Trouble with a capital T.

Friday I was so happy to get out of work on time and get home with relatively little traffic.  It had been a long, crazy week with alot of working overtime and driving between locations.  I was really looking forward to a relaxing evening with a beer.   Joey was working late so I got home and let the dogs out and fed them dinner.  They wanted to go back outside so I went out to chaperone because they have had a bit of a project going on lately...

Now, I know you haven't seen much of our backyard but here is an old pic from last summer.  As you can see, the porch is relatively low to the ground.

As you can also see, a Miniature Pinscher can fit very easily underneath the porch.  But a human being cannot.  I have been asking Joey FOREVER to put up some chicken wire to keep them from going underneath there.  Who knows what could be under there?? Snakes? Spiders? ......Rabbits?

Oh yes.  Doc and Chloe figured out that a family of rabbits had moved in under the porch.  Just a few days ago they chased one out of the yard.  So while I'm waiting for Joey to cover up the 'entranceway', I've been escorting the dogs outside with treats in hand, just in case they need to be quickly distracted.

Well, long story short, I suddenly heard alot of rustling coming from under the porch.  Both dogs were under there and they were refusing to come out when I called them and offered treats.  Then I heard what hunters refer to a "rabbit-in-distress call"... except it was real and it was horrible.  There was nothing I could do.
:(
The dogs were tag-team cornering the baby bunny under the porch.  They would not listen to me and I was FREAKING OUT. 

If you didn't know, Min Pins were bred to kill rats and other small animals in farm houses in Europe.  So you can imagine what happened next.....

Fast forward a proud Pin with his prize, an angry Mom, and 2 dogs locked up in the bathroom upstairs.

The dogs spent the rest of the weekend dying to go back outside.  I was disgusted and traumatized.  Joey came home, thought the whole thing was funny, and told me he thought it would be a good idea to put up the chicken wire now. 

$#%@!

~SG

aDOCtion Day!

Two years ago today, after I got a ticket for running a red light on my way home from work, Joey and I drove waaaaay out 66W to check out this little tiny Miniature Pinscher.

He was so tiny, so scared, and I held him on my lap the whole way home.

Little did we know that he was the spunkiest, loviest, most loyal little Pin that has ever lived.  And we are so grateful to have him in our lives!!

Happy Adoption Day Doc!!! We love you!!!!!

But how do you tell them apart?!



DOC



CHLOE



They might look alot alike, but Doc and Chloe have differences that make them easy to pick out! 

Doc has a black nose.

Chloe has a brown nose (oh yes, the jokes have been happening all week).

Doc has a smaller muzzle.

Chloe has bigger ears!

Doc is a boy, and has man-parts.

Chloe is a girl, and has girl parts.

 Doc has deep brown eyes.

Chloe has hazel eyes.

BOTH pups are hilariously funny, extremely snuggly, loving, intelligent, and eager to please.  In the past 3 days, Chloe has learned "sit" and what a "treat" is.  She is just like her big brother- she loves to sit in the laundry basket and snuggle under the covers.  Doc is doing ok- he doesn't like sharing his Mom and Dad, or his toys.  But he is learning!

We aren't having any trouble telling them apart... until it's the middle of the night and the lights are off. Then it's a fun game called "Guess which Min Pin is in my crotch"!

I hope this bit of useless information serves you well.

~SG

A Christmas Pin!

Our family got a wonderful Christmas present this year.  We recieved word on December 23rd from the Internet Miniature Pinscher Rescue Service that we had been selected as the lucky parents for a little girl named Chloe.  She joined our family first thing the next morning. 

Meet Chloe!

Chloe is about a year old, and a very sweet little girl.  She and Doc were fast friends.  While Christmas was totally insane with a new dog in the house, I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

Welcome to the family, Chloe Gish!

Eagles vs Cowboys? No problem

Part of our home security system

Opening their stocking

Complete as a family of four!

We had a wonderful Christmas with both my and Joey's family, and good friend Peyton.  I'll be back later this week to share more photos and stories from Gishmas 2011.

Love,

Sarah, Joey, Doc and Chloe :)

It was a dark and stormy night...

No, really. It was.  It was last night. I was driving home from dance class late last night in a thick, eerie fog.  As I pulled into the driveway, I believe that I entered...

(doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo)

I walked in the house and everything seemed normal, until Joey told me that Doc had been acting really strange.  He was running around licking everything.  To include the walls, floor, tile, etc. And he kept wanting to go outside and eat grass and leaves.  I figured his stomach was just upset, but he was acting totally normal now.  Eating his kibble, drinking water, chewing on his bone, etc.

