Tag Archives: travel

animals, life, military

rain, rain and more rain

Last two days have been cold, very windy and POURING with rain.

Makes walking the dogs a bit of a mission, but they’ve been great about it. Medium length walks in the morning and then short 20 minute walks during the day – just for a piddle, poop and sniff.

Azzie does NOT like rain in her face, so she’s been easy about going back home 🙂

I’m hoping they’re relaxed enough after this morning’s walk to just chill for a bit. I really don’t feel like going out there again any time soon! G didn’t poop on the walk, but she can hold it a while – she’s good about that.

No word from the lady in Ohio about fostering Odin, so it’s pretty much settled that he will be coming here in the next week or so.

I’m nervous, but also excited. I want it all to go “right” – for all their sakes. I love my girls, and I want them to be happy, but I also want to change Odin’s life for the better and I know that being part of our family will be awesome for him. He’s the perfect addition and I really hope it all goes well. Going to dose myself up with rescue remedy, and try and think like Cesar Milan 🙂

I’ll update closer to the time, of course, and give a day by day storyline for the whole shebang. With photos. I’m terrified. I don’t know why. But I am also glad for him, and for us, and for my husband.

 

animals, life, military, people, travel

and then it all changes again

I think I’ve waxed on about this point many times in other posts – military life means that you NEVER EVER know what’s going to happen from one day to the next.

My husband got news last night that his dream career in the army has COME THROUGH! Finally! The paperwork made it, at last, to the right place and got approved. After YEARS of struggling to get this done – being shut down and blocked by his unit over and over again – he finally jumped through the right hoops and crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s and IT’S HAPPENING! (He just told me now, this morning – there were things going on yesterday that made him wait to tell me as he didn’t want to stress me out more than he felt I already was) But of course now this means EVERYTHING changes. All the plans we were making for our travels back to the States are now, once again, in limbo. Does he leave in a couple of months? When does the school start? Where do we go? Or do we have to wait another few months here in Germany? And is it “we” or is it just him? Will HE go back for training and we stay here? Or do we all go together to the training place (not sure where/which one) and then move again when he is done and gets assigned to his new unit?

Plus we will most likely have a third dog, by that point. Odin will, as far as things are going now, be going to join us. It will be complicated – I will be doing the whole thing on my own, as my husband will still be away. And now this?

Interesting times. It’s all an adventure, right?

 

animals, life, photography, travel

I’m watching Crufts 2015

Don’t judge me.

I watch it every year and every year I get all hyped up watching the agility and think “Azzie and Gina can do that!” Well, at least Azzie can. Gina likes to JUMP things, but not so keen on climbing things, so perhaps she could just do the jumping.

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But now that we can’t go back to the dog park for spring/summer, due to the POOP everywhere and my dogs getting sick from it – not sure where we can do it. There’s only one other dog park (less traffic, so not as disgusting, or dangerous, as the main one) and nowhere else really that is enclosed – which is important when training them.

Ah well. Maybe when we move back to the States we can find a local group, and we will most likely have Odin then as well and I think that kind of thing would be great for him to learn to interact and get his confidence up. But we’ll get to that. We haven’t even left Germany yet! I do get ahead of myself sometimes.

animals, life

Dogs

Our dogs are doing better – slowly coming right. With no dog park visits their immune systems are becoming stronger and they are feeling healthier and happier (especially Gina) and we’ve been walking further distances and longer durations.

I’m being very careful to keep everything the same and not change anything drastically (or even just a little bit) – they get the same food, the same treats and the same amounts etc. I’m dropping their meal size just a little bit (at the request of the vet – two of them now! My girls are FAT!) each time though, but not enough that they really notice (less than 10%) so they don’t get silly about being hungry all the time. Azzie has in fact curbed her appetite quite well, and I’m letting Gina decide when she’s hungry – sometimes she misses 2 or 3 meals a day – but she’s been very good about eating her breakfast.

