Bonnie and Kona's Blog (19)

Last Thursday we made an appointment to establish the dogs at a vet and to have Kona's ears examined. He had a double ear infection because while I was on the mainland for two weeks, no one remembered to take care of doodle ears. It's only his second ear infection in six years. Vet visit #1.

Then the crazies happened. On Friday at the beach Kona's eye became bright red and then it was white and swollen! We rushed him to the vet. He had a laceration on his inner eyelid. So very…

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We have been in Hawaii since July 3 and 4. Moving to Hawaii with dogs is incredibly complicated and stressful. For four months I fretted and worried that I would not cross every t and dot every i and my precious doodles would be quarantined! I worried so much I could not actually talk about it. My DD and I would begin a conversation regarding all that needed to be done to get them there and I would have to stop and take a break. Hawaii has no rabies so in order to keep it that way dog owners…

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As many of you know, Jennifer (of Jennifer and Jack) has serious health issues. She was sent to National Jewish Hospital last year to try to find help for her Cystic Fibrosis and other unrelated chronic conditions. They discovered a hole in her heart and attempted to repair that with some serious consequences.

Jennifer has the opportunity to be at National Jewish again, and I am hoping some of her friends at DK can help her out. She was supposed to be in Colorado for a short time but…

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Several weeks ago I noticed Kona had a sore on his tail. It got to be the size of an almond with a black dot in the center. I took him to the vet. A new vet I had never seen before put him on a course of antibiotics. When the 10 day course finished the wound looked the same.

My regular vet saw him this time and told me Kona had a tumor and since it didn't respond to the…

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Our DS and DDIL had baby number three on Friday. Here is Evan Michael. We are smitten! Our granddaughter is 6 and seems to believe this baby is all hers. No one gets to hold him if she is around. It's so cute! Their 4 year old is sweet and gentle but not obsessed. Just had to show off our new baby...…

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We are planning to move from California to Hawaii in June. We were there for a two week vacation/business trip to determine if this would work out for us and the answer is decidedly, "Yes". 

My DD and I have chronic daily migraines. Hers are significantly worse than mine. For almost five years she has been unable to work or even live on her own due to daily excruciating pain. For some reason we both feel better in Hawaii. It just so happens that the company my DH works for has a…

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UPDATE:

We have regrouped and now Owen is under new management.

1.  He is no longer allowed on the step as pictured below. We figured out he uses it to enforce his dominance... he wouldn't move for people or Kona to go up or down the steps. I don't know why we never figured that out before... guess it has to do with cuteness. 

2.…

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In case a blog is a better place to post this...

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Yesterday, Kona was limping on his left hind leg. I searched his paw for any obstruction, but nothing was there. He limped through the day by evening was doing better. Late last night he started licking his "knee". Upon further inspection I found a 3/8 inch gash. Because of the wisdom on Doodle Kisses I knew exactly what to do. I cleaned it with Betadyne, put Neosporin on it and wrapped it in a strip of gauze (I didn't have the breathable stick-to-itself-tape. I put a t shirt on him with his…

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I have had Kona groomed by a gaggle of professional groomers with mixed results. The last adventure in using a professional groomer was a disaster as I described in an earlier blog. I have now invested in grooming tools and today cut Kona's hair for the second time. I clipped his body with a 3 3/4 skip toothed blade, trimmed his neck with a 4F blade, did his privates and ears with a 10 blade. I scissored his legs and head. Below are photos of this experience. If they come out sideways I am…

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Owen will be 8 months old on Monday and we are noticing that, while he is still very much a puppy, we are not as overwhelmed by his naughtiness as we had been. This improvement in his behavior started the day we went to his obedience class orientation. hahaha. He is learning new things in his obedience class and getting lots of praise from the instructor. One woman in the class commented that Owen looks like a teen aged boy. Having worked with middle schoolers for several years, I heartily…

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I've read so many stories of doodles and disastrous groomers here on DoodleKisses. Today I am adding my experience. 

 

I'm a little livid. I'm going to have to learn to clip my doodle. I took him to our groomer today. The first time we went, it cost $65. The second we went to this shop they had hired a new groomer who was supposed to do "show-quality" clipping. It cost $90, but he looked gorgeous. This time, the groomer ran her hands through his coat and said he definitely had…

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I ordered medium antlers to see if our 94 pound doodle and his 10 week old half brother would like them. We discovered at that point that Kona is an extremely aggressive chewer. Medium would have been a good size for Owen but Kona needed something else. I wrote to Antler Pantry asking for advice. Linda responded that I should order XL elk antlers and specify that we need very dense ones. They arrived in the mail yesterday. One XL and one L. Because she chose the antlers for their density…

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I am sitting here with a migraine and about to go to pick up my adorable grandchildren to spend the night. I'm not sure how I will manage this, but DH is the best grandfather or we couldn't even try it. As I lie here contemplating the next 24 hours, I am suddenly struck that my 15 week old puppy and my 20 month old grandson have lots in common.

 

Both are full of crazy energy!

Both are testing us constantly to determine what will happen if they misbehave.

Both…

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Kona, age 3, and Owen, 14 weeks, are getting along great. Kona has developed a new game. He goes out the doggie door in the kitchen and comes to the French door in the family room waiting for Owen to notice him. When Owen sees Kona he goes to the door wildly begging to get out. I go to the door, let him out and he attacks Kona with glee. After a minute, Kona goes in the doggie door in the kitchen, walks through the house to the French door in the family room and waits for Owen to see him. Owen… Continue

Today I had a luncheon for about 10 women. My daughter had the dogs corralled in the family room while we were in the kitchen, dining room and living room. The doggie door goes into a space under the stairs and through a "cupboard" door in the kitchen. When the lunch was over and people were helping to clean up, Kona came into the kitchen through the "cupboard door" from outside. He was so shocked to see all of the strangers he barked loudly! I walked in just as he was barking. He was so… Continue

Owen has a hot spot! He's 11 weeks old. He has been scratching some so I put some peppermint oil on my hands and rubbed it over him hoping to chase the fleas away. I don't want to use a chemical agent anymore. DoodleKisses has me rethinking all my dog parenting! I feed Kona and Owen Orijen grain-free dog food. I won't use chemicals on them. Anyway, it clearly didn't do the trick so now he has a hot spot. We had a golden who was allergic to fleas so we've dealt with lots of hot spots over the… Continue

I have had a ridiculous time trying to load Owen's picture so that it was upright. I decided to try turning Owen's picture one quarter turn to the right on my desktop so that when I uploaded it, it would appear correctly. Wrong. This time He was laying sideways the other way! I righted the photo on my desktop, reloaded it and hooray! It is upright. Really weird. At least my puppy is on my page now. Someday Kona may let me take a picture of the two of them together. He really hates to have his… Continue