What? A food Lucy does NOT like?

I never thought the day would come when Lucy would turn her nose up to food. She is a healthy eater and tends to even try to munch on dust balls or pieces of stick.

But, lo and behold, it is true -- there IS a food that Lucy doesn't like.

The Grapefruit:

Last week, I was cutting into a grapefruit and taking my time to cut around each triangle of the grapefruit. Lucy was, of course, watching my every move as I was in the kitchen. I scrapped up a tiny piece of grapefruit and offered it to her. To my shock, she sniffed, make a grimmacing face, accepted the tiny piece into her mouth and immediately spit it out. Her eyes twinkled up at me and seemed to be asking me why I would ever, in a million years, want to eat such a thing.

I simply love grapefruits and oranges and other citrus fruits and have read that although they are not dangerous to dogs, they might cause indigestion. Perhaps Lucy's snout knew that the grapefruit wasn't for her.

Over the years, the only other things she's tried but she wasn't sure about were strawberries and soda (well a smell of a soda can. Maybe she doesn't like sweets?

Overall, though, she does enjoy several of my favorite snacks:

#1 - Yogurts: Lucy goes crazy if we are eating a yogurt. I think that her powerful nose could smell a yogurt a mile away.
#2 - Cheese: Cheese in general is tied for first place in Lucy's palette.
#3 - Carrots: At first, when I adopted Lucy she was only interested in cheese and the sliced up hotdogs I had used for training (until her tummy got upset). When I first presented her with carrots she wasn't so sure about that. But after a while, she came to also regard them as a treat.

Well, that's it for now from me. Til next month!

Lucy going to grandparents for Christmas

Lucy's bags are packed and she's ready to go to her grandparent's house for Christmas.

Let's see, her "Lucy bag" is a black shoulder sling bag filled with:

Her Furminator

Monthly Heartguard treatment

Monthly Flea/tick prevention treatment

Small poop bags (biodegradeable)

One or toys, namely her Kong

Her "winter jacket"

Safety flashlight I bought on Amazon which fits nicely in my hand and has a red flashing light on the backside to protect you from cars/traffic.

Also, a tall tub of her Evo brand dog food which she loves.

Here's a pic of Lucy with her bags:



She loves going to my parent's house since they play with her alot, give her too many treats and let her run around in the backyard. My mom also takes her for regular walks. They just love having her there too. I'll miss Lucy, but at least I know that she's having fun and being well taken care of.

2,000 word essay - in 2 photos

Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here's one of my favorite pictures of Lucy ever, taken recently by Stuart's cousin, Lindsay:



Also, here is a picture of a friend's newly adopted pup, Tank. He is sporting a new hair cut called the "Lion Cut". So instead of me writing the word cute in ten different ways, I'll let the photo speak for itself:

Spa Day for Lucy

Today, Lucy got the full doggie-spa (home) treatment:

1-Dental care: We brushed her teeth with the doggie toothpaste that's flavored like chicken. Unfortunatly she doesn't enjoy this much, but tolerates it. She likes to just lick the toothbrush and then chew on it. So, I'm not sure how much actual brushing we get done, but it's better than not trying at all.

2-Nail filing: We used the Pedi-Paws nail file device to file her nails. Lucy also doesn't care for this, but she was a quiet trooper, sitting there patiently, while Stuart had one paw in his hand and then the other. We gave her a few treats to let her know she was doing well.

3- Furminator: I think we each spent about 10 or 15 minutes brushing Lucy with the Furminator. She seemed to mind these less than the other "spa treatments" and even laid down a while calmly while I brushed her back. I was surprised by the large wad of fur on the floor from the furminator. I took a picture. Check it out:

4-Bath: Okay, Lucy really doesn't like bath-time. When we call her into the bathroom, she suddenly runs down the hall and hides under the bed. So, this time, we closed all the bedroom doors and got her gently into the bathroom. We did have to pick her up and place her in the tub and her ears were back a bit, implying she wasn't happy. But she's always like that and then once we're done, she's happy and clean and looks so much better!

Halloween-2010- Yara and Lucy

Our friends brought over their daughter Yara on Halloween Sunday. Little Yara was dressed up as a monkey and looked so adorable. We tried to get pictures of Lucy next to Yara, but it's tough to get them to sit still. So, I took a short video-clip of Yara giving Lucy a treat:

Additions to our dog family

Well, Morgan, a 6 month old Plotthound, just joined our extended family. My nephew Alexander adopted her just a few weeks ago. She joins the family's German Shepherd, Katie. Thankfully, the whole family,including the dog Katie have warmly welcomed Morgan. Apparently, Alexander is all grins and smiles over his new buddy too!

Here's a snapshot of Morgan at 6 months old:



On a related note, our extended family, on Stuart's side of the family came to visit and brought Lucy's cousin, Dakota, a black lab mix. Dakota is very lovable albeit a little scared of things and reserved. She did love Lucy's dog toys, especially the one I bought at Phyedeaux in Chapel Hill -- the "tested by Lucy" and "Hand-made in Chapel Hill" red fabric pull-toy. I'll have to get one for Dakota and mail it up to them in New Jersey. And no, Lucy didn't meet her cousin this visit as there was simply too much going on. Lucy spent the few days on vacation visiting her grandparents who love to spoil her and play fetch in the yard with her.

Here's a pic of Dakota on the couch, enjoying coddling her two toys -- Lucy's red one and the racoon she brought:

Bee Killer Lucy

So, how do you have a yard with 20,000 bees and 1 dog? Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, of course, you keep them away from each other. First of all, bees don't like the smell of dogs and if Lucy were to get too close to their hives, they might swarm to protect the hive and sting her many times over. We don't let her get close to the hives and she seems to have zero interest in them anyway.

The only problem has been us hanging out on the back porch. Lucy is enthralled by the few random bees that buzz around. She thinks that they are her own personal entertainment and can literally snatch one out of the sky with her jaws. Not good. After 2 or 3 of these episodes, I got so frustrated that I took Lucy back into the house and at the end of day, at dusk, let her back out on the porch with me. Once it starts to get dark, the bees tend to go "home" or stay closer to their hive....

Then I noticed that she seemed lethargic and just not quite herself so I got worried that she might have been stung in her mouth or on her jowels. I asked my mom as a favor to take her to the vet on Monday. Thankfully, she got a clean bill of health, but the vet suggested to give her some benadryl in case she was stung and maybe had allergies to that.