house hippo

 Frenetic is the word that best describes my mornings. Gone are the days of a quiet coffee while I read my email and catch up on FB. All gone. Instead the whirling dervish zooms around with Adia hot on her heels. Playful struggles to own the toy have me constantly on the alert for rough play. Adia gets shouted at a lot for getting too excited. Trips outside every 15 or 20 minutes ensure that I get some fresh air, whether I like it or not! (thankfully Carm takes over some of those outings which gives me 5 minutes of stillness. 

I am a person that is slow to wake up and get going which is perhaps part of the reason that one little grey dog is driving me insane!

Last night Pat came for a supper of ragu with meatballs. All from the freezer because I’m rarely cooking these days. Who has the time or energy after a day of perpetual motion? People's visits are welcome and imperative for socialising the little barking monster.

Lupa is 11.8 pounds today, up 0.6 pounds from last week. She seems to grow before our eyes. I fear that we are growing an Irish Wolfhound. The growth calculator has her topping out at 16.4lbs when full grown - we shall see!

Remember that commercial from years ago that had the house hippo (I found it on youtube), well, it isn’t a huge stretch of imagination to see Lupa in that role as she looks just like a little hippo or rhino.

In an effort to tire Lupa out, I hid kibble around the house for her to find. I showed her the first few and then she caught on and started searching. It took her several minutes to find the dozen or so kibbles, next time I’ll hide them a little better to give her more of a mental workout. ‘They’ say that tiring them out mentally is just as good as getting them to run all over the place.

Speaking of kibble… Lupa is almost up to a full serving at each meal. She’s still getting chicken and rice but that’s being phased out. Still solid poops!

Awesome!

“safely inside while a snow squall obliterates our view”

“both dogs quietly chewing their bene-bones”

“brisket hot from the instant pot”

a prayer

 The snow was coming at me hard from the east… my icers were on, but on the snow covered areas the cleats got packed with snow so there was no grip; on the glare ice, where the wind had whipped away all traces of snow, they kept me upright. 

What a day to have a puppy that has to go out every 15 minutes after her breakfast. 

We picked up 2 slow feeder bowls for the pups. Adia usually downs her supper in about 45 seconds, with the bowl it took her 10 minutes! Lupa enjoyed her challenge as well.

We have been watching too much of the horrors in the Ukraine. I can only imagine (and unfortunately spend far too much time doing so), what it must be like to be in Kyiv waiting for the Russians to come.

Awesome!

“stepping into a warm house after being out in a blizzard”

“knowing we have nowhere to go today while the blizzard rages on”

“Dad’s soup”

“kneading bread dough”

“I won't let you go! I love you, Dog!'

'There will be other dogs and friends, and loves' whispered the Dog. 'You have found your family, your heritage, and you have earned a high place in the world. I love you too, but my time with you has passed.”

― Garth Nix

icers again

 The icers are back out of the closet. Several hours of freezing rain have glazed everything with ¼ inch of ice. Oh the joy’s of winter!

I think I’m going on 5 nights of uninterrupted sleep! Lupa is still getting mainly chicken and rice and I have started adding kibble, a tablespoon at breakfast and lunch yesterday. I’d love to get her onto proper puppy food so that she’s growing strong bones etc. Hummm… I wonder if I should add a tiny bit of ground egg shell to her meals so that she’s at least getting some calcium.

Trudie & Leo came by for a bit of a visit and some Lupa socialization. She barked for a minute or so but was soon eating chicken out of Trudie’s hands. A good sign.

Adia had her mani/pedi with a new groomer yesterday. Laura was competent and got the job done quickly, bonus that her place is just 5 minutes away. She does other grooming but at this point I plan on doing Lupa myself. I’m having a go at ‘hand-stripping’ which may or may not be working out well. I don’t need her to have a proper schnauzer style - a bit scruffy will do. I’ve got the grooming table in the living room so it’s easy to pop her on every day for a quick brush or scissor trim. I do most of the stripping while she’s asleep in my lap. A bit of a hack job!

