Car Seat Cover

It has been a long while since my last post, my poor blog.  It has just been work, home and not a lot of craft work. So sad.  I miss spending time in my hobby room to play with my yarn, fabric and fleece.  I did manage to finish a project; a new cover for the back seat of the car.

 For our furry princes of course.  She loves it.

Doggie Story: Noisy Neighbors

Last year, on Poppy’s birthday, I posted a doggie story. Well, it is that time of the year again. I will share another story with you.

When we first moved to our home it has this heavy brown front door with a metal frame. The house sits in a large tropical garden.
One late evening my husband and I settled down to watch a movie. Suddenly, we heard a loud noise resonated through the house. It sounded like a wild animal’s mating call, or some sort of strange big bird, I thought it was coming from the tree tops outside in the backyard.

As you can imagine, Poppy went mental and insisted on going out to investigate. I went with her. I used a powerful torch light to scan the tree tops, I couldn’t see anything. Poppy searched the yard and she turned up nothing.

A couple of days later that noise happened again. I was in the kitchen preparing dinner and thought it came from the front garden this time. I went to the front door with Poppy by my side. As I stood there with the door opened, the animal made the noise again. Poppy started sniffing the door up and down and found the source of the noise.

Can you see the white arrow on the door?

A closer look...

Tree frogs. You wouldn’t think these small creatures made those big noises, but they did.

We changed our front door. Poppy can relax now, no more noisy neighbors.

Happy birthday Poppy. Happy seven years' old.

An egg cracking expert

New Year day, I gave Poppy a fresh egg as her treat. She used to love this when she was a puppy.

A little while later, I came back out in the yard to check on Poppy and saw that she has left the egg alone. O, I thougth, Poppy has grown out of eating eggs.
How wrong I was...Poppy has carefully cleaned out the egg and left the shell intact.She is quite an egg cracking expert, isn't she?

A natural swimmer

I want to tell you a story about Poppy and water. It happened when Poppy was very little. I was playing with Poppy one day and I noticed that there’s skin between her toes. I pointed it out to my husband and asked if Poppy has webbed feet. “O yeah” he said “Let’s find out if she is a natural swimmer.” So off we went to the seaside.

The sea was a bit choppy that day and there was a strong wind, so I decided to stay on land. I was a bit concerned that the sea might be too rough for Poppy, but hubby reassured me “Don’t worry. I got her. We’ll be fine.” He picked her up in his arms, carrying her like a baby and started walking into the water. Poppy was only eight weeks old. She was so tiny, all peaches and cream, and just a fluffy ball of fur.

Delray Beach seaside is fairly shallow. You have to walk quite a distance before the water is anywhere near your waist. I was arranging the beach towels and getting comfortable. When I looked up, hubby was far away and the water was about chest deep. He had just stopped and turned around to face me. I looked behind him and to my horror saw a huge wave with foamy white caps rushing towards him. I waved. He waved back. I pointed towards the big open sea. He didn’t see me, by then his attention was on little Poppy and had no idea what was coming. Exasperated, I got up and run to the water’s edge, cupping both hands around my mouth and shouted as loud as I could, “… the wave… hold on to her…”

Too late. The big wave washed over hubby and knocked him off balance. They both went under. When he found his footing and emerged from the water Poppy was gone. There were white foams all around him but no sign of Poppy. He pushed the white foams away to look under the water, no good. He dived under to search but came up empty handed.

Seconds ticked away. I feared the worse. The white foams had died down, and then a few feet away from hubby, out popped a little head and Poppy surfaced. Yeah, she’s a natural swimmer alright. She swam ashore, walked with me to where our bags and beach towels were, planted her butt on solid ground, and that was it. Poppy was done for. She had this fear of water, and whenever we go to the seaside again she wouldn’t even walk on wet sands.

A dog with webbed feet should love water, not to fear it. We have to do something to fix this. Over the following weeks and months, I would get up very early and take Poppy to the beach. I didn’t force her into the water I just let her follow me off leash. Gradually over time she was prepared to walk on the wet sands… let the water touched her toes… this went on for about a year. One day, as usual, we went to the seaside, but this time instead of following me, Poppy rushed pass and hopped into the sea and the water was as high as her chest! I knew then at that moment Poppy has overcome her fear.

Now, you simply can’t stop Poppy from having fun in the sea.

