Adventures in Doggy Sitting

A hyper puppy, a skittish dog and a slowing, senior dog make for an interesting mix. When you add in the unexpected like a female dog going into her heat and a stomach sick doggy, you have adventures in doggy sitting.

I’ve been on a bit of a blogging break. Two weeks ago, I spent a week in Pennsylvania caring for my brother’s three dogs: two young Shetland sheepdogs and one senior Golden retriever. After coming home, I jumped right into prep for teaching Pre-K/Kindergarteners in Vacation Bible school, (but more on this second topic in a later post.)

Cinnamon, a partly merle Shetland sheepdog, three years old
Abby, a tricolor Shetland sheepdog
Princess, a senior Golden retriever

Abby, Cinnamon and Princess are all nice doggies, but their personalities are quite different. Abby, the tricolor Sheltie, has quite a bit of puppy in her still, likes to jump up on people and still likes to mouth things and “chew” on fingers. Cinnamon, the Sheltie with merle coloring, can be skittish and shy, acts submissive to her more rambunctious housemate but will still quietly seek attention. Princess, the Golden, is friendly and gentle, likes affection but takes a lot of naps and has some difficulty getting up and down.

Every day, I fed the dogs twice and let them out in the fenced yard several times. At night, I put the two Shelties to bed in their crates while letting Princess have her choice of two big dog beds. In between times, I gave them plenty of pets, cuddles and attention.

Dealing with animal care, just as with human caretaking or babysitting, can sometimes be a dirty job. This was a week where I think I dealt with nearly all of the possible bodily fluids, and I realize that I am not terribly squeamish. It makes me think I might have made a good nurse.

My brother and his wife are planning to start a breeding business with their Shelties, so neither Cinnamon nor Abby have been spayed. This made it possible that either dog could start her heat cycle while I was watching them, and it worked out that it happened for Abby.

I had to diaper her, and that process sometimes had its funny moments.

Abby is sitting on my lap here and making a fashion statement in her pink polka dots. Humorously, she seems to coordinate with my pink striped pajamas.

The first time that I attempted to diaper her was a little bit of a struggle. As you can see from the photo, I had to pull her tail through a little hole in the diaper. She didn’t cooperate too well and pulled out of it three times before I successfully diapered her. Then, I realized, to my dismay, it was time to let all three dogs out and I would have to remove it anyway.

It was also a rhythm, thinking about all three dogs and their needs when I let them out. The back deck had one set of steep steps that the Shelties could run down, but Princess, the senior dog, could not manage. I would lead her, on a leash, down some less steep side steps and then back into the fenced area of the yard via a horse gate. Because of the distraction of Princess and hooking her up to a leash, a couple of times, I forgot to remove Abby’s diaper before letting her out. She would dart out like a shot as soon as the door opened. By the time, I led Princess around into the fenced area, catching up with Abby and removing her diaper, she had already peed in it. So, I had the extra job of handwashing the diaper and swapping it out for another.

Abby
And a photo where you can see Cinnamon’s interesting merle coloring.

In spite of all this, Abby was much more cooperative with me after my first attempt to put her in her diaper.

These were not the only dirty messy jobs of the week. Cinnamon got sick to her stomach that week. I woke up in the early morning hours to the sound of her retching and found vomit inside her crate. This repeated itself multiple times. Sorry, squeamish readers, but I will try not to be too graphic. She vomited on the hardwood floor in several places the next day, and then again in her crate, so I had more messes to clean and blankets and towels to rinse.

Following instructions from my sister-in-law, I started Cinnamon on some doses of coconut milk to help her nausea, two teaspoons every two hours and, the next morning, a small piece of bread with honey and ginger. Whether it was just timing or the effect of the home remedy, she stopped vomiting after the first dose of coconut milk.

All of these extra duties could have stressed me, but it didn’t as much as it could have. Instead, I had a feeling of success from meeting these interesting challenges. I certainly would have been more worried if Cinnamon went on being sick without recovering. It’s not necessarily pleasant to deal with these messes, but it’s something we deal with out of compassion.

