Ace of Spays: The Aftermath

After the surgery she seemed so small.




She clearly seemed to be exhausted and so when we went upstairs we figured it would be best to leave her to sleep.




Then when we got back downstairs we saw she did TRY to come join us.

Ace of Spays

These are low quality due to being taken on my BFs phone and not my camera...but they convey the story.


This was the response to the command "show mommy you love her".


Puppy is still excited for car rides.


There's far too much to smell for abby to pose for pictures. :(


Abby say bye...for now.


Tired...but I can almost keep my eyes open.


Abby post-op...take me home!

One Month Pupdate

Abbie has adjusted to home life.
1) House training: We haven't had any accidents in our house since the first couple weeks. She has had a couple when we brought her to Brendan's parents, but not my mom's or dad's house. I think it's something to do with them having two dogs and the excitement of it all.

2) Commands: She definitely knows to sit whenever she wants something, but she is learning "Go Lay Down" and "Stay". For the most part "stay" is limited to very short stints usually around keeping her from eating until commanded with "Good Girl, Go Ahead".

3) Medical and Vet: She's getting spayed tomorrow! I am a little sad and scared about this. She had her second appt. and was 39.9 pounds. The vets loved her again. This was for her pre-op.


Waiting patiently for the vet to come in.


She hears someone coming!


Abbie loves the vet! (Because she gives her treats.)

We have also decided to crate train her. Originally I didn't plan to but she kept eating things in the basement (tupperwares, insulation, paper towels) that I feared for her health.

She is getting along very well in it. She sleeps in it as well because we didn't want her to associate it with being alone, so if it was her bed area too- may be she would grow to like it. She knows to go in to get a treat and then to sit after the door is closed to get another. It no longer takes much coaxing to get her to walk in.

We've also gotten a harness for walks, and this has helped oodles with the pulling. She is still not accustomed to spending time alone in the back yard but we are leaving her there for 10 min segments occasionally and she is doing better with it. She used to just bark, cry, jump on the gate, and try to dig her way out, but now she sniffs around and relaxes a little.

Also, despite her love of chewing- we have found that she does not destroy her stuffed animal squeaky toys. I am sure she will one day but they are lasting so far. She does, however, eat the foam beds.
Toy count:
- Stegums (Dental Stegosaurus)
- Bone (Castor & Pollux Pressed Rawhide)
- Pigums (Stuffed Pig with squeaker)
- Squeaky (oblong shaped green dog with squeaker)
- McRopington (Rope that used to have tennis ball attached but she destroyed the ball)
- Wishy (Wishbone shaped chew toy)
- Variety of tennis balls for fetch.

Happy Halloween Weekend!

So this weekend we came upon the first "oh no- what do we do with the dog" times as we had my Aunt's Halloween party to go to. Every option seems like a catch 22.
1) We leave her at home, she stays mainly in the basement with people checking in on her, comes to see the basement as a place of abandonment.
2) We put her in a kennel for the night, it brings on feelings of being left again, having to readjust to yet another place, and possibly hinders progress we have made in our home.
3) We have her go to my mom's (or someone's house) and again she is forced to adjust to a new home before being entirely comfortable in ours, and potentially acts up- thereby removing that person as a go to in the future when she is better adjusted and behaved.

We decided option one. We stayed with her till 6:30, had fed her dinner and gone for a walk, and put her in the basement. My mom took her for a walk again later that night. And then my dad took her for a mile walk first thing in the morning and fed her breakfast. Then picked her up a few hours later to come play in the backyard with Maggie. It was perfect. We did find out that she can get out of my parents yard (par of their gate is broken) but fortunately my mom was smart and after calling ABBIE to no avail, she thought to walk around with Maggie... and sure enough, Abbie came!

Soon after, I picked her up and she was very happy to see me.

Then after decorating the house, we all hung out in the living room watching Slither (a scary movie) and handing out candy to children. It was great... Abbie didn't over react to the loud noises in the movie, and since we have a dutch door, we were able to open the top half and hand out candy. Abbie would jump up with her paws on the door to see the kids. I wish I got a pic of this- it was VERY cute.

It was a good weekend of socialization and prooving to Abbie that even if we left for a bit- that we would be back. I think she is really starting to feel this is her permanent home. As the night went on and we kept opening the door for kids, it got a little chilly and so I covered Abbie with a blanket and we snuggled.

Happy Halloween!

This is Abbie

She was lost roaming the streets and saved by a guy that works in my company. He already had two dogs so he posted a listing offering to hold on to her for a few weeks until someone claimed her or was interested in taking her in.

We have a cat and have long thought about getting a dog. I was never sure about the way to go... do you wait until you have kids so you know you get one that likes kids and has someone to play with? Or do they need to much attention and training to deal with while also having a small child? Do you get a puppy? a rescue?

A puppy at least I would know had no traumatic experience with babies. A rescue not so much.

But a puppy I would be wholly responsible for socialization/training/etc... wouldn't know how big it's going to get or what kind of personality it will end up having. A rescue I can choose more discernibly.

The cat has had mixed experiences with dogs. Some, she's learned to live with. One, she nearly got eaten by. Would a puppy be better as it is small and would be less threatening at first? Or would it's need of more time/energy make the cat jealous while it's boundless energy become irritating? Thus might a rescue be better in that it might have a higher level of maturity and nonchalance that the cat would like. However it's grown size could be scary.

Then there is size of dog... BIG and low energy? Small and high energy? How much time for grooming, training, etc? How much room in the house do we have for a dog.

After thorough questioning (as thorough as you can get on a stray that some one has had for a week), and deep consideration... my boyfriend and I decided to take her in.