Nikki, Kayla & Big Fluffy Golden Dog

On Thursday, Nikki and Kayla got together after a respite due to the holidays, and boy, were they glad to see each other. Robin and I were ecstatic that these two could thankfully burn off some energy. They romped and played in their pool and generally had a wonderful time getting very dirty and muddy.

As you can see from this picture, the water quickly got very black as my Golden turned into a Mud Dog. Water was everywhere ... all over the patios, everywhere. I couldn't do too much because my knee and my low back was killing me. Four Advil helped and I was finally able to participate more in the end. But of course, I took videos which I'll post at http://southcoastdesigner.com/web-content/videos.html over the weekend.

Here, Robin is attempting to dump out the dirty water but Nikki had other ideas. That's my girl! Anytime she can "help" ....

At any rate, the plan was for my friend from high school, Marianne, to come over either before or at the same time as Robin and Kayla so she could meet Nikki and watch the pups in action. However, her plans changed so she didn't come over until after Robin and Kayla left, so she missed "The Show." But she did get to hang out with Nikki and me for quite a long time afterwards. Nikki was on her good behavior as she was tired, plus I kept the Gentle Leader on her. Good dog! Marianne and Nikki really hit it off.

After their play date, Nikki was a pretty dirty dog. Yes, most of the dirt fell off of her and on to my kitchen floor after she got dry, but I felt it was time for her to go back to PetsMart and have a bath. So I took her in on Friday and now she is the Big Fluffy Golden Dog.

And she is getting big, I tell you! I wonder if she now weighs close to 65 lbs. The lady at the grooming salon said that Nikki's collar was getting tight and that she needed a new one. That surprised me. But it really does seem that she's filled out quite a lot in the last week.

I took these last three photos after her grooming. You can see the mark of the Gentle Leader on her face, but I wanted to capture her all fluffy and clean before she went and got muddy again. (My back yard still is a bit of a muddy mess from emptying out the wading pool several times.) Here she is, trying to get me to play Fetch with her again. She's not a Golden Retriever for nuttin'!

Don't forget to check out the videos at http://southcoastdesigner.com/web-content/videos.html
and have a Happy and Safe New Year!

Nikki & the Heil Street Tradition

My friend and I were going to look at the amazing Christmas lights display that people traditionally put up at their houses around Heil Street in Fountain Valley, but she wasn't feeling good. I was disappointed but it made sense that she stay home and rest. We made plans for going after Christmas ... hopefully the lights will still be up.

My aunt suggested I take Nikki with me and go see the lights anyway. I thought about it but wasn't sure I wanted to do that. But then I figured I'd go through a drive-thru and grab a bite to eat, so I put Nikki in the car. She was in the back seat sans harness, which I had forgotten. I didn't want to go back in the house to get it; I figured it'd be OK as we were just going to go up the street.

Suddenly, however, I was in the mood to see the lights, so off we went. Once we got there, Nikki got very excited at seeing all of the lights and people walking around. There were parents with their kids in strollers, dogs, teenagers ... everyone was out to view the Christmas displays. Last year about 250 homes were decorated; I imagine it was about the same amount this year.

Nikki and I had a blast looking out of the car windows; she even ventured into the front seat and panted in my ear. Very cute. I'd like to look at the houses in more detail, so hopefully my friend and I will go, but it was fun to see Nikki get into the Christmas spirit!

Of course she's in the spirit! She knows it's Christmas! I've told her all about it.

Stop the Presses!

Yes, it's true! The day we've all been waiting for has finally arrived—Nikki has graduated from Intermediate Dog Obediance School at PetsMart. Yeah! She has learned to Sit Stay, Come with Distractions, Stand, Leave It - Take It, Down Stay, to name a few. She performed in class so why not at home. Because she wears the Gentle Leader in class, that's why! You can see her in the foreground with the Gentle Leader (the red) around her head.

The other 3 dogs graduated today also. I found out that Bella, the blond Lab who is 16 days older than NIkki, now weighs 65 lbs. It will be interesting to see if NIkki catches up with her.

All of us are interested in the Advanced class. I'm also interested in taking her to a personal dog trainer. The better trained she is, the more fun things we can do together.