Certainly, caring for dogs has its rewards, and I enjoyed a lot of affection and cuddle time with this lovable bunch.

Abby again
Princess
Abby and Cinnamon

Weekend Coffee Share — Cute Pets, Açai Bowl, Picnic in the Park

I’ve been splurging on Dunkin Donuts iced coffee (not pictured) this weekend, but the mug above, even though it doesn’t belong to me, represents two doggy friends that I was watching over the weekend.

My weekend was a really full one. I don’t think I could have squeezed much more in if I tried. I’m joining Natalie the Traveler and friends with her Weekend Coffee Share and jumping on a couple more applicable linky wagons. (Is “linky wagon” even a phrase? If it’s not, I think I just coined it.) I’m pinging Restless Jo and her Monday Walks, because my weekend involved a beautiful walk with friends in nature and Lisa Coleman of Birds Weekly because I got some photos of a swan and peacock in the park.

I watch French bulldogs, Theo and Remy, in their home from time to time. They are lovable doggies. Theo, though he looks so peaceful in this photo (and often is), is a little more exuberant and goofy.

Theo having a snooze <3

His Frenchie housemate, Remy, is just a little lady. I was noticing just by the way she prances through the grass in the backyard that she carries herself like a lady. Where Theo will tackle me with doggy kisses, Remy will just quietly look at me as I sit on the couch to tell me, “Pardon me, I would like uppies please. Give me a boost?”

Remy <3

They are good doggies. One of their owners told me once that she loves this breed, because Frenchies are lazy and snuggly. That certainly describes these two lovies.

I’ve also been dropping in to take care of a cat named Shultz, (a female in spite of the name.) She is a Scottish fold cat, and that breed is new to me. You can notice that her ears fold forward. Her owner told me that there is a Scottish straight breed and a Scottish fold breed that are closely related. They don’t know until kittens are born if they will have the fold or not. According to petfinder.com, it was discovered that “Any cat possessing one copy of the fold gene produced about fifty percent of Fold kittens.”

Shultz, the Scottish fold cat

Saturday, I went out and explored a relatively new smoothie place, Market 509 in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. One of the employees told me that they have been there since November 2020, but I only became aware of it a few weeks ago.

The unique shop is hard to define. They serve smoothies, ice cream, juice and bubble tea, but they also sell refrigerated vegetarian foods, Japanese snack foods, teas, tea sets and mugs and Japanese kawaii merchandise.

Japanese snack foods at Market 509

Some cutesy “kawaii” merchandise …

I tried an açai bowl for the first time. Well, previously, I tried a Dole brand version from the frozen food aisle, but it wasn’t quite the same experience. Açai berries are one of those trendy superfoods that have a lot of health benefits. They have a lot of antioxidants, fatty acids similar to olive oil, anthocyanins that can help lower cholesterol, Vitamin C and phytochemicals that can fight the growth of cancer cells.

I have never seen fresh açai berries sold in the U.S. My smoothie bowl was a mixture of berries and banana with açai powder added to it. There were two choices of açai bowls, Berry Blast and Pacific Twist. With it, you could choose four toppings and a drizzle. I ordered the Berry Blast with a mixture of banana, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, apple juice and açai powder. For my toppings, I chose strawberries, bananas, coconut flakes and mochi. Mochi, for those who might not be familiar, is a sweet Japanese snack made from glutinous rice. I thought mine had the look and texture of marshmallow. I chose Nutella as my drizzle.

This was the work of art that was delivered to me.

My Berry Blast açai bowl at Market 509

And it came on a cute little tray …

Adorable!

This was my Saturday lunch. It was refreshing in the hot weather, full of nutrition and, very likely, had enough calories in it to make it a meal.

On Sunday, I fit in a lot and did a lot of driving all over creation (or, at least, parts of New Jersey.) I took care of doggy breakfast, pills and potty time back at the house where I was staying, drove about 20 minutes to take care of Miss Shultz and get her breakfast and then drove almost an hour (normally a half hour drive) to Sunday morning church. I thought I would be late, but I was actually early. 😛

My friend Adrienne planned a picnic lunch with friends at the James A McFaul Environmental Center in Wyckoff, New Jersey. Although this park is in the vicinity of church, first, I had to drive back to the doggies, give them some lunch, another potty break and bye bye kisses and then pack up my things, as the owners were due home that afternoon.

