Welcoming 2008

I actually got out of the house today- with Miss Precious, Riley, and Sabrina all in the car. It is clear to me now that I need a bigger car for all of us! We took a nice brisk walk at the park so that I could feel like a person again and Riley could enjoy the last snow of 2007. It has been a record month in Massachusetts for snow!
The amazing thing is, today was Miss Precious' original due date. And here I am out with a 6 week old infant at the park!

Adjusting to Life with Miss Precious

I made it back before an entire month has passed. Miss Precious is 1 month old and everyone is adjusting well. A few quick updates:

I have learned to be a pretty good one-handed typist.

Riley and Sabrina came home two weeks after Miss Precious was born and just four days after she came home from the hospital. Thanks to Aunt Dory!

Riley and Sabrina have adjusted quite well to the new addition to the pack.

Riley has a new nickname: The General. He feels the need to guard and protect the new little one. If she cries, he comes running. If she cries continuously, he parks himself down in a sit stay and stays guard until she stops. And then he insists on doing his personal body check on her. From head to toe. No kidding!

Sabrina has realized that our usual walking routines have been switched. She now follows the Dogfather around the house, waiting for him to take her to the park. Didn't take long.

Besides disrupting her daily walking routine, Sabrina doesn't seem to have noticed any other change in the household. She will, however, come over to lick Miss Precious on the head gingerly or snuggle up to her in our Big Bed.

The Big Bed has gotten Very Full. Every night, it holds the Dogfather, myself, Miss Precious, Sabrina, and Mei Mei. Luckily our other two furchildren haven't felt the need to join us in bed too. And luckily we have a generously sized king bed.

I have been able to escape from the house twice so far to take my beloved fur children to the park to romp in the snow. What a treat! I hope to get out sometime today too.

I cannot wait to bring Miss Precious out to hike with the dogs.

Miss Precious calls...must go!

On Maternity Leave

Looks like I will be taking an early leave of absence from the Bernerbuddy Blog. Our first non-furkid arrived on Sunday at 6:23 pm. Miss Precious was 6 weeks early! Poor Riley and Sabrina have noooo idea what they're in store for. They think they're just on vacation with Auntie Dory. Sabrina has Agave to play with everyday and Riley is happy to get a break from Sabrina's antics. We haven't quite figured out if we want Miss Precious to come home first and get settled or let the fur kids come home first. Lots of decisions to make for all the kids. One thing's for sure, the kitties are quite delighted not to have the big canines around. MeiMei gets our whole bed to herself and Little Li doesn't have to find safe perching spots from Sabrina. Boy is everyone in for a shocker when Miss Precious comes home!

Tragedy On Our Street

Last night tragedy struck and took a small, but meaningful life.

Someone we did not know. A sweet, four-legged fur friend we never met. And a car at night.

The little white furfriend has now journeyed on over the Rainbow Bridge.

Although none of us knew each other, our lives are all changed forever.

RIP little fur-child.

Rockie Needs a Home

*Permission to cross post here in search of a potential new owner for this spitfire lil girl*

Know anyone who might be interested in a no-vax, raw fed, homeopathic
& chiropractic treated Toller puppy girl? That's a Nova Scotia Duck
Tolling Retriever, for those who have no clue what a Toller is.

This is a pic of "Rockie" at 7 weeks.



I have a pup born on July 25. Who really deserves to be in a forever
home at this point. Even though she is my comic relief and a blast
to have around. I held her back until I had a better handle on her
personality. Specifically her livability factor. She is a real spit-
fire and very independent. Her half brother was the same way at her
age but is now super easy to live with. I feel she is following the
same path. Phew!

We call her Rockie Balboa because she was the underdog of this
litter. She just never realized it. She was half the size of her
littermates. But ran the pack from day one. 1st one to the milk bar
and last to leave. Wiggling her way past all her amazon siblings to
get to the best faucet. Type of stuff. I've yet to find something
she's afraid of. She plays hard core tug with the big dogs. The
fact she is a fraction of their size makes no difference to her.
She's a tough cookie but has a soft obedient side too.

