Boo

I am currently in Ft. Lauderdale for a big rah-rah company sales meeting. I am unhappy about this.

I miss my dog.
I miss my husband.
I miss my unfrizzy hair.

I get to come home Thursday and it feels like lightyears away.

And yes, I sound like a homesick 12-year-old at camp andIdon'tevencare.

Playtime for Princeton!

P-dog has made huge strides in his progress with feeling comfortable at home and behaving more like a normal pup. Such a relief!! Our amazing trainer Heather told us that the little man has low self esteem (obviously he didn't get that gene from us) and if we played tug with him and let him win, he'd start to feel a little more confident. Swell, makes sense. However, until recently, the pooch didn't have any interest in toys whatsoever!

He went to cousin Penny's house and while they had a fun time chasing bugs and sniffing butts, he couldn't seem to get into the toys Penny shared.

 

Bryan and Cousin Laura's hands rub down Princeton and Penny 

Cousin Laura cuddles with her daughter Penny and cousin Princeton.

Then, Princeton played with Kahlua, the mutt next door and she even tried to show him what to do with the rubber spike toy and the Ole Ole ball (Kahlua is a dog genius and knows all 30 of her toys by name!). He looked at Kahlua and the toys like they were from outer space.

Neighbor Deanna tries to get Princeton interested in Rubber Spike toy. No dice.

Kahlua chews on the rubber ball o' fun and Princeton doesn't even blink.

 "Ya know guys, I think I'll bow-wow out of the toys and just chill out here in the shade sheltered under the patio table. Yeah, thanks."

So, as you can see, just PLAYING with Princeton was going to be the work before the work.

But, as is the theme in all of my Princeton entries, I just wasn't going to give up. I mean, we wanted a dog. We were gonna HAVE a dog gosh darn it!

So, I figured out that Princeton would need to be annoyed by a toy first before he could love it. After playing a round of "gotchyur feets!" where I grab his tootsies and get him all excited to the point of finger gnaws, I realized that why should a squeaky toy or a rope toy be any different than my flesh toy?!

Enter: The dangle. I took toy that Cousin Penny gave her new cousin when they met a couple weeks ago and dangled it around his nose and muzzle area. After a while, it annoyed him so he mouthed the toy (a squeaky bone that says "Kosher" on it -- Princeton is all ready for his Bark Mitzvah) and realized it was fun to tug on it while I resisted. In between tugs, I threw it across the room and he ran (read: skidded) to plop ontop of it and chew it. Holy moly, my dog was chewing! He was playing! He was doing doggy things!!!

Yup! That's my DOG! We love our little man!

So, we're happy to say that he's playing, eating well, sleeping well, and pottying well (WELL, most of the time...).

Meryl + 3 handsome men + ABBA = FUN!

It should come as no surprise that my sister-in-law and I went to the midnight showing of "Mamma Mia!" and thoroughly enjoyed it. While the crowd at the movie theater was really there for the new Batman flick, leave it to us to saunter into the half-empty (half-full?) "Mamma Mia!" auditorium. As IF we'd have any business joining the crowds to see Heath and Christian. Who needs Gotham when you can have Greece?

I'll detail it later but I'd just like to say that YES, it was cheesy.  YES, it was over the top. But YES, it was so damn entertaining because it gave us just what we wanted: over the top cheesiness portrayed by a great cast, super-fun music, and a familiar stage story that makes us both squeal.

I'd pay whatever, kill however and do whoever it takes to play Sophie one day. Dream role? YES.

I'm sure I'll see it again. It's really a mother-daughter flick after all so I gotta go with the momster (yes, I'm inviting you via blog). I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry during Sophie and Donna's montage scene of "Slipping Through My Fingers." I don't know, maybe it's the recent bride in me, but SIL was crying too, so whatever!

Anyhoo, go see it! It's cute!!

