Daisy has been getting most of the attention lately, due to her surgery, so here's a picture of little Miss Mags. The look that she's giving me is always accompanied by a little wag of her tail stub. There's something very cute about how she wags, it's a very hopeful gesture. Daisy's wag is more exuberant, like everything else about her.Maggie was very pleased with herself earlier, as in her little puppy mind, the cat was playing with her. Topher was, in fact, giving her a warning "stop licking my face" bop, but since he politely kept his claws in, she thought he wanted to wrestle.
I just wanted to let everyone know that Daisy is out of surgery and we're going to go pick her up from the vet in about half an hour. Now begins the fun of keeping her from worrying her stitches! Better go get the e-collar out of the pet cabinet.
Maggie seems pretty unhappy about Daisy's absence. First we took Daisy on a car ride without her, then we came home sans Daisy! Her puppy mind must be boggled. I've made sure to take several breaks today just to cuddle with her on the couch.
I didn't do much worth blogging about today, so here's a picture of Maggie, captured mid-bark. It was taken last month not long after her dental cleaning -- hence the bald patch on her leg where they shaved her for the IV! Those are all grown back in now.
Remember! Tomorrow, I'll post a new picture of Cthulhu!
Last year, Chris and I spent the Labor Day weekend driving up to the northwestern corner of New Mexico to adopt Daisy and Maggie. Here's the picture I snapped of them in our hotel in NM -- as you can see by those smiles, they'd already accepted us as cool people, and were clearly prepared to teach us how to spoil them rotten.
Bringing these two cuties into my life is one of the best decisions I've ever made. They cause me so much happiness, with their silly antics, unconditional love, and adorable faces. Here's hoping they'll be with us for many more years!
This is my favorite picture of Maggie -- I love that I captured her mid-yawn and managed to get a photo where she's showing her true cuteness, instead of looking sulky.
Today Chris and I took both of the girls down to the vet for their annual check-up and booster shots, in preparation for them being boarded while we're in NY. It was a bit of a stressful ordeal for them -- the vet and vet tech were both very nice, but that only goes so far for a dog when strange objects are being put into their orifices! Maggie especially wanted no part of it, though she still licked the vet's nose while being stethoscoped, and walked up to the vet tech for good-bye petting at the end.
Since then, they've spent most of the day in a post-vet drowsy state, showing the appropriate enthusiasm for food and opportunities to go outside, but otherwise adopting a feline-like system of moving from one nap spot to the next, largely based on where I am. AJ's in the office? Let's sleep on the loveseat or behind her desk chair. AJ's eating dinner? Let's sleep under the table or on the back of the couch, the better to occasionally wake up and make sad, starving eyes at her (they got fed before I did, don't believe them!). AJ's not paying attention? Let's go take a nap on the people bed! Silly dogs.
But when I sat down to write this post, Daisy became suddenly animated, barkingly insisting that she needed attention now, then jumping up to put her paws on my leg and nose her way between my arm and body, so that I'm hugging her. This is a frequent trick of hers, and she seems very pleased with herself for doing it. Now that I've turned down her advances, she's back on the loveseat, wearing her "I'm the saddest puppy ever" face. Guess I should go make it up to her!
By the way, Gossiping Pixies are today's Daily Special. Thought I should tack that on here...
Here to distract you from the fact that I forgot to make a Daily Special today is Maggie! I snapped this picture of her daintily licking her paw in her crate. She used to hate her crate and refused to go to bed every night, until I made her a nice, fluffy fleece blanket. Now she'll go in there randomly during the day to nap or chill -- though half the time, I'm pretty sure she just goes in there so I'll leave her in the bedroom and she can sneak onto the people bed. She's a wily one, that Maggie dog!As a side note, the crates are plenty long enough for them to lie comfortably in, but for some reason, she and Daisy almost always lie like this, crammed into the back. Do they feel more secure that way? I don't know. It doesn't look comfortable to me.Anyway, I spent today hanging out with a friend, who has been keeping me company while Chris was away on a business trip (he gets home tomorrow morning, yay!). She arrived before noon, so I didn't get around to my Etsy shop at all. However, I did dance. A lot. Oh, my aching abs! I always dance more when other people are dancing with me, whether it's one friend coming over to dance in my living room, or if I'm on a dance floor at a party. If I dance alone, I'm more likely to stop when I start to feel a little tired, instead of going on until I can't any more.Tomorrow, life returns to business as usual and I'll have a Special up sometime around noon. But for now, I have a bra to work on!
