I can’t believe how quickly Gus is growing! I took him outside to take a few photos of him today. As I looked over the photos I really saw how much bigger he is. You know how when you see someone everyday, you don’t really notice that they are changing or growing? i think it took these photos for me to really see it. I know he is still small, and someday I will look at these photos and think he looks tiny, but today, he looks like a giant to me!

I have been wanting to take some studio shots of Gus for the last week or so. I knew I had to do it soon….he is getting bigger every day. The kids are back in school after spring break and Scott left on a trip this morning. It is pouring rain out and this seemed like the perfect day for it. It was hilarious. I wish I had someone taking pictures of me so you could see how many times I had to put him back in the props! But, I’m thrilled with how they turned out.

Meet Gus, 10 weeks old.

A couple of weeks ago we had a really sad event at our house. Our family dog, Rex, bit Nora on the face. It wasn’t the first time he had bitten her. Thankfully, she wasn’t seriously hurt. It was heart breaking for all of us, but we knew that he could not live with our family any longer. It was really one of the hardest things I have ever done, I had no idea how attached to him I was. I was on the verge of tears for days. I missed him constantly. I felt empty each morning when I woke up and he wasn’t next to my bed. I missed him at night when I went to sleep. I tried to keep busy, because that seemed to help. But every once in a while something would pop in my head and all my emotions came back. I knew we had made the right decision, but it didn’t help me miss him any less. Our house felt so empty without him.

I knew right away that I wanted to get another dog. Rex showed me how much I loved being a dog owner. I loved having him around and spending my days with him. I started thinking about what kind of dog we would get, but I felt like we should wait a while. I didn’t want to replace Rex. I knew that this time I wanted a dog that would be great with our kids. I thought about adopting again, but decided that it was more important that we get a young puppy so we could do all the training. Just to take my mind off things I started looking on the internet at Golden Retriever Puppies. I found photos of the most adorable puppies. I saw one puppy that was ready to go in Erda, Utah at Oquirrh Mountain Retrievers. I went to their website and looked around. One thing that struck me was that their dogs are their family members and that they breed for good temperment. I read a story about the father of these puppies being killed in a tragic accident and how much they missed him. When I read that, I felt like this puppy was meant for us. We decided that we couldn’t wait any longer. We needed another dog in our lives.

I was out of town for the weekend. I called Scott and he and the kids drove down and picked him up. I was sad to miss it, but excited to get home and meet him.

I haven’t had a puppy this young since I was a child. It has been an incredible amount of work, but very rewarding at the same time. I was exhausted the first week because he got me up 2-3 times a night to go to the bathroom. But he has settled in nicely. He is doing great with the kids and everyone loves him. We are so happy to have him in our family and we are looking forward to lots of fun times together.

It has been about 4 1/2 years now since we put our Rottweiler, Damien, to sleep. Since then, we have had another child and have been traveling tons. We were just too busy to have another dog.

The last few months I have been thinking it was time to add another dog to our family. I thought about getting a miniature dog. I thought that it might be easier to take care of. But then I started thinking about our lifestyle. We are so active–always hiking and biking and camping. A tiny dog just couldn’t do those things. I wanted our new dog to be a part of our family that we would want to take with us wherever we go. I pictured us taking him in the motor home with us and camping and biking. I ruled out the little dog, but didn’t really decide on anything.

Then, a few weeks ago we went to the Soldier Hollow Sheepdog Classic. This was my 7th year attending! We strolled around and looked at all the booths. There was a booth from Utah Animal Adoption Center. The kids wanted to look at the dogs. There was one in particular that just tugged at my heart strings. His name was “Oso” and I loved his eyes! The kids weren’t very interested in him, but I just stayed by his kennel for a bit and petted him. He was a perfect size for our family and I have always had a soft spot for Australian Shepherds. We kept on walking, but I couldn’t get that dog off my mind.

Scott was away on his annual boys trip to Catalina, but I sent him a message that night telling him I thought I found the dog I wanted. I wasn’t sure if he would even be available, but I thought we should go look at him on Monday when he got back.

Early Monday morning I called Soldier Hollow and got a nice volunteer to go over to the booth and ask the people from Utah Animal Adoption Center to call me. They did and the dog I was wishing for was still there! I asked them to hold him and told them we would be there later to see him…..and the rest is history.

“Rex” is a one year old Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix. It has been about 7 weeks now since we adopted him and he has been such a great addition to our family! He is such a smart dog and really wants to please us. We have been taking him to obedience training and we are teaching him how to follow us when we mountain bike. The kids are loving him and I have enjoyed how much more active he has made me. I’ve been really enjoying our fall weather and lots of hikes with Rex. He has been on two camping trips in the motor home. I am so glad that we decided to adopt him. It is so nice to have a dog who is truly a member of our family. He spends his days in the house with us and his nights sleeping on our bedroom floor. He gets lots of walks and lots of playtime. They said he was a stray before and I think he is really happy to be with us. We are just as happy to have him!

Most of my week was spent getting ready for Dava’s surprise party, but I did manage to get a few shots I was happy with this week.

Emma had a playdate this week with her best friend from first grade. They are really funny and silly together. I love how this photo captured that.

I took these two photos at my parents house while waiting for the carpet cleaners. Nora was just playing on my parents bed and I was snapping away.

We managed to get our Christmas tree up this week too. Flora discovered her new favorite spot in the house.

Please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom to view all the Weekly Winners participants.

Ever since Flora’s visit to the vet a few weeks ago I have been keeping her in the laundry room.

The vet said she might need some time to get retrained to use the litter box. Also we never really ruled out cystitis, due to the blood in her urine. I wanted to keep her confined to the laundry room until we ruled out a medical problem.