Reunited and it Feels So Good

Someone please pinch me. I am still coming off of the high that was Girls' Weekend in Palm Desert. All of us are the "other half" of a big group of girls from high school. Some of us hadn't seen each other since our freshman year of college and some see each other on a regular basis, but either way, it had been way too long since we'd all been together, spending time laughing, philosophizing, catching up and reminiscing.

Annie and I drove to the desert on Friday afternoon and finally met up with Gretchen, Jenna (coming from Arizona), and Christina (coming from San Diego) outside the Marriott villas. I can't remember the last time I jumped so high. Girls, I'm still sorry if I knocked the wind out of you! I was so excited to see them and they were just as sweet and beautiful as ever.

We got settled into our gigantic 2 bedroom/2 bathroom/living room/kitchen suite and decided to enjoy a late dinner where Megan (coming from Huntington Beach) met us, just having arrived home from a business trip in San Francisco.

We enjoyed good wine ($21 bottle, yes!) and yummy food while playing the best game ever: each person got five minutes to bring us all up to date, covering the last, oh, ya know, SEVEN years. Well, of course five minutes wasn't enough and our catch-up conversation went until midnight when we closed down the restaurant.

On Saturday, we suffered through the heat and laid out by the pool. Snacks, magazines and girl talk made the heat seem a little less painful, but a few of us trickled away and enjoyed appointments at a local massage therapy center. Christina and I shared appointment times and agreed it was the best massage ever! It had been so long since I chatted with Christina and I know I'm not alone when I say how wonderful it is to listen to her positive and wise words. She's smart, nice AND gorgeous and not a wee bit cocky. More people should be like her.

What's a girls' weekend without a shopping extravaganza? After the group got cleaned up from massages and pooltime, we all walked up and down the steamy streets of the famous El Paseo Drive, the Rodeo of Palm Desert. Unfortunately, the city was dead and so were the shops because, really, who goes to Palm Desert in the middle of July?!? But we did relish in the fantastic sales at JCrew, Saks and other fine establishments.

After our sweaty afternoon, we got showered and beautified for our night out. I finally whipped out the camera and took some getting-ready shots.

   Gretchen and Megan in the mirror

Annie doing her makeup thing 

And then I just went all out camera-happy in the room.

Jenna and Christina ready to go

Me with Jenna

Megan, with her magical Monster in hand and Christina.

Me with Megan. We've been friends since elementary school!

Megan, Jenna, me, Christina and Gretchen getting ready to leave. Annie is playing the all-important role of photographer!

We finally got on our shuttle to get to the far other side of the property. The shuttle was constantly slow getting to us all weekend and I'd be lying if I said it didn't annoy me! We were late for our reservation at Mikado's, at teppan yaki restaurant, so instead, we were treated to waiting in the "your table isn't ready" section with a handful of other groups. All of them girls. Apparently, Palm Desert is a chick magnet of a location! Seriously, the ratio of girl groups to guy groups was like 4:1. Crazy. The place was full of bachelorette parties and we watched as this cocky threesome of guys hopped from group to group. They finally reached us and made it very clear that they were a-holes. There's always the spokesperson of the group who is usually a giant jackass. This was no exception. Mr. Jackass decided not only to insult married people (the nerve!) but make the incorrect observation that we all have the same hair. Christina told him we were from University of Wisconsin Law School. He was pretty floored by that false fact. He was also quite confused when Jenna flipped him off as we walked away when our table was called. Clearly, he's never listened to himself talk. We got a good laugh from their pathetic attempts to woo us. Whoop-de-doo!

All of us girls, "all with the same hair." What?! If anything, we all have complementing outfits -- we SO didn't plan these colors!!

Christina and Annie - seriously, how pretty are my friends?!

Jenna, Megan, me and Gretchen just before we finally got our table.

Finally at the big fiery table, about to order.

Jenna and Christina with an itty bitty bottle of something delicious.

The chef threw shrimp and gave everyone a chance to catch it in their mouths. I sucked at it and unfortunately saw many potentially delicious shrimp go wasted, meeting the dirty, slippery floor for their final resting place.

Jenna, however, was a champ.

