Because we like to spoil ALL of our kids

When we installed the doggy door many moons ago, we had also intended to build a little "deck" or landing for the dogs to hang out on and so it would be easier to get into the house (since our house is raised). But, we were lazy and slow to kick off the project and it never got done. My dad even helped me do research on composite decking materials, which we bought and had sitting out in our side yard FOREVER, waiting to be used.

We decided to make it large enough for a bigger dog like Odin to feel comfortable standing on to get into the house, and also figured it might be a nice area for Lola to sunbathe on.

Sadly, we didn't make it in time for her to enjoy.

Odin, however, has been driving us C-R-A-Z-Y with his skittish personality regarding the door. At some point, a few months ago, he decided that the "blind" jump up and through the door into the house was just too much to take, and refused to use the door to get into the house unless there was an absolute emergency; like someone at the front door to bark at, or perhaps mealtime that Mom or Dad was dishing up.

Otherwise, he'd sit outside, at the doggy door and just BARK BARK BARK to be let back in the house. We'd have to go and hold the door open to coax him back in or let him in through the den sliding glass door. This might happen in the middle of the day, or perhaps, at 3am in the middle of the night.

NOT cool. ESPECIALLY not cool when you own a friggin' doggy door.

My dad had a break between projects this week where a couple of his workers had some "downtime", so I asked if he could bring them over to our place and just build the damn thing.

And BLAM. One day in and out, and it's all done! It's absolutely beautiful. A breathtaking piece of work - for a doggy deck anyway. One of the finest, most fancy ass doggy decks you'll ever lay your eyes on, this side of the Mississippi.

THANK YOU AGAIN DAD, FIDEL AND TOMAS! :)

A "before" shot - not exactly before because there was nothing in the dog run prior to today, but you get the idea. Here's the framing work they laid out first before building the rest of the deck.

A close up of the framing. What a beauty!

Installing the deck on top of the frame. Fidel is on the ground making sure it installs correctly and is level while Tomas is on top adding the weight to keep it sturdy. Dad, as always, is overseeing another one of his many masterpieces. ;-)

Logan was also building a masterpiece of his own kind. A pile of gravel.

And digging and moving gravel around....

The finished product. A fancy ass doggy deck!

Logan and Odin doing the final inspection. Odin immediately ran in and out of the door a couple of times. WHEW. Of course, the real test will be at 3am tonight. ;-)

Walking the dog

Out on a beautiful Saturday morning, enjoying the gorgeous springtime weather! :)

The verdict is in...

And, it's tapeworms.

Of all the worms to get, tapeworms is actually the best to get. Apparently. It's still disgusting if you ask me.

Our vet called me back yesterday to inform me of the news. As it turns out, tapeworms are much easier to treat (one single pill vs. weeks of treatment!) and kill off completely than the horrible roundworms that we were afraid the dogs may be infected with.

So, I gave both dogs a pill last night to kill off the tapeworms and then topped it off with a good flea treatment (dogs, and cats, tend to get tapeworms from eating an infected/carrying flea). I've treated two of the three cats with the flea medication, and will try to tackle Twyla sometime tomorrow, now that Jon is back home (yay!) to help me out. We'll also give the cats their tapeworm meds tomorrow too (theirs is a topical, rather than a pill, so I can't do the flea and tapeworm treatment on the same night).

We've washed all the bedding in the house and will be vacuuming the rugs and giving the dogs big baths just to be sure. But otherwise, another crisis deftly averted! WHEW.

Loss of Appetite

This morning was like no other. Busy as usual, getting everyone in the house up and ready for another day.

Only, Jon wasn't here to lend a helpful hand like normal. And, my parents needed a ride to the airport. And today was trash and gardener day - which meant in addition to making sure the trash containers were set out at the curb, I was also running around like mad in the backyard collecting all the dog poop to throw away before our gardeners arrived.

And, because I guess I get a thrill out of doing several things at once, I had my phone up to my ear, chatting away with Jon, updating each other on all the latest as I was juggling several balls.

That is, until everything stopped in slow motion the minute I looked down to pick up another pile of poop, and saw a hundred squirmy white little worms wiggling about.

