Sorry for the long absence!

Life has been crazy lately!  I haven't updated in a long while, so here is my condensed version of the changes so far.

At the end of April, Bella went in for surgery to have her spayed.  The day after her stitches came out, I packed up my car with my essential belongings, my pup and my fish and drove to Amarillo to help my sister pack up her house.  She recently got a job in Arkansas, and recently found out she is pregnant, so I came to help.

From there, Bella, fish and I moved to Arkansas to help out my sister and brother-in-law with my 3 year old niece.  We are still living in Arkansas and I am looking for jobs.  Pray I find one and can find some direction in life.

Bella has now reached the 50 pound mark!  She is a growing pup!  Also, it has been estimated that she might be a Rhodesian Ridgeback / Chow mix instead of the lab chow mix.  Whatever she is, she is the cutest pup in the world.

I recently switched her food.  She had been eating Canidae Grain Free food for All Life Stages, but unfortunately that food is tough to find in regular markets.  Also I was having trouble getting her to eat.  So I switched her to Blue brand for puppies.  I still want to keep her holistic and healthy, and she hasn't had a picky eating problem since the switch.  I had heard a lot of good about that brand, although the protein content is a bit high.  To counter that I sometimes feed her less of the recommended amount (not much less, just a little) and then I feed her treats of raw veggies and fruits.  Her favorites are bell peppers (especially orange), blue berries and carrots.

We are still in unpacking mode, so once I find the blender I am going to make green smoothies and freeze them in ice cube containers for extra treats.

One of the great things about feeding my pup a holistic, grain free, healthy diet is the issue of teeth.  I have noticed from seeing other dogs and what they eat that their teeth are yellow and gross and full of plaque.  Bella and my sister's pup, Boston (who is also on a grain free, holistic diet), have wonderfully white teeth.  This is great because I don't know how I would brush her teeth without her chewing on the toothbrush.  And a lot of the chews out there that are "good for their teeth" aren't so good for their bodies.  So my word to those seeking an idea for dog health and teeth is a grain free, holistic diet.  And don't get your dog treats with sugar in them.  It's crazy some of the things made for dogs.  No wonder dogs are getting human diseases like diabetes.  Look to nature for guidance.  Their bodies (and ours) weren't made for oreos and marshmallows.  And dogs don't have the convictions we do (or should) about how much is too much of what treats.

Here I will leave you with some new pictures.

She has found a new love for sleeping under my bed...

Updated Pics

I have been meaning to post these for two weeks but never came around to doing so.

On the 9th, my sister came to stay with me for a week with her dog, Boston.  Boston is a yellow lab a couple of weeks older than Bella, and this was their first time to meet each other.  After the first week of my sister being with me, I went with Bella to drive back to her house...a state away.  A 6 hour car ride with two dogs was a lot easier than I imagined it would be.  Luckily both pups slept most of the way.

Bella got to play with her older, bigger cousin for two weeks, and in those two weeks a miracle happened! She learned she wasn't the boss!  Ever since she has been very calm and mellow, even in her moments of extreme boredom while I work.  It has been wonderful.  However, she also learned that she is part weasel, and she is a master escape artist.  Today she escaped twice from two different yards, one of which I have no idea how she got through.  And unfortunately she could care less to come when she is called.  She will just look up at me and then stick her little nose back in the ground.  Finally after about 5 minutes of trying to beckon her with treats, she got bored and came back to me.

Anyways, here are some pictures from her visit with her cousin. The include a fun game of tag, the laziest tug-of-war game ever, and their first time in the sprinklers.

This is Bella's strategy....dead weight might give her the upper hand in getting the toy.  Boston was dragging her across the yard!

And finally the pups are begging to come in. ..unfortunately they were covered in mud.

Pictures

Here are the pictures as promised.  This is after 5 minutes of Bella being outside.  She wasn't satisfied with anything small.

Memory Cards and Pills.

