Super-duper Cutest Nephew. Ever.

Getting this by email yesterday morning just brightened up my day. Andrew is now my desktop on my work computer... I see him peeking around my log-in window. It's fantastic. Thanks for the pic Jay!

Recovering (naughty) puppy

Thor continues to recover nicely. Strange looking but recovering. However, because he's been recovering so rapidly, he's beginning to get antsy - wanting to do all the things he's not supposed to in the first 2 weeks of his recovery (jumping, running, twisting...).

The other problem is that, because his movements are supposed to be restricted, he's being spoiled. We have to carry him up and down the stairs. In the beginning, we would carry him back if he got tired on his walks. He got to eat chicken rice with his food for the past week because the medication necessitated a bland diet. Spoiled. And getting naughty.

So last night, Turg and I are hanging out with Thor in the basement, watching TV and eating spaghetti for dinner. Thor is looking at me sitting on the floor, with my food, with longing eyes, because he's always hungry and we never feed him (in his mind). Anyway, I leaned over into his pen to grab a toy for him. He took this opportunity to pounce - face disappearing into my pasta bowl fast as lightning. When I yelled for him to stop, his face emerged, a load of spaghetti dangling from his mouth. I wanted to be mad. I really did. But he looked absolutely hilarious and I could not stop laughing. Hysterical.

*This is not Thor

*sigh*

Well, apparently discipline has gone out the window along with getting spoiled. We have a lot of work to do once he's fully recovered...

Franken-weenie

Look at the zipper-like staples... and the shaven chicken legs!

And then, the random shaven square on his side (with drug patch):

To make that random square even worse... take away the drug patch - I waxed the poor little guy. Boy did he glare at me:

Recovering Puppy

Thor had surgery last Thursday, and came home on Friday - I thought this was really rushing it at first, but seeing the improvement he's making, I'm really happy that he's been home. The neurosurgeon apparently removed an "amazing amount" of ligament and debris from the surgical site. Which essentially means, there was a lot of crap making him bad, and now that it's gone, his recovery should be great.

And it has been thus far. Everyday, he has more energy, he walks further, etc. Even from the day we got him home, he was walking better than when we brought him in. It's really quite amazing.

He's also shaven in the most bizarre ways. He kind of looks like Franken-dog right now because of the line of surgical staples on his chest. He also had (until last night when I ripped the thing off the poor puppy) a Fentanyl patch on his side - they shaved a perfectly square patch into is right side... it looks like an access port.

I have pictures at home that I'll post tonight. Thanks for all the well wishes. And, as always, in lieu of other gifts, Thor requests cookies.

Poor broken puppy, Part III

Thor did not seem very good when we got home on Monday night. So rather than wait until Tuesday evening to bring him to the neurosurgeon, we decided to bring him in the morning. Just so that he would have people watching him to make sure he would not get himself into any trouble, or hurt himself more.

Apparently, Thor has been charming all the nurses into giving him cookies. With that face of his that says, "Look at me! I'm cute! Feeeeed me!!" It's his defense mechanism... it's all he's got. And he was apparently doing okay, since they did not feel the need to drug him at all.

Thor was scheduled for surgery at 7:30 this morning. I got a call from the neurosurgeon's office at 7:45. The resident immediately told me that Thor was doing just fine (he knew we were worried about him getting worse), relaxing, and getting lots of cookies (of course). But, his surgery was being postponed since the surgeon is home sick. They will do the surgery tomorrow morning, assuming the surgeon is out of bed by then. But they will keep him happy (read: full of cookies), and comfortable until then. I told him to make sure I didn't have a fat puppy when I picked him up.

It's been emotionally trying. And now we have to wait another day. So, please continue to send the Dog of Thunder your good juju. He's using all his charm to keep himself content.

Poor broken puppy, part II

Well, it's confirmed. My poor broken puppy is truly broken. Six hours at the puppy neurologist/neurosurgeon on Friday, and an MRI* later and the vet showed me that Thor has a ruptured disk in his neck - the C6-C7 disk to be exact. What does this mean? It means that tomorrow evening, Turg and I drop him off at the puppy neurosurgeon and early Wednesday morning he has surgery. Then a few days of recovery, and then home, where I'm sure there will be weeks more of recovery.