Ummmmmmm. GROSS.

Seriously - it was disgusting. I'll take vomit or diarrhea or pee-stained couches any day of the week over this.

The rest of my day I thought about nothing else but worms. Forget about my parent's flight and loading their luggage into my car and instructions on which plants to water when. Forget about chatting it up with Logan's teachers during drop off and wishing them all a great day. Forget about closing out another fire-drill at work and keeping the execs happy.

And forget about lunch.

I called the vet's office. From my description on the phone, they think one of the dogs has roundworms. But, just to be sure, I took a fecal sample in for them to analyze. We'll get the definitive results back sometime tomorrow and go from there. It's better to figure out which worm we're dealing with so they know which meds to treat with. I also called Lola's oncologist to make sure she has the all clear to take meds, even though I'm pretty sure it's Odin who's infected. They said it should be totally fine. And, because some types of worms can transmit between both dogs and cats, we will probably need to treat the cats too.

We also need to keep a close eye on Logan. Kids are at a greater risk for catching worms - mostly because they aren't as diligent as adults when it comes to washing their hands. They also don't pay attention to what they're touching! Luckily, I've been a drill sergeant about washing Logan's hands lately and, he doesn't play in the backyard (where the dogs poop). So the chances of him getting sick are pretty slim.

Once we figure out what we're dealing with, we'll have to administer several rounds of meds. And, because we don't have enough on our plate as is, we need to quarantine the dogs and convince them to poop on concrete, so that we can quickly clean it up and BLEACH the shit out of it afterward.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Doggy Door Installed? Check! (finally)

I wasn't thinking clearly enough this morning to take the "before" pics. So instead, you get the "in progress" pic (with Iz making the final inspection):


And the "after":


Yay!! I don't think I need to remind you how great this will be for Odin, Lola, the cats, and us.

The coolest part of this project is, our contractor (who is a long time family friend of ours), did the work for free! He came over last night to talk with us about the project and toward the end of his visit we all had our iPhones out chatting about them. Mundo mentioned he's been frustrated because he can only receive, but never send, email from his phone.

Jon grabbed the phone from his hand with a "Let me see" muttered under his breath, disappeared into his office and 2 minutes later, voila! All fixed.

Mundo has had his phone for about a year and has never been able to get his email to work (even after asking several "computer savvy" friends to help him). He was soooo incredibly grateful he refused to accept payment from me today saying, "Bree, tell Jon THANK YOU. I am so happy he fixed my email and phone, you don't even know. What he did was amazing. We are even, don't worry."

I argued with him for 10 minutes telling him he was being silly, but he wouldn't budge.

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. I love it.

Shit.

Logan and I got home tonight to a house smelling of shit. I thought oh great, one of the cats didn't cover up their poop again! Ugh! But, as I turned the corner to let Lola out of her crate, I saw the splatter of shit across the floor of our den.

And then another splatter closer to the sliding glass door.

And then another.

OMFG it was awful.

I quickly let Odin out (he was looking sheepishly guilty!) and then had Lola go out the front door and around the house to the back (so she wouldn't run into the puddles and track it all over the house in 15 seconds flat). I then ran back inside just in time to catch Logan walking thru the piles of soupy shit.

His shoes were suctioning to the floor and he couldn't figure out why.

STOP!

I hoisted him up as fast as I could, stripped his shoes off, carried him to the master bathroom (where I had to PEE like nobody's business) and locked us in the room. My mind was racing. How the hell was I going to clean up this house while keeping a very fast and mobile toddler out of that shit?

The big jacuzzi tub in our bathroom was calling my name. And Logan was already throwing his toys in as if to say, I'm ready Mom! Let's take a bath!

So I stripped him down, filled the tub and then did the unthinkable.... I left my kid to play in the tub on his own while I raced around the house gathering cleaning supplies and assessing the damage.

To my horror, Logan's room was also hit. And because he has a rug in there, it was really bad. :( My guess is, Odin had his first diarrhea attack in Logan's room (where he likes to hang out and sleep during the day). When he realized it, he ran to the den to try and get outside but since we keep them locked in the house during the day, he couldn't get out. So, he had a few more accidents near the door. Just ONE MORE REASON to get that friggin' doggy door project DONE!! Argh. Don't even get me started.

