Gone West

We visited Alan's family in our hometown for Christmas and got thoroughly spoiled with presents and food. Of course Peekaboo was our Christmas present, but Alan's parents gave us some accessories for her, my favorite being a video camera to capture every precious moment of puppy and pugness. Right now all I have are picture from the drive to Odessa because Alan left his laptop power cord there and all my pics are on his laptop.

We gave this picture to all of Alan's grandparents - that's his brother Kyle on the floor.

I laid down in the car on the way there and the babies snuggled with me, Rascal apparently trying to either kiss me or cut off my air supply.

Peekaboo flirts with the camera...

...and then makes herself comfortable on her big brother pillow.

My MIL gave Peekaboo this plastic diamond ring toy - because diamonds (and plastic!) are a girl's best friend.

Home again

We're back from Christmas travels, the house is a wreck and I'm exhausted! If I can make a dent in the cleaning by tomorrow evening I'll post pictures and video of our holiday tomorrow. My birthday is in a week and a half and I'm feeling my age. Almost 25 years years old and I'm already falling asleep on the couch at 9 p.m. - so sad!

Merry Christmas

Sorry I'm late with this - we were with family all day. This is our Christmas card, done before Peekaboo joined us. I'll have to add her in popping out of a present!

It doesn't look a lot like Christmas

I've never had a White Christmas. One year is snowed the day after Christmas, but that's as close as it gets to "seasonal" weather in my part of Texas. It's bright and beautiful and sunny and I just wouldn't have it any other way.
We opened presents with Alan's family last night. Our present is Peekaboo, but my in-laws insist on spoiling me rotten because we also opened up a camcorder!!!!!! Prepare for multiple videos of cuteness beyond imagination 'cause I've got puppies and I'm not afraid to record them!
Alan's brother gave him this doohickey that shoots a laser and tells the temperature of whatever the laser hit. My hand was 86, the lightbulb 120, the window 52...and on and on and on. Sooner or later I'll be forced to hide that thing or lose my mind because honestly, I don't want to know the temperature of each dog's rear end!
Now we just have to wait and see what Santa leaves in our stockings! He had to make a quick trip to me a minute ago because I mentioned running out to buy DVD's for the camcorder, which of course he'd already bought. Santa rocks.

Our herd

Thank you everybody for saying sweet things about what is now our herd of fur babies!

Peekaboo is fitting in beautifully. The pups eat all lined up in a row. Nobody appears to have food issues, least of all Kritter, who is quite pleased to be dining on fatty puppy food.

They lined up by size all by themselves!

And here in reverse!

My prediction was correct - the pups wear each other out and Kritter gets his preferred amount of sleep each day: 21 hours. He joins in the play when he wants and "supervises" when he's tired.

Thank you, LMizzle, for the care package for Rascal! And, I officially dub you homemade card queen. Please tell me those were pre-cut shapes, 'cause if not, you put Martha Stewart to shame! I tried the antlers on Rascal but he wasn't down for headgear, so they went to Peekaboo.

We all went to the vet today and Peekaoo wore her Puppia, which is too big right now:

Kritter and Rascal wore their Puppia too - Alan just "undressed" them before I got the camera out. When the pups grow into their harnesses I'm going to take a Puppia picture of them all.

Posts are going to be wonky for a bit while we do the Christmas thing with family. I'm already behind on reading everyone else's blogs!

More video of the madness:

Introducing...

Peekaboo!

Thank you everyone for the name suggestions! "Peekaboo" was the one I had in mind for a pied frenchie girl because her eyes peek out from the rest of her body.
We introduced the pups in the back of Alan's truck. After everyone had been thoroughly sniffed, the boys were ready to go back to sleep, as we had gotten them out of bed much earlier than normal.

Optical illusion - Peekaboo is much smaller than Rascal, she's just much closer to the camera here.

The collar I bough fit without any adjusting - perfect!

Let's go - I need a nap!

Peekaboo cuddled up to her brothers right away.

Happy to be on the way to her new home!

Kritter was cool with the new pup as long as he gets to keep eating puppy food.

She found the toys with no problem.

She's a nibbler!

Here's some really bad video of the boys showing Peekaboo the back yard. Rascal is only visible by his white cast!

Are we ready?

I don't want our new little Frenchie to be mistaken for a boy all the time, so I've been preparing to doll her up. Did I go overboard? There's also a faux fur-lined bed, but it's tan, not pink.

Rascal supervising my cookie baking

Get your sleep now boys, 'cause a sister is coming to shake things up around here!

Christmas tag

We got tagged by Django and Maggie & Napoleon.

Here are the rules:
The player of this game starts with "3 things he or she would love to get for Christmas" and "3 things he or she definitely does not want to get for Christmas." Then he/she tags 5 friends.

So here are five things Kritter and Rascal told me they would love to get for Christmas:

1. A little pied Frenchie sister (name still in question)
2. An all-better back right leg for Rascal (he's doing good getting around in the cast though)
3. An unlimited supply of fresh hambones
4. Cool beds like this one, or this one, or this one, or this one. (Ok, maybe mom wants those more than the boys do)
5. A drinkwell pet fountain (or a pretty water dish like this. Ok, that's mom talking again)

And here are five things they would not like to get for Christmas:
1. Nail clippings
2. Clothes
3. More than one sister
4. A diet
5. Rainy days (it stinks to potty/poo in the rain!)

