he's visibly suffering or until we've run out of options. I wished people got that and would quit telling me that he's just a dog. As if its not hard enough as it is.

Okay, so I didn't mean to go off like that but it seriously just makes my blood boil.

Dolce's 1st Christmas

Are you guys sick of seeing pictures of my dogs yet?? :-)








Mommy's big helper! Helping me wrap presents (sorry if you have dog treat bits in your boxes when you get them! :D)

My Puppy-Cat

HA! Dolce thinks he's a cat! I was putting up the Christmas tree and couldn't find my camera to capture this funny moment, so I had to use my phone :-)



All taken with my phone since my camera was mia. Better pictures to come soon.



Helping me Trim the Tree! :)



Things have been so insane lately, I just haven't had time for any updates.
So maybe later :)

My cutie pies

Dolce missed his daddy!! So did mommy!!!!!!!!




Dolce sitting with grandpa :) (my dad)


All 3 of the little rascals when I was dogsitting. Check out that sad little face on the boston terrier!! lol She missed her mommy.

Dogsitting

So I watched 2 more dogs this weekend for a friend. She always takes Dolce when we're out of town and someone else comes to the house to feed the big dogs.

Anyway, so it was my turn and talk about entertainment! They're just hysterical! 3 little doggies following me around everywhere and all 3 of them had to be in my lap if I was sitting. And boy does Dolce get jealous. He actually jumps on the other dogs if they're touching me to push them out of the way so that he can come and reclaim his spot on my lap. It was seriously way too funny!!

Okay, I don't know what's with the pictures loading backwards, but whatever. This one is actually of Hubie. He found a big chunk of ice from somewhere and was just walking around with it in his mouth! It was just funny :) My big gigantic teddy bear.


And this one!! We have this gate up to keep the little one out of the hallway and bedrooms/bathrooms. He likes to shred things. Anyway, I had gone into the bedroom for something and came out to see this! I just couldn't quit laughing!


And this is them trying to fight over who gets to lay in my lap. It's a terrible picture because, well one, it's with my phone and two, I was holding it over my head to try and get as much as I could. So you get the idea!

Cont... More on the Furries

So I'm a huge dork. I just remembered that it's way faster and easier to post it on youtube and just embed the video. Duh.

So here's a couple more! It's just too funny!!


Awwwwww





Do you see how filthy he is?? I think Hubie used him as a snotrag to wipe his slobber right up!

More on the Furries

He was outside playing with the big dogs and just barely made it inside the door because he just plopped right down! Guess they wore him out :)







More videos to post tomorrow, they take too long to load!

My Babies

The vet instructed us to put Cooper on a diet. He looks healthy now! I can't wait to take him in to get weighed :-) This is my baby!!





I know this video is really dark, but Hubie and Dolce play all the time now and it is just the funniest thing! I'm going to try and take another video this weekend when there's actually still sunlight out. But in the meantime, look how funny and cute they are!

My Naked Babies :-)

So Hubie and Dolce's fur were getting really matted and I took them in to the groomer's on Wednesday before we left. They got shaved :-) lol

Pretty stinking funny!!!
Here's the before and afters:

Hubie




I know that glass is filthy. You try having 3 big dogs and see if you can keep it clean! :D


Dolce (and a few pictures of him in OU gear)






My friend/co-worker watched Dolce while we were gone and as usual someone else just came to the house to feed and play with the big dogs. Well Karen got some pretty hysterical pictures and videos of Dolce with his little girlfriends. So as soon as I get those they'll get posted. Can you imagine 3 hyper little dogs running around your house 24/7? lol I don't know how she did it, but it's hysterical!

My Poor Emasculated Puppy

SO.
.
.
.

I'm sad. Dolce was supposed to be our stud dog and produce little Dolce Jrs, but that will no longer be possible. His little boys never dropped causing him to be sterile. Poor little guy had to go through surgery today so the vet could find them and take them out to prevent possible cancer or any other complications.

