Category Archives: Dogs, Dogs, Dogs

Walking with Rosie

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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 →

Adventures With Rosie: Edition #1

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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 →

A Rosie Report

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I got Rosie on December 23rd.  I was in the mid-grief and got her before I really took time to think it through.  I know…a bad decision.  But, I had rationalized it out.  I thought I would have extra days off through that time to spend with her.  I figured housetraining would be a challenge…the extra time, I thought, gave me a chance to address house training.


I’ll be honest.  I was in heaven the first few day.  The puppy love was in full force.  I missed Ruby terribly but was happy with Rosie…but that that all changed.  She was terrible at house training and then some “well meaning” blog readers and friends would say, “our dog only had two accidents ever in the house”.   I felt like a failure.  What was I doing wrong??  I was doing all the same things I did with Ruby for house training.  Yes I had the bells for the door.  Yes I was limiting her space in the house.  Yes she was kenneled and immediately taken outside but she still wasn’t getting it.  I was so frustrated.  Rosie was not a textbook case.

She was terrible about “mouthing”.  Absolutely terrible.  She couldn’t be out of the kennel when the childcare kids were here.  I have a baby and five year old that are terrible with the dog.  They squeal and flap their arms and giggle and Rosie takes that all as a sign to play.  So she mouths hands.  She doesn’t bite-  Just mouths hands.  I’ve talked to the five year old but it isn’t clicking with her.  So Rosie had very limited time outside the kennel during the day.

Then…I was feeling so terrible in the evenings.  She would get out of the kennel, be all excited and run and tear around everywhere.  I would sit down to write a blog post and I’d have to get up three times in 10 minutes to take childcare toys away from her.

Then with my new furniture she would zip around behind the couch and loveseat and hide from me.  To say I was frustrated was a gross understatement.  I was ready to cry and honestly, a couple times I did.

I was struggling to sew.  I was struggling to cross stitch.  I was struggling with childcare.  I was struggling in the evenings.  I was struggling to try to get to town to get groceries as I felt so terrible leaving her home in the kennel as she had been in the kennel so long during the day.  (for us a fast trip to run get groceries and hit up Wal-mart is a minimum of 2 hours)

Kalissa tried to be helpful but her dog, Betsy, HATES Rosie.  She is quite aggressive and makes me really nervous when kids are around.  I don’t want kids getting between the dogs.

Well…I’ve had her close to six weeks now and FINALLY I feel happy that I got her.  She is turning into more of a companion and less of a nuisance.

-House training.  We had two accidents this week and she has full range of the main floor.
-Mouthing. Her teeth aren’t as sharp and she doesn’t do it as much.
-In the evening she will often hang out with few problems.  I kennel her if I am taking a shower but other than that, I can write a blog post without jumping up like a Jack in the Box every three minutes.  She might take one or two childcare toys over the course of a whole night and when I tell her to drop it, she does.

The other night we reached a milestone when she did this with Karl….

Played video games!!

She even let the childcare kids do this with her.  She’s learning…  This is why I wanted a puppy so she grows with kids and learns to love them.

Then last Friday I was sick and spent the day on the couch with the flu.  She finally let me cross stitch.

It’s taken some spankings with a slipper, some had chases around the house to get her to drop a toy, some sprays with the spray bottle to keep her out of the dishwasher, learning to close the bathroom door and lots and lots of patience but I think we are finally heading down the right road.  I really miss sewing in my sewing room so that’s on my list of one of the next things to try to tackle.  Oh Rosie…you have been a handful.

The Puppycat Update

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Kelli’s beagle Puppycat (yes that is the dog’s name) is ten.  We were all worried how she’d do when Georgia came along.  As they say, “You can’t teach an old dog a new trick”.

Puppycat was around the childcare kids and did fine but we didn’t know how she’d be with Georgia on a daily basis.  Puppycat keeps her distance some but overall, really likes Georgia.

Recently Puppycat had some issues.  She wouldn’t jump up on the couch.  She kind of limped.  She wasn’t herself at all.  It was the weekend and our regular vet didn’t have hours but the vet they use for the cattle did.  That vet ended up giving Puppycat some pain meds.

Puppy didn’t get better…in fact, she gradually got worse and worse. She was at the point she walked around with her tail between her legs, head down and it was obvious she was in pain.

Monday Kelli called into the vet and earliest appointment they could get was the following afternoon.  Here’s what the vet said: Continue reading →