Almost back to his normal self

Charlie is feeling much better and is almost back to his normal self. The antibotics are doing the trick. Although he is getting feistier and fiestier about taking them. He hasn't spit one out yet so I suppose that is good. Friday morning I had to give it too him all by myself because I forgot to have Sean help me before he went to school. Let me tell you that was an entertaining ordeal. I had to go into the bathroom and shut the dogs out. I penned him between the counter and the wall and manager to pry his mouth open and shove the pill in! I'm sure it would have made and enteraining youtube video. Quincy's ears are almost all better and Toby is still healthy so will call it a good end to a stressful week.

Sick kitty

Charlie was acting funny when we got home from work last night. He didn't meet me at the door and wasn't begging for his dinner. He was just laying on the guest bed sleeping. At the time I thought perhaps he was just extra tired. Well by the time bed time rolled around he still hadn't moved so I picked him up and put him in front of his food dish. Still didn't want to eat. He seem kind of out of it as well. He didn't sleep with us last night and this morning I found him curled up in our closet. He wouldn't come out for breakfast and hadn't eaten all night. This is when I became very concerned. I call the vet as soon as they were open and was able to get him and appointment for 9:15am.

At 9am I got his carrier and loaded him in the car. He peed in his carrier while we were in the car. I didn't notice this until we got to the vet. His whole back end was wet! The vet saved some the urine for a sample and clean out my kennel. He was running a fever and had blood in his urine. Oh and he had some feas again. Sean and I had forgotten to give him his frontline and gave it too him last night. The vet thinks it is probably just a parasite from the feas or possibly a kidney infection. So hopefully it is one of those and not something worse. They took some blood and gave me antibotics.

When I got home from work he seemed about the same. However he seems to have perked up a little since then. I don't think he has eaten anything yet, but hopefully he will over night. He just seems a little more comfrontable then earlier. He is sleeping under my papason chair right now. He even purred for me a little.

I was really worried about him all day and when I got home from work. I hope that the worst is behind us now! All keep you all posted.

Toby is the only healthy animal in the house right now. Quincy had/has an ear infection. He gets to go to the vet tomorrow to have it rechecked. So keep your fingers crossed that Toby is not next!

de-flea-ing the house

So Charlie definately has/had fleas. The boys also seemed to have a few on them. So they all got Frontlined! That was an expensive trip to the vet!!! Then after the 24 hr waiting period I 've been washing and vacuuming the house like a mad women. Our bed being the first thing to be stripped and washed. I did the puppy beds last night. I have tons more clean/vaccuming to do this weekend. Plus lots and lots of raking! I can't see any grass in my front yard just leaves! More on that later.

I hope to not have to use any chemicals to get rid of the fleas. So keep your fingers crossed.

The cat has fleas

I'm almost positive that Charlie has fleas. I'm taking him to the vet today. I feel awful that I didn't realize it sooner. He hasn't been scratching more than usual I don't think but he is shedding little black worming looking things which are apparently flea dirt. He was due for his annual check up any way but he is not going to be happy! We'll see how it goes.

A space of my own

Last night with some help from Sean I got my furniture all arranged in my craft room and started putting my stuff away. I'm very happy with how the color blue I picked out looks on the walls. I'm also really excited about my new desk! I can't wait to finish organizing the room so I can start back in on my projects. It will also be nice to have a place to set my laptop up. Charlie was happy because I put one of my desks under the window so he can look out. Toby was happy because I set up the papasan chair so he can curl up on it while I'm working or sit on my lap while I'm sitting in it. Tonight I plan on putting up some of my posters and getting the rest of my stuff where it belongs.

So now when Sean is watching Football which happens pretty much everyday. The only game free days are tues, wed, and thurs however that doesn't stop him from watching shows about football. I don't mind football games and can tune it out for the most part but I can't stand the hours and hours of analysis and speculation about football. So now I can just go in my craft room and blast my dance techno and do whatever I want! Yah!

still alive.....sorta

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth or something. Just been darn busy. Working is going well. I'm learning Java, XML, XSLT's, ANT, and more. Java isn't as evil as I once thought. Actually I never thought it was evil I just liked C++ better. Now I can see that plus and minuses of both languages in a more fair and even light. I will say though that I won't miss Jovial. No offense anyone I worked with before. It had its place on our program but it is not nearly as powerful as Java or C++.