Everyday things are getting easier with her, although she got into everything while Carm was watching her this morning, including 2 pee accidents. But things like sitting at the door and waiting to eat are improving. ‘Leave it’ is a work in progress, made harder by having to use high value chicken as the lure. A piece of kibble would be easier!

It seems my posts drone on and on about Lupa, but seriously, she is the only thing happening in our lives right now!

Awesome!

“knowing the icers will give me firm footing”

“icy coated branches”

“puppy asking to come up beside me on the sofa for a nap - this is a double awesome: she’s wanting to cuddle, and even more awesome, she’s asleep!”

snow on the road

 The weather is mixed for today, a blessing after yesterday’s snow squalls and gale force winds. We ended up postponing Dad’s birthday supper as everyone would have had to deal with icy roads. Of course Olaf drove in the crummy conditions, but perhaps he’s a little bit nuts and hasn’t realised his mortality yet. Today should be better, or at least will be in daylight.

I’ve had two nights of uninterrupted sleep! Lupa is fully on chicken and rice for the third day and it’s done the job. Later today I’ll add half tablespoon to her lunch and slowly increase from there in a measured and slow way. She’s up to 11.2lbs, a gain of 0.6 pounds from last week. Despite the diarrhoea!

The schnauzer weight calculator still has her around 16lbs when fully grown which will be perfect (although she is the ideal size for cuddling right now!)

Yesterday would have been Spike’s 14th birthday. If I could have somehow gotten him back a la Frankenstein, or even as a friendly ghost I would have. Darn I miss his little self and wonder if there will ever be a day that I don’t cry for him.

Thankfully Lupa has improved in so many things and is becoming more a part of our family every day. She’s got so much character and is so loving that it’s hard not to grow to be fond of her. Of course she has the devil in her, but maybe that’s part of her charm?

She hasn’t really improved on house-breaking though… there are no accidents when we get her outside often (every 15 minutes for an hour after she eats), but she has not learned to ask and will suddenly run off and pee faster than I can see that she’s moved. I don’t recall all our other dogs being so difficult.

I’m sitting at the kitchen counter with the dogs behind me playing on the floor. Adia just relinquished her bene-bone to Lupa and now everything is calm. Which is a good thing when the coffee is just half drunk!

---------- the day is done and the sun is setting in a pinkish glow

We had a great time getting together for Dad’s birthday. We missed gathering last year but we made up for it today - heaps of food and sweets has me recumbent on the sofa (or at least I wish I was, somehow the little munchkin is not so tired).

Getting the dog cousins together is a work in progress. None of the three smallest seem comfortable with one another so there was a fair amount of growling and barking. A good bit of time with supervised access (behind a gate would be best), will help them get on. Lupa isn’t sure about them but unfortunately her ‘go to’ behaviour is barking and lunging. Not at all helpful.

Awesome!

“being snug and warm on a blustery day”

“that first firm poop!”

“laughing that our main topic of conversation is dog poop, its frequency and consistency”

more sleepless nights

 Remember I mentioned the last time that the icers were put away… well, after a night of warm temperatures and some rain the laneway is a skating rink. Not for long though as we are expecting 20+cm of snow overnight tonight (Thursday).

We took advantage of the above zero day with reasonably clear roads to dash into the city to pick up a luxurious face cream for me. Talk about spoiled! While we were there I popped into Bulk Barn for a giant bag of jujubes! Will that put an end to the puppy induced weight loss?

Yes, it’s been a month since Lupa joined our family. There are notable improvements with behaviour - she doesn’t put EVERYTHING into her mouth but we’ve had some trouble recently with house breaking. 2 poo accidents in 2 days - yikes! That’s some bad management on our part. I lament that she’ll never learn to use the bell to ask to go outside. Something hasn’t clicked in her brain yet.

