If it ain't one thing it's anotha

Have you heard the "some days you are the bug, some days you are the windshield" analogy? Well yesterday it  felt like I was having a bug kind of day. Nothing that a good nights sleep last night didn't fix, but STILL....bad days on Mondays just really suck.
The beginning of my spiral technically started on Saturday when we took Brooklyn into the vet for a check up. What I thought was going to be something really quick and low keyish turned into the vet explaining to me how our sweet babe needs dental work. Now...once upon a time Garret needed dental work and we pretty much made him suck it up for 6 months until we had benefits, but for some reason neither of us feel this is a viable option for our girl. I was explaining the issue to our friend Emma who reminded me of a Simpson's episode complete with a photo:

This is pretty much exactly how the vet explained it.  The downhill spiral kicked into effect yesterday afternoon when the quote for the dental work came through. And so Miss Brooklyn inherits a new nickname to add to the list "Money Pit" Good thing she is so flipping cute

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Well...at least I don't need orthodontics![/caption]

Ways in which Brooklyn is preparing us for parenthood

1.  Has selective hearing
2.  Doesn't know when it is a weekend and sleeping in past 6 would be appropriate
3.  We have spent the past few months cleaning up her bodily fluids
4.  We have been in full on worry mode for the past week after her spaying. Everything from her eating, bathroom times, sleeping, and incision site has been thoroughly discussed, worried over, googled etc
5.  She has more toys than she knows what to do with but her fave items are Garret's shoes and anything we have left within reach (See here)
6. Everything we own is covered in a fine layer of dog hair (I hear with babies it's drool, regurgitated food and unknown sticky substances)
7.  Whines occasionally for no discernible reason
8.  Both our iPhones are full of photos of her
9.  When one of us is away we call to check in on how the fur baby is doing
10.  We think everything (well mostly) she does is cute and noteworthy (and should be shared/blogged about)
11.  We talk to her in a cute voice
12.  We unsuccessfully attempt to reason with her
13.  We have discussed co sleeping
14.  She makes noises and keeps us up all night
15.  We will lay still on the couch when she is napping on us even if we are dying to get up to pee/eat/answer the phone
16.  She has been my facebook profile pic for the past 4 months
17.  She toots and we still think it is cute
18. The grandparents no longer ask how we are doing.  First question is always "How is Brooklyn"
19. We make playdates for Brooklyn with our friend's dogs
20. We hesitate when making plans to ensure B isn't home alone too long
21. We miss her when we are away from her for too long
22. 15 seconds after we want to strangle her for doing something turdy we crazy love her again
23. We can't imagine our lives without her!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Urgh how can you not love this smushy little face![/caption]

The Fam

We attempted to keep Miss. Brooklyn on the chill side this weekend but that is nearly impossible as she is all like "yay run, jump, play, leap about" and not so much "let's just chill out and watch a movie"  So just to keep a further eye on her, G took her to work again today.  G made her a fort in the back of the truck and she is chilling out back there and when he goes on job sites he takes her out for a pee and a snuggle.  There is WAY less snuggling happening at my work today. boo.  I whined about not getting mid day family time so G sent me a pic:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] my handsome hubs and our sweet furry girl[/caption]

It's almost as good as all being together!

On the mend

[gallery type="circle" ids="1760,1761,1762,1763"]

Our sweet babe made it through her spaying fine and dandy. She is a bit off but on the whole back to her normal self.  Being the paranoid worrisome people that we are, we didn't really want to leave her home alone. So we did what any normal dog owner would do...we packed her up and sent her to work with her Dad.  G and I are both pretty lucky that we work with a lot of dog lovers and both our jobs would be  understanding (understanding of us being insane pet owners I guess...)  So he has her sitting under his desk today and I am jealous as anything.  While she is clearly fine and good to be on her own, we are just liking snuggling her extra close and spending some time with her while she heals.  Tonight we have big plans for a couch cuddlefest  and finally watching The Hobbit.  It is our plan to make the dog a big of a nerd as me...next up? A Harry Potter Marathon.  She looks a bit like Dobby so I think she will enjoy.  Hey...remember when my blog was about our house? And now it's just about our dog? Be forewarned soon it will just be about our baby.