The whole day Friday was extremely emotionally trying. Knowing that surgery is really the only option, there is nothing to do but to say that we can do all we can. Because if we do nothing, he will get worse.

Send happy juju to the puppy.

*I'll post pictures later of post-MRI shaven puppy. But here's the image - Thor with shaven wrists, looking like he has chicken legs and wearing Sherpa booties.

Poor broken puppy

Thor does not like stairs. He really doesn't. He's never liked stairs, but he's gotten used to (most of) them over the years. Thor does not have good traction on hardwood floors... he mostly bounces or bucks like a bronco and slides into place. Put those things together, and what do you get? Broken puppy.

Last Tuesday, Thor was trying excitedly to get up the 3 wood steps in our foyer to the living room. He didn't make it. He slipped, slid, Turg tried to catch him, and then tumbled to the floor. Then, the next day, we noticed that he started limping. So, we did what we normally do, and have him a couple of baby aspirin to bring down the inflammation. It didn't work. He limped more. Turg took him to the vet on Saturday, and got some anti-inflammatories and pain-killers (with opiates) to keep him calm. He seemed to be getting better, slowly.

He wasn't. It was masking things, but things started to get worse. Last night he was dragging his feet behind him. Walk walk draag. Walk walk slip. It was really hard to watch. We took him to the vet again to get x-rays this morning. The vet said the problem appeared to be neurological and not orthopedic, since he was getting worse.

So tomorrow, I am bringing him to the doggie neurologist (right? who knew) to get a work-up. Apparently, this doggie neurologist said that he's not surprised given the symptoms and the breed. Hopefully, that means that the treatment will not be bad.

Thing is, Thor is not allowed to have any food after midnight tonight. Which means he will not be having breakfast tomorrow morning. His appointment is at noon. That means I will be driving in the car with broken, grumpy, hungry, whiney puppy tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

My poor puppy.

Some post-Halloween candy anyone?

My sweet (get it, sweet? heehee... yeah, fine) Great-Niece, Lina...




Thanks for the great pics Cin!

Oh Baby!

A weekend with babies!

No, seriously Ang. Show me some love. Drop some apples down here... he won't mind... he's not even looking at you...

Super Dads! I think I can see a bit of a resemblance between the Little Man and Jay, no?

JP, Cin, and the Peanut

Aunt and Great-Aunt... at the SAME TIME!

Parallel parking - baby style

The Peanut and Mommy... and The Little Man's feet too

Apparently, the Little Man is already learning to smile at the ladies

Mmmm, tasty fingers... must be leftover apples...

It is so wonderful watching my family grow. I count myself lucky to have such a wonderful and loving family.

Pig races. PIG. RACES. Seriously.

I had so much fun this weekend. It's sometimes amazing how simple it can actually be. Beautiful weather. A fun activity. Good company. HB, aka Thor's first girlfriend, came down for a visit prior to embarking on the journey called "college." And, in honor of her visit, we went to the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. Having never been to a county fair before, I had no idea what to expect. Mind you, having grown up in NYC, I spent the summers going to fairs - but these were street fairs, where the only live animals I saw were the goldfish to be won or horses with police men atop.

The three of us, me, Turg and HB, wandered, ate all sorts of bad food (oh, but it was oh, so, good), visited farm animals, rode carnival rides and brought farm fresh fruits and veggies. By far, though, the highlights of the day were the bumper cars and the pig races. That's right. I. Said. Pig races. But I'll get back to that.

We were riding the ferris wheel. Really a gondola wheel, they don't actually have ferris wheels anymore, do they, what with all the people falling off of them... - sorry, got distracted there. Anyway, we were on the big round rotating thing when we looked down and saw a tent with bumper cars. I had not done bumper cars since I was really little, and all three of us pretty much lit up at the thought. And it was fun. Some observations about bumper cars: 1) It is much more fun when the group is mostly adults. The reason is because adults seem to be able to control the cars better, and there are fewer pile ups (which I got caught in with a bunch of kids). 2) Five minutes is not NEARLY long enough. At the end of the second session we did, I literally thought I could do that all day. 3) Turg's maniacal face that he makes when readying himself to ram someone scares little children.

