Poooor Pupperoni!

DJ picked up the pupperoni at noon today from her spay surgery. She's the only puppy we need around the house, and five and a half months was as good of time as any. She looks so pitiful though! Sad puppy eyes. And the cone of shame for two weeks!

Pup-a-roony flowers

Pronounced "dog-a-roony", Harlow's most frequent nickname is in frequent use right now. She's getting so big, and trying to teach her manners is, well, trying our patience sometimes.

But, she's so darn cute. Especially when she gets the confused line down the middle of her forehead. She gives us this look like, "what in the wide wide world of sports is a'goin' on here!"*

One of the wedding questions we've gone rounds about is to have her around on the wedding day, or not. I've wanted to kennel her. DJ wanted to have her around, and we've found we can move her kennel up to the house his mom is renting. So, she'll be in Harrison, just maybe not staying at my parent's house.

But if she's going to be in town, it'd be fun to get her in some photos. Because how great is this:

Source


I don't think I want her to actually attend the wedding; just be availalbe for while we do photos before the festivities get started. And if she's going to be in photos, pupa-roony needs a corsage!

Yes, it requires treats to get her to sit still like this.

*Blazing Saddles reference

14 weeks of puppy

Harlow continues to make us laugh every day. She's doing well, save for some re-adjusting after we were gone a week. She loves laying on the floor with DJ. Loves wrestling with him, being staked out in the front yard, and going for walks.

Balancing.

Super dog with the bionic eyes.

She does not, however, enjoy going for runs. After about 10 minutes She. Is. Done.

One thing is problematic though; she's a little shy around other dogs. She either gets too excited and pees, or gets scared and pees. Or rolls on her back in a submissive pose. Yesterday the neighbor's frodo-looking 10 pound dog came over to say hello. The little shit lifted his leg and peed on Harlow. Right on her ear. And she didn't react.

So yeah, we need to work on some confidence for the girl. Any suggestions for how to accomplish that?

65 Days

... till El Weddingo. At least that's what our registry on Macys.com tells me when I open it. In bright red letters it tells me we've got 65 days to get this shit together! I feel like the to-do list is unendingly long!

I mean, I guess it is really happening, and in a pretty soon-ish fashion. We mailed the invites on Tuesday, and laready have our first RSVP back. One of the benefits of arriving back home earlier than planned from vacation is having two days to decompress and stuff wedding invites, right?

And it's pretty nice to do with a puppy curled up at your feet.

Harlow, of course, was super helfpul licking the envelopes :)

You gotta start by pinning it between your paws, like this....

And then make sure you get a good amount of spit on it. Yeah, on the tasty part. Sometimes it helps if you work up spit by chewing a little bit.

I mean, sometimes you just have to show that envelope who is boss.

Sigh. With 120+ invites going out, I've got a lot of work to do.

Holy busy Batman!

Hey! I haven't posted in a week; sorry for being MIA! Actually, I was in Utah hiking last week (faked you out with the auto-posts, huh?). It was a great trip, and I'll post more about it shortly. In the meantime, I've got a staff report due today on a project that got increasingly complicated as I went through the staff report. Add that to 8 pissed off neighbors, and I've got myself a shitstorm here folks! Here's what's going on in my world:

• Farming: EFF. We're under a winter storm warning tonight. It snowed yesterday. And the day before that. My crocus blooms are dissapearing (gophers?), the tulips look warped, the hyacinths struggling, and the daffodils trying to pop. Kinda. The sugar snap peas I transplanted are holding up (but not growing), and none of the sweet peas I planted outside have sprouted. The onion sets are holding up too. We'll see. My inside starts are doing okay.
• Wedding: DOUBLE EFF!!! Holy shitballs EFF. I've got to get my arse in gear on that. It's like 8 weeks away! Specifically, we need to figure out flowers, food, and wedding bands this week.
• AOII: Graduation is on Sunday, so they chapter I advise for is going through the end of the year crazies and getting ready to move out of the house. This ='s more work for me!
• Puppy: Survived a week at Ava's while we hiked it out in Utah. She's still getting used to being at home, and with the weird weather yesterday ended up peeing inside three times. Damn. But I wouldn't really want to sink my little butt down in the frozen snow either...

