Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Henry is a very vocal pug. It seems like he has a lot to say. When a stranger comes into the house, it is not uncommon to have Henry sit at their feet and bark at them. Now, you are probably saying that a dog barking at a stranger is pretty normal, but he isn’t barking to be aggressive or to get the stranger out of his house. His bark is a little “woo woo woo woo” and is very calm and almost playful. He doesn’t jump on them or growl. It is pretty obvious that he is trying to tell them something, we just don’t know what.
Henry does the same thing with Luna. He will walk up to her and just start barking at her. Most of the time this makes Luna jump on Henry and they start to play, but sometimes Luna just sits there with a blank look on her face. This, of course, makes Henry bark louder.
In addition to barking, Henry has now started pawing at Luna to get her to play. He will walk over to her and tap her on her back as if to say, “Your it!” Other times he will throw himself on the ground, roll over to his back and waive his paws at her. All in an effort to have his little sister pay attention to him.
Monday, March 6, 2006
We have had Luna for a little over a month and one of the things I have learned about her is that she is nearly impossible to photograph. Every time I reach for the camera she stops what she is doing and comes running over to me. If I try to get on her level to take a picture she comes and sits at my feet. If I lay down to get on her level, she climbs on my back and makes herself comfortable.
It is amusing and very different from the boys. The boys are so used to having the camera out that they are not fazed when I am walking around them pointing and shooting pictures. They just look at me like “There she goes again!” and they don’t budge.
Today, I feel like we had a breakthrough and Luna is starting to get used to having a camera pointed at her. Now hopefully, I will be able to get more good shots of the little girl.
Friday, March 3, 2006
We always joke that Benny is a little, old man that is set in his ways. He has a certain routine for his day and he likes it that way. He doesn’t like it when his routine is interrupted or altered.
One of the things that he always does when he wants to settle in your lap is he always brings something with him. It could be his puffy, a plush toy or even a bone. Once in your lap, he shoves his face in yours and gives you a real close look at whatever he has brought you. He doesn’t want you to take it from his mouth, he just wants you to get a real close look at it. After he has showed it to you, he then settles and will hold on to whatever he has brought you for a few minutes until he has fallen asleep and dropped whatever was in his mouth.
This morning I had the pleasure of getting an up-close look at a soggy rawhide bone that he had been chewing earlier. When he first started doing this as a puppy, it took us awhile to figure out what he wanted us to do as he was shoving all of these random things in our face. But now we know it is just a Benny thing and it is all part of Benny’s endearing charm.
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Luna, our newest pug who recently came to our family has some medical issues. One of her issues is that she has chronic dry eye and she must be given several eye drops each day.
In the morning she receives her first dose. She gets a drop of Cyclosporin in each eye. About 5 minutes later, she must get a drop of NeoPolyDex in her right eye and a drop in her left eye every other day. The third medicated drop is Tacrolimus. She gets this dose about 5 minutes after the NeoPolyDex. That is the morning routine.
Midday is a little easier with only the one dose of Tacrolimus in the right eye. In the evenings, the routine is the same as the mornings.
The one medicine, Tacrolimus, is designed to help stimulate her own natural tear production and it does seem to be working. She will go in for a follow-up visit to the opthamologist in about a month to see if it just our imagination or if it is actually helping. In any case, she will have to be on at least one of these drops, if not all 3, for the rest of her life most likely.
The good thing is that Luna really seems to know that the drops help her to feel better because she generally does a really good job about allowing us to put the drops in her eyes. Her vision isn’t terrific, though. The vet compares her eyesight to that of a frosted car window. She can see light but not a lot of shadows or shapes (out of her right eye).
Her left eye, while also suffering from dry eye, is not quite as bad. Her sight is pretty good in that eye. It can be odd, though, because she can see to jump up on things (and boy, does she ever jump on things—the coffee table, the end table and any other flat surface that she can manage to spring herself on top of.) However, she cannot see to get down off of these obstacles. She’ll get up there but then she’s stuck. Fortunately, we are always there to help the little acrobat decend her monumental climbs.
Hopefully, in time, the meds will be able to help restore at least a small part of her lost vision and then one day she’ll be able to get herself out of trouble.
Monday, February 27, 2006
On Sunday morning, I had to go to the garage to get something out of the car and before I even realized it Benjamin, Henry & Luna had snuck into the car and were camped out in the front seat.
I told them that we weren’t going for a car ride, but they weren’t taking no for an answer. They were persistent and wouldn’t leave the car until I brought out the treats and I promised them that after breakfast we would go for a ride to the park.
So despite the fact that it was a very windy day, after breakfast we drove the long way to the park so the boys and little Luna could have some extra time in the car and we took a nice long walk at the park.
They twisted my arm, but we had fun!
Friday, February 24, 2006
On cool days, the boys like to lounge outside my office door in the screened-in part of the yard. They are out there a lot soaking up the sun’s rays so awhile back I thought I would buy them a nice, comfy, outdoor bed. The bed is meant to be used outdoors and it keeps them up off the ground. The way it is constructed the bed part sags in the middle so it is kinda like a little hammock.
When the bed finally arrived, I was very excited and as soon as I put it together I knew the boys would just love it. Well it turns out that the boys were less than enthused. They wanted nothing to do with the new bed and instead they opted to either sleep on one of the chairs outside or even the ground.
So the bed just said outside for a few weeks and then I noticed that the cat started using it.
The cat found it plent cozy and started spending a fair amount of her time napping in the bed. Well, wouldn’t you know that as soon as the cat started using the bed, the boys started to show some interest and suddenly the bed was good enough for them to sleep on.
So the once never used bed is now the favorite outdoor sleeping spot for everyone.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
One of the things we do almost every night is go for a walk around 9 or 9:30ish in the evening. We find that this walk helps the boys and little Luna get out any pent-up energy and gets them ready for bed.
Since Luna has arrived the boys have been extra playful and after their evening walks they like to play chase with Luna in the yard. They have a great time and they play for quite some time.
Since they have been running around so much, I have found Benny taking a few more cat naps during the day. All that late night playing seems to be interfering with his beauty rest.
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