We’ve had some WONDERFUL walks the last few days – weather is changing, but thankfully still cool enough for us to walk at our “usual” time and for long durations. Azzie is still working on the “pacing” of her energy usage 🙂

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In other dog news: Odin (the dog that my husband is “rescuing” from his awful situation) has now been diagnosed and he will be having his surgery (dislocated femur, torn cruciate knee tendon – they are pretty sure he was hit by a car) this week. Will cost a pretty penny, but my husband is adamant that he wants to do this. Then Odin will be flying to the US, to be “fostered” (and while I’m grateful that he will be safe, at least – I can’t say that I wouldn’t be happier with a different situation – but it’s impossible right now for us to take him until we get there) until we move back to the States (just a few months, if all goes well) and we can HOPEFULLY make him part of our furry family. He deserves that much. Of course I know that while my husband says he “shares a special bond” with Odin – we all know who will be walking/feeding/training the dog, right?

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animals, life, travel

Another morning, another walk

I was cautiously optimistic this morning, after our early morning toilet break – Gina’s poop was… better… showed improvement. But then Azzie went and it started out good, and ended up terrible.

So both got their sucralfate tablets (thankfully G ate hers without too much nose turning) with breakfast.

*sigh*

No idea why Azzie’s tummy is bad now. Hopefully just a blip on her otherwise excellent tummy health.

Let’s hope G’s tummy starts coming right. I’ve started adding more of her dry food in with the chicken (much to her disgust… she eyes it, sniffs it, looks at me, starts to walk away in rebellion, and then decides that she’s actually hungry enough to eat it anyway) which seemed to help last time she had a problem (which was months and months ago! come on! can’t this come right now? 🙁 i’m having a hard time. I really am. )

I was going to post on google+ again and then I remembered my deal with myself to post here instead and opened my meta.

Our morning walk started out great – Azzie behaving (generally) and listening (quite well) and then as it went on and we got closer to pumpkin time (it’s around 40 to 45 minutes into the walk) her ears turned off and she Did What Azzie Wanted To Do And There’s Nothing You Can Do About It. Including drinking from three separate DISGUSTINGLY dirty puddles, DESPITE me offering her nice CLEAN water from a bottle in their little travel cup, which I lug around with me (and the water too, which weighs quite a lot, lemme tell ya) in my little backpack (thanks to my dear friend from Wiesbaden) everywhere we go. The pack also has a small first aid kit, wet wipes, a toy (blue no-longer-squeaky elephant) sometimes a brush (for when burrs are prevalent, as Azzie goes and zoomies through them and comes out looking like a hedgehog) and a plastic bag, spare poop bags, some chicken jerky (for the dogs) a dog whistle, and of course my keys, my ID cards and my lipice (chapstick to other people)

We got rained on, hailed on, snowed on, the sun came out and the wind blew for a bit, and then it rained some more, hailed while the sun was shining and then it rained some more. Cold, windy, weird weather.

Azzie clearly had a blast, but Gina’s nerves were shot by the time we headed up the long path back to the car. I really try and remain calm and cool with Azzie, for Gina’s sake, but sometimes it’s just IMPOSSIBLE! I ask NICELY and she just IGNORES me completely. I have to shout – sometimes she doesn’t even pay any attention to me then (or very deliberately does what she was doing ANYWAY, WHILE staring at me – as if to say f**k you, you can’t stop me) and I have stamp my feet or make a move toward her quickly and then she thinks it’s a big game and races off in great excitement to the NEXT spot to cause trouble. I really, REALLY hope she grows up when she reaches 3 – it’s in a couple of months. Because I am losing my temper a LOT more than I used to, and it’s affecting G now as well.

So I’ve had to put off the DRP paperwork again, because I’ve been taking care of Gina. was going to go last week, Thursday, after our walk, but we ended up at the vet for 2 hours instead. Then Friday she was too sick to leave alone at home. Saturday and Sunday they are not open. Monday (today) once again, she’s not well enough to leave alone for more than 30 minutes and I know it will take longer to get this done, as the trip to Birkenfeld is 20 minutes by itself. I’m hoping she will start getting better this week, so I can try go see Mr Kupke this week some time! I need to get this done.