Back to the pig races. During the pig races, they not only raced regular farm pigs, but also billy goats, ducks and Vietnamese pot bellied piglets. Our favorite races of the day were definitely the goats and the pot bellied piglets. For the goats, because the goats are like children with ADD. While racing around, about a 1/4 way around the track, one of the goats sees a teddy bear sitting on the ground, stops running and is all like: Oh, look at the teddy bear. Isn't it cute... *looks around* Where'd everyone go? Oh, I'm supposed to be running. Wait for me... Oh, look at the kid.

The pot bellied piglets were just soooo terribly cute, what with the really short legs and bellies dragging on the ground, they really kick up crap while they're running. But the best part was after the race ended, one of the piggies came back out and was all: HI! Hi there! Look at me! I'm totally cute! a la Mini Chewbaca. The handler literally had to pick him up to stop his showboating.

The day ended with a trip to the crabhouse for dinner, then Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. I could not have asked for a more perfect day.

Hey! It's Andrew!

Hey! Look at me! I'm sitting in my new highchair! I'm starting to eat solid foods now.
Let's try this stuff out...

Ma... Um, this seems really messy. Ummm, mmm.... It's not going down. I'm pretty sure that there's more on my bib than in me. Can I have a bottle now?*

*Dramatization, since, you know, Andrew's only 4.5 months old and can't talk.

Separated at birth?

I saw this photo in a magazine this morning, with a tag line of "Soft, but unsually strong."


I get the feeling sometimes that the above photo is how Thor views himself, instead of like this:


I know it's how he acts sometimes...

We are not naming this blog "All about MS's stupid freaking puppy"

But this picture is so funny. And MS put the thought bubble in just for me (because, in my head, Mr. Chew Chew is saying this anyway, in Cartman's voice):


And then actually walking out...

(Nearly) endless entertainment

I have to say... even after having Thor for 6.5 years, I still get a kick out of putting peanut butter on the roof of his mouth. He just sits there and licks for ages. And I just giggle. I know. I'm cruel.

Really. Did we ever think to call Thor a big dog?

We can also call this post - being locked out of the house can be an awesome adventure.

Pictures have been posted, so now it's time for amusing stories from the weekend... thanks for all the pressure, Magenta.

Let me start by saying that Chewie CANNOT possibly get cuter. Absolutely impossible. Terribly cute. Almost painfully so. Also, Thor - totally enormous compared to Chewie. Never in my life would I have thought Thor was a "big" dog. Yeah, I guess everything really is relative.


The puppies were good together. It was a little tough in the beginning - Chew was a little shy. But that could have something to do with the fact that he was almost eaten by another dog the evening before (Magenta can fill you in on that story). But after a walk, they were all good. Thor was chasing ChewChew as he scurried around the house (and scurry is definitely the word to describe it).

But one of the more entertaining parts of the weekend, besides the puppy clothing making debacle, was Sunday morning. It was early, Thor was grouchy, overprotective dog during the night(howling a warning while drunk people were passing by at 1:30am), so sleep was not terribly good, to say the least. We took the dogs out for a walk at around 7am (yeah, I know. I wish I wasn't up that early, but Thor wanted to eat, so whatever). After walking around the corner of the building, Magenta's all, "Shit. I didn't bring my key." We check the back and front doors. Shit shit shit.

Miraculously, I had my car keys in my coat - this never happens. Usually, they're in my purse until I need them, so this was total random chance stroke of luck. And we're off on some crazy college-like adventure to Trish's house, two dogs in tow, to get the extra house key. Careful not to get pulled over, as I was driving without a license. While we're in the car, MS, seeing a Dunkin' Donuts and wanting to answer the call of caffiene, asks if I have money. Just for meters... possibly enough for 1 coffee. A little digging, and a $5 bill magically appears out of MS's pocket. We're rich now!!

Rich enough for coffee. Oh, and did you know that you can buy munchkin's individually? Well, you can. For 14 cents each at this Dunkin'. Yeah. We were caffinated. We had 3 munchkins each (because really, that is the perfect number of munchkins, don't you think?). And we were on our way to get a key for Studio 120.