Picture of Mom, Buddie, and her litter.


I feel Rockie can best make her mark in the world doing something
which uses her body and brain. She seems to have the
body/mind/spirit for frisbee, agility, flyball, field, etc. Her
attention span is excellent and she has good eye contact for
obedience.

She should be showable, if she can stretch to 17" high. Height is in
her pedigree, but she looks petite at this point. Her size should
serve her well in athletic events, but might make it harder to get
points in the show ring. She's got the type of body that can take a
licking and keep on ticking. With regular chiropractic care, of
course. Her "expensive" clearance is done. She's PRA and CEA
clear.

She is a raw feeders dream. Especially those who like to feed real
prey model. I've yet to find a food she won't dig into with gusto.
And process beautifully. She's been under the care of Dr Jeff
Feinman since birth and already has her case started. He also treats
her mom, 1 littermate, and 2 half brothers. IOW's, a homeopathic
history exists which makes case management soooo much easier if you
use homeopathy as your primary healing modality.

My ideal home would be holistically minded, who will continue what I
started. With a lifestyle to keep her brain and body busy. Ideally
with other dogs. Where the humans knows how to be an effective
packleaders.

If anyone is interested, or knows anyone interested, I can be reached
at 978-465-2661

TIA,

Deena Mottola
PortStar Tollers

We Need a Mommy Cam

Or shall I say- Doggy Cam. Or maybe it's a Kitty Kam.

It's hard to say what our furkids do all day while we are away besides bark when the mailman or Man in the Brown Suit arrives. I used to be convinced that Riley was an angel while we were away. He never did anything distructive as a puppy. Yes, a few shredded books here, a potty accident there, but nothing like what Sabrina did.

As I mentioned in a previous post, SOMEONE has been on the leather couch. So far, the sniff test has only revealed Riley as the culprit. However, the sniff test is not quite so reliable when the only parts touching the couch are paws. I refuse to go around sniffing all 16 paws to see whom is leaving paw indentations on the sofa!

This dilemma has required some problem-solving as well as some sleuthing. Come with me as I slip back into the days when I pretended I was Nancy Drew. Nancy always cracked her cases.

Sabrina, luckily, can safely be eliminated as a possible culpirt. Recently, we have taught Sabrina to remain on a tie-down in the house. When we are home, she is constantly in front of us or circling us. And if it's neither of the two, then she's tripping you. I simply had to break her of that habit or I could see myself tumbling down the stairs with an infant in my arms. And then DSS would come to my house and have me arrested. So I have taught her to stay in the room or in a nearby room and stay calmly on a 4 foot tie-down. We are delighted that we did not have to resort to crating her. We can now leave her on a tie down all day while we are at work and she has been incident free for a week now!

So that leaves Little 7 pound Li, big Tank MeiMei, and the Bernerbuddy. So I purchsed a Scat Mat, made by SmartPak.



Just imagine a tri-colored dog there instead of the golden.

The Scat Mat has 3 settings. Low, medium, and high. The first time I set it up, it said low for small pets like cats or short haired animals. Not wanting to send my kitties into a seizure, I left it on low. I even tried it out myself. It's like a really good carpet shock. I came home and checked how many times it had been activated. EIGHT TIMES?! The next day it went up to High. We continue to get an average of 6 activations a day! Somebody does not mind being shocked and it must be one big, hairy animal...hmmmmmmm...Nancy Drew, what do you think?

Riley's Back!!!

Every Sunday, Sabrina walk at the Paine house with a large pack of hounds and their peeps. Sabrina's fur friend, Bandit (aka Mr. Stubbs), and his person have been joining us. It is a nice pack of dogs that all get along and Sabrina and Bandit get a great fun filled morning that leaves them sleeping for hours afterwards.

