The Treat Cupboard

Reasons for my dog trying to jump up onto the kitchen counters can be found on the bottom shelf of this cupboard. Let the puppy spoiling begin:

Hella Bella

I can’t believe we’ve had our puppy Bella for 7 weeks now, and I have yet to post all of the incredible milestones she has achieved. As she recently turned 14 weeks old, there’s quite a bit thats been going on.

Please allow me to share some of our observations and experiences.

Ahem.

* Bella is a monster. At 8 weeks old, she weighed in at 11.5 pounds. At 12 weeks, she weighed in at 23.3 pounds. So, she’s doubled in weight. (I KNOW, man. I KNOW.)

* Bella is a canine garbage disposal. She will eat anything and everything she can fit into her mouth (shoes, blankets, underwear, socks, coats, mittens, stuffed animals, anything PLASTIC, rugs, towels… you get the point) and sometimes try to even eat the things she can’t get into her mouth (such as my coffee table).

* Bella’s stomach and intestines are finicky bitches. While they do not object to the enormous amount of STUFF that she decides to ingest, they decide to revolt and stage a coup when we switch to a different dog food. They protest by having Bella shart and vomit at any given time.

* We have created a spoiled puppy. Bella sleeps in our bed, sprawled out as much as possible, right smack dab in the middle of our king-sized bed.

* Bella’s greatest achievement at the Petco puppy class we’ve enrolled her in was that she became the first dog in her class to whiz on the floor while the trainer was talking. (And my husband would like all of you to know that Petco does NOT have very absorbent paper towels.)

* Bella has got the stinkiest farts I have ever witnessed in my life. Mostly silent, but always deadly. Like wake me up from a dead sleep deadly. Like clear the room deadly.

* Bella has decided that the best place to poop when she goes outside is now in the neighbors landscaping mulch. And the worst part? She KNOWS I get mad at her so she runs as fast as she can to poop in that spot before I can catch her.

* Bella is a complete and total Mama’s girl. Like I can’t leave a room without her following me. I WUV HER.

* Bella has actually been deemed a “very calm lab” by the vet because they don’t have to get three people to hold her down while they give her shots.

* Bella has not figured out she is big enough to jump on the furniture, but she has learned that she is big enough to reach anything sitting close to the edge of the kitchen counter or the kitchen table. Lord help me.

* Bella has learned to stand by the back door when she needs to go outside. However, if you make her wait too long, she retaliates by pooping in your shoe.

* When our Jack Russell Terrier, Izzie, (a SPAYED FEMALE by the way) decides to perform her daily humping ritual,   Bella thankfully has learned to take off running in the other direction.

* Bella has not had any accidents in the house in WEEKS. Unless we count the whole pooping in the shoe thing. That was a few weeks ago.

* Bella has not only learned where the doggie treat jar is kept, but now knows to sit down and wait patiently by the kitchen cupboard until someone is smart enough to get her one. 

* Last but not least, Bella was paying very close attention when we watched the movie “Marley & Me” a couple weeks ago. I may have even seen her with a notebook and pen, taking notes.  (Or she could have possibly been eating them as her afternoon snack.) 

Bella at 8 weeks:

Bella at 14 weeks:

And caught in the act:

And finally, proof of the shoe-pooping. If you don’t want to see dog poop, don’t look at this next picture:

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My Bella, Bella Boo, My little Boobala… I love ya.

I’m just a big ball of indecisiveness

It’s hard losing a pet. It feels like someone tore your heart out, stomped on it a few times, and then kicked it around the backyard just for giggles.

I feel bad for saying this, but I feel like I am already over it. We had her for 7 weeks, and she was gone so quickly and unexpectedly. Unfortunately, it’s really not all that difficult to remember what our life was like BEFORE we got her. I’m not saying I don’t miss my puppy, and I’m not saying that I haven’t grieved her loss, but… well, OK, I just want to make sure I don’t sound like an cold, heartless person because we’ve moved on.

We weren’t sure when we would be ready for another dog, but after a lot of discussions, we knew that it would be incredibly hard to potty-train a puppy in the winter time. Especially IOWA WINTER TIME. The 3+ foot drifts in my backyard are not exactly conducive to puppy training.