I thought I could probably handle the cleanup on my own if it had just been the den, but with Logan's room also a mess, I needed some help before I had a major meltdown.

I called Jon and told him to come home ASAP. I knew this was a big "ask" since he actually had some late night work to do in the data center and coming home now meant he'd have to be back up to the city bright and early tomorrow morning to finish the work. But he could hear the urgency in my voice and dropped everything immediately. He was still an hour away, but I knew I wouldn't be done by then anyway.

I spent the next hour checking in on Logan and singing to him from the other room - me on the floor, hands and knees, scrubbing away, while he blissfully unaware and totally having the time of his life in his tub.

That is, until suddenly he started yelling for me: "Mama! Mama! Out! Out!"

That's strange. My son never volunteers to be taken out of the bathtub. What gives?

I come in and he's standing in the tub, reaching out to me to be picked up, and pointing back down to the tub.

The little shit had taken a shit!

Nice. Just what I needed. MORE SHIT.

I tell you, it was at this point that my eyes were threatening to well up with tears.

I drained the tub, cleaned the poop up, hosed him and his toys down, and refilled the bathtub so he could continue playing. I was hoping he'd stay in long enough until Jon got home to help and watch him while I continued to clean up Odin's mess(es).

Luckily - it worked. I had the den cleaned up and was still working on the rug in Logan's room when Jon finally pulled up an hour later. Jon scrubbed Logan down and dressed him while I tried vacuuming the rug with our shop vac. It didn't work so well - so I decided we needed to rent a steam cleaner. And, I needed to get out of the house before I went ballistic and strangled our pets. None of us had eaten dinner yet either - and it was hitting Logan's bed time (approx. 8pm)

So, off to Fresh Choice (for some healthy greens spoiled with ranch dressing. mwahahaha) for a quick bite to eat and then Longs Drugs to rent a steam cleaner!

We were home by about 9:30pm and Logan was exhausted. Frankly, we all were (and my back! KILLING me softly.)

We couldn't put Logan to sleep in his room. The house had aired out pretty well, but we wanted to spray the carpet with some stain treatment we bought at the store before using the steam cleaner tomorrow - and we weren't really crazy about leaving our kid in the room overnight inhaling all those fun cleaning fumes. So, he's now conked out in his travel tent in our bedroom, and we'll just spend another night on our futon out in the living room (because, didn't I tell you? one of the cats or Lola, we're not sure, had an accident on our bed over the weekend and I've been airing out the mattress to dry after treating it as well!).

I'm pretty sure we won't be getting any new pets for a loooooong time.

Pathetic

I know, a picture says a thousand words.... but I feel like I should at least give a little background as to WHY Odin looks like a helpless invalid right now.

Norwegian Elkhounds are one of those breeds prone to getting sebaceous cysts. And Odin, unfortunately, has had the bad luck of MORE cysts than our vet or breeder has ever seen on an Elkhound. Aren't we all just lucky ducky? :( What's worse, sometimes the cysts will seep or get infected, which encourages both Odin and Lola to lick, bite and scratch at the sores until they are raw and super sensitive to the touch.

As time has passed, it's gotten so bad that we've had to keep the two dogs separated during the day when we're at work. Odin wanders the house with a cone on his head (so that he doesn't lick the cysts himself) while Lola is kept crated all day, storing up all of that ridiculous Lola-energy to unleash on us the minute we get home.

In any case, Jon forgot to separate the two of them when he left for work on Friday and unfortunately, Lola WENT TO TOWN on one of Odin's larger cysts on his upper back/shoulder. When we got home, it had become a huge wound that, overnight, developed a terrible infection and made you wince just looking at it. :( We cleaned and medicated it (we have an antibiotic cream specifically for this sort of flare up) 2-3 times a day throughout the weekend, dressing it with huge pieces of gauze and self-adhesive tape to try and allow the wound to heal on its own.

