Spay/Neuter-Rama

Well today was the day of all days. I decided to get Smartie, Abbie and Jerry all "fixed" over this vacation from school since we would be able to monitor them and make sure they did not lick or chew on their incisions etc. I originally for an estimate of $1300 from my regular vet all three dogs together. I thought this was kind of pricey as did some of my friends so I figured I would ask my friend from "dog class" who is a vet at North Shore Animal League. She almost had a heart attack.
So PS I canceled my appt with my vet and I was now getting up at 4:30am today to get all the dogs to North Shore by 7:15am so they could all be "fixed" good and proper and I wouldn't have to get ripped off. I took Tom and Jerry to my parents, left Tom there (he is already fixed), got Abbie and Smartie, switched cars and made it out to Port Washington on time. It took 2 hours to examine and get bloodwork and check for heartworm which wasn't even in my vet's original estimate. These alone would have tagged on an additional $100 a dog at least. So everyone gets their pain meds and is zonking out as I leave and I get a phone call from Paul to come home because my car deal is going through!

So I drive all the way back to my mom's to get the title for my trade in and head to the dealer. I left Port Washington at 10:45am and did not get to the dealer until 1:15! It took 2 hours at the dealer during which is when I got the phone call that everyone was out of surgery and was awake from anesthesia and doing well. It is now 3:30, my mom's car is out of gas practically, I haven't eaten and I am supposed to get back to pick up my dogs between 3 and 4 and I am still sitting at the dealer waiting for stupid stuff almost 2 hours away from my dogs! I only got to sit in my car for a minute or two before I had to leave to get my dogs. I figured Paul could get the rest. So he got to drive it home and to a party I ended up totally missing :( because I just couldn't fit it all in one day.) I made good time back to the vet arriving by 5:10 with a stop for McD's and fuel and everyone got a nice dose of sleepytime pain meds for the ride home. The trek to my mom's wasn't too bad because everyone slept so we did the car and dog switch-dropoff and Tom, Jerry and I finally headed HOME!
We arrived at 7:15ish and I am going right to bed. I am not even going to wait up to see my new car. I will check it out in the morning. So in the end the vet trip to my friend out in North Shore (and there isn't any special discount applied except a $10 off coupon for additional dog that anyone can get) came out to be $584 instead of the $1300 + I would have been charged had I gone to my regular vet. I cannot say that I didn't spend the difference when I bought my new car today..... but on a normal day that would have been a great savings! Thanks DR. LAUREN STEIN VMD (Tom, Jerry, Abbie and Smartie's (well maybe not Smartie's ) favorite vet!

My New Car!

Well after my car practically drove off the road during the last ice storm and lost its power steering and heat/fan/air conditioning cooling system not to mention the car had 140,000 miles on it we decided it was time for a new car. So Paul and I spent he better part of the last two weeks trying to figure out what car works best and then beating down the dealers for a good buy and with a lot of patience, and great guidance from Keri, Paul got to drive my car home from the dealer today. (I was already gone to pick up the pooches from the spay/neuter rama- see other post) So I have a brand new silver Honda CR-V!

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a great day. We were very busy. Last night we had a huge feast with our good friends Mairanne and Dominick. Dominick's parents and grandmother cooked a delicious Christmas Eve fish dinner complete with four pound lobsters that were DELICIOUS! Even Paul ate some. We tasted homemade wine and ate and ate until all our sides hurt. When we got home we opened our presents since we wouldn't have time on Christmas and the dogs had as much fun opening theirs as we did ours. Tom really got into the idea of stepping on the paper and ripping it to find a ball or toy or cookies. Now I am sure I am going to find ripped packaging all over the house. I better be careful. Christmas Day was very busy and we started off at my parents house with my sister and Kevin for brunch. It took so long to open presents. There were so many. All the dogs got so spoiled too. Paul and I cooked and it was nice to leave the mess behind! Sorry mom. I am sure Jeanine didn't hold up on her end of her the deal to do the dishes, but at least the food was great! My sister and Kevin headed up to Kevin's family and we then headed over to Paul's parents to celebrate Christmas there with his family. We had a great day and the prime rib dinner was delicious. (The ribs the next day were even better.) We opened presents and then when Paul Jr. arrived we opened more presents. After a brief hiatus we switched into birthday mode to celebrate my mother in law, Christine's, birthday. Paul's aunt and uncle and cousin came to celebrate too along with his cousin Michelle and family from Kentucky. Finally after yummy cookies, cakes and what else, more presents, it was time to pack it up for the day. We had to peel the dogs off the carpet they were so tired!