And Lupa’s diarrhoea is back. She went a few days without getting me up multiple times in the night but we are back to sleep interrupted nights. Four times last night I pulled on my boots with the icers and got into my parka - poor me, but really, poor Lupa. At least she lets me know she needs to go out - small mercies (cause really who wants to clean out a poopy crate in the middle of the night!). 

It wouldn’t be so bad but it often takes me an hour or more to get back to sleep. I don’t know what is triggering her troubles. She’s been on chicken and rice for 2 weeks and I’ve been slowly adding a new kibble back in. Things were good for a few days but since I’ve increased the kibble to almost regular amounts the diarrhoea is back. So I’ll reduce the kibble again and more slowly increase it. Or maybe I’ll drop the kibble all together for her supper. Argh!

Well… that was all yesterday. I think I’ll start posting as soon as I’ve done some writing and not think that I can finish up by the end of the day!

Today the sun is shining on a freshly fallen foot of snow. Roads are yucky. Carm’s done a good job on the laneway and I did a half hearted job of the deck - I’ll have to make a few stabs at it. I seriously have no energy after another night of Lupa’s diarrhoea (at least 6 times outside last night!) and need some cycles left to make a burnt sugar cake for Dad’s birthday. Poor wee thing. So she’s back to square one of rice with chicken and NOTHING else!

Pat came for supper last night. There were a few times that Lupa sat near her feet looking up as if to wonder who she was and if she was okay. I guess Lupa decided that everything was good as she jumped up onto Pat for some gentle pets.

One of Lupa’s ears is sometimes standing up straight! She looks like a little half bred goon. I hope it stays this way :-)

Awesome!

“gorgeous new face cream that makes my skin feel wonderful”

“looking at the calendar and realising that it’s only a month until the weather starts shifting towards spring”

“police cleaning up downtown Ottawa”

“Joyful, joyful, joyful,

as only dogs know how to be happy

with only the autonomy

of their shameless spirit.”

― Pablo Neruda

I've got the music in me

 The clouds parted, letting the sunshine leap into the tub as if on cue as the first notes of music billowed from my little speaker. Ahhhh… the combination lifted my spirits in a way that hasn’t happened in over 3 weeks. I haven’t had any music playing since we got Lupa and I’d forgotten the zing of excitement triggered by a favourite song.

On Saturday we were blessed with a centimetre or two of snow to cover the treacherous ice that was created by the unseasonably warm weather followed by a flash freeze. I had dug out my ‘icers’ for trips out with the demon but I’m happy not to need them anymore. It’s been brutally cold but the sun has shone with force.

I never thought I’d say it (although I hoped desperately that it would come true) - Lupa is getting better behaved by the day. After 3 weeks of constant mayhem things are ‘starting’ to calm down. Oh sure, she and Adia play like crazy (and are doing so now), but Adia is getting better at staying lying down and hasn’t been flailing her legs quite so much (hold that thought - I’ve just put her in her crate for said exuberance). And now she’s gone berserkers.

But it’s better. I’m not sure if the pivot was Saturday night when she kept chewing the same thing over and over again and I flipped out on her, scaring her a bit. Maybe I made an impact in her little devilish brain. (hold that thought - she was just chewing the little carpet beside Adia’s crate).

She is getting noticeably bigger with more grey showing through the black. She’s pretty darn cute and doesn’t look like a schnauzer at all.

She’s starting to ‘resource guard’ me which will have to be nipped in the bud.

Happy Valentine's Day! Do you do anything to celebrate? For years now we’ve more or less passed over the day as if it were any other - are we jaded? I don’t think so, but when you try to make everyday special (at least until our life was taken over by a grey whirlwind), it doesn’t seem as important to mark just one day. We did manage a sit down at the table for dinner with Lupa in the puppy pen not even making a peep!

Awesome!

