Life with Ferdinand and Roxy

A few days after we got Roxy we knew that it was the right choice.  Ferd and her get along so well and they are basically inseparable...these pictures prove it.

If you can't see it, Ferdinand decided he was going to sit on Roxy while she slept. 

They play tug-of-war.

Ferd loves chasing his toys...

And he taught Roxy how to get in on the fun.  Ferd normally wins the toy back though.

With all their play time, Doakes decided she was gonna hide out in the sun room, behind Roxy's crate.

They wrestle hard.

We had set up two separate areas for them to eat, but they love to share their food.

They love to share the dog bed to chew on toys.

When Roxy needs a nap, Ferd makes sure that she is comfy first.

Then he joins her.  They love sharing the bed to sleep together.  Ferdinand is such a great big brother.

Not too long after we got Roxy, Ferdinand got pretty sick.  He normally sleeps though the night, and on one particular night, Derek woke up to him crying and all he could smell was poop.  He woke me up and when we went to check on him, he was covered in poop.  There was poop everywhere.  It was high on the walls and all over the bathroom.  You could tell that it wasn't just him pooping; he had no control.  Poor guy was really hot feeling and just exhausted.  It was 4:30 in the morning and we had to bath him immediately.  After his bath, he wanted to do nothing but sleep.

Ferdinand passed out on Derek

Ferdinand was not feeling well, so Derek wrapped him up.

While I was working from home, I kept an eye on Ferdinand, he looked so pathetic, but was so happy that I immediately washed Mr. Frog for him.

We weren't sure what made Ferdinand sick, but we assumed that it was either Roxy's dog treat that the foster mom had given us or the fact that we had dog food that had been recalled.  We figured that it was more likely that it was the dog food.  Luckily, we had only served them one helping from the recalled bag and after a few hours Ferdinand was feeling better.  

Towards the end of the day, Ferd and Roxy enjoyed sleeping in the sun.

After a few days I took Ferd and Roxy out they saw our neighbor Matt and went running over to his house.  Ferd looks for Matt every single day.  Matt loves to play with Ferd and Ferd enjoys it immensely.  

Matt was working on filling and fixing his rock wall in his driveway.  Ferdinand decided that he was going to help Matt.

For every brick that Matt put down on the ground, Ferd had to make sure that he had done it correctly.

Ferd checked each brick to make sure it smelled and tasted right.  Anything to help his buddy, Matt.

During their work, every time Matt would grab the shovel, Ferdinand would lose it.  He didn't know what it was about.

He hardly ever barks, but when it came to the shovel, he was a barking fool.

At the end of the day, Ferd walked up to the shed with Matt to put the broom and shovel away.  Matt is Ferds best friend for sure.

After helping Matt out, Ferdinand was covered in mud.  He was an absolute mess.  Roxy needed a bath anyways, so we had tub time.  Thankfully, all of our animals love the bath tub.

Ferd looks like he has lost a ton of weight in this picture, but don't be fooled, he hasn't.  They love being in the tub.

After their bath, I was cleaning up and I walked into the living room to find this.

3 sleepy heads.  

Later that evening, while we were playing, I noticed Ferd had another loose tooth.  This one did not want to come out and I got a little worried because it was discolored.  

Luckily, after a few days, it came out and he seems to already be growing his new tooth.

After having Roxy for a while, we noticed that she couldn't quite jump on the couch and we knew Ferd never would be able to.  While visiting my Grandma, I told her we were going to have to get steps for them, and since Honeybear doesn't use hers, she gave us them.  Ferd and Roxy love them!

Ferd goes up and down like he's had the steps since day one.

He loves watching things from above.

Just like with Ferd, we try to get Roxy used to the car.  When it rains, and if I'm home on time, we will drive down to the end of the street and pick Derek up from the bus stop so he doesn't have to walk in the rain.

They love the car....and they make Derek sit in the back seat.

For treats, we still like to give the dogs the Moo Shoes.  Roxy loves hers so much.

So much, that even in her sleep she doesn't want to let it go.

We took Roxy to the vet to get her check up.  She weighed in at 16 pounds 10 ounces.  The vet said she will be huge.  To my surprise, the vet said that she would guess that Roxy was mixed with Doberman, not Rottweiler.  I was stunned.  But after looking up Coonhound/Doberman mixes, there were pictures that looked exactly liked Roxy.  So, that's what we are going with.

Now, having two dogs is great.  And although Roxy's potty training isn't going as smoothly as we would like, it's going.  But two dogs means twice as much poop.  Needless to say, we have completely run out of the grocery store bags that we use to pick up the poop with.  We also found that we couldn't go more than 2 days without cleaning the yard.  After a dog magazine got sent to us, we found a doggie septic tank system.  We decided that we would give it a shot.

This is the box.

Basically, the system is 20 x 23 and you dig a hole in the ground and the poop goes into the system.  After adding enzymes once a week or two the poop decomposes and is absorbed into the ground.  No more bags...no more mounds of poop in the yard.  

We got the one that is fit for 2 large dogs or 4 small dogs.  We didn't want to chance it smelling and with Roxy going to be a big dog, and Ferd who is a large, but short, dog, we got the bigger one.  

This is the system that will go into the ground.  

We have yet to dig the hole because we haven't picked a good place out yet.  We didn't want to keep it close to the house in case it smelled, and we didn't want to keep it at the far side of the yard because who wants to walk that far with poop. I think Derek and I have figured out a good spot, now it's just the digging that needs done.  

Once we get it in and start using it, we will post how it works on here.