Our furry daughter is 6 years old today. Happy birthday Poppy.

Poppy got expelled

Long time no blog. I still tried to keep up with blog reading but I have not been able to find time to write the posts I have in mind. Poppy has been a concern over the last few weeks.
Florida is in the rainy season now. When the season changes from dry to wet, the garden comes alive. Trees, plants, grass, weeds…suddenly wake up and sprouting new growth in earnest. The place is buzzing with flying insects, crawling bugs, snakes, furry creatures… before I knew it, Poppy was bitten by a bug on her butt. It happened last year and like last year Poppy made the little area worse by licking it and turned it into a sore patch.

One Monday morning 7:30am I dropped Poppy off at the Doggie Day Camp, they sent us home. They refused Poppy because of the hot spot on her butt. I had to take a sick day and stay home with her. Luckily my husband was working from home the rest of that week, so Poppy was able to stay home with daddy.

My husband and I know the drill now. We gave Poppy a summer hair cut, shaved and applied medication on the sore area, put an e-collar on Poppy and she healed quickly. So a week later off to Doggie Day Camp she went.

My husband was travelling this time, so I was relying on Doggie Day Camp to care for Poppy while I was at work. All was well until mid-week. When I collected Poppy in the evening, they told me that Poppy bitted an assistant. Not deep. She nipped the skin and drew blood. Poppy was expelled. I can’t believe it: Poppy got kick out from Doggie Day Care the second time.

I have no friends or families live nearby who could help. Luckily someone we met a few times who does dog walking as a hobby came to my rescue.

Over the weekend we went to see Doggie Day Camp and found out what happened. Poppy didn’t want to play with the other dogs in the big play room and she didn’t want to go back to her own cubicle. She was in a smaller relief room and when staff wanted to move her, Poppy told them no by going for the hand.

Their in-house dog trainer came to speak with us. She asked all sorts of questions…any changes in routines, food, medication, how we interact with Poppy, dog personalities…at the end she concluded that we should not use her crate as a punishment. Poppy is a commend dog. Staffs have to tell Poppy what they want her to do. They cannot man-handle her and should use treat to reward Poppy when she goes to her room. She gave Poppy a reprieve.

My husband said to Poppy, “Come on girl. You’ve been given a second chance, don’t blow it, ok?”

Poppy Score

The economy is not good right now, so looking for work is hard anyway. In my case it is harder still. Potential employers are concerned about my skills because I have not been able to work for the last 6 years.

Late one afternoon I was asked by a recruitment agency to take some on-line tests to assess my accounting and Excel skills. Poppy was hungry and she wanted her walk. But I really needed to do these tests. My husband is working away from home this week. So I could only ask Poppy to wait for me.

The questions got harder as I went along, and still there were more to come…I pushed on, by the time I looked up, it was dark outside. Poppy has been waiting for a long time and was becoming impatient. She came over, nudged me, telling me to stop.

I stopped for a few minutes and gave Poppy some love and attention. I tried telling Poppy, not long to go now, on the last test already, just few more questions.

Next day, I got the test results. I did very well for the first test, OK on the second one, but not so good on the third one. When I took a closer look at the last test score, one question stood out. It showed that I spent 6 minutes on that question. Yup, that’s my Poppy score, 6 minutes of cuddles and kisses.

Perhaps Poppy knew how I was feeling; she stays very close to me this week. We resumed our raking today. The rain stopped work for a few days. Then the weather turned cold and windy again. Areas I have cleared are now covered by fresh fallen pine cones, pine needles and bamboo leaves. When I went outside to deposit the garden waste by the road side, Poppy made sure she was close by. Can you see her?
A close-up. Can you see her now?

She really is my little guardian angel.

Poppy's Snow Shoes

I want to tell you about Poppy’s snow shoes. I bought them a few years ago when we were living in New Hampshire. They were to protect Poppy from getting ice balls in between her toes. The first time that happened I thought Poppy was injured.

It was early winter and the yard was covered with a foot deep of snow. Poppy went out to play. She was fine at first, then I noticed that she was slowing down. Soon after she was limping, and by the time I got to her she was not able to walk.

The snow had been melted by her body heat and had formed into ice ball between her toes and her paw pad, one ice ball in each paw. They were rock hard and painful for Poppy if I tried to pull it because the ice was compacted and had fused with the sensitive hairs on the underside of her paws.