In the meantime-- here's a Bob and Joyce wedding photo, of her boquet. My friend Joslyn, who is also our flower arranger, tells me that stephanosis (the little bell flowers shooting out of the boquet) are super expensive to include, as they have to be broken from the stem and then staked and wired into a boquet. And is that a tulip? Where did they get tulips in October? I think my grandmother still has that watch, and I've never seen Gramps wear his wedding band. My mom told me it broke into two pieces sometime in the 60's. I'll have to ask her what color her nail polish was!

Puppy check in

Harlow had her 12 week checkup last Friday. She now weighs 16.5 lbs; 8 lbs more than when we got her. She's all legs these days; long, lean and limber.

She's also had the chance to meet Ava, the Bernese Mountain dog of our friends Corey and Shawna. Ava had a back yard, a fence, and a lot of energy. Harlow looks dwarfed next to her! But some puppy socialization is good for both of them.

Harlita

Harlow. Harlita. Harlowton. She's already got a little nicknames. Those are only the appropriate ones.

Let me tell you a little about our daily schedule. DJ gets in the shower at 6:42 am, the alarm having gone off at promptly 6:41 am. Harlow hears the shower above and lets you know She! IS! AWAKE!

(Yip! Yip! High squeaky YIP!)

I lie in bed for a little bit, and listen to her YIP! Then she moves to the high pitched whine. eeeeeeeehhhhhhhaaaa. It's a little piercing.

Finally I get out of bed, put on my workout clothes, and trundle downstairs to lift the towel and let her out of her kennel.

She absolutely loses her shit at this point. I like to think we have the following conversation:

Harlow (tail wagging, dancing back and forth): "OhmygoshI'msohappytoseeyou! Wherethehellhaveyoubeen? I'vegottopee! Ohmygoshyoucamedownstairs! OhIjustrememberedthatIhavetopee!"

Courtney (opening the latch to her kennel): "Good morning sunshine!"

Harlow (bolting out of the kennel, headed for the front door): "WowI'moutofthereforthemorning! Yip! Igottapee!"

Courtney (opening front door): "Harlow outside! Go pee!"

Harlow (squats, pees): "OkayI'vepeed, nowwhat? Oooohhhaflower! OooohhhgrassIhaven'tchewed! Ohmygosh, COURTNEY! Letmelickyourlegs!" (Lick lick lick lick lick

Courtney (outside, in her gym shorts): "Oh Harlita, you want some breakfast?"

Harlow (stops licking legs, perks ears, stands up like a gopher): "BREAKFAST?!!!! Iforgotallaboutbreakfast! Quick! Inside! Beforeitgetsaway!" (Sprints up the front steps and into the house).

Courtney (getting food bin out of pantry): "Harlow, SIT!"

Harlow (alternating between the gopher pose, jumping, running around the kitchen island in circles): "Breakfast! Breaaaaakkkkffffaaaaasssstttt! (Bark!) Yumyumyumyuymuyumyumy! Kibble! Whereismykibble!"

Courtney (makes dog sit before putting bowl down): "Harlow, SIT. STAAAAAAYYYY"

Harlow (quivering in anticipation of breakfast, trying so hard to not break her SIT pose): "SayOkay, SayOKAY, SaythewordthatletsmeoutofmySIT!!! I'mHUNGRY! Ican'tholditmuchlonger!"

Courtney (releasing dog from command): "Okay! Go ahead!"

Harlow (jumping towards bowl, gulping down breakfast in less than a minute): "Ohmygoshthiskibbleissogood! BestkibbleI'veeverhad! Delicious! Ican'tstoptobreatheoritwillgetaway! SLURP! CHOMP!"

Courtney (pours coffee, turns around and puppy is done eating breakfast): "Holy moly dog! That was quick!"

Harlow (licks her chops): "Ohmygosh! IjustrealizedIhavetopoop!" (goes running for front door).

Courtney (opens front door): "Outside!"

.... this is pretty much how I've spend every Monday through Friday, 7 am through 7:15 am, Since March 15. Pretty darn entertaining way to start the day!

Pupster Check in

Harlow is now nine weeks old, and has been with us for three full weeks. She's adjusting to our life; or adjusting us to hers!

