The One About Poop

I am flexible. I had begun to think that I wasn’t during my first month at the health club. However, in the last week I have learned that I am not strong, but I am definitely flexible.

You see, since I hurt my knee I have still had to clean and maintain the puppy room. This means cleaning up their poop and wet newspapers. How do I do that when I can’t bed my knee? I bend at my waist, that’s how!

I wasn’t certain I still could move like that. After all, it’s been years since I actually had to do that. Although I have the dachshunds, I have always had the ability to bend my knees in order to pick them up. Bending at the waist? Well, not so much.

Nothing will get you bending faster than 5 puppies about to leap into their own poop!

I get up each morning and hobble out to the puppy room. I am always equipped with a large kitchen garbage bag, a pooper scooper and a bucket and mop!

I’ve got this whole, clean up after the long night thing, down to a science, but you have to move fast. Fast is something that, no matter how hard I try, is simply not possible when I’m dealing with a painful knee. Moderately fast is about all I can do.

I clean up, put down fresh newspaper (which, of course, is fouled quickly), and then I feed my little munchkins. I do this, by once again bending from the waist, and placing their dish on the floor.

Then I make coffee.

Yes, even more amazing than the fact that I am able to bend from the waist and accomplish so much on the floor is, I do it all before I have my first cup of coffee.

Yes, I know. I rock!

Thursday Thirteen

Nov 24 015

My Favorite Perfect Lunch

1. Lettuce. Shredded into bite size pieces.
2. Cucumber. Peeled and sliced into bite size chunks.
3. 2 slices of deli roast beef or deli turkey, rolled up and sliced.
4. 1 ounce of cheddar cheese cut into match sticks.
5. 1 Roma tomato cut into bite size pieces.
6. 1 wedge of green pepper cut into match sticks.
7. 1/2 a stalk of celery sliced thinly
8. Red salad onion, sliced thin. As much or as little as you’d like.
9. 6-8 large Calamata olives. (the ones with pits are the best.)
10. Low Carb. Ranch dressing drizzled over the top.
11. One large glass of water with your meal.
12. A cup of hot tea afterwards
13. A small dish of sugar free Jell-O.



This And That

I have now graduated to a cane. Ah yes., a cane. At first I thought that if Hugh Laurie can do it, then so can I, but I soon found that using a cane successfully truly was a challenge. Pain is a great motivator though and I soon found my rhythm and was getting around pretty well. So what’s the problem? I did too much. By noon I could feel my knee really hurting, and tonight, well, not so good.

A good friend of mine came to spend time with the babies today and we took them out and played with them. I am watching the pups carefully these days as I am trying to evaluate which of the two female pups would be best for our family. Anneliese is a strong, energetic pup, with a sweet nature and endless amounts of devotion. She is also hysterically funny.

Anita is a sweet, pup, slightly less energetic, but who loves to play with Greta. I have also noticed that she will go up to check out Fritz, but when he gets upset, she will back off and give him his personal space. She loves to curl up in your lap and she is a kisser. She loves to be held and knows her name.

In fact all the pups seem to know their names. I’m surprised by this, but pleasantly so. They also come running to the door when they hear the can opener grinding, or when they hear me open my bedroom door in the morning.

Life is so good right now, despite my knee. Every day is full of wonder as I watch my babies grow and change. Yes, life if good!

I’m Just Wondering…..

I had Anita out today, to play quite a bit. She is a real hoot. Greta was playing with her and the two of them rolled around, chased each other and had so much fun. I did too. I love watching Greta play with one of her babies. As I sat there watching, it sort of dawned on me, that although Greta is very good with all her babies and is a wonderful Mother, she actually acts like a puppy herself with Anita. Had I been more flexible I would have jumped up and gotten the video camera and would be boring you with a mother/daughter video.

However, I couldn’t do that, so I sat back and just watched. Anita didn’t chase Uncle Fritz, and she doesn’t bark like her sister, and she is happy to just play quietly. Mmmmmm……could this be the puppy I should keep? I have said that I need to keep the puppy that is the best fit for our family and perhaps Anita is it. Mmmmmm….stay tuned.

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For anyone wondering, Uncle Fritz is doing better accepting the pups. At least he did okay with Anita this morning. By this I don’t mean to say he was happily playing with her, but after she went back to the puppy room, he went and smelled everywhere that she had been and was accepting of it. Mmmmmm, maybe Anita is the one?

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It was VERY cold here today. I think the highest the temperature got was about 10 degrees F. The winds were also quite strong, at 42 miles an hour. I hope winter is making a brief stop in so we know she still exists, and hen leaves just as quickly. Perhaps if I were in better shape and my knee wasn’t wracked up I would want more snow and more cold, bug for now, I would be happy if it were spring.

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I was actually productive today. I refuse to allow this silly knee to keep me down. I did three loads of laundry, thoroughly cleaned the puppy room and cooked three meals! I’m quite proud. The puppy room is never easy as we take the pups out, put them into a children’s playpen and then literally take everything out of the room, swab the decks and put things back before putting the puppies back into their room. But we got it done and now the entire house smells fresh!

