Zeldie the Canine Alarm Clock

I read once that dogs do not understand or know time. I would disagree. In July, David went to a conference for work in Miami. At 28 weeks pregnant, I was less than thrilled with the notion of being on my own for four days to fend and manage for myself. Already at that point, I was having back pain and bending over was getting difficult. The exhaustion that has become my constant companion as well as the insufferable heat and humidity we were experiencing at that time made me a bit weary of being able to adequately care for myself, the dog and the household while he was gone. David, unwittingly did not help matters. Saturday night he called me from his hotel. He had been reading on the balcony of his posh hotel, from which he had an unobstructed view of the beach. My husband, being smart and thoughtful was doing a little pleasure reading from Mindset. For those of you who don't know, Mindset is not exactly the latest Dan Brown. It is a book about research on intelligence. In any case, dutiful husband that he is, he called to check in with me. After I rattled off a litany of complaints and annoyances, including my most recent favorite which is that I was feeling like a tub of butter, to which David patiently listened, he preceded to tell me all about a bachelorette party going on in the room next door about which, it occurred to me, he seemed to know a surprising amount. I finally ask him how he knew all of this and he innocently said, "Oh, because they invited me over to have a beer with them." It might have been my silence that was a sharper reply than anything I could have said, but regardless, he quickly followed up with, "I took the beer and came inside my room." Now, any of you who know David well enough understand the irony in that of all of the potential men in the world who could have been roomed next to a bachelorette party in a posh hotel on Miami beach, it was him. And those of you that know my husband well enough are probably the ones reading this blog, so I won't elaborate. And, those of you who know my husband well enough, know me well enough so I am assuming you can also imagine at 28 weeks pregnant, feeling like a tub of butter, my less than receptive response. Whereas at any other time, I would have appreciated the humor in the situation, I myself was not in the particular frame of mind where that was possible. Needless to say, for the rest of the night I was frenzied and worried that I would not be able to get to sleep. So, I broke the one cardinal rule of the household. I let Zeldie sleep in the bed. I figured it was the only way I could coax her at this point to actually stay put and sleep with me. Now Zeldie, always wants to get up on the bed. She puts her little front paws up there and pops her head up. Sometimes she even jumps up there when we are in the living room to retrieve and chew on a discarded piece of clothing. Sometimes we find her toys up there. The top of the bed is her Everest. However, that night, she was downright uncomfortable on the bed. I could tell because of her shallow breathing and twitchy eyes. She was like, "Mommy, I know this isn't allowed and I am afraid Daddy is going to walk into the room at any point and yell at me. You are breaking the rules and I don't like it." So, I let her hop down. She slept on the floor by my side for I am not sure how long because I eventually fell asleep. In the morning, I found her on the big chair in the living room. She has been sleeping there ever since. I still remember when she was a littler puppy and we tried to let her sleep outside of the crate. It was, by all accounts, a disaster. Having little to no self-regulation, our dog did not know what to do with herself in vast and cavernous expanse of our 850 square foot condo, especially at 3 AM when she was awake and were were asleep and any and all manner of disruption would not wake us. So, instead she would find more destructive hobbies to occupy her time and relieve her boredom and anxiety. Now, although, she had a slight learning curve at first, she pretty much wanders in like clockwork at the same time every morning to wake us up and get us started. It took her a couple of tries to get her internal timing mechanism set properly. But now, we can pretty much count on her to be about as consistent 7 days a week as the full moon is every 30 days. Zeldie is our very own canine alarm clock.

No, Mommy!