Plus, we needed to get past Christmas. We didn’t want to worry about another animal in the house while we were making the rounds to see our family over the holidays. We wanted the opportunity to sleep all night again, without bringing what is essentially another INFANT into the house.

All that being said, we were firm with the kids about not getting another puppy anytime soon. I had sent a letter to the breeder we bought Harley from, indicating we were taking her up on her offer to refund our money rather than giving us a “replacement puppy.” The kids knew we weren’t ready for another puppy, husband and I knew we weren’t ready for another puppy, and the decision was made. The die had been cast.

So, me being the ball of indecisiveness I almost always am, it certainly will come as no surprise when I introduce you to the newest member of our family:

Meet Bella. She is a yellow lab and was born on October 22nd. She turned 8 weeks old today.

So we went from a YORKIE to a YELLOW LAB! ! ! Are we nuts?

Bella joined our family on Sunday afternoon. My husband and one of his friends decided they were going to walk around the Bass Pro Shop in Altoona for a while on Sunday, just for something to do. (Because no matter what kind of shopping-hating man my husband is, window shopping at Bass Pro or Cabela’s is COMPLETELY different.)

He called to let me know that they had puppies for sale that day in the parking lot. A couple from Newton, Iowa had a litter of 13 puppies and decided they would try Bass Pro as a good place to try and sell them.

Enter my husband, stage right.

He did his shopping in the store, and then stopped when he was done to check out the puppies. He, of course, had to call and let me know how cute they were, and at that point, I was glad I wasn’t there. I was a little leary of the whole “buying a puppy out of the back of a truck” scenario, but hubby insisted they were papered and up to date on their shots.

We talked on the phone and we kind of half-heartedly agreed it wasn’t a good time for a new puppy in the house, but I told him the decision was ultimately up to him. With my children screaming in the background telling him to JUST BUY THE PUPPY AND BRING HER HOME — PRONTO!, he decided not to get one.

Yeah, right. He’s a terrible liar.

Miss Bella looks exactly like Marley from the movie “Marley & Me.” And while I will try and put the thought of how that movies ENDS out of my mind, I will also let you know that we are fully aware we have just brought an animal into out home that is SO not a lap dog. At 8 weeks old, she is probably already topping the scales at 12-13 pounds, and will probably end up being around 70-80 pounds full grown.

In the meantime, c’mon. Did you think anyone would be able to pass up that sweet face and those eyes?

On an unrelated topic, is anyone else besides me totally obsessed with the show “Sing Off” this week on NBC? Our whole family is mesmerized by this show– so much fun to watch!

On another unrelated topic, I am on my 3rd pair of shoes this week that are too loose on my left foot and too tight on my right foot. What’s wrong with me? Is it aftermath of “The Boot Incident”?

I’d see the 3rd movie just for another glimpse of Jacob

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Don’t forget about the $100 Give Back contest I have going on! Enter now!

For the record, I am not a “Twilight” fan. I have not read any of the books, nor have I really squealed and screamed over the movies. I waited for the “Twilight” movie to come out on DVD before I saw, and I am embarrassed to admit my 9 year old suckered husband and I into seeing “New Moon” this past Sunday afternoon. I was rooting for us going to “Blind Side” but it was sold out, so we caved in and sat through a vampire movie.

To be honest, I don’t really remember all that much about the first movie, other than that it was always grey and dreary, and Bella and Edward seem to be the two most unhappy and maudlin characters I have ever seen in my life. It’s hard to get excited and have my insides turn to mush when the characters don’t even get all heated up about being in love.

BO-RING.

The only light that was cast on this dreary time-sucker of a movie was the beautiful goodness that is Jacob. He started out making my heart go pitter-pat just a bit when I first saw him looking like this:

I’m not a an of the long hair, so I will admit to actually “Squee-ing” once he started looking like this:

Now I know how the four books end up, thanks to my 14-year old daughter. But is it so wrong to hope that Bella just dumps Edward for simply being too odd, and goes for this hunk of teenage hotness?

It might just *maybe* be worth going to see the third movie, coming out in June 2010.

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