30 Days of Pinteres- Day 11: Doggy Treats to Share!

Doggie Parents, this one is for you!
Over a year ago we decided that we needed another fur baby in our family. We have our two cats, one who is our precious old man and the light of our lives, and one who hates us and lives in the basement. However, we thought we'd try our hand at raising another dog. Because, well, the first two attempts didn't work out so well. We have a little boy who's addicted to doggies, and we wanted to get a family dog that really *is* a family dog. Unlike the last two.

Christmas 2010, Husband and I took a trip to the local county dog control shelter because we saw on Petfinder.com this older dog that Husband really liked. When we got there the poor dog looked old and mean. He had a nasty snarl and wasn't something we wanted to bring home to an eager Hunter who would likely climb all over him and use him for a horsey. We've already had experience with a dog who was a biter that we had to get rid of. Not making that mistake again. That whole, "he only bites when provoked" thing... um, ya, dogs are *easily* provoked.

As we walked down the line of snarling, barking dogs, we got to the end of the row where a sweet little girl was curled up in the corner of her cage. She didn't look up at us, and definitely wasn't barking. She had sort of submitted herself to the fact that, after 4 months, no one was going to want an unspayed female dog in perpetual heat because of all the male dogs around her. That was it, I had to have her. There was no question or hesitation. I knew she was a true family friend. And she has been! We've never been this happy with a dog, and we have never regretted our decision to bring her home (even after all the chewed shoes, destroyed $200 textbook, shredded brand new $60 shirt, and swallowed cupcakes).

There's that initial worry about whether or not your new pet will get along with your old pets. Our old-man cat Socks has been with us since 2000. He's been through it all, such as saying good-bye to our sweet angel and the love of his life, Nikki, two rambunctious dogs that he hated, three babies (who grew to be pesky toddlers), and 6 moves, 3 of which were cross country. He's more like a dog in nature, but he's hands down the most awesome cat in the world. He tolerates all that the kids have thrown at him in 11 1/2 years, and he's still ticking like he's a 3-year-old.

When we first introduced Socks the Tuxedo Cat to Holly the Christmas Puppy (who was about 2-years-old when we got her) he immediately batted her on the nose a few times with his claw-less paw. She lowered her head in submission and they've been best pals since. Socks absolutely loves to cuddle with Holly. He will lay next to her any chance he can get. These two make my heart smile.

As soon as we got Holly, I Googled dog treat recipes and found one that we ended up calling Holly Crack. It has that gross pureed meat baby food stuff in it, and she can't get enough of it. She will do *anything* for her Holly Crack.

I wanted to make some new recipes for Holly, even though I know she'll never get tired of the old one :) I found this one on Pinterest, and the originating blog post on Pink Pistachio is so cute! I made a double batch because we are going to share some with our newest fur baby family member, my new nephew Shadow. My sister is a huge dog lover, but lived in an apartment where she couldn't have dogs for a long time. She finally is in a place where she can have small dogs, and just like Holly called to us, Shadow called her name at her local animal shelter. We haven't met Shadow, us being in New York and him living in Wisconsin, but we will send him some love. This was Hunter's idea because he asked if he could send Shadow a picture, and then as we were baking treats he thought it would be great to send Shadow some treats, too.

Tomorrow I'm going to whip up a batch of these yummy looking treats. Pumpkin is great for a dog's digestion. If your dog has an upset tummy, perhaps a little too much of chewing-everything-in-sight-even-if-it's-not-edible, like doggies do, give them a little scoop of pumpkin. It's like Alka-Seltzer for dogs. Just like the previous recipe's originating blog post, this one also has a very cute story over at Simmer Till Done.

We do not, as of yet, own a dog bone cookie cutter. I would have bought one long ago, but I can tell Holly just simply doesn't care what shape her treats come in. I break them in half anyway, no matter what shape they are. We typically use our small star cutter.

The combined work of Mommy and Hunter, yet again. He's quite a handy little helper, if I do say so.

Don't forget to stop by and see what Louisa's up to at Weezie Peezie Lemon Squeezie!


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Update on Flash

And apparently we have a dog again... long story. He's back and here to stay. He's had a long week and he's obviously glad to be back. Hunter is very happy as well.
Oh, and he has Lyme's disease. Poor puppy. Just a bottle of pills and I guess he'll be fine. That had nothing to do with his adventure away from home, though. He got that awhile ago. The shelter we picked him up at wouldn't release him until they updated his shots and gave him a blood test, so that's how we found out. It causes soreness in the joints, which totally explains why he can't walk well some days. And some days he just has trouble getting up in the first place. Hopefully the meds will get rid of all that achy-ness.