The boys are good...all three of them. Charlie and Toby love to play and chase each other around the house. Quincy is starting to adjust to having a little brother. They even played some yesterday, which is a first. However the bed issue is still causing problems. Toby has decided that Quincy's bed is now his bed and Quincy should kick him off doesn't. So basically Quincy doesn't have a good place to sleep. We ordered a new bed for Quincy however they sent a medium instead of a large so we are now waiting for them to send the right size. Hopefully that will come soon!

Sean helped me get my craft room painted this weekend. It took two coats which sucked! So I'm going to spend all my extra time in the evening getting that room organized. The only rooms in the house that haven't been painted at this point are: both bathrooms, our bedroom, and the guest room. They is no point in painting either bathroom since both are in need of some remodeling. I'm waiting to paint our bedroom until my Mom visits in October. It is a big room and I'm sick of painting. I have the color picked out and the paint bought so it shouldn't be an issue it is just going to take some time.

Sean is still doing review classes. Real classes don't start for another week or so. We had all the people he is doing review classes over on Saturday for a BBQ. There was tons of food and plenty of football. It was a nice to meet everyone and at least be able to put a name with a face when Sean talks about people.

My babies

I thought it was time to post some picture of all of my babies. So the top one is obviously Charlie and the bottom one is Quincy and Toby. I think it is fairly easy to tell the two of them apart but that could be because I see them everyday. So any guesses as to which one is which?

Toby

Above are some picture of our new baby Toby. We pick up Toby at Sean's cousin, Bob's house on Friday night. Sean's Aunt Tammy and Uncle Bob gave him a ride out since they were driving out to visit their son, Bob and his wife Jessica. Toby is integrating into the family fairly well. Toby and Quincy mostly get along except when bones and toys are involved. Quincy is pretty jealous so hopefully he will get over it. Toby is a big love. He follows me around the house and wants attention all the time. The only time he doesn't follow me or Sean around is when he is following Charlie around. He is absolutely fascinated by the cat. I know he has gotten a claw to the nose at least once since he came yelping down the hallway. Charlie has mostly adjusted and basically rules the house again.

Toby's training is sadly lacking. Sean and I are pretty sure he walked all over Michael and April. Every time you tell him to do something he doesn't want to do we just lays down and rolls over. Like I'm so cute rub my belly....I'm innocence I swear....I didn't do anything wrong what are you talking about? He is also a bit of a "chunky monkey!" He was getting to free feed and not getting a ton of exercise. So now he only gets fed twice a day and he has been walking and running with Sean and I. He still hasn't completely gotten this whole we only eat twice a day thing and has gone partially hungry a couple of mornings. But don't feel sorry for him. He is at least 2 inches shorter than Quincy and has smaller paws yet weighs at least as much as Quincy if not more.

So the picture above are "Before" pictures. He has now gotten a trim so he is not so shaggy so after he loses some of his flab I'll post some "After" pictures.

He is really a sweet dog and I think will be a good addition to our family. It is just going to take some time to adjust!

Unhappy babies....

Quincy and Charlie are kind of freaking out about the move. All of this morning from like 4am on Charlie was wondering around the house crying. I'm not sure if he was trying to voice his displeasure and confusion or what. It made me wish that I spoke fluent cat. He was extremely lovey to me and even Quincy. He rubbed up against Quincy like almost to say don't let them leave me or I love you or your mine I won't let them forget you. Quincy is just as confused, just not as vocal about it. He just seems kind of on edge. I think they are really confused about the lack of stuff. Charlie doesn't have any good places to hide and Quincy can't lay on his couch.

I have to say that is it kinda of weirding me out as well. When I got home last night I want to set my stuff down somewhere and my choices were the floor or the kitchen counter. I'm really looking forward to leaving this empty house and arriving at my new empty house. The good news is though that the truck with all of our stuff in in will arrive on Saturday as well so we won't really have to be stuff less for very long. I'm really looking forward to sitting in my new recliner. Oh and sleeping in my bed again. The air mattress wasn't too bad last night but whenever one of us moves the whole bed moves because the air shifts. I think it was weirding the dog out since he didn't sleep with us very long last night.