My growing pup is like a full contact sport.  If only Caesar the dog whisperer were here to help.

Yesterday she ate my 8G memory card for my camera.  I have no idea how she got it without me seeing because it was on the far back of the top of my desk. It had all the pictures I had taken from the zoo with me niece and the mating lions.  Plus, I can't afford another right now since I can barely even afford new chapstick.  But, luckily all those pictures had already been put on the computer downstairs.  When I finally got it out of her mouth it was in about 10 pieces.

I think she was jealous that she didn't get to go to the zoo.  It was a fun experience that she had to see pictures of afterwards.  We saw lions mating, tigers roaring, a rhino playing with a ball in the water, a Komodo dragon trying to eat my niece from the other side of the glass and A full bodied parakeet barked.  It was awesome.  So I guess she was jealous.

We are trying to teach her not to jump up on the counters to no avail.  Nothing seems to work.  Same with jumping up on us.  I try the freeze and don't give her any attention, but then she nips at me when the jumping doesn't work.  She nips at me a lot and I can't seem to teach her that biting me is bad.  Luckily it is only me that she bites, never guests.  She just licks them.  Needless to say, though, I am ready for this stage to end.

We did go to the vet yesterday.  The last time she got shots and scraped because she had mange, so yesterday she was not excited to go up those steps.  It was a sad spectacle.  I was glad no one was around to see.  We only went to weigh her to get her next heart worm pill.  She weighs 38.8 pounds!  Her last weigh in was Jan. 26 and she weighed 29.9 pounds.  So she gained 8 pounds in a little over a month.  I can tell.  She is getting heavier and harder to pick up.  And harder to keep in the bathtub, too.

I need to take  picture with her.  I have none.  Unfortunately the photographer can't take a picture of herself.  But I will try to take some pictures this week, hopefully today, so everyone can see how big she has gotten.

Added to the list..

It's been a whole combination of ups and downs with Bella.  Love her to death, but I must be horrible at dog training.  My dad teases me that she has become a full contact sport because I am so covered in bruises and cuts.  I look like I have been abused.  She just plays way too rough and I can't seem to teach her the right way.  But I watch videos and read about it all the time, so I am trying new things to try and work with this.  So far one of them has been working very very well today.

We are also relearning come.  She tends to take come as a game, so I got her some new treats to try and teach her this better.  So far today it has been successful.

I have added dog training to my list of the perfect guy.  I am going to need to marry a dog trainer who also wants to live out of a van, travel, do homeless ministry and be a musician.  It'd also be nice if he loved camping and had an artist mind....yeah.  We will see if I ever find him.  Haha.  I have my doubts.

Hopefully pictures to come soon.

Bella in the snow

This is a video of Bella's first experience in the snow. It's not that exciting, just her playing in it, but she had so much fun!

Snow Day!

We got a lot of snow (in Ft. Worth standards) today!  It was extremely beautiful and exciting.  Bella absolutely loved pouncing around and eating the snow.  In fact, it was hard to get her to eat real food because she just wanted to eat snow.

She was very good today until the last few moments before bed time.  She was outside playing in the snow, and when she came in, she jumped up and started biting me.  I hope that that was meant to be playful, but when I said no and turned away, she got extremely aggressive!  She was growling at me and testing me like no other.  I had to put her in the bathroom for a minute to make her calm down and know that I won't let her be around me when she is like that.  I get scared because she has chow in her and I don't want her to become aggressive.  But every time I lock her in the bathroom and then let her out, she licks and licks and is very calm and behaves. The Retriever in her causes her to be very friendly and social and eager to please, and she has only ever shown aggression towards me.  And it has only been lately, so I am going to try my best to correct this behavior.

I think this may be her testing to see who is boss, and as much as I love her sleeping with me, I think she is going to be confined to her crate at night now.  She's got to learn that I am Momma and she must behave.  She won't always be small enough for me to pick up.  Prayer needed in this journey to raise my pup.