Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Photoshoot

We tried for a home-done engagement photo shoot this weekend - I haven't gotten done going through all of the photos but there are two shots I wanted to share - I read somewhere that engagement photos are supposed to capture the couple and how/who they are during the engagement period. I think these help to sum up a good chunk of it - what do you think?

Close up of the bottom half of Darrell and I, we are standing side by side and the dogs are at our sides. The top of the picture cuts off just above the dog's heads so all you can see is around our thighs and down of us but the whole bodies of each dog

Same position as the above except both dogs are now laying down, this makes the picture wider since it has to be cropped to include both dogs whole bodies


I need to play with the color of the top one a bit more but what I would like to do at some point is get one of these printed on a canvas (Check out Color Inc) and hang it somewhere.. which one do you think would be better? I like the top one because both dogs are looking at the camera but I like the bottom because it looks more natural... your thoughts?

Friday, October 22, 2010

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Shady

Guess who's back, back again - 
Bob is back, tell a friend - 
Guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back... 


No? Not feeling it? I don't like Eminem either... 

Either way Bob is back!!! Back again! Da nuh nuh nuh nuh... Sorry - its stuck in my head now... I picked Bob up today at the Guide Dog office around 1:00 and am very happy to have him back! 

We have had a walk since he's been back, we walked around the campus for about 30 minutes working on his pulling, which I'm happy to report has improved a bit, finding trashcans, staircases, doorways and his favorite - an elevator! That was actually the first elevator I've taken since he left lol. After our walk I had a meeting about my internship for next semester. I got one of those comments when I walked out - you know the ones where someone says "OMG I didn't even know there was a dog in the room! Where was he?" I like those comments :) 

Thats the news so far - hasn't been a very eventful day honestly. Hopefully this weekend will bring more fun :) 

Say hi to the now 11 month old Bobzilla!!! and his bone.... I think he was more excited to see it then he was to see me... 


Bob laying on the floor chewing on his knuckle bone
"Hello lover" - this would be him talking to the bone of course....

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Poppy's Puppies - 1 week old

Soooooo as you might have guessed a certain someone was allowed to go visit Poppy's puppies the other ay (Wednesday actually). I had to scrub, gown, glove, and foot booty up before I was allowed to even look at them. Well I was allowed to look at them I just wasn't allowed to touch or breathe on them.. well I could breathe I guess, if I really wanted to...

Me kneeling on the floor in a yellow sterile disposable gown with gloves on while I pet Poppy who refused to look at the camera
Its not very much fun petting a dog through a glove but oh well :)

You may be wondering why I was required to do all this - I mean, puppies are born everyday and their people don't put themselves in a plastic bubble so they can hold them, and sniff their breath.. and rub their tummies to make them potty. Yes I did that, I considered it a privilege thank you very much.

a picture of my feet with blue sterile disposable booties like ones you might find in hospitals, they are kind of see through so you can kind of see my toes.
I can't even begin to tell you how cute I felt in these lol. I think I might steal a pair and wear them to the mall.
Well the reason for all this is prevention - see Poppy tested negative for the Doggy Herpes Titer immune thingy... basically she doesn't have the antibodies to fight it so she had not antibodies to pass onto her puppies. So what does all this mean? This means that anyone with a dog or who has come in contact with a dog has/had the possibilities of picking up the Doggy Herpes virus and if they then come into contact with Poppy or her puppies the whole litter could possibly die within 24 hours... not a good thing to happen. This is the process that anyone wanting to meet the puppies or Poppy has to go through for at least the first three weeks of puppy life. Once they are about 3 weeks they will be able to fight off the virus themselves but in the meantime - we get saran wrapped. We also had to make sure we were sterile for the 3 weeks preceding labor if we wanted to interact with Poppy, that is just the window.

 a close up of one of the puppies' heads, he has a blue paper collar around his chubby neck and you can see poppy's foot in the bottom corner of the picture and his head is about the same size as her foot. You can also see that his ear is flipped up and its still completely sealed inside, his eyes are also still sealed shut.
Well hello mr. blue buffalo, this boy is the biggest one of the bunch... regardless though point of this picture was to show you the puppies sealed ears and to point out that their eyes are still sealed. I like his tiny ear.
Some might disagree with all of this but these are the precautions GDTX is taking in order to ensure their pups get the best care possible - I'm fine with it though because if that is what I have to do to hold them and help out its worth it ;)

Now on to our actual visit...

