OC Update

Julie and Caleb’s Blog is having a reader’s poll concerning frivolous lawsuits involving a dog accident. As this involves us canines, I thought you might want to leave some input. Julie loves Caleb a lot and is quite passionate about proper dog owner’s responsibilities.

Well, just a short blog to let you know that my Mama OC seems to be doing pretty good. She is on antibiotics and has a salve for her eye as well as the ice packs and eyewashes with a light Chamomile tea, mixed with sea salt (as per instructions on the eyewash recipe from the Stink Bug incident) Mom added the Chamomile tea as that is in another of her herbal remedies from dog’s books because it is soothing and has several healing properties in it.

We want to thank you all for your prayers for my poor Mama. She’s acting her old self pretty much… she just looks scary with that red eye. She is still holding a grudge against poor Auntie Sadie, grumbling at her whenever she comes near.

Dott tries to stay in between them whenever that happens, but she’s been in Auntie’s face a bit, herself when she’s tried to play with the pups today.

Auntie feels badly and is laying low. She wants to hide behind or under Mom, but then THAT puts her close to where Mama OC wants to lay, which makes Mom nervous because if they are both under her rolling computer chair, she’s afraid to move in case someone gets pinched and another fight starts.

It’s at times like this that Mom wonders if adding three more corgis to the pack is going to be a good idea. MY vote is NO at this time, but I might change my mind because the cute little boogers are starting to be kind of fun to play with sometimes.

Prayer Request for OC…

OC’s Mom: I'd appreciate your prayers as OC and Sadie got in a fight around 5 p.m. this evening. It was a total misunderstanding... BG was on Hubby's chair and when he got home, BG went to jump off to go greet him. Sadie was laying in front of it and it rocked down on her tail as Pip walked by. Sadie thought he’d bit her (the pups tend to bite her tail sometimes) so she snapped at him, scaring him and he squalled. OC and Dott attacked Sadie and she fought back. BG jumped in to protect OC.

Sadie got OC in the top of the eyelid and edge of it (like where those little hairs come out toward the top center) Just above the top of the cornea is scratched and the lower eyelid is swollen and red. There was some bleeding, but we got it stopped and have had ice packs off and on it to keep cool but not freeze. We used some eye drops that Hubbby got for a scratched cornea about a month or so ago.

The vet says if it gives problems, bring her in tomorrow since it happened about the time the office closes and it is an hour’s drive to get there. She's quit rubbing it... we sort of insisted... and the drops deaden some and the ice some more...

Robert had to pick up Sadie while I got OC by the scruff. Dott pulled out a mouthful of Sadie's hair as Robert carried her outside. We put Sadie outside in the front yard, and Dott in a time out in the pup's room for a while to get her to calm down some. BG got a scratch on his nose. The Corgis are all still up at arms whenever we even say Sadie's name. We tried to bring her in, but they had a FIT!!! We were finally able to bring her in a couple hours later.

OC got a bit shocky after the adrenaline wore off and was shaking quite badly, but we wrapped her in blankets and I held her and rocked her until she calmed down. She slept for several hours and I just took her out so she could go potty, then gave her some baby aspirin (per dr.), and put ice on her eye again for about 20 minutes and Robert took her and put her in the bed.


She came back out to lay beside me and I’ve covered her, as you can see. The red you see is from the inner part of the lower lid's swelling... I'm going to go to bed early to see if she will go in with me and stay in the bed. Anyway, if you could keep OC's eye in prayer that there aren't any complications, I'd appreciate it. We will post updates later. Thank you...

Arachnophobes & Ophidiophobics Beware!

Gimli: Dare was a BIG, ugly spider that reared up at us and GrandPaw saveded us!

Guess WHAT!! Papa has decided that he is going to keep me and he gived me a new name. I am Pippin! Pip, for short, now!

BG: It is THAT time of the year! The Tarantulas are ON THE MOVE!

You can see them out hunting for their mates on the roads as you drive around this area. This year isn’t too bad, according to Mom, as they’ve only seen one or two a day on the roads going into town.

Well, guess what!!!??? We found one in the back yard where the puppies were playing. I thought their GrandPaw, Robert, was going to have a coronary!

He wouldn’t even let the pups check it out, but hurriedly got an old Hockey stick to pick it up with and put it out of the yard. How, I ask you, are they to LEARN things if they aren’t given the chance to sneak up on things like that!

