August 28th, 2010 @ 8:13 pm
You know it is time to give your dogs a bath when you wonder “Why does it smell like pee in the house? Did someone pee on the carpet?” and then you realize it’s the DOG that smells like a hobo. Considering last week Jinx was all about the throwing up for two days straight, after Annie was all about it from a tomato binge… (and that Jinx threw up ON Annie one morning… so much fun!) – it was time. The weather will be turning soon and since we have a lovely warm (but not TOO warm) weekend ahead of us, I thought – let’s wash the dogs before I send them to live with the hobos on the streets of Montreal!
I also want to vacuum my house because it currently looks like we have 73 dogs living here and not just two. So I put the leash on Annie and walked her into the kitchen where I proceeded to torture her for a good 45 minutes, the aftermath of which was this:
It does rather look like we tortured her, doesn’t it? Poor thing. I didn’t even know she had that much fur left on her to come off! She was matted like hell. Shawn had to help hold her head because she is old and crotchety and kept trying to snap at me. But in the end she looked MUCH better (and younger!):
We told her she was now as awesome as The Magical Mr. Mistoffelees from CATS. You’d never know she was 12.5 years old!
Jinx took it upon himself to hide upstairs in the bedroom while we groomed Annie, but Shawn got him down and then we tackled him. His brushing was NOTHING like it was two months ago, but I still trimmed his tail and pantaloons and feet. He doesn’t like that.
After we got all the dead fur off the pups we stole one at a time, put them on the patio table and washed them! They were thrilled as you can imagine!
Annie shook right before I took this which is sad because she really looked much goofier right before. Heh. Can’t you see the unconditional love in her eyes?
Completely forgot to take a photo of Jinx while he was on the table looking miserable. It’s rare he doesn’t look happy and being hosed and/or brushed is one of those times. He tried to show us his paws to distract us, but we weren’t fooled!
It was nice enough today that I could leave them outside to dry. Not too hot for Annie so no fear for heat stroke (which Lappies are very prone to being an Arctic breed and all) and it was nice and shady on the deck. A little fresh air is good for them! I could have hung them on the line like we did with the clothes we wore while washing them. They should be thankful!
I might have to do one more washing before the winter really sets in, but that will be in the bathtub. I sort of like being able to bathe them outside in the summer.
They each need one more brushing (tomorrow!) before I can clean the rest of my house. We got most of the dead fur off of them before the bath, but there’s more to take off now that they have dried. Poor Annie is a matted mess again only I’m scared that if I take off any more fur she’ll be bald come winter!
March 7th, 2010 @ 10:31 am
My self-imposed promise that I would stay away from the computer this weekend to help my eyes heal is being broken just for this important event. Annie turns 12 today!
Trying to snap a photo of her this morning in the lovely spring-ish sun proved to be difficult due to the fact that Jinx felt he had to be the center of every photo. Each time I snapped a photo he’d push his head in and push Annie away as the shutter clicked. Great. Thanks, Jinx. I managed to get a couple of non-blurry shots of Annie with only a hint of Jinx (just don’t look at the right side of the photo) but I seem to have lost her ears in them. Oops.
It feels like only yesterday that Annie came into our lives, when in fact it was in November 2002, a week after I had my ruptured appendix taken out and had a 6-inch incision in my abdomen which was still glued together. We had our first storm of the winter that month when Linda drove up from Memphis in her huge truck that didn’t have snow tires. Annie seemed like the most beautiful dog I had ever seen. She was almost all black with only the little raccoon eyes that she still has now and she was very pregnant. It wasn’t until the puppies were weaned that she came back to live with me full time at the end of January 2003.
Now? I can hardly think of a time in my life where I didn’t have Annie with me all the time. Annie has filled a part of my soul that no other dog ever has. Yes, I loved Lady, the dog my family had growing up and I adored Kewpie for the brief time we got to spend together and of course I love Jinx Puppy. But there’s always been this connection with Annie that I have never had with another dog. Even in October 1998 when Miriam and I flew down to Linda’s for the first time to adopt Kewpie I met Annie for the first time (only I didn’t remember until she came to live with me). Annie was 7 months old on that trip and she was all black with little brown eyebrows and she stood over me when I got knocked over from all the puppies and licked my face. I remember joking that I was going to sneak back home with her that weekend.
Seems like fate that we ended up together.
And now my Annabelly is 12 years old and she’s a much more dog-like creature than the cat-like one she started out as. Her tail wags (although somewhat stiffly) when we get home. She yips at us when we come home or come down the stairs in the morning. No other barking does she do, not for anyone but us when she’s happy to see us return. She loves to be pet and have her belly rubbed. She’s even started to catch Jinx’s toys if we toss them at her. This has been something in the last year she’s added to her repertoire… I think it’s only because she’s curious as to why Jinx loves these toys (when they are obviously NOT food) and we make such a big deal when he plays with us. She’ll spit the toy out almost as soon as she catches it and then look at the treat cupboard, but still, she’s playing.
Annie sadly is covered in lumps (which the vet says are like fat tumours? I can’t think of the name.) and seems to have a couple of growths on her. This doesn’t seem to bother her much except for being uncomfortable lying on the floor, which is why we got her that big ol’ cushion (which she fails at). She’s still energetic and loves her walks and loves her cuddles, she seems in better spirits and health now that she ever has. But still, at 12 I tend to get nervous.
I believe Annie is the last of her family right now. Her sire George (the first Finnish Lapphund I have ever met) passed away on New Year’s and her brother Dan, who carried our rings, died suddenly and out of the blue last month from a stroke. Dan’s passing had me in tears for two days and I still tear up when I see him in a photo. Her dam, Jessica (who was also Kewpie’s half-sister) passed away a couple of years ago as did her two sisters. George and Jessica were my two favourite Lappies at Linda’s. They have held special places in my heart since 1998.
