Our new Addition, Piper

      Piper was born on July 30 2014.    Her mom is a Miniature Schnauzer and her dad is a Pug.

   Piper is Schnug.

   Piper was the runt of a litter of 5.  I think that taught her to be scrappy.  She is a little terror.  The first couple days she was a sweet little cuddle bug, now she is all teeth and wiggle.  I had forgotten the puppy teething, oh man, my thin old skin is taking a beating until we get her trained.

   Her first visit she weighed 2.4 pounds and was 12.5 inches long, easy to carry in one hand.  Tomorrow is her 2nd vet visit and I know she has changed a lot.

 

She is a lot shaggier, her body fits her head better and she is not a clumsy as she was.  She rips around like a maniac.   I couldn't catch her if she got loose.  We are still working on come.

   The first week home Xena stalked her relentlessly.   We had to watch her carefully so she didn't become a extra snack for the cat.

Xena may look sweet but she is a terror in her own right.   Hoss didn't care for the puppy either.  The puppy snaps at him and leaps at his face and ears.   Hoss gives a loud growl and vacates to higher ground where the puppy can't reach him.  But he also is getting used to her.  Hopefully when the puppy isn't so hyper they all get along well.  Hopefully.

We were all so spoiled by Zoey.  Potty training was a breeze and I don't remember her being biting so much.  Granted in was a decade and more ago but I remember her being a perfect puppy and so easy to train.   Piper has not been as easy.  Maybe because she is so small.  I have never had a small dog.   Trying to teach sit and down and trying to gently press down on her little backside results in sharp teeth and she thinks a new game.   Her little head is to close to her backside and our hands.  Frankly, even though it is fun to watch her playing I will be happier when she is older.

  We will be starting puppy classes next month.  They are on a Monday so I can actually go.  She needs to learn manners.   So far all we have been doing is taking her all over getting her used to noises and people.  I can't let her walk on the trails yet until all her shots are complete which is a bummer.  I know that would help wear her out trying to keep up with Hoss.

   Hoss has been such a good dog.  So mellow and easy to care for and a joy.   Xena is still a total brat but shows some signs that she is calming down.   I put soft tips on her to protect the puppies eyes and they are coming to a understanding.  Plus Xena is welling to play with the puppy.   Hoss has a very short play span, then he is a lazy dog most the time.  perfect for us old folks.

   Piper was so small I couldn't find a coat for her and fall morning and evenings are cool.  Youtube showed a video on how to make coats from socks.  So starting with my size socks we made her on.   Then she got bigger and we switched to one of Ricks.

 

  On really cold mornings I use this as the bottom layer and then put her coat which is still  too large on her.

  That has been keeping her body warm but her poor little paws get really cold.  I have been thinking about premie socks.  I want to get her used to wearing booties early since she has such hairy feet everything sticks to them.  I have pulled so many stickers out of her paws that she is getting touchy about me messing with her paws, don't want that, don't want another dog I can't clip nails on.

  Any way, she has been fun and challenge and keeps me very very busy.  She is a cutie.

   And the shot that really makes me happy, all worn out.

What a year

 It has been over a year since our dear Zoey died. 

  Over a year that the evil cat Xena joined our family and almost a year since Hoss joined our family.  Oh what a year.

   Xena is a little terror.   Her nickname is last cat.  She rules her little kingdom with an iron paw.  Her wishes must be met or she goes on a rampage.   She wants to be fed at 6 am.   I want to sleep until 7.  8 would be good.   We have learned to sleep with our bedroom door shut.   At 6 am I hear her outside the door meowing.  Softly at first and then louder and louder.  In her past life she must have been a banshee.  Her wailing would wake the dead.  She keeps that up for around 10 minutes and if she doesn't hear us stirring she starts to hurl her 9 and half pounds at the door.   The noise she makes sounds like she has gained 30 pounds.  Solid wood doors, she is sure she can break them down.   I put the pillow over my head and groan.  Morning has broken..........

   The rule is she doesn't get fed until 8 am.  We refuse to let her train us to get up early and feed her royal pain in the butt.    For that hour she causes havoc.  Every time you go into the kitchen for coffee she races ahead, jumps on the table and snags you with a needy paw.   Feed me she whimpers.  I so hungry.........  When you leave the kitchen she races ahead of you and goes straight to the sofa where she starts agressively scratching the fabric.  Knock it off you say.  So she jumps to a shelf and starts to slowly push your fragile items closer to the edge.  Looking at you the entire time, pat, stare, pat pat, stare.  Daring us to stop her.  Her pupils large and black, the tip of her evil tail whipping.   Start to stand up and she leaps off to jump on the couch and purring loudly she climbs on your lap and rubs her little head on your hand.  You start to pet her and she bites you!  Not enough to break you skin, just enough to remind you what she is capable of if you don't feed her soon.

