Cocoa

I had the scare of my life yesterday afternoon. Cocoa fell off the deck. Not like tripped off a couple of steps, but got thrown almost from the top!

Patches was all fired up when I got home (like he usually is when he's been alone all day) and I put Cocoa down to go potty. Well, Patches wanted to play. And he got a little too excited. And he hit Cocoa a little too hard, and she went flying through the opening at the back of the step down to the ground about 9 feet below! I realized what had happened about half a second before she hit the ground and I just felt my heart sink into my gut!

As soon as she hit the ground she cried like she has never cried before. Even when I picked her up she was whining and wailing. I carried her inside and she had stopped crying but was still just shaking, but so was I! I sat down on the couch with her and she immediately tried to crawl off my lap. She was holding one of her front paws funny and didn't really want to stand but wouldn't lie down either. So I knew there was only one thing to do - take her to the vet!

I scooped her up, grabbed my bag, and was going to head for the vet. I got halfway out the driveway and looked out my rearview mirror. I remembered that our neighbor across the street is a vet tech and all their cars were there, so I figured she was there. She could probably tell me if anything was wrong and what to do.

She checked Cocoa out and she was probably ok. While we were there, Cocoa was walking around on all four legs and stopped shaking, plus she didn't cry or anything when she was touched, so that was encouraging. I brought her home and snuggled her on the couch for a bit before she hopped down and trotted into the kitchen to sniff at her food bowl. I followed her to see if she'd eat and she just kind of looked at me like "what, this is it?" I gave her some more food and a french fry from my dinner. She gave me the pitiful face and tried whining for an extra fry, but it didn't work.

She was running around and jumping on the furniture and ate some of her food so I felt like she was ok. She snuggled in my lap and acted ok for the rest of the evening so I wasn't too worried, but was just exhausted from all the adrenaline and fear!

We both slept pretty well. I got a little worried when she rolled over in bed this morning and was making some pitiful little yelping noises until I realized she was snoring! She didn't really get up when I did so I was a little worried, but once I got her up and we went outside, she was perfectly fine! She has been acting like herself ever since.

I think the whole thing just scared her and knocked the wind out of her. It scared me too! I know she's a dog, but she is special to me. She is my sweet, furry baby. I love her very much and don't want anything bad to happen to her!

Animal Antics

I love my furry children because they are so darn entertaining! Little Bit here has decided that, despite the fact that she could probably get her head stuck inside the Kong, it was her duty in life to get out every last crumb of treat that is shoved in there.

She had absolutely no interest in this or any other dog treat until Patches started playing with it. Then of course she wanted to take it away from him. The same is true of the bed on which all of this is taking place. Patches was a good sport and let her go with it, mostly because he had already spent some time on it and had moved onto his rope toy

Don't let him fool you though! He may look sweet and innocent and well behaved right now, but he is really a bit on the nutty side. Right now he's probably dreaming about what beloved possession of mine he can eat next.

There are no pictures of Cocoa just sitting there being precious because, well, she's a diva. She doesn't like to have her picture made. I can't quite figure it out, but if she sees me looking at her with the camera she will get up and move. As soon as I put the camera down, she comes back. It gets old fast. She usually wins.

Puppies are good for the soul. So is laughter, which my puppies frequently cause!

Furry Children

I love our dogs. They really are a part of our family. And they really are like children with their own developmental needs and unique personalities.

Cocoa is my chihuahua. She is five years old, so she is more than an adult. But she is also only four pounds! She was picked on by the littermate she lived with before I got her. As a result she has developed a few personality "quirks" that we have been working to overcome. 

The first is that she is kind of neurotic. Part of this is her breed, too. But she is very skittish and scared of just about anything. This has really improved thanks to Patches, amazingly enough. She has done really well learning to live with another dog. As a result, she has gotten a little bolder when it comes to meeting strange dogs. She will not only allow them to sniff her, she will often walk right up to them, which is nice because I know she can be more social. She's getting a little better about socializing with other people as well, but we still have some more work to do there.

Her second quirk is her eating habits. Although the other dog she lived with was smaller, the other one was the Alpha and would push her away and not let her eat. When I first got her, she would only eat at night when all the lights were out and nobody was watching her. She will now eat at normal times during the day, but still doesn't like any people to be around watching her, but if she's started eating she will let you watch her eat it. She is still a little funny in that she will take a piece of food and carry it away from the bowl and eat it, then come back for another piece.

I have recently become aware of the fact that she likes to get up in the middle of the night for a drink of water. I think part of this is my fault because she is used to staying up much later with me and now I am not staying up as late but she hasn't quite adjusted to our new schedule. This may have been going on for a long time but she always was able to get on and off the bed by herself (sometimes with the help of a stool or something to give her a boost) so I never had to get up with her. Now she can't get back on the bed by herself and we usually close the door at night so I have to get up and let her out, then wait till she comes back and put her back on the bed. 

Even though she was about two and a half years old when I got her, she wasn't quite as potty trained as I was told she was! I'm sure part of it was the transition to a new home and the fact that we moved about every year and that's a lot for anyone, but especially a little dog with nerve issues already! We have finally gotten her almost totally trained. She still doesn't always tell us when she needs to go out and if we wait more than about four hours while she is awake, she can sometimes have an accident. But for the most part, she is really good. 

Patches is our black lab/australian shepherd mix. He is about a year and a half old. He still has a lot of puppy in him and is full of energy. He has calmed down a lot when he isn't around other big dogs to cause trouble. But has a few quirks of his own.

The first is just that he sleeps on his back with his legs up or sprawled out. It's really funny to watch and makes us laugh.

Like any lab puppy, he loves to chew on things. We try to give him rawhide bones and other things that he is allowed to chew on, but he has eaten flip flops, a comforter, rugs, and even pulled a small fabric case for my contact stuff out of my purse and ate that! He also ate a huge hole in Jeff's grill cover! He is learning not to chew on things, but I have a feeling there will be some other casualties!

Although he is a big bundle of energy, I think being around Cocoa has taught him the joys of being a lap dog. He isn't allowed on the furniture, but loves to sit right next to us and just be petted and loved on. He also loves to give kisses, but can stop if you tell him no. He still gets really excited and loves to jump, which can almost knock you over! We're trying to teach him and he can be really good at listening to "no" or he can be totally oblivious, depending on his mood. 

Despite their quirks and areas for improvement, they are wonderful additions to our family and I can't imagine life without them!