Bulldog Torture

At least one day each weekend, I spend several hours cooking. Today was no different, except that instead of just laying on the couch, ignoring me, the bullies took an interest.

At first they just sat in the middle of the kitchen, right in the path between the sink and the stove. I stepped over them....... and over them.... and over them. I was patient for a REALLY long time.

At one point, I had a big pile of carrots that I accidentally bumped into and one dropped to the floor. In a flash- as if she was STARVING and DESPERATE for food, Olivia had the carrot and ran to her bed, devouring it before I blinked an eye. For the record- she'd already had dinner, so, NO, I am not starving her. It was pretty cute watching her eat a whole carrot though.

Eventually they moved from the middle of the floor to right next to me. After I'd bumped into them a few times, they started bumping into me, except that they were doing it on purpose. As in, "HEY, we NEED a taste of that!" Then they started whining- loudly.

That was the point that they got exiled from the kitchen. When bulldogs aren't close enough in proximity to physically touch their mama, the crying begins...

Start to finish, I'd say the screeching lasted about 25 minutes until I gave up, gave them each a plate of chicken and put away the step-stool barrier. Nate tells me that they freak out because they know I will give in... and that's true. I am a terrible dog owner, there's no doubt about that, but seriously, how cute are these dogs??!?!?

Just A Little Vomit

When I got home this afternoon, there was a big pile of vomit by the back door and Grif was looking pretty sad. I cooked some chicken and rice, but he wasn't even interested in that. I sat with him on the couch and was snuggling my sick little baby. 

He looked at me with big eyes and then leaned forward and vomited down my chest. It wasn't the first time and so I let him finish gagging and then calmly stripped off all of my clothes to avoid making a mess as I went to get a new outfit.

Walgreens didn't have unflavored pedialyte, but did have a freezer pop version. Griffin likes popsicles and convincing him to eat one of these was much easier than trying to get him to drink it. And after his freezie, he ate some chicken and rice, which was an improvement.

He's resting now and looking much better.

We're happen to already have a vet appointment set up for tomorrow because I want him to be tested for allergies, so we'll talk about the vomiting too.

 Griffin is a little delicate and sometimes he just vomits for no reason.... Sometimes he has to go to the emergency vet for thousands of dollars, but I'm not worried yet.

Snow Dogs

Griffin has been coming with me to the office 2-3 times per week all winter. He alternates between sleeping under my desk, going across the hall to Abby's office (she has a rug that he enjoys more than my cold floor), wandering the hallways and chewing on one of the 15 or so bones that are all over my office.

When he is at home, he can make it though the whole day without a break, but both of us need to stretch our legs and get some fresh air, so every few hours, we take a potty break outside.

I took two short videos today because every time we go out, he makes me laugh. Griffin gets distracted easily and sometimes doesn't actually go to the bathroom at all. And every now and then he gets distracted, doesn't go to the bathroom and then when we ome back inside, he uses the hallway instead.

Today, as he rolled in the snow, a man driving through the parking lot pulled over and watched him. He rolled down his window and said, "I've never seen a dog do that." I smiled and said, "yep, he loves the snow" to which he replied, "what a special dog."

Special indeed...

And a bonus video from last week of Olivia in the snow after chasing the ball at the park.

Statue

A few weeks ago, I was walking though Macy's and nearly fell over from shock when I saw the display for the Thomas Pink Collection. A full sized, pink bulldog statue.

I am not exaggerating- I gasped, clutched my chest and nearly fell over.

I turned to the people I was with and whispered, "I NEED this."

And so began my quest...

First I called that Macy's location and asked for a manager. I explained that I had just been in the store and that I NEEDED to purchase the display bulldog and asked how I could do that. "You're not the first person to call about this" was their response. No doubt! Look at that glorious thing.

She explained that she could take my name, which would get passed onto corporate and when they were done with it, they would call if the statue was available. I gave her my name, but I didn't feel confident that anything was going to happen with that.

I tend to be pretty frugal with my money (unless it involves my dogs and then I throw cash around like a rap star making it rain in the club). I don't buy things I don't need. I don't collect things. I don't have debt. I am reasonable, I budget, I save.  However, I do all of those things so that I can afford to splurge every now and then when I find something I really want (or for when a certain someone has to go to the vet). The pink bulldog statue was the perfect example of that.

My next step was to do some intense googling. I managed to track down the company that makes the statues. It didn't show the price because you had to create an account to log into their site. However, you had to have a business tax ID to create an account because they only sell to businesses. I was desperate to see the price to know if I could just buy one or if I was going to have to try to track down a number to corporate Macy's to plead my case. I put in my camp's tax ID number and created an account. I was in! And the statue was only $120!

Except that the minimum order for anything on their site was $500. I didn't need a case of bulldog statues. So I emailed the owner and explained that I LOVED the statue and NEEDED to own one. I asked if they could tell me where I could buy one retail, if they had any damaged ones that couldn't be sold or what my other options were so that I could buy one. My email was friendly and complimentary (perhaps a little crazy-dog-lady-ish), but I wasn't going to back down and I was prepared to be as obnoxious as necessary.

My resolve wasn't necessary. The owner emailed me back right away and said it was no big deal, they could sell me just one.

And so, just a few weeks later, my beautiful pink ceramic bulldog arrived!

I smile every time I look at it. I am very satisfied with my purchase!