It was early. I really felt bad. We really felt bad. So bad that when there was no answer to our first knock, we sat in the car for a little while longer with our coffee and munchkins. And when Joe came to answer the door, with Little A in his arms, the look of total confusion was priceless. There was some question about whether the key was even findable. It was touch and go for a while. But 15 minutes and 2 key options later (and $20 in case the keys didn't work and we needed food while waiting for the locksmith to show up - thanks dad), we were back on the road with hope.

MS tried the unlikely key first, because there's no suspense in that, and besides, why not get the known entity out of the way, right? It obviously didn't work. The second one did. Heehee. We did the surprised little hop and hug move, followed by a little dance while singing, "We're in the hou-ouse! We're in the hou-ouse!"

We had a really fun time that morning. Seriously, it was like one of those college guerrilla adventures when you need food or alcohol in the middle of the night (not that I would know about such things, but theoretically).

It's Monday

... I know you love it when I state the obvious. Unfortunately, I have absolutely nothing witty to say. Although we "fell back" this weekend, and the circadian rhythms have not yet synchronized with the giant clocks, and I automatically woke before 7am today rather than 8am, I'm still tired.

I am, however, looking forward to this coming weekend. I have Veteran's Day off next Monday, since I work in the public sector, and it's one of those strange national holidays that we actually take off. So this 3 day weekend will become at least 4 (perhaps even 4.5, if I can leave early on Thursday) as I make my way to NYC, Long Island and Connecticut. It's early Thanksgiving celebrations this year because I don't even want to THINK of dealing with the monumental traffic that is Thanksgiving traffic.

So this weekend, it will be seeing Dad, hangin' with Jay, Angie and Hauser, and seeing Tri, MS and meeting Little Baby Chew Chew. All other new puppy meet-and-greets will have to wait for Christmastime, I think.

I can't wait for Thor and Chewie to meet, particularly because of the image that I have in my mind that Chewie is about the size of Thor's head. I hope it goes well, since Thor adores Auntie MS, follows her around everwhere and listens to her. So, we have to be sure that he loves Chewie too. Thor gets confused when he meets dogs that are smaller than he is, because it doesn't happen often.

I can't wait for the weekend. But as I said earlier - it's Monday. So I'll have to be a little patient.

Perils of working at home

Thor would sleep on the document I'm trying to work on. I guess that's what's called an occupational hazard. I just hope he's not drooling on it.

Down and up

I'm been in a, shall we say, grumpy mood these days. It's the weather. No, seriously, it is. Spring and fall are my favorite seasons of the year. The parts of the year that are most colourful and vibrant, for their own reasons. Spring is the time everything comes out of hibernation, including myself. Well, this spring has been far from normal.

Besides late season snow storms and the slightly more than usual April showers, it's been downright cold and unsunny. I think I must run on chlorophyll, because the first (and really only) reaction I have when I wake up and the sun isn't out, is to pull the covers back over my head and hide. This morning was the first really sunny morning in a long time, and I pretty much jumped out of bed. It's still cold, but I'm working at home and all the blinds are open.

I'd been so wholly unmotivated recently that I'm a bit taken aback as to how much this sunny morning has affected me so far. I think this picture of Thor sums up how I've been feeling as of late:

Big dog, Little dog

I introduced Jay and Ang's fuzzy baby not too long ago. Well, at Thanksgiving, Thor met his little cousin dog, who isn't so little anymore. Hauser is almost twice as big as Thor. He certainly is twice as tall. But anyone who has met Thor knows that Thor believes he is much bigger than he actually is, and acts that way, much to the humour of everyone else.

Well, the cousin dog meeting went as well as we could have hoped. They liked each other. They played and played. They chased. I think what was most amusing to me is that for much of the time, Thor was doing most of the chasing - pretty nimble for a dog with such short legs. And I'm always amused when the little dog chases the big dog. That shit's just funny. Equally funny was when Hauser went into stalker mode with Thor staring at Hauser coming at him with the look of "You know I can see you..."

After a while, because Thor is Thor, he got tired and didn't want to play anymore. And Hauser, because he lost his playmate to tiredness, he did what every precocious puppy does when they're big enough - he wanted our attention, particularly where there was food.

In the end, I was so happy that the puppies got along (yes, Thor is still my puppy). And hopefully the fun will continue the more times they get together.

Introducing Hauser

Jay and Ang's new baby





And the question of the day from Jay: How do you train a pup to not pee and poop where he wants?