At least he let us older ones out so that we could get a closer look at it. (Linda: At this point there WAS a video of Dott, BG & Sadie getting a close look, but heavy winds and dust storms cause problems for dial-up... or Blogger has refused to load it for the past TWO DAYS... GROWL!!! I gave up! )

Not only are the Tarantulas OUT, but the snakes are starting to come IN. I guess it is getting kind of cold out for them, so they try to find warm places to stay, and our hay room is usually nice and warm. Mom was a bit surprised when my little ex-mistress went out to help feed the horses and noticed this fellow visiting.

Mom looked at him really well and saw that he wasn’t a poisonous type, so was happy to have him in the tackroom to help keep the mice down. She IS being rather more careful to look around, though when she goes out to feed now. Garter snakes might not have BIG fangs, but they’ve got a lot of sharp little teeth that would hurt if they latched on to you! This one was about 4 ft. long... almost as long as a bale of hay!

Apparently, Dad has decided to keep that little "Pip Squeak," and I've been finding him in MY Dad's lap a lot lately. I am NOT very happy about that even though Dad says he still loves me, too and we will soon be great friends... Yeah?... Right! (Dripping sarcasm...)

Big, Bad STINKY Black Bugs!!!

Dare are some weally nasty, bad black bugs awound hew! I was just twying to find out what it was and if it wanted to be fwiends wiff me.


I was off by mysef, and Gwammy didn’t see what I was doin’ cause it was night time and dawk and she taught I was sniffin’ for a place to go potty.



It SHOT me in da nose with WEALLY NASTY STINKY stuff!!! I stawted to cwy and wub by nose in da diwt. I had a bwown spot on my face by my nose and the skin got all pink and burned. Gwammy gwabbed me and wan into the house an twied to DWOWN ME!!! It was so stinky she was gagging! She used some bubbly, icky tastin’ stuff and wubbded my face until I got bubbles all over.

She said that she’s seen those bugs for yeaws and new dey was named Stinky Bugs, but never knew why cause she’d nevew seen dem stink befow. She got on the computow and found out some info-mashun an then put some oinkment made of Vit. E, MSM, Olive oil and cwushed lavender leaves on it, an I was much better after a little bit. She said dat is what she used when she had a bad burwn to heal it. She was gwad it didn’t get in my eyes!

(Snicker…) Gwacie found one of dem stinky bugs the next day…. She didn’t like dat nor gettin’ dwounded neither!

Hew is whewr Gwammy got the info-mashun about what to do an undew dat is some info about those NASTY bugs:

Ask the Veterinarian
Expert: Dr. Christina Chambreau - 10/6/2009

Question: Hi, a couple days ago my dog was outside and a stink bug sprayed her eyes. After it sprayed her eyes she started whimpering and her eyes have been sensitive lately. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem.

Answer: If you were trained in different healing modalities you could help by using ... flower essences, supplements, homeopathy and more. For right now, you may be able to help by flushing the eyes out with a homemade rinse, or purchasing some from a health food store or holistic pet store if one is near you.

Dr. Pitcairn's book, Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, says: 1/4 teaspoon sea salt into a cup of good water. Keep it at room temperature. Use to flush out the eyes frequently during the day. You can also put one drop of Rescue Remedy in it once you purchase that. To soothe the eyes more you can then put a drop of sweet almond oil or codliver oil directly into the eyes. Or you can purchase Similisan eye drops, either 1 or 2, or eyebright wash (or make your tea of it and add salt to it as above) or there are many companies that make herbal eye drops for dogs.


Pinacate Beetles: Bodies are ovate to oblong, ranging in size between 0.4 and 1.4 inches long (Da one dat SHOT me was a BIG one!), and they are jet black or occasionally dark brown. [... ] When alarmed they stand on their heads by bending their front legs down and extending their rear legs. Depending upon the species, they exude an oily, musty secretion, which collects at the tip of the abdomen or spreads over posterior parts of the body, or they eject the reddish brown to brown secretion as a spray. Larger desert species, like E. armata and E. longicollis, can spray 10 to 20 inches. Most species can spray multiple times, if necessary. The spray is not painful unless you get it in your eyes or mouth [OR NOSE!], where it is painful, burning and temporarily blinding. It does not wash off. ( Don’t know 'bout dat cause it did!)

7 Week Old Pics…

On Tuesday, my babies were 7 weeks old. They are getting so BIG! Gimli and Grace both weigh 9 lbs. each, so, together, they weigh the same as I do!!! Mercy weighs 7 pounds and Neelix weighs 6 and a half pounds now.



