Everyone loves a water dog

Right? I love seeing a dog who is confident in the water. Honey seems to know when she's at her limit. She doesn't go in for deep swims when she is already exhausted. But she gets hot easily, and has figured out the easiest way to cool off and enjoy the water without wearing herself out.

(Excuse the low quality of photos in these last few posts. Pictures have been taken with either my or Isaac's phone).

"Pleeeaaaase throw the ball!"

"Awww riiiight. I got ma' ball!"

Life is rough for this dog.

Public

I made the blog public again. Friends kept saying, "Have you updated your blog? I never see it in my feed anymore." They couldn't see it because it was private, and you have to go directly TO a private blog to see it, and that's just too much trouble for some folks.

I figure that since I have left facebook and cut off web communication with anyone at work, it's probably safe to be public again.

--Nat

P.S. That is why you might see like, a thousand blogs in your feed all at one time. I am very sorry. I wish I knew a way around that.

Four stages of of cute

I love both Dax and Honey. Since Dax has been adopted out to my dad (for both their sakes), I focus most of my attention and adoration on Honey these days.

She is a whipper snapper. I love when she sleeps. Not just because I can relax and shower and not have to worry about getting her little puppy bladder out to the yard every hour (just in case), but because she tends to have a few different positions she goes into as a routine when she sleeps, and it's pretty darn cute.

Stage One

After finally giving up on trying to engage everything around her in a game of some sort, she tends to flop down on her tummy, wherever she is, and *harumph* straight into a nap.

Stage Two

By stage two she is starting to wiggle her toes and twitch her nose around; she's getting into a more natural position and dreaming of wonderful things like mongoose poop and tennis balls.

Stage Three

I think she likes us. Soon after she starts to dream she will subconsciously wiggle up to the nearest warm body and stay there. If we're not nearby, she will wake up, get up, and come lie next to us.

Stage Four

The "bask in the comfort of my environment" pose.

Finally, this one isn't a pose, I just think it's really cute when dogs stick out the tip of their tongue while they sleep.

Destruction (Photos!)

Honey was released from the doctor today. She's cheerful, playful and tail wagging. If it wasn't for the shaved spot where her IV was, and the fact that she spent her first 2 hours home peeing every 2 minutes (from all the IV fluid, I would guess), you'd have no idea she tried to do herself in with bird seed.

When she was sick, she got sick all over her bed. I removed the cover so I could replace it. Which, I suppose, made shredding the pillow inside that much easier while I was at work tonight:

From my camera phone. The remains of what used to be Honey's dog bed.

Doggy Bird Seed Bender

*Yucky details in this entry*

I haven't slept in 40 hours. Despite feeling completely drained, I know I won't fall asleep until I have emptied my head and let myself unwind.

Yesterday, after an already very long day behind me, I came home late from work (about 10). Honey (the dog) had only been home alone for about 5 hours. On previous occasions when she was home alone, she did very well. No major messes, nothing chewed up, no in-house accidents.

This time I noticed she had emptied her basket of toys which were everywhere. Which is OK, they are her toys, after all; and we haven't given her many so it took all of 15 seconds to put them back.

Then, I noticed, on our screened in lana'i, she had somehow jumped up to a 5.5 foot shelf and pulled off the sack of bird seed we keep to re-fill the bird feeder in our yard. Bird seed was scattered everywhere, though not as much as should have been given the size of the bag. In other words, she ate approximately 1.5 lbs of seed. She went on a bird seed bender!

This was all very educational for me. First, I had no idea that my dog was so agile and gravity-defying. The shelf is a wall shelf, bolted to the wall, nothing under or next to it to climb. Second, I had no idea a dog could eat so much bird seed; or that any dog would want to.

Dax knows when something is bad for him; and he rarely eats people food. He just does not like it. He is a naturally healthy decision maker.

Apparently not all dogs are like that.

Anyway, her activity level was still WAY up and she was happy to see me, so I thought nothing of it.

Until she got really fidgety around 11 am, and kept having to go out to go potty. Which kept me up because I have to escort her out at night so she doesn't lick a Cane toad (whole other story). This happened about every 15 minutes. I thought I could ignore her once and try to sleep, since I know she has the bladder control, but she could not hold it.