The pee party:
Me sitting in the corner of the whelping box with a pee pad and puppy on my lap, poppy is laying right next to me with nursing puppies attached
Come on Poppy, we gotta work together doing this! 
Above is where I had the privilege of helping each puppy expel all their urine, I had Poppy help me too of course. See, when puppies are new they don't know how to do this, usually the mom will help to stimulate this by licking their "special spots" which will make them expel their urine. Poppy however needs a bit of help (new mom and all) so we went through each puppy and she happily assisted me in the process, or is it the other way around? Who knows.. point is Teamwork! Well, Safety first then teamwork - wear shoes around the house! (Anybody can tell me the movie that quote is from I'll give you a star sticker - **Darrell can't play cause I know he knows)

Trying to do a photo shoot:
all the puppies in a little pile on top of a red blanket. They all have different colored paper collars on and all are different shades of yellow, from very light white yellow to very dark red
Puppy Pile! 

image of one puppy laying on his stomach with his arms and legs stretched out in front of and behind him in a superman pose
Look at his little nails!! 

We did an individual puppy photo shoot with all of them but I haven't gotten all those in order just yet so maybe I'll show those in a different post...



The Collar Changing Party:

Well, I don't know if you can tell from the other pictures but their paper collars were getting torn up and too tight, so we got to replace them!

picture of all the cut off paper collars on the counter with the sharpies and scissors behind them
All their first little puppy collars 
photo of my hand with a new puppy collar around it, mine has my name on it. I'm also holding a new puppy collar in my hand, it is plastic with a colored paper slip inside similar to hospital bracelets
New collars - we made one for me too :)

Sorry no pictures of the actual process.. don't know what I was doing... ? But here is the finished product :)

all the puppies inside the whelping box with their new plastic collars on.
All their new little collars - they look so official now :)

Yay puppies!

Also, there is a naming contest going on if you would like to take part in naming of the puppies - they have to be A letter names and if you're my friend then they have to be Texas related lol...

Here are the ones I like if you don't have any suggestions but just want to help my names win :)

Alice - city in Texas where Darrell went to high school :)
Alamo - Please tell me I don't need to explain that one...
Abilene and Amarillo - other cities in Texas
Aggie - for Texas A & M University (even if you like UT better vote for it because B litter we can add Bevo! (all non Texaners that is the Longhorn's mascot name))
Austin - for the UT fans who are just really upset about Aggie :)
Andi - this one isn't a Texas name but its for Dr. Anderson who made a generous donation at the GDTx luncheon the other day (a blog post about that will come soon).

Here is the link if you would like to participate - Click Me!!!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Preview

Poppy with her puppies

More will come... probably on Friday night or sometime Saturday. I have two tests so yup - you will just have to be patient for a bit :)

P.s. this picture was stolen from my own camera!!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

They're here! *edited with my goof...

 Poppy laying on her side with 3 puppies nursing
That one is going to be super dark- the Dad's name was fire and according to genetics I don't think two yellows can make a black lol. Maybe its just dirty. 

Poppy laying on her side with umm 7 puppies nursing
Soo many puppies

Poppy's face with two puppies next to her shoulder
Hi momma! 

Coreena won with 5 Boys and 3 Girls!!! Congrats Coreena! I'll figure out what you win later tonight cause I gotta go to class :)

*So Coreena, you didn't rally win because I got the sexes mixed up lol - it was 5 Girls and 3 Boys but you will still get a prize because you were the only person to guess that ratio :) Yay you! lol

So another winner had to be picked and there were three people that guessed the closest: Erica, Ro, and Lauren - I did a drawing to see who would win out of those 3 and guess who it is! RO!!! Yay Ro!

So, yall gotta tell me what you would like - some handmade stuff like jewelry perhaps? A leash? A Bag/purse? or if you're not into handmade stuff - Dog Toys? Dog Treats or Bones? Let me know and I'll do it - I like projects :)

Oh and I have no idea who I stole the pics from - thanks person :)

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Puppies!

Poppy is having her puppies right now so hurry and get your votes in now before its too late!!!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Its coming up quickly peeps!

Get to guessing! The competition is almost over - due date was moved to Friday!!! Visit the original post and make your guess!

Picture of an x ray of poppy's utuerus, you can see zipper like formations in random places on the image, they are about 3 inches long and one end has a bigger circular formation.
Can you see their spines?! P.S. do not use this picture as an indicator for your guess... you never know what could be in there hiding! 


Photo stollen from Michelle - der!