RIP Penny

Yesterday I had to call the vet and make that difficult appointment that every pet parent dreads.  Poor old Penny has been in poor health for months and recently had begun having difficulty getting to the litter box, some trouble with walking, and frequent vomiting.  She also slept about 22 hours of the day.  I don't think she was in pain, but it had become increasingly difficult for me to see her struggle with these things each day.  This is the one thing about having pets that I really, really hate!  I've had to make this decision for all of my furry babies and it never, ever gets any easier.  The staff at the vet clinic were so wonderful, giving us all the time we needed to say good-bye.  I know Penny didn't suffer and I was able to hold her in my arms until she went to sleep.  Even though that's the hardest part, it's important for me to be able to surround her with my love as she makes her final journey over the Rainbow Bridge and to repay her for the unconditional love she's given me for so many years.

Penny was 16 and a half years old -- the longest-lived kitty of all three kitties that we've had over the years.  I left work early this afternoon so I could spend some time with Penny.  Since it was such a lovely day, I decided we would spend her last afternoon outside.  There was nothing she loved better than being outside and I only ever let her go out for a few minutes every now and then.  After sniffing around and nibbling on some weeds, Penny was content to just lay in the grass and I was happy to sit with her, stroking her pretty fur and listening to her purr.

Holly got to spend some time with Penny too.  As Mr. Johnson and I were looking through the photo album and reminiscing about Penny's life with us, we realized that she had been a "sister" to all 4 of the dogs we've had.  A lot of times Penny acted more like a dog than a cat.  She was a good friend to all of our dogs, but best friends with Sophie because they were the two closest in age.  They had some good times.

Silly kids!

After we got back from the vet we buried Penny in the hosta garden under the deck -- that was one of the first places she'd head to when she got outside.  I found a heart-shaped field stone amongst my landscaping rocks and will take it to work tomorrow at my cemetery memorial job so my boss can get it sandblasted for Penny's final resting place.

There was one bright spot at the end of our sad day though.  Right as we were ready to go in the house, the neighbors stopped over to show us their new puppy.  Meet Theo!  He's a sweet little boxer/pibble cross just like Holly.  He's 7 weeks old and I imagine this is what Holly looked like when she was a puppy.  I'm looking forward to watching Theo grow up and hope he will become a good playmate for Holly.

(If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see Theo's little pink tongue giving Holly a tiny kiss!)

Holly Update

It's been almost a year already since Holly left the shelter to come and live with us here in her "forever home."  Every day we're treated to her happy smiles.

Holly did very well in her scholarly pursuits at PSU (Pet Smart University).  An additional benefit is that we learned quite a bit about dog training too ("it's all about the treats!")  I only wish that we had taken our previous three dogs to obedience school.  I would recommend this training to anyone who gets a new dog -- and even though Holly was 3 years old when she started school, she was a fast and excellent learner.  I believe more classes are probably in her future.

Holly would like us to look around for a doggie driver's education class......

We have found out over the past year that Holly is a champion napper.  What a difference from the three  energetic German Shorthaired Pointers we had as pets prior to Holly!  Holly does have her high energy moments, but mostly she's really laid back.  Holly will nap by herself......

but she actually prefers napping with her people!  She's usually right between us at night.

Holly also enjoys afternoon naps  -- especially on the couch with her mom!

We didn't know Holly was a lap dog when we got her, but she's gotten her dad trained to help her up on his lap when he sits down.

Holly loves to play.  This is a "soccer" game she plays with us in the kitchen when we're washing dishes.  She brings a toy over by the sink and then she stands in the doorway while we try to kick it past her.  This is Holly's "goalie" stance.

I'm having a lot of fun dressing Holly up.  I discovered lots of cute doggy apparel and accessories at BaxterBoo.com.  They even carry Holly's "big girl" sizes.  Holly's a pretty good sport about wearing everything I buy for her -- even though she won't appreciate the benefits of this hoodie keeping her ears warm until the colder weather gets here.