I took him to the vet this morning and, given the severity of the wound, we decided to just clean it out as best as possible and medicate Odin with oral antibiotics, hoping that the sore and infection will heal over the next few days before our vet tries removing the cyst. I asked what I could do to keep it covered (since it's an open wound) and/or how I could keep Odin from scratching it raw (which he's been doing since he can't lick it himself).

The vet said I could try putting a t-shirt on him to keep the sore covered while it heals and to put socks on Odin's hind paws, so that if he DOES try scratching himself, at least his nails won't dig in and make the sore worse.

So, that's exactly what I did. Pathetic, isn't it? :)

When I got home tonight, the socks were off and scattered on the floor. It doesn't look like he scratched himself (since the t-shirt was still on and covering the sore), so I think it's actually going to help quite a bit! We'll see.

A Lovey Weekend

Hope everyone had a wonderfully lovey Valentine's weekend! (Jonathan sent me some beautiful roses on Friday to make all the other girls in the office who didn't receive flowers jealous) hee hee

Jon and I celebrated our Valentine's a day early and went out Friday night to dinner and a movie (Coraline - pretty good!). My parents babysat Loganito for the evening and THIS time, he did great, sleeping through the night thank goodness. I'm sure it had something to do with my dad chasing him around the house all night long to tire him out! ;-)

Saturday we took care of a few chores, and I went to a neighbor's "Valentine's Tea Party" while Jon went out to a late lunch with my parents and Logan. That evening, the Jodoins came over to visit - we had a nice dinner and then hung out at our house while the two boys played until bedtime. They had a GREAT time, particularly sitting in Logan's wagon together or pushing each other (mostly Robert pushing Logan) around the house. Before we knew it, Jenn and I had chatted away the night while our two husbands had fallen fast asleep on the couches! :)

Today we visited Odin's breeder at a local dog show to say hi, have her meet Logan for the first time (and see the doggies of course) and check out the new pups she's showing these days. Other than getting totally drenched to and from the show, it was actually a pretty nice outing for all of us - since it got us out of the house, but the show was all indoors so we didn't have to worry about the pouring rain too much. Logan loved running around the rings, checking out all the fascinating different dogs nearby (whereas I was a little more focused on making sure he didn't try and lunge after a huge dog who wasn't used to kids). No more than 5 minutes in the car on our way home, and he was fast asleep, napping for another 2.5 hrs before waking up again!

I've included a few snapshots from the weekend to enjoy. I couldn't really capture it on camera, but Logan has just recently figured out how to walk backwards and was really struttin' his stuff all weekend long, showing off his mad skills to anyone who'd watch.

In addition to the moon walking, he's also taken to throwing EVERYTHING (often times at you, which is really annoying) these days. The only way I have patience to deal, quite honestly, is to look forward to the day we can put that energy to some use - like, plopping him on a pitcher's mound, or teaching him to serve an ace, or cheering him on as he quarterbacks a game-winning play.

Bruddah Iz

Normally I will find Odin hanging out on Logan's rug, while Iz is curled up in Logan's crib. There's something about his room that the animals just can't stay away from.

But this -- this is a first. I came in to put Logan down for a nap, only to find Iz curled up sleeping on Logan's changing table!


Logan seems to be doing a little better as of this evening. We had a really tough night last night - he woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night burning up a storm (hitting at least 102.8 during one temp reading) and we struggled to cool him off enough to get him back to sleep. He was miserable and clearly just wanted to be with us, but no one could get comfortable and I'm afraid we all lost a lot of sleep because of it.

I called the doc's office today to check in and make sure I was giving him the right dose of Tylenol and the nurse said it's quite possible the fever is due to a molar or two coming in - apparently they can hit pretty high temps, more than normal teething, when the molars come in. I asked, how high? She said, nonchalantly - eh, up to 103 for a few days at least.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I worked from home today (Jon came home by about noon to lend a hand for the rest of the afternoon) and by mid-day it seemed his fever had finally broken. He started walking around and playing with his toys which was a huge improvement, thank goodness! He's still been pretty clingy, whiny and basically just uncomfortable and doesn't know what he wants, but much less than yesterday so I think we're finally on the mend. He even ate a few bites of mac n' cheese, some pretzels and a few graham crackers before going to bed for the night - woohoo! :)

Happy Birthday Odin!

