Silent Night

So a couple of weeks ago we had our first trial run of leaving the boys home alone. We went out for a quick Target trip with the intent to be back within about an hour. Before we left, we turned to say goodbye and our sweet little boys were sitting side-by-side in the cuddle cup before it was destroyed in the famous "liposuction" incident. 

The true test came when we pulled into the garage though - when it was just Mochi, he'd cry like he was neglected and/or tortured once he heard the garage door open. So we braced ourselves as the rollup door opened and we turned off the radio. To Ted's surprise (but not as much to mine), there was absolutely no crying. When we opened the interior door, we found our little babies laying pretty much where we left them, looking up at us.

Fast Forward three weeks to Obiee's "tutoring" weekend: We went out to dinner on Saturday night and we wanted to see how they'd react to being separated. To keep in line with the vet's recommendation to keep them apart to avoid Mochi disturbing the incision area and to keep Obiee's activity level low, we tried penning Obiee (with the bucket on his head) and giving Mochi the free reign that he was formerly used to. Ted shut the double doors to try to keep the heat in the front room where Obiee was penned, and Mochi seemed perfectly content to lay on one of the new beds on the family room floor. Since the pocket door on the other side of the room was left open, my prediction was that we'd find Mochi on the couch in the front room to spend time with brother.

When we came back from dinner, at first there was no crying. I opened the door and heard Obiee crying from the pen with no sight of Mochi, which was weird since he's always at the door when we come home when he's not penned. I thought maybe he was just sleeping, so I went to the pocket door and didn't find him at first glance in the family room. I heard banging on the double doors and realized he thought he was locked out. I called him and he finally came running around to the front room. It was then that I realized that as I passed Obiee in the pen, his bucket was sitting on the opposite end of the pen from him. He's a little escape artist. I also realized that while we did everything we could think of to keep Mochi from plowing through the double doors in the early days, we could have outsmarted him by rehanging the doors to open into the room we tried to contain him in. But that would have taken work.

Space Dogs!

On January 16, Obiee left the house and came back a little less of a man. Yes, he was "tutored." Nothing happened to Mochi. We still had his cone from when he was "fixed," and when we saw Obiee looking up at us, we decided to dress Mochi up in solidarity.

Such cute boys. 

Obiee recovered far better than Mochi did. When Mochi was fixed, he was pretty much out the rest of the day, probably due to the extensive bruising after his operation. Obiee, on the other hand, had no such bruising, and in fact was ready to play as soon as we came home. On doctor's orders, we had to do all we can to limit his activity. Obiee didn't comply at all. He kept trying to play with Mochi, but Mochi kept running away, deathly afraid of the cone. Thank goodness he can roam and play freely again. :)

My favorite part, besides having him come home, was the doctor's special instructions on the "Discharge Instructions" sheet: Obiee is adorable!

Tug of War

Sheepy time!

View album

First poo!

Last Thursday, I finally was able to take both dogs out for a walk. The vet said to wait a week after their shots to give the vaccinations time to take effect. In the evening walk, Obiee surprised me by going number two in someone's lawn. That, as far as I know, is the first time I've seen him go to the bathroom on a walk. I was so impressed that I left it there. Kidding!

Anyway, at a different house, Mochi decided he wanted to go as well. Somehow, I got lucky and both times the dogs dropped trou, no other people were watching. I guess Mochi hasn't taught Obiee the "poo only on lawns where people are watching you so Ted gets embarrassed" trick.

My other thought while walking home was that I was very glad I'm already married. I couldn't imagine being single, meeting someone nice, only to have them run away in disgust because my pockets were full of (bagged) poo.

And sorry folks, but this is not a picture post. :P

And Tracy wanted me to add that, yes, I did throw out the poo bags when I got home.