8 Weeks Old!!!

It’s hard to believe that the babies are now 8 weeks old! Bernie’s owner’s came up today to visit and we talked about and evaluated each pup.

Three of our pups have homes. Good homes, and we are thrilled with that. Anja is going to Paul and Stephanie in the next town to us, Angelika is going to Nancy and her husband in New York State and Arnie is going to Leslie and her family in Upstate New York. Yes, it makes me happy that they have found good homes where they will be loved and cherished.

Feb. 4 Anja 2
Anja

Feb. 4 Angelika
Angelika

Feb. 4 Arnie
Arnie

It appears that Anneliese will be the newest member of our family, but since we haven’t found a home yet for Anita, we will count her as a family member. Both of these girls are beautiful and sweet and I adore them. We had the two of them out playing in the family room for quite some time and they had a ball. I wish you could have seen them running around playing.

Feb. 4 Anneliese with Angelika
Anneliese

Feb. 4 Anita
Anita

The neatest thing is that they seem to know their names and they come when you call them. They also wag their tails with happiness.

It’s so nice to have such a great litter of happy, healthy and beautiful puppies.

Anneliese

It’s amazing how one puppy will crack you up. Recently, it has been Anneliese. She seems to find funny positions to get into, funny sounds to make and funny places to fall asleep. She makes me laugh. As you can see in the last photo she is asleep with all the others, but her leg is hanging off the little sofa in a funny way. as she is half on the sofa and half on the little doggy bed. Too, too funny.

Feb. 3 007 Anneliese

Feb. 3 Anneliese 008

Feb. 3 012

Life is good when you have a pack of puppies around!

Oooooops!

***Update***

Well it looks like a torn meniscus. I will have an MRI next week and then we will know for sure, how badly injured it is and where we go from there.

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Okay, I am not the most athletic person I know, I have never claimed to be, but yesterday I proved that although I would like to believe I am Peekaboo Street, I’m more like Klutz-a-boo Avenue!

The day started out okay as we arrived at Waterville Valley. The lodge was loaded with kids from the local schools, who were participating in races, a light snow was falling. We had arrived a bit early affording me the time to get ready at a leisurely pace. Our friends arrived and we talked and joked and laughed as we got ready to ski.

The first run was so nice. I felt pretty good. I must say that although I ski, I do not ski “pretty”. My friend, Carol, she skis pretty. Boy I love to watch her! Me? Well the best that you can say is that I get down the mountain!

Yesterday? Not so much.

On our third run I was bringing up the rear of our ski group when I screwed up and caught an edge and down I went. Bing, Bang, Boom!

SKIGCRSH

Yes, you could say that was a bit painful, but the worst part? I couldn’t ski down the mountain, I had to go in the toboggan to the first aid center. Now this is not the way I wanted to go on my first toboggan ride. I had sort of planned that to be with laughing people, on a snowy day and after several “nice runs” we would all sit around and drink hot chocolate.

Not me, I rode down wrapped in an emergency blanket, being pulled by a young man who was young enough to be my son! Hubby met me at the bottom with our friends, where they collected all my gear, and put me in the back of our station wagon and headed off to the Emergency Room at the local hospital. The good news is, nothing is broken, the bad news is…..it hurts like heck!

So today I’m going over to see the P.A. at Hubby’s knee surgeon’s office and I will find out what I have done. I’m a little less sore today and since I spent the night in ice, the swelling is down.

I have to say, I am really embarrassed by this, but since I always share the good, the bad and the embarrassing with you, dear reader, I knew I had to write this down. Call this the confession of the stupid skier!

PS: I’ll let you all know what the doctor says….

Puppy Update

The pups are seven weeks old now. Greta loves them, and she likes knowing that they are being taken care of, but basically she looks upon this time as her chance to mold their personalities and not fill their bellies herself. Unless, of course, she is getting me to fill a plate of food for them!

In fact this will show you why Greta has given up nursing them. The pups are wonderful, sweet and a delight, but….they are also little parasites whenever Greta gets too close!

The Reason Greta is giving Up Nursing AMH

The puppies got over the fence today and we had to build a higher wall. Anneliese who is the smallest of the puppies, was the first one to vault the small fence, and once she laid her eyes on Uncle Fritz, she chased him around the kitchen table! What a hoot.

Thursday 13 #38

Cleaning Lady

Thirteen Things I Plan To Do This Spring

1. Clean out my attic. I want to reduce the amount of junk up there by half.
2. Send a large portion of this stuff to local charities. I have so many extra blankets, pillows and stuff.
3. Clean the basement out and get things into good storage containers and the rest of the crap to the dump.
4. Fix the seems in the drywall in our family room.
5. Paint the ceiling and wall in the family room.
6. Start my seeds for the garden.
7. Plant my garden.
8. Keep the garden free from weeds this year. Or at least try to.
9. House break the puppy.
10. Work with the puppy on obedience.
11. Work with Greta too.
12. Help Fritz adjust to the puppy.
13. Get back to hiking with the dogs.