OK, that's our list. Now, we would like to tag Alfred and Holly, Arliss, Bandit and Paisley, and whoever else hasn't been tagged!

What would you call her?

Now that I’m reassured that my little Rascal is going to be fine and dandy, I'm getting excited again about adding a little sister to the family.
As you know, we’ll (likely) be bringing this sweet little thing home with us Monday.

Question is, what should we name her?

I already have a name I really like, but I'd like some input.

What does this face say to you?

Here's more pictures for inspiration:

Fast gimp

Just wanted to let everyone know that your prayers and good wishes are working, 'cause Rascal is already scooting around pretty fast despite the cast! Sometimes he uses just three legs and sometimes he uses all four.
I also discovered that a white cast on a black dog is helpful for taking him out to potty at night - I don't need a flashlight to keep track of him in our backyard!

Rascal's rough weekend

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers for Rascal. He started out the weekend with an eye infection and ended it with a broken leg.

We took him to the vet this morning and he had surgery to put three pins in his leg this afternoon. We brought him home about six and now he's snoring groggily in my lap. The vet gave us the option of whether to do he surgery or not. Had we not, Rascal's leg would have probably been a bit crooked but completely functional. The benefits of surgery are a faster heal time, no crookedness and no chance of more slippage of the bone during healing with the potential for more crookedness than there was already.

Although I was scared about putting him under anesthesia, we decided surgery was the best option for Rascal. The vet called at about 3 p.m. to say it went well and he was coming out of it fine.

His new cast isn't fancy like the ER vet one, but the vet saved the snowman for me so I could put it in my scrapbook. When we picked Rascal up the vet had me feed him baby food - strained chicken. He lapped it right up even though he was so groggy his ears were pointing sideways. As for the new puppy, our vet says there's no reason we shouldn't still get her. We need to limit Rascal's play, of course, but he can interact and play in a limited area. I asked if that would start them off wrong relationship-wise, like would Rascal feel "below" the puppy in our "pack," or anything, but he said no.

So, if Rascal is doing well, we will go meet the breeder Monday.
Time to feed Rascal his baby food - strained chicken! Yummmmmm!

Why am I up at 4 a.m.? Because my little Rascal broke his leg tonight. Fractured actually. He was making the leap from one couch to the other, which he's done before, but didn't quite make it this time. He slipped and fell probably less than six inches, but he hit just right to fracture his tibia just below the knee.
If you've never heard a Frenchie cry - good. It's so sad sounding. He didn't cry for long, just long enough to let us know he needed to go get checked out. He's a trooper - even snoozed on the way to the emergency vet.
We'll go to our normal vet Monday, but the emergency vet said she think it will need surgery. For now she put him in this splint, which they decorated for Christmas. Apparently one of the technicians there is quite a master with gauze and sissors. I am really praying he doesn't need surgery and can just heal in the splint. The emergency vet assured me that he would heal quickly and be fine, but I just hate the idea of surgery.
Besides my anxiety about that, this pretty much derails a plan I was very excited about - I was going Monday to (probably) bring home a little pied Frenchie sister for the boys. Alan and his parents know how much I wanted a little pied girl, so they said if I found one (pied Frencies are pretty rare) and if she got along well with Rascal and Kritter, she could be my Christmas and birthday present. It would be perfect because Rascal and the sister could wear each other out with all their puppy energy and Kritter could just join in when he felt like playing. Kritter and Rascal love to play, but Kritter prefers long naps between wrestling matches. If he could, Rascal would play all day without stopping to eat or drink.

I still have all the breeder info from looking for Rascal, so after just a couple calls I was referred to a respected breeder with this beautiful little girl.

I was planning to bring Kritter and Rascal and meet the breeder and pup Monday and see what everyone thought of each other. If it seemed like a match, I would have brought her home.

But, if it was meant to be, it will still work out somehow.

I know my boys would love playing with this little cutie pie!
But, not until my little Rascal is all better - and can land all his jumps!

Yay for Friday

I'm really looking forward to cuddlin with my babies and drinking hot chocolate all weekend!

Kritter chillin on the porch swing during warmer weather:

Our first Frenchie meetup. There was only one other Frenchie there (it was Thanksgiving weekend) but this little pup was willing to play:


One of my clients is going to Morocco for a week over Christmas. We were going to keep his sweet girl Chloe while he was gone, but after a trial sleep-over we decided we better not. Rascal's puppy-playing annoyed Chloe. Nothing bad happened, but Alan was worried that Rascal's continuous attempts to get her to wrestle might begin to really tick her off after a few days.

Alan has a nerdy streak. He plays World of Warcraft with his brother online. Here's a screen shot of when he got to level 40. Apparently that flaming horse is a cool thing to have. This was a while ago, so I'm sure he has something cooler by now.