The Best Dog Ever

Thursday is going to be a hard day. I already know this. I am trying really hard to gear myself up for it. I've even told the kids, so they can prepare too. *sigh*

Thursday, Sylvie, the sweetest mini schnauzer on the planet is going to be put to rest. I had never really thought about it before, but it is really weird to call the vet and make an appointment for your pet to be euthanized. To know, that after that appointment you will no longer have a dog.

After I made the appointment I sat there for a minute thinking how weird/sad it was.

I will miss having her around, but having her around makes me more sad right now. She is not the same dog that we had a year ago. She can no longer run and play, she can't see, and you can tell she is just miserable. We feed her more now than we ever have before, and she is skin and bones. She looks like we starve her.

Our kind friend groomed her for us so we could take some final pictures, and it just made me sad to see how skinny she has really gotten.

So, sweet Cricket Silverfox, I am letting you go, so you can run and play once more, and catch all the grasshoppers to your heart's content.

Such a sweet dog.

Huh

Well, I had a REALLY good idea of what to write on here, and...I honestly can't remember even the tiniest little bit of what it was. I even had a great title to go with it.

So, this will just be a little hodgepodge of what as been going on lately...and some of the funny things.

Our anniversary was last week so my parents watched Harrison and Hazel overnight. It happened to be the night of the high school football homecoming game. So, my parents took our kids to their FIRST football game ever.

I can just imagine what my kids were wondering. The only time they have been in a football stadium is to watch a fieldshow competition. This would explain why after the marching band played at half-time Harrison looked at my mom and stated "Where are the other bands?" Hehehe...speaking of which...I need to find out when the USU fieldshow competition is...

Saturday I told Shane enough was enough and we NEEDED to bite the bullet and buy a doggie door. So, we found the cheapest one we could, took it home and installed it. Then the trick was to convince Sylvie that she wanted to use it! We coerced her with lots of treats, and then wondered if she would ever get the hang of it. I still remember the look on her face when I was trying to convince her to go through the door..(You want me to what? Are you NUTS?!)

However, after just a few days she has definitely gotten the hang of it and loves being able to go in and outside whenever she wants to, to catch grasshoppers to her hearts content. ;)

Today was my day off so I decided on Sunday that today would be spent doing at least some things to help it look cleaner and nicer. Our office had gotten to horrible..I told Shane it would qualify to be on one of those tv shows they have about organizing...Shane still thinks it's not quite there. Hmm...guess we'll either have to clean it and organize or try harder to qualify. Hahaha.

So, I went for the clean and organize route. I started with the computer desk. It only took 2 hours to unearth. Seriously. There is still a shelf above it that I didn't touch, but at least it kind of looks like I did something.

I told Shane I was going to take the "eating the elephant" approach. A bite at a time and it will get done!

Sneaky Sylvie

So, for Valentine's day, Shane bought me a box of some of my FAVORITE chocolates from the Idle Isle store. These are some of the yummiest treats ever, so I thought that was a great gift. The picture does not do them justice, believe me.

I like to savor my chocolates, making them last as long as possible. I didn't do so well this time...hehehe... By yesterday more than half of them were gone. (I did share a few, I'm not totally stingy!)

So, anyway, yesterday after I got home from church and had dinner cooking, I decided it was time to enjoy another chocolate. I walked into my room and looked where I put the box, and...NO BOX!

Well, knowing that Sylvie has a sneaky streak to her, I wondered if it had been her. (Especially after I glanced at the bed and the pillows were all out of place.) I peeked under the bed, and there was my box. Empty.

She had jumped onto my bed, knocked the box down and eaten what was inside.

Sylvie ate the rest of my chocolates! Now, before you all get all crazy on me, YES I KNOW that chocolate is bad for dogs. I know this. It's NOT like I fed them to her myself!

So see, having a dog really is like having a child...and sometimes they are even more sneaky! (Although, if my kids had done it, they would have kept the box where it was and just taken a chocolate out.)

Good thing I love that dog...:)

What a relief...

So, since it has been cold, I'll admit that we have gotten a bit lazy where Sylvie (the sweetest mini schnauzer on the planet) has been concerned. Usually in the morning I take her on a long walk which has two bonuses...first, it gets me out and moving (yay exercise!) and two, she gets to do her business if you know what I mean.

Well, I do not like to walk in the cold. I know that there are people out there who are so diligent that they will walk/run when it is beyond super cold, but I am not one of those people. If it is below 60 I doubt you will see me out walking...ever...unless it's in the parking lot on the way into a store. :)

So, since it is cold, we just let Sylvie go outside, she goes into the backyard, does her business, and comes back in. Well, yesterday, she went outside, and didn't come back. We called and called for her. Shane went and walked around the neighborhood calling for her...no Sylvie. He came back, and we eventually called animal control to make sure that she hadn't been picked up. No dice. So, we did a few things that we needed to do, and I'll admit that I was starting to get worried.