After dinner, the plan was to head on over to Costa's and dance... but we ate too much and our tummies were too full by the time our dinner ended at 11:30 so we headed back to the hotel instead. I guess we went from High School Girls Gone Wild to High School Girls Gone MILD. But, as it always does, everything worked out and we spent the rest of the night in our PJs in the living room, dishing about boys, high school and jobs. By 2:30, we conked out and checked off another successful day all together.

Annie winds down with a magazine.

Christina gets "in touch."

Jenna and I veg out on the couch.

The next morning, we packed up, talked about how awesome our weekend had been and headed out to brunch. But before we left... a picture!

Annie gives thumbs up to a fantastic 2 days.

We got to the main JW property and Jenna found herself enchanted with the tropics birds on the way to the restaurant.

This guy was chatty! He kept saying "waaaaaaater." Thirsty AND chatty!

Jenna IS the Bird Whisperer.

We made it to brunch! We had a pretty table that overlooked one of the lakes. We could see black swans and ducks! A duck even joined us at our feet:

Some of us opted for the big breakfast buffet and others ordered off the lunch menu. I think we were all pretty stuffed!! Here we are after enjoying our meals, realizing we didn't have too many more opportunities for photos!! Panic set in and we got camera-happy again!

 

We got back to our cars, traded lots of hugs, and made big promises about meeting more often for girl getaway weekends. We all drove off and that was that.

WRONG.

Annie and I decided to check out the killer sale at JCrew on El Paseo one more time. We shopped for about 45 minutes and when we got back into the car at about 2pm to leave for good, we noticed we both had messages from Christina. Poor girl left a bracelet in the hotel room AND on her way back to reclaim it, noticed her car was overheating. Ugh.

We met our pal at a Mobil station off the freeway. Good thing she hadn't gotten very far when she turned around to go back to the hotel. And even better that Annie and I were still in Palm Desert! We arrived at the gas station to see the hood of her Jetta up and a swarm of men of all ages helping out our damsel in distress. This is when it pays off to be cute when having car trouble. Tons of nice people helped, but there wasn't much anyone could do after many attempts to cool down the car. So, AAA towed the car to a mechanic place -- the only one open at 3pm on a Sunday! -- and we waited there for a while.

But "a while," I mean 5 hours. At 6pm, the really nice mechanic guys, who stayed an hour and a half after the shop closed and official store hours were over, they determined they couldn't fix it and the problem was more complicated than tweaking a couple parts here and there. We had waited for 3 hours and kept each other semi-sane by thinking about dream cars and warding off a gigantic cockroach that scurried around the floor (ew gross!), but even by the end, we'd lost our minds and just decided that the car would be towed to the dealer the next morning. After flip flopping on decisions about where Christina goes -- back with us or stay overnight, stranded in the hot desert with no car and no for-sure knowledge of when she'd have one again -- Christina chose to drive back with us.

First we stopped back at the hotel and were able to get into our room. As we searched for the bracelet, I found my bra that I had apparently left on the floor! I never do that kind of stuff! And then Annie looked up on the TV and there was the bracelet. Yay! The car may be a failure, but at least we had success back in the hotel room. And total bonus that I found something I didn't even realize I'd lost!

Finally, our journey back to 80 degree weather began. We made pretty good time -- about 2.5 hours. We were beat!

It all worked out okay and Christina has some car woes ahead of her, but Annie and I were just so glad we could be there to help her. But whoa, what a way to end a fantastic weekend!

And it WAS a fantastic weekend! We had such a great time and we're SO getting together again in the next few months. This weekend made me realize how lucky I am to have these girls in my life - some back in again, after a long geographic-separation. And while we don't all live in the same town, or even state, we're not THAT far away from each other that we can't have quarterly gatherings! Here's to many more girls weekends! If that were a toast, Annie would definitely hook it up much better. ;)

I hate the Blogger template!

I don't understand why the Blogger template messes up my formatting (font, sizing, paragraphs) -- do any of you experience that too?!