She's grown exponentially; I think she's 14 lbs now, and she was 8.5 when we got her. She's a champion napper, chewer, and sniffer. And we're working away from biteing as a means of exploring her world.

She loves licking the puppy in the reflection in the fridge. The same with the puppy reflected in the glass door.

Thus far we've stuck pretty close to home. We need to get her out a little more, and expose her to the rest of the world. Walks to the park have been about the extent of her world so far. Last week she did meet Lester, the white golden retriever who lives down the street.

Oh my. Lester is HUGE!

We've been very good about keeping her in her crate when we can't observe her. I took a chance on Friday and used her leash to teather her to her crate, and this is what I came down to:

Bye bye JCrew magazine! (But this was my fault. I left it within her reach, unsupervised).

I swear that she grows every day while I'm at work. Look at those paws! The floppy ears! (The towel wrapped around the dishwasher bar so she doesn't run off with it).

She's learned to go to the front door and bark when in need of a bathroom break. We've been poop free inside since day two, although she sometimes forgets to bark when she has to pee.

That said, she's also learned that sometimes you just have to pee in the snow. (This is an actual, un-edited, photo from early Saturday morning when we had a nasty spring blizzard in Bozeman)

She's also learned that naps in front of the fire are very nice. Although she can't figure out why she can lick the fireplace during the day (when it's off), yet at night it burns her. So she growls, and barks, and then tries again. Blonde moment.

But overall, she's pretty darn awesome. Furry, funny, squirly, and fun to play with. I think we'll keep her around ;-)

March 19 Friday Farming Update

Through this growing season I plan to document my back yard farming attempts on Fridays.

Remember how a few months ago I pulled too far into the garage and broke a flower pot?

Well, when I embarked on seed starting in February, I also cleaned up my mess. Uncertain of what to do with the potting soil, I trudged through the snow and dumped it in the future garden area.

And a funny thing happened. All that black dirt sitting on the white snow soaked up the sun's rays and accelerated the snow melt in the area.

Crazy, huh? So yesterday Harlow and I spent some time in the back yard spreading the potting soil around on the rest of the snow. It's an experiment to see if I can get the garden area to melt faster than the remaining lawn.

I haven't pulled out black plastic garbage bags, yet. But I might....

In  other news, I have a bunch of bulbs starting to pop up! Crocus, Muscari, and some other mystery bulbs. Spring!

And finally, a girl desperate for spring and her dog.

Get it!

I promise this won't become an all "puppy", all the time blog. But I'm taking a lot of photos of her right now, and she's pretty entertaining to be around.

Dusty came home one day with a rope chew, and it's become a favorite toy. We play fetch with it, and she'll often grab it and take it back to her kennel. Or growl at it and bat it around. Like this:

I got you now rope!

You are mine!

How dare you try and escape!

I pinned you!

Now you must be punished!

Woah! I lost my balance.

I've taken you to my lair den. You are mine.

Mmmmm.... the heck with you rope, this metal is pretty tasty.

Snoozing

When you wake up at 3:30  AM, 4:00 AM and 6:15 AM, ready to romp and play, and it takes you an hour to fall back asleep, it's so hard to make it through the day without a nap.

And isn't it the worst when you find a comfy spot...

But just can't quite seem to stay there? Especially if you have soft fur and slide off of your pillow easily!

Harlow

Today was puppy day. Pupppeeeeee!!!!!

We picked her up at about 1pm, and she snoozed in my lap the whole way home, and then for the next two hours at home.

Neither food or water interested her.

But everybody's gotta wake up sometime and enjoy the day. And try to scratch the new collar off.

And find a new favorite toy.

Before falling back asleep squished between the dog bed and the wall. She likes small spaces, which I totally loved as a kid!

Cross your fingers for us; hopefully we all get enough sleep tonight!

Pupeeeeee

Pupeeeee!!!!

That's how Gretchen always refers to our puppy Harlow. Pupeeeeee puppppeeeee puppeeee!

I think its fun to look at the (newest) photos of her, and wonder what her personality is like. I've decided she seems shy. A little reserved and timid maybe?

I just want to cuddle her and tell her it will be all right, we'll have fun together. There will be toys to chew, two people to play with, someone to go on long walks, a nice crate and a nice dog bed. And about a day after you come home with us, Gretchen will be here to roll around on the floor and take naps with you.

