Surprise!

Hello dear blog!  I missed you!

I feel like I lost my brain for a lot of last year.  It went by so fast.  It felt like Jake and I got engaged at the beginning of the year then, bam!  We were getting married and went on the honeymoon and then the year was over.  That was pretty much 2015 for me.  I will go back and do some posts like the holidays and the wedding, just give me time.

For now, things are coming along.  Life has never been better for me than it is right now.  I've never been this happy.  Things are changing but change is so necessary for life, I can't even tell you.  If you're not changing then you can't really be happy because the world isn't stagnate.  There are exciting things coming that I am nervous about but also very excited.  I never would have guessed this would be my life if you asked me a couple of years ago but I am so glad it is.  So I can only look forward with hope and excitement.

This post will be less about the past than what is happening right now.  Right now is on my mind.

So:

Whitman is costing me a fortune with his foot.  About a month or so ago, I noticed his nail was bleeding and bent a bit to the side after he went running about the yard after some little critter or another.  The nail seemed solid on his foot so I didn't think too much of it except he kept limping off and on and licking his foot.  So I finally broke down and took him to work to get that looked at.  The doctor suspected that his toe was broken but there wasn't much to do with it except put him on pain killers and antibiotics and wait for it to heal.

Of course, right when Jake and I were leaving town for New Years, Whitman ripped it more and bled all over the car on the way to my sister's house.  Big thanks to my sister for taking Whitman to the vet for me.  The doctor decided to pull the nail off at that time and when he did a piece of bone came out with it.  So yes he broke his toe and it was pretty much cut the digit off or hope that the toenail didn't regrow in a painful way.  Just call him Whitman the Toeless Wonder!

That itself wasn't so bad but he's refused to keep his bandage on.  He ate it off once then pulled the stitches out a second time, requiring him to go back under and get the damn foot stapled.  He's a terror with the cone and looks so pathetic but it is finally healing up.  If he pulls anything out again I might just kill him.  I just want him to heal and feel better so we can start running together.

Work has been going great.  I absolutely love working at a vet's office; somehow, I always knew I would.  I have also answered the question of do I want to be a vet tech and the answer is no.  Don't really want to do that at all.  Good to know though.  I would love to keep working in vet's offices and possibly go back for a degree in management or something to further that career path.

Business is booming at House of Dog too and that's been incredible.  Going to look into putting more time into that here coming up soon.  It is great to have a passion that works for you.  Love it.

I was sitting at home going through things this morning and one thing I used to do that I miss is called Postcrossing.  It is a site that you can sign up for that allows you to send and receive postcards from around the world.  I've been collecting postcards for years and I loved getting them from all different places and countries.  Did it for years and then just kind of peetered off.  So I reactivated my account and sent some out this morning,  Strangely, I sent like 9 to Russia.  Come on, it's a huge world out there!  Why so many to Russia?  Then I ran out of cards so I ordered a few more.  We'll see how it goes from here but I can't wait to get some from the great wide world.

My phone headphone jack stopped working.  If you know me, you know I don't like the quiet.  I like to have my headphones going with something on, even if I'm not actively listening to it because I just can not stand the quiet.  Sadly, my husband does like the quiet so I wear my headphones a lot of the time all over the place.  It's hard not to have that work.  Course, it might actually be a good thing because I might be able to break myself of this obsession with having something playing at all times.  I need to distance myself from my phone anyway.  That's what Jake says even if he is on his phone just as much as I am.  (Honey, you know it is true.)  It is just hard to break habits.  I mean it took me about 10 years to stop biting my nails.  This could be hard.

Hmm... What else do I want to comment upon?  Eh at the moment that is all I had.  Love to you all out there in Blogsworld!

Give Thanks- My Boys

What am I thankful for today?  Another just whatever day.

I am thankful for the warm little souls that greet me at the front door everyday when I come home.  Whitman can't wait to see me and I know he loves his momma.  Theo loves me to pieces in his own cat way.  I love that I get to come home to them both and know I can count on them being there for me every time.

I also love Jeanine but she's always out and about with me so it's different.  Plus she loves her daddy more than me.  Whitman loves me the mostest out of anything ever!

Special Project and little Thief

I've been doing some special baking at work the past couple of days.  WagNWash is going to donate some treats to the Humane Society and guess who gets to make them?  Me!

Along with the help of my kitchen minion, Amanda, I made and decorated all these cookies.  I love doing things like that.  What is so funny is that Whitman, the same dog that regularly spits out the treats I give him, was caught several times stealing the freshly made cookies right off of the cooling racks.  Amanda and I had a great time laughing at this little thief.

Whitman may not be the smartest boy out there but man he is just hilarious!

Pretty!

Whitman's form of training

I have made some hard choices in regards to training.  Training classes are no longer as enjoyable for me as they once were.  I don't like it.  I'm bored and I need to do something else.

However, there are still moments where I find some joy in them.  Mostly when Whitman is ignoring all the working dogs and playing in the toy box like a kid in the back of the classroom eating paste.  Man, I love this dog!

Whitman is 4!!!

One of the great loves of my life turns four years old today!  Whitman is getting to be such an old man!  I can hardly believe it.  I am so in love with him and he never fails to make me smile.  This year was hard, losing Gerani, and I know I never could have made it through that without this silly and lovable boy. Happy 4th Birthday pumpkin butt!

Whitters!