Then, around 2 am, she started getting fiercely sick. She was hot and vomity and well...I will spare details. I called the emergency vet at about 4am. He said if she got lethargic to bring her in ASAP, otherwise, bring her in around 6 or 7 am and they would start testing.

So I brought her in this morning.

Turns out, bird seed can go bad. Really bad. And with her size (30 lbs) and the amount she ate (2lbs) it impacts the small intestine in a really nasty way. It also ferments with germs and fungus and does all sorts of damage in there. The vet was glad I brought her in this morning, since she needed to be put on an IV and be admitted for monitoring. She's had several enemas today, and hasn't been off the IV yet. She has to stay overnight for more monitoring. (I, in the meantime, spent the day scrubbing and sterilizing my home, making it aromatic again, and buying and installing baby-proofing tools everywhere I felt necessary).

Who knew bird seed could be so potentially dangerous.

She might get to come home tomorrow if she "passes" a series of more tests. Otherwise, she'll stay another day, and possibly undergo slightly more invasive methods to clear out her tummy.

I am sad for my puppy, I really hope she is fully recovered so I can bring her home tomorrow. The only obstacle is that the IronMan triathlon is going on, and the highway I have to drive across to get to the vet's will be barricaded off for the safety of the athletes, and will not be open again until the evening of the 10th.

Trying to figure out that one hiccup has been preventing me from dropping straight into bed...

New things can be scary

I have taken for granted how scary or unexpected something can be when it's brand new to you. Honey, the new dog, has made me appreciate this again. Having been a stray whom we think never knew a home before, she spent the first 9-ish months of her life basically as a wild dog. There are several things in our home which have scared her; and every time I think she's fully acquainted, something else sets her off.

1. Stairs. The only way to get in our home is via stairs. When we got to our house from the shelter, we assumed she would follow us normally into the house. There was a pull. She stopped. She had no idea how to get her front feet up and make her back feet follow. We got her started and she just about stumbled back down, completely frightened. A few days later, after some coaching and placing treats on each step, she got the hang of it.

2. Soft surfaces (couches, beds, pillows, etc). The first time Isaac invited her onto the sofa to sit by him, she was extremely uncomfortable and skeptical. We let her stay in bed with us the first night because she wanted to be near us, but she had a hard time sleeping that first time. She tossed and turned. Now, she begs for a nap in bed every day around 10 or 11 am.

3. Mirrors and window reflections. This was especially funny to watch. We know not to baby or pander a dog when it's frightened because it fosters those feelings of fear and anxiety. So we watched amusedly. We have a big mirror door in our office to the office closet. The first time she followed us in there, her hackles went up and she began to growl and bark, and pace back and forth in front of the mirror, occasionally going in for a warning nip to "that other dog." She then started to try to outsmart the dog by slowly turning her head and walking away, then quickly snapping back at it...then would whimper because (we assume) she saw that the other dog was just as fast and sly as her! She still barks any time she sees her own reflection in a glass door or window at night, but she's becoming more and more friendly with her mirror reflection.

4. Remote controls and other similarly shaped electronics. This one seems a little more random than the rest. She seems to be OK with other small objects for the most part. But when we use the remote or point it at the TV, she runs to the other side of the room and barks excitedly. We've managed to get her to calm down quite a bit, but she still refuses to be near one.

5. Anything that squeaks. Dax also hated squeaky toys. But Honey will bolt in the other direction with her tail between her legs if we offer her squeaky toy to her and it squeaks. She's so afraid of it now that she won't even go near it if it's not squeaking.

6. Window blinds.  I think she may have survived off bugs before she was rescued. She chases them around our house and catches them every time she sets out to get one. But one went behind the blinds and she couldn't figure out how to get to it. In the spirit of being helpful, I pulled the blinds up. She did a backflip off the sofa, onto the floor, then scrambled into the corner, tail down, hackles up, and started barking and whimpering.

Those events aside, she is becoming more and more adjusted every time she sees something new. Our vet suggested introducing her to something new and unusual every few days with treats so she can acclimate and get adjusted; it's a suggestion that has been working really well. Honey is starting to feel more and more at home. We start obedience training class next week, and once that is done, she gets to start agility training! We're hoping we can do more things right and less things wrong than we did with Dax, for an especially balanced, happy, and friendly dog.

