hoofing it

 Spring is taunting us from behind a curtain of cold with a bit of freezing rain in the forecast. We are just below freezing today, yesterday was much colder.

A trip to Pet Valu was in the cards for Lupa today, and the first time riding in the truck. She did well in the truck and not too bad at Pet Valu. She’s still totally distracted in PV but did sit and sometimes gives me eye contact. There were even a few automatic sits. I felt that it was an improvement from our last visit a week ago. 

We picked up some cow hooves that I’ll use to make frozen dinners for her next week after her spay. It will keep her busy for a while to lick out the food and then she has the hoof to chew. They are pretty cheap (unlike everything else we’ve bought her). After her spay I’ll pay more attention to making challenging food puzzles for her meals - soaked kibble mixed with canned food frozen into the channels will give her something to do during her long convalescence.

The ladies at the pet store said they get lots and lots of puppies coming through but that they remember Lupa because of her unique coat. ha ha… the grooming is certainly a work in progress and I vacillate between thinking I can do it, to wanting to shave it all off. I’ll try not to be impatient as I do like her coat the way it is now. If it will continue to look good remains a question. After her spay I might try shaving part of her face - I’ve been scissoring it but I suck at getting a good result.

It’s going to be a challenge keeping her quiet enough for her incision to heel - she’s up and down and over every piece of furniture! Not sure how she’ll take to being crated for so long… I foresee lots of quiet training time!

So much work still to be done to make this little pup a good citizen.

We had Kari over for supper last night - a lovely visit for sure. She’s just down the road from us but seems to be out of our consciousness - we must have her over more often.

Awesome!

“bits of sunshine here and there”

“the dogs going crazy running in the field”

“tired dogs crashed out for the afternoon”

birthday celebrations

 We meant to have burnt sugar cake for our breakfast yesterday but with all the prep for having Jo Ellen and Don for lunch we breezed past breakfast time with just a hard-boiled egg for sustenance. We did have the cake for dessert at lunch and it was good :-) A sugar high followed by a crash had us all lolling on the sofa afterwards.

Lupa barked when they came and then at Don for a little while. I’m not sure what happened as I think I saw Lupa and Don visiting when they first came in. She might be starting a fear period. We were out in the village on Saturday morning - a few woofs at a jogger going by and then nothing. We even saw another dog out walking and she was silent. I saw them ahead of time so deeked down a side street about 15’ so we could be a bit further away.

We had a nice little visit with Kirsten and Shawn in the evening.

Lupa was 23 weeks old yesterday and 13.4 pounds. She’s turning into an Irish Wolfhound! I want her to stay small - she’s just a bit bigger than perfect size now and still has a few more months of growing. She and Adia play all day and she seems to hold her own, although I don’t let Adia hunt her. They get rambunctious and when Adia starts sending the furniture flying the play is aborted (by me). 

The vet office called today to remind us of Lupa’s spay next week. Gosh! How can we send a little puppy in for such an intrusive procedure?

Awesome!

“celebrating Carm’s birthday”

“moonshine green”

“a quiet morning after 2 busy days”

little shop of syrup

 With every day that passes I’m getting more fond of the little grey bouncing puppy. She’s only done one short walk in the village so today I took her up and down main street for 20ish minutes. At first she was all nose - so many exciting scents! - and walking every which way, straining at the end of her leash. Soon she would look at me when I said her name, then after a few more minutes she’d sit, and then eventually we had steps of loose leash walking by my side. 

There were lots of people and baby carriages walking around - only two teeny tiny barks! We even passed a dog that was tied up in its yard with not even a peep. A transport truck roared past us with not even a flinch. If you’ve been following her journey you’ll know what a success today was. Oh, she has a long way to go but the progress in such a short time was motivating :-)

More adventure awaited Lupa last night with a trip to Trudie & Leo’s workshop for an evening of maple syrup boiling. She snuffled around the huge shop looking for things to put in her mouth. A dead mouse topped the list for grossness, while countless tiny feathers were extracted from her busy mouth. I could have reconstituted a 2x4 with all the wood chips I removed.

driving the tractor

The fun didn’t end there - Pepper (the cat) came in for a while. There was a Mexican standoff then Lupa tried to entice her to play. Pepper wasn’t into it, perhaps because she doesn’t read puppy play invitations well. Or maybe because she’s a dignified cat that doesn’t want to participate in shenanigans.

Looking for Pepper

Near the end of the evening Carm brought her crate in so she’d rest (and I’d get to relax a bit instead of being on the lookout for about to be ingested gunk. She was happy and dirty and tired when we got home.

Our little German terrier found another mouse today! She’s got a good nose on her. Plus she’s super observant, she doesn’t miss a thing. This might turn out to be a bad thing now that most of the snow is gone releasing a million new smells. I’ll need some extra good treats outside for recall practice - I’m thinking hotdog might be a good start.

Yesterday in my ‘on this day’ photos from google were a few photos from 2 years ago. We had walked down the deserted roads to Trudie & Leo’s for a distanced visit in the huge and airy workshop. It was our first time venturing out - everything felt strange and scary during those first days and we were unsure about how careful we had to be. 

Today was Adia’s nail appointment. The groomer had covid last week so we were extra careful and did the work outside on the driveway and of course had our masks on.

Awesome!

“a bit of sun and warmth in the morning”

“a visit that didn’t require social distancing”

“Lupa taking everything in stride with no barking”

“successful steps on our walk in the busy village”