Nikki Goes to the Vet ... Dog Flu ... Distemper

Took Nikki in to the vet today for her heartworm blood test. I have to wait until the results tomorrow to give her the preventative heartworm medicine but I'm sure she's fine. I wanted to know how much she weighed as I suspected she was at least 58 lbs. Yep! Nikki weighed 59.2 lbs.!

She isn't even 9 months old yet and she already weighs almost 60 lbs. I wonder how big she is going to be? The standard for a female is 55 to 65 pounds. I keep thinking that she's going to be at least 75 lbs. if she keeps up this growth. I need to measure her. Females should be 21 1/2 to 22 1/2 inches at the withers.

When I told the vet, Dr. Malo, that she knocked me over the other day, and about my arm and my knee, he asked if I thought of getting her professionally trained. Actually, I have. He highly recommends the trainer that trained his son's (Dr. Mark) huge bull mastiff. Dr. Malo knows him and I guess Dan has worked with vets, etc. In fact, I had called him when I first got Nikki. He costs more per day than PetsMart but he'll do the training. I will have to wait on taking her to this trainer until my financial situation is on more secure ground.

He said Dan is very careful about the dogs' health, as I was concerned about that. When I brought up the problem of dog flu, he said that the amount of cases that he's seen has gone down considerably. There had been lots of cases that he saw personally, but by the time that the media was reporting the dog flu, cases were already winding down. In other words, they were late in reporting it.

Dr. Malo did say that the amount of distemper cases has gone up. This is easily preventable if PEOPLE WOULD VACCINATE THEIR DOGS!!

Obviously, this reporting about dog flu and distemper only pertains to Garden Grove, or at the most, Orange County.

I also asked Dr. Malo about dog parks - he doesn't always think they're safe - and he's not too thrilled about dog beaches either. And I understand what he's saying. You don't know if these dogs are healthy or not, vaccinated or not. So I'm hesitant about them too.

These photos, taken today, show my little girl - oops, change that to BIG girl - engaged in her favorite activity, retrieving. That instinct is strong in her. This "basketball" is her favorite and is easier on her mouth than a tennis ball. She usually shoves this ball into my lap several times per day. This last photo is typical Nikki. She's retrieved the ball, wants to continue playing but doesn't want to Drop It either.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the mark on her nose, it's from the Gentle Leader. I had put it on her earlier today because I expected someone to put the trim around the windows today and I needed to control her without her ripping my arms out of their sockets. He didn't show, so I took her to the vet instead. It's an amazing Dr. Jekyl, Mr. Hyde experience with or without the Gentle Leader on.

Wanted: Good Home for Golden Retriever!

8 1/2 month old female Golden Retriever is the perfect family pet! She is docile, calm - placid even - and never chews, jumps or bites. She is a joy to behold, a real snuggle bunny. Owner must sacrifice; has gone around the bend to Funny Farm.

OK, OK. Ya wanna know what's going on? Nikki did it again. Last night, I was in the breakfast room with her, watching TV. She was at my side, in front of the back door, chewing. She had a chew right there, so I was glad she was happily occupied. She was chewing and pulling for quite some time. I finally got up for something, looked down and screamed!

Nikki had chewed a huge part of the linoleum! Meaning she probably pulled on a bit of the floor that had curled up, and then kept pulling up and chewing.

I put her to bed immediately and then I collapsed on the den couch and escaped into a 2-hour nap.

I hadn't planned on redecorating the kitchen just yet. Now it looks like I'll have to put in a new floor at the same time I have the bathroom floors done! So might as well take down the wallpaper and paint, too. Oh well, it does need it.

I am still recovering from the fall I took on Sunday night. I had just come home and was throwing away the trash. I was just about to play with Nikki when she decided to pounce on me with her two front paws, knocking me over! I fell on my right side onto a concrete step. Ouch! Saturday, Nikki stepped on my big toe on my right foot and now THAT'S infected! Oh, yes, and my whole left side is messed up. I'm limping because of my knee plus my left arm hurts and I have no strength in it anymore. I believe this all can be blamed on the dog too.

As my friend Marc pointed out, I got this dog to get in better shape! This, however, does not appear to be the case.

(I'm only kidding about giving her away but she is on waivers.)

