Destruct-O-Pup

Sorry, I have definitely had a bit of a blogging slump lately! I guess I need to make my life more exciting so I can have something to blog about ;)

Recently Rylie girl has been very destructive. As I type this she is at my feet with half a kong toy in her mouth. Yes, half. The other half she ripped off and I had to take away from her before she swallowed it. Every toy she has is officially ripped to shreds. Her duck collection (stuffed) is in tatters. Her rope toys? Untied and strings are all over the house. Her stuffed puppy she has had since she was little? Headless. The blanket that week keep on top of her crate? Full of holes since she figured out how to pull it in to the crate with her.

If she wants to destroy her things, fine. I am ok with that... but recently she moved to our stuff. In the past month she has destroyed:

- The wall by the front door
- The molding around the front door
- The door stop and molding on the floor
- One pillow Ryan made in home ec in middle school (that was falling apart anyway.. don't tell the husband but I don't really miss that pillow!)
- The couch cushion. That we sit on. Tore it open! I had to flip it to the stained side :(
- One decorative couch pillow (THAT I miss)

- One Sperry, that would be Ryan's. Shredded. $80 shoes, ruined.
- A picture that one of Ryan's Marines drew for him in 29 Palms. It was an extremely meaningful picture we wanted to laser cut into wood and hang over the bed. He left the spare room door open one morning and she climbed up on the dresser and got it

- A return form I wanted to use to send a dress back. Stuck with it now!
- Our old dining room chairs that are now outdoor chairs. Especially since Rylie gnawed the corners off all fo them
- One cushion from said chairs... I am still finding stuffing in the grass
- Pieces of our fence are gnawed
- Holes in the back yard
- Rocks all over the place because she likes to chew them no matter how many times I yell at her

She used to do so well.... and then suddenly went down hill. We could leave her at home for a few hours and she would be out and fine. It usually happened the times I was gone maybe an hour at most I'd get home to a mess. I feel bad, but we now crate her at night and every time we leave the house. She is more destructive now at 8 months old than when she was teething! Or when she had that blasted cone on her head from being fixed.

I have her in my sight constantly when I am home, I just do not trust this pup. I am working on it, but man she is driving me nuts!

How did my little innocent pup go from this....

To this!?

 Destruct-O-Pup, you'd better behave if you want free reign of the house again!!!

Rylie is MY dog

Have you ever heard people say how alike pets and owners can be? Rylie could not be my dog any more if she tried. She is klutzy, occasionally gets carsick, doesn't listen when she is in trouble (yea I admit it, if you yell at me I tune you out!) and she is blonde. I get it... the universe either thought it would be hilarious to match us up or that whole nature vs nurture debate can extend to puppy/mama relationships as well.



As a pup, Rylie has a LOT of energy. Usually we go on a two to three mile walk everyday and play fetch either down by the river or at the apartment. We also go outside on mini walks throughout the evning. As the weather has been gorgeous I have come to really enjoy our walks. There is a dog park down at the riverfront in Old Town that I had been debating taking Rylie to. Last week I left her on the leash (it is a good 25 foot extender) and let her run around, she did alright. Friday night I decided I would try her off the leash.

For the most part Rylie did very well and she definitely had a blast. She had her first jaunt into the river (not as thrilled as it IS the Potomac, but I let it slide as she was crazy excited about it) and ran around with the big dogs. Once she went up a little too close to the street and I yelled at her, but otherwise she stayed nearby. The bigger dogs, the goldendoodle and the labordoodle, were outrunning her quite a bit and she did her best to keep up. It was between the running and the play wrestling I noticed she was hobbling a bit. Uh oh.

I checked her paws and didn't see anything. I felt her legs and she didn't whimper or seem upset, so a little while later we left the dog park. Rylie did not want to walk home, the poor thing was exhausted and just laid on the sidewalk looking at me like, "Walk? Are you nuts? I'm wiped!" Eventually she did get up and her walk seemed better when we got home. I scrubbed off the Potomac River residue and my clean pup got to air dry in the apartment post-bath.


Drying pup!

