What A Month It Has Been

I apologize for not writing sooner.  We have been very busy here and not all of it geared toward getting ready for the puppy.

First, Michael had a recurrence of his face swelling episode.  I feared he'd have to have surgery, but this time when we got the swelling down, the little bump was entirely gone.  Last time there was still a residual bump on his jaw about the size of a lentil.  This time even my veterinarian's educated fingers couldn't find it.  So we have put off the surgery option and am waiting and hoping that this will not reoccur.

Then, as soon as I started relaxing and breathing normal, Michael got salmon poisoning and was very ill for a week.  I was very fortunate to be home when he really started showing symptoms otherwise the outcome could have been different.  Even still it took him a week to recover and he still isn't on his regular diet (possibly a side affect of the antibiotic).  I don't think he can recover the weight he lost until he gets back on his regular diet. 

If you live on the west coast, you should look up salmon poisoning (its not just about salmon) and without treatment it kills 90% of dogs in 7-10 days.  It only affects dogs, not cats, people, bears, raccoons - just dogs. 

Then my slow old Michael caught and killed an adult squirrel.  I still can't imagine how he could do that and feared that the squirrel might be diseased.  Contacting animal control provided no useful information.  I even called the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, who sent me to the state biologist for our county.  It took her two days to call back and her advice makes me look like an amateur at obsessing.  If I followed her advice - I'd have to sanitize the whole yard!  To listen to her its a wonder you people who live in rural areas or the country can keep any of your animals alive.  How do you do it?  <tic>

I continue my efforts to get ready for the puppy and with less than two weeks to go there is still more stuff on the list than has been checked off.  Nonetheless I am making headway on the highest priority items and some of the other things could be done after the great arrival.  I'm counting on not sleeping for the last week before going to get the puppy.

The biggest project has been to finish most, if not all, of the basement project-from-hell.  Part of that project involved installing, reinstalling and improving the insulation in the basement.  Since I'd be using the fiberglass insulation, I wanted to get that done well in advance of puppy arrival, so I could make sure there wouldn't be any fiberglass fibers in that environment.  Gotta protect those baby lungs (not to mention the old dog lungs).  One more good vacuuming and then will wipe down the walls and surfaces with damp cloths - just to be sure.  After that I'll be able to set up the puppy apartment.

Since I've mentioned the puppy apartment, I should describe it.  I've done this for many of the puppies I've gotten and I think its the best solution for someone with a young puppy that still has to go to work.  The idea is to make sure the puppy is kept very clean, ensuring she develops clean habits.  A puppy that never steps in feces or urine will find the idea repulsive as an adult, unlike puppies that track through their waste a lot during their early months.  It is also important to solidify in the puppy brain the idea that you don't poop or pee anywhere near where you sleep and eat -- this makes house training go so well.  Back when I had litters of my own, I found it invaluable and actually had puppies that went to their new homes almost completely potty trained.

Given how clean Sadie (the dam), Tana and BJ (the human parents) have kept the puppy environment, it would be a shame to undo that.  I have seen only one poop in over 6 weeks and that I watched come out of a four week old puppy bum -- within a minute a hand swooped in and took it away.  I think Tana and BJ must have a roster, so that there is always one of them sitting on a bar stool watching the puppies, poised and ready with tissue in hand.  Okay, so I'm being a little silly, but seriously, these pups have been raised very clean and that is a very good thing.

So I still haven't described the puppy apartment.  I use a 3' x 3' puppy pen with a raised floor.  It has a door on one side and the top opens.  I zip tie the door open and put a wire crate aligned with the door and zip tie it to the pen.  The crate is set up with a raised floor that matches the height of the puppy pen.  I put plenty of cushy bedding in there and cover the crate to make it dark and cozy - the ideal den to sleep in.  As puppy comes out of the den she will find her food/water dishes on one side of the door and the whole rest of the pen is available to play in.  She will have a couple safe toys to play with.

What I've found in the past is that within a week at the most, all the peeing and pooping is done in the corner of the puppy pen that is furthest from the food/water dishes.  Even though the puppy feeties are not exposed to their waste, they still very quickly try to keep that stuff as far as possible from their sleeping and eating places.  As clean as these puppies have been, I expect it to go the same. 

That's all for now... more later...