Wanderlust

Emily's Message to the World, Saturday Edition:

[I'm not coming out of this bag until you take me somewhere nice, not the VET]

[What? You knit a two-tone guard and then sewed it on the opening, so I couldn't jump out of the doggy-carrier, Mommy? Yum!]

Bad Bacon

As we'd run out of chicken breast for breakfast, H. fried up some Dutch bacon (spek) to mix in with her kibble. (We found that Emily really likes meat grease with her Orijen, but we have to watch it, and only use the stuff without any spices)

Lured out of playing with her Kong, Emily ate a piece of bacon, and 5 minutes later, promptly threw up. Three times.

No more bacon for the dog. BOO.

Then again, Emily's developed a bad habit of jumping on the coffee table and stealing a slurp out of our drinks before we realize what's up. Coffee, Lipton Green Tea Ice, orange juice. WEIRD DOG.

Odds and Ends

[Oh pooh, what's in it for me?]

On Sunday, M. finally got his wish, and we made dumplings from scratch. He even rolled out his own wrappers (and learned a lot about dough). Uncle Ernst came by later, and helped make the dumplings. Lots of interesting shapes came out.

H. made a dinosaur out of the leftover dough. Then, she baked it in the oven (which made him fatter), and painted it. M. wanted glasses.

[Grrr! Argh! Respect the Glasses! Grrr!]

Today, with the leftover cabbage (about 2/3), H. made the smallest portion of kimchi ever. From scratch, yo, and from memory (because it was too late in the day to call Mom).
This is her first kimchi ever. Hee!

*
Also, H. is mentally steeling herself to go on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage with her Mom next April. 800 km across the top of Spain. OI. She doesn't know why.

Daddy's Little Girl

[I'm so cute and I'm so loveable]

[Nyah nyah, Mommy]

[And he lets me win, too]

Heat Wave Strikes Europe

or so I hear. Emily and I are chilling in our living room. She's been pretty barky lately, especially late at night when she doesn't want to go to bed and is wondering why Mommy and Daddy think 1-2 am is sleepy time.

[Seriously, inquiring puppy minds want to know]

Emily's recovering nicely from her sick-time. Still, her nose is a little pinkish, instead of full black, so I let her hang out on the patio.

[Emily Puppy, Spy Dog]

[Grass, you can't let your guard down on them for a second.]

On the gardening front, our rose 'experiments' are coming along nicely. It's been 5 weeks since we planted the cuttings. At 6-8 weeks, we'll move them to roomier pots.
[Snipped and potted, June 28, 2009]
[See? New shoots]

Emily's climbing on my lap -- No! -- on the coffee table -- No! -- on the sofa -- No! -- to get a sip of my mocha cappucino. No, puppy!

Birthday Beach

It was my 9 month birthday, so Mommy and Daddy took me to the beach!

[I'm the best puppy ever!]

I ran around and chased all the other puppies. They weren't that much bigger than me. Just German Shepherds and Boxers. No biggie.

[I also found all the secret Nucwear Vepons]

[And a Jellyfish!]

[Daddy needs someone to show him around. Lucky he has me]

[And I fell in a puddle]

[But it was way fun]

[And the sea was so pretty]

[You should see the other guy.]

[Then I brought home some take-out]

Daddy dropped me in the bath as soon as we got home.

[Sleepy now]

What? No Cake?

Yesterday I turned 9 months. That's official teenager-hood for you. Daddy says I'm a pro at "Sit!" now. But Mommy didn't make me a cake. Boo. Chicken was good, though.

[Feed me!]

[Toast? I love toast!]

[Take a hint, Daddy]

Later, we went for a 9 month birthday walk on the beach. I herded all the other doggies because I was the best. Yay!

-tbc-

More pigging

While I was upstairs for an hour, Emily jumped up on the coffee table to drag down her loot, which in this case was a bag of stroopwafels (Dutch flat treacle cookies), and ate it up.

*scowly face Mommy*

At least there were only 2 left in the bag. And nothing bad for dogs. Just not good and probably an additional 70% of her total daily calorie intake on top of everything else. She got drowsy and slept off a lot of that sugar and butter with food coma.

Then ate her dinner as if nothing happened.

Emily AKA Clifford

Emily's appetite is back, and better than ever. She'll finish her Orijen even without chicken on top, in under 1 minute, then gaze soulfully at me until she gets a second helping, grilled chicken this time.

She hangs out under the table, paying rapt attention to whoever's eating, in hope that one of us will drop something.

[See how big your bum is at the wrong angle, Mommy!]

Today, she ate a stale old dog biscuit that had been lying around in my study for 3 weeks. Then she found an old Greenie (veg-based doggie teeth snack) that had been rolling around for about 3 months. GONE.

