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Topics - princessnmi

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Anything Non-Dog Related / Is it just me...or is the time and date wrong on the webpage?

« on: January 28, 2006, 05:33:34 pm »

I keep looking at the date and time of posts, and I'm all confused. I thought that Sahara should be home already because of the dates on the post. Is it just me or is the date and time wrong?

Anything Non-Dog Related / Adoption help/social worker help

« on: January 25, 2006, 06:48:17 pm »

Ok this may be long so please bear with me. For those of you who don't know my husband and I have been trying to adopt two little boys that we had fostered while we lived in Texas. It has been one battle after another. Well we have been working on getting our foster care license in the state of Arizona (we were transferred due to military) We started the process to get our foster to adopt license in August of 2005. We find out today that the state of Arizona is probably not going to give us our license because we live on a military base and they can't do drop in inspections because we have to sign them on base. I always thought that getting a call from the military police saying we have a visitor at the front gate and need to come sign them in is a drop in inspection. But I guess the state of Arizona doesn't look at it like that. So I talked to my "mentor" the lady that works with the foster agency in Texas that has been with us since the oldest boy was placed with us June of 2004. She said that all I need to do is get an adoption homestudy done. I need to find a social worker who is licensed to do adoption homestudies. She said that this can cost anywhere from $100 - $600 which we don't really have the money for right now, however I'm sure that I can get some help from my inlaws with that. I was wondering if anyone has ever done an adoption before? Or if anyone by chance is a social worker that is licensed to do adoption homestudy. I have been told that once I get the homestudy done it has to be approved by 3 different people, and then it goes to ITC (international transfer committee) basically its a committee that decides what state is going to pay for these kids (they are special needs kids and get a subsidy pay each month) once ITC gets the case it takes anywhere from 3-6 months for it to be finalized. I haven't seen either one of the boys since August, my husband hasn't seen them since May. We have missed out on the baby's first steps, his first birthday. I have thought about seeing if by chance I could get an apartment in San Antonio and move back, get my foster care license and go from there. At least then the boys could be with me. I would miss my husband and I don't know that we could afford it. I guess right now I'm just going to play it by ear, but was wondering if anyone could offer some advice. I'm sorry I had to post this here, I know you guys don't want to know about my problems but just had to get it off my chest. It has been soo stressful with caseworkers not doing their job and paperwork getting messed up. Now to find out that because I live in military housing I won't be able to do foster care and help more kids out. It just really irritates me. Once again sorry for whining. Thanks for listening.

General Board for Big Dogs with Big Paws / Our trip to dog park

« on: January 19, 2006, 11:42:16 pm »

Tonight we decided we would take our dogs to dog park. We haven't been in awhile but before the holidays we were going at least once a week. So we go over there tonight. We have been several times and have NEVER had a problem with Robin or Brody. They love to run and play with the other dogs. Well tonight there was a guy who was there with some women and they had 5 dogs with them. There are two pens at our dog park so as we walked up we noticed that in one pen was a pomeranian and a few other smaller dogs, in the other pen were one or two smaller dogs ( mini schnauzer size) and bunch of other dogs. Well we were there for about 5 minutes when another dog attacked Brody (my dane) I called Brody off and she tried to get away but the other dog kept attacking...my husband went in and pulled Brody away and put her leash on her. She didn't start the fight but I didn't want her to get hurt. She wasn't hurt from this fight. Well the guy yelled at us and told us there was a pen for big dogs and that we were in the little dog pen. Now the dog that attacked Brody was some kind of retriever mix that wasn't any smaller than my 90lb lab mix Robin, also in the pen was a boxer (belonged to the same guy who owns the dog who attacked Brody) a doberman pincher, 3 staffordshire pups, an irish wolfhound mix, a mini schnauzer, and two more mixed breed dogs that were fairly good size. But this guy had the boxer and the mutt that kept starting fights with other dogs. A dog would pee and one of his dogs would go up and gaurd the pee and if a dog even ran past his dog his dog would attack. Then his dog would start licking the pee. It was gross. We kept Brody on her leash until the little dogs in the other pen left. Then my husband took our dogs, and the doberman to the other pen and the three of them played like crazy. I couldn't believe that this guy was yelling at us for the way his dogs were behaving. We even got compliments on how well behaved our dogs were when we took them in the other pen. I hate when people bring dogs like his to a park where dogs can play off of leash. Its not fair to the other dogs to be attacked by dogs like his. I always feel that if your dog isn't dog friendly you shouldn't bring him to a dog park. I just had to vent a little. I'm just thankful that Brody wasn't hurt.