I was on a bit of a tight schedule, so I had half of my picnic lunch at the house. I thought I would be too late to picnic and might just join friends for the walk afterwards. It wasn’t too convenient to do “home-made” while house sitting, so I picked up some things at the Kings Supermarket: a tomato, mozzarella and basil sandwich on ficelle bread (I would have called it a baguette,) some Stacy’s pita chips and a Mash soda made with natural pomegranate and blueberry juices.

tomato, mozzarella, basil sandwich

It turns out friends were still picnicking when I arrived. There were six of us girls altogether: Adrienne, Sabrina, Iris, Jin, Cindy and me. I ate half my sandwich there, some cantaloupe that my friend Iris brought and a frozen snack from Adrienne, a blob of vanilla ice cream encased in strawberry mochi. It was a bit of a challenge to eat as the ice cream was melted, but I managed.

The James A. McFaul Environmental Center is a lovely park that has 81 acres of land with walking trails, a pond and observation deck overlooking it, various gardens, a picnic area, a few animal enclosures and a building with educational nature exhibits. The building was closed, but we were able to enjoy the trails, observation deck, picnic area and more.

I saw this lovely peacock in an enclosure.

It’s too bad he did not fan his tail for me.

Before we even hit the trail, we saw this beautiful swan in the pond right outside the picnic pavilion.

I liked the looks of this foot bridge.

I ended up getting a few shots of my friend Cindy on the trail, because we were leading the pack.

I enjoyed these log borders on the walking path. For a bit, Cindy and I tried balancing on the logs just like we would have done as kids.

I noticed several trees with tangled jumbles of roots.

Cindy identified these interesting plants in the foreground as skunk cabbages. The area is sometimes swampy.

After we walked the loop, we took this boardwalk up to the observation deck overlooking the pond.

Lovely friends

We got some more views of our swan friend.

Sorry, Lisa. I missed the photo op to capture the swan along with ducks and geese in one photo. I guess the point of the challenge was to capture birds of different species together. Just as I was ready to do that, my phone announced that my storage was full.

Human friends are important too. We had a rest from the heat at the top of the observation deck.

So my phone storage was up to capacity at the end of our time there, and I missed the opportunity to photograph an adorable fawn on our way back. Thankfully, my buddy Sabrina did not have the same problem.

My Memorial Day Weekend Went to the Dogs, #WeeklySmiles

This weekend was a busy one for my animal care business. I took care of Luce —

Luce cuddling next to my legs on the recliner

And his friend Stevie, (a female named for Stevie Nicks) …

Stevie

for an overnight from Saturday night until midday Sunday. The dogs were good doggies, and they enjoyed some play time together. Still, at one point, Luce became intimidated by his bigger buddy, so I kept them somewhat separate. Once Stevie understood that Luce was no longer available as a playmate — he had taken refuge in my mother’s lap — she was content to settle and have cuddles with me. (I was thankful for mom who made it easier to keep both doggies content.)

My perspective of Stevie with her upper half in my lap

Immediately after these two dogs were picked up, I went to a nearby hotel to watch two small dogs, Cal and O.B., for a few hours. Their owners were visiting from out of the area. They were going to a grandson’s birthday party and wanted to keep their dogs separate from their son’s big dog.

Cal is some sort of Yorkshire terrier mix …

Cal

and O.B. is a Maltese.

O.B.

Cal is barking in the photo. He began to see me as a purveyor of treats, and he thought that if he twirled enough and barked, there would be endless treats. I did give them both quite a few.

After my time with these doggies, I came home and had Luce back for another overnight. He and I enjoyed some more cuddles.

Sometimes, I think of myself as a professional dog cuddler (although the job involves a bit more than that.) Charles Schultz is right. “Happiness is a warm puppy.”

This is for Weekly Smiles at Trent’s World (the Blog.) I hope my recent doggy adventures made you smile.