SORRY WE'VE BEEN AWAY!

Hey folks, sorry for straying away for a few months but we're back and we'll be having more fun with the pups! So stayed tuned for more doggy fun!

Calypso and Her Pet Rock!

You would think that dogs would much rather play with tennis balls or plastic toys then a rock, right?  One day while planting, I accidentally knocked over one of the rocks that I use to line a veggie garden with. It rolled down the side of the yard and Calypso went after it.  Since that happened, she plays with it nonstop everyday when she's outside.  We don't quite understand the fascination but it is truly funny to watch.

Where's my Pizza?????

Man, all I wanted was pizza Friday night! Doesn't that look good? Guess who got to eat it? Not me.

Oh, Here's the culprit!  

Bad boy.  Yep, he knew he was in trouble.  Look at that face.  Guilty as charged. It took a matter of seconds. I put the pizza on the counter and I even pushed it back so he couldn't get to it. I went downstairs to change the laundry over. I came back to find small pieces of spinach on the floor.  My pizza was Gone!

And he had a little helper too.

Oh Eli! You've Done it Again!

"He's going to be okay!" Said Dr. Dutton. "Phew, really? Thank goodness!" I exclaimed.  That's exactly what Dr. Dutton confirmed that Eli was going to be just fine.  "I showed him a trash can and he turned his nose away," joked Dr. Dutton.   I couldn't help but laugh!  It wasn't really a laughing matter, after all the poor thing couldn't poop and all he could do was throw up and make us worry, heavily panting in our ears begging us to go outside all night long because he didn't feel well.  What the hell is wrong with our dog?  A few days later and $2,000 in the hole, we knew what was wrong.  Our retriever had turned into a canine garbage disposal.

Yep, you name it the good doctor pulled it out of our dog.  A couple of weeks before, we had taken a ride to the one of those industrial size pet stores.  We walked out of there with bones and a really cool dog toy I mean it was awesome!  It had two types of rope wrapped around like a braid and then had a tennis ball at the end!  Great toy for the pups! Let's buy it! Great toy my ass! If I had an inkling of what was to come in the weeks ahead, we should have just wrote a check to the pet store for the money instead of where it really went!

On our way home we thought we had the puppy toy of the century! They'll never destroy this.  This is made of durable rope and plastic! Yeah, our dogs are going to love this toy!!  Oh yeah, they loved it alright! They pulled it, the ripped on it, they fought over it, they even had their own version of tug-o-war....yep, that toy was their favorite....did I mention that it only took an hour for them to pull it apart?  Yeah didn't tell you that part did I?  Well, we picked up all the pieces as they came off, the tennis ball turned into used chewed up AstroTurf and was everywhere all around the house. I must have vacuumed and swept for days to keep up with the mess. My hubby finally took it away from them because they had utterly destroyed it.  So it stays in a basket up on top of the fridge where they can't reach it. 

One Friday night I just happened to look at the war toy in the basket and saw that there was only a small portion of it left.  Thinking to myself, I didn't pick up that much of the chewed toy that there would only be a small piece remaining.  I thought about it and figured well, the dogs seem okay, they'll just magically poop out whatever if they ingested small parts of it. We find pieces of all kinds of things out in the yard.

Pant, pant, pant...in my face...it's midnight, Eli wants out. That's strange. He's never done that before. Sean decides to take him out, he comes back into the house and reports Eli has the worst case of diarrhea.  On the hour the pup had to go outside.  Hot, tired and just miserable.  We finally made the decision that he had to go to the vet, our Eli just wasn't feeling good.  Got up on Monday morning, put him in the car.  Boy was he a happy little camper, we're going for a ride and he eagerly jumped in, not suspecting where he was going.  He was even happy to go inside and visit the vet....until we had to leave him there for the day.

The usual x-rays, upper GI tests were done and then they even did a barium which takes hours to see if there is anything in the tummy since the x-ray couldn't find anything like rocks or metal.  Finally, Dr. Dutton reports that he can't see it but there was something blocking the barium test.  He said to be sure, they want to go in and remove whatever it was. There was a definite foreign body in there!  So I gave him the okay to perform surgery on our yellow. I was hoping this wasn't going to happen but he is a young pup and has many years left him, we couldn't bare to think of putting our Eli down because he had eaten something.  Check out the pic below, that's what was in our boy!

