Binge watching Netflix and Hulu with the kiddos. | Pajamas | Slippers
The puppies are only four months old. We’ve been in the house for a month and a half. Even Tess has only been with us for four and a half months. It’s all still pretty new.
Everyday is a new day with new challenges because the puppies are growing like crazy. Four months old, and they’re all almost or over thirty pounds. They’re about as big as their mama; she doesn’t tower over them anymore. They’re huge puppies and not super well trained because they’re puppies and there are four of them. So we’re constantly puppy proofing and trying to teach them how to behave. While also keeping them from teething on everything and peeing inside. Their big toofers are coming in, and they look like they have people dentures stuck in their mouth. (Although, I’m not sure there’s any other kind of dentures, so I probably didn’t have to specy “people dentures” on that one.) It’s funny, but they don’t stay still long enough to get a picture of this phenomenon.
We definitely have our work cut out for us. But there is a routine, and they’re doing so well. They know how to sit and – kind of – stay. They sit, stay, and wait for their food… almost. They go into their kennels on command. They’ve learned not to bite/nibble/chew on people and furniture. Shoes are another story. We have only had one accident inside in the last three weeks. They know not to play on the couch; that’s for sitting and sleeping and cuddling. They are super smart, which is good and bad. They learn quickly, but they’re smart enough to figure things out that I’d rather them not. Sometimes I call them my terrorist infestation, but all of the time I love them with my whole heart. There’s nothing better than coming home and seeing all six fur-kids in the window.
Tess is an angel. She has truly come into herself over the last four months. She is less neurotic than Beau. I have no idea how I got so lucky with such a smart, good girl. Training has been such a breeze with her. We haven’t done too much, but she knows sit and come, which are the most important anyways. She also knows when she’s getting a treat; that one she learned very quickly. She doesn’t like giving kisses, but she loves snuggles, playtime, and just being with me. I can pick her up and carry her around like the puppies. She is wonderful.
Tess is heartworm positive. Now that she has weaned the puppies, gained some weight, gotten comfortable, and as healthy as possible, we have started the de-heartworming process. She’s a month and a half in. Next month, she will have her first shot, and hopefully it goes well. She just had all her vaccinations, and she’s getting spayed and microchipped next month. She’s on her way to being healthy. I cannot wait for her to be able to run and play unhindered. I didn’t know if she would be a runner or player when she first came home. Being as heavily pregnant and sick as she was, she was happy to just sleep. Not anymore, she is rambunctious. It’s going to be great seeing her live her best, healthy life in a few months.
Beau has finally accepted the puppies are here to stay. She loves Tess, but the puppies took some getting used to. They are absolutely infatuated with her, but that’s probably because Beau is completely ambivalent towards them. Beau has made it known that I’m her mom first and their mom second. I think she’ll love them someday when they’re less tiny and stupid.
I am the kind of person that likes to have everything unpacked and organized right away. That did not happen. I’m new mom, new house tired.
We moved in with most of the puppies, who were the main priority. Now that we have it whittled down to the ones we’re keeping, life is working into a new rhythm. I finally have time to unpack and start painting… Except I’m still exhausted. I have been sleeping more and doing as little as possible because raising the puppies was exhausting and draining. I have needed to take some time to recuperate. The puppies are the main priority. Sleeping has been the second. Work has been the third. House has come very last. So only the essentials are unpacked. I’m starting to get back to my old self, so hopefully things will start shaping up around the house.
For now, I’m gonna go back to binge watching Peaky Blinders or stand-up comedy with my children.
Welcome to the family Tess, Siren, March, Knight, Hardy, Duke, Nosky, Hera, Boudica, Makeda, Lily-May, Athena, Oryol, and Bear.
No this is not an April Fool’s prank. This is real life. Sorry I’ve been keeping it from you, but we wanted to find some equilibrium before announcing it to the world. Here is a cliff notes version of a much longer story.
