Indy in the office smoking a bone

Will you grant a pardon

to Indy,

and let him replant the garden,

with me?

For now he smokes a bone

alone.

Pet Planet Magazine

Almost a month after the last blog post.  Many things have happened since; with us and of course with the doggies.  I'm going to list some of the most important things this month

1.  Mari's Bday
2. Dean's Bday
3.  Blue gets on steroids
4.  Blue's steroid dosage keeps decreasing
5.  Marianna started teaching at her Scrappy B
6.  Indy left us another "present" at the futon
7.  Dean got a job
8.  Pet Planet Magazine published Blue's picture
9. World Cup
10. Dean goes without a soda for a month
etc

I have worked on numerous projects including the pups and all of them you can find on my or their facebook accounts.  You can say that I've been blogspot lazy.  Nevertheless this isn't the only hold up.  Since I've decided to create my flickr page the background images for the blog disappeared.

Now, for the story of the day:  Pet Planet.  I've sent them pictures of dogs, both Indy and Blue, and we waited and waited and waited and scavenged all Publexes in the area until we finally found some copies of the summer edition.  But guess what: they omitted the black dog.  Indy was nowhere to be found.  They put some weird pictures but why put some pro looking ones right? I wasn't mad as I was disappointed in the editors.

I was told that both of them would be included.  The issue was printed and there is no point of fighting now.  Not for me though.  Indigo had some moments of clarity for himself.

Marianna's Birthday!!!!

Some days just have a certain feeling, you know.  Holidays mostly, and weekends.  But today started off just like any other day.  But secretly, everyone knew that it was a day to celebrate a birthday of one such special human being who happen to be sharing her life with me.

As we woke up, fed the dogs and did our morning routine (blogs, emails, FB) we realized that the weather outside is amazing.  None of that oven Florida Sun but a cloud covered sky, a interlude for a storm.  But we have couple of hours till it pours, it's Florida, it pours at 1 or at 3.  I can set my watch according to this phenomena.

So we showered and took the dogs to Panera Bread.  Mari had some peacon bread while I sipped on the worlds greatest Raspberry Tea.

As we started enjoying the weather, sprinkle turned into a pour.  We reached the car before the Earth's Shower but we did ended up with some wet spots.

We had an amazing lunch afterwards which Mariangela prepared and alfredo actually went and bought a cake.  I broke my chocolate promise but I'm such a weak man:  what can you do?!

She will kill me for posting this picture but what 

 the heck!!!

We took a nap after lunch and as I woke up, Mari was heading to work: Crop at the Scrappy Boutique.  she was so excited since most of her friends were going to be there and there would be cake and so on and so on.

I stayed home, continued applying for jobs and then I took the doggies for a walk.  Here are some of tonight s pictures:

Mari with the pups

Currently we are dealing with Blue and his condition. Tuesday morning we woke up and his entire chest was bruised up .  We went to the vet that same morning and we discovered that blue has less than 10K platelets count.  Dangerously low.  That is what caused the bleeding.  We are scared.  He is obviously not.  Hyper, brown pooping, yellow peeing, all over the place dog.  But unfortunately, him being excited is him having high blood pressure which can cause mass hemorrhaging. 

So far, he is alright.  Sleeping, resting.  We will not know until Monday if he has increased his platelet count with these new medications. 

Shotgun

How safe is it? Shouldn't you put a seat belt on him? What if IF?
All these are legitimate questions for any dog except Blue and any driver except me. Accidents do happen and being ready and prepared will decrease the injury.  That is what I sincerely advise all people to do.  If you have a rat-dog or a cat-dog place them in their seats or stuff them down your purse, which ever is more economical for you. 

Here are some excuses why I do it:
Blue does not suffer from motion sickness-If I tell him to go back, he goes-no shotgun on highways-no window open at the passenger seat- no driving in the front in stop and go traffic (statistically this is when the most accidents happen)-no driving in the front when i'm distracted, depressed or tired!

There ya go....

Car Trouble

Entering Highway,

means windows closed,

or Indy would fly away,

we saw it: Wind rose nose

Blues and Indinos.

So Indy likes to join us,

for the view in the cockpit,

and when he comes his groin must,

lock us-someone call a locksmith!

Blue the Boldilocks

We came back from Inspired to encounter this great welcoming board.  Blue was almost howling, Indy was grabbing our arms and trying to get us down and it was great. The first things we looked for when we saw them were the Indies bold chin and Blues paint covered fur.  We debated and debated on what to do and we simply assessed the situation: Blue had a problem with but glands, had a crust under his eye, paint in his fur, and nails huge.  Indy on the other hand just had the chin breaking out full of pimples.  The decision was made: We were going to the vet. 

Weight Info: Blue is down one pound to 62 lbs.
                       Indy is down 3 pounds to 75lbs.

Conclusion: We fought with Indy to get a scrape of his chin pimples and that took 3 people.  Blue had his but glands squeezed. nails clipped and a HAIRCUT...

