Our Candy!

November 11, 2011 My husband and I had gone to Petsmart to pick up a few treats for our other dogs. As fate would have it the big adoption event was going on. We decided to go have a look. We walked around with the intention of LOOKING only, we moved past several dogs and puppies and as we were leaving we caught a glimpse of Candy in the very back of the tent. Somehow that one look from her melted both our hearts, and we had to adopt her! We spent our last $100 to pay the adoption fees and to get her a bowl and a harness and the rest is history. 11/11/11 Will always be a special day  because its the day that our beautiful Candy captured our hearts.

Candy had been with us for almost 11 months now and she fits very well in our pack of pups. With Candy we now have 4 dogs and a bird! Wowza that's a lot of pets! Haha I never thought I would have so many at one time but I wouldn't have it any other way now.

Candy Cane is the sweetest dog that you will ever know but she is also a little terror! She is actually the most destructive dog that we have ever had. She loves to chew and to pull the paper out of Kahunas cage bottom, shred it, and eat the seeds. She has de-squeekered and un-stuffed every toy that has ever come into the house. Its kinda sad when she brings me a toy, what was once a cool looking toy is nothing but a pathetic little rag full of holes. I try and buy one toy every two weeks and it lasts about 10 min max before its a rag. The super durable toys last a little longer (up to a week or two) but eventually they become a rag toy and I don't buy those often because they cost so much more. We have had to get items for Candy that we never had to have for our other dogs like a crate ($80) and extra tall dog gate ($50). Also Candy has cost us thousands of dollars in destruction of things around the house.

To date the things lost to Candys jaws of steel are:

1. Karl's headphones ($100) 
2. My favorite pair of leather sandles ($120)
3. The wires that connect the mouse and keyboard to my computer ($50 for a new wireless set)
4. Karl's flip flops ($10)
5. Countless pairs of socks and undies ($60?)
6. My brand new bra ($30)
7. The pillows to our couch ($?)
8. The back of our couch and oversized chair ($1200)
9. 2 Crate pillows ($40 each)
10. 1 pair of King Sized Egyptian cotton sheets ($100)
11. The bottom of the stair rail ($ ? I guess we will find out how much if we move one day?)
12. Karl's TMJ brace ($600)

Even with all of her destruction we still love her, that face is so cute and sweet that we cant stay mad at her for very long!

Here are some pics of our Candy baby:

Candy and Molly love to play with the sheets that I use to cover Kahuna with. 

Its a nightly ritual to play with the sheet:

 

Candy is busy destroying a new toy:

 

Miss Molly

Meet Molly the newest addition to our family. She is a 11mo old Shih Tsu. We adopted her from my sister-in-law (thanks Janet). Molly has spent a large portion of her life in a kennel because her previous owners were unable to bring her on their frequent business trips. They were going to bring her to the pound if Janet hadn't of rescued her. Janet had fully intended to keep Molly but was unable to, due to a disagreement with her husband over taking in another pet. We decided to take her in and she is just the sweetest little thing that you have ever seen. She is so snuggly. I love to cuddle her.

We have a little bit of work cut out for us as she is not fully potty trained yet and has had several accidents. We are working with her and she seems like she has been improving a little each day. She also has the ability to find and try to eat stuff that we had no idea was on the floor or within her reach. On Monday we found her eating a silica packet and we have no idea where it came from. She ate all the silica beads and left the paper. Naturally we were worried about her, It was around 10PM so we called the emergency vet, and they told us to just watch her closely and give her lots of water. They said that her stool may be hard for a few days but unless she starts to refuse food and water or starts acting lethargic etc then she will be fine. She is fine. Its been 10 years since we have had a puppy in the house and i have forgotten how close you have to watch them. It really is in alot of ways like having a baby.

