Some bad and some good

Shimmy woke up today feeling quite sick begging to go outside at 7am (totally unlike her). Seemed like she didn't have to do anything though, kept pacing, stretching, wouldn't eat breakfast (definitely not my dog). I called my mom who came home so we could take Shimmer in and we took some Sucralfate tablets home thinking it might just be a tummy bug. We napped and once my mom came home the bout of diarrhea started. At first I wasn't sure if I was seeing blood but sure enough, Shimmy was definitely uncomfortable and quite sick. Back to the vet it was to run some tests and figure out what awful thing was causing her to feel so miserable. I took along a sample of her stool hoping it would help them figure out what was wrong with her. Anyone else ever done that with your dog? I felt like an idiot going "here, I brought some of my dog's poop in case..." In case what? Well, who knows, maybe they did use it to help figure out the problem. Sure enough, the Giardia test came back positive, and my thoughts are that it was from the dog park and all the nasty water she enjoys drinking so much. Yum? Good thing is, she's not on some more medication, and kept down her prescribed dinner. She's more tired than anything at this point and sleeping soundly. She's drinking water again, went to the field just to walk a bit and get fresh air, and she seems to be feeling much better. Hopefully she will continue to improve and keep being the awesome little Shimmy she is. Huge thanks again to all who thought of her throughout the day and asked about her. All your good thoughts are appreciated and helped me get through a stressful day.

In other news, Marisa e-mailed back confirming my question that yes, Piper is in heat! Although not receptive yet, hopefully they'll be bred soon and then puppies can start cooking. Are we sure we can't crank the oven up a bit higher to speed up the process? So excited for the fall. So many good things to look forward to. Life isn't perfect, but there's so much exciting stuff coming up! Will update again once I know more, and again, thanks to everyone for thinking about Shimmy. Seems like lots of pups aren't feeling well lately...hoping that will be over soon!

Quote of the Day: "When you feel dog tired at night, it may be because you've growled all day long." -Unknown

Final Grades, Trial Results, and Puppy News

So, I passed the second semester with great grades. I improved my performance from last semester and I'm still sitting comfortably. I'm happy with the way things turned out and received every grade I expected to get.

Shimmy is doing fabulously well, going to the dog park, enjoying herself, recuperating from the trial and being a good little dog. The trial went awesome and she was just a great little dog. I couldn't ask for more.

Saturday
Advanced Standard-NQ, I sent her off course, but everything else was perfect!
Advanced Pairs (with Chuck and Scream)-NQ, both of the girls kind of just had a great time. Good to see them enjoying themselves!
Masters Gamblers-NQ, super hard gamble but a beautiful opening.
Masters Snooker-Q, so close to a superQ but 2 wonderful 26" dogs beat us by two points. Regardless, she was great, and she's gaining her confidence in snooker as am I.
Sunday
Masters Jumpers-NQ, overtime by 2.61 seconds due to a distraction by the ring. She ran a nice 33.61 though which is huge improvement compared to the 40second runs she used to give me at the end of the days. We're slowly getting faster!
Masters Gamblers-Another tough gamble, but again, a wonderful opening.
Advanced Standard-E, great teeter even at a tough angle, but she scared the crap out of me by jumping off of the dogwalk. At first I had a meltdown thinking it was something I did or something that scared her, but everyone I asked said she was probably just tired and didn't have enough support from me.

Goals for the next trial:
Support her dogwalk more
Keep encouraging the teeter
Keep asking for dogwalks in gamblers as she's getting faster with them
Continuously improving jumpers times
Pushing for not just "safe" snooker runs but running for points
Keep making things as flowy as possible for her
*Granted, not all of these at once necessarily, but we'll keep bettering ourselves as a team

Aside from that, there were hours of puppy conversation at like 2am because it was just awesome. Piper went into heat May 20, 2010 and November, 21, 2010 so she should be starting again any day now. I received lots of new pictures that I will have to post as well. Lots of information about relatives and what not, and I'm just so excited to hear that puppies will be cooking soon! This whole thing still seems sort of surreal and is hard to wrap my mind around...

For now, pictures of relatives will have to do! (Piper and Jake pictures are in the other post)






C.J. Rock, grandpa on Dam's side













Val, grandma on Dam's side













Pip, Uncle to puppies (Dam's littermate)







I've definitely got tons of other pictures, but this will do for now seeing as I'll keep updating as things develop this summer, and I want to have pictures for different blog posts. Still excited, and I can't wait. Hopefully, I'll be able to update soon again! As awesome as this puppy thing is, I'm still definitely thinking about all the details and wondering about how things will turn out. But, the quote below should describe it all! I'm hoping that raising him goes smoothly and well, but I can't guarantee I won't make mistakes, but this is a new experience, and you've got to start somewhere right?

Quote of the Day: "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." -Albert Einstein

We've survived...