The surgery went well and 12 inches of incision later, our boy was resting comfortably.  I'll tell ya, I'm a better house cleaner now and our trash can stays up on the counter at all times....24/7.  Dr. Dutton called to make the report of what they had found and even gave us a picture to hang on our fridge as a souvenir.  Thanks Dr. Dutton,...just what we wanted.... but a good reminder to keep a better eye on what the dogs are doing.  Not only did they find half of the rope toy and parts of the ball in his stomach, but a large wad of hair from a hairbrush, Hmmm, yes I had just cleaned the hairbrushes the other morning and threw it out in the bathroom trash, a full wine cork with no chew marks meaning he swallowed it whole, pieces of plastic from several bottles, toothpicks and wood!  OMG! We're the worst doggy parents ever! How could we have missed all that?  How???? The vet laughed, (I pictured him evilly twisting his make-believe moustache as he skips all the way to the freaking bank!) Obviously deserved, since he saved our dog's life.  But he said this is your typical Labrador. They are not the smartest of the canine species, they love to chew and get into trouble.  Their favorite thing in the world is getting into the trash.  Big sigh of relief but not for our wallet. There will be no family vacation this year, but at least our yellow lab is better and healthy and it's okay....we can always stay home and throw a Frisbee at our dogs for fun.  Oh wait, I should just run down to the bank and pull out another $2,000 and send it to Wham-O. ;)

Calypso's Heart

What is Calypso's Heart?  Well I'll tell ya the story.  We're a New England family that loves the outdoors and are animal lovers.  We are the home filled with crazy school and work schedules and of course our four-legged children.  We moved to Weare, NH just a few years ago after buying a cute little ranch on a dirt road just perfect for our little fam! We rescued a yellow lab retriever to add to the family.  He came from a high kill shelter in Tennessee and saved by a lab rescue team out of Mason, NH.  We figured why not? Let's get 

Dynanic Puppy Duo!

a dog. Don't most families have dogs around here? It's the country! Why not us and add more craziness to our lives!  So we adopted Eli, our butter soft mellow yellow...so we thought! He is every bit a yellow lab, dumb, up to no good, dopey, loyal, and an eating machine and I mean eating machine!

Months went by and my stepdaughter, Cori wanted to move down to NH from Maine to start her summer job after graduation.  One night hanging out in the family room, we asked her what she wanted for her graduation gift, and she said this while pointing her finger at the computer screen.  So I look over her shoulder and it was a website of a dog breeder somewhere in Arkansas selling bull terrier pups.  We looked at the pictures for hours, so CUTE!  My heart melted, my husband groaned.  He knew he had no chance in saying no and that our family was going to get bigger.  So the process began and we bought her one of the puppies.  This puppy was no ordinary pup, she came with one very special feature. We looked at the pictures over and over and thought that she had an interesting mark on her face.  Yep, if you haven't guessed it yet.  It was a heart, not only just a heart though. A perfect black one right on the side of her cute little face.  We were anxious to get her up to New England and see for ourselves.  I took the day off to pick her up from Logan Airport. We got there so early and couldn't wait for the plane to land.  Longest wait of our lives, couldn't wait to meet our new family member.  They brought her off the plane, we signed papers and were new parents of a very happy, loving, ear nipping baby bull terrier.  My step daughter named her Calypso which means love.  And boy is she properly named.  She can't get enough attention and love from each of us.  The ride home that day was a little crazy but we were so happy to have her home as she jumped from seat to seat licking everyone's faces.  She was eight weeks old and just full of puppy life. 

I wish I had blogged our stories sooner.  Because so much has happened since Calypso came home. So much doggy drama but we love every minute of it.  Well, maybe not every minute of it.

Our four legged children rule the roost.  She being the strong and muscular white bull terrier that loves to eat fire and then there is dumb yella, our garbage sniffing, floor eating machine or should I say garbage eating, floor sniffing tyrant, I think both of these things have happened many times. The two make a very unique pair and the stories I will tell will hopefully delight.  Sometimes after a day of running after these two, I stare down at my feet and say to myself: "Self, what the hell did you get yourself into?" I tell family, friends and colleagues of our puppy adventures and I get the same responses over and over.  Kim, you should write a book.  I chuckle about these stories and I love making people laugh but I really suck at writing and I know it. I couldn't possibly write a book if I ever wanted to. But maybe blogging will do for now.

So tune in from time to time and I promise, you will be shocked, you will laugh and you may even cry.  Who would have thought a bull terrier and a yellow lab would be the best of friends! They are two peas in a pod....or should I say two pups in a pod!  Welcome to the Adventures of Eli & Calypso!