An Unwelcome Guest

I'm afraid the Grinch has been here. I think he's taken up residence here.

As you all know, about ten weeks ago Morgan tore her cruciate ligament. She's been on rest and pain medications ever since and she's doing well.

About three weeks ago Samba started showing pain in her back foot. Dr B examined it and thinks it may be a tendon injury. She's on rest.

Two weeks ago Bailey started limping. I gave her something for it and after about four days the limp went away.

Thursday morning when I let her out of her crate she was holding her right back leg up and wouldn't put any weight on it. I started giving her something for inflammation and pain. She's now putting weight on the leg, but is limping again.

Bailey has an appointment with Dr B on Monday morning.

Then yesterday morning when I called Tsar to get up for breakfast, he screamed in pain. I checked him over and couldn't see what was wrong, so I gave him his arthritis meds and watched him. He stood and sat hunched up and tried to avoid lying down. If he did lie down, he'd scream in pain when he tried to stand up again. I gave him some pain medication at bedtime.

This morning we called the clinic first thing. Dr B wasn't in, but Dr Missy saw him and my boy has a bulging disc in his back. Tsar is on rest, pain meds and muscle relaxants.

I've tried to be a good girl all year, so why has the Grinch moved into our house this Christmas? Four of my ten dogs are currently on rest and meds for leg and back injuries. This is not what I wanted for Christmas.

A Musical Interlude

Today in the spirit of the season, we'd like to entertain you with a special song.

Oh, you'd better be sweet,

You'd better be neat.

You'd better not bite,
Or get in a fight.

Santa Paws is coming to town.


Don't chew on a sock,
Or bring in a rock.

On walkies don't tug,
Don't poop on the rug.

Santa Paws is coming to town.


He watches when you're playing,

He sees you chase the cat.

He wants you to obey the rules,
So do it, that is that.

So be a good pup,
Or just do your best.

Try really hard,
He'll take care of the rest.

Santa Paws is coming to town.

Keeping Busy

I still feel a little like this, but the ideas are starting to come back into my head and translate onto the blog.

I'd been busy knitting sweaters and toys when suddenly last month the tendonitis in my right hand started hurting. A lot. I was feeling the pain in the palm and radiating up my middle finger. It got so painful that I couldn't even lift my coffee mug with my right hand. I knew it was time to stop knitting and let my hand rest, but I can't seem to sit without my hands being busy, so I tried some cross stitching. Fortunately, that didn't hurt and so I've been stitching some holiday designs.

I did these little fellows just because I thought they were cute. They were also fun to stitch.

Next I wanted to do a Santa design, but there are so many cute ones to choose from, so this is what I chose.

This one reminded me of my trip to Russia.

 One of my favorite designers for Santas is 'Mosey And Me'. I've made a couple of their designs before but this was probably the most labor intensive one so far. I ike them because they're not  the pretty Santa that we're used to seeing, but they're kind of schmucky old men who look down and out, but kind.

 Last night I was going thru my patterns to find my next project and I found two more Santas by Mosey and Me, so they'll move to the top of my to do list.

I also want to test my hand with some knitting so I think Morgan might appreciate a new sweater. With  arthritis in her legs, it might help keep the old joints warm. Wish me luck.

Guess What We Have!

When we got up this morning we found something wonderful. Our wishes came true.

After the very hot summer we had, we all were wishing for a cold snowy day and here it is.

Dad, come see what we have.

So what does a water dog do on a freezing cold day when the temperature is 20 degrees?


First we check out the wading pool, but the water is frozen.

So we settle down on the cold ground to chew on some ice and some icy cold sticks.

It's a wonderful life!

We Join the Occupy Movement

Our friend Mr Pip is the sponsor of the 'Occupy The Couch' movement and we're all joining him.  We're sending our pictures to him to show that we're all occupiers. On his blog he's posting pictures of all the protesters and next week he'll choose two to win  prizes. If you believe in the 'occupy the couch' movement, be sure to visit Pip and join the throngs who occupy.

Morgan is a leader in the movement. At least she was until she injured her leg. Now she's not allowed to jump onto the couch, so it leaves room for someone else to occupy.

Tsar is another lead occupier and he's big, so nobody argues with him.

Samba believes in making herself comfy while occupying.

Fudge is a well dressed occupier.

Sky really gets into occupying.

We have four couches in our house, but there are ten dogs and two humans, so sometimes all the couches are occupied at the same time. When that happens, we occupy the window seats. Here's Noah showing the technique.

Sky is the major window seat occupier.

Won't you join this important movement? Just have your human snap a photo of you in "occupy" mode and send it to Mr Pip by December 12. Two random occupy protesters will receive gifts.

It's December?

 Wow, it's December already! How did that happen?

I've been doing pretty well on my crafty projects lately, but I've had a bad case of 'blogger's block'.

I sit down at the keyboard and nothing comes to mind. Now you know that with ten dogs and three birds, our house is a center of activity, but the minute my fingers land on the keyboard, it's all gone. Does that ever happen to you? Maybe it's just seasonal overload.

We got our lab reports back from the recent vet visit and they were almost great. I say almost because with Samba and Morgan on meds, certain levels are a little off, but Dr B is pleased and says we're good to go for another six months.

Tsar wants you all to know that he has a time consuming new hobby, mouse hunting. Apparently a family of field mice has taken up residence in the rock pile in the back yard. Tsar and Bailey spend most of their outdoor time searching for the little rodents. Baily has managed to dislodge several rocks and dig a few holes, but Tsar has actually caught a couple mice.

I watched him catch one a couple days ago. He stood extremely still watching a certain spot. After several minutes a mouse came out from between two rocks. Tsar pounced like a giant cat and landed on the mouse with his front feet. It was all over for the mousie. Tsar delivered the body to me and I disposed of it while he went back to the rocks to start again.

Sky got a package in the mail today. A while ago I noticed that he had broken the  clasp on his collar. It was still holding together, but I couldn't trust it. Last week I sent the collar back to Lupine and today a brand new collar arrived to replace the broken one. Sky is very happy and sent Lupine a thank you note and a smile. Lupine guarantees their collars, leashes and harnesses. This is the first time we've tested the guarantee and we're very pleased with their quick response.

A friend of ours, Mr Pip is staging an 'occupy' event and we're joining him. His family removed their couch and haven't yet replaced it with a new one. What's a couch potato to do? We're going to go start making our signs for the protest, but all you have to do to support the operation is send a picture of yourself occupying the couch. We have lots of those. There's always a dog occupying the couch at our house.

At the grocery store yesterday I picked up ingredients for Christmas cookies.

Don't Christmas cookies taste great? They're even better than cookies at any other time of the year. I love the decorating and always think I'll make pretty ones like the pictures, but I usually get tired by the time they're ready to decorate.

Then I wind up just spreading some icing on and forget about getting fancy.

They taste just as good without all the artistic touches.

I'm going to make a real effort to overcome this block and share my holiday spirit with the rest of you. Are you doing festive things this weekend? Tell me about your activities and give me some ideas. Maybe I can get my brain working again.