Uh, exCUSE me lady–you are in my shot…Kenai 3 yrs old
All posts for the month March, 2011
Pretty soon loves…by Lisa Harmon
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on March 30, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/pretty-soon-loves-by-lisa-harmon/
Big Boys and Little Spaces…by Lisa Harmon
poor little sleepy head…Kenai 3 yrs
Aw goshes, another hard day Friday for a nervous nelly boy–took three hours to get my hair done! He was a total wiggle wumps when I got home, and glued his puppy self to my hip the rest of the day. So today we’ll stick together alot and just hang out at home once the trip to the grocery and a run for boxes is done.
Here’s the new hair cut and color. The lady was really good, and figured out fast what my hair would actually do. I’m at that age where the hair starts to change in texture and such, and with all the health problems…
So I love the cut, though the highlights are alot closer to fire engine red in person than I like. I was hoping more for a little auburn highlights and maybe some golden copper. That’s okay though,
Believe it or not, I was a natural blond/strawberry blond as a child. Hit the 20′s and it started to darken. Now it’s such an icky ash color only the whitest of greys show up. A bottle of color is a requirement!
This ain’t the best pic, but it’s hard to take your own pic at arm’s length and make it semi-upright. The lighting wasn’t the best either, but you get the idea.
Since Kenai and BB are so stressed, I’m gonna try to stay home and “normalize” things a little this weekend. I called their trainer, too, to see about having her come for 1 1/2-2 hours at a time at the new house.
Not only is she their fun bud, she can make the new house a positive place right off the bat as well as take advantage of the new environment to set some good habits before the old ones just re-establish on their own.
This weekend there’s two things that need to get done: sort the Christmas stuff, and Mom’s closet. The boys can’t “supervise” the Christmas stuff how Danes do: sniff, sneeze, squeeze between delicates to lay down practically on top of you…
I know, I ruin all their fun!
It’s always amazing how tiny a space the big boys can squiggle into. And the squiggle in is followed by the pooch ooch where they go from practically on top of you to actually on top of you. You’d think something that long and bony wouldn’t squish as well as it does! Silly pups.
The first time my Dad “met” a Dane was at a neighbor’s house one evening. (By neighbor I mean 3 miles–country girl). They had some shop to talk, so the dogs weren’t exactly the highlight of the night. Dad had seen the Danes, but not really interacted with them.
After visiting awhile, his plan was to get in the car and go home, right? Uh huh. He had forgotten something and went back inside, leaving his car door open. That’s always a mistake unless you want a Dane to go for a ride with you.
Anyway, he got what he’d forgotten, got in his car and shut the door. Then he heard the heavy breathing, and the little car had a bit of a peculiar rocking motion.
Turn and look: TABOO smushed into the passenger seat of a VW Rabbit, nose to nose with Dad in the dark. He fit, just none too spaciously…
That’s a Dane for ya.
Since I can get online whenever (oh the luxury), I’ve finally updated a few of the training pages over yonder. It’s strange how little in depth info you can find on puppy socialization on the internet, at least through a simple bing search.
By in depth I mean, of course, a near obsessive account of recognizing which body languages, puppy snorts, and other such reactions to various stimuli to encourage.
But that’s just me? Looking for the “From Idiot to Master Puppy Socializer” book in just over 1,000 pages (grin). Can ya call me a detail girl? Or is it too lazy to figure it out my mistakes from the past 20 yrs on my own for the next 20 years?
There are courses of course, for seminars and all, but I sure don’t have the disposable income nor energy to travel all the time. The CFS strikes again. I’ve found a few blogs that are pretty good though, and absorbed everything I can from them. Then I filter it through my experiences.
Well, it is officially laundry time, now that the box of clothes I left out is empty and the hamper is full. At least Kenai has fun helping me “sort” my socks!
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on March 27, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/big-boys-and-little-spaces-by-lisa-harmon/
Smushy Tired…by Lisa Harmon
this moving stuff makes a boy tired…Kenai 3 yrs
When the house is showing, we of course must be out of it. And while my car’s in the shop, that means both boys in Mom’s. Within 5 minutes, Kenai’s agitated and giving me the “LEMME OUT” noises. That close in with his brother means Mr Quiet gets short circuted by the power grid we call BB.
Our streak of warm weather turned into turtleneck weather overnight, so me is layered worse than old paint on a windowsill. Wouldn’t it be nice to have your own built in fur coat on such days? Kenai does, lucky dog.
Isn’t it nice to get online whenever ya want, too?
I woke BB up this morning to find an open sore about 1/4″ long on his shoulder. It wasn’t bleeding, but it had a little pus, so pups is getting some keflex (anitbiotic) now. He’s a petri dish, that boy. That means antibiotic wipe downs from tip to tail twice a day for both boys.
Sometimes I use rubbing alcohol, sometimes a ketochlor solution from the vet, somtimes witch hazel, sometimes a Neosporin cream for moisturizer, and occasionally cider vinegar. I try to vary what I use when I can.
