And the score is....

Bella: 2 retractable leashes, 1 6' leash from the humane society, and 2 harnesses....Make that 3 harnesses, the morning after writing this blog Bella chewed through her expensive Easy Walk Harness....she never did like that thing.

Tucker: 1 6' leash form the humane society and 1 harness.

As you can tell my pups have a knack for destroying leashes and harnesses. Tucker chewed through his harness last week when I left it on him b/c I was going to be letting him out again once the contractors got to the house. Then last night while the said contractors were at the house I had the leash on him so I could stop him from getting in their way. They asked me to come downstairs to look at something and upon my return upstairs the handle of his leash was separate from the rest of it. I'm sick of spending money on this stuff!

As far as house training goes just when I think we're getting somewhere with Tucker he pees in the dining room as he's playing (by himself). I really wonder if he will ever get it. I just don't understand why it's so hard! GRRRRR!

The search continues

Last week the company was out to clean out the vents and get rid of that dead animal smell coming in through our vent in the bathroom. However, the guy got to the bathroom vent and ran into some problems. Then he broke the head of his tool off in the vent....thus stopping further cleaning of the vents until the tool could be replaced!

Last night they came over to see if they could get the head out and to see if they saw anything in the duct once they removed it. The verdict: they didn't see anything! They also stuck their camera down the nearby ductwork and saw nothing. However, they both agree that there is a strong smell in that area. They also discovered that there have been mice in the dropped ceiling and there's a lot of mouse turds up there. They figure the mouse/mice came in through the area that the AC tubes/cords come go out of the wall to the outside unit....you can see outside through this hole!

I would LOVE to know who did the installation. Seriously how can you leave someone's house like that???? Luckily we have not seen any mice thus far and I doubt we will since we know that Abby enjoys a good mouse chase and is quite good at killing them!

So, we are still searching for that smell. Not sure if we will ever find this dead creature. I hope we do, perhaps I will send a cat on a ceiling search....it should hold all 10 lbs of Abby right???? LOL.

Adventures in home ownership

It's true when it comes to home ownership - it's always something. Last night I noticed a foul smell in the bathroom...worse than poop! So I cleaned the toilet since it was looking like it could use a good cleaning. Then I went to bed. This morning I wake up and the bathroom still reeks. While getting ready for work I played find that smell. Tub - smelled like body wash....Sink - smelled like mouthwash....Toilet - smelled like bleach although I could pick up a hint of "that smell". Ruling those options out I continue getting ready.

Abby comes along and enters the bathroom and goes straight to the vent.....I think could it be? The cats have been stalking that vent lately......like they did when there was the mysterious scratching noise that was assumed to be in mine and the cat's heads. I walk over and sniff ~ yup that's where that smell is coming from. Just to verify I'm not imagining things I have Rick come in and sniff too. At first he smelled nothing in the bathroom, so I had him sniff check the vent....and he smelled it too! I am not imagining these things! YES! Then disappointment sets in as I realize we now have a dead rodent of some kind in the vent smelling up the house. EWE! Rick says he'll take care of it. I'm glad he's taking care of it b/c if it was up to me I'd be paying to have the ducts cleaned and disinfected!

Ah, the adventures in owning your own home. What a great way to start a morning!

Shopping

Since I had off today I decided I would go ahead and look for a new dress that I could wear to my Niece's 1st Communion and my upcomming 10 year HS reunion. I'm assuming I can wear the same one to both right? I really have NO idea what to wear to that reunion, so I'm hoping this dress will cut it.

I went to Fashion Bug, Kohls, Dots, Sears, Pennys Boston Store, Layne Bryant.... all to no avail. I had my mind set on finding a little black dress, and the pickings were slim. Apparently if you're plus size you get a choice of moo moos and that's about it. I do not need to look like I'm an old maid in a moo moo really! So in a last ditch effort I went to another Fashion Bug and this one had a much better selection! YAY! I found the dress I picked out online. Unfortunately it made me look really fat and got glitter all over the place. So I tried on a second dress and this one was a winner! It's black with a see through layer over the top that has some flowers on it. I think it looks decent on me, I will wait to confirm that thought with Rick when he gets home tonight.

