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I can’t imagine how busy you must be…keep us posted.

Things are strained here. H still in hospital and I am gone all day with him, and Bella is in morning. For a couple of days she would barely eat and drink.

My sister is spending almost all day with her, and Bella has started eating.

But when I leave early in the morning she cries and yelps non stop. Then a couple of hours later when my sister arrives, she loves on her for about 5 minutes, then Bella falls asleep. She is wearing herself out.

So the last couple of days I have gone back and forth from the hospital to home. This seems to be helping. When I leave I put her in our master bath with a toy, her bed, and food and water. Now she doesn’t even want to go in there. This morning I was taking a shower and she just came in (walk in shower). So I gave her a bath too.

I know she is crying right now and it breaks my heart.

It will probably be days before H is out of the hospital. Poor H, and poor Bella!

Good morning with the Mink and Missy AM bulletin!

After we got home, Mink enjoyed checking out the grass with me while sitting inside his XPen, but he also walked me over to his familiar crate that I'd left on the sidewalk from when we walked it over out of the camper. It was a familiar thing in a new environment? Or still a possible source of water or food (itty bitty cups they had strapped to the gate were nowhere near enough water for that trip.) It was like an old friend, almost...

With the 6 hour jet lag, I knew we would not know when his Off Switch might trip, if it ever did! Newsflash: seems there was not much of an Off Switch!! At least not last night. He resisted going into his bed crate, just like all toddlers. I amazed myself at how I've learned over the years with Missy to recognize the potty cries versus the abandonment whines versus complaints about confinement...so off to sleep we went at my bedtime, even though I did read my iPad in bed and he could tell I was awake. I figured if I ever want to be online at night again, I'd better start off letting him see the glow. Soon it was fine in puppydom.

Until the 2 am wake up call. I slipped on the leash as he tried bolting away, had to hold him halfway up and collar him, or he would have run rampant right over to Missy's side of the room and all that wouldn't have helped anybody sleep! Out the door and the two steps to the sidewalk, I had to rein him in from jumping the both of them. Straight into the pachysandra (toxic plant if chewed, did you all know?) and did a big pee, which showed me his protests had been legit, he was really holding it! And also did a big poop in the longer field grass - just like our other two always preferred. Must be instinct. I didn't allow him to do the thing he immediately is trying to make part of the bathroom trip routine: jumping up on a very low settee in the hall on the way back to the crate. We call the Victorian velvet settee Missy's Princess throne. Of course, she will be annoyed when she discovers this, but darn it, he is cuteness itself. I sat there with him the first time he did that, but not at 2 am! So we got back to sleep after some puppy protest whines I ignored and a lot of Missy protest howls until I told her "that's enough, Missy!" They do listen to us sometimes...you can tell because they taper off gradually as they keep an eye out on the human, to see if we'll do something else!

Next thing I knew, he woke me at 5:40 am, as daylight was already starting to stream through the glass door into his crate. I thought of you Tushnurse, and felt relief I had already made it through his first night with minimal sleep deprivation. I put on a long bathrobe and struggled to lasso him again, and out we went. He did his pee straight away, again I noted that his whining was for real. (Missy girl whines as a hobby, so I have been conditioned to be a bit skeptical.) But then he was all about chewing and tugging on my long bathrobe, my nightgown, or his leash. It's morning now, playtime! I had to gather up my clothes hip height, then he tried a few legs nips, before romping off in the grass. I was trying to give him the time to do more business but he did not seem to need that.

And back inside he led me, still hasn't quite got the two steps figured out. Puts his front paws on the upper step, back paws still on the sidewalk. I lift a back paw up one step and he takes it from there...straight over to the hall settee, for some cuddles outside of Missy's range. I could have fallen asleep like that! He just soaks up the strokes and arm holds, a living breathing doll baby! With needle teeth, is all....I gave him a large rubber S tug through the crate bars and I drifted back off to sleep to the sound of thump, thump, thump...

