Fight of the Mosquito

Sonata with Grass Pollen, 10wks

The mosquitoes are out and biting ferociously this year.  I am now trying to wear a long sleeve shirt when I take any of the animals out, simply to ward off the nasty bites, but considering that it has been in the lower 90s all week, AND that the humidity has been so high that you get random rain without a cloud in the sky, that shirt makes me almost as miserable as the skeeters.

Sonata, Hiding Under the Futon (10 wks)

Sonata has learned a new trick, something that Sere never learned.  She has learned the belly slide!  She will run full out into the kitchen (the only wood flooring in the house), and throw herself down on her belly, and then precede to slide across the flooring until she hits the doorstop, then she jumps up and does it all over again.  It is actually quite amusing!

Sonata (10 wks) and Flip Flop (sz 9 1/2 us)

On the other hand, something that is NOT amusing is her love for shoes.  She has already managed to do fairly decent damage to my flip flops, and has decided to move onto my tennis shoes. I always know when she has it, because she curls up in her dog bed in a tight ball and is chewing something underneath herself. If she can't get either of those then she tends to try to grab Thomas' shoes.  Either way it is bad luck for all of us.  I have started to use a squirt bottle to try to discourage her, the results have been 50/50.  She really just wants something in her mouth at all times!

We can't walk the dogs on the street!  We took them for a walk on Wednesday night, the day after they put down tar and rocks on the road.  It turned into a disaster.  Sere's paws were full of rocks and tar, and we had to spend at least a half hour just clipping goop out of her toes, and even having to separate her two middle toes!  Our carpet now has tar stains.

I don't think we will be able to walk the dogs until the weather cools down a wee bit (preferably when the tar hardens).

Puppy Coats Itch!

The housebreaking is at a standstill at the moment.  I was watching a video on housebreaking on Hulu, where the gentleman explained that puppies and dogs can hold their bladders for their months age plus one.  For Sonata that would be three hours.  Yeah, right.  This dog has me running out every half hour.  If I am late, I am cleaning up puppy piddle.  On the other hand, she (knocking on wood) has yet to poop in the house.  I keep her kenneled until she has done that particular business.  Even when we had to rush the cat into the ER, and we thought we were going to come back to a huge mess, she managed to hold it and not mess her kennel.  I am very proud of her on that fact.  Hopefully she will keep up THAT good work!

Thomas Holding Sonata (10wks)

A quick update on the cat:  She is going to the vet this morning to get a check up.  She is looking better, and this morning tried to rush out the door.  We will see what the vet has to say after this morning.

The commands Sonata has been learning this week is to SIT and WAIT at the top of the front porch steps, the OKAY and DOWN, once she has followed through.  She has also been learning SIT and WAIT, then LOOK AT ME and finally OKAY for her food.  I am only going up to the count of three or four on the LOOK AT ME command.  She becomes extremely wriggly when it is given.  Sere just sits there and waits patiently with an, "I AM looking at you!" kind of look on her face.