Bye-Bye, Flashie

We loved him and played with him, but just couldn't train him like he deserved. So, because we loved him so much, we let him go. Hunter was the most sad of all of us. He cried and asked why Flashie didn't want to be with him anymore. I said Flashie loves him, but there's another family who loves Flashie just as much, and he'll have a doggie brother to play with now. Hunter seemed to accept that as okay. We went and met this new doggie brother and Hunter saw how well the two played together.

I'm sitting here staring at the empty spot where Flash's crate sat, knowing he's going to be just fine.

Bye-Bye, Flashie!

Santa's Angels

While we were in Wisconsin, I stopped my mail so that when we got back it would all be delivered at once. The day it all came, there was one of those little orange slips saying we had 4 packages to be picked up. Hunter was sick, then Drew, then Louisa, then me, so I popped the slip back in the mailbox and told them to try and redeliver. There was no way we'd be leaving the house for a few days.

Yesterday (Thursday) the packages finally came. 4 big ones. No return address, no postmark. Each one said simply, "From Santa".

We opened one, and there was a poem for each kid, as well as a filled stocking, and a camo bandanna wrapped in star ribbon with an American Flag pin. The letters were from Santa saying how busy Santa is, and that the Post Office was helping Santa deliver a few extra presents this year.

All the boxes had stuff for the kids, wrapped and labeled. As they opened their gifts (and yes, I have pictures to share!) everything they got was something from their list. We wrote Santa letters back in the beginning of December. I almost didn't mail those letters! I'm glad I did.

Hunter got a puppy, and a Diego toy, and Cars toys that he asked for. Drew got walkie talkies, and a skateboard that he asked for. And Louisa also got a skateboard along with a Carrie Underwood CD. All of it was something the kids had put on their lists.

We live in a rural area, so our mail doesn't actually go through our post office here. It gets shipped to a bigger PO and stamped and mailed from there. I addressed the Santa letters to "Santa Claus, North Pole", figuring that it was pretty explanatory where it needed to be sent. I'm sure there's only one Santa at the North Pole! If anyone can find him, the PO can!

And find him they did! Or, his angels found us, which is more likely. I tried to hold back tears as i realized just where these amazing gifts came from. Of course, each Santa letter asked Santa to, above all else, bring daddy home for Christmas. I assume we touched some angels' hearts who were opening Santa letters.

I can't thank them. I don't even know where they are. I myself do so much anonymous giving that I completely understand not needing to be thanked for anything. I never expect/need a thank you for what I give. But I want the people to know the joy my kids had when they truly believed Santa had saved a few more gifts for them to open at home.

The kindness that has been shown us both leading up to the deployment, and during the deployment, is so touching. We don't feel any more special than the next person just because my husband does what he does. The kids and I, and my husband as well, are very humble. We do the job that we have to do because we don't have a choice. God has given us the family we have, He has provided for our family through the job my husband holds in the US Army, and when called, my husband has no choice but to answer. The kids and I, of course, follow. We do our duty because it's ours to do. Sometimes we struggle, sometimes we don't know how we'll make it through, but all the time our great faith in God gets us through. There's nothing we, as a family centered in God, can't get through, and there's nothing greater on earth than all of the angels God has sent to us. Santa's Angels included.

A New Bike, An Old Puppy, and a $130 Pie

If we were playing that game where you take three things and figure out what they have in common, it would be impossible to deduce how these three things are alike. And really, they don't go together. Unless a crazy week of extreme highs and extreme lows counts.


From May 1 to May 18, Louisa's school had a reading contest. Like a lot of schools, they can only read Accelerated Reader (AR) books. After they finish the book they take a test to earn points. Each book is worth a certain amount of points. Eragon, for example, was worth 25 points, whereas Captain Underpants is worth only 4. The point leader for third grade has 360 points, but that is her total for 2nd and 3rd grade combined. Louisa has 284 total points, and that's just since December. For the contest there were two winners in the school. One boy and one girl. The prize is a bicycle. I don't need to tell you who the winner was for the girl's bike.

During the two weeks that the contest was running, Louisa got 85 points and her test average was a 94%. I went and picked up her bike yesterday and took the opportunity to boast about my little girl to the principal as he wheeled it out to my car.

On Monday we got a call from our onbase housing manager. He had our puppy! In the morning he had seen several ladies out for a walk. Low and behold they were walking a puppy that looked exactly like the one on all the posters we put up. The manager took the puppy to the animal shelter to have his microchip scanned and sure enough, it was Flash!

It took Flash a day to adjust to us again. He kind of moped around on Monday and didn't eat anything. Yesterday I went to buy him some canned puppy food, thinking he would be happy to eat that. When I came back from the store his food bowl was empty. That figures! Anyone need some canned puppy food?! He's doing good now. He's 100% back to normal, just like he never left. Still got fleas, though. The people who had him could have at least gotten rid of the fleas, if they weren't going to check and see if he belonged to anyone. I understand that if you see a collar-less puppy running around your yard, your first instinct is to take him in. But at the very least you should take him to the animal shelter to make sure he doesn't belong to anyone. Somewhere out there, there's a family that probably misses him. I'm just glad to have him home with us.

