Our new pride and joy

Boy, I haven't been on here in a while. I am sorry for this. I do plan to write a short update on what's been going on today and let everyone know that I am still here. I have been spending a lot of my time on Facebook lately and went camping on Memorial weekend. Had lots of fun and cannot wait to go back again! We stayed in that campground with the Little House on the Prairie cabins only this time we slept in the big, extendable camper with my father-in-law and his wife. Last Saturday (June 7) Chuck and I went grocery shopping, but instead of groceries we ended up with a new dog. I know I know, we were stupid and naïve to get and another one when the one we have isn't quite a-year-old yet (her first birthday is July 1). But she is so dang cute! On our way home Chuck said that we have spent all of our grocery money for the next two weeks on the new puppy. So I told him that we could just throw her on the barbecue and eat her for dinner tonight because she is just so cute I could eat her! LOL!! Anyways, she is an 8 week old Cocker Spaniel (a purebred) puppy that even came with AKC registration papers for us to fill out if we want. Her name is Lilly and her and Gracie gets along wonderfully! Gracie has turned out to be such a great big sister... she has grown-up now to be about knee-high and is even taller then all of her brothers and sisters from the same litter! We are not sure if we want to breed her or have her fixed. We know Ken and Kelly would love to one. But I do not know if I want to go through all of the hassle that comes with a bunch of puppies. Here are a couple of pictures that we have taken so far (they were taken June 10).

In these next two pictures Gracie and Lilly are playing. The last one is of her napping on Chuck's slipper. She actually pitches a fit whenever she cannot find them!

Oh no, not another one!

Just thought I'd let you in on the happenings with the dog, Grover. Thursday afternoon he started to get sick, by throwing up and not keeping anything down. However he was drinking and that was good, until he started puking up the water. He would show signs that he was improving, so we didn't feel it necessary to take him to the vet. Friday he still would not eat but he would drink water. That evening, since we were still unable to figure out the type of food he ate, I gave him the last lick of my chicken pot pie on my finger. He ate that really good. I did not want to over do it, so I let him eat the last little bit of what was left (which was the gravy). He seemed to perk up and even played with Chuck. Saturday we went to Chuck's dad to introduce Mitzy and Grover (we are babysitting Mitzy this week) and Grover did just fine. That is until he threw up his soft canned food on their front lawn and he started moping around again. We brought him home and he wouldn't drink nor eat anything. Saturday night was horrible, he kept hacking and having dry heaves, then he started having diarrhea really bad and kept Chuck and I up most of the night. Sunday morning we talked it over and decided it would be better on me to give him to Kelly and have her nurse him back to health since I couldn't do it and even keep him afterwards. After church, she took him home with her and then came back and took me to a special evening session they were having and left the dog home alone... which in my opinion, was a bad choice. After the sermon and dropping me off Ken and Kelly found the dog had died. I am not as upset as I was when Bebe died. I liked that dog and everything but I just wouldn't allow myself to get attached because it was just too early yet. I am sad that he died, but I feel really bad for Kelly because she is probably blaming herself and she fell in love with him that day she picked him out.

Grover

Well I was right, my niece did take it pretty hard. She was depressed for a couple days and to pull her out of her grief, she decided to get us another dog. Chuck and I were not really interested in finding a dog right now. We were going to focus more of our attention on adopting a child and then we as a family would pick one out. However, I understood how she was feeling because I went through the same thing when my aunt's dog died while in my care. So if she wanted to get us another dog to help her I wasn't going to stop her. I didn't find this out until Wednesday afternoon when Chuck called me and told me she was looking for another dog and Ken kept asking him if this dog will work or that one. Chuck kept telling him no, but he should have explained the reason why.

Thursday morning I was at my computer when I heard a knock on the front door. I glanced to my right and looked out the big window and saw Ken and Kelly's white van in our driveway, to be honest my first thought was "oh no, they better not have come with a dog!" Before I had a chance to take off my headset Carrie came bounding in the room all excited. She said that she had a surprise for me outside. When we got to the door, Carrie opened it and in walked Kelly holding a dog on a leash. They had picked out a little orange Pomeranian from the pound. It had been there a while and was about to be put down. He already has been neutered and looks pretty healthy and I think he is already housebroken (but I still have to check on him every half hour because it is new surroundings and I am still not 100% sure that he is totally housebroken) except they are not certain about his age... we are guessing about 1. He also didn't have a name that they knew of so I told Carrie she could name him. She couldn't think of a name that he seemed to like, so I said the first name that came to mind... Grover. He seemed to like that name and so did everyone else, so that is the name we gave him.

When I first got him, he was active and perky and was running around playing with Brenden and Carrie and licking our fingers. Brenden and Carrie spent the afternoon with me to help me with Grover in case he wasn't potty trained yet. He was all happy to be playing when them, but a few hours later he started throwing everything up. He would go drink his water like there was no tomorrow then he would throw it up. He would not only throw up his water, but his food too. After that all he wanted to do was sleep. I do not know if it was his nerves from being in a new place making him sick or from the kids causing him to much excitement. But today all he does is lay around and he will not eat. Even my friend came over and knew right away that he was sick and told me try a little can dog food.

This evening when Chuck came home, he had bought some puppy food for him. We are unsure of his true age but everybody guesstimates about one and when I did research on the Internet for Pomeranian it would always say to give them dry dog food. He also got him to try a little Pepto-Bismol to see if that would help settle his stomach. Then we ate pot pie's and I decided to give him the last little bite by putting it on my finger for him to lick off. That seemed to help because once I did that he seemed to perk up and even played with Chuck a little bit. So now we know that we need to get to him soft can food. He's still not as active as he was yesterday, but at least he is showing signs of improvement!

A painful loss

My niece and nephew stayed over Sunday night. Monday morning I asked Carrie to fold up the couch bed so I could get around, she came over and folded it up and put it away. I had a candy bar in my hands that I was unwrapping, usually my dog hears the noise right a way and comes running up by me waiting for me to give her some. When she didn't come I figured Brenden had let her out. A couple minutes later Carrie asked me where Bebe was, she looked all around outside but couldn't find her then we looked all around the house and kept calling her name but she still didn't come. Then I looked at Carrie and said you didn't fold her in the couch did you? So she quickly took out the bed and started freaking out when she got to the last fold. Brenden ran out to help his sister fold out the rest of the couch and there was Bebe tangled in the blanket and in a pool of drool. She was breathing in and out really fast and her nose was dry. I called Chuck to take her to the vet, they were unable to slow her heart rate down so Chuck had her put to sleep.

I miss having Bebe around and Chuck is taking it hard himself, he wonders if maybe he made the wrong choice in having Bebe put down. He wonders if she would have made it through if we would have left her alone. Now what I am worried about is how my niece is handling the news. She is only a nine year old little girl and she was so fond of Bebe and now I am afraid she will start thinking that it was all her fault since she was the one who folded up the bed.

I realize that I have not yet gotten to the part where Sharon gave me Bebe. But she did and I think that was one of her best decisions she has ever made. Do not worry, I will be coming to that part soon!

Here is a picture of Bebe:

RIP my Bebe girl!