Rosie vacation at Camp Fay's is over...

We just returned from 4 days at the beach and had a really nice time, but boy did I miss Rosie. Every time I mentioned missing her, my sweet granddaughter, Alex, would pretend to be Rosie and lick my hand and paw at me. Silly girl.

I have a dear friend, Fay, offer to keep Rosie for us. So I packed up her crate, her blankets, her sleeping toys, her play toys, her chew toys, her food, her snacks, her leash, her puppy pads (just in case), and a sheet of instructions.  I may have gone overboard.  My daughter said I was crazy when I told her a laminated a collage picture of Jerry and me for Fay to show Rosie everyday.  Well it seems that Rosie didn't have time to miss us.  Fay took her out for longer walks than I ever do.  She took her to visit a friend across the street who has a dog named Sophie.  Rosie stayed with Sophie when we went to my nephew's wedding in April, so she had fun playing with her. She went to see Fay's brother and also to a town that is about 20 - 30 minutes away. She road with Fay so much that when we picked her up and took her outside, she walked straight to Fay's Jeep.  The best thing is, she did not tinkle or poo in Fay's house the entire time.  I am so proud of her.

When we got her home she acted a little weird.  She wouldn't immediately come to us, she laid on the couch, not with us, I really think she was missing Fay.  Paige and Alex came over a little later and Rosie perked right up, started doing her jumping thing and running around like crazy.  I was glad to see her old self again. 

Today she seems completely normal. She is sacked out right next to me and I'm loving it!

I love my Rosie, especially after missing her so much.

Cat Dog - not the cartoon!

Do you remember the cartoon that was popular a few years back called CatDog?   There was a dog that appeared to have a long body but at the other end was a cat.  It was really a little disturbing if you think about it.  Well that, thankfully, is not our Rosie but there are a few things that make us want to call her CatDog.  You can tease her like a kitten by wiggling your fingers under a blanket.  She loves this game and will go nuts trying to get the mysterious wiggling things under the blanket. It is one of her favorite things to do. She will eat the cats food on the deck if given a chance.  Another thing she does is sit on the back of the sofa or chair.  She likes napping on the back of the sofa but she especially likes to sit on the back of Jerry's chair.  She can see out the window, she can lick Jerry's ears and sniff his hair, she can watch TV and she uses Jerry as a spring board if we throw her toys. She can get up and down from the back of furniture with no problem at all, but she still will not go down the steps. Go figure.

Rosie the CatDog

Looking out the window

I guess she isn't really a CatDog and I like that she does quirky stuff.  That just adds to her character and one of the reason I love her so much.

I love my kitty puppy Rosie.

Lost toys and accidents

Well, Rosie has lost, misplaced or hidden some of her toys.  I don't mean the ones she doesn't care about or play with very much, I am talking about the ones she loves the best....Pink Elephant and Blue Hippo. She still has Yellow Giraffe and Starfish, though.  We have looked and looked for the others to no avail.  I knew the toys were getting a little ragged so I bought an extra hippo a couple of weeks ago and bought another elephant today when I went to the store, so she is set for awhile.  I can't imagine where her other toys are though. Go figure.

I hate to say this out loud because I might jinx it, (I don't really believe in jinxes), but we have not had hardly any accidents in the house in a couple of weeks. She has gotten pretty good at letting us know when she wants out and so far so good.  Of course one of those accidents was last weekend in the kitchen.  Jerry stepped in tinkle in his bare feet. He was not happy. I cleaned him (Jerry) up, patted (kissed) him on his head and he was good to go. When Rosie has an accident I have to clean it up because you see, she is MY puppy, I'M the one that wanted her, if I got a puppy, I promised to clean up after her...... yada, yada, yada....The thing is, Jerry really is in love with her.  You should hear him talk about her, it is so sweet. He walks her to the mail box every morning and plays with her all the time. I'd say he has the best end of this deal:)

That's alright.  I'll clean up after her because, after all, I love my Rosie.

