Friday, April 24, 2009
I love this quote!
10 Commandments of a Reponsible Dog Owner
1. My life is likely to last 10 to 15 years. Any separation from you will be very painful.
2.Give me time to understand what you want of me.
3. Place your trust in me - it is crucial for my well-being.
4. Don't be angry with me for long, and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment. I HAVE ONLY YOU.
5. Talk to me, Even if I don't understand your words, I understand your voice when it's speaking to me.
6. Be aware that however you treat me, I'll NEVER forget it.
7. Before you hit me, remember that I have teeth that could easily crush the bones in your hand, but I choose not to bite you.
8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I've been out in the sun too long, or my heart may be getting old and weak.
9. Take care of me when I get old. You, too, will grow old.
10. Go with me on difficult journeys. Never say, "I can't bear to watch it" or, "Let it happen in my absence." Everything is easier for me if you are there. Remember, I love you.
-Author Unknown
My pain is her pain, her pain is my pain...
Doggy Intelligence...I LOVE IT!
The things ya miss...
So they all seem to be perking up as the days go by. I'm learning so much as a dog owner and I love being a dog owner. As many dogs as I have, I really don't mind all the work and responsibility. Although it can be stressful at times and even thought they tend to get a little crazy sometimes, I love my pets to death.
With them being sick, there are so many things I appreciate and miss:
-When Deebo and Little Foot or Deebo and Buddha are playing, I miss how J-Mittens would bark like he's t he ref or like he's trying to bring peace to their doggy-play.
-Little Foot would always chew on a piece or end of my blanket before she would go to bed. I would try and take it from her and she would snap at me and try to bite me.
-Sleeping with all of my dogs can be so uncomfortable but now that I have the sickly ones separate from the well ones, there is so much more space left on my bed that I wish was filled by the others.
-We have a baby gate that blocks off the rest of the house from the hallway. All day they play throughout the hallway, in my room and in my sister's room. I miss coming home and having them all bark and greet me at the end of the hallway, fighting each other for my attention and trying to be the first one to be picked up.
-I miss picking up their big wads of poop because at least then I knew they were healthy.
-Every time I would come in the room with food, the ones that are sick along with the others would jump up and fight to sit on my lap to get a piece of my meal.
-Roxy would eat just about anything. Now that she's sick, she'll barely take a treat.
-They're barking in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep. It let's me know that they're okay, alert, and healthy enough to get up and bark in the middle of the night.
...and so much more. There are a lot of things that you tend to appreciate when they don't happen as often, when they stop happening and simply when they just cannot happen for the moment. I know that when my dogs are all well and healthy, everything will go back to normal as if they were never sick, and I can't wait for that to happen. =)
MALTESE MADNESS!!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Poor Babies...
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Vet Visit after the Mating
Once Roxy and Buddha had mated, I brought them both to the vet to get them checked out. There were a number of things that I learned at the vet visit:
1. You are NEVER supposed to separate two dogs that are tied together because more than anything, you could hurt the male.
Apparently, the males have a gland that "swells" up inside the female which "locks" the two dogs together. If you pull them apart, that gland could be damaged.
2. When a male and a female dog are end to end, it pretty much means they are finished with their mating session. During this time that they are tail to tail, the fluids coming out of the male dog activate the sperm inside of the female to fertilize the egg.
3. When a male and a female mate and get "tied together," there is a very high chance that the female will end up pregnant.
4. The best time to tell if the female dog is pregnant is to take her to the vet to get checked approximately 3 weeks after she was mated.
5. There are 2 different ways to accurately tell whether or not she is pregnant:
-Ultrasound: This also helps to see how the puppies are doing; are they active? do they look well developed?
-X-Rays: This also confirms whether or not the dog is pregnant and it also helps give an accurate litter size; how many puppies will she give birth to?
6. Male dogs can smell a female in heat from blocks away and more than likely he will go beyond measures to get to her if he can.
7. Male dogs will get stressed out if they cannot get to the female dog who is in heat.
8. If you don't want puppies and have 2 dogs of the opposite sex, it's smart to fix either one or both of them.
9. If a dog was mated and you didn't want the female to have puppies, the only route to go is to spay the female; however this will not allow her to have puppies ever again if you wanted her to in the future.
10. To see if the female wants to mate, the male will go behind her and sniff/lick her vulva. Depending on how she reponds will determine whether or not they will mate. There are 2 different responses:
- She will snap at the male which means she does not want to mate. If this is the case, he will come back and try again later.
OR
-Her tail will go to the side and her vulva will look like it is contracting. This is a sign that she is ready to mate.
Interesting huh?
Friday, April 3, 2009
BIG uh-oh!
Roxy was going through her second heat cycle. I didn't do what my mother was nagging me to do since day one which was to separate Roxy from Buddha...we ALL know what happens when a boy dog gets a whif of her while she's bleeding and all you dog experts know what happens when boy dogs sniff.
Knowing Roxy, she is very territorial, especially when it comes to her food. So I let them run around together, gave her a treat thinking she would guard it and not let Buddha get to it as always. I leave for under 5 minutes, probably not even two minutes long to find them end to end, butt to butt, tail to tail. I'm staring thinking maybe their legs were caught together and I'm like, "okay, i'll help them out." So I get closer and try to separate them and I realize, "OH MY GOD THEY'RE STUCK!...HE'S STUCK INSIDE!....AHHHH!...EWWW!...GROSS!..." And I'm screaming at the top of my lungs for my siblings to help.
I did the following:
1. tried pulling them apart -->NO LUCK
2. put them in the shower and tried spraying cold water --> NO LUCK
3. pulled some more --> STILL NO LUCK
FINALLY! They came undone and I was so afraid. I didn't want my poor Roxy to be pregnant. I took her and wrapped her in a towel and I was crying. She was just sitting on me with her ears up like, "What just happened?" And my poor Buddha was locked in the bathroom, drenched, barking and whining for some more (yuck). We got them dried and I called the vet.
Apparently, we're not supposed to intervene once the dogs are "tied together."
65 days later...these little bundles of joy/rascals came into the world!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Having a dog is like...
1. If you tell them a secret, they don't tell anyone.
2. They ALWAYS know when you're feeling down.
3. They literally comfort you when you're crying --> Roxy (right): any time that I cry or fake cried, I would call her and she would come up to me and start licking my face.
4. They play with you --> Buddha (left) loves to play; he especially likes to bite your hand and shake it around. OUCH!
5. They make you smile and bring you joy.
6. They're the only ones in my life who NEVER get tired of seeing me. It's the same greeting and EVEN MORE when I come home: they bark, they shake, they paw at the gate, they wag their tails like crazy and when I finally pick them up, they lick my hands and face like I'm a piece of meat. Sadly, I even try to delay picking them up because I love seeing them get so excited.
7. When you punish them, they love you even more.
8. When no one else will walk or exercise with you, they'll be the first ones in line to walk and run with you...so much that when you're actually walking with them, they pull you to make you go faster.
More than anything, these dogs are the love of my life when it comes to passion. The hardest part about it is thinking about the possibilities that one day they'll be gone...but we have lots of time together so that's the least of my worries as of right now. Right now, I enjoy every moment that I spend with them and will give everything and anything that they need in order for them to live a fulfilling life...but then again, dogs don't demand much except for love, nurturing, clean water, lots of food, a home to keep them safe and warm, and a family to love them passionately.