Omelette Dog and I are officially sophomores of Texas A&M! I finished my last final this morning and my room looks like an absolute bombshell. There's stuff EVERYWHERE! But, I guess I'm excited to be packing up and heading home for the summer. Trial this weekend in New Caney, so that's definitely exciting. I'm ready to have a good time with my girl. I still have so much packing to do, yet what am I doing? Updating the blog with mindless nonsense. However, we're not putting any of the stuff in storage today. We'll do that next weekend since the lease isn't up until end of the month anyway. Ready to go to the dog park tonight, too. As usual, Shimmy's mind is going to go splat when she sees all of her friends again. There's something about that dog park and it's just hilarious because she hates the dog park here because none of her friends are around the other dogs aren't "good enough" to play with her, I guess. I'm happy we'll be able to do lots of fun stuff this summer. She's been the best little college doggie and I'm so proud of her for putting up with all of this. Grateful for the best little Omelette dog ever. I'm not even going to worry about final exam grades until like next week probably. Why stress even more? It's over and done with. I'm so glad I can finally breathe again and NOT panic. That seems to be the norm for me. Shimmy's good at keeping me grounded. Love her. Did I mention that already? I'm loving college right about now seeing as how summer is already here and I'm ready to do a load of things. I was never one for sitting still....

Quote of the Day: "An active mind cannot exist in an inactive body." -General George Patton

So over this "college" thing.

Finals can't get here soon enough. Studying my butt off and my head hurts. Part of me wishes I had had all of my finals today so I could have just gotten them over with already. But, the next 5 days should be pretty quick. Going to try and keep myself busy this weekend, studying some more, and getting things packed up and cleaned out to go into storage. Wishing my history paper grade would get posted. This TA is taking forever, and I'd love to know where I'm sitting, gee, I don't know.... BEFORE my final...oh well. Aside from that, Shimmy and I had pawdicure/pedicure night tonight. A few of our friends were heading to the beach and had their nails watermelon theme painted, and then did so for their dogs too. Since Shimmy and I couldn't go to the beach this week, we felt a tad left out and figured we could at least paint our nails to get into the summer mood. Shimmy definitely wasn't happy about the entire ordeal, and is now sleeping off the 'torture'. I would have added little seeds to my watermelon toes, but I didn't have a tool fine enough to just do little dots of black, so lets just pretend they're seedless??? :) We like seedless watermelon better anyway. Talking about watermelon makes me hungry....this is a bad thing. So many signs showing that summer is just about here. I'm ready for the good times to begin. Well, nothing extra to add but I'm glad I updated the blog and was able to ramble about something. I need to keep up with this thing. Plus, I'm totally avoiding studying right now. Yep, that's me. More avoidance behavior. It's becoming quite the habit in college. The countdown continues and the anticipation builds...summer. Going to be some good times...

Quote of the Day: "The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." -Mark Twain

Dog the Blog

Today I thought I'd talk about nothing but my sweet girl seeing as she's the best thing ever. I may be a bit partial but as I'm sitting her typing about her, she's giving me the big "sad eyes" as if to say, "Mom, you know you want to share some more of the pizza roll you're eating." Sorry, Chubby, you're on a diet. I haven't gotten the chance to weigh her lately, but hopefully she's lost some already. She's a good little dog. Poor thing doesn't get out much with my busy schedule and the fact that I lack a car. Summer will be here in 9 days though, so Shimmy will be able to run around and play to her hearts content at the dog park this summer. I'm sure it'll be an almost daily thing. But, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm super excited for our 2 days of USDAA not this weekend but the next. We're entered in 4 runs on Saturday and 3 runs on Sunday, so I'm hoping we just don't burn out. Our goals? To get all our teeters on the first, if not second attempt, and to stay upbeat and positive throughout the weekend. Aside from that, Shimmy will help me study now, or be bad and totally ignore that fact that I should be studying, and help me with the Playstation2. She's good moral support, and she doesn't mind when I get into the games. Gotta love dogs right?

Quotes of the Day:

"Labradors [are] lousy watchdogs. They usually bark when there is a stranger about, but it is an expression of unmitigated joy at the chance to meet somebody new, not a warning." -Norman Strung

"Our dogs will love and admire the meanest of us, and feed our colossal vanity with their uncritical homage." -Agnes Repplier

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive." -Gilda Radner

"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too." -Samuel Butler

Did you say, Puppy?