I normally write my Blogs in Microsoft LiveWriter (which is SO cool -- I highly recommend this application for writing blogs; it's the best for formatting and inserting photos) but my personal laptop is DEAD because the power cord went hairy and now my computer is unable to turn on! So, blogs will temporarily be written on my work lap top via the actual Blogger template. Boo to annoying formatting out of my control!

Princeton: Not your average Ivy League dog

He may be cute and he may be very loving, but Princeton isn't exactly adjusting to his new home with flying colors. Unfortunately, the little dude is suffering from severe separation anxiety. It breaks my heart that he's so tortured, especially when we've done everything possible that professionals say to do.

This is what I've learned about separation anxiety (I copy and pasted this from an informational website and left in tact the parts that apply to our particular situation):


Dogs with separation anxiety exhibit behavior problems when they're left alone. Typically, they'll have a dramatic anxiety response within a short time (20–45 minutes) after their owners leave them. The most common of these behaviors are:
*Digging, chewing, and scratching at doors or windows in an attempt to escape and reunite with their owners.
*Howling, barking, and crying in an attempt to get their owner to return.


Why Do Dogs Suffer from Separation Anxiety?
*When a dog accustomed to constant human companionship is left alone for the first time.
*Following a long interval, such as a vacation, during which the owner and dog are constantly together.
*After a traumatic event (from the dog's point of view), such as a period of time spent at a shelter or boarding kennel.


How Do I Know If My Dog Has Separation Anxiety?
Because there are many reasons for the behaviors associated with separation anxiety, it's essential to correctly diagnose the reason for the behavior before proceeding with treatment. If most, or all, of the following statements are true about your dog, he may have a separation anxiety problem:
*The behavior occurs exclusively or primarily when he's left alone.
*He follows you from room to room whenever you're home.
*He displays effusive, frantic greeting behaviors.
*The behavior always occurs when he's left alone, whether for a short or long period of time.

What to Do If Your Dog Has Separation Anxiety
For a minor separation anxiety problem, the following techniques may be helpful by themselves. For more severe problems, these techniques should be used along with the desensitization process described in the next section.
*Keep arrivals and departures low-key. For example, when you arrive home, ignore your dog for the first few minutes, then calmly pet him. This may be hard for you to do, but it's important!
*Leave your dog with an article of clothing that smells like you—such as an old t-shirt that you've slept in recently.
*Establish a "safety cue"—a word or action that you use every time you leave that tells your dog you'll be back. Dogs usually learn to associate certain cues with short absences by their owners. For example, when you take out the garbage, your dog knows you come right back and doesn't become anxious. Therefore, it's helpful to associate a safety cue with your short-duration absences.
*Some examples of safety cues are a playing radio, a playing television, or a toy (one that doesn't have dangerous fillings and can't be torn into pieces). Use your safety cue during practice sessions with your dog. Be sure to avoid presenting your dog with the safety cue when you leave for a period of time longer than he can tolerate; if you do, the value of the safety cue will be lost. Leaving a radio on to provide company for your dog isn't particularly useful by itself, but a playing radio may work if you've used it consistently as a safety cue in your practice sessions. If your dog engages in destructive chewing as part of his separation distress, offering him a chewing item as a safety cue is a good idea. Very hard rubber toys that can be stuffed with treats and Nylabone®-like products are good choices.

Interim Solutions
Because the treatments described above can take a while, and because a dog with separation anxiety can do serious damage to himself and/or your home in the interim, consider these suggestions to help you and your dog cope in the short term:
*Consult your veterinarian about the possibility of drug therapy. A good anti-anxiety drug should not sedate your dog, but simply reduce his anxiety while you're gone. Such medication is a temporary measure and should be used in conjunction with behavior modification techniques.


Interesting stuff, but also very sad. It's exactly what Princeton is going through. He has improved SO much in the week he's been with us! He is now a great leash-walker, he's learned to sit on command, he's potty trained to go outside and we've had no in-house accidents (!!!!!!), he knows his name and we all adore each other. However, we just can't leave the house -- or the room, for that matter -- or he goes into a tizzy and turns into a totally different dog.

