Breanna!

Breanna joined our family on October 2.  We met her the Sunday before but needed a little time to get the house puppy ready, so we endured five very long days of anticipation--waiting for her to come home, after meeting and falling in love with her.  She's about four and a half months old and weighs around 13 pounds.  She's part worm, I think, as she only stops wiggling when she's sleeping.  Her mom was a white pitbull (maybe pit/boxer mix?), and we're pretty confident that her dad was a German Shorthaired Pointer.

Puppies are new territory for us.  We typically adopt senior dogs, as that's my real passion. I love the seniors and can't abide the thought of these poor older animals being dumped in their golden years.  We will continue to adopt seniors going forward. This was a one-time deviation. :)  L & Mark have been campaigning for a puppy for years.  They love the older dogs, too, but craved the energy and exuberance of a puppy.  We've had a lot of losses lately (as you tend to when you adopt senior/special needs animals), and our remaining three dogs are all over ten, so the idea of adopting a dog we wouldn't be losing in the next couple of years held some appeal.  I could use a little break from terminal illness and death.  M & I are also at an age where we're still young enough (theoretically, anyway) to keep up with a puppy, but probably wouldn't be up for doing so as we get older and don't have any kids at home.  All of those factors, coincided with a special needs puppy.  I wouldn't take a healthy puppy, because they are easy to place, but a disabled puppy is not so easy, so that seemed quite fortuitous. M was still in England for our initial meeting, but we knew they would love each other and had no concerns there.

Breanna's foster mom brought her, and things went well, except for Froggie's strange inappropriate social skills.  He demands that other animals play with him by barking relentless at them, and if they continue to ignore him, he charges them and smashes his flat little face into their flank.  It's rather odd. He doesn't mean any harm, but it can be obnoxious and off putting to other animals.  It was so obnoxious, I had to repeatedly send L to take him upstairs, so we could talk without his constant interruption. I was anticipating some major work on getting Froggie to socialize in a less offensive way and also anticipating some jealousy issues, since Froggie still thinks he's my conjoined twin.

L & I went to pick her up from her foster home in Rockford the following Friday, with M still in England.  She was snuggled up in her blanket in L's lap, when about seven minutes into the car ride, her nervous puppy diarrhea hit.  It was a very long, smell, messy ride home.  We arrived home, with all three of us covered in shit and stench. We got cleaned up, did laundry, and gave Brea a bath.  As soon as she dried, we took the pack for a nice long walk.

After we returned from the walk, the Froggie issue resolved itself perfectly.  He decided that he would be her playmate, best friend, and protector from that point forward.  He doesn't mind sharing me or his toys with her, so there have been no jealousy issues to navigate. They are the cutest bonded pair!  They play and wrestle endlessly, they snuggle up to sleep, and I have to be somewhat alert, because he takes his job of protecting her seriously, and I've seen him get snappish with strangers who try to touch her.  We're working on that.  I love how they love each other, though. They are the oddest pair.  She is quickly getting bigger, so I worry a little bit about my tiny old man, as she continues to play roughly with him.  She gets along with all of the other dogs in our family and extended family, but Froggie is clearly "hers".  The other dogs are not nearly as playful or tolerant of her roughhousing, so she doesn't find them nearly as interesting.

We're in the midst of potty training, and while she's definitely progressing, we have a long way to go.  One of the big unknown factors is how much bladder/sphincter control she will ultimately have, as her back end didn't form properly.  She's missing some bones and muscle function back there, but we don't yet know the full extent.  She wears diapers in the house, and we do positive reinforcement only.  I am planning to add bells and try bell training, so she can ask to go out, but we have some concerns that any bells we put up for the dogs will end up being used as cat toys.  We'll see how that goes...

Breanna's foster mom runs the rescue organization, Mending Hearts, and she chose the name, because it meant "strong", and little Brea has already overcome quite a bit of adversity and progressed beyond expectations.  Foster mom was advised that Brea should be euthanized. It's not a name we would have chosen, but she came with it, and it works.  She knows her name and comes when called (usually--she's in the Terrible Two phase right now), but she most often gets called Brea.  We seem to end up with nicknames for all of our animals.

She's curious, energetic, happy, fun, and a little bit naught--all of the things a puppy should be.  It's been fun watching her grow and mature just in the 2.5 weeks we've had her.  She's learned so much, so quickly, and it's really intriguing to watch her little brain develop. I will be glad/relieved when she gets past the stage of trying to chew and eat absolutely anything that fits into her mouth.  She loves to play outside but can't be left unattended for even a minute. I have removed rocks, sticks, wood chips, various plant stems and pieces, countless leaves, poop, and other questionable objects from her mouth, all picked up while I was standing right next to her.  She's quick and curious, and requires constant attention.

She's 4.5 months old now, and as soon as she gets a little bigger and stronger, we'll have to take her in to get spayed.  I'm pretty sure that's an overnight recovery, so I'm already dreading having to leave my baby.

I can't help but think about how much Damon would have loved her.  He would have adored playing with her and Froggie! They would have been the cutest group of best friends.  I wish she could have known him.


