This Is What Happens When You Dig the Holes

This is what happens when you dig the holes, dig the holes, dig the holes.  This is what happens when you dig the holes...in...the...mud.

After it rained, the puppies went out and played in the mud.  They got their feet bathed in the kitchen sink.

Tanker and Topher watched.

Wes was a big help.

Dog Park Backyard Halfway Finished

We are really impressed with the job the landscapers are doing in our yard.  They have cleaned up the front, cleared out the brush in the back, taken down at least nine small trees, cleared the leaves out of the creek so that it flows better, put lime down in the front and back (soil is too acidic), and they are halfway finished spreading mulch in the backyard.  The man who is in charge lives in our neighborhood.  He is very nice.  He has dogs too, mostly hounds, and he loves training them.  He is impressed with Topher, Tanker, Bella, and Shiloh.  Sometimes they go out back to watch and play while the guys are working.  He said that if we ever want to get rid of Bella that he would take her.  He loves her spunky, figure everything out personality.  She definitely has the mind of a border collie.

I found a tick under Topher's collar yesterday.  I was not happy about that.  He is on Frontline, however I bathed him 24 hours after applying it earlier this month because he had to work at the library the next day.  That was bad planning on my part, but I thought maybe it would still be okay.  Apparently not.  I am pretty sure he has the Lyme vaccine.  I need to call the vet and double check.  I am extra cautious about this now after Wes contracted Lyme Disease.  It was early in the morning when I found the tick.  Topher was acting strange.  He jumped up on the bed and was whining.  I scratched his neck and felt the tick.  He whimpered when I touched it.  I pulled it off and then he was fine.  It was small, so I don't think it had been on him long. 

The puppies have been busy playing outside in the mulch.  I think they think we hauled in a bunch of sticks just for them.  They were trying to bring it inside today.  Topher has been busy playing with the puppies.  Puppies are the best toys I have ever gotten Topher.

Checking out the new mulch.

When the puppies come in from playing outside, they sit and wait for ice cubes.  They LOVE ice cubes!



I finally threw away some of their ripped up toys.  The love to play with them, but they have a lot of other toys. 

They haven't missed them yet.  I don't think they even realize they are gone.  Little Bit was the only one who saw me throw them away.

The dogs go out back when I clean.

Here is a video and some more pictures of what the backyard looks like so far.  When they finish, I will take final pictures of the frontyard and back.

Here is a picture of Topher with his Dr. Seuss bird.

Wes went back to the doctor today and got several referrals.  He is going to an Infectious Disease doctor at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland for his Lyme Disease.  He finished his 21-days of Doxycycline and he is still burdened with a lot of symptoms.  He is very fatigued.  His hands hurt a lot.  He has pain from his hips down.  His doctor did not prescribe anymore Doxycycline because he thinks the Infectious Disease Doctor will treat him with something stronger.  Wes got a referral for a CT of his lungs.  The nodule on his lung is 8 mm by 10 mm.  The doctor is concerned about it.  He thinks there is a better chance of it being scar tissue from when he was sick earlier this year, but he wants to rule out malignancy.  Wes is going to have a HIDA Scan to look at his gallbladder closer.  He had that large bowel obstruction, and even after it cleared up he is still having a lot of pain and bloating.  He also doesn't have a lot of an appetite on some days.  Lastly, he got a referral to seen by Pain Management off base as opposed to at Walter Reed.  In case they do some sort of procedure where he can't drive, we need it to be closer to home since I can't drive either.  We wouldn't burden someone to drive Wes up to Walter Reed and back.  I am not fond of Walter Reed anyway, so I am thrilled that Wes is going elsewhere.

The windows have been open for the last several days because we have had such nice weather.  I finally closed them today only because it was a little more humid.  We got a small amount of rain this morning, and it may rain more this afternoon.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche

A Dog Park In The Back Yard

Today, the guys finished clearing out the backyard.  Little did we know that our yard was filled with poison ivy.  Even the vine that grows like crazy through my azalea bushes that I am constantly pulling out was poison ivy.  Apparently I do not react to it because I am frequently elbow deep in it and I have never broken out.  Lucky me!  I will not play with fire though and the guys cleared the entire backyard. 