Happy birthday to my Queen Annabelly. May you live long and healthy in the years to come. I, personally, hope you will live forever. I love you.
February 28th, 2010 @ 10:34 am
It really just feels like yesterday that Jinx arrived in our lives all tiny and fluffy. Jinx turning 5 today means that in 4 months we’ll have been married for 5 years. Wow. Time sure flies and a hell of a lot of things have happened in those 5 years.
Our baby turns 5 which is hard to get in our heads. He still acts very puppy-ish and has the same puppy expressions he had at 4 months old. Heck, we still CALL him Jinx Puppy.
Timid, good natured, hater of everything squirrel and a great soccer player, that’s our Jinx.
Some said that naming him such would cause us nothing but trouble but they were wrong. Aside from the Chewing & Digging Year (which we thankfully spent living with my in-laws so he got all of that out of his system then!) Jinx has been a wonderful dog. He’s gentle and inquisitive, and really, unless you are a squirrel, he won’t ever show any aggression. He really, really hates those squirrels though.
And now Jinx is two years away from being considered a senior in the dog world. I can’t imagine Jinx ever seeming like a senior citizen, he’s still got way too much puppy in him.
Big ol’ milestone this 5th birthday.
And next week I have to live with the fact that my Annabelly is turning 12! Where does the time go??
January 9th, 2010 @ 8:08 pm
For three months in a row now I have had one day where I was completely and thoroughly knocked out by a cold. Not a week, or a couple of days, but one single day. This happened to me in November, in December (one of the days I was home for the holidays) and once this past week. On Wednesday afternoon at work my nose started to stuff up to the point where I had to be one of those annoying mouth breathers. I chalked it up to how high the heat was on and how dry it was since when I left the building to go home the cold air cleared everything up. Fast forward to a little past midnight and my nose was completely blocked and my throat was so sore I couldn’t swallow. Lovely. When the alarm finally went off in the morning I knew I couldn’t go to work. I had no voice and when I did try to speak I would have horrible coughing fits where I’d gag. I emailed the office, went back to sleep when Shawn left for work and slept from 8:30 until nearly noon. I felt slightly better by then but my eyes were still watery and itchy and though the tea I had appeased my throat I was still having nose issues.
Friday morning? I was fine. Sure I was sniffly, and I knew my ears were blocked because boy was I dizzy, but I felt like I had just gotten over a week’s cold. Weird.
Anyhow, while I was home on Thursday I thought I would tackle the bread machine again. I didn’t have to do much and I could just leave it for 2 hours. Well, it didn’t quite work out.
This time I used Bob’s Red-Mill bread mix and used the gluten-free setting on the machine. If this had cooked long enough (which it obviously didn’t) it would have worked. I think it could have used another 30 minutes of cooking time. The bottom and sides were ok! The top and middle were goo. Sigh. Almost.
Next attempt will be from scratch, a recipe that a friend sent me. I hope that one works out. Stupid bread machine.
Today Shawn and I went out for lunch, walked around a bookstore and then went to see Sherlock Holmes. We have all these movie gift certificates from his parents so we thought we’d put some of them to use. Entrance, snacks and 3 hours later we were happy and didn’t waste any money. Woohoo. The movie was pretty good. It was entertaining and held my attention for the entire time. Not one of my top favourite movies or anything, but I enjoyed the time spent in the theatre. The nachos were good too. Yum.
And one other thing of note, one of the gifts Shawn had ordered for me came after Christmas and I think it’s pretty cool.
It’s a street sign! Finnish Lapphund Dr to be precise. I thought it went perfectly over the frame I have on the wall between the kitchen and living room which shows off all the Lappies I have had in my life. Good ol’ Kewpie-Doo is in the middle there. She was some dog.
Now all I have to do is paint that wall. I hate the colour of the kitchen (beige, yellowy sort of thing). Not sure what colour to paint the kitchen. It had to mesh well with the forest green in the living / dining room. A project for the future no doubt!
November 8th, 2009 @ 11:00 am
First, my morning started with a nice gulp of dog fur with my tea. Adds to the flavour, don’tcha know? And then I had to deal with this:
This is Jinx vs. Molly. Lappie vs. Laptop. I need more lap. If I stopped petting him I got clawed. The laptop got clawed. My little boy is quite the suck this morning. He moved his paw just as the camera went off. Drat. You can’t see my left hand, but it’s petting him. Luckily my camera was right next to me. Heh.
Then I looked up and I saw this:
This is Annie enjoying the large, cedar-chip-filled bed we got her. Or, rather, this is Annie failing at bed. She rarely ever sleeps ON the bed. Normally she just places a paw or her nose on it. Right now she’s snuggled up to the heater (which isn’t on) and is lying AROUND the bed with her one paw on it. I took like, 5 photos of her doing this. Then once I had them all uploaded to the laptop and I put the camera away, she does this:
I just don’t get it. Jinx loves this bed. He’ll sleep right in the middle, all curled up. He’s camouflaged by it too mostly. But Annie? Annie fails yet once more at bed.
Here’s Annie giving me her best Pissed Off Miss Piggy expression. Yes, Annie. Yes, I am judging you and your lack of understanding of how to sleep on the bed. We got the darned thing for you so you wouldn’t hurt so much lying on the wood floor with your little lumpy parts. And yet.. this. Really?
I have two paws on the bed now, Mummy! Is this better?
No. No it is not. But at least you make me laugh.
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