Being crammed in the car for two hours or more creates the need for pain rubs and “sleepy pills” (pain rx) for sweet Beebs. His poor tush is sore, so he’s getting the baby treatment today. There’s no more schedule viewings of the house this week, so hopefully we’ll have a few days of quiet before the rush of next week’s closing.
One more week plus 3 days or so for the fence to go up. Then it’s a new place to call home. I’ve been anxious–moving seems to involve nearly all my anxiety triggers, wouldn’t ya know it? Needless to say the fibro and chronic fatigue is snarling at me frequently as well. I just keep saying to myself “one more week” and get on with things.
I haven’t decided if I should move my furniture and such the day after closing or wait until the fence is up: I can bring the boys and put ‘em out back while hauling in the boxes. We’ve got someone to move the heavy furniture, but I’ll be taking care of the fragile stuff and clothes. Mostly because I do it for free, partly because I’m careful.
If I do move the belongings April 2-3, I’ll have to spend my nights on a small bed with Brown at the old house in a stripped down room. Nothing of our own but a toothbrush. It’d be like sleeping in the corner of a flea market, surrounded only by the stuff up for sale.
The upside is more time to actually move things before having to get after building the veggie garden. When naps and breaks aren’t optional, more time is a good thing. I intend to clean the dickens outta everything that goes into the new house: sterile is the word of the day.
The downside is the boys can’t go with us if we move on the 2nd: the fence won’t be up until before April 7th. They’d be left at home alone most of the day, and they’ve gone nuts enough. (In olden days it would’ve been called a “nervous condition”).
See that’s the way a person with anxiety stresses over something: should I, shouldn’t I, what if etc. There’s a strange obsessiveness over every upside and downside. You know intellectually there is no such thing as “ideal”, but you keep looking for it!
In a way, it’s good because the frenetic energy helps overcome the fatigue. I can actually get things packed and cleaned (ya can’t hardly sit still). But it can paralyze you if you haven’t developed the ability to step back and decide like you’re deciding for someone else. And there’s the inevitable resurgence of fatigue at the end of that road.
But deciding for someone else is how sorting our overstuffed 40×60 shop came so easy to me; almost none of it was my stuff. Same with the house. I had one room of a 3800 sqft house, sleeping next to my sewing machine. 99% of everything here was Mom’s, I had little or no attatchment to.
I’m actually looking forward to moving. Oh, uh, well I’m looking forward to having moved, not so much the actual moving. A new house, a new tidy and uncluttered living room, an actual sewing room I don’t have to sleep in. And a FENCE!
Soon as we close April 1st the camera will go to the new house with me, I promise. And I’ve chosen to indulge in a new vacume for the carpet. I believe I’ll get an Orek. They’re supposed to have serious suction and be lighter too. We’ll see if it lives up to the TV ads!
HRH Kenai and Court Jester BB will have new beds. Crib mattresses are smaller than the twins, and they don’t need the extra two feet they leave unspoken for on their twin mattresses. I hope they really enjoy their new digs.
One more week plus 3 days or so…
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on March 24, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/smushy-tired-by-lisa-harmon/
Guess Who Gots Whats…by Lisa Harmon
Old pic apologies: I’d packed the battery charger for the camera and couldn’t find it again until yesterday. DUH. Ahem…I did finally actually find it in that horrendous pile of boxes, right?
We close on the new house April 1st! It’s a great little place: 1200+ sqft, garage, utility room, 3 bed/2 bath, single story ranch (no stairs!). ‘Course a new place is never “perfect”, but this house is solid and sturdy, well cared for, on 1.2 acres in a quiet semi-country area.
There’s very very little to nitpick about with our new house. For the furry folks anyway, if their sanity doesn’t give way before we’re in. They’re losing their little boy minds will all the foot and vehicle traffic. And I haven’t been exercising them: my bad. Almost everything that’s needed doing or deciding has found it’s way to my lap, as expected. Thus is my excuse.
Considering, one huge tantrum from Mom isn’t bad I guess. After weeks of pain and suffering from all the extra work I was doing, while she sat around whining, I unloaded really hard on her. I mean kick-backside-out-top-of-head hard. Turns out that’s what she needed to realize how badly she’d been acting.
That’s how I usually need my attention got too. Think maybe that’s genetic or just universal to mankind? Grin.
Almost all packed now, I am anyway. Gotta have a few clothes and sheets and shampoos to get me through but I’m pretty much ready to get gone. Mom’s still got her christmas village to severely reduce, and her gigantic closet to sort and stuff in boxes. As of closing day, I start shifting boxes while the liniment holds out!
Here’s who gets whats because of the move:
-
Kenai’s gorilla proof 1/2 acre fence will be up by the 7th or 8th, and that will be the last day of moving. His golden majesty will have the glorious fun of being just put out the back door without leash to run as he wishes. I will have the luxury of just putting his majestic baby butt out the door while I stay warm and dry inside (in slippers and nightie).
