Otteriness' Journal

People Can't Count, Can They??
I keep hearing people celebrating the 'End of the first Decade' this century. >_<

Um..peoples? It ISN'T, ok?? The year 2010 IS!!!

Let's all hold up our fingers and count to 10, all right? Let's go.

1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10!

See what number we started with?? ONE!!! And what did we end with?? TEN!!!! We did NOT go '0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9'!

It's like when everybody was so gung-ho about 2000 being the start of the 'new century' when actually it was the END OF THE OLD ONE!!!!! 2001 was the BEGINNING!!!!!

Sometimes I wonder about people.

Smudge is a buster, all right. Even the vacuum didn't faze him! He just trotted around it like it wasn't making a terrible noise. Gracie hates the appliance and runs off into another room when I'm using it but Smudge just yawned. Great. Now I'll have to be careful I don't suck him up into it one of these days!!

I made a potty tray out of a box but for him to use it is a matter of timing. I carry him out after he wakes up in the morning and after each long nap. I watch him like a hawk after meals but he doesn't seem to have to go until an hour later. He wets there fine but the poo is another matter. He wants to put it where HE thinks it's best and not in that potty tray! But then again, he's only 7 weeks old. We have a long way to go yet.

He's all boingy-boingy in the day but after 7 he starts to wind down. I put him in his crate at 9 and he sleeps until I get up at 6. Not sure what we're going to do during the weekend but I think my sleeping-in mornings will be put on hold for a few months. But heck, it's a small thing to give up for a Chihuahua!!!!!

He loves it when I lie on the floor on my stomach and play with him. He jumps, leaps and bites my hair as I pretend to bite at him. i have to be quick because he has those darn puppy needle teeth! He did catch my cheek and made a small scratch. Oh well, it's not like I've never been hurt by critters before! I've been bit, clawed, scratched, kicked, pecked, thrown off, stomped on and hoked by a horn. I've been bit by a mouse, nipped by a dolphin and punched by a kangaroo. I have a scar on my elbow left by the claw of a peacock.

A scratch by a Chi puppy?? *sniffs* Small potatoes!!

Soo, took Smudge to the vet's today, he weighs 1.4 pounds!! Hmm, a box of paper envelopes weighs more than he does. His teeth are good with a strong scissor bite, his eyes and ears are clear, his tummy isn't swollen, he checked out A OK until the stool sample results came in.

He had no worms but he did have the coccidia. I wasn't worried as it's pretty common in kennels. Once a day medication will take care of that. He does like the taste of it.

Housebreaking...well, it's hit or miss. He did do a few spots on the paper in the garage but also did a couple in the foyer and the rug. He did have his bowel movements on the paper. I gushed over what a good boy he was! He's only 7 weeks old so I'm not going to get uptight over a couple of teaspoon-full-pee here and there. It's going to take time. And I have plenty of paper towels;)

He tries so hard to win Gracie over but she will have none of it. He just now did a pretty little dance in front of her ending in a lovely roll over. I would have given the performance a 10 but Gracie judged it as a 0. She gave him a couple of warning barks and he went back to pulling on my slipper.

I did ask about micro-chipping but the doctor said they usually did that during the neutering since he was going to be out anyway. I think that's a good way to do it. And I'm not going to bother with registering him in the AKC. He's not a show dog, he isn't going to be used for breeding so why spend the 30 or so bucks? It's just a piece of paper after all. Plus, what if I couldn't use the name I picked for him because some other dog had it? (They do that. If you had picked a name that cannot for whatever reason be used, they notify you to try again. And I do believe another fee will be involved.) So Smudge O'Fudge he is and always shall be:)

He was a bit frightened at the vet's but after a few minutes of looking around he decided he had had enough of standing still on the table and wanted to go hareing off to explore! He's not a timid Chi, that's for sure! If something startles him, it's only for a moment then he wants to see what all the fuss is about.

Sorry if it seems all I do is talk about my lovely Chi but it's what I had been longing for for years and years:) So gush about Smudge I will! ;)

Surprisingly, having a puppy around hasn't been too much trouble:) Well, aside from the housetraining, making sure my computor cord's out of teething range and watching our stepping closely!

I've decided Smudge is just going to have to be paper-trained in the garage. It's just too cold outside for a Chi pup! Whenever he looks like he needs to go out I take him there on the paper. He gets close to it so I guess it's an 'E' for Effort. There were a couple of puddle 'oops'! yesterday but thankfully not on the rug. Small dogs make small messes, just a teaspoon of liquid.

He still runs after Gracie, much to her disgust. She's found the couch is a handy refuge from his attempts at being friendly. I do give her extra attention and make sure she'd fed first to keep her cheerful but she still gives me this 'why did you bring this thing in here???' look from time to time.