Well, about 1:00 PM a car pulls into our driveway, and who should be in there, but Sylvie. YAY! I was so happy. I cannot begin to express the relief I felt that she was okay. Apparently she followed our next door neighbor's schnauzer into an adjacent backyard, where she started to "play" with that neighbor's schnauzer. Well, since it was cold and they were playing, they let them into the house. Then the mom had to go and do her morning job, and she didn't return Sylvie till that afternoon. She apologized for keeping her so long, but seriously, I was just so glad that Sylvie was okay that I didn't care!

So, all's well that ends I suppose. Sylvie definitely doesn't get to go outside without a leash now though!

A few more pics

We FINALLY got Sylvie groomed! She needed it sooooo bad. She had the painful experience of breaking a claw on one of her feet and it didn't break off completely and twisted around. Ouch! Poor thing. So, we took care of that and decided that enough was enough and she needed to be groomed! Thankfully there is a sister in our ward who grooms dogs and she was able to get her in on Tuesday. One of these times I'll remember to do a before and after picture so you can see the HUGE difference in her looks. Anyway, now because of that, she has to constantly be in a dog sweater so she doesn't freeze!


Monday we finally decorated our front room for Christmas. I love how it turned out. It just makes me happy to be in our front room. This year is the first year we have had a tree that was at least 7 feet tall. That has been so fun! Our kids had a lot of fun helping us decorate the tree. Which is why if you look really closely you will see clumps of ornaments and candy canes only on one part of the tree, but seriously, I LOVE IT! I even put out a Christmas village that I was given and put it on my piano. I never dared before because I figured my kids would have more fun throwing it at the wall and seeing how many pretty pieces it could be broken into.

Sweet Sylvie

I finally got a picture taken of Sylvie where she doesn't look posessed or have weird things in her picture. Hazel's shirt is all wet, but oh well. She looks just like a kid should, right? :)



Sylvie has got to be the sweetest miniature schnauzer on the planet. She is so well behaved. Schnauzers have a reputation for barking, and wether she was trained to not bark (probably) or just doesn't, she hardly ever barks, and even then it's just a short yip.

She loves to be held and to have her tummy rubbed and her fur petted. She is just a fun little dog. Shane taught her to jump up and dance for her treats.

All I can say is the owners who trained her were very good at what they do. She is very housetrained. She has never had an accident. And she is smart.

I had a lady come by the house the other day and she kept making the comment "It's like she's human, she understands you so well!" Yeah, I'd like to take all the credit, but I know it wasn't because of what I've taught her!

She also has some funny quirks. It reminds me of a little kid in a way. She tries to sneak things by...mainly food that she knows she's not supposed to have!

And she has a bizarre fetish for paper....but then again, I've come to discover that's not all that uncommon with dogs.

Anyway, we love Sylvie and are glad she's a part of our family.

And the light grey is in the lead...

So, it is day 2 of summer vacation. I know, I'm already counting. :) Not really, the kids have been pretty good. Harrison hasn't even once said "I'm bored..." yet. Today he wanted to go play at a friend's and I said sure.

So, I went out to change the sprinkler to a different section of grass and let Sylvie and Hazel come out too. I took a chance and let Sylvie go outside without her leash. She was off like a shot! I'm sure she was thinking, "YES! I can finally go sniff the new neighbor dog!" and sure enough that was where she was headed.

My neighbor was in her backyard doing some gardening, and she told me that Sylvie could "play" with her dogs if she wanted, and also said that Harrison and Hazel could stay too. So, I shut the gates to her backyard and came home. My kids I wasn't too worried about...but Sylvie...well, she is a little unpredictable at times. So, I had my window open and was casually observing, well, keeping an ear out for anything unusual.

This was not overly hard because the house south of our neighbor's house also has dogs except theirs are huge gargantuan german shepherds. Yes, they let everyone know that Sylvie was in the the yard next door instead of the yard she should be in. Then I heard my kids, the gate, and saw three streaks of color race out the yard.

Apparently Sylvie had had all the excitement her little schnauzer heart could take because she came home as soon as I called her. (Mind you, if she doesn't feel like listening she'll just stand there and stare at you like what, you are talking to moi? Just like kids...hehehe...)

Sylvie's big day!

On Friday we got to take Sylvie to Hazel's preschool class. They thought it was great! Hazel was so cute. Her teacher asked her what kind of dog Sylvie was and she actually said schnauzer! I was way impressed. So was Shane.

After they all got to pet her inside and ask questions then we took her outside and Hazel got to run with Sylvie on her leash. Hazel thought that was great. Then the other students ran with her too. It was super cute.

Sylvie thought it was great because she got some running exercise! She loves being a house dog, but she really enjoys going outside too. A lot of times if you let her off her leash she'll start bouncing around, rolling in the grass, and all sorts of other fun things. She's a fun dog. :)