Grammy thinks that Gimli looks a LOT like OC did at the same age… What do you think?

Mercy, as you probably saw in her “Escape!” video is a stubborn little thing. She feels that since her GrandPaw told her that she is going to stay here, then she should be allowed to be free of the box and stay with the rest of us. She gets into EVERYTHING, and has already had some bad experiences from letting her curiosity get the best of her. I’ll let her tell you about those later as I’m having her look up some info on some of the things she learned the hard way.

Neelix’s ears, as you can see, are almost all the way up. Papa is getting quite attached to him, and vice-versa, much to brother BG’s disgust. He might end up staying, too.

Gracie MAY have a home… Grammy’s sister has a friend that recently lost her corgi that she’d had for 15+ years. She may be interested in taking Gracie, but we aren’t sure yet. She wants a female, but really likes the tri-colored corgis. She says her old corgi looked a lot like Mama OC.

Grammy says the lady is really nice, but she made me really nervous and I kept trying to herd her out of Mimi’s yard until Dad picked me up. She’s only seen Gracie and Nee-Nee because those are the only two that went into town with us last weekend. Grammy’s going to take all four of the babies in this next week. She has been having a big problem choosing between Gimli and Gracie, herself, and she’s been praying a lot and figures that maybe the lady will make the choice for her.

I don’t see why ANY of them have to leave. They are totally weaned now… or at least I don’t have anything for them anymore, anyway, and we are having a lot of fun playing tag and frapping in the back yard now that they are big enough to go out during the day. Even BG tolerates them coming close to him sometimes, now.

Well, I need to get this posted so you can see their 7 week pics. They’ve also had their shots and that’s why the two were able to go into town last weekend.

ESCAPE!!!

Wordless Wednesday... By Mercy

Mama Letted Us Pway Wiff Gweat Anty Sadie!

Grammy has told us dat Mama used to play all the time wif Gweat Anty Sadie, but she hasn't wanted us to play wif her cause she might "hurt" us.

Grammy reminded Mama about how gentle Anty was wif her when she was little, and finally talked Mama into lettin' us pway wif her, and she is SOOO MUCH FUN!!! Mama DID come out and tell Anty dat she betta be vewy cawfoo wif us, even doe we aw protected by some gwate insurance from pet insurance comparison sites.

Tank yoo so much, Mama!!! Mercy


Grammy and I are wiped after the past couple of days, so, tonight, I let Mercy write about their play time with Auntie Sadie. After our people being sick all week, Grammy got a call that there was a family crisis for one of her sons and so she went and got three of his kids... well, her grandkids... which are 2, 3 & 5. They were all sick with coughs and runny noses, too, and the baby cried off and on all night.


I was a NERVOUS WRECK, and Grammy didn't get much sleep either. The two littlest went home today instead of having to stay for the week to a month they originally thought was going to happen, so tonight we should get some sleep! Blaze, the 5 year old, is just staying for the weekend, then she has to go back to school.


Grammy was VERY proud of my brother, BG, because he loved up on the kids (the oldest was his first Mistress) and made the crying baby laugh. Then he laid beside him and let him pet on him until the little guy finally went to sleep the first time.

Apologies and 6 Week Old Pics

We just want to apologize for skipping a couple of days of our blog. Grammy, Robert AND Papa have all been hot and barking around here for several days now. Grammy even had to go to the doctor, and it sounded like she thinks we aren’t doing out job around here because she said something about feeling like someone had beaten her with a 2x4! She must REALLY be sick if she thinks we would allow anyone in here to hurt her! Wonder if she is having hallucinations?


I PROMISE… we DID NOT allow ANYONE in here! Good grief, we’ve all been laying around her or Papa so close they’ve about tripped over us whenever they’ve had to move!
I don't know why she'd say something like that! I also don’t think it is helping that we are having a huge dust storm outside today.

Well, on to the weekly pics…

The puppies are growing so FAST! They can also run pretty fast now, and can almost keep up with me. Their little ears are sticking out from their heads now instead of hanging straight down and Neelix even has one ear that is almost up except for the tip. Mercy’s ears are up if she has her head tipped up even a little bit. Grammy thinks those two will finish getting their ears up this week.

Gimli weighs 7 pounds now, and Grammy thinks he is getting really handsome. He and Mercy are VERY good about getting out to the back door and whining to go out. Grammy put down some Puppy pads in case she doesn’t see them and open the door on time. She still has pads down around their box, too, because Neelix and sometimes Grace will use those if they are there.