I have always had trouble sleeping. However, throughout the pregnancy, I have had even more. One particularly distressing night a few weeks ago, I woke up at 1:30 AM and never fell back to sleep. Early on in the pregnancy, I would cuddle with Zeldie on the couch. This would put me right to sleep. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband, but Zeldie's pleasant biorhythms are hypnotic to me. Whereas David's breathing sounds like a hurricane raging in my ear, Zeldie's regular soft breaths are like a gentle breeze. Whereas David's 200+ some odd body takes up half the bed, Zeldie's petite little 32 pounds tucks and curls into me like a pillow. Whereas David's twitches startle me as I fall asleep, Zeldie's regular heart beat lulls me effortlessly into unconsciousness. It used to be she would stand up, wag her tail and wait for me by the crate door. In the morning, when David would wake up to take her out, he would have to persuade her to get off the couch. However recently, she has not been so agreeable. In fact, she has seemed downright displaced. The past few sleepless nights, she has been at the back of the crate and I have had to pull her out of it. She jumps off of the couch after we lay down causing me to retrieve her so we can settle back down again together. And perhaps the most telling of all, when I wake up in the morning, she is laying on the floor, somewhere else in the room, as far away from the couch as possible. I imagine this is her way of saying, "No, mommy! I am a big girl now, too big to cuddle with you." At 14 mos. old, that strikes me as a bit sad but also inevitable. I suppose when you depend on your puppy as your Ambien, at some point she will make it clear she is an independent being and it is an inappropriate responsibility. I guess the only thing for a Mommy to do at that point is to take some Benadryl, get a Homemedics SoundSpa and buy a few more pillows.

A Sophisticated Palate

Our dog is a picky eater. Or so we have thought. When Zeldie came to us, the breeder sent her with a ziplock baggie size supply of food. This was the source of much consternation for me because the vet had said not to change her diet for at least 2 weeks. Instead, we had to start mixing her food immediately. We originally started her on Science Diet Puppy formula. Initially, our plan was to feed her that until she turned a year and then start her on something less expensive. Soon though, her skin became dry and itchy. She would scratch at her skin until her hair fell out and it would bleed and scab over. She apparently could not tolerate the grain and by-products used in most commercial dog foods. It took us some time to figure this out. Sometime during September, at least 3 mos. after she arrived, we learned about food allergies for dogs. It didn't take long for us to put two and two together to determine Zeldie had food allergies. We did some reading and decided that we needed to switch her to a more allergy and wire-haired coat friendly fish based food. We decided on Halo Spot's Stew Salmon formula. After all of the reading we had done, we were very excited about this formula. Zeldie was not so much so but we didn't notice. We proudly served her the food. We watched as she sniffed at it indecisively and reluctantly nibbled a few bites. We were satisfied. We kept giving it to her. Even though she rarely ate a full bowl. Even though when we gave it to her she would turn over her bowl. Even though when we left it in her crate she would bury it with her blanket. Even though when we went to our friend's house, we couldn't keep her away from the Pedigree. Even though, by the time we got to the bottom of the bag, she would snub it all together. We thought, "Our dog is so quirky. Look at how funny she is turning over her bowl." And, "Our dog is such a picky eater, she doesn't like stale food." We thought, "Our dog is so thin, it must be because she gets so much exercise at doggie day care." If Zeldie has thoughts they were probably somewhere along the lines of, "Idiots! In what other way can I tell them how much I hate this food." This past week, David went to buy the Halo and they were out of it. Flat out of it. And we were out of it. Flat out of it. So, under duress, he picked up a bag of the Wellness Ocean formula which is a whitefish based dry dog food. We fed it to our picky eater hoping for the best. And surprise of all surprises, she ate the whole bowl all at once as fast as she could, like any other dog I have ever known. We stood there in awe watching her eat. She must have been famished after having been starved for a year. She has been eating the Wellness for a few days now and she has finished every last bite of every last bowl. Every time I see the shiny bottom of the dog bowl, I have to admit, I am simultaneously fascinated and overjoyed. If she could have only told us she preferred whitefish to salmon, perhaps she wouldn't have had to wait so long for us to catch on.

Balloon vs. Zeldie

We finally found out what scares our "daredevil" of a dog--helium balloons. The Irish Terriers are known to be fairly fearless, earning the nickname daredevil (seriously, look it up). Most things her curiosity gets the best of her and she wants to really explore whatever it is. However, after David's 30th birthday party last night at Dogfish Head Alehouse, we brought home a few balloons. When she saw them, she went from lightly growling, to pawing at the carpet to backing up and putting her head down. Maybe she thought they were floating heads or something, but we wish we got her behavior on camera because the balloons were not even moving, just floating there.