   You break in and get the food, her madly weaving in and out of your ankles.  Like she hasn't eaten for a month.   Meowing loudly the entire time.  Yes, I knew I could convince you to feed me early.  Triumph in her voice.  You put the bowl down.  She leaps at it and eats 3 tiny pieces.  Then walks away.  It was never about the food, it is about the power, of bending us to her will.  She wins.  Every time.

    This is the sweet starving kitten we rescued.   Evil ruler of our home.  Prone to weird habits and mannerisms Destined to drive us crazy.   Give her a house full of toys,  not good enough, she will pick pieces of Hoss's food out of the dish and bat it around the kitchen like mad until it ends up under the fridge or stove.  There is proabably a bags worth of food.   She will get her poo out of her litter box and pat that around, thus training me to clean her litter box each and every time she goes.

    When we first rescued her she purred all the time.  So sweet and affectionate.  Tiny little ball of sweetness and love.  Now she is 20 claws and teeth of terror.  What happened?   But,  she is the hunter of every spider and cricket that finds it way into our house.  She will spend hours stalking them and then, like the true monster she is, she will torture them for as long as she is amused and then send them to death.  I must admit to liking not having any crickets or spiders anymore.   

   So this is life with our rescue cat Xena.  Her Royal Highness pain in butt part of our family.  She awes me.

   Hoss on the other hand is the opposite.   He is a fawn colored lazy laid back goofball.  Also a creature of habit he sleeps in until 9 or 10.  He goes to bed at 9.  He naps off and on around 7 hours.  Imagine getting that much sleep.  Then he slowly gets up off whatever bed he decided to claim that night and comes into the living room.  There he stretches, rolls, scratches his back, stretches again and exhausted naps in that spot for another hour.  Then out for a leisurely walk around the yard.  First he has to stop in the doorway and lookout.  Checking for rain, which he won't go out in,  letting the cool air out in the summer and cold air in in the winter.  Standing there looking out, and looking out, and looking out.   I think he might have fallen asleep on his feet.  Hoss, come on snapping him out of his zoned out place and finally he will move.

   As usual I am always and forever trying to stay fit and active.  It gets harder and harder the older I get.  Walking Zoey you kept up a brisk pace.  Until the last few months when she was sick she was always a fast walker and could walk for miles.   Hoss.  Cold weather bothers him, hot weather bothers him, he is a trembling lump of shaking fur in a thunderstorm. 

    When we walk, being a male dog, we go 10 steps, he stops, smells and pees.  Another 10 steps, repeat.  On and on.  But not for long.  If we get a mile in it has been a good perfect day.  Usually it is about a half mile.   He goes slower and slower until I feel like I am leading a horse.  Him dragging behind me.  Slow plodding steps, only broken when people pass, then he sits.  And if I stop to talk to someone he takes that moment to lay down.  And if the person looks interested in petting him he rolls over making his tummy available.  He has never met anyone he doesn't like and will stop and roll for a tummy rub no matter where we are.

   Being so sweet and laid back we get to take him into the pet stores and out and about because nothing makes him happier then people fussing over him.  He especially loves children.   All my grandkids were here this summer and he was a happy dog.  Every morning he greeted each and everyone of them with a face licking and a boxer wiggle, his butt going a mile a minute.  Then when he could get away with it he would be a lap dog.

  Out weighing my granddaughter by 27 pounds is of no concern to him.  He thinks he is a lap dog.  His favorite perch in on one of our laps.

   2 things he loves.  Riding in the car and going into the stores.  Rick and my granddaughter were at Safeway shopping.   They heard a commotion and looking to the front the store saw one of the employees with a big dog.   Hoss!  He had figured out how to open the hatch of the van and decided to come in shopping with everyone else.  He found the cheese isle right away.  Now when he rides he is hooked on a leash tied to the bench seat.  He just can't understand why everyplace wouldn't welcome him.

   In the almost year we have had him I have heard him bark maybe 5 times.  I have never seen him so any aggression.  I have never convinced him that water isn't his enemy.  I bought him a pool, he wants nothing to do with, play with the hose!  He acts like I am beating him.  Try to get him in the tub for a bath, he becomes a 80 pound block of cement.  Unmovable.  Which is how Hoss handles anything he doesn't want to do.  Doesn't want to come in the house, lay down and don't move.  In your spot on the couch, big lump you have to physically pull off the cough.  Doesn't want to leave the pet store where all the kids are petting him, lay down and make us drag him by his collar out of the store or pick his big body up and carry him out to the laughter of the kids and employees.  What a ham.