We were supposed to recheck her urine after 2 weeks. A few days ago I went to the vet to pick up a little box and this really cool litter called “Nosorb“. You are supposed to put only the Nosorb in a litter pan. It doesn’t absorb urine, but gives cats the feel of cat litter. I thought it was neat, but Flora didn’t.

The first thing she did was go into the box and scratch all the litter out of it and spread it all around the cabinet where her box is located. I kept checking to see if she peed, so I could collect the urine to take to the vet. I kept looking in the box, but it was dry. Then at the end of the day I noticed that she had been peeing all around the litter box. GRRRR! I was able to suck some of it up with a syringe so that I could take it to the vet.

After that I spent forever cleaning up small black pellets of Nosorb and cat pee. I dropped off the sample to the vet yesterday, and expected a call with the results today.

I did get the call, but no results. Apparently the lab spilled the sample in transit! Why did this have to happen to Flora, who is such a pain to get urine from???? For plenty of other cats it would have been no problem at all. But for Flora it is a total pain to get urine.

The vet was super nice about it and offered to do just about anything for us. I decided to drop her off there tomorrow morning and let them worry about getting the urine this time!

I heard from the vet today about Flora. The results are that we still don’t know if there is a medical problem.

She had multiple blood tests done, and all those turned out normal. Her kidneys are functioning normal. But her urinalysis was a bit inconclusive. Cats really don’t get urinary tract infections, but they do get cystitis. I have had more experience with this than I could ever want. That is what my old kitty Amos had. He used to pee bright red urine on my bed.

Flora’s urinalysis did show a significant amount of blood. But, we aren’t sure what caused it. Earlier in the day the vet tried to get urine from her by sticking a needle into her bladder, called a cystocentesis. But they weren’t able to get enough urine to run a full test. But what they got didn’t have any blood in it. So they kept her for the day and waited for her bladder to fill up again. Later they did the cysto again under ultrasound. On the ultrasound they saw some “sludge” in her bladder and the urine was bloody.

Now the question is where the sludge and blood came from. It could be that they just didn’t get any of that “sludge” in the first urine. Or the blood may have come from the first cysto. The bladder bleeds very easily.

So, we still aren’t sure. I still want to know for sure if she has cystitis or not before we start any other treatment. We decided to wait for 2 weeks to let her bladder heal. Then we will try to get another sample by having her pee in a litter box with litter that won’t absorb. We should be able to do another urinalysis and figure out if she still has blood in her urine.

If she does, we will start her on meds for the cystitis. If not, then we will see how the behavioral changes are going. Since yesterday she has been in the laundry room. She has been using her litter box religiously in there. I feel bad that she is isolated from all of us, but I don’t feel like I have much of a choice right now.

We should have some answers in another 2 weeks.

Remember my cute tiny kitten? Flora is a year old already. It seems like yesterday that I was flying to Seattle to pick her up.

She has grown into a full fledged cat and she is still adorable. She is still small, only about 7 pounds. She is a small compact cat, typical of American Shorthairs. She has striking markings and adorable big eyes. People always comment on how beautiful she is. So many people have told me that she is the most beautiful cat they have ever seen.

She is adorable, and we all love her. One thing I don’t love, though, is that she has started peeing on my carpet. I feel like I am cursed when it comes to cats and urinary problems. Our old cat Amos used to get cystitis all the time and pee on my bed. I thought that was terrible. Now I think that was easier. At least then I could just wash all the blankets and sheets and get the pee out. It is nearly impossible to get it out of my rugs.

When we got back from our last trip to North Carolina I noticed that it smelled like cat urine in our stairway. That night I got out the black light and went pee hunting. I found tons of spots on the landing, and more downstairs. The next day I found her squatting and peeing on the landing.

Now I have a bunch of issues. The first is getting the pee smell out and the second is how to get her to stop the urinating. I decided to take her to the vet today to rule out any medical problems. I should get the results tomorrow. But my gut tells me it is just a behavioral problem. She gave me some suggestions and ultimately said that there are medications we can try that have a 90% success rate. That was a big relief to me. I don’t want to medicate her, but I am happy that there is something we can do if all the other things don’t work.

I love Flora, but I just can’t deal with a cat that urinates all over my house. She is confined to the laundry room for the next week so she doesn’t have access to any of her favorite pee spots. The vet said some cats just need to be reminded and retrained to use the litter box. If all else fails, I guess we will have a kitty on Prozac.

These are the pictures I took of Flora and her sisters at the breeders house.

This is Flora and her sister Merry Weather. Flora is in the back.

Flora

Flora’s sister Aurora

Flora’s sister Merry Weather

These pictures are of one of Flora’s relatives. He was a gorgeous cat! Flora won’t have quite as “wide” of a face, since she is a female.

None of these pictures really capture how cute Flora is in real life. I have been trying to get some more shots since she has been home. I hope to get a photo I love soon!

Just a quick post to update everyone on our new kitty. Scott is out of town this week. He left Sunday and won’t be back until Friday night. I have been spoiled lately–he hasn’t been gone this long in a very long time. I miss him!

I think we are going to keep the kitty’s name Flora. That is what the breeder named her. I haven’t come up with anything I like better. The kids like Flora, and Emma and Ian both said they want to keep her name Flora. So, I am pretty sure, Flora it is.

She is doing well adjusting. I can tell everyday she is getting more outgoing. Last night, after the kids were in bed, I opened the bathroom door and let her come out into my room. She came out and looked around, and then hid under my bed. She slept there all last night. Early today she started purring when I petted her. That was a big improvement.

I didn’t spend much time with her today. I am just getting ready to go to bed and she is currently running around my room pouncing on things I think she is feeling at home!

Pictures are coming soon, I promise!