Ah, dogs. They're rarely shy about letting you know what they want. Here, Daisy and Maggie show us how much they'd like to have their fuzzy bellies rubbed. Actually, I think Daisy is sleeping in her picture, but there's never a point when she doesn't want a belly rub (except perhaps when she's eating dinner, which takes her 30 seconds), so it's still accurate.
Tomorrow we get to go down to the park and start obedience lessons. Both puppies desperately need them for various reasons -- Daisy because she won't stop barking and nipping, Maggie because she doesn't listen. Plus it will be good for them to socialize with other dogs and people, and learn important commands like "stay."
Sorry to have been so quiet lately, life has been crazy with cleaning, renovating, and New Year's Day gift-giving. I'm hoping that by this time next week, things will be closer to normal. Of course, then it will be time to start preparing for gem show!
Every now and then I'll forget to shut the bedroom door, and I'll walk in on a scene like this! One or more corgi will have made herself comfortable on the "people bed." And of course, as soon as I walk in, they start acting all cute, because they know they don't belong there, but they just can't help themselves. It's so comfy! And it smells like us!
They also like to help me make the bed. They'll jump up and bounce around on the mattress as I'm trying to straighten out the sheets. It's all very, very cute. (Obviously, I had not made the bed when this picture was taken. I'm a very lazy housekeeper)
Daisy and Maggie turned two a week ago. This is around the time when they should slowly start to calm down, as they're officially adults now. Of course, as herd dogs, they'll always be pretty energetic and bossy. But maybe now they'll start to get the idea that they shouldn't take flying leaps off of the back of the couch onto the floor, and that the kitty doesn't want to play with them, no matter how many times they ask.
I mentioned in Friday's post that we were going to take the girls walking at the park. We did, and it was a good time. We met Chris's friend and former co-worker Clinton, introduced him to Daisy and Maggie, and set out. The girls were pretty hyper at first, because they don't go for walks very often and aren't officially leash trained, but after about 10-15 minutes, and a dog swap (Daisy is too much a handful for Chris, especially when he's talking while he walks), they settled down and really enjoyed themselves.
The path around the park is about 4 miles... it took us around an hour to walk it, which is good, because they say corgis should get 30-60 minutes of exercise a day. Because of their short, stubby legs, a comfortably brisk pace for me is also a quick pace for them, so I'm sure it was a good aerobic workout for them. A dog of their size but of a less athletic breed might have been tired out, but these girls were bred to herd sheep, cattle and horses, so they have lots of energy to burn! They were smiling for pretty much the entire walk.
We had a little trouble, in that Daisy barked and lunged at the first dog we passed, but I kept her in hand and we only had minor pulling the two or three other times that we walked by other dog owners. She also shied away from rollerbladers. Being a country dog, I'm sure she'd never seen anyone on skates. Maggie, meanwhile, was just perfectly content to be out and about and didn't seem to have trouble with anyone or anything.
Because it's such a short distance to and from the park (walking distance, really, but walking there, around, and back would be too much with the shape we're currently in), instead of crating them, I took the center seat in the back and held their collars while they sat on either side of me. They were very well-behaved and didn't even try to get up front with Chris. Daisy seemed a little scared or uncomfortable with the car ride, but Maggie loved it.
After we got home and fed the girls their dinner, they slept on the office chair for five hours. Those pups were all tuckered out!
It was such a success that we're hoping to go on similar walks 2-3 times a week. We could all use the exercise, and the girls need to learn how to walk well on a leash. Besides, it's so much fun when someone walks by, smiles, and says "Aw, corgis!"
Much to their extreme dismay, Daisy and Maggie got baths today. Their white fur is actually white again, instead of a dusty-color. And they smell slightly less like dog. It's quite an ordeal bathing them, and next time Chris wants to try taking them to one of those do-it-yourself groomers so we don't make a mess of our bathroom. Given the bits of dog hair everywhere in the tub, I'm inclined to agree with him.
The girls had to be bathed, as my friend Helen is coming over to meet them, and I thought she'd probably prefer to not be greeted by dirty, smelly dogs. Our weather has been so dry that the backyard is all dusty, and all that dust and dirt gets caught up in their fur... yuck!
Moving on to a much more pleasant topic. I actually managed to finish my brooch before bed last night. I was going to put some fringe on it, but after I finished the edge, I thought that any fringe would just look too fussy, so I'm leaving it as is. I hope to photograph it and list it on Etsy tomorrow.
Daisy has been getting most of the attention lately, due to her surgery, so here's a picture of little Miss Mags. The look that she's giving me is always accompanied by a little wag of her tail stub. There's something very cute about how she wags, it's a very hopeful gesture. Daisy's wag is more exuberant, like everything else about her.