Today's smile: Attack of the Post-it-note!

I know it has been a while since a posted a smile so I'm going to recount a funny story about our cat Charlie.

One morning last week Charlie was sitting on the dining room table and was attacked by a sticky note! And by attacked I mean he sat his tail on one which was sticky side up. So try to picture a blue post-it stuck to Charlie's tail, flapping around. Needless to say Charlie was not happy and a little freaked out and kept spinning in circles trying to catch the sticky. Meanwhile the sticky is just flapping around. Well, I tried to catch him to get it off and he kept moving farther down the hallway clearly upset and thought he was being attacked. I finally caught him and remove it. At which point he look very indignant. Like how dare that THING attach to MY tail!!!

I really wish I could have video taped the incident because I think it would have done quite well on youtube. I could have been famous! Anyways hopefully you can get a small laugh or at least smile out of the narrative.

Visions of the future

I came into the bedroom last night to get ready for bed and Sean and Quincy were cuddling together on the bed. Quincy was making himself quite comfortable in my spot. He is allowed on the bed but only when we invite him up and there is sheet covering the comforter and pillows. They looked so cute and content (except Quincy was giving me the don't make me get down yet...this is my spot eyeball) I suddenly had visions of a King sized bed full of animals and children. Sean has been talking about upgrading to a King bed for sometime....I'm not sold on the idea since I'm not sure I want Quincy sleeping with us nightly. Besides a bigger bed just seems like an invitation for other people and animals to join in. Although the image looks cozy....I think my sleep would suffer. Charlie already wakes me up at least once a night!

Today's Smile: Pack order

For today's smile I'm going to share a slightly amusing story about the pack order within my house right now.

Background information: Quincy my 45 pound Brittany spaniel is a fairly passive dog. Charlie my 11 pound cat has been above Quincy since they were wee ones. So basically Charlie rules the house.

Currently we are watching our friend's greyhound Cerin. Cerin is a 72 pound male greyhound. Just trying to give you guys a good imagine in your head of the size of this dog. He is a fairly dominant dog and established dominance over Quincy a long time ago. Well the order between him and Charlie has been ambiguous until now. Cerin has always been curious of Charlie and Charlie has always been a little unsure of him. Cerin will run after Charlie and he will go under the bed where Cerin can't get him. Well after much of this on many occasions Charlie has decided that Cerin just isn't scary. So this time there were having staring contests. They would just sit and stare at one another. It was like the cat was daring Cerin to come and get him. Well Cerin apparently decided last night to go up to him during one of these occurrences. I was on the phone at the time and I hear some hissing. I turn and look and Cerin is in shock and backing away for Charlie. From this point on last night and this morning Cerin skirts around Charlie with his head down. He doesn't make much eye contact when close and give him a wide berth.

It is quite the amusing site to see the large greyhound scooting around the small cat. Charlie is quite pleased with the outcome because now he can move freely in HIS house again. Cerin on the other hand seemed a little put off by not being at the top of the pecking order anymore!

Silly animals!

Charlie's attempt to poision Quincy failed!

Sean and I had a bit of scare last night when we came home from dinner and found Quincy chewing on a bottle of Rx pills. Apparently Charlie had knocked the bottle off the dining room table and batted it into the kitchen where Quincy was confined. Quincy is his infinite wisdom decided that it would be a good chew toy and chewed off a corner spilling out some of the pills. There were 7 partially chewed on pills on the floor and a bunch still in the bottle. So then there was mad counting to figure out how many he might of ingested. We determined that he didn't actually eat any whole just may have ingested some from the chewed on pills. So I then call the emergency number at my vet and then he told me to call animal poison control. I didn't even know there was an animal poison control! Anyways that cost me 55 dollars, of course worth the money. It turned out that he didn't ingest enough to cause to many problems. We just had to watch him for more mild symptoms such as: anxiety, sleepiness, dilated pupils, drunkenness (walking like drunk).

He seems okay last night and this morning so disaster adverted. I got a well deserved lecture from my mom about not leaving those kind of things lying around and for not taking better care of her granddog. Sean is also little mad at me for being careless. I feel awful and will be more careful in the future! My mom also told me to give Charlie a stern look and talking to which I did however I'm not sure he really understood.