I visited Caleb's parents' house this weekend and we took Sakura to a lake, where I let her swim. She was so cute. This is only the second time she's had a chance to swim.



( More Sakura pictures )

Here's the Facebook photo album that these pictures are from.

This past week has been emotionally exhausting.

On Saturday, Sakura began vomiting. She probably vomited on Saturday for a total of approximately twenty times. We could tell that her stomach was upset (we could tell from her vomiting and her mood in general).

Sunday, she vomited about three times, but she still was not looking very well. She refused to eat anything, and she wasn't able to excrete.

On Monday, she was still vomiting and still not looking well. She ate some food but none of it stayed down. We took her to the vet. The vet x-rayed her and the x-rays showed a possible foreign body in her stomach, as well as a possible blockage in her intestine. Sakura was given something to reduce the nausea and we took her home overnight, with the goal to get her to pass the foreign body (excrete it out). If she wouldn't be able to pass it, she would need $1000 surgery.

Rob took her on several very long walks, but she was unable to excrete at all. On Tuesday morning we took her back to the vet. They x-rayed her and it looked like the foreign body was still there, so they did surgery on her. They had to do about ten incisions on her to get all of it out of her.

The foreign body ended up being a mix of plastic, hair, and tennis ball fuzz. The plastic was from the plastic water bottles we used to let her chew on, and the tennis ball fuzz was from a frisbee made from tennis ball material. We threw out the frisbee and we have vowed to never allow her any plastic water bottles ever again.

After we brought her home Tuesday night she was extremely drugged and in a lot of pain. Today she is still not feeling well but the sedation has worn off. I was able to get her to eat a tiny bit of food. She even attempted to play with her rope toy, bless her heart, but she wasn't able to do much. She went into the room where I had put it and stared at it. I brought it into the computer room where I was and she picked it up, but that was about all she could manage.

It was a very expensive and very emotional toll-inducing lesson to learn that the plastic water bottles were a bad idea. However, I'm so very grateful that the price we had to pay was $1000, and that the price was not a dead dog. I am so grateful that she is still alive. I love my baby girl. I would be beyond devastated if she passed before her time. I love her so much and I am so afraid that I will lose her.

All I want is my happy, loud, energetic, chews-on-way-too-many-things puppy back.


(this is by no means a recent picture, she hates getting her picture taken so I wouldn't dare do that while she is feeling this horrible)

I am depressed because I am still unemployed. But there is one thing that can always cheer me up...



( Click for more puppy goodness )

I come bearing more puppy pictures! This time, I'm too lazy to host a thumbnail on my own website, however. The pictures are here.

Well, we have had our new puppy for about a week now; we got her the Sunday before last. Things were kind of hectic the first week as she adjusted to us and we adjusted to her. I think all of us have settled into a routine now though. We did end up deciding on the name Sakura, so that is her name.

Sakura is amazingly well-behaved. Since I was used to having a dog that hating being petted, picked up, and held, to have a puppy that will let me pick it up without growling and biting me is an amazing change. When we brought her home she stayed on my lap without fussing. Sandi, my previous dog, was horrible at riding in cars. Sandi would never stay put on my lap. Sakura is a car riding champ, and is content with sitting in my lap.

Of course, Sakura isn't perfect. The first week we had a hard time convincing her that sofas and rugs are not to be chewed on. In addition to verbally reprimanding her, we picked up a bottle of Bitter Apple and sprayed it on the spots that she was chewing. Basically, it makes it taste bad, so that she won't want to chew it. It seems to have helped a lot, and she is leaving the sofas alone now. Unfortunately, she seems to have changed tactics to going under our desks where there are lots of wires. I haven't seen her chew any wires yet because I won't give her an opportunity. I wish I had some way of blocking access to the wires, though, so I wouldn't have to constantly make sure that she isn't under a desk.

Housetraining Sakura has been a challenge. She figured out pretty easily that when we take her outside, it's time to do her business. However, she hasn't figured out that it's not okay to do her business inside the house, nor has she figured out a way to let us know when she needs to go outside. She also has a problem with patience. I know that she needs to go outside right after a meal and right after a nap. There have been occasions where she has an accident immediately after eating or napping, and I had no time to get her outside. One time she woke up from a nap and I went into the bedroom to put my shoes on. I came out of the bedroom and she had already had an accident on the carpet.

Despite the challenges, I love having Sakura around. She is such a sweet puppy, and adorably cute. We gave her a couple of toys, and she loves playing fetch with just about all of them. She has a Milkbone that she loves to talk to. Yes, she talks to it as if the Milkbone is a person and is playing with her.

I took a bunch of pictures of Sakura yesterday and this morning. Here is a link to the Facebook photo album. They're on Facebook for now because apparently I can make photo albums public so that non Facebook users can view them, and it was so easy to upload the pictures.

On Monday, Rob and I visited our Pembroke Welsh Corgi breeder to pick out a puppy. We ended up picking the cute little runt of the litter. She wasn't expected to live, but she's doing great! The other puppies used to pick on her and now she's learning to beat a bit of sense into them.

Also, since she wasn't expected to live, her tail wasn't taken off. I am happy she has a tail! Here's a video of her discovering her tail for the first time. She is fantastically cute.

Her tentative name is Sakura. Right now she's staying with the breeder, and we get to bring her home in another month. I can't wait! I have to stay pacified with watching the video over and over for now.