We aimed the video camera into his crate to see what happened when we left for 5 hours the other day and he was hysterical. It was kind of scary, actually, and I'm concerned more than anything that he might hurt himself. I'm sure anyone who walks by our houses thinks someone's being murdered inside... nope, it's just my damaged dog freaking out over our absence. It's so bad, I can't even go shower upstairs while he's roaming the downstairs area without him howling and wailing about our separation. It makes me sad and I don't know what else to do! We've done everything like put toys and chews into his crate to distract him and keep him happy, but the weirdo doesn't even LIKE toys or chews. I spent over $50 on treats and toys today at PETsMART and when I brought them home, he sniffed them for a second and then looked up at me like I was crazy. He's just not interested. Therefore, filling his crate with these so-called happy things don't do anything to help his S.A. Thanks goodness for the store's return policy!!

Leaving the TV on for him didn't seem to make a difference and we are very diligent about not making a fuss over our departures and arrivals so that he realizes it's totally okay to be alone. We even put a framed photo of us in front of his crate so he could look at us while we are gone. I know that's a stretch, but we're reachin' here!! Anything! We'll do anything! We just want our little boy to be HAPPY and HEALTHY.

We visited the vet on Saturday and he prescribed Princeton with antidepressants that should kick in in about two to three weeks. The medication is in the Prozac family so it's an appetite supressant... which means the skinny dog who already ate like a bird hasn't touched his doggy food in days. Even spiking it with chicken soup and cheese hasn't whet his appetite at all. Yes, it's true; I have a special-needs dog. If Princeton went to school, he would ride the short yellow bus there and back. Oy. I'm at a loss and B and I can only cross our fingers that the meds will do wonders to correct this chemical imbalance in his brain. We feel good knowing that we're doing everything we can as doggy parents, but it's very stressful and I wish he would just be a normal pup ALL the time! We're very committed to him, though, so we're not giving up anytime soon!

If any of you have dealt with dogs suffering from separation anxiety and have tips or success stories or even brutal truth, please share.

Announcing Princeton

DOR (Date of Rescue): June 29, 2008

10 pounds

About 18 inches long

The parents are proud and happy, though a little sleepless.

 

Yes, that's right, we have a new baby in the house and it's our 8 to 12-month-old bundle of furry joy. We'd been looking for a dog pretty much since the wedding. Well, scratch that, I'VE been looking for a dog pretty much since my first dog passed away 10 years ago, but the time was never right; my parents didn't want a new one, I went off to college, I moved into my friend's house where she already had a dog and then I moved into my fiancee's house and he hates dogs. Hated dogs.

B knew how much a little doggie in my life would warm my heart but vowed never to assist in the parenting. He never grew up with a dog and didn't understand why they are wonderful additions to an already-happy life. This had been a point of contention for us during our courtship and engagement time and I finally realized, reluctantly, that he could never be a changed man and if I ever had a dog, it would be mine and not ours. That made me sad, but a girl's gotta chase her dreams like a dog chases his tail.

Fast forward to the wedding day. It came time for our Best of Honor to deliver the bride and groom gifts to the bride and groom. When the best man brought me a black velvet necklace box that appeared to have housed the pearl necklace I so wanted to wear on the wedding day, I was in for a bigger surprise.

The best man handed me the box.

And I quickly opened it expecting to put on the pearls my dress was screaming to be friends with.

But instead, strewn along the inside of the box, was a silver choke chain that would complement a motorcycle bride much better than a country club bride. Was I supposed to WEAR this?! On the silver chain was a silver bone. Seriously? A BONE? My almost-husband thinks I'm a dog? Oh wait, the bone has an engraving... "Our First Puppy"  What? We don't HAVE a puppy, smarty!

Oh, but look! The lid of the box says something! There's a note!

It says: Alison, my love. Will you get a dog with me? I'm ready when you are.