Mercy’s growth is starting to slow down a bit. She’s just touching the 6 pound mark. She’s a smart little rascal, and reminds Robert and Grammy of Mama OC when she was little. She also tends to go exploring a lot further out than anyone other than Neelix, and they have to chase her down at night when they are outside so that she doesn’t get to far away and become a tempting morsel for the owl.

Neelix is still much smaller, weighing in at only 5 pounds. As I mentioned before, one of his ears is almost standing up now. His ears are more pointy and smaller than the other pups… a lot like his great-grandma, Mist. He still has his “small man” complex, and is super feisty.

Gracie fell behind Gimli in the growth chart this week and weighs in at 6 and a half pounds now. She is lightening up more in her coloration and getting redder.

Here is a picture of me with Gracie to show how big she is… almost half my size, if not half my weight. Well, Grammy is starting to bark again, so I better get off. She’s sleeping a lot more while she is sick. Hope we can get on again soon, but no promises for this week. Oh, and we will be getting behind in reading all of our friend’s blogs, too, probably, but we are keeping you all in our thoughts and wishing you all well!

Whoa… It’s a BIG world out there!

Hi all my friends out there! Today, we are going to post some of the vids we took on the pups’ first outing into the backyard. They are going out several times a day now, but this was first time most of them had been out. Mercy had been out one time a couple of days earlier for a few minutes, but this was her first time out with her siblings and everyone else.

Robert took them all out in the big laundry basket and put them on the ground in one side of the back yard. I had gone with him, but as soon as the little ones saw me, they made a bee-line for me. As I mentioned, I am in the process of weaning them and didn’t want anyone to latch on, so I RAN! After a bit, though, they decided that maybe they would look around. They feel safe by their GrandPaw, so tried to stay in his shadow at first.

Gimli came back to GrandPaw Robert after following me, but Wild Child Neelix decided that he was going to go exploring on his own…

OC came out to see how things were going with her Grandpups, and to keep an eye on Grammy.

The babies would go exploring for short distances, and then come back to their “safe places” by their GrandPaw or near Grammy, and check to see if what they were doing was ok.

After a while, most of the babies started exploring a bit on their own, but Gimli likes to stay near his Grammy and follow her around.

After Grammy got a chair to sit down on, Gimi (Grammy often calls him that now) saw me and came over to double check whether or not he could nurse a bit, but I told him “No!” and ran over to have Grammy pick me up and keep me safe.

THAT didn’t work out so well, because it gave the little “Land Piranhas” a chance to locate me and gather in force for when I was put down! They all tried to attach themselves to me, and I told them all “NO!” but Grammy also said that word, and THAT made me nervous because that usually means someone is in trouble. I went to her and tried to explain that I have to tell them that, and she apologized for saying the “N” word.

When I was over there, they noticed that Mama OC had spigots, too and headed for her. She told them in no uncertain terms, “Don’t even THINK it!” I wasn’t to happy at the language that Mama OC was using, and had a word with her about it.

They didn’t want to give me a moment of peace, so finally I decided to use the table ramp to get out of reach. I don’t know if it is to good of an idea, now that I think about it, that Robert made ramps for them to learn about because Mercy followed me up the ramp, but she didn’t get up that last step and onto the table before I decided I didn’t want her up there and made my escape.

I was gone by the time Mercy got back down the ramp, so she tried to follow Sadie, but Auntie was a bit to fast for her.

After a while, they started to get used to the openness of the yard, and went back and forth between all of us except their Uncle BG, who stayed away from them.

After about a half hour or so, Mercy came over and wanted Grammy to pick her up. She was tired and wanted to go in. She can be a real “kiss-up” when she wants something!

Grammy wasn’t totally convinced until Gimli came over and begged to be picked up, too. He did the wiggle, kiss-up thing, too, and finally convinced Grammy to go inside. I think he’s about got Grammy wrapped around his little dew-claw!

Hope you enjoyed joining us on my babies’ first outing. They are getting pretty good about it now, and both Mercy and Gimli will go to the back door and cry for someone to take them outside now about 85% of the time when they have to go potty, but like all little ones, they can’t hold it for very long once they’ve got to go, so they still have accidents by the back door sometimes. THAT always makes ME nervous because I KNOW going in the house is a BAD thing. I usually go and hide until Grammy tells me it’s ok! Now that they are eating dog food, I just can’t stomach cleaning up after them anymore.