Exactly five weeks ago, I was driving to an event in Houston on a frontage road during rush hour when I saw a small and seemingly very pregnant dog on the side of the road. Nothing pulls on my heartstrings more than a homeless dog. I was driving too fast to stop. I quickly flipped around and stopped traffic in high heels and a skirt to make sure she made it across the road to safety. I knelt in a fallow field as people sped home to their families, holding out my hand, wishing I had dog treats in my car, crossing my fingers my car didn’t get hit all while looking at a very skittish dog, hoping she wouldn’t run away. It took thirty seconds before she picked up a mutilated bird wing and dropped it at my feet. My heart broke as I touched her head for the first time. A minute later, I took a calculated risk by picking her up. Instead of biting me or struggling to get free, her body relaxed into mine as I carried her across the field to place her in the back seat of my car. She immediately curled up and let out the biggest sigh.
Once I was back on the highway, I called Dylan. “Hi, honey. I have a dog in the car.” “I didn’t know you took Beau with you.” I paused, “It’s a different dog, and she’s pregnant.” He paused for even longer, “Oh. Well. Okay. I’ll be home soon, and we’ll talk.” Then I called my bestie, Kelsey, and asked, “What the fuck did I just do.”
Before I brought this new and unknown dog into the house, I put Beau in her box to make sure both would be safe and quarantined. It took ten minutes to bring the new dog through the front door. She was scared and didn’t know what a doorway was. I didn’t want to push her or make her feel uncomfortable, so I sat down, petting her head until she walked far enough in so I could shut the door. I laid a blanket down for her with a bowl of water and food. She drank two full bowls of water and nibbled on the dog food before she laid down and closed her eyes. Her belly was huge. Her nipples were about to burst. I could see the movement of tiny puppies in her stomach. My family had a litter of puppies when I was fourteen, so I knew the signs and what to look for. We had maybe a week before the puppies would arrive.
Dylan walked through the door and made eye contact with the cutest stray you ever did see. I saw his heart melt. We talked for a long time about keeping her or contacting a rescue. Taking on a stray is a big commitment. Taking on a pregnant stray is a HUGE commitment. I knew she would be ours in the field, but I didn’t want to push Dylan into that decision if he wasn’t comfortable with it.
That night we [I] gave her the name Tess. We decided to lengthen it to Tessa because Dylan likes that a little better. Her name comes from the titular character in Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. The plot mimics Tessa’s own story, in a way, but with a happier ending. We gave her a bath, fed her, and loved on her.
A call to the vet happened immediately the next morning. We kept hoping she would be microchipped by a home with someone desperately searching for her. No such luck. Dylan and I knew at that moment, we had a second dog. We spent three hours at the vet running a full panel of tests, x-rays, blood work, ultrasounds, and more to make sure Tess and the babies were healthy as can be and, at least, not contagious before we brought her home to Beau. After a once over, we found out Tess is maybe a year old. The vet came in with the results from all the tests, and it wasn’t all great news. Honestly, it was mostly bad news. Tess had hookworms and tapeworms. We put her on pregnancy safe dewormers to take care of that problem. As expected in a street dog, she has heartworms. We won’t be able to treat that until she has weaned the babies, but she is on heartworm prevention to keep it from getting worse. That will be a process to take care over the next year. Then, the vet told us we were expecting THIRTEEN puppies. Tess isn’t very big. She weighed 52 pounds pregnant. I didn’t think she could fit more than eight babies in her tummy. The vet pulled out the x-ray saying, “Here is where the pellet is.” My brain didn’t register it at first. My dog. My pregnant dog had been shot in the spine. I don’t understand. I can’t understand it. It makes me want to cry thinking about it. I was trying to register and process that this small, young, helpless dog was full of fleas, worms, heartworms, a pellet, and thirteen babies. Other than that, she was healthy, and sweet. The vet prepared us to only have nine puppies survive because of the amount of puppies in the litter and the fact she had been living on the street for probably ever. Oh, and the puppies could arrive any time between now and a week. Hurry, hurry, hurry.
Tess looked at me with the most soulful eyes and the biggest, pointy ears, and I knew we would do everything in our power to make her happy and healthy.