Callie Cat's Health Update

Took this picture of Callie this morning - didn't get a chance to clean her eyes like I usually do, so she would have looked better. But notice her poor little nose (click on photo to enlarge). If you look back at previous photos posted of her earlier this year, you'll see how she's changed.

Had to take Callie in to the vet today for her re-check; it had been a week since her last radiation fraction. She saw Dr. Milo at All Care, who seemed quite nice. He remarked how sweet Callie is, and added that most torties and calicos can be rather fractious but that Callie was amazingly sweet. Which is so true. Everyone at All Care fusses over her and they all comment about her sweet personality. One day when I couldn't pick her up on time, apparently many of them visited and petted her.

Her overall outlook isn't too bad. Luckily she doesn't have any oral ulcers, which many cats develop. She does have some redness of her gums but it's not too bad. She's losing fur on her nose. When I took her out of her cat carrier at the vet, I noticed that her nose began to run. It hadn't started until we had left the house. I'm glad the doctor got to see that as she may be developing a secondary infection in the nasal cavity; he put her on Clavamox. She's now on 3 meds: prednisone, Clavamox and Metronidazole Syrup. The pred is administered every other day, while the other 2 are twice a day. Callie will love that.

She's lost more weight. Her original weight of over 11 lbs. was too much (but I thought she looked cute - she was my little chubette) and the vet said that this weight was OK for her. But he didn't want to see her continue to slide downwards. I can give her chicken baby food in addition to the I/D. I didn't know that the I/D was basically chicken and rice, so if I feel the need to pump up the flavor a bit, I should only use chicken. Oh. And here I've been giving her fish - stuff like Friskies Salmon, etc. Anyway, I'm to take her back in next Friday for another recheck. She'll see the oncologist then.

I ran a few errands afterwards with Callie in the car. Even went through a drive-thru to grab a bite to eat. Callie was so happy to NOT be at the vet that she happily sat in her carrier and observed these new surroundings with great curiosity. She was very calm, unlike a certain hyper Golden puppy who shall remain nameless.

Weird.

Having a hard time getting to my blog. Very weird. I think Blogger did some kind of update; after that you can't find my page. Figured I'd post this little comment. Here's hoping that will help.

Hey, ever hear of Michael Buble? I love how he sings the song Feeling Good.

The Mad Twosome Strike Again!

They're bad, they're fierce and they're back! Yes, the Mad Twosome are back for bigger and badder adventures. (Badder - is that a word? I didn't think so.)

Yes, Nikki and Kayla are back, with Kayla showing off her famous pugilist style - the Front Paw Slap - and Nikki displaying her famous defensive poses. Action couldn't GET any wilder! (Believe me, Robin and I were there and we can attest to this.) There was chasing, splashing, rolling, leaping, wrestling plus lots of shaking excess water off of coats!

These two pals had the best time and again went at it non-stop for 2 hours. Robin and I got quite involved with the madcap pair, especially in the vain attempt to get them to leave my little pine tree alone. We tried the ole' distraction technique, which consisted of "Where's the ball?" "Get the ball!" and throwing the ball and yelling "Fetch!"

Finally it worked. I threw the ball (filming all the while) and Nikki and Kayla chased after it. Playing Fetch with Nikki last night and growling in her ear when she brought it back to me so that she would meekly drop the ball, seemed to help greatly with today's game. This time Nikki willingly gave me the ball each time, so it was quite a fast and furious game! When they'd run back to me, I'd bend down which caused them to run faster, and both dogs would streak through my legs. How I kept my balance and kept filming them, I don't know!

It was getting late so we encouraged the puppies to get back into their pool and get off some of that mud. Then Robin and I attempted to towel-dry the little munchkins. Have you ever tried to towel-dry two happy, excited, leaping LARGE puppies who lick your face and mouth? No-?? I can honestly say then that you haven't lived. A-hem. Robin and I then bumped heads while trying to dry off these crazy pooches, which caused us to laugh even harder.

Robin did make the comment that we probably should NOT be going into the dog grooming business together as we could only handle two dogs per day. We would go out of business soon, that is, unless we had this business in Beverly Hills and charged $200/dog. At least!

The good news is that both Nikki and I took 2-hour naps afterward. She got up, was VERY sweet and docile, chewed happily on her compressed rawhide, ate 3 scoops of food and then toddled back off to bed. A Very Happy Puppy Indeed!