New Friend, New Sweaters, First Pests

Poochie's made a new friend! Pictures from their first playdate will have to be posted later, but we recently went to Soldier's Delight, Serpentine Trail for a nice, fun hike. From there and from Bailey's home, Poochie got her first ticks.

Here's little Bailey, the 5 mo old Jack Russell Terrier~


The color of the leaves were pretty



Quite a nice park

Now, I'm looking for some essential oils to make pest repellent sprays. For some reason, I can't seem to remember any local stores, nor am I having any luck in finding one online to go to. I need either geranium or peppermint oils.

courtesy of aromaweb.com

Poochie's first sweater started to look more and more like some rag thing Hercules wore in the Brat Pitt movie, Troy... Anyway, my mom made a second one with two colors of Lion Brand yarn. More stitch techniques started to come back so it started to look more and more like a store-bought sweater. Unfortunately, this one came out too short. It really was more like a vest. Since the whole point of a sweater/vest is to keep Poochie warm... my mom made another one. Perfect! It even has a collar. Only downside is that it.. slips back down to her tail... Need to tighten it up here and there. We had some fun with the 2nd sweater and as miserable as Poochie might've/must've been.. it made me laugh till I lost a kidney... It was painfully, pathetically adorable. Oh, and for once this mean hat idea wasn't mine; it was my mom's!

With her faux hat... and miserable.. perhaps




Without her faux hat and exhilarated.

Hampden, MD

My friend Cara and I went to Hampden with Poochie. She did a super job. She even let a few kids approach her. She only growled at a few people and that was when a single person popped up out of nowhere or they were tall and wore a lot of black... Can't wait to socialize her some more. After that, I can take her to training classes and by then she will have learned enough that I won't have to waste money on puppy classes.

Speaking of such...
she's getting a little better about lunging and screaming at our neighbors and people that walk by. It is getting easier to distract her from doing it. I'm starting to master the timing of stopping her before she even tries to.

New Commands!

• Stay
• Come & Go (not 100% complete...)
  
• Wait.... eat!

New Sweater & New Friend

Excitement!
I finally retaught myself how to knit... but.. I kept messing up so my mom ended up taking over...
The sweater turned out beautifully despite it having been well over 20 years since the last time my mom has knitted anything. It's a bit iffy, but still really great for a first sweater. It's a little too long and the belly part is a bit too loose; can't wait for the next one. She was sleeping when we made her try it on.. so.. she was really tired and out of it. Even so, she sat and stayed so I could take a photo.

Poochie's made a new friend! I got to watch my friend's family dog for the day, today. They said that Kaiser, the beagle, is known to be pretty territorial. He chased a giant great dane around the house... I thought perhaps it might be okay since Poochie's similar in height and a female. Surely enough... Poochie ended up chasing him around and they played all day. It was great :)








Pooped I








Pooped II

I took hundreds of photos.. so.. I tried my best to shrink the list down.
Oh yes, and what was even more exciting was that Poochie also behaved like an angel.

Been a While!

Spider bites still hurt :p

It has been way too long since I last updated on Poochie's wellbeing!
I've been up in New York all weekend (Fri - Mon). I've been interning at Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore, MD. I'm their design intern and have been busy coloring a children's book and making posters for their over the weekend "Eek, Squeak, and Boo" event. On top of that, my fall quarter of classes started this past week.

Anywho...

Poochie was without me for a full 4.5 days. She still ate and went potty, but during her meals and during the mornings of the first two days, she constantly went upstairs looking for me. While my parents were gone, she tore up a part of the crate cover, turned her bed/blanket upside down and peed a little. My mom spent the rest of the day washing Poochie's bedding. Again, Poochie went looking for me upstairs... she kept bolting at every sound, perhaps thinking it was me. She was apparently restless. That was all Friday and Saturday. While my parents were away for work on Saturday, she yanked in a part of the crate cover, but didn't tear it up. Poochie did much better for the rest of the weekend, since my parents were home on Sunday. This gave her a chance to bond with someone else, but apparently she's still not nearly as friendly towards my dad as she is towards me.

My dad's back to his jealous self, now that I'm back. At least Poochie now says hi to him when he comes home from work instead of coming to the door then scampering off. She's much more lively than ever!

She now follows me almost everywhere. During the last couple of days, she's fully (ok, well almost fully... like.. 98%) learned the Come command! She's beginning to walk a lot better on a loose leash. She's also starting to become a lap dog. If only she had shorter legs and didn't like to stick her butt on my chest and point it at my face.. Other dogs like a good rub on the head.. a nice scratch behind the ears... not Poochie. She likes the attention on the other end. Sigh.. at least it's somewhat cute...

She met my grandparents for the first time, yesterday. It was around the time that I would've taken her out for a brief potty break... so.... yeah.. she dribbled here and there during her own excitement of screaming at this pair of strangers. I shook a can at her and she shut up after that. Of course, she was frozen with fear... Then we took her outside and she barked at them a couple of times while they picked some veggies from our garden.