Smudge is very good at sleeping, not a whimper last night. I do put a bottle of hot water wrapped up in his bed before he turns in because Chis get chilled very quickly. I bought him his own bowl yesterday along with a latex squeaky (Gracie never has liked latex toys so I know she won't take it) and I cut off a small strip of fake fur for him to drag about. He tried to drag off hubby's socks the first night we had him so I figured he'd like that. The squeaky does get a workout.

Oh dear! He just raced up to Gracie while she was turning and he ran right into her! Head butt! I heard gracie grunt then quickly walk off. She's done a couple of air snaps at him with growls but he takes it all in stride. 'Ok, but you'll get to like me sooner or later!'

Youngin's do liven up a place:)

Heh, the way Gracie is treating Smudge, you'd think we brought in a rat with plague fleas into the house! She walked right past his crate when I brought her back from the boarding kennels, then when Smudge whined she just froze in mid-step. Pretty good point for a non-pointer. :) I let him out so she could meet him and she just uttered a short growl and took off. Won't even allow him to be near her! Grouchy old lady. She's all 'Kid, go away and don't bother me!'

This makes him want to chase her and so both of them are getting a bit of exercise! So far he's only done one mess in the house as I'm trying to make it a point to take him out every hour. He doesn't like being outside because it's cold but I don't want him to be paper-trained. That's training a dog twice for the same thing.

He's back in his crate now for a rest. He did well last night. I put him up at 9 and while he did cry a bit, he didn't for the whole night and he woke up at 6. Heck, my daughter didn't sleep through the night when I brought her home from the hospital;)

It's been so long since I've had such a young puppy to care for that I almost forgot it's like caring for a baby. Well, it -is- a baby, after all. :)

We picked up Smudge coming back down from NJ. Since we were passing by the road anyway, why come back the next day? So we caled the kennel owner and she happened to be home. A couple more papers to sign and Smudge was in the car with us. Of course he whined a bit, after all being pickd up by a couple of strange giants and taken away from everything you've ever known in your short life is upsetting!

He's better this morning and he seems to have a pretty bold personality. When he sees something strange (which is 99.5% of everything so ar for him) he pauses, looks it over, looks around to make sure either me or hubby is near, then he goes for it. :) Right notw he's doing his best to kill the rug.

Later on I'm going out to get spring Gracie from tjhe pokey (get her from the boarding kennel) and also pick up some puppy toys and a small supper dish for Smudge. He has to have his own stuff as i don't think that Gracie will want to share.

Yep, having a baby in the house will mess up the routine for a bit but I wouldn't trade it for not having my Chihuahua! He has a vet appointment tomorrow which is good because seeing other people will help socialize him. I don't want to be like some owners I've met that seem to think that small dogs don't need to be taught manners. Nope. Smudge will be trained as any other dog I've had. Yes he will be spoiled but he will be mannerly spoiled:)

Ok, if anyone's interested, the journal for my new Chihuahua puppy is.....chihuahuasmudge

:)

I'M GETTING MY CHI FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!
Hubby showed me a picture of the most adorable Chihuahua puppy and he says he's going to get it for me for my Christmas gift!!!! OMG!!! I LOVE him!!!!!

We're going to see him tomorrow. Here is his pic.

http://shadybrookkennels.net/img/dogs/5d73b1o7.jpg

I already have a name for him. Smudge! And like the geeky dog mom I am I already made him his own LiveJournal page so anyone can see how he progresses and all.

*jumps up and down and squees loudly*

I can hardly wait!!!!!

I am not happy right now.

It is snowing.

We haven't seen that icky white stuff since we moved down, well, not this amount anyway. It started off as sleet, then to small flakes and now it's been coming down for about 6 hours now. Still going strong. We may get up to 6 inches at this point.

At least I managed to go ut this morning and get what I needed to get done done. We can sit and wait it out for the next couple of days.

But Monday. Monday I'll have to take hubby's car in for an oil change, then take Gracie to the boarding kennels. Then back, load the car and hit the road up north. Hubby has to be in DC for Tuesday so the trip up there and back from can be considered as business expenses. :)

I have all my cards done, and wrapping done. It's a great feeling to be able to sit back and think 'well, -that's- all done for another year!'

Wind's picking up. One thing I have to say for this area, when it comes to weather forecasts they're pretty darned accurate.

Darn snow. Stop already.

Drew 5 Christmas comics and one that came into my head that was just too funny not to draw:) I'll have to scan them soon for youse guys.

Ok, today's hunt went smooth, a nice whitetail buck. (Hmm, need to start looking for some mulies.) I was aiming as carefully as I could with this jumpy mouse and thought for sure I'd get a heart shot. nope! Shot him in the head!

Oh well, he was down anyway:)

Egads!! Know what's gonna happen here tomorrow night, as they're predicting???? SNOW!!!! >_< Could be 3 to 4 inches too. Crap. I guess I should get ready for it tomorrow morning. At least we had our propane tank filled yesterday, just in case. But snow???