After paying a small fortune at the vet, we took her home and made her comfortable. Then we headed to Petsmart where we spent another small fortune to get puppy formula, crate, blankets, collar, leash, dog food, dog bowls, puppy pads, bottles, flea collars, flea baths, flea bombs, puppy shampoo, and more. We bought a kiddy pool for Tess to whelp in, syringes, thermometers, and more at Target. Then we hopped on Amazon to order towels, blankets, bleach, sheets, and more. Normally, people have two months to prepare and spread out the cost of puppies before they arrive. Not only did we not have days, we also had to get everything for our new dog. Those first eighteen hours were very, VERY expensive .
What made this whole thing harder was the fact I had to leave town two days later. Dylan had never whelped puppies. I had, but I had agreed to watch my cousin in New Orleans a year prior to this. I couldn’t back out. Dylan had to work that weekend, and he was stressed out of his mind trying to be a prepared doggy daddy. We tried to board Tess at a 24 hour vet office to make sure she was taken care of while Dylan was at work. That ended up being a complete nightmare, I will talk about that more in another blog post. Instead, we bought cameras to watch Tess in the puppy room and relied on my best friend, Amanda, to come over and lend a hand. I headed to New Orleans, hoping Tess would wait a week to have the puppies. In the meantime, I watched the cameras like a crazy person.
Makeda and Me
Five days after I brought Tess home, she went into labor. Fourteen hours later, Siren, the first puppy, arrived at 3:45 in the afternoon. It took seventeen hours for all thirteen puppies to arrive. My best friend, Amanda, came and helped. I was on Skype, as Overwatch, the entire time, letting them know when a puppy was coming and what to do when they needed help. We almost lost Tess between puppy ten and eleven, but she made it through. The three of us were up all night; it was exhausting and stressful. Dylan and Amanda were absolute champs. With every squeaking puppy, we let out excited cries. All thirteen puppies survived.
At two weeks old, we had a huge scare. Oryol, Athena, and Knight’s necks started to harden and swell very quickly. The swelling started at their necks and worked towards their faces, closing their eyes. It looked bad, but what was even worse was the swelling was cutting off their air supply making them wheeze and cough for air. We loaded Tess and all thirteen puppies into the car with blankets and pillows to head to the Blue Pearl Vet in Spring, a 24 hour animal ER, at 8:45 at night. We were prepared to stay as long as we had to with credit cards in hand willing to pay whatever price we needed to. All the puppies came with because the swelling came on so suddenly, I couldn’t bear to leave the puppies at home and risk another one getting sick. The Coronavirus hysteria had started, so we weren’t able to go inside with our three sick puppies. The vet was baffled by the case. They went on a regimen of steroids and broad spectrum antibiotics to take care of anything it could be because it would be days before pathology could confirm if it was viral, bacterial, or autoimmune. We were hoping it was an autoimmune disease; the other options meant a possibility of losing the entire litter and even Tess. After pathology and all sorts of other small fortunes were spent, we found out it was a wildly atypical case of the rare autoimmune disease: Puppy Strangles. It doesn’t occur in puppies younger than three weeks, which is why it was such a rare case. The fact three puppies had it at the same time in the space of an hour made it even more uncommon. Normally, it is not lethal, but because they were so small, had we waited much longer they would have strangled to death. They’re still on steroids, but they’re doing great and should be off them in a week!
Coronavirus sucks. Honestly, it couldn’t have come at a better time for me, though. I was supposed to go on a three week trip to Europe, which was cancelled because of the pandemic. Also because of the pandemic, work has been very slow, and Dylan and I are stuck at home with the puppies all day. It’s an amazing way to spend our quarantine, and I’m not in Europe missing out on this preciously short time.