General Board for Big Dogs with Big Paws / Update on Pita

« on: January 08, 2006, 06:59:20 pm »

Well, things haven't been going so good with Pita. We have been working on her with the baby and the problems we were having there have gotten a little bit better however she has been showing a lot of aggression towards my husband and myself. A lot of the times it is when we are playing with the dogs. Brody loves to play with her stuffed toys and Pita is starting to play fetch too. Both dogs have their favorite toys and we throw them. They will only retrieve their favorite toy. The other nite my husband was playing with Brody, and Brody being the dane LOVES to wrestle. She will wait until my husband isn't paying attention when hes sitting on the floor watching TV and will go over and push him over then jump on top of him so Rob will flip her over and lay on her and rub her belly. Well Pita started to play so Rob got her toy and started to throw it for her...then went back to Brody well Pita came over and jumped on my husband and started growling and biting his neck and side of his face. It scared my husband and me and my husband grabbed Pita by the scruff of the neck and gave her a firm "no". That just made things worse. Pita lunged at him and bit his arm. We have had a pet behaviorist/trainer come to the house to work with Pita and she isn't having any luck. She said that overall Pita is a well trained dog. She thinks that maybe Pita had something wrong that was causing pain, or a chemical imbalance or something, and suggested we have her evaluated by the vet. We took Pita to the vet yesterday and they did a bunch of blood work, x-rays, and a scan of her brain. They didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I have talked to the behaviorist and she has told me that she would like to take Pita into her home. So I believe that in the best interest of Pita I am going to let the pet behaviorist take her home. I am scared that one of my kids will go to play with Pita and that she could do some serious damage. Am I giving up on her too easily? Am I doing the right thing? I am torn here.

Anything Non-Dog Related / WAY off topic but I had to share

« on: January 07, 2006, 02:17:31 pm »

My husband and I have started a little competition. There are a couple of things that we would like to get for ourselves but both of what we want cost a LOT of money. So we set up "piggy" banks for ourselves. We each took a baby formula can for now. And covered it in white paper, my husband wants a big screen TV so he put a picture of a big screen on his can, and ever since I lost my male great dane I have wanted another male dane. SO I put a picture of a dane on my can. We have already divided up the change that was in the ash tray of our car, and out of our change jar in the house. Everytime we decide not to eat out we divide the money we would have spent eating out between the two cans. Its been a lot of fun. I don't work so I've been looking for various ways to make money to put in my jar, I've been selling some of my old baby stuff that I'm not using anymore, and i do a LOT of crafts so i've been selling some dog sweaters, and blankets etc. Its turned into a lot of fun trying to think of ways to save money, and we are actually eating healthy because we don't want to spend the money eating out. I'm having so much fun with it that I just had to share it.

Anything Non-Dog Related / My daughter is growing up so fast

« on: January 05, 2006, 05:28:27 am »

I haven't been online for a while we went to Michigan for the holidays and everyone there has dial up so I didn't get online much. I wanted to post some recent pictures of my daughter. She is growing up so much. I'll post more of the pets later. talk to you all later Hope you all had a great holiday.

