I Think I See A Pattern...

I have a confession... I love black & white and Tri-colored animals. I have written before what my qualifications were when I was looking for a puppy and how she had to be black. But I have realized what I really love is the contrast of colors in the animal. Here are a few animals I have not mentioned or have briefly mentioned before on the blog that have captured my heart.

These two are the very first animals I had.
The cat was Charles Black and White George Gregory, Jr aka Junior and yes that was his full name.  He was my step-mom's cat who was a year older than me and passed away at 14yrs old.
The dog was Akira and the very first dog I ever loved. She was a Black Lab/Keshound mix and was a very hyperactive dog.

This was Misty and my big momma kitty. She was one of the outside cats that came around Zach's parents house a few years ago. She was the most loveable outside cat I ever meet.

Here are a few of the kittens that I loved.

Rufus, she is a girl.

Beautiful Annabell.

Lazy Dusty.

I always joke that I will most likely have black & white or Tri-colored animals in my life. Every time I see a cat or dog I like on petfinder.com, it usually has contrasting colors in its coat. But who knows maybe my next pet's color will be completely different and surprise everyone, even me.

What about you? Do you have a pattern when it comes to what you like in a pet? Or do you like to spice it up and have something completely different?

Dog-E-Glow Testing

A month ago I had signed Trinity up to be a product tester for Dog-E-Glow. We were testing out a collar and leash in the pink plaid. I had not taken any pictures of them because I had it only for a few weeks before the collar stopped lighting up on me. I sent it back and it returned to me yesterday. Unfortunately one weekend to late. I wanted to use it during the holiday weekend. But all is good because this time we got the stars & stripes collar. I am super happy with this because I love to have holiday wear for her. I had bought her a summer collar at the end of the season last year but she doesn't have an American Flag type collar. It's really nice and lights up red. Now she has a pink light up leash and a red light up collar. She won't match, but hey, she doesn't need to impress anyone. She's super cute without accessory's!

I had to tuck back all her fur!

"This is my good side!"

Close up!

I really like that it lights up so I can find her now when she's running around in the dark. It will make it easier to know where she is when we go in Zach's parents pool area in the dark. On Saturday it was very hard to find her while we were watching a movie outside. But that will change with this collar, all I have to do is look for the bright red light!

We Love To Swim Now!

I have said before that I am very nervous about bringing Trinity off leash while on walks. Luckily Zach's parents live on 7 acres of land where we can go for a walk without worrying about anyone coming up to us or distracting her from coming to recalls. I am very glad to share that she (maybe me) have made some progress with off leash work. We brought Trinity down to the river on there property and she had a blast running around and eventually swam. Here's a very adorable video of our experience, enjoy!

We Went To The Vet Again: An Update

A few weeks ago I posted that the cats went to the doctors. Yesterday they went back for a check up and for a distemper booster. They did great, as usual. They climbed all over each other while in the carrier. But once they got out they were good. One stayed on the exam table while the other stayed in the carrier.

The vet checked Star first for her heart murmur. To my surprise it was gone! YAY! She said it is probably stress related and that every check up we should be sure to listen for it. She also has lost some weight about 5oz in 3 weeks. The Doctor's not to worried about it but she wants me to weigh her every week to get a baseline and if there are any changes to call her about it.

"I'm so happy to be here...not!"

Waiting for the Doctor.

"What are you doing?"

"Can we come out now?"

"This is not comfy."

Sitting an sulking.

"Where is that Doctor already!"

But my trouble child seems to be Miss. Cookie Dough who has been vomiting digested foods more than usual lately. Unfortunately for us their is a whole list of things that could be causing her to do that, so Dr. Natalie wants to put her on a 'sensitive stomach' diet to see if that will help. The Meow Mix they have been getting is, according to the Doc, like 'pizza and burgers to us'. Which is not good. So, we came home with special vet formula wet food. Now I need to go to the pet store to buy her food because I gave her the new food last night and she's not to impressed with it. My girls are such picky eaters. It took us forever to find the kind of wet food Star likes and now I have to worry about one eating the others food. But for the visit Cookie Dough was hamming it up because she thinks she's super cute. Well I guess she is!

"This is how I lay down now."

High Energy Dogs and Why I Love Them

I love a high energy dog. I know, your probably asking your self, why? Well, the reason that is, is cause they are so eager to train. They want to be with you all the time and doing things with you. Having a high energy dog makes you get outside and play or take a walk. Plus, being high energy, they enjoy being with you. I love the fact that once Trinity gets really hyper it means it's time to go outside and play fetch or go for a nice long walk in the woods. Which means I exercise, which I do not enjoy doing unless it's fun for me and I think it's fun training her. I once told someone what type of dog she was (at least my best approximation) they said, "Wow, two hyper breeds." "Yes, she is hyper and we do a lot of things together to burn off her energy", I replied. I love to put her with my niece and nephew sometimes because she looks at them like, 'I don't know what your saying but it must be fun cause your really excited about it!' Which makes her excited therefor she runs around like a wild maniac.

"I so tired after running around all day."

So, my next dog needs to match Trinity's hyperactive personality. Plus I want to do agility with him/her because someone won't do it with me. I wonder who that could be??