Conjunctivitis for Dogs

One day we came home from work and noticed Zeldie was squinting like she couldn't see. Her eyes were all red and looked bloodshot. She also had some discharge running out of her eyes. This being new to both of us, we did what any couple would do, we googled it. Of course, the first thing that came up was a page on Red Eye for dogs which seemed to fit her symptoms perfectly. The problem was that Red Eye for dogs is the equivalent of pink eye for people and the side effects include possible blindness. This sent at least one of us into a tizzy. We held her out of doggie day care and took her to the vet first thing in the morning the next day. As it turned out, Zeldie did not have Red Eye for dogs. Zeldie had allergies. And now, we give her eye drops to alleviate the aggravation it itchy, puffy, red eyes. It seems like we have crossed a threshold into the absurd when your day consists of giving eye drops to a dog and this is a more tolerable notion than allowing her to rub her eyes with a paw.

Zeldie by the Numbers

We have now had Zeldie 1 year. we went to pick Zeldie up from the airport 365 days ago. Since we have had her, she has been in 3 dog training classes. She has had 2 different dog walkers. She has been kenneled 4 times. She has traveled by car to NY 2 times. She has traveled by car to NC 2 times. She has stayed in a hotel 2 times. She has met 4 other Irish Terriers. She is 32 pounds. She eats 2 cups of food a day, sometimes. She has swallowed 1 nylon knee high and 1 plastic bottle cap. She has stolen 1 set of diamond rings, but did not swallow them. She has eaten 1 pair of glasses. She has 2 allergies of which we know. She has had 2 prescription medications. All in all, it has been a good year. She has 115 days before she is no longer the baby of the house. We don't think she has any idea what is coming.

Saludos desde Puerto Rico!

Greetings from Puerto Rico! On Monday we traveled to San German, the oldest city in Puerto Rico. The weather has been perfect and we have been spending a lot of time on the beach reading and relaxing, just what both of us were looking forward to all Fall. Even though I was reluctant at first, I am glad David insisted. I am lucky he would rather spend our money on an experience we can share than things that are just for himself. I will try to remember how much closer together it brought us when the mastercard bill arrives next month. We are staying at The Pineapple Inn, a little B&B here that is just our speed. The beds are comfortable and the owners are hospitable. It is small and quiet, just steps away from the beach, exactly what we wanted.

Most of the time we have been spending on the beach which is just steps away from our room. We have had our hands full watching the crabs dig their holes and watching the tides rearrange the debris on the beach. We have decided that our entertainment for one day might be counting the coconuts. On December 28th, there was a seismic event, a small earthquake, in the Puerto Rico region. Unfortunately, this caused the currents to be too strong for David to go diving. We think that gives us an excuse to come back.

David's suggestion is we move here so that he can open up a dive shop. I said, if he gets to open up a dive shop then I get to open up a used book store. We've been working on the name all week. The best we have come up with is The Reader Reef. That name is growing on us for now. We have met a lot of people who have relocated here and they say that it is no more difficult than moving state to state since it is a territory of the United States so we haven't ruled anything out.

We also traveled to Old San Juan where we stayed for New Year's Eve. David did exceptionally well booking our hotel, we had a view of Christopher Columbus square from the window which is where all of the celebration took place, kind of like Times Square. Except rather than a ball dropping, they have a fireworks display and a stage set up for a concert. We had just enough time to walk to the fort. On our way, we took in a few of the sites of the old city. The buildings are incredible. Most of them are brightly colored and have beautiful grill work. There are many sculptures around the city that commemorate its history and are also a tribute to the artists. We had dinner at a Tapas restaurant which happened to be the oldest building in the city and at one point was used as the city hall. Where we were sitting used to be the part of the building that housed the prisoners.

Below is the final slideshow updated with all of our pictures. We are sure you will see why we can't wait to go back.