After that experience, Poppy always wore her shoes when we went out to play with fresh snow.

We live in Florida now and even though it doesn’t snow here Poppy still wears her snow shoes sometimes. This year Poppy had a few episodes of skin problem due to insect bites. Small areas of her skin would become inflamed and sometimes infected.

In our effort to think of ways to stop Poppy from scratching the inflamed areas with her legs, my husband has one of his “think outside the box” moments and said to me “Snow Shoes”.

Here is a picture of Poppy I took back in April. She has an area just behind her right ear that was troubling her. With the snow shoe on her back leg, she could itch herself to get some relief but not able to do any damage. We were able to care for Poppy by applying medication on the infected area and the skin healed very quickly.

Poppy is all better now and has her long coat again.

Poppy's shoes are made by Ruffwear. The soles of the shoes are made of rubber material, have great traction and they really give good protection to her paws.

Little Little Chunky Star

Grace-Poppy De LaVillaRoy is a blonde female Hovawart. A dual purpose working dog: as a guardian and as a companion. This breed originates from the Hertz and Black Forest regions of Germany but Poppy was born in Saint-Paul (Québec) Canada. She took a plane to join us when she was only 8 weeks old.
Having a dog is a lifelong commitment, so I did a lot of research before deciding on the breed and the breeder. What none of the books told me was how soft Poppy’s fur is.

Over the first two years, I kept Poppy's fur each time she was bathed and brushed, so the fur was superclean and fluffy soft.

My husband asked me what I intend to do with it all...don't know, a little keepsake of some sort.

Finally got round to spin Poppy's fur into Poppy yarn.

I made a thick yarn, about 8 wraps per inch, similar thickness to Aran or worsted weight.

And I made it into a chunky star, Poppy after all is a big girl.

The pattern is actually a snowflake sachet. You can’t see it from the picture but the centre has two layers and an opening in the back so it could be used as a pocket to hold scented stuff. I think I will fill it with some pine cone flakes. Poppy always gets pine sap on her when she goes out into the garden, and more often than not, she smells of pine.

Pattern: Crochet Snowflake Sachets by Annie's Attic (Leaflet No 87S72)

It is the season

I was planning to finish knitting the gator scarf over the weekend, but things didn’t turn out as planned. We have been busy caring for Poppy instead.

Poppy is four and half years old now. She has her flea treatment every month. We never have to face any flea problem before…until now. Other dog owners told me that fleas build up resistance to Frontline Plus (we all used this for our dogs). They changed over to Advantage then things were fine again.

Something was biting Poppy, an area on her back just above her butt was worse than the others, but I can’t find any bugs on her. Even then, we did a total clean up. Hubby applied treatment to the yards outside, and I treated all carpeted areas indoor, removed and washed all beddings. We shampooed Poppy, gave her CapStar to kill off any adult fleas for immediate relief, and changed over to Advantix.

Things were better but it is one of those situations where you take one step forward and two steps back. Poppy turned obsessive licking over that area above her butt and we ended up in the veterinarian office yesterday.

The doctor came into the examination room, took a look at Poppy and exclaimed, “No! What happen to you Poppy? Who clipped your hair?” I confessed and explained that drastic problem required drastic action. Poppy’s fur is so thick and I needed to see what I am dealing with, so I shaved her over the weekend. My husband offered, “I helped. I used a pair of scissors but I might have cut some areas a bit too short, so she has a few bare patches.” The doctor took a closer look and in a soothing voice she said to Poppy “That’s OK, the hair will grow back”. Then she turned to my husband and stated “No more clipping for you, and I am not giving you any referral or customer.”

Anyway, the doctor reassured us that it is mainly flea bites. It is the season she said. She checked and Poppy has no flea. An insect could have stung the area on her lower back. It is infected and we need to treat it now. So, with $235 lighter, we were sent home armed with spray, tablets, supplement, an appointment for a follow-up visit, and most importantly an Elizabethan collar (e-collar). Poppy doesn’t look too happy about it, does she?
After all the fuss and our big spring clean up I needed some cheering up: I went shopping on-line. Well, that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it. I ordered some animal eyes from CR's Crafts for making crochet or knitted toys, and three pattern books for beautiful lace doilies. The surprise was that the eyes actually turned up today, superfast shipping I must say.

I better go now and finish off the rest of my laundry then I can carry on with the scarf.

Have a great day.