It's hard to see, I know, but Logan is giving Odin a happy birthday
hug. The old furry thing turns 5 today, if you can believe it.

A barking problem

I'm working from home today since my back is out of sorts and I'm dealing with an(other) ugly head cold. Of course, every chance they get, Lola and Odin are up and BARKING IN MY EAR whenever the mailman comes, or the UPS guy, or the gardener, or the second mailman, or the lady who wants to sell neighborhood Christmas trees.

It is all I can do not to strangle the two of them, or drug them with a little Benadryl and a sip of Jon's scotch. (what? I would never do that. I'm just saying....)

So, of course, today's Dooce post couldn't come at a better time. Oh, how I can totally relate.

Backpacking

I mentioned awhile back we checked out all the top-o'-the-line child carriers to start getting ready for our upcoming New Zealand trip. Well, we finally decided on the Deuter Kid Comfort II (love it!) and tried it out on our celebratory thankgodwehaveOdinback walk last night.

I wish I was able to grab a better picture, but as you can see from the faces of my two darling boys, they were impatient and not willing to wait around for me to compose the shot just right.

Ah well. You get the idea.

I'm sure you'll have many more chances to see the backpack in action once we set out for NZ in a couple weeks (woohoo!!).

Lost and Found

We had a HUGE scare last night.

Jon and I came home last night from work to discover Odin missing. For those of you who don't know, Odin is the first puppy that Jon and I have owned together. Our first kid. And, I didn't know exactly how much that meant, until he wasn't waiting for us when we got home.

We're not sure what happened - we can only guess that he snuck out sometime yesterday morning as the two of us were getting ready for work, loading up the cars, loading up Logan, and he ran out the front door without either of us seeing him. All the doors/windows were shut/locked when we got home and Lola was here, just not Odin! :(

We searched all over the neighborhood and nearby streets. Jon went door to door to let neighbors know he was lost and to see if anyone had found him. Unfortunately, no luck. One neighbor said they saw a dog that looked similar to Odin's description running down their street toward Hamilton (a HUGE street!!).

He didn't have his collar on him (though he DOES have a microchip) so we were very worried he was either going to get hit by a car or get stolen. He *is* a beautiful show dog, afterall. My imagination was also running wild with the potential repercussions of an intact dog running loose, as well.

While Jon was out posting up flyers everywhere, I stayed home with Logan and seriously was going crazy. I thought I kept hearing Odin's cough or click of his toenails on the floor and would race outside looking up and down the street, flicking a flashlight in the bushes, calling his name. The longer the night dragged on, the more it hit me.

WE LOST ODIN.

I bawled uncontrollably a couple of times. How were we going to deal if we had lost him forever???

Neither of us slept well at all last night.

Then, this morning, as luck would have it, the local church minister called us and said he saw Odin wandering around their church grounds yesterday morning and he had called animal control. So, Jon and Nathan headed over to the local animal shelter to see if they had picked him up.

While Jon and Nathan were waiting at the animal shelter, Nathan checked on craigslist (the one place we DIDN'T think to look) and some lady had posted saying she found a dog, near our area, and to call her.

So, Nathan gave her Odin's description and also sent her pics - she said he described him to the "t" (she hadn't checked her email for the pics yet) and that as soon as she got home tonight, she'd call Jon to pick him up.

I just received a text from Jon, and a picture from Nathan, of the Daddy-Doggy reunion.

THANK GOODNESS. I couldn't be more relieved.

Oh, how we love our dogs

I am now a frequent reader of a blog called Dooce, pretty much ever since I discovered her randomly a couple of months ago? Anyway, Heather is labeled a "Mommy Blogger" but honestly she really doesn't talk as much about her daughter as she does about life in general. Among other things, she has two dogs that she writes about - HILARIOUS stories of - the kind that, as a dog owner myself, I can totally relate to.

Today's story - is the best so far. I was literally gasping for air and wiping the tears from my face.

And because of that, I need to link to it so you can read it too.

It may be long, but trust me. TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Enjoy.