“the clouds parting to expose a vibrant sun”

“finding just the right thing on FB marketplace”

“a few hours of puppy naps in the morning when I feel crappy from forgetting to take my meds the night before”

“Carm taking care of puppy while I sleep in”

“snuggling Lupa under the covers for a few minutes in the morning”

always let sleeping dogs lie

 I’m pinned to the sofa, afraid to move lest I wake up the demon dog… Mom called this morning, wondering if I was okay as I hadn’t written a blog in so long. Checking now I see that it was last Sunday. Time flies when you are sleep deprived (up every 2 hours in the night for a full week) and driven to distraction by two whirling dervishes. It seems that when they are awake there isn’t a moment when I can take my eyes off them.

So yes, exhausted and sometimes a bit cranky.

So what has happened over the last several days? Monday Jo Ellen and Don came for lunch. Lupa barked at first but with some quiet persuasion she was jumping up for pats. We are forgoing training her not to jump up at the moment in favour of enthusiastic greetings. The other will come once she has more confidence again. 

It was like pre-covid days with all the socialising we’ve done over the last week! How we fit that in between moments of exhaustion I’m not sure!

Tuesday was Adia’s nail day so we brought Lupa along so that Kate could look at her coat to see if she can be hand stripped. Kate thought that parts of her were good but that we’d have to trim other areas where the hair was softer. Part of me wants to take her in to get cleaned up but I also like her wild and crazy look! She looks a bit like a miniature Irish wolfhound at the moment with her scruffy grey and black coat, well, if a wolfhound was built square.

Wednesday was Lupa’s puppy check up and the last of her vaccinations. The vet gave her a good workup considering the diarrhoea but only found robust good health. Well. Over the days of her upset I dropped food after food until on the day before the vet appointment she was only getting rice and boiled chicken. The vet sent home some probiotics and a deworming med - later in the day her stool was back to more or less normal and that was even before the deworming. The vet suggested that we stick with the chicken and rice for a week or more, gradually adding in some puppy food. We picked up another puppy food to try.

The rice diet has not slowed her down at all. Maybe she’s hopped up on the ‘white carb’ sugars.

Graham came by for a visit later in the day… Lupa barked a few times but it wasn’t long before she was crawling into his lap for cuddles. I was so happy to see that she would still do that!

That brings us to yesterday, Lupa’s school day. Yes, she was still the worst in the class even though she had boiled chicken as a delicious treat. She was very distracted by the other dogs. During puppy play time she tried to interact with the other dogs but hung back. When things got too rambunctious for her she hid under my chair, but not before snapping at another dog. Yikes.

This morning I went back to bed for a few hours while Carm minded the little monkey. I heard him go outside 3 or 4 times, perhaps in desperation to keep her out of things! I could hear her barking so I thought he had put her in the playpen, but no, she was barking at the door to the bedrooms. I’ve got to take a bit of time everyday to get her more used to being away from me.

Our last puppy was Spike, who didn’t get into anything and was basically a perfect puppy and now we have hell on wheels! No, not wheels, 4 legs that move in a blur as they propel a tiny set of jaws around the house.

She is actually a lot better than she was a week ago.

The weather is warm, melting the perfect snow into a density that will hold small creatures. If I get the snowshoes out I could make another walkable trail.

Awesome!

“Lupa doing a perfect down”

“Adia dragging Lupa around the room with the purple firehose toy”

“Adia and Lupa cuddled up asleep on the loveseat”

“anytime Lupa is asleep”

puppy puzzles

 Friday was another day of chaos with Adia instigating mayhem and Lupa happily joining in. I’m happy that they are getting along but gosh! By the end of the day I’m too exhausted to make supper and my appetite has gone. Carm has been stepping up to take away some of the burden. I’ve also been using the crates more.

Lupa has had diarrhoea or loose stool on and off since Wednesday night - luckily she wakes me up to take her outside (every 2 hours!) and then goes back to sleep right away. Small mercies. Maybe because of this she had 2 accidents in the house yesterday (pee & poop) but she made up for it by going to the front door 3 times. Small progress although at times it feels that it will never end.