The waterworks started! I cried like a baby. My almost-husband, the love of my life, the stubborn, stubborn man who convinced himself he'd never be a pet owner, the handsome loving man who thought I was crazy for adoring 4-legged fur balls, MY almost-husband had changed. He thought deep down inside of himself and did some soul searching to realize that we could create a very special home together with a dog's company.

I melted.

During our honeymoon, we frolicked along the beaches of Hawaii, brainstorming names for our pooch. No, we hadn't gotten him yet, but we wanted to fantasize about all the joy he'd bring. We decided we would definitely rescue a dog (no pet stores or breeders for us!) and it would not shed or drool, so that ruled out really big dogs. A small, lap dog that just wants to walk and be held would be perfect for us.

We started the search when we got back to the mainland and found a lot of promising pups online, but the websites hadn't been updated so they'd already been adopted - GREAT! (no really, that makes me so happy for them!!!) We found Beethoven online who was 7 weeks old a a terrier-lhasapoo mix. We met him and he was absolutely adorable. I could have taken him home that very night. We both enjoyed him so much but we had an appointment with another dog named Kiko who was 7 or 8 months old. We decided to meet Kiko first and then decide. Plus, we weren't totally confident about raising something so fresh like Beethoven.

We met the foster mom in Cerritos since she was coming from Anaheim and we were coming from Venice. Kiko was shy at first but he was really cute and seemed to have a nice personality. We spent three hours with him and basically grilled the foster mom about all the details of his temperament and lifestyle. I could see that B was bonding with him and seemed to be more excited about Kiko than he was when he met Beethoven. We ultimately decided that raising a 7-week old would not be as easy as raising an 8-month old so I took out the checkbook and Kiko nervously trotted to our car, unsure about what his new life would be.

Here's our first family photo:

According to the rescue organization, Kiko was picked up by the animal shelter and was there for a while until the rescue organization saved him. He was in foster care for about 3 months until the day we met him.

We renamed Kiko after the lead puppet character from one of our favorite musicals, Avenue Q!

Princeton learned his name very quickly and has been responding quite well to it!

We gave him a bath when we got home and while he didn't really love it, he didn't fight me and he just kind of let me do it. He smelled so much better after!

Princeton is very sweet and really enjoys following us around the house and playing with us. He's kind of a mama's boy and follows my every move, which is cute, but I want him to be able to be independently happy since I won't be here 24/7 with him.

He rides well in the car but doesn't walk so great. He loves to sniff every blade of grass and is very curious about every element on the sidewalk. The terrier in him is so obvious on our walks. Apparently, his foster mom didn't walk him much so he's not used to being on a leash. Thankfully, I've gotten into watching the genius, Cesar Millan on the Dog Whisperer and I'm trying to train him that I'm the pack leader and he needs to not walk ahead of me. It's tough, but sometimes he does a good job and nothing makes me happier than praising him for being a good boy!

Only problem is that Princeton isn't eating and that worries me a little, but the vet said that it's normal for a dog in a new environment to ignore his food. I wonder how long we should wait until it becomes a serious issue. Not to mention, it limits our opportunities to praise him for going potty outside (he's done it 3 times and I'm surprised none of you readers could hear the potty party we threw on the spot!) since obviously he's not producing, um, the "goods" for which to go potty since he's not eating. Anyway, that's our current challenge. That, and the fact that he keeps waking up at 6:30 a.m. and I immediately and groggily take him out for fear of him peeing and pooping in the house. Of course, he doesn't actually GO on the way-too-early in the morning walk so ... that's that.

Life with Princeton is fun. B and I enjoy parenting him despite the challenges and hope that he grows into a good and mature doggie.

Oh, and p.s., my knight-in-shining armor almost-husband came through and also gifted me the pearls! After the dog excitement, the best man handed me another identical box and said quite casually in his witty way "oh, and you may want this, too." I opened the box and sure enough, glistening in their glory, a stunning 16'' strand of perfect pearls.

 

I love all the men in my life: Princeton, B - my now-husband, and even our best man because he obviously carries valuable and memorable items with him. :)