Champion Charlie!

Well, not quite a champion, but she is on her way! Charlie did really well at her first ever Teacup Dog Agility trial. She came home with nine ribbons, even a first place!

This was our first agility trial too. Hubby ran Charlie around the ring and did a fantastic job of keeping her focused. I was the official family photographer. Hubby did really well for only having two lessons prior to the trial. Charlie did a great job showing her daddy how to run around. Charlie's Grandma is her normal agility trainer.

Grandma had surgery at the beginning of September so she asked her son, Hubby, to run Charlie for her. Grandma says Charlie has a gift for agility. :o) Grandma has been taking Charlie to weekly agility lessons for about six months or so. G'ma has two dogs of her own that are very good at agility. Annie, a westie and Archie, a bichon. They are very cute and much better trained than any of our little pack. Annie can push Archie in a little doll carriage. G'ma puts squeezy cheese on the handle and Annie stands up and walks forward, Archie sits in the carriage with a baby hat on, he also has cheese. It's really funny and cute.

Anyway...G'ma has trained Charlie really well and we owe all the ribbons to her. G'ma is a fantastic woman, always on the go. I sure got lucky!! Hubby was a great substitute, but we were really the beginners at the trial.

Here's a cute movie of Charlie and Hubby running around, the judge is who you hear calling numbers and scoring info. I am a jiggly photographer so please forgive the shaky filming...let's call it hip and arty.

Daisy's Story, part three

Hi everyone, Just a quick mention of Charlie's day...She won a first place ribbon in Agility competition today. More to follow!

We had such a good time with Daisy, she was a great little doggie, but I am sure you can follow my train of thought and you know she passed to soon.

One Sunday afternoon, hubby and I returned from grocery shopping to notice Daisy sleeping on the living room floor. Nothing unusual about a sleepy dog, but one that didn't jump up to greet us, well that was unusual. Daisy got up just briefly to say hello, but went right back to sleeping on the floor. We kept an eye on her all afternoon and evening and she did not get any better. We brought her to the vet first thing Monday morning. She seemed to be slightly improved in the morning so we were hoping for the "oh, she ate something funny" comments from the doctor.

Instead we were told that Daisy was most likely suffering from Pug Dog Encephalitis. This was devastating news. PDE is fatal and difficult to tell how long the dog will be able to have any quality of life. Faced with this news and the likely outcome and lots of expensive tests to verify this information, only to have the same outcome, we took Daisy home.

Over the next week we watched this little baby like a hawk, always watching for any signs of this terrible disease. We had a few good days when she seemed almost normal. Hubby took her to work with him again since she just snoozed in the warm truck and the sound of the motor was soothing to her. She loved white noise, it really relaxed her. Whenever I used my noisy kitchen vent, she would come sit near the kitchen and fall right to sleep.

Sadly, the good minutes were quickly overshadowed by the bad times. She was still eating a bit and drinking water but stopped being able to go to bathroom. She started having seizures, her head would swell form the neck up and her breathing became labored. We couldn't go on letting her suffer so for us. We made the horrible decision to give our poor sweet puppy a peaceful end to her misery. We went to our vet's office and were treated kindly as we discussed our decision. The vet tech took her out of the room for a moment to put a shunt into her leg so the medicine could just be pumped in and so we didn't have to see the needle. They brought our little girl back and she passed away in my husbands arms.

I need to tell you that I am 50 years old, I thought at that time being an adult sucks. I didn't want to be the one to decide this, to be the one to bear the consequences. I hated doing this.

We took Daisy home and had a burial in our yard. We have a marker for the spot, but we will never forget where she is. We will always love this special dog. Daisy's special needs made her a special puppy. She was so patient and loving to everyone. She was loved by everyone she ever met. Everyone was touched by Daisy and her story.

Daisy had many vet visits due to her early life. Being a puppy born into a sad situation gave her a rough start. She suffered an infection on her face from a stitch being left after her eye removal, she had to have a big drain tube put in her face. She never complained. We thought she had swallowed a pill hubby had dropped. Poor baby had her stomach pumped. We got home to find the pill had bounced farther away from Daisy than we thought. Again, not a sound from the puppy.

We only had one short year with Daisy. We brought her home Early September 2006 and she died late September 2007.

Sorry for the Delay!

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for your welcome into the blogging world. I appreciate the comments and visits. I have been reading all of your blogs for quite some time and was inspired to join.

I am sorry I took so long to add today's post about Daisy, but we were gone all day at Charlie's first Teacup Dog Agility Association competion! She did really well! I will let you know all about it soon and show you some cute pictures. Hubby will be making another movie...I am so proud of them both. :o)

We have another day of competition tomorrow, Sunday, so I may be late with the final post of Daisy's Story. So Roxy, ask Mom to be patient with me!

Daisy's Story part 2

Well, what would you do if you saw that little puppy? We took her home!

We took Daisy with us for a day trip to Yellostone National Park. She was so good! She just snuggled into my husband's arms and went everywhere with us. We took her into shops, to see the smelly sulfur pots...she was so sweet. Such a good little doggie.

We decided to get an airline carrier and take Daisy home. She was such and easy puppy. She seemed to sense her surroundings and limitations, she was amazing to watch.