Dillies and Bear
Tess is the sweetest dog you ever did meet. Beau and her love each other. They are becoming the best of friends, taking on the other’s habits and falling asleep snuggling. Tess is becoming exhausted and drained from all the nursing, but she is doing an amazing job. Thirteen teething puppies with only eight functional nipples does not make for a happy mama. I can’t imagine what she’s going through, but we’re loving her fiercely through it all. Beau is obsessed with the puppies. Whenever they squeak, Beau runs in to check on them. Tess sees Beau taking care of things and lays back down. They’re coparenting, and it makes my heart so happy. Beau is torn between being enamored and terrified of the puppies. She wants to play with them so badly, and they’re now old enough they have started to play back.
My thirteen poop factories keep me busy doing laundry. And I mean a LOT of laundry. I’m a laundry goddess. They are the cutest things in the whole world, which makes it all worthwhile.
Last week, at three weeks old, my bestie, Jenn, took family pictures. We wanted to capture all thirteen babies, Tess, Beau, Dylan, and I before they’re zooming all over the place in complete and utter chaos. They turned out so cute. I will treasure them forever.
They’re officially one month old today. It’s an amazing age. They are walking and talking and playing. They mimic Beau’s boxerish play tactics. A herd of puppies run to me whenever I get near. I spend all day cuddling them when I’m not cleaning up. They are perfect and delightful and too good for this world.
The only reason I knew I could bring a heavily pregnant dog home off the side of the street was because Dylan would have done the exact same thing. When we started dating, he knew this was the kind of person I am, and he signed on anyways. He had been pushing to get a second dog for the last two years. I have been very resistant to it because dogs are a lot of work and a lot of money. I love them to death, but it is hard to travel with one dog let alone two. The Monday before Tess came home, I had told Dylan we were absolutely NOT bringing a second dog into the house. By Wednesday we had two. A week and a half later, we had fifteen dogs. I guess I was wrong. I couldn’t be happier about our circus.
There’s nothing she loves more than a good exploratory sniff.
Last week, Beau and I were in New Orleans. She wasn’t supposed to come with me, but extenuating life circumstances meant she ended up in NOLA for the first time. I wasn’t bummed to have her all to myself for a week, and she wasn’t bummed to be the sole receiver of all the attention plus an eight year old new best friend. About a year ago, I agreed to spend a week watching my cousin’s daughter while she and her husband went on a cruise to celebrate her 50th birthday. Allison and I get along great, so I was happy to spend a week with her. We did a bunch of really fun things, but Beau had a blast chasing her around the house and getting loved on.
One of the first things we did was go for a walk on the levy. If you don’t know what a levy is, it’s a big retaining wall to keep a river – in this case, the Mississippi – from invading homes, businesses, and causing utter destruction – think Hurricane Katrina. Allison’s house is a couple blocks away from a levy running along the Mississippi. You can walk along the top and even go down to the water’s edge. The river was incredibly high, which made it even more enticing to my water-loving dog. After a forty-five minute stroll in one direction, where I received quite the arm workout keeping Beau from swimming with the fishies and potentially alligators, (No me gusta.) we decided to turn around and head home. Beau was sufficiently tired, and Allison walked her the rest of the way home… I don’t know why she can walk in an almost straight line for an eight year old, but zigs, zags, and bounds when it’s her mama. Oh well, at least she didn’t drag Allison head first into the river.
Beau loves exploring and being outside. If she could sit in the backyard with me all day, she would. We always try to take her for a walk shortly after arriving at our travel destination. These walks put her at ease and let her know we will not be abandoning her to strangers in a foreign land. Although, these strangers came with cats to poke, so it wouldn’t have been as bad as strangers with a house sans cat-beings.
She’s happy to be home and in her own chair, but she had a great deal of fun in NOLA and walking on the levy.
bisous und обьятий, RaeAnna
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There was some impatience while I took her picture. She was getting treats, but having them in front of her was too much.
Give me.
Beau will go down in history as the best Valentine’s present ever. Three years ago today, she came home with me. We have been through so much in the past three years, but I wouldn’t change a day of it. I love her with my whole entire heart. She is my world. If you know me or met me, you already know this. She is at the heart of my life and my happiness. I don’t know what I would do without her.