Gretchen is a champion nap-taker.

I mean, sheesh, look at those little paws! And the pointy ears! And the whiskers!

Is it Sunday yet?

Puppy Prep

So I’ve mentioned before that I can be crafty when I want to be. And cheap. Have I mentioned that I can be cheap?

I like to bake and sew, but baking too much means eating too many baked goods. And that ain’t good. For my cheap ass. It gets bigger.

This ties into our dog, I swear.

Golden Retrievers are a long-haired dog breed. Let’s face it; I’ll probably never wear black again without Harlow-hair being a unique accessory. Something about the dogs long hair, and the oils that make their coat shiny, can stain carpet if the dog lays in the same spot over a long period of time. So a dog bed was in order.

I’ve mentioned the idea for the dog bed. Molly’s Mutts dog bed duvets. The stuff sacks were $15, and the duvets $50. Yesh! I can spring for a $15 stuff sack, but 50 bucks for two yards of fabric? Hmm… I mentioned I can (kinda) sew.

Sew (ha!) I ordered a stuff sack, and bought two yards of fabric in a “terrarium” print (yeah I have no idea what that is), and went to work. And voila! A doggy duvet, that is lined (I had extra liner fabric from the curtains project, and totally washable!

As a side note, I couldn’t figure out how to use my sewing machine to properly attach buttons. I even dragged out the manual (which I’ve never read through, after 5+ years of machine ownership). I only had two buttons, and they didn’t come out terribly, so I’ll take it, but I should figure that out.

See the little brown dot of excess string in the middle? That's the back of the button. How do I make it less... stringy?

In reading the manual, I did find out how to sew a buttonhole with my machine. Imagine that, learning from the manual… what what?

The buttons were sewn on to button to the inside, so that little Harlow has less of a temptation to chew on them. When the whole thing is closed up, you don’t see the buttons at all. Sleek, trim, and puppy proof (?)

The buttons can be un-done, and the stuff sack slides out. Everything in the dog-bed is washable, so when she inevitably pees on it, into the wash it goes!

We’ve been rounding up other puppy supplies too. DJ opened a checking account, and apparently qualified for the free “gift” of a stuffed pony. Creepier yet is that it came in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag! DJ also purchased squeaky toys and balls, as well as a KONG chew toy that you hide a treat in for the puppy to get out.

And, the crate came. DJ’s immediate reaction? “Court, she better not outgrow this thing!”

It has a divider in the middle; to make sure she doesn’t feel overwhelmed in it, and to aid in crate-training/ housebreaking (pups don’t like to soil their living spaces). I also bought some fabric to make a cover for it, as some dogs don’t like to sleep with their back “exposed.” The crate won’t stay in this location forever; but it’s a good place for now since it’s close to the front door, yet in an area we’re in much of the time so she can see us.

What’s left to procure for puppy? Probably more stuffed animals, more toys, food and water bowls, actual food and treats… and that’s all I can think of right now! Any other suggestions?

PS: We'll be taking the area rugs up this weekend. No need to tempt her to pee on them when we can store them in the garage for a while :)

Edited to add my dog bed cost break down

$15 for the stuff sack
$5 shipping
$13.98 for the fabric
$2.49 for the thread
$1.60 for the buttons
$0 for the liner since I already had it

Total: $38.07; not bad since it would have cost me $65+ shipping to order the whole setup online!

Harlow- 4 weeks

Hi, my name is Courtney and I’m annoying everyone with my incessant chatter about the puppy we’re getting in 12 days.

But I have photos to show too!

Harlow, are you shy? Do you not like having your picture taken (because that could be a bone of contention)?

 

OMG look at those ears!

 

Furry!

 

I started working on the dog bed duvet last night. I perused JoAnne Fabric looking for a material that wasn’t terribly ugly, would look good in our house, wasn’t too girly (sorry Gretch, no pink glitter), was washable and preferably on sale.

 

It took a bit to steer away from the dry clean only, $24.99/ yard, or flammable (WTF? I didn’t know they still made flammable!), but I found some material, and started sewing away. I’ll post more about it when I’m done. But man, this dog bed will be HUGE for her for a while!

 

Channeling my inner Martha Stewart.