[I eat, I sleep, I stare at Mommy. Envy me]

Unfortunately, I couldn't weigh her this morning. When I picked her up from her red cushion, she growled.

[FANGS!!!]

Oh, she got the Time-out box for that one.

Better Days

Emily's feeling so much better that she's even gobbling up dog biscuits, a snack she wouldn't even snort at months ago.

[No chocolate for you, Growly]

People Stuff

Emily's recovering nicely, and has been perfectly wonderful for the past few days, but H. just wants to say, after 3 days of having Emily's Aunt Kat staying with us, and bumming around Amsterdam and the Hague and Leiden together, it's really kind of lonely, now. *sniff*

It was fun, we drank too much, talked too much, got lost everywhere, and I'm really missing the company something serious.

Kat's off to Paris now.

Check up

In an hour, we'll take Emily to the vet to see if she's well on the road to recovery. The signs are good. During the weekend, she,

1) barked at Daddy when H&M got into a little tiff. (I thought it was funny. M. is not so sure about that)
2) barked at random people walking by and the dogs playing in front of our house
3) ate chicken three meals a day, mixed with rice and sometimes cheese.
4) even ate a whole bowl of kibble after that, the little pig.

but,

She still sleeps all day, and isn't allowed (by the vet) more than a 10 minute walk. (H. cheats by taking her out 3-4 times a day, instead).

We're trying not to call her Bumily.

Sick Days (10)

Emily's back from the vet:
- no problem with bloodwork
- slight lowering of temperature (39.5)
- will eat chicken and rice/potato
- sleeps a LOT, and walks shaky.

Recovery will be very slow.
We're going back for a 5th vet visit next Tuesday to see how she's doing. I miss our crazy, barky, bossy doggie.

Sick Days

Emily's been boo since late last Wednesday. She's at the vet's now.

[Feel better soon, bunbun. Mommy misses you.]

7/22 (w): boo-ish
7/23 (th): more boo, listless
7/24 (f): very boo, very listless, not very hungry
(took her to beach)
7/25 (sa): very boo, not hungry, diarrhea,
(took her to Uncle Ernst's)
7/26 (su): very boo, not hungry, ate 1 bowl of chicken, diarrhea, very hot tongue
7/27 (m): very boo, diarrhea, vomit after eating grass, ate+drank almost nothing,
1 doggie-stomach pill
7/28 (t): very boo, vomit after drinking water, ate nothing all day,
Vet: 9pm, 40C temperature, three injections, 1/3 of soft food can, 1 doggie aspirin
7/29 (w): ate nothing, drank little
Vet: 11am, back for observation

Emily was feeling boo since Thursday, so we took her for a walk on the beach on Friday. She was a happy puppy, then.

[Marching Puppy]

It was seriously windy, which is why she wore the blue-t. Also, makes her more forgivable when she goes up to lick unsuspecting people's ankles.

[Brave Pilgrims]

[Wets]

[What d'you expect me to do with this?]

[A face only Mummy could love]

Oh, very funny, Mommy. I have ugly pictures of you, too!

Emily was boo all through the weekend, and still is. Did runny poos every day (and one good one every day, too), and finally threw up this morning after eating grass. She perks up for nice, interesting walks, but is listless in the mornings and won't eat even chicken.

Moody Hats

Emily hit glum-puppy moodiness with a vengeance around Thursday afternoon and right now, the mood at H&M's is like a funeral home. H. has been busy looking up "dog depression." M. thinks it might be plain adolescence. Puppy-teenager goes Emo.

[Life, she sucks]

So, M. tempts her...
[With a Hat]
[Oi, Cruelty to Puppies Alert!][Daddy, I look like a dork. A French Dork]

Sulking continues.

Longing

[Wake up, Daddy!]

Emily Google

Emily Banner is on Google themes. Looks a lot better when you load it.

Puppy Blogging

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/garden/pupblog.html?em

The NYT has a weekly blog following a golden retriever pup, which H. thinks will be pretty fun to read. (Will it stay real? It starts out with "arrived almost housebroken" at 9 weeks, but of course that's wobbly ground with puppies. If they have to go every 2 hours, one little mistake happens more often than you expect.)

Emily did a little poo boo-boo in the library just yesterday. It happens.
-
The grocery store had Beef Hearts in the meat section, labeled "for pets," so Emily had that with her dinner instead of chicken. New favorite foodies.

-
We went ahead and shaved Emily's feet, as they were catching little pebbles on walks. Now she has chicken legs. tee hee.

Mommy's Office

What Emily gets for rolling around Mommy's Office:

[Eyepatch? Post-it!]

[What? What? Is there something on my face???]