For as obsessed as I am with Beau, it’s a surprise I have never made her homemade dog treats. I did this year!!! She LOVES them. They’re completely safe for puppers and humans. Dylan tried the dough and the biscuits. He says they taste like peanut butter and pumpkin, which makes sense. Even if you’re not celebrting adoption day with your dog, the puppers in our lives deserve some Valentine’s love too. Honestly, they probably deserve it more than the humans in our lives. I love the humans, but I love the dogs more. Beau is perfect, so I made her some homemade dog treats and cut them into hearts because she cares so much… I don’t usually do hearts, but it’s Valentine’s season!!!
Some heart shaped dog treats!!!
Dog Treats Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup Peanut Butter – safe for doggos 1 cup Pumpkin Purée ⅓ cup Vegetable Oil 2 Eggs 2 ½ cups Whole Wheat Flour 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°
Mix peanut butter, pumpkin, oil, and eggs until well mixed.
Add in dry ingredients. It will be a stiff dough but very oily.
Roll out on a floured mat. For little dogs roll it thinner. For bigger dogs, roll it thicker!
Cut out into whatever shape you want!
Place on cookie sheet. For a smaller biscuit, bake for 12 minutes. I baked mine for 15 minutes. For a hard biscuit make until there is no give when touched.
Let cool.
Then generously hand out to the dog in your life!!!
We went to the dog park today, which is not unusual, but I did find out about a fun new skill Beau has acquired.
Abandonment issues are something both Beau and I have in common. Although, hers are much worse than mine. I don’t freak out when my people are within eyesight. Beau does. If there is something keeping her from me and I’m walking away, she’s not a happy camper.
Setting the scene: Dylan and I walked around the dog part as Beau zoomed and zipped and sniffed butts. She pooped all over the place. She did one last big poop as we were about to leave. Dylan stayed in the dog park with her to clean up the doo-doo pile. I walked to the truck to grab her towel and shampoo so we could clean the gross lake water off her.
Action continues: As I walked through the gate to go to the truck, Beau started freaking out because the gate and the fence was in her way. She didn’t care Dylan was right there with her. She ran from one side of the gate to the other, SCREAMING!!! Beau was so very unhappy. Even though she could see me, she wasn’t with me.
New found talent: I was at the truck and turned to look at her. Beau was CLIMBING the fence. When she was near the top of the fence, she looked over it and realized getting over it would be hard. She climbed back down the fence and continued to stare at me whining.
We were reunited a whole two minutes later. It was very devastating and emotionally traumatizing for Beau. I am, obviously, a terrible mother. She managed to survive the whole experience, and we’re curled up in our chair amid a pile of pillows. Tomorrow is a new day, and we will continue to work on our abandonment issues. For now (and hopefully forever) I will remain her dedicated stay-at-home dog mom.
bisous und обьятий, RaeAnna
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This trifecta means my office is my safe place. I love my office. There are a few things I would change. Like a bigger, comfier chair. Or adding a funky lamp. If I’m not binge watching TV or cooking, I’m in my office.
I like my home to be as comfortable and cozy as it is light and airy. For me it’s a combination of dark and bright, heavy and light, fluffy and stark, cute and functional. Everything serves a purpose. Sometimes that purpose is bringing a smile to my face. I don’t want my office to just be comfortable for me; it has to be a place Beau enjoys being. Wherever I am, she also is.
I have a desk away from the wall but far from being in the middle. A papasan is nestled into a bay window. I used to have Beau’s Serta dog bed in the bay window, but she refused to sleep in it there. I like to keep the floor as open as possible so Beau can run in and out and play with her toys on the floor while I work without me getting in her way or vice versa. I ended up moving her dog bed next to my chair, up against the bookshelves because she could touch me and see out the window at the same time.
The other day, my friend brought me flowers. I put them in my office because I love how much life they bring to the room. She gave me the best compliment: It’s so calm. Ugh. Yes. That’s my aesthetic. Calm. Probably not. Between my high energy and Beau’s energy, calm is not the immediate aesthetic of my home, but when I walk into my office, I do feel calm. Beau doesn’t, but it is truly our safe space.
bisous und обьятий, Beau and RaeAnna
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