I put his morning cup of feed in a rubber puppy ball which burns off more of that morning energy while I try to wake up. Missy got her usual morning routine with her Daddy walking her. Newsflash: poop normal!! And he fed her in her crate. It is actually helping this situation that shr is in a cone...she thinks her confinement is all because of the cone! We still haven't allowed closer contact in the house. She knows he is here and I talk to her just as always. She doesn't get to see me pet him, yet. I dread that hissy fit!

Sweet Mink just took a puppy nap, and now is licking water out of the food bowl we put in there, which has all those pinwheel swirls to slow down a fast eater. Turns out to be a good water dish as he can put his paw right on it, it doesn't splash, tip over or anything. I refill it through a big funnel so I don't have to open that door too often. Mink is now starting to wake back up, and Missy is getting some love across the room from her Daddy. Ooops, well, until she just started barking at Mommy; NO you can't come in here just yet, girl!

PP, Monks book is the Bible of GSD raising around here, too! I plan to tether him with me while I do my gardening. But Missy has never been permitted to set a paw in the garden, so I guess that's another boundary violation she will duly note!

WR, just saw your update. How sad that Bella is grieving so much for your hospitalized H, it must be hard emotionally on you! I had hoped she would be your baby girl. Hope things smooth out soon.

[This message edited by Superesse at 2:28 PM, Thursday, May 25th]

WR, I'm praying your H recovers quickly and you can both go back to enjoying and loving on that puppy.

Superesse, sounds like you had a pretty good first night!! You are a great dog mom!!

I took DD's tripod do out for a ride in his new stroller yesterday. He loved it!! He is getting around really well and seems to be healing well. He peed on his thunder shirt so he ie wearing a Red Sox jersey. He looks adorable. Still waiting for biopsy results.

WR,

Prays for your family! I bet he is missing Bella. Bella sounds like she is going to be a Daddy’s Princess. Be careful of her starting to guard him.
It is a real problem especially with little bitty dogs.

PP…That is such a good point. I’ll be sure to watch for that.

Tonight I will have to be at the hospital all night.

As it turns out, as well as the UTI, H’s bowel is practically blocked. In the last 48 hours he has had 2 suppositories (sorry, TMI), an enema (again, sorry), and tonight…4000ml of "Go Lightly" - the cleanse used as a colonoscopy prep.

Yet…nothing. 😳

He is - obviously - in a great deal of pain. So I just can’t leave him.

My sister will spend the night with the puppy. Her dog is older and has some experience sleeping alone during her travels when I have taken care of her.

We strongly considered her bringing Bella up to the room. But H is on a mostly "cootie" floor. (Rooms with warnings to glove, gown, mask up sign on the door).

So…maybe not a good idea.

Things sound like they are moving along in the Super household. I can’t wait to read about the stories of the 2 dogs playing together. 😊

Oh, and I was THRILLED to read of the initial success with the stroller. That is FABULOUS!!!

And I don’t want to give the impression that Bella is a one person dog. She really loves me, too!

WhatsRight, if GoLightly is not helping your H, that is a serious blockage, for sure. Tushnurse is the source of all knowledge on that topic, but I know how that drink mix worked on me at Cleveland Clinic. Hope it helps him, and that it isn't as scary as it sounds.

So glad Bella loves you!!

Well, down on the farm today the 100 acres across my barb wire fence just finished getting a beautiful crop of rye grass cut and hauled away for cattle feed. That harvest took several tractors and tractor trailer trucks almost a week to do, parking every day along the fence by my garden...smelling of diesel exhaust in the morning as I watered my flower beds. Last evening they finally got it all done, hurray! I thought we were in for some peace again. But this morning, what shows up but a 30 foot long truck full of chicken manure to spread on the field in the same manner as a salt spreader puts salt down on the highway! I'm talking nasty smell which lasts for days and days unless it rains - and we been having a drought. We are smack dab in the middle of the turkey capital of the USA. So...no garden work today! Mink and Mommy headed to town to socialize. (You have to do this before his 12 week of life, when the fear stage supposedly happens in German Shepherds.)