Oh and I find out my stupid credit card expires this month and I haven’t seen any renewed card in the mail yet 🙁

I’m screwed if I don’t have any access to my money – husband is away for quite a bit still.

*shakes head*

Trying so hard to remain positive, but I’m struggling.

Why can’t things be simple again?

Why can’t my dogs be healthy?

I know I’m whining and feeling sorry for myself, but I don’t do it often so I think I’m allowed to drop the walls every now and then.

 

life, military, travel

Box Jungles and Other Moving Parts

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A week or so ago my husband was made an offer by the army that he could, in theory, refuse… but he chose to think on it.

That evening, we discussed at length the pros and cons of moving – on the army’s dime – and what we could get out of it, in the end.

We said, let’s look at our options for apartments and locations and then we can decide.

We didn’t _have_ to move, but the reason we were asked if we wanted to was because of the units and individuals who would be moving in to the buildings we lived in at the time. It would get loud – lots of single officers and of course the “other people” as well. I won’t go into who they are – it’s not really necessary.

So we were given quite a few choices – one of them on Wetzel housing. When we first moved to Baumholder, we were given one choice in Wetzel as well, but it was a TINY place with no storage and the “balcony” was just a square enclosed on the roof. We said no thanks, and chose our 3rd floor apartment (7 flights of stairs – if one flight is one side… not sure how people count “flights”) with its ENORMOUS rooms and loads of built in storage. So this time around we were a little skeptical of Wetzel, but when we saw the place we were pleasantly surprised! It was airy, filled with light, had a proper balcony and as an added bonus was only on the second floor! That was only 3 flights of stairs for Gina to tackle.

We still went to look at at least 4 other apartments, all on Smith and located all around the post. While we liked the space they all offered, each one just had too many cons to move too high up on our list of options. They were also very “busy” buildings – almost all filled to the brim with people and lots of children. They were also almost ALL on the 3rd floor! So why give up our lovely big apartment for one that was the same and was loud and busy and one smelled of urine and mold and the other was not renovated so it was still the “old” style and not very attractive. The kitchens were smaller too. And outside the front, because it was such a heavily trafficked road, loads of doggy poop on the front yards. NOT nice. I pick up after my dogs, especially if they go on someone else’s grass – if I can do that for two huge beasts, then they can do it for theirs!

We decided on the Wetzel one – this was on the Thursday. They came to fetch our stuff on the Tuesday after that. The movers were awful. Nice guys (according to my husband) but terrible packers! They broke so much of our stuff – including some antique cups and glasses and porcelain 🙁

 

These are the “before” shots…

DSCN0503 DSCN0501 That's Gina's new spot No idea why, but this cupboard makes me happy. Lounge area, with balcony door This is all exhausting for Azzie 2 DSCN0518 study main bedroom - a little smaller.. DSCN0524 DSCN0528

 

These are the “during” shots…

 

the boxes arrive... still can't find the cutlery DSCN0531 DSCN0532 DSCN0533 DSCN0534 DSCN0535 DSCN0536 DSCN0538 DSCN0540 DSCN0543 DSCN0541

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And these are “almost done” and “it looks like we live here now” shots… We just have a few more things to sort out (TV, Playstation, Xbox, computer, etc)

 

DSCN0548 Basil has a unique marking I am a lapdog with laser eyes The kitchen is now a kitchen :) DSCN0561 DSCN0560 The magnets are on - now it is home

animals, life

Furry mom moment #656372

We got up at some terribly early hour this morning and got everyone ready to go.

Azzie was THRILLED to go for a car ride – Gina was her usual serene self.

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Open windows for the slow parts of the ride and then we were on the autobahn and on our way.

It’s about a 35 to 40 minute drive and Azzie was finally settled by the time we were 5 minutes out, of course 🙂

She’s my wild child.

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So we got there early (as suggested) and waited for them to open the doors. Got in first, first in line, so we sat in the waiting room and filled out forms and Azzie and Gina said hi to the other waiting patients and then _kinda_ settled a bit.