Proper Dog Socialization or How Trinity Would Be The Perfect Foster Sister

Proper socialization is very important for everyone. Whether you have 4 legs or 2, we all need to interact with things that are out of our comfort zone. Dog's, in my opinion, are very high on the scale of proper socialization. They need to be desensitized to be around all types of things such people, animals and especially dogs.

Trinity playing with all her friends at our training center

 I was very lucky to have such a well socialized dog. Trinity loves all types of dogs and people. Of course it does help that she had a great dog mommy to show her how to do this. Although she still enjoys chasing her kitty sisters. But I understand that not all dogs are as perfect as my baby is (I'm a little biased). An incident that happened over the weekend really got me thinking about this.

She loves to play!

Zach and I went over his parents house and our friend came over with his small dog, Pancake. My father-in-law's dog, Lady, was adopted after living with her 8 siblings in foster care for 4 months with out being with their mom. Unfortunately, Lady doesn't have very good social skills and dislikes new people and dogs coming into her home. Which caused a problem when Pancake came over. She ended up getting out of the house and pounced on him scaring the crap out of him and my nephew. I was inside with my niece and all I heard was yelping and people yelling.  Lady's quite a fat large dog and doesn't understand that is not the way to greet other dogs. Trinity, on the other hand, knows that to greet others you have to smell them and then if they like you, a play bow is the way you initiate play time. You don't just force your way on to another dog.

She's got an 'only child syndrome'. (Sirius Republic collar shout out!)

But I do know that it's not all the dog's fault. As their parents we need to train them, socialize them and if need be, to desensitize them to things that cause them to be scared or react. So I ask myself. What happens if I had not taken Trinity to puppy kindergarten? Or allow her to play with all types of dogs at the dog park? Would she still be a wonderful dog whom has wonderful doggie social skills? She still has many things to work on, but that's nothing training can't fix. I feel confident that Trinity would be an awesome foster sibling (bucket list here I come!) and would be ok with having another dog in the house. Even though Trinity's ok with it I still have to convince Zach, er??

"I like to socialize with my Auntie!"

I do know that when you adopt a dog not all are perfectly socialized. So, how do you work with your dog? Did they come well socialized or did you work on their issues?

The Cat's Went To The Docotor's

I'm sorry for the lack of blog posts lately. It's not that I've been busy doing a ton of stuff, except for working I've just been reading all of your lovely posts. So when it comes time to write one of mine, it's to late and I'm tired.

Now that I explained that, I must tell everyone of the kitties' doctor appointment last week. We went in for a check up and some shots. I brought them both together in the same carrier. They were so cute. Cookie Dough kept meowing and Star was trying to escape by pressing her head against the door.

"I don't like being in here."

They were both very good for the doctor. My kitty vet is by far the best vet I have ever had. All of the vets in the office are great, but I give this one 5 gold stars with 2 thumbs up! She was talking to them both, petting them, allowing them to sniff her equipment and apologized for when she intruded on there territory ie: gave shots or checked their temperatures. P;us, she kept calling me 'Mom', which I loved. We had a very bad experience with bringing the cats to the vet 1 1/2 years ago, for Star's surgery, that it's wonderful to have a loving vet.

"The last time we went to the vet we came out all drugged up!"

She checked Cookie Dough first while Star sat on my lap. We have seen her vomit undigested foods and that concerned us but she just wants us to watch her to see if it continues, luckily it has only happened once more. The only thing is that need to watch that her weight doesn't go up. She's 8lbs and has gained 2 since her spay.

"Are you calling me fat?"

Unfortunately, Star has a heart mummer. I knew about this since they were monitoring her for it during her dental surgery. She checked her and it is only at a level 1 on a scale ranging from 1-6. So when we go back in 3 weeks she will be checked again by Dr. Natalie to see if it is just from being nervous or she has it all the time. She was very upset when getting the shots that she was burring her head in the tech's arm. But no behavior problems at all. At the other vets, she was clawing their shirts and trying to escape.

"I'm a good girl when you treat me right!"

The next time we go back they will get their second round of distemperment since I was a bad mommy and forgot to bring them in last year for it and the year before, that the sucky vet (as I refer to them as) never gave it to them. The doctor told me it wasn't necessary because they live indoors but encouraged, especially since I would like to foster cats. It's something that's been on my mind that I would like to eventually do, hopefully soon. I just have to work on Zach approving it.

"Wait, you mean more cats for me to play with?"

Lastly, I asked her about possibly having heart disease in their family. Unfortunately, my oldest nephew and my sister-in-law's cat Smeagol passed away last Tuesday from a heart issue. He was doing an agility exercise and he seemed to have injured his paw, but it wasn't an injured paw he had many blood clots in his leg. Dr. Natalie explained to me that the clots affected his heart very badly. I was not sure if it was hereditary or not since all the cats were in a family outside and were all 'mixing and matching' with each other (you get it). She stated that there is a blood test to check if the cat has a strand of the disease, but she has only seen this in male cats mostly under the age of 5. So as of now I'm not worried for the girls, but Star will be monitored for any further signs or symptoms of heart issues.

Sun bathing before Trinity came and spoiled all the day time fun.

So now, I'm happy to say that the girls are happy and mostly healthy. But we are going to miss Smeagol very much and the only good thing to come of this is, when they are ready, is that another rescued kitty will find a loving home.