Of course this put me into panic mode and I started googling all the things that could be wrong with him. But he was happy as a clam (?), and acting completely normal.  So we all went upstairs to go to sleep.

In the middle of the night, I awoke to a torrential downpour outside. We have a huge window in our  bedroom that sits on the side of the house, so the rain was hitting it directly. It was a little spooky.  I laid there for a while listening to it, then listening to make sure Doc was breathing (he was), and finally fell back to sleep.

This morning I awoke to the sound of voices.

I woke up around 6 to get ready for a quick run before work (more on this later). Doc and Joey were still snoozing and didn't seem to hear them. But I did. I told myself I was being silly and got up to get dressed.  Once in the bathroom, I heard them more clearly.  They were coming from *gulp* downstairs.

I cracked open the door and listened. 

Something about........ golf???

I realized the TV was on... which would be a relief except I know for a fact it was off when we went upstairs last night. I know this because Doc and I were outside for one last potty break, and we were surprised to come back in to find the TV off and Joey upstairs reading. 

I crept down the stairs, peeked around the corner, and saw that the TV was OFF.... but talking.

The reciever had turned itself on, as well as all of its' lights.  I went over and switched it all off, and proceeded to cautiously turn on all the lights in the kitchen and living room. 

I checked over my shoulder a few times but the TV and reciever remained off for the rest of the morning.  And Doc is totally fine.  The weather is beautiful with no fog in sight.

So you tell me.  Do you think we briefly entered the Twilight Zone last night?? Was there a power surge that cause the reciever to turn on in the rain storm?  Do we have a ghost that finally decided to make itself known? Is our house trying to tell us something?Is our dog just really bored?

What do you think??

Halloween Recap

Just wanted to share a quick recap:

Halloween was a success at the Gish household!  When the evening started, I was worried we wouldn't get too many trick or treaters.  But we ended up going through 3 bags of candy!  I didn't wear a "costume", per se, but I did wear the mouse ears I acquired in Disney World 2 weeks ago (quick cruise pit stop) and some other Halloweeny stuff.  Doc was a bumble bee.  I didn't necessarily plan for him to be a bumble bee but for 5 bucks at Walmart, it sounds like a plan.  Even though I'd LOVE to buy an elaborate costume for him, I'd get chewed out for it and really, I'd rather spend $50 on new shoes or something...

I did have to apologize for my barking bumble bee throughout the night ("he's all buzz and no sting!") but we also used it as a sort of training opportunity.  I would answer the door while Joey distracted him with treats (and made him do tricks!).  We also put up the baby gates because the first time the doorbell rang he went tearing off to the little windows on either side of the door and was visciously defending his home.  Lucky for us most of the kids wanted to know what kind of dog he was and/or tell me about their dog.  Kids are so funny.

In terms of decorations, we didn't have much.  I didn't really go out an get decorations for the house because we are still working on things like.... curtains.  So we don't really have any business buying Halloween crap.  So I just used what we already had.  Not spectacular, but we lit up the place like a Christmas tree so the kids would know it was a candy-giving house.

My astronaut.  Just another prop I bought for the cruise that didn't end up being worn.  So Joey wore it for ~5 minutes while he drank a beer and lit the pumpkin because I thought I was going to burn my fingers off.

Before we gave away all our candy, I'd say we had about 20-25 Trick-or-Treaters.  We decided to call it a night a little after 9 when a group of 6 middle school-age boys pulled up in their parents SUV.  They were clearly being driven all over town.  Majorly frowning upon that. I said on my Facebook that I don't have a problem with a parent driving their kid around due to health reasons or safety reasons. But when you are doing it because your greedy kid is trying to collect as much free stuff as possible/doesn't want to WALK to do it.... then I will judge you.

And now my rant is over. 

We checked left and right to make sure no more LEGIT Trick-or-Treaters were coming up the street, then we blew out the candles and turned off all the lights.  And watched the football game.

Happy Halloween to all and to all a good November!!

~SG

Problem Solving

As you can imagine, we spent this entire weekend working on the house. And you can't even tell.  One of our projects was installing a white picket fence for little Mister.  I was a little skeptical at first, worrying that he might be able to squeeze through the bars, but it looks like living with Grandma has actually helped with this.  "See!" she said, "I knew I was fattening him up for a reason! It's for his own safety!"  ...thanks, Grandma.