Behavior, Housebreaking, Obedience / Having problems with Pita

« on: December 19, 2005, 11:08:04 am »

Hi everyone,
I have been having some TERRIBLE problems with Pita. She is acting very aggressive to my 2 month old daughter. I took her to the vet and the vet said she is healthy and nothing is wrong. I can't put my daughter down at all if Pita is in the house. Pita bites her hands, arms, legs and feet. If I put her in the swing she will jump up until she either gets in the swing or can grab onto her poor little feet. The other day I put her in the pack n play playpen that we have set up and went to make dinner Makaylee was sleeping and Pita was asleep...all of the sudden I heard Makaylee crying. Pita dug or chewed a hole through the mesh part of the pack and play and was in it with Makaylee's leg in her mouth. I have tried a very firm no and pushing her away. I have tried a spray bottle, a can with beans in it, I have tried clapping my hands, I've tried distracting Pita with a toy but nothing seems to be getting better. Any suggestions? She isn't like this with me or my husband and she doesn't act aggressively towards the neighborhood kids who come over to play with the dogs at least once a day. The neighborhood kids range from 2 to 9yrs. But as much as I hate to say it if I can't fix this problem soon Pita is going to have to go to another home. Any help??

General Board for Big Dogs with Big Paws / Our Vet visit

« on: December 16, 2005, 08:04:13 pm »

Hey everyone. I took Brody and Pita to the vet yesterday for shots. Brody weighs 64.3 lbs at 7 months old. Pita weighs 12.7 lbs at 8 weeks old. She weighs 1.7 lbs more than my daughter who is the exact same age. lol The vet said they look great. I was shocked at how well behaved Brody was because we've had a problem with her freaking out around strangers because of her past. The only time she threw a fit was when they went to weigh her and honestly I don't blame her I don't like getting on the scale either.

Well just thought I would post that. Its always cool to know exactly how much they weigh.

Mixed Breed Discussion / my scare this morning

« on: December 12, 2005, 10:42:34 am »

My husband over slept this morning and woke me up to take him to work so that I could have the van. I was a little upset because it figures the one day my daughter was actually still asleep at 6:45am. Anyways I take him to work, come home and my daughter was still asleep in her carseat. So I thought I'm gonna take advantage of this and take a shower. I set her carseat in her crib so the dogs couldn't love on her and wake her up. I didn't shut the door to my bedroom or the bathroom so that I could hear her if she woke up. I was in the shower rinsing shampoo out of my hair when all of the sudden something is on my foot. I screamed, jumped and with soap running down my face look down to see Pita in the shower with me. I never heard her come into the bathroom but next thing I knew there she is in the shower with me. She was licking my foot. She climed back out of the shower and left the room. I got out of the shower to find muddy puppy prints all over my bathroom, and into the bedroom. Then I found Pita curled up asleep on her bed. That little stinker was already dried and warm and cozy in her bed. At least we live in Arizona so it wasn't very cold. LOL I told you guys she earned her name.

Introduce Yourself to the Forum / Introducing Brody

« on: December 11, 2005, 12:06:11 am »

Hi everyone,
Thought I would take some time to introduce my dogs one by one. I already introduced Pita so now I would like to introduce Brody. Brody is 7 months old and a purebred great dane. I rescued Brody when she was 9 weeks old. I hadn't been looking for another great dane I already had Tonka a male great dane, Robin my lab mix, and Pippy my chihuahua. However I got a call from one of my friends saying that they knew someone who had a great dane that they wanted to get rid of. My first response was whats wrong with her? However being an animal lover I went over to look at her. I was SOOO glad that I did. When I pulled up to the house I was greeted by several kids and several barking shih tzu (sp?). I kind of scanned the area for a great dane and didn't see one. I went to the door and the house smelled of urine. I was handed a cat carrier. I'm thinking to myself NO WAY!! When I took the cat carrier from this lady I poured pee allover myself, I looked inside to see a tiny black puppy literally crammed inside this carrier. I couldn't get the screws out to take the top off of the carrier so I had to move her side to side up and down to get her out. I felt like I was delivering a baby. She didn't have any skin on the pads of her feet, she had ants all over her, she was covered in her own poop and pee, she had burns all overher legs from the urine. I couldn't leave her behind so I wrapped her in my shirt thanked the lady and left. I found out that the lady's husband had bought her and the lady didn't want her. Brody's parents are both AKC but because they bred a Harlequin to a Fawn AKC wouldn't acknowledge Brody's litter. SO I was given copies of the parents papers. I took this scared, filthy, starving puppy home, I gave her a warm meal, a hot bath and made an appointment for the vet. I tracked down the breeder to see if she wanted Brody back after meeting with her she decided that because Brody had been through 2 weeks of abuse, was skittish, under weight and had a LOT of sores on her that she would never be able tosell her. The lady asked if I would be interested in keeping Brody. She paid all of the vet bills to get Brody's sores treated. Brody is now 7 months old and the best dog. All of her wounds have healed. She has a couple scars from them but they aren't nearly as bad as I had expected them to be. She still has a lot to overcome. She is afraid of new people but warms up quickly with reassurance from me. She is VERY bonded to me she loves to be held and cuddled...you try telling her no