-
Kenai will also have a couch to sleep on again! He loved that couch upstairs; it ate his ball and hid his duckie baby with the best of ‘em. With a choice of his bed, my bed, or the couch, he invariably slept on the couch under the window. He shall again.
-
The “hired hands” will have the materials to build the raised beds for the veggie garden for me about then, too. So much for warm and dry inside, but hey, I may never have to buy produce again and Kenai can be outside all morning with me. My hands will be back in dirt! I’ll have the energy for that if I’m not walking BOY on a leash in 2 feet of snow 3 times a day.
-
The “skilled hands” should have the bathroom almost done around that time. Those were the smallest showers I’d ever seen. Pint sized is a generous description. So we will reduce one bathroom to a half bath (sink and toilet only), and give the other bath an adult sized disabled access shower.
-
the “tired hands”, mine of course, won’t have 3800 sqft of stuffed to the gills with stuff to keep clean, not counting the 10+ acres I’d lost control of years ago. My tired hands will have veggies to show for their red swollen joints rather than a floor or counter that took all morning to clean and got slobbered on 5 seconds later!
-
BB will have carpet under his tripod tush, so the three good feet don’t slide out from under him and he can scamper about at will. I’ll miss the little froggie routine hopping from runner to runner like lilly pads, but I’m sure he’ll find something else to make me chuckle about. Especially as I cuss the carpet I have to hit with a sweeper every day…at least it’s a small place.
-
Mom will have a new flat screen TV, wall mounted and all. All the better to watch from a new recliner that doesn’t smell like BB’s body odor how the old sectional did. And it’s leather, so that will help with her asthma, if I keep the carpet clean. Maybe next year I’ll change the carpet to a low berber or something short?
-
Mom will also have a smaller kitchen to keep tidy. Yeah, it’ll need a bit of changes, which she can enjoy herself thinking about. The cabinets are dark and small, wasting some 2 feet above them to the ceiling. The appliances could be newer, too. A little planning and that kitchen could be very very efficient.
-
Mom also gets her taxes cut by 2/3 rds, and probably the expenses by at least half. And with no pool to try and pay upkeep for, we should be more financially comfortable. Bill and tax time should be less icky.
I’ll really miss a tub to soak in, but maybe a heated mattress pad will serve the same pain relief purpose? And Mom’s gonna have a hard time not having room for the depression baby over buying and under-thinning tendency.
I only have to stay on my feet a couple more weeks, then I can give the puttering out body some downtime. The auction is moved back to April 30th, so once I’m out of this house, whatever’s left behind is for the auctioneers to sort! I’m gonna enjoy saying “all yours”!
And despite not having high speed available, grrrr…I’ve gotten around that one really less than good aspect of the new house. Rather than deal with dial up I took my wide load down to the AT&T store.
I could stand it no longer–me wents and gots me very own mifi device!! Don’t ya love the grammer, he, he? Now I can get online when I want in whatever outfit I want, weather not withstanding nor swollen legs preventing a trip to the cafe. You get all the boy stories you could want!
The boys as mentioned are in hysterics with all the noise and people, but so far, so far while still on steroids their health has held up okay. We’ve had one small bout of die in the rears, corrected with a few days of antibiotics and probably from allowing them a bone each to chew on. Believe it or not, BB’s handling the ruckus better than Kenai.
Bless his heart, I’m sure my love feels a wee neglected. Between my front running into the back of me going in all these circles, and the sheer tidal wave of over-exertion pain, he’s not had the attention he’s used to. And no where near the outside time or car rides.
I keep telling him that it’ll be worth it all in a couple weeks, but he just looks at me like “what’s a week?”. He’ll turn his head and gimme the boy wrinkles, but the concept of the future ain’t hitting home. Come Friday he may not even recognize me from upwind: I’m getting my hair done!
Yep, a cut and color. And I mean a CUT. I’m going from 6″ below the shoulder to chin length or above: get this mop off my neck and cool me down come July. Nothin like a new ‘do to make a new girl, right?
Well I’m gonna get off now and check out a few blogs, read up on this or that, maybe even have another try at deciphering the facebook jargon. Why, because I actually can now! No, not translate facebook, but go here and there online. Facebook may take a few lessons…
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on March 23, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/guess-who-gots-whats-by-lisa-harmon/
about.me
lisa harmon
Having become disabled in my 30's, I began a new and unexepected life journey, chronicled on a blog. The need for tenacity, maintaining a stubbornly positive outlook on life, and the determination to focus on what I can do, have been the most important lessons disability has taught me.
I decided that training my own Great Danes to be my assistance dogs was one way I could have a fuller, more independent life. The experience has taught me more about life, love, and respect than any other endeavor of my life. There has been amazing triumphs, and deep sorrows but I wouldn't trade one moment of it!
Blogs I Follow
Flickr Photos
More Photos
