New Addition

Saturday, August 27th we left the house at 3:00 AM (I knew it wouldn't be 1:00 AM) and drove and drove and drove. We luckily found a short cut that map quest didn't mention that cut off 4 hours from our trip and rolled into Casper at 9:00 AM.
Juel, our breeder, handed Winston to me and after a few kisses and face pats from him I had to hand him over to John because he was putting my arms to sleep.

 

The way home was pretty nice, Winston slept most of the time, but once up he decided that he needed to play so John had to crawl into the back seat to keep Winston from chewing on the truck.

Winston picks what nights he wants to sleep quietly and the nights he doesn't, him and his crate get moved downstairs so the rest of the household can sleep (another reason why I like dogs over babies).
He's sweetie and very calm, just every once in a while he gets random urges to chase our pant legs and chew on our shoes. We'll be hopefully training that out of him very soon.

With Pup Pup news, he has been sold to a mother and her high school son in Washington DC. Once paper work is in order and money has been paid we'll book his flight. I'll miss his sweet face and the way his ears go back when he jumps on the side of the couch wanting to get picked up. But I won't miss how Makoa feels like he needs to proctect Pup when he's trying to play with Winston so Makoa bites Winston. I'm sure once Pup is gone the pack order will develop quickly.

Dog food

You may or may not care about dog food, you may not have any pets or maybe you're wondering what dog food is the best since there are so many commercials advertising food or maybe you just don't care about dog food or dogs. Anyway you look at it, I still plan on talking about it.

I emailed Winston's breeder to ask what she was feeding him so that we could be ready for him. It's important to know that dogs have sensitive stomachs and changing their food too quickly can cause an upset which leads to diarrhea, so switching food should be done gradually with the food they're on so that their systems can adjust. When getting Enna and Makoa we didn't need to worry since the breeders were feeding them Royal Canine and it's a good food so we kept them on it.
When I got the reply from the breeder if I was drinking a drink it would have been spit out, Purina Puppy Chow. Purina!?! Total crap food! No real meat in it at all! Petsmart's food section is arranged from great to crappy and Purina is at the very end so that's saying something! That meant that I was changing his food!

I was thinking we'd be going with Royal Canine Large Breed, but was told that large breeds needed low protein while growing so they didn't grow too fast putting pressure on their joints. Royal had more protein than Purina so I went to researching.
The food brands I stand by are Royal Canine (obviously since I feed that to my dogs), Blue Buffalo and Innova so I looked into those brands to see which had the lowest protein.
While doing so I really liked the ingredients and preservatives found in Innova and knew I'd be switching to it for Winston, I also decided to switch Enna and Makoa to it as well.

I just bought the food today, but I had to buy a huge bag of Purina because that's all Petsmart had so that means Winston will be on it longer than I would hope, but he'll be switched by George!
(if you're wondering, Sophi is on the Wellness Grain Free brand of food. It helps her not shed as much and have a softer coat since cats have a hard time digesting grains.)
All my pets are on good food, but it is more expensive. To me it's worth it since they'll live longer, have healthier lives and better coats. You wouldn't eat sawdust so why feed it to your pets?

In other dog news, we go to get Winston this Saturday. We'll be leaving at 1AM (probably closer to 2, since I have a hard time getting out of bed) so that we can make the 16 hour round trip and be home early evening.
We're all ready for Winston, but it helps having other dogs. All that was needed to buy was a collar, tag and food. He'll sleep in Makoa's crate at night until potty trained and during the day he'll be staying in the travel crate until he out grows it, then he'll be moved to the bathroom and then outside once big enough.

We bought a new dog bed for Enna and Makoa and Winston once he's potty trained and can sleep out of a crate (hopefully he'll fit on the bed). The dogs really love it and it was such a great price! It was bought the large size from Dr. Foster and Smith, online of course!

We just got Winston's ID tag in the mail, perfect for him! Bought from Hug A Pug on Etsy. The collar was not bought online, but at Petsmart. A medium sized, cheap collar that is put to the smallest size so he can grow into it. It's not the final collar though, that will also be bought online (because I'm an online addict!) we just have to wait until he's full grown because it's leather and pricey.

I also had to buy the cutest key chain from Poochy Couture on Etsy.It has all four pets on all four sides with a fish and dog bone charm on top. Simple, but cute!

In Pup Pup news, he's still not sold. You wouldn't believe how many offers we've had that have fallen through! Hopefully soon though! He's now posted on our breeders sight (better late than never, I guess) and she just sent me a forwarded email from someone interested. I won't hold my breath though. 

Christmas cards

I know it's August, but in my book that means plan for Christmas cards! I start thinking about Christmas cards early Summer and around the end of July I book a photographer if that's the route we're (by we, I mean me, John couldn't care less) going to go that year.