Yesterday morning was Riley's first morning back with the pack. He hasn't been seen for almost 4 months and boy was everyone happy to see him. I kept him on a leash, of course, as he was very fresh and quite exhuberent. But it was a great moment all the same. We decided to take it easy and walk apart from the group and Riley was allowed about 20 minutes of off leash time. He did wonderful! I am so grateful that he has two good knees to enjoy the rest of his doggy days on.

We really have to thank the most wonderful doggie chiropractor in Framingham for taking good care of him and helping him along his recovery. The practice includes humans, horses, and dogs. Last week, I started my first treatments with one of the chiropractors there and I could not be more happy with the results. Riley got his adjustment first, and then it was my turn! We are treated in different areas of the practice, of course, but I can't help but to get tickled by the fact that my dog and I see the same chiropractor! In fact, Mr. Stubbs himself is going to see him next week too about some "growing pains."

Don't we love our hounds or what?!

Next week, our other fur friend (or shall I say furless 4 legged friend), Mr. Hercules, will be joining our walking pack as well. He is a hariless Chinese Crested. He kinda looks like this photo of the breed, but in my opinion of hairless dogs, he's actually a lot better looking than most of the pictures I've seen.

Smell Him, Smeeeeeell HIM!

Last night's good night hug with the Bernerbuddy revealed that HE HAS BEEN SLEEPING ON THE LEATHER SOFA!!! I buried my nose deep into his soft curls on his head and took my regular deep whiff of Bernerness and there it hit me. Leather? My Berner Bobos smells like leather? I whipped around (as well as woman in her 8th month of pregginess could whip around) and commanded at the Dogfather, "Smell him, smeeeeeell HIM!" And he confirmed that Riley smelled like the new leather couch.

*sigh* I know, I know, you told me so...I can hear your cyber chuckle from here.....

Apple Picking

Yesterday was the warmest Sunday in October I have ever experienced in New England. After a 45 minute romp in the woods with Sabrina and her best buddy, Bandit, we drove westward to Shelburne Farm in Stow to meet some friends for apple picking. Sabrina went on her first apple picking trip and boy was it fun! There were so many yummy apples to try but her favorites were Fujis. I had to agree with her. They were humongous and thanks to Bandit's mommy, we got the most beautiful apples from the tops of the trees because she was the only one to climb the ladder to get them! Here is Sabrina waiting patiently for her apple!

Have You Seen Her?

My title reminds me of a song that came out when I was in middle school or high school....sometime in the 80s. (yes, I was a child of the 80s...and still am!)

(music cue) have you seen her.....doo doo doo, ooooh, have you seen her?

I can't remember who sang it though. I'm really bad at remembering this kind of stuff.

Anyways, back to the topic. A new member of the dog park has recently been overwhelmed by the number of people who ask him if he's seen Sabrina. When we arrived yesterday, we finally met him. As I walked the perimeter of the large grassy area of Beaverbrook, I saw a man at the other end waving at me. I could see a little black puppy at the end of his leash and I figured he must have thought I was someone else. But we was, in fact, waving to me. Sabrina was galloping her way across the field and he had spotted her, the infamous, one and only Flattie of the park. And he had been asked by countless dog owners, "Have you met Sabrina?" As I got closer, I realized that the little one at the end of his leash was a 12 week old Flattie! How delightful!

We met the lil guy, whose name is Bam and all those memories of Sabrina's puppyhood came back. I have not seen a Flattie puppy since Sabrina was little so this was such a treat. Plus, we did not adopt Sabrina until she was almost 13 weeks old so this lil guy was smaller than I remember Sabrina was when we brought her home. His coat is wavier than Sabrina's and his ears look like someone crimped them that morning. He absolutely loved Sabrina and she, in true Flattie style, lavished him in kisses. We now have a new Flattie friend at the park. I *do* feel bad that every other person who meets Bam asks the poor guy that same question. But when you're that famous, what can you do, right?