New Blog Idea

Garret and I have been thinking we should start a new blog. We would call it "Things we have pulled out of our dog's mouth".  It is an ongoing battle lately with this one, who will disregard all toys on the floor and attempt to make off with anything else she can find.  She has also learned to jump up on our ottoman so all of that is fair game as well.

Items recently retrieved include:

* Apple TV Remote

*Hair Elastic

*Clumps of my hair...apparently there are tumbleweeds of the stuff throughout our house...I swear we vacuum

* Underwear

*Socks

*Slippers

*Any shoe possible

*Random hunks of wood (still unsure where these come from?!) Definitely blaming G for he brings the construction material into the house

*Brick particles (from the wall G is working on)

*bits of plastic

*Lowes Receipt

* A knife with peanut butter on it that I carelessly left on a plate on the ottoman

*Labels from the bottom of our kitchen chairs...she seems to take great joy in ripping them off the bottom of the seat and tearing them to shreds on the carpet

*Leafs

*ANY stick she can find outside

*A (thankfully empty) poop bag

*Egg carton

*BEER CAN

*Paint Roller

*mouthfuls of green fluff she pulls off her tennis balls

I am sure over the time we own her this list will be greatly added to. Her favourite thing to grab happens to be G's favourite shoes.  She always looks so proud of herself as she prances over to us with one hanging out of her mouth.  We have been putting them on the top shelf of the shoe tray but that girl is determined.

Dognapper

 

My mother in law is a big fan of Brooklyn (who can blame her, she is just that awesome)  She jokes all the time about stealing her and running away...well...yesterday she came and got her and brought her home to be spoiled for a few days!  This is the picture she sent me yesterday...my puppy in her car heading to her place!  I wonder what will happen when its real grandkids and not just the furry ones!

I wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy

I have never been one of those "spring out of bed ready to face the day" type of people.  I enjoy the snooze button and tend to dozily come up with reasons to not get up yet.  In fact most mornings I would lay there and sleep in until the last possible second--giving me just enough time to brush my teeth, get dressed, slap on some makeup and be out the door.  More accurately I would think I was giving myself enough time, but I would frequently be cursing as I was running out the door late to meet my carpool. (Apparently 7 minutes isn't enough time to get ready to leave the house in the morning...who knew?)  This, coupled with my darling husbands inability to know where ANYTHING of his migrated to from the night before, (car keys, wallet, sunglasses, etc) frequently lead to stressy mornings with terse exchanges between us. --not the ideal was to start out our mornings!  When we got Brooklyn I knew that we would have to start getting up earlier.  I was pretty good about it in the fall, but after all the time we spent together over the holidays I realized that in order to be fair to B I would have to get up even earlier.  For the past two weeks I have been getting up at 5:45am (old Julia scoffs from under the warmth of her cozy duvet) I can honestly say I am still not springing out of bed joyfully, but I am loving opening up B's crate and seeing her smooshy face all excited to see me, and us having time to play together before the reality of the working day sets in.  We go out for a pee, and I have a tea while I feed her and get myself organized for the day--it is nice not to rush.  Having an hour to play together and snuggle before I have to leave is making me feel less guilty about leaving her in her crate all day.  I really love watching her learn new things.  She recently realized that when the heat kick on she can get a nice warm tummy standing over one of the vents.  She will cease all snuggles and games of fetch as soon as she hears the furnace go!

3 months old today

Happy 3 month birthday to our sweet Brooklyn/Turd Ferguson.  Even when you are peeing on the floor or trying to eat our shoes we still love you and wouldn't trade you in..  Thanks for becoming part of the Walsh family and for teaching us (mostly your Dad) patience, floor cleanliness and the general joy of snorty grunty snuggles. Love you fuzz bum!

And now photos of our sweet fur baby

[caption id="attachment_1165" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Being Ghetto fabulous in your winter jacket[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1168" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Navigating through the streets of Meaford[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1167" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Helping me write wedding thank yous. Signing her approval with a nose print[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1169" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Napping...this is when we can relax[/caption]

Neither of us have really had a dog before so this is a wee bit of a learning curve, but we are really enjoying it.  We have turned into those people who take 5000 iPhone photos of her doing cute things, laugh at her when she snores and makes funny noises and fight over who gets to snuggle with her when she is calm and wanting to cuddle up.  We are loving that she always wants to be near one of us, but we are wondering how cute it will be when she is double her size and still insisting on eating her toys in our lap.