I was then asked to go to the exam room with Azzie for her quick vitals check. Gina gave her a nose kiss before she headed off.

Azzie calmed down enough for the tech to check her pulse, but her heart was still pounding from all the excitement. I did tell them she gets very excited and they just need to give her a moment to settle…

I said they need to do all the finicky stuff when she’s out, otherwise they will have a crazy little bear on their hands!

Only thing they can’t do while she is sedated is taking blood… Good luck with that, I told them.

Luckily, they are true professionals with years of experience and the vet herself was taking the blood, so I am not worried. Hopefully they can give her something to calm her before they start all that kind of stuff.

The vet finally arrived (she had been stuck in traffic) and she checked Azzie over quickly and explained what she was going to do, etc.

Azzie was very respectful of Dr Gundel – a little unsure as well. But I have heard great things about the Dr and I was very happy to hear we would have her as our vet. Then Dr G said it was time for me to go and for them to go take blood and get Azzie ready for her surgery. My heart nearly squished its way out of my mouth I had such a sudden rush of fear/worry/anxiety for my precious little furry child. Is that what moms feel like? As Dr G led her away and I walked off down the corridor I felt like crying! It was crazy! I felt so bad for the poor little tyke – head down, tail down, slinking along. She went semi-willingly – there was no lead tugging – so I am hoping she is not too traumatised. My poor baby.

So today I will be keeping my phone close, but hoping that I hear nothing – because that means it’s all good.

We will see her again later this afternoon.

Hope she forgives us!

 

 

 

animals, life, people, relationships, sewing, travel, vintage

Jetlag, notions, exciting times ahead

I have to say I am so incredibly excited about what’s to come in my business life…

Just before we left on our holiday, a wonderful lady got in touch with me via my Etsy shop saying that she had found my shop and was very keen to strike up a mutually beneficial relationship: seamstress and serious client.

She is looking to get one or two new items every season, and LOVES the idea of her garments being tailored to her exact measurements (she struggles to find well fitted items, just like I do, for our “vintage” body shapes) and even better: SHE LOVES VINTAGE!!!

So we’re in the process of ironing out the details and I am going to complete the dress I started (before Azzie arrived and put everything on pause while we trained her and settled her in with our beautiful Gina) a while back and start putting up photos of it (with images of the detail work, as best as I can show it) on my Etsy site and this website. She is busy purchasing vintage patterns for things she wants made, and is also sourcing fabric and notions for them all. She’s also had some interest from other people she knows and they will see how our first collaboration turns out…

I am so nervous, but so thrilled that this chance has happened! It’s exactly what I was hoping for, dreaming of, and I am keen to get started and show my skills and attention to detail and my meticulous nature at work…

In other news:

Azzie has settled in nicely, and her training is coming along very well. Gina has taught her some very good lessons in behaviour and strangely, Azzie has even managed to show Gina some things (not all bad, either!) as well. The time they spent together at the pet hotel (2 weeks) has also brought them a little closer together, and you can see they are starting to form a good bond: Azzie just needs to learn to calm down, as Gina does not like a “stressed” or overexcited dog. No dogs do, really. Azzie has, however, come a long way and we are very proud of her. They have both stuck by our sides since we picked them on Monday and you can feel the love (and relief I suppose – I think perhaps Azzie thought she had been dropped off yet again, at another foster home, so she was even happier to see us than Gina – if that’s possible!) coming from their big beautiful eyes. You can tell that Azzie is doing her absolute best to be on good behaviour, and please us as best she can. She’s growing up into a sweet dog. Gina has grown up in a matter of weeks too… It was her 4th birthday on the 27th February (a few days before we picked them up) and she’s definitely left the “pup” days (even for a Berner) behind her. Luckily, Azzie is still keeping her a happy girl by forcing her to react in a puppy like way to her antics.

They were pretty unfit so we’ve been trying to take it easy, but also get them back into a routine for their walks. So they are both pretty exhausted the last couple of days…