When we have Holly out in public (which we try to do as often as possible), everyone always comments on what a pretty dog she is.  We think she's quite beautiful and have never experienced (knock on wood) any negative comments from people because she's a pitbull.  She's very friendly to people of all ages and sizes and I'm always thrilled when little kids come over to pet her and she gives them a "kiss."  (She's a super kisser!)  Every day is a new opportunity for us to help change people's minds about the negative, "vicious pitbull" stereotype.

When we adopted Holly, we had to sign a Dog Adoption Contract.  One of the points we had to agree to is as follows, "I agree to provide this animal with.......loving, humane treatments at all times."  I think we've accomplished that and Holly has paid us back ten-fold with joy and happiness every day.

Here's a little video of Holly at her tail-waggin' best.....

The Misadventures of Holly

Holly loves hearing her dad talk about cheeseburgers!

Last Thursday Holly and Mr. Johnson were playing a little game of ball toss while waiting for me to get home from work.  Holly's pretty aggressive when it comes to chasing after her ball and on this particular afternoon, Holly took a really bad spill on the concrete driveway.  Mr. Johnson phoned me in a panic to tell me about this accident and he thought Holly had broken one of her hind legs because she couldn't walk.  I got home and was able to determine that her leg wasn't broken, but it did look like her hip was dislocated.  After a couple phone calls to pet hospitals to find out who could see her, I broke many speed limits racing back in to Rochester with our poor doggeh and her heartbroken dad in the back seat.

In her fall, Holly suffered a number of other injuries including some serious "road rash" on the inside of her hind leg.....

and a really bad abrasion on her elbow that required a couple of staples (ick!)

She was in a lot of pain at the pet hospital, so the doctor gave her an IV (the little shaved spot on her front leg is almost grown over again).

Fortunately, x-rays revealed no broken bones or dislocated hip, but Holly had to stay in the hospital overnight so the vet could monitor her condition.  It turned out that when Holly fell so hard from her fast run, she ruptured a disc in her back.  For anyone who's ever had a ruptured disc, you probably can remember how painful that was and how your doctor probably recommended bed rest for a couple weeks.  Holly's a pretty active girl, but she is trying to follow the doctor's orders as much as possible! 

   

Holly also came home with some presciption meds to help her feel better (no co-pay on pet meds though!)  For 2 weeks she's taking Rimadyl (an NSAID) and Tramadol (for pain).  She loves the Greenies Pill Pockets and so do I. (I wish I had know about these years ago when I was shoving pills down Sophie's throat every day!)

Holly's doing much better now.  Her back legs are getting stronger and she's enjoying all the special attention we're lavishing upon her during her recuperation (including licking off the supper plates).  We're looking forward to her full return to health and regular activities again -- especially those daily walks that we've had to discontinue until her injury has healed.

Be Kind to Animals Week

Did you know that May 6-12 marks the 97th annual "Be Kind to Animals Week?" First established by The American Humane Association in 1915 to celebrate the unique bond between humans and animals.

Did you also know that we got our new dog, Holly, from Paws & Claws (our local humane society)?
To celebrate Be Kind to Animals Week and also Paws & Claws, we will be participating in the 18th Annual Paws & Claws Pet Walk fundraiser on May 5th. Our goal is to raise $250 (and maybe more!)

If you would like to donate to Team Johnson's efforts for this fundraiser, please click on this link. Anyone who makes a donation of $10 or more will receive a handmade gift from Holly's mom.......that would be me ;-) You can also read more of Holly's story and see some cute pics of her at this link.

This will be Holly's first official fundraising walk in a group situation. I think she'll be pretty excited to see all her old friends -- the volunteers and staff of Paws & Claws!

I'm sure you're always aware, but when looking for a new furry friend, please keep your local shelter in mind. There are lots of beautiful animals in need of a new forever home. We are really happy Holly has adjusted so well to ours!

P.S. If you'd like to donate to Holly's pet walk, but aren't comfortable with the on-line option, you can send me your pledge using a personal check. Click on my name under the "About Me" link on my sidebar and I'll send you my mailing address. Thanks again!

