Hello.....and she will work for food!!

Hi there......we have been away for a while but not just sitting around. Kati has met the lawn mower and the sewing machine. Yes the lawn mower in Feb.......i have been mowing up my dead grass since Jan. now. I have a huge backyard by AZ standards and i am now on my 5th giant trash can of scraped off dead grass and i am sure i will need to get to a sixth. The nice thing is that there is green coming up now too. Kati quietly goes into the house when she sees the mower and does not come out until i put it away in the garage.

On the other hand Dobie is all into mowing and likes to bark at the mower when it is running. He is certainly the noisy child and likes to be heard!! He likes to go from one side of the yard to the other dog talking to his neighbor buds. The funny thing is, he is never the initiator. We can be in the yard minding our own quiet business and he hears a barker several houses away and must respond to the call of the wild. Kati has almost figured out he is crazy and does not let his noise bother her so much anymore. She does not bolt into the house at warp speed anymore but kind of walks fast back to the door while he does his thing. Little brat!!

I am not sure if the sewing machine noise or the cords bothered her but we made it through that little venture and i got my pants shortened. Yes, i can sew......when you are short and want to wear pants it really is a necessity. Oh and we did a thunder storm the night before last. She was forced to be scared and allow me to pick her up during the loudest part and hold her. It think Molly was jealous as she has been the big storm baby in the past. She moves and can't decide what to do, i think she would have been fine with being held too, but she sat beside us. It was over pretty quick and Kati could not wait to get down. We all went back to bed and slept well.

She met her Dr. a couple of weeks ago. A doggie Dr. that comes to the house.....she is all cool and touchy feely and all into her dog patients. She changed up our flower essences and i think there is a change in her as a result. She also told me to make her work for food and she is doing her business much better outside..... So we don't go outside without treats now and if she pees or poops she come running for one. She is on to the deal and it seems to be working. And it is going to get a new fake wood floor in my office.........so i guess her bad habits have not been all in vain.....LOL. She seems to be going out more on her own and just wandering in the backyard. And that is really all it is about. Sit back relax and enjoy your big ole yard. I did cancel my April cruise, just did not think I wanted her forward progress to be damaged by me being gone for 12 nights. The last short trip i was on, did not go so well i thought and need to meet with the pet sitter again........

Anyway.......things are good and we promise not to stay away for so long. And that picture up top....Kati tries hard to follow Molly but Molly is not into sharing her space. Not sure what they were looking at but it was one of the few times they were both in sync and Kati was trying to be cool like Ms. Molly!!

The Tummy Rub!!

Guess what.....Kati has a tummy!! And i got to rub it for the very first time today!! So i have mentioned about the morning back rubs for Kati before........well today during our morning rub, she slowly turned over on her back and gave me her tummy to rub. I had never even seen it before. That was certainly off limits to the humans and never to be shared. I was not sure what she was doing until she let her head relax and her warm little belly was there for the rubbing. She let me do that for a few minutes, until the punk Dobie..........always afraid he will not get his share, busted his little head in for some loving too. It was over as quick as it stated. I think she has been watching each morning when we all wake up and I rub on Molly and Dobie. If they were all cats, i am sure there would be purring.

Bath Day!!

So Thurday was bath day and it started pretty well. Everyone got up happy and perky and Kati even managed to get busted chewing on a little blanket she pulled off the couch....it was very cute as you can see from the picture. Earlier in the day she managed to drag her ass all over the living room rug. Seems she has some leftovers from her chew bone the day before....fun clean up effort for me and another reason for that fabulous bath I knew was coming later in the day. When i did finally get her captured and it is indeed a capture event......as she does not come to me just to be coming to me like the other dogs. (Sorry about the crappy picture)

Dobie and Molly will come to me just about any time and certianly don't run from me. They know i am good people and there is no reason to run. Kati is starting to figure out that getting a back rub is not half bad and when i do manage to hold her, she does actually relax in my lap for a bit. But anyway, once captured and i got her into the bathroom......her behind was icky and there was not enough butt dragging she could have done to get cleaned up. So the agenda for bath day was going go be front and back end work!!

I screwed around and waited too long to try and start capturing her for her grooming. Once the hunt was on, she was on to me and was going to have not part of anything i had to offer. I feed her treats and tried to pin her in the office, then the bedroom........and well you can probably imagine. So in all this drama Dobie decided it was play time with a squeezy ball. And just so seems that this ball is loud and Kati does not do loud. So the loud ball sent her into the office under the desk, with Dobie and I to follow and the door was closed. Trapped at last!! and only 1/2 hour to grooming time. So i got her captured, collared and leashed and just decided to hold her for the next 1/2 hour..........and it was not all that bad!! She survived and so did Dobie, whinning at my feet to either be up there too or have her down with him!!

And of course, forgot all about the camera for bath time again. But we did get her face all cleaned up........probably a bit too short but she will grow out. And best of all, got her backside all cut up and shortened for better clean up on both our parts. Due to her puppymill upbringing, she is not into the basic cleaning that most dogs will do. She is coming around but it is no big deal for her to walk in poop or just run thru some pee from time to time. The other two.....especially Dobie, will step around in a huge way or even stop and go back.........before going near others business. He is a real snob about it all, wont drink old water either. And by old, i mean older than 12 hours. Goes up to the bowl, sniffs and walks away!!