We were simply scared to make things worse by trying to take it out by ourselves but if you are brave enough this is the link that explains some thing. CLICK HERE

Mothers Day

I turn myself around,

and I place my butt,

to offer my help aloud,

since your face is hot.

YOUR GREATEST FAN

Then I lick my rear,

to catch wind when it speaks,

also to trick your ears,

and spread the wind on your cheeks.

LIKE THE LATEST TAN

Blue hired me to write something that rhymes about something he likes to do for Mari.  Indy saved his bone from yesterday and wanted Mari to break it in half so he could share it with Blue.  

Well, Mothers Day is about to pass and the doggies enjoyed it.  They were left alone while we went out to Denny's for breakfast and they did not destroy anything.  Later in the afternoon they went with me to get the mail and then Mari, them and I walked around the lake during late afternoon hours.  I had Indy on a leash while Blue roamed free and to Mari, who almost never goes behind with us, it seemed unfair.  Indy was suffering as she put it.  I took him off and I called it to a second when he would jump into the water and start swimming.  

Later we just hosed them down and waited outside with them until they got dry. 

Do not worry: I'm not giving up on the blog.  I've just been enjoying my doggy company so much lately that I run as much as they do and then I sleep as much as they do.  Currently, after a short walk in 90 degree weather, the doggies are sleeping so I put some effort into writing this post.

Here is a picture of Blue and Alfredo having a conversation. Unfortunately, neither Alfredo or any "humans" in the house have mastered the Blue talk.  There are a couple of different schools of thought on what Blue wants when he jumps up to the counter and I will share mine with you.

-I've noticed that Blue expresses himself through face licking.  He is not a leaner or a "lay and pet me" type of a dog.  When he welcomes you in the house he would keep jumping to your face trying to show his hospitality.  So one explanation for his behavior here is the "kiss-lick a face"

-Another possibility is his constant search for food.  That is a shared belief in this house.

Either way, Blue does it and as cute as it is, sometimes it can be hazardous especially during lunch time.

Paw Pals

Dog Food Cooks!!!!

After a quite an interesting conversation with my baby, Mari, regarding the dogs nutrition and diet, we have decided to start cooking the meals for our dogs.

Now, we have started planning but the decision is not final yet.  Due to the high volume of food constantly recalled and me finding out that dog food manufactures use diseased livestock, road kill and many other undesirable ingredients we want to offer something better to our dogs.

Another factor is cost.  It can be much cheaper for our wallets to cook their food.   Well, a trip to Sams will either confirm or negate the wallet savings.

Here is the very simple recipe to which we would add many more vegetables: HERE

Alfredo's Chicken Treats and Toys

Papi brought new toys,

puppies jumped of joy,

Papi brought a plastic bag,

puppies had tactics: SNAG

pull and rip apart

and start to strip,

drool on lips was smart

now hard is their grip....

Everything they tear it's in the air like a flare but would land on the stairs along with a rare hair! All we can do is stare and guess where pieces of bare material would land-THERE..and THERE...and on the CHAIR!

On a serious note, a recent article I read from Humane Society said that "For dogs and other animal companions, toys are not a luxury, but a necessity."

"Toys help fight boredom in dogs left alone, and toys can even help prevent some problem behaviors from developing."

In conclusion, like Blue says: "Without toys, life is RUFF"  Well, I said "without the toys, life is" but he said the rest.

Sniff Sniff Away

When he sniffs his lips are stiff, drool drips and if he catches the whiff of something iffy, swiftly he will lift his front right paw, and bent it at the pastern, he would breathe faster, as if seeing a pattern, he would look at his master, to tell him to plaster his nose all over those rows where the suspect decided to go.

Sniff Sniff AWAY

If If A DAY

had an hour more, 

to smell he would thrive

with the nose so powerfull

he would sniff 7/25!

Indy the Gardener

Will you grant a pardon

to Indy,

and let him replant the garden

with me? 

Earth can't harden

when he digs non stop,

so a plan I started,

in which he can have all the twigs that drop

Happy Paws

 

Happy Paws took care of our puppies today: the first time for Indy to spend an entire day away from us since we got him and the first time they are away from us together.

Happy Paws has a bunch of webcams and with Alfredo's help, who took an enormous amount of snapshots, we bring you Blue's and Indies integration into the pack.  (So well integrated that I can not recognize them on the snapshots)

Mari said it right: We felt like parents trying to get our children into an elite preschool.  The screening process the dogs went under was short and painless and as soon as they saw what gentle souls they are, they were taken in.

Now: In occasions like this you often wonder: Are you good enough for your dog? Do you exercise him enough, play with him, feed him right, etc.  I said that the doggies, on the way back home, where not sad because they are missing Happy Paws but because they do not want to go home.

I strongly recommend this place: When we picked them up, the puppy staff was courteous enough to give us a tour and I might say that I wouldn't mind being boarded there.

www.happypawsorlando.com