My husband's first sergeant came up with a great idea for a fund raiser. Have the wives (or whoever wants to because I guess I can't assume that it's only the wife that bakes in the house) bake a pie or a cake. Put the pies and cakes up for auction and the soldiers can bid on them. But here's the catch: attach to each pie and cake a special prize. An incentive, so to speak. The incentives were things like, first sergeant for a day, sgt major for a day, an extra 3-day weekend pass, an extra 4-day weekend pass (and those are what the soldiers wanted the *most*). There were so many of each incentive and those guys really wanted those weekend passes. I baked an apple pie (the one on the left side of the picture) but it turned out really bad and there was no way I could present that to guys that my husband works with. So I ran out to the store, bought more apples, and made another one (the pie on the right).

I knew things would get pricey, but I told husband not to spend more than $45 or $50 on anything. He didn't even have the chance. The cheapest a pastry sold for was $80. At the end there was one pie left sitting on the table, and everyone figured out that pie had the last 3-day weekend pass hidden under it. Yep, that pie was mine. It sold for $130 and was the most expensive pastry at the auction. All in all was raised a staggering $1000.02! The first sgt and his wife are very pleased and the money will be put to good use.

We've had a very up and down sort of week. I'm looking forward to the kids getting out of school on Friday and falling into a summertime routine. A long, hot, Louisiana summer...

Lost Puppy

Lost Puppy

Breed: Beagle

Name: Flash

Flash was last seen on Monday, May 14. Flash is a boy and weighs about 15 pounds. He is 8 months old. He was not wearing his collar when he ran away, but he is microchipped

If you have seen Flash, please call cell phone number (XXX) XXX-XXXX, or take him to the onbase animal shelter.

Thank You!

I am currently printing up about 20 of these to post on the mailboxes in our neighborhood. On Monday the puppy ran away. We have people who mow our lawn for us, and they always leave the backyard gate open. Once in awhile I forget and let the puppy out. He has always just run around to the front door, though. This time he didn't. By the time we realized the gate was open, it was too late and he was long gone.
He is microchipped, so if he's turned in to the shelter they will scan him and give him back to us. Since he hasn't been turned in yet, my guess is that someone saw a sweet little beagle puppy with no collar and took him home. Because of the fleas, the collar was bothering him so I didn't make him wear it. We didn't have a tag on the collar anyway. Just his rabies tag is on there, so it wouldn't have done much good.
Today after school the kids will go around the neighborhood and post these Lost notices. I'm hoping if someone did take him in, they'll see that he has a family who loves and misses him.
Every night I sit and look at his empty crate. I think about how I yelled at him right before he ran away because he was chewing up my sandal (that he totally ruined). I hope he knows we love him.

Fleas! and it's no circus

When we first got our puppy, Flash, we had him checked by the vet for fleas. He was clean and clear. But he's been scratching and scratching like the dickens for awhile now. Someone suggested he might have dry skin, so I've been using this moisturizing shampoo on him. I can't believe I'm using a more expensive shampoo on my dog than I use on myself. After using the shampoo a few times, he was still scratching. Convinced he did indeed have fleas, I sat him down with a brush and looked through the white parts of his fur. I could see really little black spots moving around. Yup, fleas. Ugh!

So, I put on one of those flea and tick killer things that you squeeze down their back. I used one when we very first got him, too. I waited awhile to see if it would work, but he was still scratching and every once in awhile he would jump up and yelp for no reason.

Yesterday I could actually see the big fleas on his skin and in his fur, and I noticed both the cats have fleas. Ok, it's time to take some real action. Husband went out and bought some flea shampoo and flea collars. (yes, I know they don't actually work, but it can't hurt either)

I washed Flash last night. In a few days we'll check him and then wash him again. This shampoo says it works for up to 10 days.

I went to grab Scooter, the smallest cat, and even though he's got no front claws he can still scratch the heck out of me with his back claws. And that's just what he did. My arm has some pretty big battle wounds on it now.

Husband has given the cats baths a few times before. He grabbed Scooter with a towel and then put Scooter in the tub while holding him with the towel and washed him up. That way, Scooter couldn't scratch with his back claws.

Then it was Socks' turn. Husband did the same thing, only Socks is a little stronger than Scooter and he managed to get his revenge scratch in at least once.

Hopefully this will work because I do not want fleas all over the house. The last time we had them was about seven years ago when we first brought Socks home from the pet store. That got to be a fairly bad infestation. Don't want to go back there again.

Although it was hysterical to see the cats when they were all wet and skinny after their baths last night! Then they run around, frantically trying to lick all the water off themselves. Scooter still isn't "speaking" to me. Socks forgives easily, and Flash will do anything for a treat!