And wow, I found out Mink is a rock star! The bank lady who had sent the wire transfers over for this boy had asked me to bring him in. So that was stop #1. The entire staff of the bank took turns getting their shoe laces untied, and even a few customers of the bank got the same footwear inspection. A bearded teller had a bank pouch he was carrying (empty) and when the man showed it to him, Mink stuck his head down in it, then my boy tried to pull the cash pouch out of his hands. Imagine if it had money in it! My puppy, a bank robber!? We were all in stitches!

On to the next stop, our local garden center. He got to see a man with a cane, which he tried to chew the foot pad of, much to the big man's amusement. Several elderly people stopped to talk to him. I showed him pots of geraniums, petunias, roses (I think his nose touched a thorn; he whimpered!) and other fragrant foliage, plus water fountain displays and folks in general. He enjoyed sniffing them all. I'm a regular at that place, so the staff was talking to him and he was holding court.

Then over to the big box lumber yard, where he met the most diverse lot of people you could ask for. They all had fun bending down and petting him, I had to do a clean up on aisle 51 (just #1, he'd already done his business out behind the evergreens at the edge of the garden center, after I let him greet men with their dump truck of mulch.)

As I was attempting to leave the big box lumber yard, some customers in the checkout line asked if they could come over and pet him. I said "Sure, that's what we're here for!" Turns out they own two GSDs and gave me the same advice you all did: take it slowly with Missy-Mink introductions. I left there a hundred and fifty dollars lighter with two wide metal baby gates, just because of the advice of those customers. And Mink went a little OCD with that customer's tennis shoes, after the man had bent down and Mink stuck his nose into the man's beard, I am not making this up! Mink and that man got into a step-away game and he laughed to his wife "This is just like our girl dog used to do!" I was almost embarrassed, but they were loving it. I found out everybody around here is smitten with a solid black GSD, although I got quite a few questions of what kind of dog he is. I think we greeted maybe 35 friendly folks today.

I'm convinced this wasn't the pup's first trip out in public. Czech is the most dog-friendly country in the world they say, and dogs are taken everywhere. But since the breeder never told me a thing about her routine, I had no idea. Today I kept being impressed by how much better-behaved he is than Missy ever was. I think it is partly genetics and partly the way he may have been started off earlier than she was. We got her at the same age he is now and she made no eye contact with us, even during professional training. I thought it was our fault. But the banker lady said "Wow, he has good eye contact." That was my very first observation about him, too. And I don't think it's an accident. I need to stock up on treats to do this "watch me" thing as we leash walk. Mink constantly looks up at me, and today I didn't have any treats with me, but he seemed to do it for guidance or reassurance. I don't know, but I think it was fostered by good training! What say you experienced dog Mommas?

But there was a little accident this evening: Mink was so excited when my H came out to see him in the front yard with me. H lay down on the grass and suffered a big puppy paw scratch down the side of his face because Mink was loving on him and his nails are sharp as knives, apparently. Drew blood immediately and the scratch looks like my H was in a knife fight! Total accident, but I hope it doesn't scar his face because it looked shocking!

We built an emergency puppy yard tonight 12 x 9 feet with old decorative metal gates from our former chicken run, because apparently the shoelace addiction already took hold: when I got back home from town, I was hardly able to walk Mink because he was latched onto my shoes or jeans. I was dragging him around the yard! Can't do this at 4 am. (One small mistake you allow with these pups, and they are off to the races...)

Supersesse…Your updates are making me want to get home to see my baby!

Sorry about your H’s face. Hope it heals well. Tell him it’s rugged looking!

And the shoelace thing is hysterical!

Well, I won’t describe the night my H had after the 4000ml of "GoLightly". Suffice to say it was as you are imagining. I didn’t make it home, so my dear sister stayed with Bella last night.

They just took H down for a CT scan. I guess to see if all is clear, so to speak. Hopefully we will go home today.