Weekly Recap

Well, even with my good intentions of trying to stay caught up with this blog and post more frequently, I just never found the time to get around to it this past week, so I'll give you the recap here in one big post.

Got my first 2012 life bird checked off the list: the Spotted Towhee that's been hanging around Austin, MN since October. I got in touch with the nice family whose backyard this bird visits regularly and they allowed Mr. Johnson and me to come and hang out in their sunroom on Saturday (when the bird was MIA) and again on Sunday (when the bird finally showed up again). I took a ton of pictures, but this was one of the best ones. Isn't this a handsome birdy? And I think it's amazing how well his colors camouflage him in this backyard setting. He spent a lot of time scratching around under these shrubs and would only come out momentarily, but thank goodness for the continuous shooting feature on my camera that enabled me to capture this photo
After seeing the towhee in Austin on Sunday morning, we turned around and raced back to Rochester to watch my niece Kathryn perform live on the 58th Annual Eagles Cancer Telethon. She did a splendid job singing "I Hope You Dance" in honor of her Grampy. The biggest disappointment was that she only sang one song. Kathy has a beautiful voice and we don't get a chance to hear her sing very often. Way to go Kathy!

Monday night was Holly's final test to pass the Intermediate Obedience class at PetSmart. Mr. Johnson's been working pretty hard with her on her sits and stays and all that practice paid off when she passed the class! She still gets pretty excited when she goes in to PetSmart, so the loose leash walking was what had me worried, but she did well on that portion of the test too and got her "diploma" and official graduation photo. Way to go Holly!
Winter has (finally!) officially arrived in Minnesota.We got several inches of snow this past week and the less welcome sub-zero temps to go along with it. But that did bring lots more activity at the birdfeeders and and fairly large flock of deer into the backyard on Friday nite for feasting on corn. Because the ground has been bare for so long, the deer were able to find food elsewhere and haven't been visiting us, so it was neat to see all of them once again.

I spent quite a few hours last week doing some therapeutic knitting. The stupid hard drive on my laptop at work died and I had to get a replacement installed. Unfortunately, not all the programs I used were recoverable and several significant queries that I need to run every day that are fairly vital to my job are still not working correctly, so my frustration level has been at about an 11 on a scale of 1-10. Grrrr! Hence the need for therapeutic knitting.

First project finished was this fluffly scarf. The yarn is a weird kind of mesh, and you actually just loop the meshes over each other on the knitting needles. I like how it turned out but I'm not sure how much I'll actually ever wear it because I really don't need any extra "fluffiness" on my front, plus it has a really annoying tendency to get snagged on my earrings and that's just not working for me. So this scarf will probably become a nice donation item for some worthy cause I support.
I ended up getting pretty heavily into "mitten mode" this week too with the purchase of the beautiful Cloisonee Mitten pattern on Ravelry. So I dug through my closet for some pretty colors and this was my first mitten attempt. Love it!
Of course, this pattern inspired me to "think outside the box" and so my second attempt was a glove -- a combination of two different patterns. I really liked this one too!
In my ongoing resolution to finish some old projects in January, I got one step closer to being able to wear these houndstooth mittens by (almost) finishing this one. I really need to get these done because they're super warm -- the stranding between the checks makes these mittens doubly thick (plus they're wool).
And finally, after languishing on the kitchen counter waiting to be washed and blocked, my Annis Shawl (a Knitty pattern) is also done! The yarn is a beautiful mohair/silk/nylon blend with a little tiny silver thread also woven in. These photos don't do it justice, but the fuzzy, sparkly yarn combined with the beads make this one of the most stunning shawls I have ever knitted.
I'm looking forward to an opportunity to wear this shawl somewhere and I'm sure it will be lovely and warm too.

Those "sticks" you see holding the edges of the shawl are called blocking wires. You put them through the stitches when the shawl is wet and then pin the shawl out to the shape you want it to be when it's dry.

So that's all for last week, I wonder what this next week will bring.......