 

 

The Scary One

I didn't want to write about this when it was happening, because I didn't know the outcome.  Now that it is more sunshine and roses as opposed to doom and gloom so I can discuss. Thurs and Fri Brooklyn was clearly not feeling very well.  We spoke with various other puppy loving friends and they said her upset tummy was likely due to stress or a change in food.  Saturday morning it became very clear that we should probably take her to the vet. G and I both thought that we had just given her too many treats in our quest to get her to sit, so when the Vet came back with a more serious diagnosis I think we were both very shocked.  B had Parvovirus which can be a really serious puppy killing type of illness.  We had to admit her and the vet was honest about her chances...he said he really couldn't say.  There seems to be an outbreak in Barrie lately and some dogs make it and others don't.  Naturally I cried the entire time and felt like a total jack-hole by the time we left.  We both tried to be really positive about it but we were both pretty scared.  Garret joked that he was going to get a vasectomy because if he was this sad about our puppy he didnt think he could handle having kids.  We had to clean the house like crazy and throw out all her blankets and soft toys...so instead of Saturday being a joyous home renovatey day it ended up being me crying over a tub of bleach as I cleaned the kitchen floors kind of day.

Obviously the little Turd-meister really snuggled her way into our family and our hearts quickly.  Yesterday the clinic called and said that she was doing awesome, her temperature was down and she was eating and drinking and keeping it all down.  I picked her up last night and it was SO AWESOME to bring her home.  We had a serious Walsh family snuggle session with her on the couch once G got home as well. She was being extra turdy though so I am not sure if she just forgot her manners in the 2 days she was away, or she was just angry that we seemed to leave her behind to get poked and prodded!  But honestly we didn't care at all because we were just so glad she was home.

[caption id="attachment_1125" align="aligncenter" width="388"] sharpening her teeth[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1126" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Christmas is cancelled because of MY vet bill?![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1127" align="aligncenter" width="388"] After getting some energy out she crawled into my lap for a snuggle. I took her off to get up and she just walked in a small circle and got in my lap again. After a near death experience a gal's just gota snuggle[/caption]

 

 

 

Couch chilling

While G is away his girls get craaaazy...
ie. couch snuggles while watching Netflicks. I had hear the crazy wind outside and feel blessed to be toasty and cuddled up inside!



Big to do list for the next two days but for now all I wana do is spoon with my fur baby! Garret and I were talking today and are both so happy about our new addition. I don't think we knew how much we would love her or how she would make us feel even more like a family!

The One Where This Becomes A Puppy Blog

So it has become apparent that the biggest news in our life this week has to do with the dog. It's funny how quickly we have become attached and its all we talk/blog about.  It took a day but we already have a nickname for her when she is being naughty.  Turd Ferguson (from an old SNL skit with Norm MacDonald and Will Ferrell) Turd was out and about a bit this morning as she turned down the chance to go to the bathroom outside to come inside and poop on the floor...definitely something to keep working on!

I downloaded a new fun ap the other week for my iPhone called "Half Tone" which lets me add fun comic book style titles to photos. I'm thinking that we will need to make up a little comic book series about what our little Turd gets up to during the day while we are at work...yesterday would have included an image of her chewing on the cord for my Cuisinart.  Naughty Monkey.

[caption id="attachment_1089" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Season 1: volume 1[/caption]

Brooklyn

So we have been dog owners for over 24 hours now and we love it. No idea what we are doing, but loving it. She absolutely adores G which is super sweet. She loves snuggles, her chew toy and food! We are going to a puppy training class tomorrow after work so we can learn how to start training her properly. So far we are working on no biting, and using the outside for the bathroom. It seems that she isn't a big fan of the cold (big shock for her in the coming months). We have her outside and she doesn't she doesn't seem interested in peeing, but then as soon as she comes back inside she goes on the kitchen floor. It will definitely be a lot of work, but she is already so worth it. Right now the three of us are snuggled up on the couch watching movie and its so nice. Being a good snuggler makes her the perfect addition to our family!

And the heart grows bigger

Introducing Brooklyn Springsteen Walsh. Aka schmoo bear aka princess snuffles aka cuddle puppy aka fur baby.
She snores louder than Garret does and she has already become a fixture in our hearts. We are in love.