Evolving

I don't know what it is about being married that suddenly makes me feel that I am changing so much as a person, and that my surroundings are changing too...or maybe that is just my perspective.

As much as Isaac and I got to improving the art of communication before our wedding, we're getting even better at it now. I think that part of that is the mentality that we are officially bound to each other for life, so we better get started on making that life easy on ourselves and each other!

I think we have both also gotten into the mentality that in order to take truly good care of each other, we need to take good care of ourselves first. We've really been fostering wellness in ourselves, each other, and our marriage. Never in a million years did I think my husband would take up yoga, but we're both really into it now...going to classes six days a week and even having a private instructor come over and work with us another two days a week. I think the yoga lifestyle is starting to reach out into every part of our routine.

Along those lines, I've become one of those people who treats sugar like the devil. I don't want it in my house, in my food, or on my mind. It has never really been a secret that sugar and sugary foods do damage to the human body; but I've been seeing that damage in action with people I know, and have been reading more and more about it. I crave it less and less.

Isaac has been fostering my need to be creative and meditative, and has also been feeling more drawn to home and time together. I think the first year-ish of his big plate full of chief pilot duties kept him away long enough that the importance of a home life sunk in. Having Honey in our home makes everything feel more whole as well; and we're really beginning to feel more like a family unit than simply a couple.

All of this growing wellness in our heads, souls, and bodies has been so nurturing for us. I am finding myself more attracted to my husband, and more relaxed with myself. I hope we are both able to continue to foster all this good energy and watch it grow. He is away for two weeks on the mainland right now; so it will take some work and testing to see how well we can both continue to foster these positive improvements while we are apart. I miss him already and am really looking forward to him being home.

Beach Dog

We have on our hands a beach dog! An ocean-loving, wave-riding, sand-sprinting little beach dog. Her stitches have finally dissolved after being spayed, so we can take her into the water now. Not that we have to pressure her into it. Once she hears the waves, there's no stopping her from running straight in and riding the waves back.

This time, we brought her other obsession: a ball. Throwing a ball into the waves for her to fetch seemed to provide her with pure joy.

She also loves sea turtles...from a distance. When she sees their heads bobbing on the surface (as we always do at this particular beach), she swims right up to them, thinking they are a ball. But as soon as she gets close enough to see that they are about 170 lbs bigger than she is, she tries swimming backwards and turns around quickly. It's clear that she loves the water but is terrified of sea creatures.

We're pretty happy to have a beach babe. What a perfect little Poi dog she is!

What the Stork Found...

A little stork found a cute little girl. She was alone, skinny, and bony in a park. Just about starving to death. He took her to a shelter, where we saw her in her stall and thought we'd take her on a walk. We had been visiting frequently and taking various dogs out for exercise. We had no idea we'd end up loving her so instantly.

The walk turned into instant love. We were smitten.

Meet Honey. We cycled through lots of names to which she didn't respond, cute though they were. (Amongst them: Gidget, Peanut, Luna...). When we gave up, we affectionately started calling her "honey" (lower case "h"). But, sticky as honey is, it stuck and is now Honey. Which fits, as she is a very sweet girl.

She loves to cuddle, and thinks that the ball is the greatest invention of all time. She already knows how to play fetch and bring the ball back, and is getting very high marks in house training. She was once a homeless, stray Poi dog (like the rez dog version of Hawaii). The first time she saw her reflection, she couldn't stop growling and barking at the mysterious pup she was looking at. She is about a year old, and still learning how to climb and descend stairs.

We are told she LOVES the water, but can't find out until the 24th, when her spaying stitches are healed. We've got a fun beach day planned for her!

The Biggest Change of All!

Even though Isaac has been begging for months that I stop using facebook so often, the level of importance it held to him didn't click until recently.

I need not go into the series of events and conversations that led to my realizing that I had a problem [hi, my name is Natalie and I spend too much time on facebook...], but suffice it to say, it finally hit me. A little bit like a ton of bricks.

So I left facebook. Or, I deleted my account. Did and done! Isaac put my name on his account simply so that I can log in and see photo albums once in a blue moon that our sisters post of our nieces and nephews (since they rarely e-mail them). But that's it!

I am facebook free! 2 days and counting. I hope to discover a myriad of healthy and beneficial changes in my life as a result.