I have to mention that the weather forecasts in this area seem to be pretty darn accurate. In this case, unfortunately. :P

Yesterday's Hunt
Bagged me a couple of boar and man! Ya gotta watch out when you stalk these things! They'll turn on ya if you're not careful!

And I had tags for a mixed bag on an elk hunt. I could get a bull, a cow and a moose! Got the bull elk and the moose but the cows were too skittish.

I changedt he weather to snow once and found that while it's pretty and keeps you on tabs on wind direction, you really can't use the binoculars. Hard to see a few yards in front.

Debating on to whether or not click the 'Dangerous Animals' button on. Shall I be stalked myself while stalking?

I have an interesting question for y'all out there.

I was reading this book 'Hidden Life of Deer' in which the author recounts a young black bear being struck and injured by a truck while on her property. The bear had lumbered off the road, climbed a pole, fell off into some bushes and then limped away. The state troopers wanted to shoot it to put it out of its pain but the author refused to allow this. She states that our human fear of pain isn't the same as that of animals and animals injured in the wild can recover amazingly. She cites some examples such as a young elephant with a broken leg. It wss on its way to a complete recovery (although with a leg that seemed oddly twisted) when it was shot by the game rangers to 'end its misery.' True, animals do show an amazing degree the ability to heal from what would seem a life-threatening injury.

So, this poses a question. My gut reaction was, probably not to your surprise, to go ahead and shoot the animal but then..the bear did want to live. And it did, for at least 8 years according to the author. It had a limp and an odd way of moving but it did recover. So why do we insist of 'putting animals out of thier misery'?

If the injury was something like a broken leg in a deer, that would be the only solution but what if it wasn't? What if the injury, as bad as it may seem, could be borne out and the animal left to go on its own way? Why did we take on this sort of 'ethical' obligation upon ourselves? (I'm not talking about our domestic livestock and pets now. We took them in and so of course we bear the responsibility of their welfare. After all, we've changed them so much over the centuries!!)

I hope this too has given you something to think about.

So here's the question. After reading this and you walk out to spy a wild animal with what appears to you a horrendous injury, would you want to put it down quickly or allow it to go on its wild existance and take a chance on recovery?

After all, Nature is seldom kind. That's why wild critters have to be tough!

Disappointing hunt last night. Still in Alberta and stalking a very large bison bull! Went through a darn swamp and everything!

But wouldn't you know it, there was a river between him and me and the markers for the crossing was pretty far down. And the wind being in the direction it was, it would scent me and run off before I got across.

So I figured the best thing to do would be to get as close as possible and take a shot. If I dropped him on that side then I could take my time with the river crossing.

Danged thing moved at the last second and I only wounded it. I would have tracked it down but ran out of time. Yep, real life got in the way!

So now there's awounded bison somewhere in my laptop innards. Hope it doesn't bleed all over everything. >_

Well, tonight's hunt was a bit of a dissappointment. A nice big buck in Alberta but he had his back to me! I don't think one could do a vital shot through the butt. I stalked around it and around it, and it just kept moving forward. Finally after about 15 minutes I had a somewhat side shot, took it but while it bounded off wounded I didn't have enough time to track and bag it. Had to leave to make dinner.

I may give it another go before bedtime.

Reading a blurb in the paper here and saw this 'study' that asks how you feel if you took a drink out of a glass and then realizing it belonged to a stranger.

If you are grossed out, then your political thinking leans toward Conservatism. Less turned off? You're more of a liberal.

Supposedly a high 'disgust sensitivity' is connected with Conservative attitudes and the people doing the study (college professors. of course) say that conservatives should use this new info to change how they see gay marriages, abortion, etc.

Well, to me this suggests that liberals are less sensitive and more open to anything, which means they have LOWER STANDARDS!! ;)

I'll keep my Conservative views, my 'disgust sensitivity' and my Higher Standards, thank you very much!!!

And I do my best not to drink out of any other person's glass but my own. Eww.

I bought a rather cheap computor game the other day (Clearence for 10 bucks) but it certainly is entertaining!

Hunting Unlimited 4 Yep, it's a hunting game!

One can go for Challenges, Free hunts or download a torurnament. I use the Free hunts mostly. Also it has a wide range of weapons to use, from rifles, to muzzleloaders and of course, the compound bow.

You can choose the area you hunt, be it in Canada,US or Africa. You select the time of day and weather condition. Then the quarry is shown to you, and told about where it is.

It takes a bit of time to walk over to where the game is located, but since it -is- a hunt, some stalking is required:) You have to take note of wind direction, cover, and then choose whether to walk upright, slouch or crawl to as close as you want before taking a shot. I try to get within 80 yeards but it ain't easy! I usually end up scaring them off, and having to start the hunt all over again. >_<

Lessee...so far I've baged two bucks, a black bear, a bison and a kudu. The successful hunts are listed in your trophy room along with their sizes.

