If you’ve been a long-time reader, you know that Rosie has not been all puppy licks and snuggles.  I got Rosie at Christmas time in 2019.  My beloved beagle Ruby had passed.  Ruby was the best dog…calm, relaxed, and the perfect companion dog.  Our family lovingly called Ruby “the regal beagle”.  If there was such a thing as a proper well-mannered dog, it was Ruby.

Ruby left and in came Rosie.  There was nothing regal about her.  There was nothing mannerly about it.  She was all vim and vigor.  She was a mouther.  She was a nipper.  She had every ounce of hyper energy in her.  She like Ruby had some health issues early on.  She took forever to house train and it wasn’t for lack of trying.  It was partial health issues…partially just Rosie.

She was a LOT of puppy wrapped up in one little dog.  I had a blog reader tell me I should “send Rosie down the road”.

Nope.

I was hopeful that someday she would calm down…it might be ten years down the road but someday…I was sure she would calm down.

Well, I’m happy to say that Rosie continues to improve.  She’s doing the things that all good dogs should.  She encourages me to get out and walk!

Our snow is almost gone.  It makes me so happy.

She’s learning that when I stop, she is supposed to sit.

We haven’t been able to walk out to the cemetery yet.  That road is covered in snow and it is gravel underneath.

The water is flowing in the creek as the snow melts.  Rosie loves seeing signs of spring as that means more walks for the two of us.

I’m seeing this all thanks to Rosie.  She needs a walk…and she politely lets me know she does.  I’m terrible about taking time for myself to walk…but if Rosie needs a walk, I do it.

I feel bad that the kids that I’m taking care of here really don’t have other kids to play with.  On the days I have Gannon, it’s often just him and the baby…no playmate…WRONG.  Rosie and Gannon are good friends.

Not too long ago Gannon had a blowout diaper and I threw him in the tub to really clean him up.  Rosie … Continue reading →

Christmas marks my year with Rosie.  We put our sweet Ruby to sleep the Sunday before Christmas in 2019 and Rosie came a day or two after.

These were the first photos I saw of her….

…and these are the first photos we have of her once she was mine.

She was a handful by the time we got her as she was already 16 weeks old.  What happened was that Rosie got ringworm on her ear and she couldn’t be sold until the ringworm healed.

By the time we got her, it was all good.  Below she is giving five to Georgia when she was a baby.

Here she is on Christmas Day of 2019.  Little did I know what I was in for.

Rosie has been the most challenging puppy I have ever been around.  Looking at Rosie’s behavior, I wonder if part of her problem was that she was taken away from the litter because of the ringworm.  They didn’t want it to spread to the other pups.  I wonder if she missed out on some socialization because of that.  She was VERY much of a biter.  She was always nipping at my hands.

Sitting down on the couch was a nightmare.  She would nip at my hands the whole time.  I spent so much time correcting her.

I remember the day Karl and I celebrated her for sitting on his lap on the couch without biting.

Buck came to visit shortly after Rosie came to my house and he quickly said, when he gets a dog, it likely won’t be a puppy.  Rosie was just too much…especially when he has kids that are little.

Over the year I’ve had Rosie to the vet a lot.  Between purchasing her, spaying, and the other vet bills, I think I spent $1500 in the first four months I had her.  Thankfully, that has all settled down.  Puppies, at least for me, are not cheap.

Rosie had so many problems with house training.  I was home all the time and still, there were so many accidents.  She has been doing wonderful lately.  I am hoping this is the new trend.

Rosie has done some good here… Continue reading →

I thought I’d take you with on a morning walk with Rosie and share with you the ramblings in my head as I walked.  I’m a walker.  I love walking and have walked on and off so much over my lifetime.  I used to walk for physical exercise but now my main walking goal is more for my mind than my body.  Walking just gives me time to process.  I can’t ever remember a time that I  felt bad after just getting in from walking.