We live in a very wooded area.  We live in a neighborhood, but it is not your typical neighborhood.  It is more of a community.  It is HUGE!  It is over two thousand acres with over 400 acres of protected wetlands on Historic Aquia Creek.  We have a marina, walking trails, horse stables, riding trails for the horses, a golf course, a restaurant/country club, a dog park, many regular parks, baseball fields, tennis courts, two or three pools, our own police department, and our own fire department/EMS unit.  We have bridge access to Government Island.  There are over 45 miles of roads in our neighborhood.  Each house looks different.  It is not a cookie cutter neighborhood by any means.  Wildlife abounds.  There are deer, bald eagles, blue heron, osprey, and even bear have been spotted in the past.  I'd say it's a pretty cool place to live.  The best part is that it's safe.  All of that is protected by one gated entry.  We love where we live.

One thing that we love the most is how unique it is.  Although we have an HOA with restrictions, they are not your typical restrictions of a neighborhood.  Our lot is very wooded.  It is hard to grow grass.  Therefore, we have ivy in the front and other ground cover.  The back has been difficult because we don't want ivy due to snakes, but we don't want plain dirt either.  Before today, we had a lot of leaves and brush.  That was all cleared out.  Tomorrow, they are putting down mulch.  The dog park in our neighborhood has a lot of mulch and it is great for the dogs to run on.  I plan on planting a lot of shade loving plants, such as hostas throughout the back.  It is going to be like a park.  There is a park near our house that is all wooded and good for camping.  That is what I am envisioning.  

The cleared out backyard looks like this:

The dogs are already loving the cleared out space.  They have been running and playing.  I went out and played ball with Tanker today and he really enjoyed it.  Topher, Bella, and Shiloh ran around and played like puppies.  I can't wait for it to be finished.  It is going to be a doggy playground.



Little Bit, my cat who thinks she is one of the dogs, patiently waits for everyone to come back in.

All of that playing in the dirt makes doggies dirty.  Puppies got a bath when they came in.

Patiently waiting for our baths.

We will lay down and wait.

Topher is the "mommy" and he licks them dry.

He cleans their ears.

Bella waits in line to be licked dry by Topher.

The landscapers are cleaning up our front too.  They even fixed the pot hole in our driveway for only $30!  Remember me saying last week that God always provides?  These guys have been awesome to us.  They are doing a great job!

Other news in our lives:  The only thing we have left to volunteer on our own at Snowden in Fredericksburg (psychiatric units) is our TB skin test.  I already test positive and have gone through the appropriate treatment, so I should only have to answer questions to reassure them that I am not symptomatic.  Wes needs the actual test done.  Once that is done and we have faxed it to the volunteer coordinator along with our dogs' licenses, we will be scheduled to volunteer on a weekly basis.  We think we are going to schedule it for every Sunday morning.

We have to schedule an interview to meet with the volunteer coordinator at Mary Washington Hospital.  It is in their hands at this point.  I have contacted them more than once and am waiting for them to send me forms to fill out.  We then have to go to hospital orientation, which is eight hours on a Monday.  Wes may have to take leave for that so we can get it done.  I feel like we are never going to get to volunteer there.

We will be meeting with the Director of Veterans Moving Forward next week.  We have already met her, but we have to go over specifics before we volunteer with them.  They are the organization that provides service dogs to wounded service members free of charge.  They also have volunteer therapy dogs who go into the military hospitals to help wounded veterans.  We are very excited about this.  I hope that Walter Reed finishes their transition to Ft. Belvoir soon because it is a shorter commute for us and we want to be able to volunteer with them frequently.  Once Bella and Shiloh are grown, fully trained, and certified as therapy dogs, we hope to raise a puppy for Veterans Moving Forward to be trained to be a service dog.  We love training dogs.  Wes is in the military.  What better way to give back to our military family than to raise and train a service dog for a wounded veteran?  We are excited about this opportunity.