You can also set it to whether or not you want dangerous animals to go after yOU! Right now it's off, as i'm just starting out.

When you take a shot and you know it's going to hit, you 'ride' the bullet to where it strikes the animal. I seem to do a lot of lung shots although I got my biggest deer with a heart shot and my first I drilled right in the head! Yep, next to the left antler. The bison I hit while it was charging me (O_O) I didn't expect that at all but got in a lung shot and then had to track it for a bit, following the blood signs.

When you change weapons there's a target range for you to get familiar with it and what it can do.

This isn't a get-it-quick-and-rack-up-the-points game, but it does resemble an actual hunt pretty darn close. You can even use a scent-b-gone if you want to go up in the stands:) It says it was created bt actual hunters. It shows in the details.:)

Well, mebbe today I'll go after lion. I need to fill my trophy room!

'The Flight before Christmas'
I was flipping through the channels last night when I stopped on this program. It was a holiday special (of course) and since there didn't seem to be much of anything else that appealed to me I watched it. Expecting the usual gunk.

I was pleasently surprised! This was....different! A totally different story! A young reindeer decides to leave his herd and find his dad when his mother tells him his dad was one of Santa's flying reindeer. Accompanying him was a flying squirrel.

The animation was the stop action puppets, I think. I said 'I think' because it looked more realistic and had smooth motion that the ones we usually see. And darn!! The reindeer really looked like....REINDEER!!! Not the white-tailed deer all doled up with big antlers and the males having a bit more shaggy throats that is seen in every other Christmas animation. Nope, they had the huge hooves almost covered with long hair, tiny tails, wide muzzles and the cow-like nostrils. The cows also had thier set of antlers. Whoever did the artwork knew their species:) They did a fine job. I also like the lil weasel, Wilma. She was hyper cute!

The storyline was also different. When Neeko (or maybe it's Niko?) finally makes his way onto Santa's home turf and confronts the 'flying forces' as the reindeer called themselves, asking which one was his father,it's revealed they were bit of philanderers. This did not impress Julius, the squirrel, at all. He viewed Nikko (here's another spelling variation) as his own adopted son.

The evil villians were wolves (surprised?) but only the huge black leader was the real mean one. Once he was out of the picture the rest of the pack turned chicken. There's this pink poodle that had found her way into the pack and even struck up a friendship with one of them. (They never say what happens to her! Are there half wolves half poodles wandering around Santa's neighborhood now?)

In the end Nikko finds he can fly, and which reindeer is his father but he learns the real lesson, in that anybody can be a father but few can be a Dad. :)

If this comes around again in your area I do recommend this if you like animation and holiday specials. It's different enough to be enjoyable!

Well, I -used- to like Law And Order but now I think I shall forget about seeing it or the connecting shows ever again. I'm with Bill O'Reilly when he mentions the segment of one show that angered him.

It had one character stating that '"Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly, all of 'em, they are like a cancer spreading ignorance and hate...They've convinced folks that immigrants are the problem, not corporations that fail to pay a living wage or a broken health care system..."

Hell, illegal immigrants ARE a peoblem, you jerks!!!! And WE'RE not the one spreading hate, fear amd discord all around. We're trying to get peoples' eyes open to the TRUTH!!!!!

The only igonorance and hate I see spreading are from liberals. Yeah, the ones in office that are slowly but surely WHITTLING AWAY at what little rights we have left!!!

dick wolf, your shows are no longer being viewed by me. In fact I'm throwing every book I have on the shows in the garbage right now.

Once again the media shows its bias, plain ans simple.

On the front page of my paper today is a huge full length photo of obama, looking as if he was pondering some deep problem and looking oh-so-noble.

I had to turn the paper over. :P No way am I looking at that with an empty stomach and before my coffee kicks in!

C'mon, they never did anything like that with President Bush. All the photos they showed were of him looking pinched, weary and all the pics were small.

This is pure photo shoot, publicity. He's most likely htinking of ways to bilk us of tax money again in some other area. Mebbe a breathing tax?

They've brought up the no-bell peace Cracker Jack prize thing again. I have no respect for that anymore, haven't for a few years now. It has no meaning,no depth. If they award it to anybody that doesn't deserve it, it's a waste of reporting it.

That photo is going to go on the bottom of my recycle bin in a few minutes.

Well, since we ate Thanksgiving dinner at a friends' house last week, we don't have any turkey leftovers, so i'm cooking a turkey dinner this weekend! Complete with stuffing!

While I stood in line holding the frozen turkey I felt one of those dran hot flashes start so instead of holding the bird by the handle I just cradled it in my arms. Cooling me down:)

I'm surprised the darn thing didn't thaw by the time I got it in the car!!

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