Stuffed Olive

Our oldest pup's name is Olive, and she is awesome.  I love her to the ends of the earth and back, and that's what I tell her every night when I tuck her in.  If only I were kidding...

Christmas Card - before adopting Buck

Anyway, Olive has a sensitive system and suffered a bout of pancreatitis back in October.  Thankfully, she completely recovered from this life-threatening condition, but it made us more aware than ever that she needs to be on a super low fat diet.

After some research (ok, LOTS), we do a diet of homemade chicken/rice/carrots/vitamins and Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Fish and Sweet Potato. She seems to be able to tolerate the diet well (based on her appetite, weight, and stool - yes, I went there).  Her dry skin cleared up, and her weight is stable. 

The extra vitamins I mix into the homemade food come from a powder formula called Balance IT Canine. Pricey?  Yes, but I think it makes up for the lack of some of the stuff she would get if she was eating more dog food and less homemade.

Do you love your pup?  How far have you (or would you go) to keep him/her healthy?

Maddie on Things

I love dogs.  I know - shocking - since I talk about my dog pretty often over here.  But I'm pretty equal opportunity about my love.  Big and small (though slightly preferential towards big), I love dogs.  And I beyond love rescue dogs.  There are just so many great dogs out there that needs home. 

Maddie on Things is a fantastic story about a rescued coonhound.  Her "dad" is a photographer, and discovered her incredible talent to pose.  She's now the face of Why We Rescue, a cause after my own heart.


Maddie Book Tour! from This Wild Idea on Vimeo.

What the what?

You're probably wondering (probably not, actually) what in the world I've been up to for the last 100 years of non-blogging.  I wish I could tell you that I had the adventure of a lifetime, but it's actually some fairly mundane stuff.

The best of the best of the last 7 weeks:

1) A three week work trip (11 cities, 14 days)

2) A dastardly sales meeting

3) The best "mother's day" gift a girl could ask for!

4) Food poisoning

Ok, number three deserves explanation and NO!!! I am not pregnant; It really was food poisoning, not morning sickness.

Olive, our pup, is our kid.  Our first born.  The love of our lives (besides each other, of course). I know, I know - if we have kids, we'll look back on these statements like crazy talk, but I don't actually believe that for us. She is an EXCEPTIONALLY high energy dog (half Border Collie, half Labrador), so we spend a lot of time getting her enough exercise.  Weekends consist of a visit to the dog park for at least an hour, taking her to farmer's marketing, and afternoon of ball throwing and swimming at the beach or a 5 - 6 mile trail run and then a bath.  It's a lot, so we're very invested, and we spend a lot of time with her, making sure she has everything (the fun, adventure, exercise, and at the end of the day, snuggles) she needs.

Rush knows I'm totally gaga for our girl, so he and Olive decided to give me/her an "instinct test" for mother's day?  What's an instinct test?  She's half Border Collie, so the point is to find out how much she might inherently know about herding. We took her to a ranch down in Malibu and sent her into the ring with 6 sheep! You would never believe how much fun I had just watching; and boy, the girl can herd!

Since then, we signed her up for a set of herding classes, and she and Rush are doing so well!  Last weekend, they had a kind of breakthrough and started really herding and working on commands. I tell ya, it is the darndest thing!

Do-Over

So we learned the hard way that one should tape to the inside - not the outside - of the door when painting just the skinny edge.  I've been doing most of the re-taping and touch up which thrills me to no end.  Not sure if you could hear it, but there may or may not have been some sarcasm when I said that.  Anyway, on to room #3.  Oh, and since I bought that fancy camera and all, I better start using it.  My cost per picture right now is shockingly high.  Like a couple hundred dollars per shot.

What's behind door #3?  A good taping job...

Stinker-pants decided to sit for her portrait while I was taking the door pic.

Puppy Love

I am an unapologetic and sometimes crazed dog lover. Big and small (ok, mostly big but anything over 25lbs usually gets my attention), I love them all.  Which is why it was a little bit (ok, a lot) disturbing when I found out yesterday that I'm allergic to dogs.  And grass.  And dogs who roll in the grass.  So my Sunday was pretty much just that - playing with the pup, brushing her, watching her roll in the grass, and then brushing, playing and snuggling s'more.  Whoops.  Anyway, Olive is safe because there's no chance we'd ever get rid of her.  And she has promised to try to limit the dander. 

p.s. I love the Daily Puppy website.  There's also an iPhone app.  A new pup everyday is definitely worth $.99 to me. 

Heartbreak

As I think I mentioned, I put in a bit of a garden this year.  Stinky (aka Olive) likes to dig.  Thus, gardening has been heartbreaking because as soon as something starts to resemble an actual vegetable, she manages to destroy/dislodge it from the plant.  Case in point:

In our house, we believe that misbehavior is a result of lack of exercise and/or boredom.  So to combat both, Rush took Stinky for a ride...or perhaps it was the other way around.