Saturday morning her limp was back with a vengance. She didn't even want to walk further than ten feet from our front door, she just sat down on the sidewalk. She could walk and go up and down the stairs, but she did not seem happy about it. I called the vet and they told me just to bring her in. We got ot Banfield, the vet at PetSmart, so I asked if I needed to make an appointment. They told me no, just come in. I knew Rylie was not feeling well because she promptly got in the car, laid down and was quiet. Usually she is sitting up, whining and restless and a furry drool machine (carsick). Saturday she was silent.



So we get there and go and sit in the waiting room. It is pretty crowded and Miss Social Butterfly wants to say hi and play to every dog in the place, forget that she is injured. We sat in the waiting room for two hours. I ended up hearing I had to be a walk in because all the appointments were booked, but I would have tried to make one for Sunday if I had known that! Two hours in a waiting room with a crazy pup is not fun. We finally go back to see the doctor and her back left leg was definitely injured. They needed an X-Ray.... not cheap.

I tried to get a hold of Ryan to ask what to do but he was doing Community Service and didn't get back to me until it was too late. So I told them to go ahead. It was another hour wait so I dropped her off to wait for that and ran to eat for the first time all day. As I finished lunch Rylie finished her X-ray and the verdict.... torn meniscus. Really pup??? Running around and you tear your meniscus??

Ok, I once got a concussion doing a presentation in college when I hit my head on the podium... I can't talk. See how alike we are? Injuries in silly/normal situations. Sigh.

So Rylie is on a week's worth of anti inflammatories and puppy morphine twice a day. I am glad she is not in pain, but the drugs make her comfortable so she wants to run and play. I have to keep a five month old puppy from running! We can only do short leash walks, no two milers and no fetch. The little putz was faking me out yesterday too! She acted like she was sniffing to go to the bathroom then would dart out and try and run in circles around me! Ugh. It is going to be a long ten days!! She needs to heal because if the meniscus tears/ruptures completely she will need surgery. And that is a lot of dollar signs.

Oh pup. She was pretty passed out Saturday night.... not sure if it was teh four hour vet visit, the weather, the drugs or all of the above, but the pup did not move from the couch most of the night! Poor pup.



I may have gotten her a big bone so she'd feel better and not go too crazy!

Writer's Block

Writer's Block. Ugh. Or maybe that isn't the best term... blogger's block? You do all know I am a sucker for alliteration.

I think it is just because not a lot is happening, but at the same time the wings are so crowded it will all eventually pile on at once. Most of my days are just spent working, talking long walks with the pup pup, talking to my husband on the phone and hanging out with my friends when I can.


Rylie and I walk two miles or more a night and she is making lots of friends, like Moose, the Great Dane. She loves him!


Carrie and I spent Saint Patrick's Day at Murphy's in Old Town and may have gotten drunker than we planned trying to fend off preppy law students.


We celebrated Pi day at work on 3.14 and I wore these earrings as we ate pie. My clients enjoyed that.


I am also floored by how big Rylie has gotten!! My pup pup is huge, tipping the scales at nearly forty pounds!

As for our house it is just playing the waiting game at this point. Our offer was accepted, we had the inspection, submitted our mortgage paperwork and got the seller to agree on some repairs. Apparently the bank was sending someone for the mandatory appraisal (which was supposed to be five to ten business days after I got the paperwork in) and it has taken literally forever. I am getting frustrated as we are moving in less than a month, but that won't happen if there is nowhere to move to!

Then Ryan calls the bank today and they send us this email, "Oh, by the way, we need these seven things from you to proceed."

What??

So if we didn't call to bug you, would we have just been waiting around?

First of all, the first item in the list was in our mortgage paperwork. There is nowhere to sign it, it was a view only document, but they have it. Ryan now has his orders so he can send those. But they want bank statements and pay stubs... things we could have sent them over a month ago without a problem! It still isn't a problem, but I am pretty annoyed at this "Oh yea!" sort of moment. More than annoyed actually.

Ugh.

Anyway.

I've officially become a writer on spouseBUZZ.com, that's some of the good. My third article went up today! Plus there is more good news to follow on that very soon!


Ok, I guess I wasn't as blocked as I thought. Maybe just disorganized. And stressed.

