Interesting Night

So tonight proved to be interesting. As some of you may know, corgis were bred to be herding dogs. I suppose part of it is to walk their terrain to see if everything is in its place. Well, Little Girl, did something of the sort tonight.

Except on this night, there was something amiss. Or rather, I should say...something was in the backyard that shouldn't be. Initially, I was really worried that it was a snake by her bark. Which kind of goes like this "bark bark barbarkwoowoowoo bark bark" it's kind of cute but hard to get a recording of as it happens so infrequently.

So it wasn't snake. I was waiting for the boyfriend to run out but decided I couldn't wait too much longer and I ran out there (leaving Cloud in the house--no need to make things worse) and tried to get Freya away from the creature. I ran over there expecting to see something scary...and then found out it was a bird. An injured bird.

I'm not sure if Freya injured the poor thing or if it was injured and happened to befall the wrath of Freya's constant "Mommommommom! Mommomomom!" The bird kept running towards me and then I was trying to grab Freya so I could try to take her inside so I could attend to the bird. But the bird hopped out of our fenced backyard and Freya got escorted by her daddy into the house.

I wish I could've done something for the bird but it disappeared by the time I went back outside. But Freya was sure proud of herself that is for sure. The last time she alerted us it was when Cloud discovered he could get out of the backyard and he was trying to take on a pitt bull next door, which probably was the least brightest thing he could do in his life.

Bath Time with Freya

Initially, when Freya got her first bath, she absolutely hated it! It took a few more tries before she finally realized that she was stuck in the torture. At one point, to my chagrin, she hopped out of the tub. When that happened, it had been a while since I had last given her a bath and well...I didn't account for her growth spurt during that time. But this universal thing happens to her that I've noticed in all the dogs I've had in my life--she utterly flips out.





Frapping (Frantic Random Acts of Play) or zoomies, seem to happen after a bath. I think it is the cutest and funniest thing I've seen happen too. Sorry, if the video is a bit long. I couldn't resist filming her on my phone.

On the Topic of Names

I know a lot people fret about naming their dogs, cats, babies, or other pets (and miscellaneous items such as cars and tvs and stuff.) I, however, am not really one of those people any more. I used to be, back when I was a kid and had no idea of the world. But now that I've had some years to view the world, read books, and watch some tv...I have a huge plethora of a name base that I go through.

The first pets I named in my method were Zainal and Seven. They were my cats (now one is my mom and Seven just disappeared one day :(.) Anyway, I was a huge Anne McCaffrey fan at the time and had just finished reading "Freedom's Landing" where I fell in love with the character Zainal, who was a feline looking alien--oh the irony. Zainal is my sweet boy. Whenever I was down he would cuddle with me. But I can't have him as Cloud would kill him and I can't deal with that. Seven got her name from Star Trek: Voyager---the borg human named Seven of Nine. Mom thought I was naming her Lucky Seven...oh the inner geek could not do such a thing!

Morningstar got her name...well I kind of looked down at her when we first got her and asked her what her name was. The first name to pop in my head was Morningstar. Of course, at the time I didn't correlate this with the fact that I was reading through Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series.

But when it came down to naming Freya, I went about the mythology route first. I picked a couple of names that I liked. Then I went through the Comic book world, the Anime world, the Book world...and every other world that I loved growing up. Did I mention I was an epic nerd? Oh yeah, totally am.

I narrowed it down to Lucy, Willow, Jubilee, and Freya. Then I met my little girl....and she was the deciding factor in her name. I was heavily leaning towards Jubilee but she was heavily leaning towards Freya. Such is how it goes. I leave it up to the animal or the item to give me a vibe....to make the final decision.

How did you come about naming your pets?

Truth About Poop

Folks, I have a horrible truth that must be told. My little girl has been partaking in the eating of a nasty delicacy (in her mind it's a delicacy) known as her poop. She was doing it for a while...at least when Morningstar first came here was when I think it may have started.

I dismissed it initially. I thought perhaps it was a fluke, but then there came times in which she would regurgitate her contents...and well the truth is in the poop. I have to say that was the nastiest, most gag inducing day of my life.

I tried everything I could. Special powder on both Freya and Cloud's food. I tried fresh pineapple. I tried giving her more food. I did tons of research on the subject, which then suggested I should cut down her food and give her more fiber. Finally, I talked to the doctor about it.