Enough for now.. I have homework to do.

Oh.. my.. god.. I finally chose a vet for her. She gets to see her doctor this Friday! Oh boy~... oh boy...

ps my friend took me to Woodstockwhile we were in NY and I missed Poochie more than I ever had before. There were dogs everywhere; I even saw a black/tan minpin pup!

I hate spiders...

The first time I was bitten by a spider was during the summer of 2003, on the back of my left hand. My hand.. within 45 minutes blew up to the size of half of a tennis ball. So.. around an inch growth. Yeah. THe pain was thick in my arm and even up to my chest. I was a bit disoriented.

THat was how I learned I'm allergic to spider bites :)

The second time.. same city (Baltimore), was 2005... Again, my hand, but this time my right and on my middle or ring finger. I had to get out of my drawing class. I am right handed, after all. My hand swelled up to the point that when I made a fist it still looked like my hand was just open flat. Again, the pain took up the entire arm and half of the chest. Sigh....

THIS TIME... and it took me a few days to realize that the source of my intense pain and discomfort was a result of two bites from a single spider on my left side. In the beginning, I thought it was from carrying Poochie with my left arm... she isn't the lightest thing in the world, so of course one would think her ribs were aching from 12 lbs of dense flesh pressed up against them. The puzzling thing was when my entire left side from front to my back started itching a lot... my insides even hurt. Imagine the worst heartburn and slap that on the surface of your entire left side... throw in some itching and then muscle/bone aches in the surrounding areas. That was when my mom noticed that I had a couple of bites on my ribs. THe whole left side of my abdomen is also swollen. SO with the itching, visible bites, and the kind of burning, aching pain I was having... I concluded that it was the fault of an obnoxious spider.

I .. don't like spiders. I really don't. Been seeing a lot of them lately.

Apple Scroll Ball

My new apple mighty mouse's scroll ball just failed on me. It wouldn't scroll up. I rolled it upside down and hard on a piece of paper and voila, good as new. Damn finger nasties. Thanks Apple Blog!

Fall, Menu, and Apparel

Oops again!
Poochie and I have been enjoying the wonderful fall weather we've been having lately, among other things, that I haven't been able to update her blog. I've been busy with PODOHAMA.com, as well. Starting this week, I'll be starting my design/illustration internship at Port Discovery in Baltimore, MD and starting my fall classes online.

SO A MUCH AWAITED UPDATE:
Poochie is so silly... She's almost fully learned the "Come" command and is stubborn from time to time with the "Sit" command. She now likes to spend time with me at my computer! She likes to nestle between me and the chair. As in.. I have to scoot my butt out a bit so she could fit in. I think she's just using me for the warmth ;)
She's also learned "Outside?," "Let's go outside!" and "Num nums" (for food). If she's hungry, she'll run over, get a little nutty, then finally sit down for me to put the bowl down. A lot of times, she'll wait until I say "eat" before she jumps in. Other times, I guess she's just a little extra hungry to wait for the command.
We give her diced carrots as treats; she loves those. I also like to crack a raw egg into her breakfast. This new addition to the menu is what brought her closer to me. She's even starting to have separation anxiety issues :/ I'll fix that. Since I'll be a little busy from now on, it'll help me help her get used to being alone. Before the whole egg and carrot business, she was really great about behaving while left alone for hours straight, but... since the expansion of her menu she's loved the idea of yanking the cover of her crate in, through one of the holes and I think she may be tinkled on her bed once... It smelled suspiciously urine-y. She's yanked the cover in the first time we covered her crate, but I believe that was because she wasn't comfortable with us or the house.
The hoodie I got for her is a tad small and the top velcroe likes to pop open. It looks like she's wearing one of those baggy, wide 90's sweathers... with the really wide open collar..? You know the one, right? Anyway.. it's adorable, but it's also starting to get really fridgid. I need to make that sweater of hers and we need to buy her a descent jacket. My mom and I both know we'll never get around to making her a puffy jacket. She did mention knitting her a sweater!! Exciting! Another thing about the hoodie: sometimes I wake up to a naked Poochie.. She squirms just enough that she ends up out of the thing. I would love to get her one of these:

A Cable Sweater :) Or...

An Aspen from the Dogs Department.
Unfortunately... I am not willing to spend close to a hundred dollars on a sweater... Thanks...

Though... I think they should retake the photos of their product. There's too much dog and not enough sweater. I have plenty of faith in the look of the clothes, but... there are many people out there with little to no imagination...

If I had the skills, time, and patience I would be making all kinds of sweaters (including Christmas sweaters!!) for Poochie. Oh crap... how about a onesie with a booty door and a hoodie in the shape of some ridiculously, sickeningly adorable animal?? !!!

Cute Overload

Been meaning to blog about this website for a long time.. so long I apparently forgot. I found these hilarious photos at cuteoverload.com

Flying Una!

Flying Una!, originally uploaded by WelcomeToTheDoghouse.

flyyyyyy