Uh oh!

I picked Mike up from the station (he had duty last night)early this morning. We went out for breakfast and picked up a couple of things for the puppies. I had taken the puppies out with Theresa before I had left, and made sure she stayed down stairs with them, in the same room, while we were gone.
I came home to find blood on the floor. Theresa had not noticed it. There was a little bit of dark stool and some bloody/clear liquidy stuff. I freaked out a bit. I immediately felt guilt that they I had not taken them to the vet yet (we got them a week ago Saturday). Before I called the vet I started to do a little research on the subject, but stopped because I knew, no matter what, they still needed to go to the vet.
So the puppies have their first appointment tomorrow at 3pm. I wish we could have gotten them in this morning, the worried mommy in me does not want to wait. But the vets office seems to think it is OK. I did some more research and this seems to be common, but does need to be treated. It can be parasites. Or it could be as simple as they were having trouble digesting the treats I was giving them for training. So tomorrow they get wormed and get their shots. Poor puppies.

Update: Snuffy is fine. Snuffy just has a sensitive stomach. They are almost six months old now and she still has problems if she eats anything but her regular food and sensitive stomach puppy treats from the same company.

"What's in a name?...

...That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
And the poo that we step upon will still smell as foul!
We have had the puppies for nine days. It's getting difficult to try and train them when you have two puppies, and you can only call them "puppy" because you don't have names for them. The only names I have come up with that I like at all are Dingo and Bingo. Mike is not so crazy about those names. The names he has been considering all seem a bit too pretentious for a couple of hound dog/boxer mixes. Shawani or similar nonsense. These pups need good old light hearted names. Someone, please help!

Update: We finally named the puppies. Dingo (aka, "the dingo didn't do it") is the white and red speckled one, and Snuffy (short for Snuffleufagus). Dingo was named by the first vet visit, Snuffy did not have a name for at least two weeks.

Puppy Power!

After rope rescue training on Saturday morning, we decided we should go to the shelter to pick out a much over due dog for our family.
Until now we have only had cats. We have been married nearly ten years, but we were a military family and did not own our own home, trying to find a place with dogs can be difficult. Cats are easier.
We had thought about going through breed rescue societies such as one of the Greyhound ones, but were never sure. We finally decided to go look at the local shelter for a nice adult dog. I always said that I would never get a puppy, because they get adopted. I would only adopt an adult dog. As you can tell from the pictures, this did not happen.
While we were on our way to the shelter we saw a sign for free puppies. This was a road we regularly went down, in fact it was the same route we lived on. Never had we seen a sign for puppies, nor have we seen one since. It must surely be a sign!
When we got out of the car we were happy to see a very large clean yard, two clean and healthy looking adult dogs, and even a very clean and healthy looking goat. They also had six of the cutest puppies I had ever seen in my life. Two of whom we took home with us.
Where did all my convictions go? Well I still think I did the right thing. No, they were not adults. No they were not from the shelter. But here is my reasoning. Many people see cute free puppies, get them, then end up leaving them tied up out back, forgotten about. That will never happen to these guys. Secondly, if we got an adult dog there is no way we would know how it would react to our four cats. After all, they were here first and I would be devastated if anything ever happened to them. With puppies they will be raised around the cats and we can train them to not be rough with them. I know that is no guarantee of safety for the cats, but it is better than rolling the dice with a shelter dog.
Now, if we could only choose names!

Rescue Me.......

.....or maybe we should rescue the woman trapped in the van. I just went on my second EMS call as a full fledged EMT-Basic in Ohio. And my husband, Mike, was with me. We had a trauma, my first. We were on the news. What more could one ask for?
A car had ran a stop sign and T-boned a van, hard. I was told that the breaks had completely failed on the car that ran the stop sign. We got the woman out of the van, only after my husband and some other great EMS people cut away the door on the drivers side. EMS people live for these kinds of things. Injuries, but no deaths or disfigurements. Couldn't ask for a better day.
Oh yeah, in the blur above I am the one with the yellow jacket but no helmet on. I guess this was my .00002 seconds of fame!