What Does Diva have to do with Song-Writing?

Well.... last night, while sitting on my back deck and watching her chase 4 squirrels (her mortal enemy) up into the woods, I decided it was time to re-write that CLASSIC Motley Crue song "Girls Girls Girls".

Yes, you're with me, aren't you?

It's going to be:

"Squirrels, Squirrels, Squirrels!"

If you have ideas for clever lyrics, let me know.
SmileyGirl has already suggested the first line:

"Bushy tails and rabies teeth...." !! (I love it!)

Goodbye to a Brave, Beautiful Golden Friend

Diva and Ruby want to dedicate today's post to a beautiful, brave-hearted Golden friend on the West Coast.

The mighty, lion-hearted ACHILLES who today makes the journey to Dog Heaven to start his new life.

We dedicate this post to Achilles and especially to his beautiful loving owners who have given him SO much love and care for these last few years of his life.

Although we haven't met you face to face, we love you just the same, Achilles!

Thinking of you ALL DAY TODAY!

Puppy-Palooza Videos!

We had 2 new neighborhood puppies come visit this weekend ("Belle" and "Jackson").
Ruby LOVED the new puppies; however, Diva was too hyper, so we kept her in the backyard.

The puppies got a BIT too rambunctious in the kitchen and Ruby even wound up breaking up a disagreement!

Cute pups, nonetheless. Enjoy the vids. :-)

Diva & The Cleaning Brush

Diva's Ocular Odyssey is Over.

Yes, thank goodness.
A week's worth of antibiotic ointment, and another ointment (steroids, maybe? I've forgotten) and what looked like a near CATASTROPHE has been averted.

Darling Diva is back to her normal self.
In fact, she and Ruby were giddily chasing early Spring bumblebees in the back yard today. Luckily, they did not catch any. :)

Diva's Disastrous Day

Poor Diva.
Last night she and Hubster were in the backyard playing Diva's favorite game (Throw-The-Ball-And-I'll-Bring-It-Back!) and Diva was momentarily distracted by something (squirrel?) and in that horrible split second, the hard plastic ball Hubster was throwing hit her (HARD) in the face.

We didn't realize it at the time, but it hit her in the EYE. Apparently REALLY hard in the eye. (Normally he uses tennis balls, but all the tennis balls had been lost in the woods... the only ball available was a hard little plastic ball... which made this injury much worse...)

Anyway, by bedtime, her eye had swollen completely shut, was oozing Gunk (the scientific term), and she looked miserable. She was avoiding light and wouldn't let us inspect the eye at all.

So, long story short, I got the first appt. this morning at the vet and he confirmed my suspicion - she has a badly scratched cornea but will be fine. He did a full exam and sent us away with two ointments to put in her eyes (THAT should be fun). Ultimately, she will be fine.

So, poor Diva Darling is now napping.
She's definitely NOT her normal self; however, she still insisted on being Alpha Dog at the vet, and barking and being a Bad Ass to all the dogs in the waiting room, with her one Pop Eye.

Doggie Snow Day - 2009

Diva Does Snow



Ruby Does Snow

Why We No Longer Have DirecTV

Diva has severed the outdoor cable that runs to the DirecTV dish on top of our house.

And here we were today, fiddling with the receiver, resetting it, unplugging it and waiting, calling customer service, etc. and ALL THE WHILE it was ....... Guess Who.

That's right. She pulled down the cable, chewed it up and quietly severed it.

Sigh.

(I wonder if we bought the "Doggie Destruction Service Plan"?)

The Scene of the Crime

Get the theme to "Dragnet" in your mind as you're reading the below.

For the purposes of this post, I'm Joe Friday. :-)

I arrived at the scene of the crime to find this.



That's right: avert your eyes, if you must, at the carnage, but what you're beholding is a once beautiful but now shredded and severed fur scarf. As you can see, canine tooth marks, and dog drool still markedly present. (This is the last remaining section of the scarf - everything else was in pieces...)

Any clear suspects you ask?