This year finding a photographer hasn't been an easy step. I liked the photographer we used two years ago, but I like to branch out and get different styles. I focused on pet photographers, most of the ones in Utah didn't impress me, but I did narrow down my list. I found a girl I really liked and her prices seemed reasonable so I emailed her to get more information. I like having all the photos taken on a CD so I asked the price and I was blown away by her response. She wanted $625 for the CD plus the charge for her time! That is just ridiculous so she was dropped of my list.
A friend of a friend is starting out and her price is very reasonable, but she's mostly a people photographer. I explained that I wanted to focus on the dogs and less on John and I with a few group photos and she seemed really excited. I scheduled to get the pictures done on October 8th.
 I told her that I didn't want to do Millcreek since most of my pictures are taken there so she suggested  Daybreak. I'm down for that as long as I can keep Makoa out of the water and dry for most of the shoot.

I also start drafting Christmas letters, as crazy as that sounds :) My blog is really helpful to remember what has gone on over the year. Not everyone gets a letter, especially if they read my blog, sorry ya'll.
There are many sites to use when printing off the picture card, but I use Shutterfly for the ease and look of the program. They also have pretty good deals if you print early. To me that's very important, I like having my cards in the mail by the first week of December.

If I'm sent Christmas cards they're placed in their spot of honor on my doorway ribbon:

It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas cards! It's all in the planning!

I need my 8 hours, thank you very much!

Last night I decided that it would be a good idea for the puppy to sleep alone. He’s still trying to eat off Enna (her tummy is looking like it's been in a prison fight scene) and in just a couple weeks he’ll be at a new home (hopefully!).

This meant that we got no sleep, but it wasn’t because of the puppy. He cried himself to sleep after about 45 minutes and only woke up a couple times during the night with some light crying. It was Enna who was depriving us of glorious sleep.
She paced the bedroom making an annoying sigh/whining noise most of the night, kept sniffing under the door loudly, walking in and out of the dog bed disturbing Makoa and every time we moved she thought it was an invitation to jump on the bed. I think I told her to get off at least 8 times.
When John woke up at 4AM to get ready for work she thought it was really rude that he didn’t let her out with him and had to tell everyone so by whining loudly and scratching at the door. She finally calmed down until John walked back into the room to say goodbye, then she started all over.
I dozed back to sleep after 20 minutes or so and then Enna decided that she was wide awake and wanted Makoa to play with her. I had had enough so I locked her in Makoa’s crate in the office and she freaked out, screaming, scratching and yowling. I thought the devil had possessed her. I kept yelling at her to shut up, but finally I just covered my head with the pillow and tried to get at least 45 minutes more of sleep.

I don’t know why I ever thought Makoa was the bad one; he’s always a perfect angel at night only making a peep if he gets sick. I’m sorry Makoa for always blaming you in the past; I now know that Enna is the little shit, not you.

Pup Pup

Have I told you how cute Little Pup Pup is lately? Poor thing is going to think that’s his name by the time he gets a new home.

We’ve had a few offers on him, but they’ve all fell through. One Lady said that they just bought an AKK from someone in Montana and the puppy had a heart defect and had to be put to sleep. She said that when they found out about the defect they tried to call the guy, but he was nowhere to be found so they called the vet he used and the vet told them that the guy knew about the defect before he sold the puppy. What a slim ball. I promised her that the puppy would have a health check at 6 weeks and we’d tell her EVERYTHING. She was going to stop by to see the puppy and put down a deposit, but I guess her husband doesn’t want to spend any more money on a dog. Understandable, but every almost sale has fallen through because a spouse has said no.

Just 3 more weeks and Little Pup Pup is ready for a new home, hopefully we can get him sold.
He’s such a smart puppy, at 5 weeks he’s already figured out what a dog bed and bones are (toes are still more fun to chew) and he figured out how to use the water bowl…even if he’s not very graceful at drinking (the first few attempts he stuck his whole face in and came up sneezing out water, he now stretches his little body out so his back toes are barely touching the floor and he gently laps the water), he also comes when called.
He’s very social and wants to be with people, if you’re sitting on the ground he’ll always climb into your lap for a finger chew session or a snuggle.

John would be so mad if he knew I included this picture, but it's just too cute not to. The puppy wants up on the couch with us, but we don't want him walking around too much and then get the idea to jump/tumble off so John snuggled him tight so he'd just go to sleep and then John fell asleep.

With our Boerboel puppy, Winston, we’ll be bringing him home August 27th. I’ve started to question our sanity.

On the home front we’ve been doing little things around the house. Dana may be coming out sometime this month and I want her to have a nice stay. Adjusting the basement bathroom door so it’ll close and cleaning out John’s wood stash out of the guest room are top of my list. Can’t wait to see you Dana and I hope you have Kumo with you!