Holly Goes to School

Since the middle of October, we've taken Holly to the local PetSmart for her first Basic Obedience class. This was new for us too as we never took any of our three previous dogs to class -- Rick just had them trained for hunting purposes. Holly did pretty good with most of her lessons and the teacher told us that she was pleased with how much Holly had progressed since her first week at class. I was happy with her progress too -- especially since we started classes less than 2 weeks after Holly came to live with us.

Holly was the "big girl" in class -- all of her classmates were much smaller than she is. Here Holly's checking to make sure Buster didn't miss any treats. Buster was a rescue dog too. He was a really cute little dog.
Here Holly's checking to see if she can barge in on the game with Pickwick and Eddie. Pickwick was a very quiet little guy and somewhat trained when he came to class. His mom had already attended training classes previously with Pickwick's big brother. Eddie was a holy terror on his first night of class. He barked all the time and totally ignored his mom and dad. He really benefited from obedience classes and was quite a friendly and well-trained little dog by the end of class.

Here's Holly with all 3 of her classmates. See what I meant about her being a "big girl?" You should have seen how these little dogs all freaked out the first time Holly barked in class! (She has a really loud bark!)

Our final test was last Monday. I was a little worried about Holly passing, but she did just fine. She excels at "sit" and "down," so I knew we'd do fine with that. She even did well with "leave it," although Eddie snuck in and stole the treat from the floor that Holly wasn't supposed to have. Holly did fine with her "sit and stay" as I opened and stepped out the door. Then it was time for the part of the test I was really worried about: loose leash walking around the store. Holly gets really excited when we go to PetSmart and pulls so hard on her leash, but I had her outside in the afternoon chasing a ball for about an hour, so when the time for her walkabout finally arrived, she was pretty worn out and she did fine. Congratulations Graduate!

As long as we were in the school mode, I stopped at PetSmart on my way home from work the next day and signed Holly up for Intermediate Obedience class. We'll start back to school on December 12th. This class is going to be a lot tougher, but hopefully Holly (and, more importantly, I) will be up to the challenge.

A New Doggeh!

I managed to make it approximately 3 weeks without a dog after dear old Sophie passed away and could hardly stand not having a dog at home after 30+ years of living with dogs! So, after searching the listings and interviewing several potential dogs, Holly came to live with us on October 7th! Here we are picking her up at Paws & Claws Humane Society in Rochester. (she's got her eyes on a shelter cat up on the counter behind us)

In case you're wondering, Holly's a boxer/pit bull cross.

The story I was told at Paws & Claws was that Holly (her previous name was Cali) was a surrender because there were some "differences of opinion" between her and the other older dog at her previous home. And after the two of them got into a serious "argument" (Holly still had some scabs on her face when we brought her home), Holly needed to find a new home where she was going to be the only dog.

She's a very sweet doggeh and quite attached to both of us already. It's comforting for me to have that warm furry body curled up next to me in bed at night. She even will crawl under the covers after Rick leaves for work at 3:45 and Holly and I get the chance to cuddle until my alarm goes off at 6:00.

She's a licker!

And even though she's a pretty big girl, she doesn't have any trouble curling up to fit the smallest spot next to you (or even on your lap!)

She especially likes laying on the pillows!

Last Sunday my family came over and Holly got to meet them for the first time. She normally doesn't beg at the table, but found that my nephew Ethan was an easy mark -- for begging.......

......and for kissing!

She likes Rick's big leather recliner, but since Kathy and Matt had already claimed it, Holly did the best she could to get her share of the chair.
At supper tonite, I found out that Holly likes broccoli! That's a first for any of our dogs.
And she very kindly and neatly pre-washed the broccoli dish for me too!

Holly's very interested in Penny and after an initial few days of hiding out, Penny has now become accustomed to having Holly around. We do keep an eye on Holly though, for fear that she'll want to play too roughly with Penny. At 15 years of age, Penny's rough-housing days are pretty much over.
We're getting lots of dog walking exercise again now and Holly takes advantage of every chance she can for a nap.
And now if you'll excuse me, it's time to walk the dog!!