Why yes. Just one. With a silly grin on her face, and fur pieces still clinging to her teeth.

A Dream.... or a Premonition??

Last night I had a VERY realistic dream that we added a THIRD girl to our "team" of pups... a female Golden Retriever named.... Lila.

Isn't that a beautiful name?

She was gorgeous.... pale, pale yellow... almost white.

And she had the sweetest little heart shaped face and was just a LOVE!

I told Ron about it this morning and he looked at me like I'd been smoking crack.

(I guess that means NO.)

However, I'm thinking maybe Lila exists somewhere in our future, and was coming to visit me in my dreams. I hope she continues to visit me in my dreams. :-)

A Day at "Dog Academy"

Ruby the Rock Star

Ruby went to the vet today to get her stitches out from her recent surgery to remove her bladder stones.

She is SUCH the littler rock star at the vet's office.
I'm biased of course, but she truly is THE sweetest dog that I've ever known. And I've known many, many, many dogs.

She constantly has a smile on her face, is constantly wagging her tail and is just generally a really happy girl. What a sweet baby doll!

The Latest....

Doggie Update:

Ruby has recovered beautifully from her surgery. Our finances are still recovering (between the 2 dogs, we spent $1,200 at the vet during the month of December). Zoinks, Shaggy!

Diva's Destructive Ways: yesterday, the kids and I went out to run errands and his some post-Christmas sales. We were gone 2 hours, tops. We came home to find:

1. Destroyed earmuffs
2. Shredded dustcover for one of my favorite books (the book itself is still missing... I'm wondering if it was ingested...)
3. The owners manual for my new camera - shredded
4. A vacuum cleaner attachment (the little brush thing - I never use it anyway, so it's no great loss) - CHEWED beyond recognition
5. A new sketchpad - destroyed.

Amazing, that dog. Good thing she is well-loved!

Diva's Dilemma - Part 1 (The Crisis!)

Diva's Dilemma - Part 2 (The Happy Ending)

Ruby has Bladder Stones

Bless her heart. By the time I got her to the vet today, she was moaning, very softly, and looking at me like "I feel like $hit".

(And Ruby is one who doesn't show pain.)

Anyway, yes, bladder stones. They are like kidney stones, but not spiky. She had them once before. They are smooth, like river pebbles. Unfortunately they are fairly large and have to be removed surgically.

Our vet bill for the month of December will top our over $1,000 between Diva's spay and Ruby's surgery.

What can you do though? When you love your pets, you take care of them. They are part of the family.....

Ruby is Sick

My sweet sweet Rubester is sick. She's having a hard time urinating and is looking generally miserable today. Luckily our vet is open today so I have an appointment for her this afternoon.

She had this problem once before and it turned out she had bladder stones (just like kidney stones).... and required surgery. I have a feeling that will be the case again.

My poor sweet girl.

Of course, Diva wants to romp and play and can't understand why her BFF is uninterested.
Bless her little furry heart.

Diva Dislikes Christmas...

....judging by the fact that she shredded 4 WRAPPED presents today while the kids and I were out and about (and she completely destroyed a nice necklace in one of the packages).

(Humorously, one of the packages she SHREDDED was the Pedi-Paws that she and Ruby were giving to Hubster, as "their" Christmas present.)

Sigh. It's a good thing I love that dog so much....

Diva did GREAT!

She is a bit sore, and a bit cranky.
But all in all, she did fine.

She has been sleeping more than normal (I doubt she got much sleep in the kennel at the vet... and judging by the mark on the side of her snout, she tried to use her snout as a battering ram to get OUT... no surprise there!)

The vet said to keep her activity level low for the next couple of days (ha!) but other than that, she is fine and "good to go". :-)

Ruby sniffed Diva from stem to stern when Diva got home. They are now napping on the (flipped, double mattress-covered, and re-made) dog bed in the guest room. :-)

Ruby Enjoyed the "Diva-Free" Day

Ruby got lots of 'quality snuggle time'.... and didn't have to share the love with any other pets.

She loved it. :-)