I’ve been saying for a few years now that I’d like a second dog.  We’ve had Minnie (a border collie-lab mixed breed) for 15 years now, and though she still has a ton of spunk (see how YOU are when you’re the equivalent of 105 years old lol), I know that she won’t be around forever.  I’d rather give her someone to hang out with, and a furry friend that’s already acclimated in the household before she goes (when she does, I’ll be losing my best friend apart from my husband).

This isn’t supposed to be a downer post though - but as always the decisions I make have an interesting way of biting me in the butt!  The new dog, Amapola (it means "Poppy" in Spanish), is fantastic - she doesn’t get into the trash or "patrol" the counter much, but she’s being a challenge to re-potty train at five years old.  She was housebroken at the shelter, but when you change a dog’s environment, they sometimes have to be re-acclimated as to where going to the bathroom is O.K.

So, I’ve been steam cleaning the rug a bit (read: A LOT), but today we’ve had two days of no pee, and today was only a small bit of poo to clean (like she really tried to hold it - at least that’s what I’m telling myself).  I praise her up and down when she goes to the bathroom outside - and it’s slowly starting to work.  Hey, at least I have this really cool upright rug cleaner who’s brushes are specially made for pet hair

She’s super snugly - loves to sit between DH and I on the couch, sleeps pretty much against me on the bed, and just generally likes to be close to you.  She is a bit freaky about flashlights, cameras and now, phones with cameras lol.  I’ve shut all of the sounds off on the phone and the camera, but she still tries to hide (or shakes, which I hate to see…so I stop).  She’s also very timid around men (have no idea if she was abused by men in her past, but I figure its a safe bet), but she’ll hang with DH if he’s sitting or lying down.  In fact, she’ll lay across his lap sometimes.  If he’s up and moving, she heads for the hills though.  He’s been taking her outside before he leaves for work (he goes to work after I do), so she’s slowly getting used to him.  It’s been hard on DH though, he’s so used to Minnie (our other dog) who’s not afraid of people (only sharp noises like thunder storms), and was so easily trained.  At first he was really frustrated with the rate we weren’t progressing at for Amapola’s training, but he’s relaxed a bit now.

So, we’ve had her for 18 days now, and I think she’s adjusting pretty well.  We tried crating her at first (and I still think it’s the way to go), but DH felt like the "bad guy" putting her in, so he refuses to do it.  Instead we’ve limited the parts of the house she has access to - though at times I think she still has too much so soon after moving in.  She’s not sure how to play with toys really - we have been tossing a tennis ball to her, but while she runs after it, mouths it a little, she drops it and comes back to us lol.  She and Minnie hang out - they don’t exactly play together really, but they do like each other.  They do try to steal each other’s food (I swear I’m just going to let them eat out of whatever dish they want to one of these days), and hide toys on each other (oh how I love to find them under my pillow!), but there’s no unhealthy competition - Minnie is the dominant dog - there’s no question about that.  If I give out treats or food, she gets fed first, and when they’re both looking for affection, Minnie gets that first too.  (I have to maintain that pack mentality or it will be chaos.)

Anyhow, here’s a couple of photos of Amapola - they are awful, but the ONLY ones I’ve been able to get so far…

And what do you know - I have a new release on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008! It will be 30% off for two days (Wednesday and Thursday) and I think you’ll love it!  Halloweenie has all of the traditional holiday imagery and palette, but has many pieces that can be used for all kinds of projects!  I created a special "Flair" element pack as well - can YOU tell which one is my favorite???

I also have a free sample Quick Page that coordinates with the Halloweenie kit - preview below:

I’m sorry; this download offer has expired - check the blog again for future free samples.

This free sample QP is only going to be available while this product is on special at Plain Digital Wrapper - so don’t delay!  For those of you who aren’t fans of purchasing a full kit, I also offer a paper pack and element pack for your scrapping pleasure

Happy Scrapping!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 8:03 pm and is filed under About Me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.