Tag: Dog

Tails on Trails

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Saturday morning my friend and her dog came over and after a quick breakfast of donuts we headed to the arboretum for the Tails on Trails event. Dogs were allowed the entire day but at 10 am they had tents from different organizations, some of which had free stuff. We ended up with small sample bags of food and even a free Kong toy. Too bad it’s meant for bigger dogs and is labeled as free or I’d try to exchange it for a more appropriate size. I put Wookie’s regular kibble in it and she likes that, so at least it’s serving a purpose.

I tried to get some nice photos of Wookie at the event, but as usual she wouldn’t sit still for anything. I need to remember to bribe her with treats next time.

The event had a good turnout and the weather was warmer than predicted which was nice. The grass was wet in some places since it rained earlier that morning so the dogs got a bit muddy but their paws dried it from a walk around the lake on the cement before we got back to the car so it worked out. We were there about two hours I think. Then we came home and I grilled burgers for lunch. My friend ended up leaving around 2:30 since we wanted to go car shopping. More on that in a separate entry.

Locked Out & Wookie’s Haircut

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Thursday morning I locked myself out of the house for the first time ever. It happened just as I shut the door between the laundry room and garage, quickly realizing the keys were still on the other side. Luckily I had my phone and was able to call Joe who had just arrived at work and had to come back home to let me in. I also emailed and left a voicemail for my boss letting him know I’d be late to work. Since traffic was pretty good in the direction Joe had to travel he was home in about 40 minutes. I just played on my phone in the garage until then. Boy was I happy I decided to grab my winter jacket at the last minute since I was still pretty cold by the time he got home! I managed to get into work only an hour late and since Joe decided to work from home I only took a half hour lunch to make up some of the time. I didn’t stay a half hour later, however, because Wookie was scheduled to be groomed at 4:30.

I went over, in detail, what I was thinking regarding her haircut, but she still came out way shorter than I expected. Even the groomer admitted she had given me the wrong measurement when she showed me what her overall length would be. I really didn’t want her to look as if she had been shaved and yet to me that’s exactly what she looks like. It’s taken me days to adjust to it and I miss my fluffy hot mess puppy. I hope it grows back quickly.

Petsmart & Wood By Sink

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I really can’t stand it when people insist on trying to get my dog to come to them even after I’ve explained that she is people shy. This dude at the Petsmart earlier today would not let it go. I made sure to stand with her in the vestibule when we left since he was dilly-dallying going to his car and I didn’t want him to bug us in the parking lot too. He seemed a little shady to be honest.

The reason we even went to Petsmart to begin with is because Wookie won’t stop chewing on inappropriate things so I wanted to buy some bitter apple spray. So far she has eaten part of the carpet where it meets the dining room floor, has chewed the corners of the throw rugs in the dining room, and yesterday was chewing on the dining room chairs. Today she destroyed the molding by the sink which she has never even bothered before. We just replaced the wood paneling there yesterday (and one piece of the molding) because the woodgrain sticker on the particle board had become loose years beforehand when our old dishwasher leaked and caused that sticker to bubble. Wookie started pawing at it until it was torn and looked like hell. Had we known a new piece was only $4 at Menards we probably would have replaced it years ago. The color we chose matches our cabinets better so that’s pretty cool.

I’m kicking myself for buying the bitter apple at Petsmart, though, because I remembered Amazon’s pricing incorrectly (I looked it up before leaving the house) and seriously overpaid for it. $16.49 for a 16 oz bottle and I’m not even sure if it works. I am seriously tempted to return it and order a refill bottle from Amazon for half the price. I can buy a little spray bottle for $1 in Walmart’s travel section and save myself some money. Petsmart had toys on sale too – buy 2 get 1 free – so of course I had to get a few things.

Wookie loves the beaver from her puppy training class and they finally had it in stock, and she loves anything with tassles. The fox toy ended up being the free one.

I really need to get Wookie groomed soon but it seems to be turning into a real pita getting in touch with anyone. Maybe it’s because I’m phone-adverse and have been sending FB messages these businesses aren’t interested in even looking at, let alone return. I contacted a mobile groomer on Friday evening to get a price quote and never heard back. Then before leaving for Petsmart I called this one natural pet food store about their grooming and the next available Friday isn’t until May 12th, so I messaged Wookie’s original groomer and she hasn’t gotten back to me yet either.

After contacting the groomers I decided to brush Wookie to ensure she doesn’t have any mats on the small chance I would be able to get her a grooming appointment today. That doesn’t look promising, but she did have a few mats around her legs that I was able to remove. Between that and her Petsmart adventure she was so pooped that she passed out on the couch shortly after we got home.

I too would like to go back to bed. This entire weekend has been a bust. The original plan was to go car shopping on Saturday and to Lilacia Park on Sunday, neither of which happened thanks to the cold rainy weather. I feel depressed for the first time since November and it sucks.

Oh, and we learned that Wookie does in fact still have baby teeth when we were poking around in her mouth the other day and Joe noted a tooth was loose. So I shouldn’t have been giving her the dental chews yet like I have been. I need to just brush her teeth daily until her adult teeth are all in. She left the tooth in my hand when playing with her this morning by the way. That’s the first one she hasn’t swallowed.

