Happy Birthday, Uncle Bubba!

As we expected, the girls were enthralled with Uncle Bubba (our dear friend, Brad Brown). What we didn't expect was that he would come bearing gifts for them. He showed up Tuesday afternoon (HIS birthday) with a sack bigger than the two dogs combined, filled with specialty doggy treats from an Indianapolis bakery. Everyone was gracious enough to wait for me to get home form work to start the show.

First up: the red truffle. We broke half of the truffle into bite-size pieces, and put it on a plate for Ginger & Abbie to share. By the time Abbie smelled around & ate her first piece, Ginger had devoured most of the rest, and was cleaning up the crumbs. In the spirit of fairness, we broke up the second half, and held Ginger long enough for Abbie to get her share. Maybe we'll try the yellow truffle or a cookie tonight......

Brad and Ginger had a few things to work out. Ginger is very much an in-your-face dog. Brad is very much a protect-my-pretty-TV-face guy. The conflict is quite understandable: I usually have at least one visible scratch on my face or neck at all times - the engineers I work with just don't care. But that just wouldn't work for him. Besides that issue, everyone got along splendidly.

We'd only had one overnight guest before Brad since we got the girls, so it's still a bit new for them. They got startled once in the middle of the night & barked when Brad was stirring, but it didn't take long for them to remember we had a guest. They quickly jumped out of bed, ran into the living room, and tackled him on the couch. "Oh yeah!!! We have company!!! We're so glad you're here!!! We love you, we love you, we love you, and we don't care that it's the middle of the night & you're trying to sleep!!! We want to love you, and kiss you, and play with you!!! YEA!!!!!" After a while, they joined Mark & I back in bed, but periodically went out to remind Brad how excited they were to have him.

The pictures are frames from a funny little video (Mark should be posting the video soon....)

Typical weekend

These pics represent a pretty typical weekend.  Napping, basking in the sunshine, hanging out at the courthouse park, and PJ's on Sunday night.

Just a phase.

Thankfully, the fearful-puppy thing was just a short lived phase.  Ginger seems to have overcome ALL fears of the concrete & the steps. 

They are back to sprinting loops around the house.  Up & across the couch, off the end into the dining room, through the kitchen, into the bedroom, up the steps onto the bed, 1 or 2 loops on the bed, down the steps, around to the other side of the bed & into the bathroom, through the other bathroom, back into the kitchen, under the dining room table, weaving in and out of the chair legs, around the back of the couch, around the end & back up on top....  All of this 2 or 3 times happens in a matter of seconds it seems.

slippery concrete & sisters

Ginger started slipping on the floor once in a while, especially in the “hallway” between the front & back of the house.  As a result, she’s timid in that area now.  It’s pretty sad. She gets stuck on the kitchen rug, not wanting to proceed to the bedroom or into the bathrooms.  Last night we put a small rug in middle of the scary-zone.  It seems to help (most of the time) by breaking the area up & giving her some refuge.

Her new concrete fear also made the new bedroom-stairs difficult.  With enough coaxing, she’d go up.  But it was VERY tough to get her to come down & have to “land” on the concrete floor.   Abbie was actually helping her – it was AWESOME.  Ginger would get half-way down & freeze, Abbie would get right up beside her & show her sister how to take the next step.  She would do it going up & and down.  A small rug at the bottom of the steps helped this too.

This morning, Abbie helped Ginger across the concrete abyss.  Beautiful.  Both dogs were running from the living room into the bedroom.  Abbie climbed the stairs to be in bed with Mark & noticed that Ginger hadn’t kept up.  Abbie climbed back down the stairs, returned the kitchen rug, and laid down beside Ginger.  It looked like she whispered something to her, then they stood up together & slowly made their way, side-by-side, across the abyss into the bedroom & up the stairs into bed.  It was SOOOO cool.  

Karaoke

Ginger was a Karaoke star today! After the girls wore us out at the courthouse square, we took our regular 2nd Ave-Broadway-5th Ave walk.  A girl on stage at a 2nd Avenue karaoke bar stuck her head out the window & asked if she could see our dogs.  When she saw that Ginger was so friendly, the girl grabbed Ginger out of my hands (I still had hold of her leash) and held her up in the air for all of the bar patrons to see.  Yes, she was on stage, inside the bar.  Ginger just played it cool & sang a few lines of Folsom Prison Blues.   Rock on!