No Vacation for Rosie

We are trying to plan a few days away for a mini vacation.  You know, the usual... deciding on a date, place, etc.... This is the first year, however, that I need to plan on a puppy sitter.  We had to leave her one night in April to go to my nephew's wedding in Athens and she was fine, but 3 or 4 nights...I just don't know.  I have a very good friend that is going to keep Rosie. I trust her completely. I am sure Rosie will be fine.  I am just not sure I will be.  I love this little dog.  She makes me happy.  She is part of my day and I am part of hers.  It surprises even me that I have worked her so perfectly into my life.  I knew I would like her, but loving her so much that the thought of a few days away is breaking my heart.....I just didn't realize it would affect me like this. I guess I will be fine though and I could sure use a vacation.

Poor Rosie doesn't get a vacation, or maybe she does....she is going to Camp Fay's:)

I love my Rosie, even when I go on vacation.

Pads, bells....no, Break through... yes!

In the ever going struggle to house break Rosie, we have tried a number of things.  At first we used the 'piddle pads'.  You know, the ones that look amazing like the pads they use in the hospital. We had one near her food bowl, one in front of the fridge, one next to the front door, one right as we walked into the living room.......  She would hit and miss those areas on a regular bases and we were playing hop scotch to try to avoid stepping on them.  She finally abandoned them all together and so did we. Gladly. 

Then we tried to watch her every move.  Now this is not only time consuming, but impossible. With our busy lives, our human attention spans we are not geared for this.  We would all of a sudden look at each other and ask, 'Where's Rosie?'.  Well, of course, by then it was to late.  We would have a puddle and/or little tootsie roll somewhere in the house. 

Several weeks ago we decided to try the bell ringing technique. I found some bells that I usually hang at Christmas and Jerry hung them near the floor at the front door.  The idea is to ring the bell every time you take her out.  Theoretically, she is suppose to ring the bell when she needs to go out.  So far, not working, but we still ring the bell when we take her out, (just in case:).

A couple of weeks ago we noticed that Rosie was having far less....mmm....accidents in the house.  We have been taking her out a little more and she always tinkles and, many times, poos.  Our latest break through though, is Rosie herself.  She will whine or bark and continues, not even distracted by throwing a toy, until we either take her out or ignore her. If we ignore her, she gets down and goes elsewhere in the house to do her job. Well, the bell in these dim-witted humans finally went off!  She is telling us she need to go out, she doesn't want to use the piddle pads, and she doesn't want to ring the bells, she just needs to go out.

Jerry said that all this time we were trying our ways to train her and all we really needed to do was try her way. (There is a sermon in there somewhere).

Well we still have the occasional accident. Hopefully we won't have any back sliding.  I am considering getting the carpet cleaned, would that be considered false hope?????

Too soon, huh?

I love my Rosie, spots on the carpet (hopefully, not for long) and all.

Fast asleep

As some of you already know, I am usually fast asleep on the couch by 10:00.  I guess that is why I am a morning person.  Our evening usually starts with Jerry either practicing in his music room or playing his guitar in the living room, but Rosie is all about playing fetch these days. Once we sit down she will jump on the couch with one of her toys and will chew on it awhile then pushes it toward my hand.  If I ignore her, she will nip at my hand until I pay attention to her.  All I have to do is toss the toy once and the games have begun. She will retrieve that or any other of her treasure trove of toys and jump back on the couch and pretend she doesn't want me to get it, but of course, she does.  This can go on for quite a long time. Sometimes it even turns into one of her running fits. She never tires of playing this game, although she does get really tired.  She hesitates more and she gets slower to return but we are usually the ones that puts the brakes on.  She just doesn't know when to stop.