Just to be safe I tried to squish him through.  Not only did he not like it, but he didn't fit either.  Phew.

So anyway, Joey got to work digging holes and burying fence posts. 

Here is a picture of what it looked like before we actually set anything up or cut the posts down to size.

Joey was digging and I was on the other side of the fence piling up extra dirt (ya know, so Doc couldn't squeeze through the underside) when Joey suddenly makes a weird noise and yells "Stay right there!"

"Uhh, ok... why?"

(points with shovel) "Snake!"

He goes over to it to cut it’s head off with the shovel, and I got all sad and sentimental, but then it reared up and tried to bite the shovel.

"AHH kill it!!"

And so he did.

And we are still arguing about what color it was. *I think it was green and a garter snake. Joey thinks it was brown and a cottonmouth. 

Either way, there are apparently snakes in our new backyard. 

WELL NOT ANYMORE!  Today I ordered this little baby.

And he shall be called Owlbert.  He will be arriving next week.

~SG

 

Toadily Part II: Revenge of the Toads

I am a redneck.

So the other night, Joey and I decided to exact revenge on the toad that almost killed our little muffin.  Okay, Doc did not almost die, or nearly almost die.  He was just really sick and miserable.  And NOBODY will make my baby sick and miserable; let this be a lesson to all.

How do you get a toad to leave your yard? Do you bait it over the fence with some tasty bugs?  Not in this family.  In this family, you shoot it. 

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Before you go calling the authorities, no firearms were used in a residential neighborhood (much to my dismay).  We used a BB gun.

The first night it was pouring rain and cold, so no toads were out and about.  But last night, as I was taking Doc out (on his leash) for his bedtime pee, there it was.  The big one.  This was one big effing toad, let me tell you.  Look at your hand.  Spread out your fingers.  That’s how big this M-Fer was. I pulled Doc back inside and ran to the bathroom door, which was closed because Joey was taking a shower, and yelled “Joey! Come quick! The big toad is on the patio! Come shoot it!”

“I’m taking a shower! You shoot it!”

“I don’t know how!”

*Rustling, shower curtain opening* “You are so ridiculous.”

And so, Joey shot the toad out the back door, with a towel wrapped around his waist.
 

We are rednecks.

The worst part is, the stupid thing didn’t die after being shot 3 times.   I had to shovel him up and toss him over the fence into the neighbor’s yard (insert Asian neighbor eating toad joke here).  And then the guilt kicked in.  That was a big dude. I looked into his eyes.  He didn’t deserve to die… I felt REALLY bad.  He probably lived a peaceful life out on that patio for YEARS. And now he was going to suffer and die because we shot him in the leg and head with a BB gun. 

After I shoveled him over the fence and heard the terrible plop he made when hitting the ground, I turned around and…. There were toads everywhere.  At least 20 of them. They had come back to get revenge…. On ME.  Gulp.

Ok I’m kidding, but wouldn’t that make a great horror movie?  Anyway, lesson is learned. I’m not a hunter.  I didn’t even shoot the thing, but I still feel guilty.  The only good that has come out of this is that there is one less toad out there for Doc to bite and get sick from.  And I now know that I need to get a silencer for my gun because I know damn well that thing wouldn’t live if it was shot 3 times with a .22 bullet…

I am a redneck.

Toadily.



Doc, in happier times



Doc had a pretty rough weekend. What am I going to do when I actually have KIDS? What am I going to do the first time they get sick or hurt? I was a wreck all weekend over my little DOG. I am going to be the most overprotective parent ever. My children will live in a bubble. They can play sports if they wear head to toe padding like in "Little Giants"...have you seen that movie? It's a classic.

Friday night I got home from the Bayhawks promotion around 10, and since we're super cool, Joey and I were getting ready for bed. I took Doc outside one last time for the night. Lately he has been enjoying pouncing on the toads that like to lounge on the patio at night time. We always yell at him to go do his business and leave the toads alone.  This time, I had my back turned for ONE SECOND and he suddenly had one in his mouth. I screamed NO! and he let go and I saw the toad happily hop away into the bushes. Doc ran inside and was making a horrible face, licking and grimacing and just looking awful. Here's the part
where I sound like a total psycho dog-mom.

I picked him up and carried him to the bedroom calling, "Daddy! Help! Doc bit a toad!" and then, noticing Doc was beginning to FOAM AT THE MOUTH, "JOEY! HELP ME!". Joey's first instinct was to yell at me for letting Doc bite the toad (really? Yes. I did it on purpose actually...). Then we ran upstairs with Foamy and I started to *attempt to* wash his mouth out while Joey ran upstairs to wake up his parents to ask where the turkey baster was (so we could flush his mouth with water). "It could be poisonous, Sarah!" Great, so my panic level just elevated to RED.