Well, because Freya looked to be good in health and the blood tests came out great. He suggested that Freya decided to feast on her foul droppings because she was bored. She never did it as a puppy, but man did she pick it up after she was a year old.

The habit seemed to have slowed down now that we walk together some nights. I think even grooming her (her most hated ritual of being a dog) and brushing her teeth may have helped as well. I think my pain and lack of focus may have driven her to "comfort" eating. That is the only guess that I can make.

Don't get me wrong. She is still a little hoover. She will eat anything in her path that may be food...vegetation in the backyard for example. I do believe my little girl will always keep me on my toes.

Sleeping with Doggies

I love sleeping with the dogs. But no one really talks about the possible dangerous aspects or rather maybe the people who do, don't usually have a dog as small as Freya sleeping with them. I remember while I was still recovering from surgery and the dogs were sleeping with us and I was trying to get comfortable and I snapped awake when I felt wiggling from where I threw a leg out of the covers to sleep on my side. Apparently, Freya ended up sleeping with us and I woke up heart pounding and pulled her up to my chest--she was dazed still so she let me do all of that.

So, it is very important to know if a dog is sleeping with you, otherwise it could have some dire consequences. That ends my Public Announcement.

The photo above is how Freya likes to sleep. I hate it. I curl up on my side to start and end up stretching through out the night--nothing worse than finding a lump that isn't budging. But Freya is annoying in that she likes to hop on the bed. I mean literally, she turns into a little bunny hopping all over the bed to avoid being put down on the floor. She also really loves her daddy and wants to sleep next to him, which naturally he hates. Where as I love for her to sleep on my tummy, but I only get the rare occasion of that as she usually sleeps by our legs.

Cloud likes to sleep between me and the wall--so our bed is pretty full. I get no foot space and the boyfriend gets maybe an inch of bed before he could feasibly fall over. I'm not really sure who has it worse me or him. Lol. Sometimes, Cloud will sleep on the couch, which is what he prefers after a night of me nudging for space.

But I will say this. I love going to bed and having the dogs go with me to keep me warm in the winter. It is especially nice if I'm in pain and Freya is sleeping on my tummy cause it feels loads better. She makes an awesome heating pad, at the same rate...when she steps on my tummy--not so happy.

It took Freya almost a year before she could sleep with us. Prior to that, when she was a puppy, she would continually pee on the bed if she managed to get up there. No idea what spawned that reaction, but because of that and because of her destructive ways, she was kenneled the bulk of her young life until she hit her year mark. Now Cloud was sleeping with us from the get go. He was good with it, I guess it depends on the dog. The only reason they don't sleep with us is if we are too sick or we are sick of them freaking out about a sound or something in the house that can't be helped.

Wordless Wednesday: Bullystick Edition

My Deepest Apologies

I'm really sorry for not posting almost...4 months now. I'm deeply ashamed. I'm going to do my best to post more regularly from now one. Unfortunately, I still don't have a camera that works and I can't really afford it (medical bills--bleh.) But on the rare occasion that I can snag the boyfriend's camera...I will try and post it otherwise we are down to my camera phone.

So Freya is doing really great! She just had her annual check up with the Vet not too long ago and is still holding steady at 19 pounds and free of heart worms and intestinal worms! Woot! He told me that she is a perfect weight for her size so it's good to know that I'm not under feeding the girl as it's kind of hard to tell as corgi's are greedy puppies. They will often feign starvation if it means more grub on the plate, which Grandma falls for all the time.

Morningstar is already back to fat and maybe fatter since I had to return her back to my mom. Now, Angel, is also really fat too. I think Morningstar is ready to come back home with me as she keeps making daring escapes out the house and heads directly towards my car when I visit.

Cloud is also doing great. He's actually getting sweet with age. Walking him is easier now than when he was 1 years old. Of course, I put a lot of work into it too. Oddly enough, I haven't done that with Freya and I really need to. But 70 pounds vs 19 pounds is a huge difference.

As for me, my painful bladder syndrome isn't nearly bad and I finally managed to sleep through the night these last two months. I can't tell you how much I missed doing that. I'm also thankfully done with the twice a week cath treatment I was being subjected too...that is a whole new kind of pain there. Some people build tolerance to it over time, I am not some people. I've also been working my butt off at both jobs trying to pay off bills.