She’s quickly getting bigger. 10.2 pounds this morning, up almost a pound from a week ago! She’s growing up to be an Irish Wolfhound 😱 

I do think she was dropped on her head at some point as she’s not the brightest light in the room - it’s unfair of me but I compare her to Spike who was the smartest dog we’ve had and he loved to learn new things. She is easily distracted and has the attention span of a gnat! She’s not at all food oriented unless it’s the raw meat for supper so I’m having trouble finding treats she’ll work for and worst of all we think the chicken hearts are the cause of her gastric upset.

Cathey was by for supper last night and brought some dog puzzles for the pooches to try out. Adia loved it and quickly solved them, even to level 3. Lupa got to try one and did manage to solve a level 2 in a reasonable length of time. We’ll think of getting one of the harder ones to challenge them.

It was 8 weeks yesterday that we lost Spike. I still cry a bit every day and am fighting the gloom that comes with sadness. Thankfully little Lupa brings some light into our lives. I don’t recall when I’ve seen Carm laugh so much.

Both dogs are asleep right now! I’m not moving in fear of waking them up!

… later in the evening

We just said goodbye to Trudie, Leo, and Pat after an evening of enthusiastic conversation and a bit of food. Lupa was quiet - I think she was overwhelmed by so many people. She was back to being a devil as Carm closed the gate. We’ll have to make sure to have more people over with positive experiences to increase her confidence.

Awesome!

“asking several times at the door”

“chickadees coming down to the feeder when I was standing 4’ away”

“Lupa walking into her bedtime crate on her own”

“a moment of peace”

first day of school

 Wednesday… It’s going to be a long day… I have an irritating headache...it’s only 10:30 and Adia has been ‘canned’ for the second (or is it the third) time today; Lupa the same. Oh, for a few minutes of peace!

We’ve done a bit of puppy socialisation over the last few days: on Monday, Marie from across the street came by for the afternoon and yesterday we had a trip to Pet Valu. She loves people and will gladly crawl into laps. We didn’t get to see other dogs yesterday though but tomorrow’s puppy class will rectify that. I hope she’s good. I’ve always had the ‘best in the class’ dog and I’d like to keep that up!

brief interruption: Lupa was standing by the front door asking to go outside where she peed and pooped! It was a definite ask. No bells though. Adia is still locked up; Lupa is lying on the loveseat. Oh bliss!

---------- and that was yesterday. Somehow the time got away from me and with a headache and canna cookie any creativity that I may have had vanished.

This morning was as I’d feared. After having 4 dogs who were the smartest in the class I now had a dog that barked like crazy and couldn’t listen to me at all. It was humbling and perhaps had a whiff of karma thrown in. The first 5 minutes were awful but I tried not to stress about it and fed lots of high value treats when quiet. Finally she was mostly quiet and could sit on the floor watching. Oh, she had no attention span and ignored everything I tried to do with her… I consider it a win though.

And this afternoon, after being outside for a while Lupa was playing in the house and then ran over to the front door. Took her out and she had a little (loose) poo! That’s not the first time she’s asked for the door - she’s learning! It was 2 weeks yesterday that we brought her home so I don’t expect miracles... I’m not saying she’s a genius (she’s not), but she’s no dummy either. Maybe the bell will be in her future.

We had snow last night and into this morning - enough to screw up the roads, but not too much to keep me from driving to ‘school’. Luckily the class is just over 5 minutes away (even at chicken speeds).

Awesome!

“good puppy in the pet store”

“puppy zoomies good… grown rhodesian ridgeback zoomies, not so great in the house”

“thank goodness Adia is quiet and relaxed in her crate!”

“learning not to bark at the puppies in her class”

“that moment when she sat down in class and gave me eye contact”