Joey tried to pour water in his mouth while I frantically googled "my dog bit a toad" and got all kinds of crazy information. Depending on what kind of toad it was, Doc could be seriously sick.

Meanwhile, Joey's Mom was yelling at us because we packed Doc's Benadryl away and we didn't know where it was. She gave him a little bit of milk and he drank it, which was a good sign. But Doc was NOT behaving right at all. He crawled into his crate and sat down in the very back, which was extremely unsettling since he never goes in there. I call the vet and while I'm on hold, Joey goes over to the crate to check on him and says "Sarah? He just threw up. A lot." I hung up, called back, and said it was an emergency so they wouldn't put me on hold. The technician was nice, but hurried, when she told me toads around here aren't poisonous and that she's not surprised he got sick since he's so small. She said to just watch him for a while but he should be OK.

We cleaned up the Doc-vom (wow, his entire stomach emptied itself) and took him downstairs. The next 2 hours were terrible. Poor Doc, he was not feeling well at all. He was so sick and sad looking it just broke my
heart. We petted him and told him he was a good boy and he just leaned into us like "Help me :(" Joey passed out after a while leaving me to sit up every few minutes to check that Doc was still breathing. Eventually he got annoyed with me poking at him and crawled under the covers next to Joey so I would stop bothering him. He slowly started to feel better- I heard more sniffing, scratching, etc. and I finally felt like I could fall asleep. But I woke up every couple hours during the night anyway.

The next day he was toadily (haha) fine. He was bouncing around like a rubber ball again and eating his kibble and drinking his water. Here's the best part. Guess where he went the MOMENT we opened the door?? That's right. Back to the spot where the toad was. Stupid dog.

Saturday was uneventful, but Sunday he came in from being outside with bright red spots on his belly. I CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE OF THIS. Google told me it's black fly bites, and they are healing just fine. But I'm refusing to let him outside unattended during the day and he'll be on a leash at night until he learns not to go near toads.

Red spots,  also censored for your virgin eyes.

Traumatic Events

I think it's time to come clean about what REALLY happened last night.  Around 9:00pm, my Facebook status read "There's blood and flour everywhere! Sorry Doc!".  Which brought on quite a few concerned comments and texts...

Let's just say that this was NOT Doc's first MANicure.  We've cut his nails before, and actually just recently mastered the art of holding a piece of cheese in front of his nose to distract him whilst clipping said nails.  Pre-cheese, he would wimper and pull his paw away like a little child.  It was terrible.

Let me also say that I am a total dog mom.  Judge me if you want, but I have no children, so I am free to put all of my anxiety, worry, and obsession into one little 7 pound animal.  And I do.  The first time we left him with a friend while we went on vacation, I left her with a 6 page "DOC-ument" which detailed everything about him, what NOT to do (don't lose my dog!) and requested photos and text message updates daily. 

Anyway, back to last night, where Doc was WAY overdue for a manicure.  After one too many scratch marks on my neck and face, I grabbed the clippers and the cheese, and I held him in my lap while Joey clipped.  He was happily eating the cheese, when *clip* "Hmm, I think I cut that one too short...".  Doc seemed unfazed, and was still more interested in the cheese, so it didn't bother me.

Until I noticed blood on my hand where I hadn't seen it before.  There wasn't much, and it took me a minute to realize it was coming from Doc, who was still happily cheese-sniffing.  I wasn't awfully concerned, and Joey went to the kitchen for a "home remedy".  Flour. 

White powder. Wriggly dog. Blood. > our apartment.

It looked like a horrible baking accident... or that we tried to bake a Doc-pie (um hello, it was Pi Day!)...

The flour stopped the bleeding for a hot second, but little mister can't-sit-still ended up bleeding again, all over our bed.  We got the bleeding to stop several times, but then he would go walking around and it would start again.  I only panicked once, when it wasn't stopping- and I googled (bad idea) which just made it worse.  But thankfully he was FINE.

Eventually the bleeding did stop.  I checked it this morning and it's just a big scab now.  It doesn't seem to be bothering him at all, so don't call the authorities on me.

Just know that I am going out per several recommendations and buying a PediPaw...

~SG

PS: Sorry, I didn't take any pictures but I wasn't exactly in picture mode while all of this was going on............