lol. I still every nite sit in the rocking chair and rock her. She sleeps at my feet, and is never very far from me. She is still pretty skittish and jumps at new noises and cowers if my husband gets to loud. But she is awesome with the kids and a very loyal dog. Here are a few recent pictures of her.

Anything Non-Dog Related / This isn't pet related but thought I would share some pics

« on: December 09, 2005, 06:31:35 pm »

Hey guys,
This isn't related to pets but just got these pics and wanted to share. This is my daughter who will be 2 months on the 13th. Her name is Makaylee.

Mixed Breed Pictures / Pita pictures I promised

« on: December 08, 2005, 07:27:00 pm »

Here are some recent (i took them today) pictures of Pita. She is bull mastiff australian shepherd.

Mixed Breed Discussion / We named our new puppy...

« on: December 08, 2005, 08:20:27 am »

Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for all the wonderful name decisions. It was such a hard decision to make I liked so many of them but couldn't decide. Well, after spending a few days with this pup. We decided to name her Pita mainly because well...shes a Pain in the a**. She is one of the most outgoing, into EVERYTHING puppy We have ever owned. I tell my husband its because he picked her out and she is his dogs. Thats why shes such a trouble maker. I love to watch her and my great dane play because Brody could easily through this pup across the room but very gently plays tug of war with her, and will throw toys around with her. She has a UTI so we are having a VERY hard time with potty training, but I think once we get this UTI taken care of she'll potty train very easily. I'm a stay at home mom so it makes it easier to train her. Well its still very early 5:15am and my baby just fell back asleep so I'm off to bed. I'll post more pics in a few hours when I'm up again.

Mixed Breed Pictures / I got a new puppy today

« on: December 02, 2005, 06:28:29 pm »

Hi everyone,
I have only posted on this site a couple times but I wanted to share my new puppy with you guys. She is 7 1/2 weeks old (same age as my daughter) and is a Bullmastiff australian shepherd mix. She is gorgeous. I love her already. My other dogs, Brody a 6 month old dane and Robin a 2 1/2 yr old rott, shepherd lab mix keep trying to play with her. She doesn't know what to think of them quite yet. She has the most beautiful ice blue eyes. I am having a hard time thinking of a name for her so if you have any ideas I would really appreciate it. Her are a few pics of her. I'll post more as I get them.

Introduce Yourself to the Forum / HI

« on: November 01, 2005, 04:12:59 am »

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and thought I would introduce myself. I am 23 married to a wonderful man who is in the Air Force. We have 2 fur kids and a feather kid. Robin is a 2 1/2 yr old 90 lb lab, rott, shepherd mix and Brody is 5 1/2 month old great dane. Buddy is our African grey. I have a 2 1/2 week old daughter named Makaylee, and we are in the process of adopting a 3 yr old boy named Richard and a 1 yr old named Jay. I love to talk about my "kids" and love sharing stories. I am a stay at home mom. I look forward to meeting everyone.