Daisy had lost both of her eyes at a very early age. She had one eye scratched by a litter mate. Her little eye could not be saved. The conditions she was living in were not the best and she soon had an infection that carried over to her remaining eye. The vet in Wyoming decided to take that eye too. Poor little puppy was now completely sightless. This all happened within her first two months of life. Since she had not really had her sight for long, she did not know any different.

Daisy was a delightful little dog. We just loved her so much. She became my husband's constant companion. He took her to work with him everyday. Since he is a truck driver, she just rode along. She would snuggle in and snooze next to him or on his lap. Hubby would take her in to all the offices he stopped at, Daisy was taking hearts hostage everywhere she went. Everyone loved that sweet little puppy! Hubby actually tamed savage office workers with his little friend. No one could resist her charms.

We had such a great time, we had Daisy and our oldest dog Honey, a corgi / pommix. We took the girls on vacations all over Washington and Oregon. We loved to travel with the girls.

Everything was great, we had two sweet doggies and we loved them both. Honey did let Daisy know who was boss, especially when Daisy bumped into her. Daisy was amazing, hubby would put her on a strip of lawn, at the places he stopped for work. She would just stay on the lawn sniffing around, whenever she got too close to the edge, she would go back a bit and sniff around some more. She would find her boundaries and stay within them. We could take her anywhere and within 15 minutes she would have everything checked out and whould know where the food and water was.

We had a terrific year with our little puglette...

Our First Puglette: Daisy

Hubby and I first fell in love with pugs while sharing life with our little Daisy. She was such a sweet little puppy and we just fell hard for her little pugism's. The snuffles and snorts, snoring in your ear at night, that funny little squished face.

Daisy's story is a sad tale, so get the hankie ready.

We met Daisy over the Labor Day weekend in 2006. We flew in to Wyoming to visit delightful daughter for a whirlwind weekend. Daughter had been living in Greybull, WY for a year or so, in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. We had heard about Daisy and seen a few blurry puppy pictures. Daisy was to be daughter's puppy. But daughter was a busy girl, working, trying college and she decided she just couldn't devote enough time to a puppy. While we were in WY we went to meet the parents of daughter's boyfriend. This is where we met Daisy. The boy's sister was a backyard breeder of pugs. (Daughter has since moved home to WA and has a lovely boyfriend.)

The pugs were kept in kennels all day and night, they got out infrequently and were quite rambunctious. We heard puppies before we saw them. Daughter asked us if we would like to meet Daisy, of course! who doesn't want to meet puppies!! We were handed the tiniest little black ball of fur and snuffles. Daisy was five months old and only weighed two pounds. She had on a pink collar with spikes on it, such a tough collar for a teeny thing. What a cutey! Hubby was smitten instantly, he fell for that little baby as soon as he held her in the palm of his hand. Me, well I'm always smitten with animals, I want them all.

As we were leaving, daughter asked us if we could take Daisy and raise her. Daughter knows I am a soft touch for animals, and Daddy is a soft touch for her. We drove back to the hotel thinking about that little puppy, could we take on another dog? How could we get her home? We had flown to WY. What would Honey think about a new puppy? Honey is a cranky old lady dog. Could we handle her special needs? You see, Daisy was totally blind.

Charlie's Movie

My genius husband made this short movie about Charlie and figured out how to post it on my blog. Enjoy!

My genius husband wrote that first line too! He really is a genius, but he's a smarty pants too. Ok, so here's Charlie's movie. She is the star, but all the puppies are pictured. Hubby created this cute little movie, he really is the best.

Please enjoy our little film :o)

Thank You!

Hi Everyone! Thank you so much for the warm welcome! I am so excited to be a blogger with comments! I tend to use a lot of exclamation points when I get excited!!

Well, after all the helpful hints about moving pictures around, I think I will try to add a Charlie photo. That's her in the little picture, by my profile. I think I will let Charlie be the face of Puglette since she has such a sweet face.

Yay!! I did it!! Ok, this is Charlie when she was younger, six months old. She had her first birthday last month and is officially a big girl. Charlie is learning how to do agility. She goes to class with her Grandma Geri, hubby's mom. Charlie has her first official agility meet this weekend. She is a registered member of TDAA, Teacup Dog Agility Association. Ok, here's another blog challenge...can I add a video? That challenge may have to wait until hubby can help me. He's the computer guru in our house. So, my new friends, please stand by!

The First Puglette Ponders

This is my very first blog post! I have been a blog lurker for some time now. So I have decided to join the blog bandwagon. Please forgive me. This blog will be self centered as I have heard you should write about things you know, and I know me.

So, I guess I should introduce you to my family. I have a wonderful husband and a delightful daughter. Delightful daughter is a grown up girl and has a life on her own. We are very proud of her! Hubby and I have been together a long time, he's a keeper.

Hubby and I share our house with four spoiled dogs and two cats. The dogs try to control things at the house, we have a constant battle to remind them that they are the pets and we are the masters. It's a losing battle...for us. I will now try to insert my first photos, if those go well I may just try a video.

OK, so the picture posted to the top of the post, not here where I wanted it. So, maybe I will hold off on the video for a bit. The picture above is our boy Ollie. He's a goofy guy. We also have a puglette, Charlie. I will post her picture and her video (she is a star in the making!) on the next post.