I can’t imagine how happy Bella will be to see my H, and him her.

Keep the updates coming re all these precious pups. ❤️

[This message edited by WhatsRight at 2:27 PM, Friday, May 26th]

Sounds like things are going well. If you want a different name then a M name. As a foster home for years dogs don’t care are they just need to learn their new name.

The day Steve Irwin died, our group got a severely injured dog in. We had no clue injured schauzer name was. We chose Irwin. Irwin learned his name quickly. Irwin was in the vet 7 or 8 days. The vet hospital just started calling him Irwin. By the time we got to bring him to our home he responded to that name.

I should have mentioned it before. I am thrilled for you.

You may want to pick up some Bitter Apple for your shoe laces and pants to deter that.

Just now reading this thread and I love it so much!! ❤️😊😊

SackofSorry, thanks, very good suggestion and right you are: it's a slippery slope to allow the little puppy some seemingly innocent games which almost immediately metastasize into BAD behaviors!

He was a good puppy today, we played on a 30 foot long leash. Now he thinks his fun zone is...30 feet! You give them an inch, you cannot take it back. Walking him in the larger range of the yard with the long leash, I realized again he needs 2 things, a length of lead and something to look at up close with his nose!

You should have seen us coming home today from a truck ride; he was on my left with the retractable leash spool in my left hand trying to keep optimal tension on him as he walked, and my big canvas bag in my right hand, which he kept crossing in front of me to chomp on. So it hit me: DUH, put the big bag in the same hand with the leash so we can continue walking forward....so after I did that, he started carrying my big purse bag in his little mouth!

Always when we get inside, he wants to get a cuddle...and a few nips I have to correct. What a cutie he is.....

Meanwhile, Missy has been bad and rubbed her healing eyelid with one stitch in the grass or against her cone, and now she may have conjunctivitis. She is always going to be a difficult patient. We had antiseptic eye drops on hand, because OF COURSE it's first turning into a medical problem on a FRIDAY!

WR, did you get H released home?

[This message edited by Superesse at 5:38 AM, Saturday, May 27th]

No…still sitting up here in the hospital room. But I did go home last night and didn’t come back till this morning. H said he kept "making a mess" till about midnight, but nothing since then.

I’m hoping he will be released some time today, but the fact that he is still on a liquid diet makes me wonder. He is soooo ready to get home to see Bella. ❤️

She now knows how to use the steps for the couch, and is practicing (with help) on the bigger steps to the bed.

As I knew would happen, Bella and Maggie May (my dufus - one year old - beagle/folhound) are inseparable! Maggie is just the best. She is actually a person I think. 😊

April, the 2 year old border collie/beagle mix is very sociable with Bella, but is always hot on the trail of chasing something in the back yard.

Our oldest - 13 yr old black lab/Jack Russell - is still grumpy with her. But that is Jackie Chan. Bella walks over to Jackie’s bed to rub noses, and Jackie does that low growl thing. The puppy backs up, then goes right back. I think she may eventually win Jackie over, but I continue to monitor them.

Great to hear the fun stories about Mink. What is this about changing her name. I must have missed that. Hope the boy lets his wounds heal!!!

WhatsRight, I'm sorry to hear your H is still in the hospital, but imagine the laundry work if you had him home in his current condition! 😕

Mink is doing fine but according to a veterinary book I have, the feed we are giving him is nowhere near enough kilocalories for a growing boy! I was trying not to stuff him like a sausage, because what goes in, must come out, and I know not to give a higher fiber feed! So off to the farm store and have him help us find a richer puppy kibble to mix in. He had been whining a lot yesterday and I figured he was hungry again, and looked it up. I was horrified to see we were way under the number on the calories, even with a quality kibble. More guilt!

Our girl has managed to get her eye infected from rubbing it on the ground every chance she gets when H walks her without the darn cone. Fortunately, we still have a bottle of prescription eye drops from our old dog, and that is helping today, we think. Because of course the vet is closed until Monday; story of life with Missy!