She will then climb in one of our laps to rest.  Once I throw the pillows to the end of the couch and lay my head down, she crawls on top of me and goes to sleep too.  At 11:00ish, Jerry goes in the kitchen to get the coffee ready for the morning. This is probably the only time she doesn't follow him to the kitchen, she just lays there with me.  Jerry announces that it is bed time and will pick her up and snuggle a minute and I will put her to bed. She goes fast asleep too.  Like puppy, like mommy.

I love my Rosie, fetching and all. Nighty night.

A little man in her head??

I came to a realization today.  I went to Walgreens to get some pictures developed of my nephew, Jason's, wedding.  As the machine is loading the over 500 pics on my SD card, I realized that I have taken an inordinate amount of pictures of Rosie. Now don't get me wrong, I love her to pieces, but is there something wrong with that???  I mean, I just bought this card in the middle of April.  There are more pictures on a previous card too. I just don't know. I never thought I would be this much of a dog person.  Is that crazy?

Anyway, as I was scrolling through the pictures and choosing the ones I wanted to print and send to Jason, I came across a funny pic of Rosie.  She was sitting on the lift of the the recliner when I took the picture.  The television is in the back ground.  I have no idea what was on, but it appears that Rosie has a man in a white suit standing on her head.  Look....

Now I know she has a lot of stuff going on in that little head of hers that makes her act crazy sometimes, but I hate to think that man in a white suit crawled out of one of her ginormous ears and is giving her instructions.  Maybe he's the one that makes her go into her running fits. (I wrote about that in an earlier post.) 

Just saying....

I love my Rosie, little man and all.

Before and After

We finally decided to give Rosie a spa day.  She had her nails trimmed, not painted. She had a smell good bath, a trim, and a bow put in her hair (and a couple of other things that I really don't need to mention on this blog:)  Most of the trimming was done around her eyes and nose. They couldn't do anything about the giant ears, so they are still there:)

When I picked her up I was told that she was one on the quietest ones in there that day.  I told the girl it was only because she was scared to death.  Rosie was happy to see me and ready to get out of there.  The only problem was, when she left the doggie spa, she had to get in the car, which she also doesn't like.  She sat on my shoulder and hid her head behind my neck.  I took her over to Jerry's work so he could show her off.  We visited Lonnie, Jerry's brother, then came home.  Boy was she tired.  She played a little but she mostly wanted to sit on our laps and nap or just chew on her toy.

The pictures are before spa day and after spa day.  What do you think?

I love my Rosie, hair cut or not

Up, but not down

 Years ago, 19 to be exact, our first grandchild, Way, was born.  At the time, we had a miniature schnauzer named Fritz.  He was a good dog but liked to sit on the stairs so he could look out the window and bark at anything that moved....cat, squirrel, butterfly, leaf etc.  Well, with a baby in the house that just didn't work out.  So Jerry cut out a piece of plywood and I covered it with quilt batting and quilted some houses on it and we slid it through the posts on the stairs.  It made the perfect Fritz block and when Way became mobile, it kept him from climbing the stairs too.  We have used that block with all of our grandchildren but put it up when they all got bigger.  We brought it back out a couple of years ago when we had a surprise grandbaby, Isabel. 
I tell you all of this because the block has come in handy again with Rosie.  When we first got Rosie, she ignored the stairs. Then she would get on the bottom step, especially if there was a shoe to get.  Over the next days and weeks she started easing up a step or two until she made it all the way up.  The problem is, she can't get down.  I guess she could get down, but she acts like she is stuck and cries until somebody comes and gets her.

So we started using the block again. It works really well, but from time to time, when we slide the block over to go up, we leave it open.  Rosie takes this opportunity, immediately, to go upstairs.  All the way upstairs, jiffy quick.  She sniffs around up there a little and then she is stuck.  She sits at the top and cries until we go get her. She has actually gone down the 4 or 5 steps on the deck, but she just can't make herself go down the inside steps. I guess it is just too many steps and it is just too scarey.

I love my Rosie, even shen she is stuck upstairs:)



I'm up and I can't get down!





Please come get me down!!!