   My new job is going well.   We have days when we run ourselves ragged and days when we only see a few patients.  I love it though.  Except working so often.   We are a small unit.  I work most days and  pick up extra.  I miss my long stretch off.  But, this is so much easier on my ole bod.   I am happy with it.

  So that's it, the kids were here all summer, they were angels, the pets are pets and I am still fat and sassy.  Another year..

More on my war on the insect.

   Ok, this won't kill the 8 legged monsters, but they do vacate the premises pretty darn quick.

3 cups water
1 tsp dish soap
1 tsp pepperment oil

   Mix all in a spray bottle and mist around all your windows and doors where spiders lurk.   In the basement I sprayed it right on their webs.   4 days later still no spiders to be seen.  Don't spray on carpet as it is oil.  And the plus side, safe for pets and smells goods.

Homemade Ant poison

   Every Spring I get these little black ants in my kitchen.   Hate those little buggers.  So I googled homemade ant poison and got this recipe.

Homemade Ant Killer

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons borax

Directions:

1
Place all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil (while stirring).
2
Boil for 3 minutes.
3
Using the plastic lids from milk containers place it in the effected room or outside where the ants are.
4
They will find the sticky liquid no matter where it is placed.
5
The ants eat this and then take it back to their nest.
6
Before long there will be no more ants as this mixture will kill them.
7
Store remainder in clearly labeled container with "Do NOT Eat" so no one mistakes this for syrup as this is poisonous. Keep this away from pets!

   I made this 2 days ago and set it out.   The first day there was a steady stream of ants going to the bait and taking off.  By the very next day............ not a single ant.  They take the bait and go to their nests.  Hopefully every single one has met a untimely death.  Sorry ants.  Not in my house.  I suggest making only 1/4 of the recipe since it is so effective and you don't need much.

Spring in Iowa

       Last week we had some beautiful weather.  My flowers are starting to come up, the crocus had bloomed.   Then this week happened.   Snow again.  Actually first rain, then ice, then snow for the last 3 days.  I had put my winter coat away,  put my spring blankets on my bed.  Got my spring clothes out and put away my winter clothes.  darn.  Snow

      We have branches broke and all over the ground to clean up.  We were starting to see green on the ground, now back to white.  And Mud!  Trying to take Hoss out without getting mud all over.  I try to walk him on the white stuff.

   Oh well, it won't last long.   At least now you know the end is right around the corner.   I am so ready.

   We had a thunderstorm the other day.  Hoss was scared and climbed on Ricks lap, shaking and panting.  80 pounds of terrified dog.  Poor thing.  I suppose he spent many a night out in that type of weather.   We decided the next thunderstorm I am going to bring out a new toy I will be getting him today and let him play with it plus get him some treats.  Hopefully he will start thinking of thunderstorms as something fun instead of something fearful.

    Work has gone well.  It is so different then what I had been doing.   8 hours seem so much easier.  I will be working lots of extra because for now our staff is small since it is a new unit and we have to grow our practice so if someone is on vacation or ill we have to cover their needs.  But we can do that because we aren't working as physically as I was on the old floor.  The lifting is minimal, the charting is minimal.  The patients aren't as sick.

   I do miss my old floor.  I loved cardiac patients and actually loved the really sick ones you could work you tush off on getting better.  But, time to think about taking care of myself.

   Well, time to rush to the store and get things ready for work.  

I love my new job

   My first night went great.  What a difference it was.  The charting was so much nicer.   The pace was manageable and I work with some great nurses that I knew already.   I didn't have to take a tylenol half way through my shift and I got off work on time.  ON TIME.  This is one happy old nurse.  I may survive to retirement after all.  HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY.

Starting new job tonight

 I worked my last 12 hour shift and last overnight this weekend.   We were so busy but I had some great patients.

  One of my patients had been very critical on one of the nights I took care of her and kept me busy checking her vitals, hanging meds and trying to pull her back from the brink.  Right before I left for the last time on my last night she took my hand and thanked me.  She said she knows she would not be here today if not for me.  She told me I was a great nurse.  I got all teary eyed and told her that was the best gift I could have gotten on my last night on my floor.

   Today at 3 I start a new chapter in my life.  I suppose I won't have the critical patients I had on the heart floor and they will be a lot more stable.  I will miss it, I loved taking care of cardiac patients.  But,  I will still get to take care of patients who need care, and I will have time to visit with them.   Not lifting as much is going to be great.  Instead of getting off work and reaching for the motrin I am hoping I won't be in as much pain.  It is always nerve wracking to start a new job but I know all the people I will be working with and like them all.  It will be a good change for me.  You're never to old to learn new tricks.g

  A new Chapter in my book of nursing care.