The Best Things in Life are Free

So Daddy's Papa once told us a story of when Daddy was a toddler. His parents spent a fair amount on educational toys, only to find him surrounded by facial tissue, proclaiming "It's a boat! It's a shoe!" of the recently-emptied tissue box. Lesson learned: kids will entertain themselves at very little expense.

Looks like our little babies take after Daddy.

Mommy's Little Coworkers

Two messages sent to a few coworkers on 12/31/08:

10:18 am: I thought you might be interested in what's going on in the cubicle next to mine in my home office.

11:39 am: I had to yell over the cube wall for them to keep it down... :)
BTW, I _am_ getting work done today.

Note Obiee's strategic paw placement...so modest!

Trip to the vet!

On the last day of 2008, we took Mochi and Obiee to the vet. Mochi hasn't been to the vet enough times to hate it, and Obiee had no idea what was going on. So it was a good, or at least not traumatic trip for the dogs. Tracy, on the other hand...well, we'll get to that. Here's what we learned:

Weight
-Mochi - about 14 lbs
-Obiee - about 15 lbs (for reference, he was about 12 lbs at the beginning of the month)
-both still have a visible waist, and the vet said that both are at a healthy weight

Teeth
-Mochi - some tartar, so we need to brush his teeth more often.
-Obiee - the vet said his teeth were "beautiful." Nearly all of his adult teeth were present. We also asked about his bad breath. The vet said it was "puppy breath" in that "well, duh" tone of voice. She said she's used to it, and that it bothers some people but not others. (Tracy later said "Yeah, people who don't mind the smell of butt...")

Shots
-Mochi - (anti) rabies (3 year), DHP, bordetella plus the other "P" in DHPP in the nose
-Obiee - (anti) rabies (1 year), DHPP. To let the vaccinations take full effect, we need to wait a week before walking him outside. I guess I shouldn't have been walking him earlier. Oops.
-both dogs are now on the same schedule for the annual vaccines.

Meds
-Mochi - no change
-Obiee - started on Sentinel.
-Both dogs are now on the same Sentinel schedule.

Poo check
-The "fecal centrifuge" (I think that's what it was called) did not find any presence of worms in either dog.

Based on the state of Obiee's teeth, the vet estimated that Obiee was 5 months instead of 4. Obiee's previous owner wasn't certain of his exact birthday, but this is within a month of her vet's estimate. However, this led to a surprising revelation. Our vet said that usually you can double a dog's weight at 4 months to determine their full grown weight. This potentially means that Obiee could grow to be between 20-25 lbs. Our vet said that while it's a bit big for a Jack Russell, it's nonetheless "normal" for Obiee (which makes sense, he can't change the way he is :) Tracy and I both expected Obiee to be closer in weight to Mochi. I'm fine with a bigger dog since my childhood dog was about 20 lbs in his prime. Tracy, meanwhile, kept asking questions like "Are you _sure_ he's going to be that big?" :)

Regardless of how big he gets, we both still love Obiee very much. It's going to be fun watching him grow up with Mochi. It's a good thing Mochi is used to bigger dogs. Not only is Obiee already heavier than Mochi, but he's taller than him too (items on the counter are definitely not safe). Yet they continue to play and snuggle together (usually) just fine. We'll talk about some of the snuggling differences  in another post.

And yes, one of these days one of we will put up a post with more pictures. :)

Housebreaking hope

Obiee is making good progress with his housebreaking. I was initially afraid because the first night he slept at our house, he went number two in his crate. Even better, we keep their crates in our bedroom, so that night, we both woke up to the wonderful odor of...poo.

Anyway, that's been the only night Obiee has not made it through the night. I guess the earlier incident could have been due to nervousness with being in a new place. We're taking Obiee out as often as we can and praising him when he does his business. Of course, he's still a puppy, so sometimes we need to put him on a leash to get him to go; otherwise, he gets too distracted with the wonders of the backyard.

What really gives me hope, however, is that a couple times, Obiee has started going to the back door and waiting for someone to let him out. That's the same signal Mochi uses. :)