Not Just Another Cute Face.....

I couldn't resist putting another pic of my adorable cousin Lorelei onto the blog. Thanks fave cousin in law Bill for sending me the pics since someone else stopped sending pictures..... hmmmm who could that be??? I love you anyway cousin. At least you live close enough now for us to come and take our own pictures!

Holiday Cupckaes

I was pretty busy and I got kind of lazy the week before Christmas but I still had to make cupcakes for my class. This is all I could muster but they still look cute.

Pictures with Santa Paws

Abbie, Smartie, Santa, Tom & Jerry

Today Paul, my dad and I ventured out in the elements for our annual holiday photo with Santa Paws. We realized this year was very different from years past- we now have double the dogs we had before. It had been Ranger and Smartie and then last year it was Smartie and Tom but this year it is Abbie and Jerry's first Christmas so now there are four!. What a time we had trying to get them all to fit in the photo. Everyone was so good and sat and behaved. Abbie was a little antsy and Tom is very camera shy but we got a lot of great shots. Unfortunately when they tried to print them out everyone was cut off so we had to take them again. Then the fun began. Tom and Jerry were watching the out of control dogs dragging their owners around the aisles and refused to look at the camera. Santa accidentally unleashed Abbie and she was loose for a few moments and didn't waste a second trying to escape to her Daddy who was holding the cookies. Samrtie started barking and only wanted to look at my dad so he had to practically stand on top of the woman taking the picture. It was comical but I have to say that while I waited for my photos to print I watched several other people and their pets get photos and many of the animals were out of control and didn't even know how to sit. The workers were very impressed with our pets and said that we had the most pets in one picture and we were one of the best behaved. They didn't think we could pull it off but here are the pics to prove it. Happy Holidays!

I liked this one because no one was looking anywhere near what they were supposed to be looking at and Santa's eyes are closed!

Congratulations Smartie Jones

Smartie Jones age 3 1/2 years old passed her AKC Canine Good Citizen and her Therapy Dog Test Today. So she is now certified to go into libraries to work with children in Reading to Rover programs, hospitals to work with sick people, rehab centers and nursing homes to work in other capacities. We are so happy for our friendly, lovable Smarto! Hopefully next year I can put Tom through the program. The recommended age for Border Collies is three because of their high drive.

Happy 16th Birthday Paul Jr.

On December 20th Paul Jr turns 16!!!!! So this weekend we celebrated with a little party with family. Here are some pics. from the day.

There is going to be tough competition at my house between Paul and Paul Jr now with this new system.

A new coat and hat from Grandma.

Bad Boy Jerry

Jerry wearing Paul's half eaten pj pants.

Well for those of you who received the Christmas card that said "Santa, we've been good all year...." Jerry just may have been telling a lie. Although Jerry has been easy to train mostly because he is very smart his little genius schemes have gotten him into big trouble. He is crated during the day while we are at work and he has figured out a way to "reach" things (usually articles of clothing) hanging from the closet, across the floor, the laundry basket, a few feet away from his crate and weave them through the bars and eat them. Not entirely but usually enough so they are ruined and no longer wearable. When we arrive home we find the clothing stuck in the bars of the crate and Jerry runs and hides because he knows he is in BIG TROUBLE. We have moved his crate numerous times but every couple of weeks he is back up to his old tricks again. So of course days after I sent out the adorable Christmas cards what does the little bugger do but eat Paul's pajama pants out of the laundry basket at least three feet away from the crate. We are convinced he gets mad at whoever locks him up in the morning and then spies for something that belongs to them. He then moves the crate during the day to get closer to the object until he can reach it. I know it sounds far fetched but he does this often. We couldn't figure out a good way to punish him aside from putting him in his crate until we realized he doesn't want anything to do with the object once we find it. So after we found Paul's pajama pants half eaten, Paul made Jerry wear them for the rest of the night. Jerry was horrified. He wouldn't get up off the floor. He laid on the floor motionless and watched Tom play. Maybe this time he will learn not to eat our clothes. For those of you wondering Tom is wonderful he does not eat clothes or anything else. But, he is probably sleeping on the bed all day because we keep finding tennis balls hidden on the bed.