Friday, May 25, 2012

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.  

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Ferdinand is a Big Brother!

A few weeks back, Derek and I had gone to Petsmart to get Ferdinand a collar.  While I was picking one out, he went searching for a new toy for Ferd.  Instead, he found a bunch of puppies that Pet Search was fostering and trying to adopt out.  There were about 10 puppies....only a few were black and tan (like a Rottweiler), the rest were all Red.  They told us that they thought they were Coonhound mixes....possibly a Rottweiler mix.  Derek and I had said that if we ever got another dog, it would be a girl.  

Well, we picked one dog up, and it just happened to be a Rottweiler colored female.  We were sold.

Here are the pictures from when we first met our little girl, who we named Roxy.

She was awake for about 30 seconds after I picked her up.

She was out cold

I'm not sure how this was comfortable, but she slept like this for a while.  Gotta love that tongue!

For the last two weeks, Derek and I have gone back and forth on whether or not we were ready for another dog.  We just got Ferdinand set on his routine and we weren't sure we were ready for it.  But every time we thought of how much fun they would have together, we just decided that it was the right thing.

We got a phone call on Friday saying that Roxy had gotten spayed on Thursday and was doing well.  They said we could pick her up on Sunday.  

This morning, we got the house cleaned up and took Ferdinand with us to get Roxy.

Ferdinand was already exhausted, and this is the only way that he would ride in the car today.  He just wanted to be with his daddy.

It was so warm out when we got to Petsmart, all Ferdinand wanted to do was hang out under the big tent that they had the puppies in.  While Derek got the information explained to him, they gave Roxy a set of shots and handed her over.  Derek took Roxy into Petsmart to get some things for her.  While I trailed behind with Ferdinand, we could hardly make it into the store.  Everyone loved Ferdinand.  They all stopped us to pet him and talk about how adorable he is.  

It was funny.  We finally made it in to the store where Derek was signing us up for Puppy Training Classes.  

Here is a few pictures of Roxy and Derek in Petsmart.

Ferdinand was helping Roxy pick out a collar.

Roxy was a little worried that the collar wouldn't match her eyes.  It does!

So, we finally got to the car and Ferdinand was a little hot and jealous.  This is how the car ride ended up.

Ferdinand just wanted to be cool by the AC and Roxy just wanted to sleep with her doggy.

Roxy slept hard in my arms.

We got home and I decided we were going to give her a bath.  She was covered in poop and pee from being with all her brothers and sisters.  We washed her 3 times before we got all of it out of her fur.  It was disgusting.  She was great in the tub though.

Ferdinand and Roxy have gotten along wonderfully so far.  All he wants to do is sit on her and all she wants to do is check the house out.  

We set their food up in the sun room and they both did great eating together.  Although they both didn't want their own food, they wanted to eat out of each other's bowls.

Ferd loved Roxy's bowls.

Roxy loved Ferd's bowls.

She is definitely a lover.

 She already loves her daddy.

Roxy has had a blast outside.  She runs around like a crazy person.  Ferdinand loves chasing after her and they have fun playing together.

Ferdinand and Roxy wrestling around.

Roxy just checking the yard out.

Roxy loves being home with us.

Roxy and Ferd were having fun sniffing each other out.

Here is a video of the two of them playing.

They love playing, but they always want to play right under me.

They told us that when we got Roxy that they had been crate training her.  Since they had told us that, my friend Cori asked if we had wanted her old crate.  We accepted it and Roxy really appreciates it!

She had no issues going right into the crate.

But she just wanted to sleep with Mommy.

So, far, I have two very sleepy puppies.  And I can only hope that they will continue to get along very well.  

I'll keep everyone updated!

Oh, and tomorrow is Ferdinand's 5 month birthday!  It's hard to believe he is that big already!