I finally caught up on grading, which is why I'm finally able to blog.  It's been a very busy semester, and I have hard time allowing myself to blog (or do anything else online) when I know I have a queue of student assignments waiting for grades.  I have a batch of group projects and presentations that still need to be graded, but those just came in today, so as long as I get those done by the weekend (which I will), they can wait a bit.  I'm going to try to get my midterm grades entered tonight (two whole days early!), instead of two hours before the deadline.

3 Down; 1 To Go

So my husband is in England for another week.  He has already been gone for three weeks. He's working as an intern at Great Dixter gardens, in southern England. I don't normally share on social media when he (or we) are gone, because it's just not smart.  He was gone quite a lot this summer, but I don't generally like to mention it for security reasons.  I've asked him more times than I can count if he would refrain from posting on social media until he returns.  As he prefers to live update his friends and strangers to every detail of his travel on multiple forms of social media rather than waiting until he returns, there's really no point in me not mentioning it here.  I'm not thrilled with his decision to make this trip (he is very aware of this), but he chose to do it, and I have no choice but to accept it.

Needless to say, since my life is over scheduled already, inheriting his chore load makes life nearly unmanageable.  It's quite stressful to say the least.  I'm incredibly grateful to my parents, who have filled in and helped with L's school transportation and other instances where I simply cannot be in two places at one time.  As my body is a giant asshole, it has decided that now is the perfect time to crap out on me and start failing and having issues.  This has slowed me down quite a bit, I know that my stress levels are high and my quality sleep is really low, and that tends to exacerbate any existing conditions.  It's very frustrating that it's doing this when I can least handle it!  It's really my own fault, I guess, because if I could learn to keep my stress levels lower, I probably wouldn't be struggling with health issues.  I am not good at lowering stress.  I've tried biofeedback of various types and meditation and failed miserably at both.  I am the worst meditater in the world and have just given up on trying.  Sleep and meditation continue to elude me--I repeatedly fail to do either effectively.

On the up side, the girls and I have enjoyed lots of spicy food in his absence.  We all love hot chilies, but he can't handle that much spice, so I normally cook to his tolerance level.  His trip coincided with peak Habanero and Scotch Bonnnet season, and I had a bumper crop in the garden this year, so I've been making everything better by adding roasted Habaneros/Scotch Bonnets to our food.  It adds such a rich, smokey flavor.  I processed a ton of them this weekend, cleaning, roasting, dicing, and freezing, so I have a good supply to get me through the winter.  I'm hoping to harvest another big batch next weekend and make some salsa.

Jezebel and I just returned from the vet, where we had to schedule yet another mass removal (Friday).  She is the queen of weird growths on her body and has had several removed.  So far, they haven't been malignant, but each time I find a new growth, it's terrifying, and I can't sleep until I get results. This one is weird, according to the vet.  He's not sure what to make of it, but is leaning towards a gut feeling that it's benign.  I'll take that, as I really need the comfort right now.  Poor Jezi will have stitches again!  **Update:  I started this post over a week ago.  Jezi had her mass removed and it was weird but benign.  So relieved!

Froggie has a suspicious small lump near where his last malignant tumor was removed, but aspiration revealed no cancer cells.  We're watching it carefully, and I'm trying not to obsess about it, but I admit that I'm still quite afraid it's an early malignancy, and there aren't enough cancer cells to show up yet.

Our new puppy will be moving in with us this Friday.  I'm really excited but a little nervous, too.  It's been a long time since I've had a puppy.  Jez was a little over six months old when we adopted her, and she's over ten now.  This pup is only 3.5 months old.  She is full of energy and as sweet as could be.  My family has wanted to adopt a puppy for some time now, but I really feel strongly about adopting senior animals, who are much harder to place than puppies.  This little girl has some special needs and would not be very easy to place, so she seemed to be a good compromise.  The family gets the puppy they wanted, but I don't feel guilty for taking an easy-to-place animal.  Another huge benefit is to Jezebel, who has never had pups but has always been an incredibly maternal, nurturing dog. She cares for all of the animals in our house (real and stuffed) with such tenderness, that I've often felt bad that she didn't get to be a mom.  I think the puppy will make her very happy, and the puppy, being so young and abandoned by her dog mom, will be glad to have another dog mommy to snuggle with.  Breanna is a pit mix, just like Jezebel.

We met Breanna (her foster mom named her) yesterday, and have been missing her since she left.  We will pick her up Friday night and bring her home for good.  Between now and then, I have to get the house put back together (from some construction/repair projects that are wrapping up), puppy-proof for her safety, and work on making some modifications so she can get around easier.  Her back legs didn't form properly, nor did her sphincter muscle, so she has some problems with her back end and mobility.  She is able to walk and run (though it's a decidedly unique gait), but is more prone to slipping, falling, and having her legs give out.  I need to configure the house so she can tear around like a little maniac (she was awesomely high energy yesterday, running around and exploring) without worrying about her injuring herself.

We will have to potty train her, though she may still have issues due to her deformity.  I've ordered some washable diapers for her.  I hope she is able to not have to wear them for long, or at least not full time, but I don't know how that will play out in the future.  We will figure it out together.  It will be quite an adventure, and Friday feels way too far away.