And addicted to the Draw Something app - Play me! Imyewneek

My Valentine

Since Ryan is 3,000 miles away Miss Rylie was my Valentine today. We had a date with the vet for some vaccines (including rabies) and my porker pup is 26 pounds!! She also got an adorable bandana at her visit, which surprisingly she has on still. I wonder if she even realizes it is there!







And an instagram version, just for kicks!



I leave for Las Vegas Thursday and we plan on celebrating Valentine's Day (and his birthday!) this weekend so I am holding out until then. Ryan's gift arrived in the mail yesterday thankfully, I was worried it wouldn't make it!

Enjoy your night!

Semi - WW - Rylie Girl

Thank you all so much for your advice and recommendations yesterday. Ryan and I are lining up a realtor, applying for a mortgage/loans and a whole slew of other things. At least at this point it looks like we may be able to add a little more to our budget (yay!) but we shall see.

Last night was Bunco (!!) so my neighbor and resident sanity keeper Carrie watched Rylie for me. While I was gone Rylie girl enjoyed playing with Carrie's boxer Poncho and cat Skyler (her first feline experience). Apparently they ran around and played the entire time I was gone. Of coruse I have to drag her home as someone did not want to leave and proceeded to run around my apartment like a loony before running in circles chasing her own tail.



Then I took a shower and Rylie laid in the bathroom nearby. I think a combination of the running, the heat, the chasing the tail and maybe a littel dehydration made what happened next come into play. I heard a grumbling sound. At first I thought it was the pipes in the wall. Then I thought it was me. Then I realized it was Rylie. Before I could do anything she threw up on my bathroom rug. Ryan wanted to know why I didn't run her outside... um, because I was in a towel? Anyway it was not that bad and she seemed perfectly fine after. I think it was just a combination of everything to make the perfect storm.

Sigh.


Anyway, onto the Wordless Wednesday part.

Carrie took some AMAZING pictures of Rylie when they were hanging out and emailed them to me. I was so excited, I really do love these pictures. Thank you Carrie!






Puppy yawns!!! I love these!






PS - How did my little pup pup go from this...


To this in just over a month?! She is growing up so fast!

Well, She's Not Boring

Life with Rylie will certainly never be boring.

Last night Carrie and I went to do laundry and Adam kept an eye on Rylie for me. Well she was bad with Adam having not one but TWO accidents in his apartment (mind you it has been a long time since she has peed in mine). Mortified Mommy. Adam said it was no big deal but I still felt awful. Plus at the vet the other night she got a deworming dose and of course that night I notice she had a worm :( The vet said since she JUST had a dose it was fine, but if in a day or two I still saw them to bring her in.

Eww.

Well Carrie and I get home pretty late from laundry so Rylie is chilling unsupervised (I am trying in SMALL doses here) in the living room. As I get the last clothes put away I hear a CRASH, almost like dishes falling. Well I use paper plates most nights when it just me so I was very confused on the sound. I step into the living room in time to see Rylie speed by me and fly into the bedroom. She won't even look at me.

Uh oh.



SOMEONE climbed on the table and pulled the Scentsy down. Normally I don't have it on when she is in the apartment having free reign but silly me turned it on before going to do laundry and forgot to turn it off. Sigh. Hot Welcome Home scented wax all over my wooden floor. And wall. And lamp.

I get a scrubby sponge from the kitchen and begin to try and remove it when I realize Rylie has not left the bedroom yet. I go check on her and I see my puppy is half purple. Apparently some of it got her on the way down so her back side, back paws and tail were purple. PURPLE. And waxy. So I abandon my scrubbing and try to get it off her with my hands. No dice. I get out the brush and did a little better but not enough.

So into the tub pup pup goes. She did better this time but she kept drinking the water! I usually do not give her water after 8 or so as it prevents her from waking up in the middle of the night. Here she is drinking gross, waxy, soapy bathwater! Ugh! I tried to hold her head up but I couldn't do that and scrub her and brush her at the same time. Between the shampoo, washcloth and brush I got most of it off. She only has slightly faint purple looking fur on the back and a few dots on her legs I couldn't get off.

I toweled her off and blow dried her as much as she'd let me and then took her on a LONG walk outside. It is after 11 at this point. Then I showered since I smelled like wet puppy and passed out in my bed near midnight. Just as I started to doze the husband called a little after midnight. Needless to say we just said good night instead of our usual phone call.