Teefers

They both been losing baby teeth like crazy. Both have a lower "fang" about to fall out.

Update: Within an hour of taking this picture, Ginger lost the tooth shown above & Abbie a huge molar.  We've been able to find & save a few, but most get lost. Or maybe eaten???

Abbie

And of course, Ginger, being the ham she is, just had to be in Abbie's pictures.

Ginger

Big Blue Monsters!

We made our standard trek to PetSmart yesterday with 3 goals in mind

    1) Find a clearance sweater or coat for Abbie

    2) Expose the girls to a variety of people

    3) Expose the girls to other dogs

   We found an adorable sweater, lots of people pet them, and we had  a few successful interactions with other small dogs. What we did not anticipate was a run-in with the big blue monsters.  

   Let me back up: During one of our first trips to PS, Abbie freaked out when a shopper & his huge blue shopping cart (or buggy, as it's called here) rounded the corner.  I didn't think of the incident again until yesterday.

  Yesterday we were making a lap around the store, both dogs on leashes, me and Ginger leading the way.  About half way around, I looked behind me & Mark was struggling to get Abbie to take another step.  Then she turned & ran the other way!  It was then I realized that she would have had to walk between two big blue carts.  Apparently, she's still terrorized by that first attack.

   Next weekend's PetSmart To-Do list

       1) Find a tank-top for Ginger

       2) Conquer the Big Blue Monsters

Grass & Car Accident

Last weekend, we were planning to introduce the girls to grass.  Yes, they are 4 months old & have not yet seen grass (except Abbie for 30 seconds one time on a road trip - we were trying desperately to get her to go, but she was perplexed).  Anyway, Saturday was mid-70's so we though it'd be a good day to check out the dog park in Centennial Park - I heard there's a small dog section.  We made our way through the park & were ready to find a prkg spot when we were rear-ended.  Fortunately, the girls were in their cage which is strapped into the back seat.  They got restless waiting for the cop to get there, but other than that were fine.  Whew!

Too shook up to continue with the dog park adventure, we went home & just walked them to the courthouse park.  It took a little while, but they seemed to enjoy the grass.  Though they never did figure out what to "do" on the grass.  They are doing great with the leashes!  They even walked part way home.  We picked them up about half way back so we can ease their pads into this "outside" thing.

Another downtown resident was there walking their chihuahuas at the courthouse.  Ginger & Abbie want NOTHING to do with other dogs yet.  They love people, but we've really got to work on socializing them with other animals.   We've got a few ideas.

4 months

Playtime

Evening at home

Growing & Wiggling

They are growing so fast!  Abbie's ears & tail still seem to be growing faster than her body, as do Ginger's legs.  

Abbie is stout, as she has been from the beginning.  Very muscular.  It comes in handy for her, because she insists on doing things her way.  She is not easily distracted, and her mind is tough to change.  For instance, if she has in her mind that there's something worth digging for (on the couch, under a blanket, under my shirt, wherever), there is NO stopping her.  She usually sleeps up by our chests; but, for goodness sake, don't mess with her.  She gets irritated very easily & will retreat to the bottom of the bed with Ginger.  We cut their toenails last night & it was very difficult to hold Abbie still because she's so strong. 

Ginger was hard to hold still for the trimming, just because she NEVER stays still.  She is constantly wiggling.  When she wags her tail, her whole back side actually wags.  She likes to lay on her back an become a little happy ball of legs, tail & tongue.  Unlike Abbie, Ginger doesn't mind being woken up for a few kisses.

They are the easiest dogs ever!!  They are completely litter box trained, and we go for regular runs up & down the hallway for exercise - so we never have to take them out into the winter weather (except for our weekly trips to PetSmart).  And they've just made our lives even easier. From day one, we've walked them out to their litter box in the middle of the night, at least once a night, usually twice.  Now, they're fine with walking out here on their own.  They just ask to be let down off the bed, and I lift them up when they come back.  We're shopping for stairs... hopefully, we'll be able to sleep completely through the night soon.  YEA!!!