Grif- checking out his new officemate

 

Worms

I received a call from Olivia's daycare this morning letting me know that they'd just finished a potty break and Olivia had worms. The attendant that was with the dogs was sure it was Olivia's and she had collected the poop for me to bring with me when I took her to the vet. I hurried to pack everything, grab  Griffin and get into the car. I did a quick google search but there are MANY types of worms that a dog can get and without knowing what she had, it was difficult to narrow down how she got it or how it was affecting her. I made a vet appointment while I was driving to pick her up and I tried not to panic as I rushed to get her.

When I got to daycare, the very nice receptionist tried to comfort me, saying, "she might have just eaten a dead mouse or something in the backyard."

No.

Olivia is not an eater. She is the snobbiest dog I've ever met. She knows how to eat off a fork. She has a taste for quality cuts of meat (filet being her favorite). I bring a water bottle to the dog park because she won't drink water out of the communal water buckets. There's no way that dog ate a dead mouse.

Griffin on the other hand, well, remember this- http://bulldogbrigade3.blogspot.com/2011/08/update-on-patient.html. Griffin eats random things and no matter what I do to prevent it or how horrified I am by it, Griffin loves eating poop.

Which of course meant that if Olivia had worms, Griffin also had worms. And that bracelet that everyone thinks is cute but silly ("I kiss my bulldogs on the lips"), yeah, that's not sarcasm, I had kissed Olivia on the lips a few hours earlier when I'd dropped her off. (on a side note, I probably need to stop doing that.)

I was sick to my stomach by the time the manager came out with the bag of poop. She squished it to show me the worms- except, that it wasn't worms. "I'm like 99% sure those are green beans" I said. I put green beans or other veggies in their food every night and sometimes they don't fully digest. I know that because the first time I saw a pile of poop with mushy green beans through it, I freaked out and thought they had worms. I distinctly remember finding a stick and crouching down on my hands and knees in the backyard to examine the poop (unfortunately not the grossest thing I've ever done since becoming a dog mom).

"Oh... now that you say that... I wish I'd known... I'm so sorry to make you come all the way here... yes, look at the texture, now that you say green beans, these are definitely... you are right." She looked a little embarrassed and definitely felt bad for the false alarm, but I was so relieved that Olivia wasn't sick, I nearly burst into tears.

I'm thrilled that they are paying such close attention. I am happy that they take the dogs' health that seriously and react so quickly. It made me feel even more confident in the care she is receiving. And THANK GOODNESS she doesn't have worms.

She went back to playing and I headed back to work.

Crisis averted.

Photos

During the summer at camp, we try to upload 50-100 photos each day. Parents are able to see what their campers are doing and follow along with their camp adventure for the week. Parents appreciate it and I think it is a good service. However, there are a few headaches that come with the photos.

We get complaint calls about the following issues- 

• when we don't upload often enough
• when there aren't enough photos or a parent doesn't see their child in enough photos
• when a child doesn't appear happy in a photo

Whenever a parent calls to complain about the photos, I always think, "seriously? Is this really a big deal?" I think of the photos as a fun extra, but not that important. 

And then the dog daycare started posting photos on facebook and I immediately understood every camp photo complaint I've ever gotten. 

The daycare she attends has three different sites. Despite attending 3 days a week, they never took pictures at her location on a day she was there. After weeks of no photos, I asked if there was a schedule and they told me that it was just sort of random. So I was patient. But weeks later, they were posting photos several times a week but never her site when she was there. So I made a comment on facebook about how much it would make my day to see her. 

At camp, sometimes parents think we are bigger than we are because pretty much every comment (phone, email or facebook) gets back to me, so if someone complains about the photos, I make sure that we follow that kid around for a few hours until we get some good shots of him or her smiling. I assume dog day care is smaller than I realize and that someone finally said, "make sure we get some pictures of that fat dog before her crazy mother complains again!" (For the record, I was very nice both times I asked). The next day, there were three pictures of Olivia on facebook, and I was happy to be able to sit in my office at work and see my baby at "school".

Except that she didn't look like she was having fun. As I debated whether or not I should call the day care to ask how her day was going, I had an "ah ha" moment while flashes of parent calls about our camp photos came rushing back to me. I finally understand what it must be like to look through photo after photo, hoping to see your baby, only to see her not looking like she is having fun. 

In all fairness to the day care, Olivia almost always looks slightly disgusted or like she is judging something or someone, so I'm not sure why expected anything different. I decided not to call and just to be satisfied that there is a picture of her. She is excited whenever I tell her she is going to "school" and I am confident that they are taking good care of her. She comes home at the end of the day tired and happy. I would love to see some action shots of her running around, playing with other dogs and looking enthusiastic, but for now I'm satisfied that she was featured and I will save that request for another time. And from now on, I won't be so judgmental when the parents call about their campers...

I kiss my bulldog(s) on the lips

Well, he finally gave in. It took multiple suggestions (perhaps some begging), but he finally decided to give me the jewelry I wanted most in the world-

"I kiss my bulldog on the lips". Is this the most wonderful bracelet you've ever seen? I have a fabulous bracelet that my brother gave me a few years ago that says "bulldog mom" and I love that one too, but this one is just about the most fabulous thing I've ever seen.

Check out the tiny detailed bulldog charm at the end of it.

Nate tries not to allow me to be a crazy dog lady, but sometimes he gives in and let's me be ridiculous.

I love him for that and so I try not to kiss my bulldogs on the lips before I kiss him on the lips (for the record, sometimes it doesn't work out in that order, but don't tell him).