Sigh indeed.

Rylie pup... you make my life interesting if nothing else!

Meet Rylie

Last year we spent Christmas with my family in New Jersey. This year we drove down to South Carolina to spend it with Ryan's family. I had to work until 5pm, so we did not get on the road until 5:30pm on Friday for an 8 hour drive. We only stopped once to switch drivers, eat, and get gas before we were on the road again, arriving in South Carolina at about 1am. As soon as we get in the door Ryan stops me in the living room saying, "I have to go to the bathroom!"

I looked at him oddly and said, "Oook. Go ahead." Oddball :P He doesn't need my permission to go! But he barrels out of the living room as I say hi to my mother in law. Suddenly he is back holding a tiny ball of fluff with a red ribbon.

"Sorry she is early, I don't think I could keep her hidden until Christmas."

A puppy!

Oh. My. God.





We sat right on the floor together as Lil Miss Sugarbee proceeded to chew off her red ribbon and give us snuggles. Oh she is so adorable.



I totally did not see it coming. We had talked about it just a few weeks before when he was asking me what I wanted for Christmas. Jokingly I said "A puppy, but you know that!" and he quickly shot me down. So quick that I was actually a little hurt by his tone! But he told me later he thought I guessed (or my sister in law told me!) and was panicking! He had picked Rylie out online in South Carolina while still in California. My mother in law then drove two hours to get her and bring her home the day before we arrived so she would be there waiting for me. Love them all!





Rylie is a combination of our names, Ryan and Allie. It was a joke we had for ages about how celebrities have their names combined in the media (see TomKat, Bennifer etc) and loved that our names actually made a decent name. We didn't want to name a child that way, but we had no shame in doing it to a dog! So Rylie has been dubbed for ages before she even existed!





So far she naps quite a bit, pup is only 2 months old as of December 25th! She will run around like crazy and then pass out snuggled in our arms or somewhere else in a cute position.



These daytime naps sadly do make her wake up at night wanting to play. After we thought we got it out of her system the first night she was up at 3am to go outside. Ryan gallantly took the first run. I got the second one at 8am. One night she did sleep from about midnight until almost 8, but she usually has to get up once or twice during the night. They say at her age it tends to be every five hours that they need to go outside. Oooh boy. Rylie is in for a schock, Virginia is a lot colder than South Carolina!!





Rylie is also teething, so she looooves to chew everything! Including us! We are trying to encourage "No Bites" but sometimes she gets caught up in the moment.





We made a little nest in the back seat for her on the 8 hour drive home, but her crate (in the box) blocked her from seeing us and she did NOT like that.



Before we were even out of Ryan's neighborhood she was in my lap in the front seat. After awhile Daddy's looked more appealing so she jumped over.



Lucky for us she spent most of the drive napping. The first time we stopped for her to go, and us to eat, she decided she did not have to go! We were pretty nervous but we stopped two more times and each of those she went. No accidents in the car! Whew. And considering she slept most of the ride (and tore her giraffe apart in Daddy's lap the 10% she was awake) she slept pretty well last night. Rylie woke up at 6:55am and Ryan took her out. I took her out again at 7:30am before I left. I got a text that Ryan took her to McDonalds then the dog park but someone did not want to get out of the car....



She is mostly crate trained, we have had a few accidents, but we are hoping this week when Ryan is home with her he will be able to get her more comfortable. We are more than likely going to hire a dog walker to come in during the week when I am at work to play with her. If not I work close enough to home that I can drive home to walk her and feed her.



So far she is a big fan of our kitchen in the apartment and follows me in there every single time I go in. Sorry for the photo heavy post, I am quite excited for our new family of three! I am glad Ryan gets until the 4th to be with her because he most likely will not see her again until April when he graduates and we PCS! Hopefully Rylie will remember her Daddy (who is SO cute with her) and video chatting will help. I know we have a few months of sleepless nights until she is on a schedule but it is so worth it

My husband didn't want me to be lonely anymore with us apart, and he definitely helped that with my Christmas Surprise. Thank you Ryan.

I will post more on Christmas later (I have to upload my pictures that are not on my iPhone) but I hope you and yours all had a wonderful holiday.