I'm thankful for my boy, Whitman.  I've always had a huge heart for dogs and I got used to having really well trained dogs.  Then Whitman came along.  He's a different dog than I thought I wanted but I love him dearly for that.  No dog has ever made me laugh as much as he has.  He may not be the demo dog Gerani was but he certainly has personality.  Plus he's just the sweetest and most handsome little guy!

Love you, Whitman!

Sweetest Boy!

Whitman really is just the sweetest boy.  I love him so much and I'm so lucky to have him in my life.  I may want to strangle him sometimes, like when he went crazy during agility and put us in last place, but I mostly love him.

Skunks are punks!

So Whitman got sprayed by a skunk two nights ago.  At first I thought it was the weed killer that my dad put down but no, totally a skunk.

So at like 11pm I am brushing my teeth and I smell this smell.  Then I realized, oh crap I put Whitman outside on top of the weed killer my dad sprayed earlier and totally didn't think about it.  I RUN to the door and call him in and he smells like ass.

Well I don't have the best sense of smell in the world so I didn't immediately think skunk.  I just knew he smelled awful.  So awful I was gagging and I thought he was stinking up my room and I couldn't sleep.  So I slept on the couch while he slept sprawled out on my bed.  Yeah, those sheets are getting washed.

I wake up in the morning and his face is all puffy but I took him to LD for his grooming appointment anyway.  Well guess what was cancelled?  So I had to pick him up after work and take him to Wag N Wash for a bath.  A whole bottle of skunk shampoo later and he still smells.  It's just masked by the shampoo.  I have never had a dog skunked before but I hear that the smell doesn't go away for months.  Damn this dog!

He's also still got some face swelling going on.  I refuse to get a vet bill out of this though so I gave him some allergy meds and hopefully that helps.  Grrr this boy.

I love my dog... I love my dog.. I love my dog...

Whitman is really trying my patience.  Really.  I wanted to strangle him this morning.  And again this afternoon.  He's really lucky he has such a good grovel face.

Whitman woke me up three times last night.  Once to pee, once just because, and once to throw up everywhere.  After both he and Gerani sick all weekend, he decided he wanted to get in the trash last night.  I was worried he'd be sick again but of course, nothing until 4:00 AM.  Why do they always have to get sick in the middle of the night after getting into something?  So after a very grumpy me cleaned up his throw up, he spent the rest of the night locked in the bathroom.  Where he again, threw up.  ...And laid in it.  Oh and he got into the bathroom trash.  I don't get it!  He never gets into the trash.  Now twice in 12 hours.  GAH!

I didn't have time to clean him and the bathroom in the morning.  So I locked him in the kitchen while I went to work until I could come get him at lunch for his bath appointment.  He smells absolutely disgusting by the way.  Dog throw up smell is probably one of the worst out there.

So I rush home to pick him up so I can take him to LD for a bath to find that he broke out of the kitchen and spend the morning throwing up and leaving those long lines of yellow bile everywhere.  Gag.  So I'm already late for the grooming and I have to spend more time cleaning up after him.  Thank God I have a rug cleaning machine or else I think my brother would kill him.  My brother may still kill him.

My dogs very rarely throw up and get sick like this.  But since I moved in with my brother, they've thrown up over 10 times.  Always on his carpet.  They're just seeing how long it takes before my brother kills them or murders me in my sleep.  I owe him a professional carpet clean when I move out.  Again, luckily I have the carpet machine so I can get all spots up.  Still though.  They're like, we're living as guests at Uncle Geoff's house so let's get all the throwing up we can into these couple of months.

Thank God he's getting a bath today because I can't take him smelling like throw up.  I keep smelling it on me even though I've washed my hands 6 times.  GOD!  I just want this day to be over so I can go home WITHOUT a dog throwing up so I can get some decent sleep.  So help me if he gets into something again I may need several Whitman free days.  He's working my last nerve.

Scratching the surface

Who am I?  Does anyone else think that's the hardest question to answer?  I'm a whole made up of little pieces that are always changing.  That's one of the reasons to keep this blog.

Me!

Here's a little about me:

• I can cook but I don't like to.
• Backpacking Europe was the best experience of my life.
• I love hot cocoa even in the summer.
• I can't start a TV show in the middle of a season.
• This is the first house I've ever rented on my own.  It's quirky and I love it!
• I've got mad singing and dancing skills in the car.
• I prefer jeans and a tshirt with a hoodie.
• I've never ordered a drink and not been carded (that might have something to do with my style choice.)
• I cry at almost all sad movies.
• I listen to Disney songs when I clean.

One of the most important things you should know about me is that dogs are my life.  I have a degree in English Literature but I've decided to make training dogs my career.  That all started with raising puppies for Canine Companions for Independence.  Taking a dog to high school everyday will sure teach you to rise above the silliness of teenage kids.  I'm about to go for my training certification this year.  Wee!

I have two dogs and a cat of my very own.  They are my babies and I'd pretty much do anything for them.

Theo

Gerani

Theo is my first cat.  He graciously allows me to live in his house.  He loves chin scratches and is obsessed with escaping outside.















Gerani is my old girl.  She was one of my CCI puppies and came back to live with me after she decided she'd rather be waited on in life.  She turns 12 on Monday but she's such a trooper.

Whitman

Whitman is my mystery boy.  Six months after I lost my lab, Vallie, I decided I needed a puppy.  Whitman was an "impulse buy" at the humane society.  Boy howdy I didn't know what I was getting into.  He's touchy around strangers but he's my fluffy boy.  I wouldn't trade him for anything.











There's always more where that came from.  You'll have to tune in to find out.