She is so glum, though, it saddens me to see her so low and quiet. And it has to be like this for another week, per the vet?! To keep her quiet, etc. and in a medical shirt, cone, crated....and she can hear me talking to the puppy she growled at. Goodness, I didn't get this puppy so she could be unhappy! It's really my screw up, having had her surgery and not realizing what it would involve, during his first weeks home.

The little charmer got me this morning. Only one 2 am pee walk, so I woke up refreshed, saw the sun was shining in, heard a sound and he was starting to chomp on the crate bars, but then he just sat and looked at me so cute, and not a peep. So I thought I should get up and take him out to "reward" the fact he didn't whine. Well, I found out why he didn't whine: he wasn't quite ready to DO anything, except to go for my shoes!!

Just a quick update…

Husband is home from the hospital. Bella was happy to see him, but he was a little bit disappointed in her being a little shy about him. But all it took was to get back in to the bed and have her join him, and they were all cuddled up again within 30 minutes.

I’m really concerned about my border collie. She had an accident inside this afternoon while I was at my great nieces wedding shower. It was a very loose stool, but was full of blood. 😢. I will be taking her to the vet first thing in the morning to try to see what’s going on.

I hope all of the other puppies are doing well!

Glad to hear they are home.

SI is going to the dogs. But that's a GOOD thing.

Whatsright, what color is your new baby? I just noticed an ad in my area for puppies like yours but they are multi-color and called 'lilac' color. So cute. And I am picturing Superesse's new baby because my friend who got the black German Shepherd puppy from Germany had the cutest baby -- and baby came in on a flight- and I took him to the airport to get the baby. It was so exciting.

On another note here, I've been trying to help a couple who had their car stolen with their 7 year old dog inside! She parked right by front door of a small store and came out and both car and doggie were gone. It's been 8 days now and I have placed so many ads for her as she didn't know how to do that. Their doggy-child is 7 years old and has never been away from them so she has to be terrified, wherever she is. It's a rural setting so they probably dumped the doggy after stealing the car - so people are driving around, trying to find her. OR ... they are keeping doggy hostage in hopes of a large reward. But the owners don't have the funds for a large reward. In fact, she has lost her job because she lost her car and has no transportation to work. Makes me so angry! Hate thieves! Don't they know they took someone's 'child' -- but it's clear they do not care. We will all keep looking. They live about 7 miles from me, out in the country.

Whatsright, glad your H is home. Hope Bella helps him get better.

And Draqgn, SO GOOD to see you posting. Think of you often.

Oh Jeanie, I’m so sorry to hear about that poor puppy, dog… And her family who are now suffering because of the idiots who just wanted a car but didn’t wanna work for it.

Just look in the damn backseat before you take somebody’s car!

Our puppy is called "Isabella" coloring, which normally means silver "-ish". But her mama was red, and her daddy was black and tan. But they both had the recessive Isabella trait. So she is mostly a lovely light brown color with the tiniest outer "sheen"… Not exactly silver.

I would LOVE to send y’all pictures, but I have no idea how to post them.

Yes, I also think it great that SI has gone to the dogs!!!

Just a little update… Our little Bella has achieved a milestone! She has learned to climb up into my husband‘s lap when he is in his chair. She jumps onto his feet, then scales his jeans until she gets to the seat of the wheelchair, then pulls herself up with him holding the back of her head for bracing.

They are BOTH so proud! It is so very cute.

On another positive note, I have changed the seating position in my husband‘s chair for him. It helps him to sit up straighter, and have more extension in his arms to push on the push rims. He has been pushing around the house, at the store, and even up and down the street at out house with the OT.

Best he has done in about 8-10 years!

GOOD TIMES!!!

WhatsRight, what a fabulous update! That puppy sure seems to have sparked a new energy in your lives!

Mink just slept through his first night without waking me, from 11 pm-7:30 am. I actually woke up before he did....luxury! Now if I can just get his puppy pirhana zoomies figured out...I have had "puppy brain" all week!! 😀