So that's all. I'm sad. Dolce's sad. And it makes me sad to see him all pathetic like and moping around the house. This is DEFINITELY by far the calmest he's EVER been :-)

*sigh*

Progress and My Little Help

So I started a new project and I may be jumping in a little too deep too soon, but my 2nd project is a sweater. I just hope I don't get to the sleeves and have no clue what to do next. :-) I'm posting pictures just to share the color and my very slow progress. And uh, if it turns out to be awful, I'll just pretend like there was no such project. KK? :-) Oh and not to forget the pictures of my very helpful little Dolce. Such a good little doggy!





He was just pooped after such a long day of work :)



SO, a friend pointed out the fact that it's a bit of a surprise to see me knitting. I guess it is kinda funny to realize how domesticated I've become. Who knew! Actually I should use that term sparingly considering I don't do cleaning very well. I'm not being modest, I really don't. I pretty much suck at the housekeeping part. It's just the fun stuff that I've learned to enjoy. I like to create the mess without cleaning up. My hubby loves that about me! *grin*

What's funny is that even my mom is shocked when I tell her about cooking and knitting/sewing, etc. Because in case you don't know...I never (ahem here we go): did the dishes, the laundry, ANY cooking, vacuuming, cleaning of any sort including making my own bed, paid the bills. Really. My mom said it was my job to be a student and it was her job to be the mommy. I have to admit it was kinda nice. UNTIL I got married and realized mommy's not here to pick up after me anymore. I actually had to learn how to use the washing machine. The sad part? My husband had to teach me. Oh oh! And the dishwasher? We always had a top of the line dishwasher but mom didn't believe in it, everything was washed by hand. By her. So Mike also had to teach me to use the dishwasher. And cooking?? Are you kidding me? I was not only terrified of the kitchen, I absolutely hated anything to do with it. Mike did all the cooking when we were dating and I should mention he's a pretty fabulous cook!

So how did I survive college? *grin* WELL. See, my parents lived about 6 hours away so mom would visit every couple of months and stay for a week or two. During her stay she cooked entire meals daily for my brother and me (we had an apt together) and then divided it into individual portions to freeze so that after she left we'd have plenty of yummy homemade microwaveable food to eat. Oh and she'd FILL the fridge before she left. And laundry? Well see, my aunt lived about 20 minutes away so every Thursday she would drop off my clean laundry and pick up my dirty laundry. She had a key so that just in case I wasn't home she could just drop it off. And dishes? Seriously? How many college students actually use those? Paper plates work wonders. Most of the bills my parents ended up paying for because I'm not exactly what you call financially responsible *batting eyes* I mean even now. I have 2 cars and both were paid in cash by my parents. The first year of my marriage my parents were still paying my cell phone bill, my car insurance, car registration (actually I still haven't paid insurance or registration on one of them) and who knows what else. They spent $20k on our wedding and I only paid $10k.

Needless to say, I was in for a rude awakening. Getting married was actually kinda tough for me! I mean, don't get me wrong, I definitely enjoy the perks *wink wink* but I really really do suck at housekeeping. And finances. My poor poor Michael. You guys should feel sorry for him.

You know what really sucks? I really really really want to be the perfect wife and homemaker. Because when we have kids we plan on me staying at home. This is seriously a huge burden for me. If I can't do it now without children?? Oy! It stresses me out just thinking about it. That's not the only reason I want to be great, I want to do it for my husband. He works SO much and deserves to come home to a clean, organized home. I don't know why it's SO hard for me. Honestly, I think working is much easier than being a full time homemaker. I admire those that do it and especially those that make it look easy. It's too bad I never inherited some of those squeaky clean genes from my mother.

Many people probably never knew all this about me even though they may have realized I was a little spoiled, or high maintenance, or a slob. Well now you know why. And really? I can't believe I just admitted all of that to the public since I have no clue who actually reads this. What I can't believe is how incredibly ashamed I am of my slob-ness and lack of responsibility, yet I still posted this for all to see. :-O Oh well.

I don't think Mike realized ALL that he was getting himself into. Not really.