Sure, let's go with it. I've kept it to myself long enough still molding around how, what, when, where, why, as well as the details. Shimmer will be 6 this fall, and once I start Vet School, she'll be 9. All in good hopes, she'll still be kicking at 13 once I'm out of Vet School but I don't want to take any chances, plus, we've gotta give the Omelette Dog time to retire and relax once she's ready to be a couch omelette. Regardless, I've made up my mind and decided that we're going to have a new addition. So, yes, this fall. Pretty darn excited considering I've never gotten to go through the puppy process before. I have good faith though, lots of great friends, tons of resources, and you've got to start somewhere right? Still debating on names, the list is never ending, though there are a few I'm leaning towards, though those will stay a secret. Parents are Piper and Jake. Piper is due to go into heat end of this month, and puppies should be cooking soon, I hope. Shimmer will probably hate the puppy at first, and once he's old enough to really beat up on I assume she'll go "Oh, hey, this isn't that bad, it's kind of fun actually!" The college work load, believe it or not, so darn manageable, and I truly think Shimmer would love having the company. Only possibilities are black tri puppies. Still debating on whether or not I want to brace the ears-I am a sucker for prick ears. It's been devastating having to wait so long already. So, without further ado, here are pictures of mommy and daddy to be as well as their pedigree, thanks to Melinda who put the pedigree together. I just added the pictures haha.

Hershey’s Kiss ABC 229804 Marisa E. Micio Black Tri Rough Coat	Cameo’s Ben ABC 198613 Joy D. Basset	Power Clyde ABC 118397 Karen Clymer	Stander ABC 44092 Don Bosman
			Baa AIBC 104947
		Moss’s Jade ABC 178600 Ann Hensley	Dell’s Moss ABC 53613 Ann Hensley
			Red Hills Jade ABC 57858 Ann Hensley
	Charlie ABC 174393 Mike Shaunesey	Bear ABC 43185 Jim Simpson	HH Wally AIBC 105115 Jerry Bailey
			Muff ABC 42249 Jim Simpson
		Cadi ABC 164934 Dawn M. Green-Cooper	Mitch ABC 108829 Jim Simpson
			Sis ABC 113894 Jim Simpson
Piper ABC 342447 Marisa E. Micio Black Tri Rough Coat	C.J. Rock ABC 327009 Lorenz and Nancy Thelen	Ettrick Bart ABC 145931 Betty Boudreau	#Rob ISDS 207718 John H. Wilson
			IMP. Gael ABC 145926 Jack Knox
		Kali ABC 250723 Cindy Von Dette	Scott ABC 209739 Cindy Von Dette
			CJ Lilly ABC 91638 Cindy Von Dette
	IMP. Val ABC 335583 Lorenz and Nancy Thelen	Ladd ISDS 263230 T.J. Ellis	Ben ISDS 220939 A.D. Scrimgeour
			Brook ISDS 248652 P. Hudson
		Lyn ISDS 256211 G. Edwards	##Roy ISDS 200199 Aled Owen
			Rosie ISDS 230073 T.B. Davies

10 Days and Counting

It will be summer in officially 10 days. Tomorrow I've got all classes, but all review, and I get to find out my Biology lab practical grade. Fingers crossed. Psych and Chem grades aren't up yet, which is a total bummer. Tuesday I only have Chem class, and even that is a review so there's no pressure. No class on Wednesday or Thursday-University's way of paying us back for the torture and giving us 2 extra study days for finals. Finals start Friday but I'm fortunate enough to not have any on Friday and will have a 5 day weekend before my Chem final on Monday, Bio final on Tuesday, and History final on Wednesday. I'll be heading home that evening and we'll make a trip back up here to put all my things in storage until we can move it into the new place. Yesterday was super fun, IHOP dinner with friends and then just hanging out watching some tv. This Wednesday, pre-birthday dinner for Dani, since she has a summer birthday and we won't all be together to celebrate. Seriously, so excited for the summer though. The weekend after school is out May 14-15th we've got a USDAA trial in New Caney, which should be super fun. Love the show site, love the people, and love USDAA of course. It'll be little Shimmy's first time in Advanced Standard (and of course Advanced Pairs). Megan gets to judge her so that will be exciting, too! Afterwards, we're hoping to get Shimmer enticed enough to go swim at the lake next to the show site...Smack should be a big enough incentive, but we'll see. I'm pleased to say her paw pads are almost all healed up and the skin is growing together nicely. Hopefully we won't have this happen again (though it's bound to happen with dogs), and if it does, hopefully we're fortunate enough to have it happen when we don't have a trial and can give them time to heal. We'll just have to be more cautious from now on and do paw checks. Aside from that, I was super excited because I dug up some old coupons for trials in my folder, which means, I'll get one run free in June for the USDAA up here in College Station. Planning to enter both days for that as well, and after that RELIANT! :) Favorite show ever-I'm already super psyched for it. After that we've got some ideas for upcoming shows, but nothing is set in stone. Well, I guess I've rambled enough, but as you can tell, summer=excitement. Hope everyone I know has a good finishing up to their school year, all my non going school friends-hope life is treating you well, and for all my college friends getting ready for finals-good luck!

Quote of the Day: "Get excited and enthusiastic about your own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire-you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away." -Denis Waitley