Rosie loves walking.  We walk about 3 miles when we go out and we aren’t speed walkers.  That takes us about an hour or so if we don’t run into someone and chat.  Many days we walk in the evening with a friend of mine.  Rosie and I are getting so we walk more and more even on days when my friend isn’t able to walk.

For a bit when we were on walks, I was having trouble with Rosie pulling or tugging on the leash.  It was enough that if we saw a rabbit on our walk, she was really pulling.  So, after a few times of that with a sore shoulder, I ended up getting her a prong collar and our walking days have gotten MUCH better.

I know some of you are going to cringe and think it’s terrible to use this style of collar but seriously, it was my shoulder (which I have trouble with) or her learning some manners with the prong collar.  The collar essentially is self correcting so if she’s walking like she should, there is not pain to her at all.  If she’s pulling or tugging, the collar will poke her.  I HIGHLY recommend the collars.  It makes all the difference in the world as to how much better our walk goes.  HERE is a link to the collar.  If your dog pulls and is hard to walk the collar makes all the difference.

Anyway…back to our walk.  We walk through town, right on the road.  There aren’t good sidewalks in town and the sidewalks that are okay are narrow.  Walking on the road also allows my friend and I to social distance while we walk.  We don’t see to much traffic so it’s relatively safe too.

When it’s just me and Rosie, we go through the cemetery.  It’s a nice peaceful cemetery.  Kramer is buried here-ish.  I say “ish” because technically there are two cemeteries side by side.  One is St. Mary’s cemetery.  It’s associated with the Catholic church here in town.  The adjoining cemetery is the town cemetery.  Anyone can be buried here.

We belong to the Lutheran church out in the country but Kramer never liked the cemetery for that church.  He always liked this cemetery and wanted to be buried here on the “town cemetery end”.  I was fine with that too so he’s at this cemetery.

They’ve made improvements to the cemetery this year.  They took down the old ugly fence along the end.  If Kramer were here, that would have made him so happy.  He hated fences.  It looks so much nicer and cleaner.

On this day, early Sunday morning, it was so peaceful…One of those “my kind of church” days.  The water was running in the stream.  I was so tempted to take my shoes off and sit a minute with my feet hanging in the water.  Maybe another day.  I just love the sound of water trickling.  I was a little afraid if I sat down, it would be hard to get up and get going again.  It’s likely the prettiest spot on our walk.

Being I’m just rambling, and walking with Rosie, I should probably give you an update on how she is doing… Continue reading →

I’ve wrote a lot about Rosie in the past.  I’ve not given her her own regular blog series though…but today, I think she earned a right to her own blog series.

Rosie has been improving all the time.  There is still plenty room to grow but she doesn’t drive me crazy all the time and with covid and the quite house, I’d be pretty lonely without her…but she still takes up a lot of my time.

Yesterday I was at the compute writing blog posts and she was being a little too much.  She was constantly ringing the bells on the door wanting to go outside.  When she was in the house she was putting her paws on my leg and jumping up.  I just wanted to finish writing the blog post so I could go upstairs and continue my “war on my sewing room”.

For about the sixth time in the last half hour she rang the bell again.  At this point I really know she does not need to go to the bathroom, she just wants to go outside because she’s bored…or she wants to smell some sniff… So for the sixth time in a half hour I let her out.  UGH.

I went back to the computer and happily started typing away.  15 minutes must have passed and there was no Rosie bothering me.  Dang.  She’s still outside.  Oh that 15 minutes of peace was so nice but oh boy…what is she up to.

I got outside and found this….

No Rosie…only a collar.

Well darn.  This was going to be interesting.  So I looked around didn’t see her.  I called her name twice and miracle or miracles, she ran right to me.  AH…she didn’t do the zoomies around me and dodge to the right or left.  She actually came right to me.  I was thrilled and so-so happy.

Then as I was going into the house…I caught an eye of this… Continue reading →