Molly also has some special needs. When we got her we thought her eyes didn't quite look right so we brought her to the vet. The vet said that she has an infection in her right eye, also that she has a condition where her eyes are too large so she cannot close them and that she is at high risk for her eye popping out. We have to give her an antibacterial drop in her right eye 4 times a day and artificial tears in both eyes 3 times per day. The same day we brought her to the vet we had her groomed and we had all the hair covering her eyes cut away. We go back to the vet this Saturday and I can see a huge improvement in her eyes over the past 2 weeks. I think that the hair over her eyes was a contributing factor to her condition and may have been preventing her from closing her eyes. We have noticed that she has no problem closing those eyes to keep the drops out (lol). Also her eyes are not as large as they were before, I think they were swollen both from the infection and hair. Definitely we will be having to keep her hair short especially around her eyes. We will see what the vet has to say this weekend.

Molly seems like she fits in really well with our crew and I am so happy to have her. I love that little girl and I know that we will all have a happy life together. :)

Molly before her grooming:

Molly after her grooming:

Here is some video of the pups playing and Molly playing with her favorite toy:
(Sorry for the video quality it is from my cell phone)

3/6/11 Update

We brought Molly back to the vet yesterday for her followup, he said that her eyes look 100% better but that she has permanent scarring in her right eye. Her vision may not be very good in that eye and also she will always have a light whiteish patch in the center of her eye. I'm glad that my little girl is ok, but I'm also so angry that her previous owners (the ones who gave her to Janet) allowed the infection to be in her eye for so long that it caused permanent scarring and a loss of vision. Some people really should not have pets, their neglect of molly was abuse pure and simple. She is such a sweet dog and it really upsets me that someone would just ignore the problem when we brought her to the vet the second day after we got her because we recognized that something wasn't right.

In other news we got her microchiped, just in case she ever gets lost.They say that 1 out of 3 pets gets lost, I pray that doesn't happen to any of my pets but its always better to be safe than sorry later. I am amazed at how affordable micro chipping has become. I remember 10 years ago when i looked into it for my other babies it was over $100 dollars and not every place had the technology to read it. Now it only costs $35 and every vet and shelter has the equipment to read the chip. Also I was impressed at how easy it was, the vet just takes a syringe and injects it into them like they would a vaccination. It was very little pain, about the same as a vaccination or having blood drawn. If you are interested in getting your pet microchipped check out this website: homeagain.com or ask your vet.

Lady Bird

Introducing the newest member of our family,
the beautiful, Kahuna.

She is an Umbrella cockatoo who is approx 20 years old. She originally belonged to Karl's Uncle. Karl's parents have been her caretaker for the last few years since his death. About two weeks ago we inherited her since his parents could no longer keep her.

Her name is defined by Merriam Webster as

ka·hu·na
Pronunciation:\kə-ˈhü-nə\

Function: noun

Etymology: Hawaiian

Date: 1875

1 : a Hawaiian shaman
2 : a preeminent person or thing

But Karl says that she was named Kahuna after the surfer "the Big Kahuna" which was probably Duke Kahanamoku.
He was the only surfer associated with the name that I found in my internet search. I also found references to a surfing school, a water park and 1999 movie.

Regardless of how she came about her name it is truly appropriate. In the short amount of time we have had her, Kahuna has bewitched my heart and has quickly become a beloved member of our family.

ROXY!

These are all pictures of Roxy (some include Mom) that I've been taking over the past few months. Roxy was a Christmas miracle puppy. Her doggy mother, a pure breed rat terrier was stolen within the first few days of her life. Once Mom found out what had happened she wanted to help, so she adopted Roxy. Lil' Rox had to be bottle fed formula every couple of hours and out of a litter of 3, only Roxy and her brother survived(he was adopted & bottle feed by another family). Roxy is now a perfectly healthy wild little pup. She has soo much energy, every time i see her I get new scratches and bite marks from playing with her. She is a really beautiful dog and I will be updating this post periodically as I add new photos of her. I plan on making a 2011 calendar out of her pics for Mom next year.