Wookie’s DNA Test Results

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A couple of weeks ago my curiosity got the best of me and I ordered a DNA test on Amazon because I was convinced Wookie was not a Schnau-Tzu like we had been told. I could kind of see the Shih Tzu part but definitely not the Schnauzer. In fact, from the moment I laid eyes on her I thought she was a Yorkie, and then when I would look at photos of dogs on Instagram she seemed to look more like a Morkie (Maltese and Yorkie mix) than any other breed.

Well, today it was confirmed!

My baby is 50% Maltese, 37.5% Yorkie, and 12.5% Shih Tzu so I’ll be referring to her as a Morkie from now on. Thank god, because I was really getting tired of purposefully mispronouncing Shih Tzu just so people knew what I was saying. It’s not my fault I learned the correct pronunciation!

According to some Googling she’s technically a mutt since to be a purebred Morkie she would be 50/50 Maltese and Yorkie, but it’s close enough in my book. I Googled Malshi (Maltese and Shih Tzu) and there’s a dog in there that looks like her as well so the results totally make sense. The Petsmart trainer disagreed with me when I mused that she looked like a Morkie because, as she said, her ears were floppy and not up. For a woman who deals with dogs daily I was surprised by her ignorance since all of the Morkies I’ve seen have floppy ears.

In any case, I thought it was fitting that we received her test results on National DNA Day. The test I bought was on sale for $28 and some change less than what I paid which was annoying, so I took to Amazon’s chat to see if I could get compensated. Surprisingly, they readily agreed to refund me the difference so instead of $80 I really only paid $51.26 for the testing. Score! I think the combined fact of being a Prime member and spending so much on their site since getting Wookie contributed to how agreeable they were.

I also convinced my friend K to buy the test so she can determine what breeds her boy, Teddy, is. My guess? Bichon Frise and Poodle. I guess we’ll find out in a couple of weeks.

Garage Organization, Arboretum, Wookie’s Leash Manners

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Saturday (4/22) we finally got rid of some stuff we were unable to sell last year at our garage sale. Since it was Earth Day our town was having an electronics recycling event so we got rid of four old computer towers (but first made sure no hard drives were inside). Then we took two boxes of donations to Savers. I had done a little organizing on “my side” of the garage on Friday so between these two actions it’s already looking less cluttered, not to mention there will be more room in front of my car which is critical since I should be getting a new one in the next few months and it’s likely going to be a longer length than the Jetta which was a little cramped as it was. Some days I feel like chucking everything because clutter makes me so anxious. It doesn’t help when we pass by people whose garages look barely used. I feel like I have way too many boxes of decorations for various holidays/seasons and have been purging the stuff I never use but continue to keep for some strange reason.

We took Wookie with us on our errands since our last stop was Petco to snag a free bag of food thanks to a coupon Joe found online. It was all gone, though, so we walked out empty-handed. Wookie didn’t get to really socialize either since Petco doesn’t get the volume of traffic Petsmart does. After we got home and ate lunch I took her on a longer than usual walk to try and tire her out so she wouldn’t be so bored when we headed to my parents’ house to celebrate Easter and J’s birthday. I love going over there but feel guilty leaving Wookie at home for 8+ hours. It’s weird because I never felt bad leaving Bella when she lived here. I think it’s because she doesn’t really do anything but lie around anyway so what’s the difference? Wookie likes to play and interact with us so I feel like I’m neglecting her when she’s left home alone for too long.

There was much food to be eaten Saturday night, including a strawberry cake I baked specifically for J. It wasn’t homemade, and was originally going to be cupcakes, but after all the cooking and baking I did last weekend I went the easy route and made a 9×13 sheet cake. It came out good, though.

We didn’t get home until midnight and played with Wookie for 45 minutes before going to bed. Despite still being tired we got up a little after 8 am Sunday (4/23) morning so we could get to the arboretum at a decent hour. We stopped by Starbucks to try the unicorn frappuchino that has been all the rage this week but was told the unicorn ran away. That was disappointing since Sunday was the last day to get them. Guess it was the universe’s way of stopping us from wasting our money.

It’s a good thing we didn’t get to the arboretum until 10 am because there was a huge 10k at 8 am and part of the grounds were shut down to vehicle traffic to accommodate it. Luckily we missed all that craziness and for once NOT being the early bird paid off. Speaking of birds, we made a beeline over to daffodil glade on the west side of the arboretum where we spotted some bluebirds.

Bluebird Directing Traffic

That was unexpected since I was actually looking to get photos of the tree swallows that live in the area. I also got some decent pictures of the flowering crabtrees and a couple of the daffodils which was nice considering they were already starting to die. They only seem to last a week or two which sucks.

Crabapples

Purple Tree & Daffodils

On the way home we stopped at a different Petco and were able to snag a 5 lb bag of food for only $1.28 using the “free” coupon (you have to pay tax).

I took Wookie on a walk after lunch and she’s doing so much better on the leash. I didn’t have to stop once because she was pulling too hard. It’s nice to see we’re making progress. We also set up the tie-out in back so she could roam around but she was getting it tangled on stuff and going on the neighbor’s patio, plus eating stuff off the ground. We moved to the front of the house but it wasn’t much better. It was supposed to be relaxing hanging out outside but not with a puppy to constantly monitor. I love her dearly but sometimes it stresses me out having her around 24/7. I feel bad even saying that but it’s true. I give lots of credit to people who not only have a dog but kids too. How they manage that is beyond me.