Somebody is interested in adopting Neo.  We are very happy.  He is a great cat, but he cannot stay here.  He does not get along with the other animals.  A lady contacted me and told me that Neo looked like her cat who had passed away several months ago.  Neo sounded like exactly what she and her family were looking for.  He would be the only animal in the house.  We took Neo in after a lady we had met was going to get rid of him.  We didn't want him to end up in the pound, so we took him.  It's unfortunate he didn't work out here, but I'm excited we were able to give him a place until he found his permanent home.

That's all for now.  Wes is working and I am camping out with the Zoo Crew.  The windows are open and it has been cool all day.  Life cannot get better than this.  I always knew I'd grow up to be a zoo keeper.  I'm sure Wes always envisioned marrying one.

A Weekend of R&R

Wes had a three day weekend, which is always nice.  We always have big plans when he gets a few days off, but this time it just didn't happen.  Wes has been exhausted and is still dealing with a lot of pain from the Lyme Disease.  With the warmer weather, my pain and fatigue increases, so between the two of us we do what we can.

The puppies keep growing and growing.  Bella has grown out of her old crate and we had to get a new one.  We found a great deal for a crate on Craigslist down in Fredericksburg.  Bella is much more comfortable now.

Bella in her old crate.  "Mom, this is not comfortable at all."

Bella in her new crate, which is the same size as Shiloh's.

We went down to Bella Cafe on Saturday night.  It is our favorite place and most of our closest friends are from Bella.  One of the regular performers had a show and we enjoyed listening to her music.  We sat and chatted with some new friends.  Because we are so tired all the time, we were in need of a good cup of Bella coffee.  Wes likes to romance me with Love Potion #9 and he occasionally gets mint mocha.



After the regular show, the crowd cleared up and Will closed up a little early.  There were two new customers who had come here from New Jersey and North Carolina.  They came to run a marathon.  They both used to live in New York where you can regularly walk down the street and listen to live music.  When they drove by Bella Cafe with the sign for live music, they stopped.  They were the nicest people.  Will, the giving person he is, gave them free CDs and put on a private show for them.  He asked Wes if he would play Turn the Page with him and then he played with Rebecca.  Wes hasn't played guitar since before we went to Alabama and before he contracted Lyme Disease.  His hands have been too stiff and he has been too fatigued.  He picked up the guitar and did a great job for his first time back on stage.

Wes wore his new shirt from Goodwill.  We love shopping at Goodwill.  He doesn't normally wear shirts like this, but he said it was appropriate for a $3 shirt.



The rest of the weekend was spent resting up and being lazy.  Sometimes it's nice to just enjoy life by sitting back and soaking up the good of it all.

We hired some guys from our neighborhood to landscape our yard.  Wes cannot do it right now because he can't be out in the sun for long with the medicine he's on.  Plus, he's tired and he hurts.  We had to have a couple of small trees taken down.  One had been hit by lightening and was dead.  We had all the brush cleared out of the backyard.  All the leaves were cleaned up.  We are going to have them put mulch down in the back because it's too shady to grow grass.  They are cleaning up the front and the creek. 

The dogs love the cleared out back.  They have been running laps over and over again.  Once it's all done, it is going to be a great place to train them.  I love how much more open it is.

While sitting out back and relaxing, I started stressing over life.  All of a sudden, John showed up to tell me it's going to be okay. 

We walked the dogs down to the river today.  It was beautiful and cool outside.  I have had the windows open all day.

 

Topher lays down in the same spot every time we go for a walk.  It's right at the end like he is saying, "I don't want to go home.  I want to keep walking.  Please don't let the fun end!"

Lastly, I created a video of Blondie.  She is our inspiration for training dogs.  There are a lot of repeated pictures in the video and I need to edit it.  You can see the cool dog that she was.