Dress shopping or any clothes shopping always turns out to be a self esteem shattering event. SO frustrating due to the fact that when you're plus sized you only have limited choices of clothing that is not made for old people! I absolutely HATE shopping for any clothing. So in the misdst of being devistated at every store I decided to go to the pet store where I knew I'd find something I neded...an easy walk harness for Bella (Tucker's works wonders!) and doggie nail clippers. While browsing around I get a phone call from the vet. Apparently the stool sample I brought in for Tucker came back positive. He has Giardia, which is some parasite that lives in the intestines and is not covered in standard de-worming medicine or his Sentinal tabs. This one is transfered through contaminated water sources. Bella had the same thing when we got her, so I kinda think it's something they got down south where they came from.

Luckily I was at the pet store when I got the call cause his meds have to be sprinkled on wet food. So I picked up 5 days worth of canned puppy food for both pups and 5 days worth of canned cat food. Somehow they all know if one of them is getting it and will be incredible persistant in the fact that they should get it too.

Adventures in House Training

As I've mentioned before, Tucker is impossible to house train when compared to Bella. As of yesterday we've had him for 5 weeks. He is still relieving himself in the house. Bella was potty trained in 3 weeks and only pooped in the house twice. Needless to say I'm frustrated!

This morning I awoke to poop in the kitchen (at least it was on the linoleum this time!) and pee on one of my rugs in the kitchen. Really frustrating!!! Not to mention that I somehow misplaced the enzyme cleaner. How that happens I'm not exactly sure! I'm thinking it's in a different cupboard. Kinda like last night when I went to get the oil out to make brownies I found the open jar of jelly sitting next to the peanut butter. I'm special. I think maybe early onset of Alzheimer's it does run in my family on both sides, so I'm doomed!

My new idea is to try the bell method. This method originates back to the Pavlov days where he trained dogs to salivate at the ring of a bell. So what I will be doing is buying some jingle bells and attaching them to the door knob. Each time we go outside we ring the bell. Eventually he's supposed to ring the bell when he wants to go out. I'm hoping this eliminates the problems we've been having.

My thought (or hope) is that Tucker doesn't know how to communicate with us he needs to go out. At night I suspect he is standing in the kitchen waiting and no one is noticing him (cause we're sleeping obviously!) so he just goes. Bella would ALWAYS come in the bedroom and whine. This would wake me and we'd go out and all was good. Perhaps she learned this from the nights she was in the crate and Tucker hasn't learned because he spent 2 nights in the crate and that's it.

If all else fails, Tucker will be sleeping in the crate at night as well and I will just feel guilty that he's in there all day and all night. My fingers are crossed!

It's been a while

I didn't think it's been over a month since my last post. Wow how time flies! I haven't been up to much other than spending time with the dogs, reading, and other miscellaneous tasks around the house.

We did get a second dog at the end of February. His name is Tucker and they say he's a Border Collie/German Shorthaired Pointer mix. I've learned that the Humane Society tries to do their best in determining the type of breed, however our vet tech says they base it on colors. Everyone always guesses Aussie mix first. So who knows. He's a good dog, very sociable (more so then Bella) and he and Bella absolutely loves him! They are constantly playing and teasing each other.



Potty training is not going as well with Tucker. Bella was quick at that...maybe too quick I got spoiled. 3 weeks is all it took and she only had 2 poopy accidents in the house. We've had tucker for 5 weeks now and he's still pooping in the house occasionally. Yesterday he pooped in his crate during the day and the night before that he pooped on the dining room carpet. I don't know why he did this, his schedule did not change. The week before I went to go to bed at night and there was a nice puddle on the comforter. Luckily we have the matress pad with the plasticy backing to it so it didn't leak onto the bed. I was PISSED! We only have one set of sheets for the bed so I had to scrounge for alternative solutions. He has yet to have an accident free week. I am frustrated. I think part of the problem is we were more lax with him than we were with Bella. She slept in the crate at night for a couple weeks at least. He slept in the crate at night twice.

I still take them for a 30 - 45 min walk every morning and we go to the dog park every day after work. The rain is making that difficult lately, but I do my best to get them out there. Tucker loves puddles and now with the rain and melted snow he's quite muddy when we leave. Bella has also started following him into puddles. I knew her staying away from them was too good to be true!

This got a lot longer than I planned it to be. That's what happens when you don't blog for a freaken month LOL!