Conehead Puppy = Unhappy Puppy

Well we had a little bit of drama last night. I get home from work and take Spencer for a walk. She's definitely getting more energy back and feeling better from the surgery. So we're hanging out after the walk and I go to check the stitches on her belly. Well the nice little row of black stitches are GONE. There's 1 single stitch and then just the wound from the cut of the surgery. And it's oozing (sorry - i hate that word too, but there's only one way to describe it). So I call the vet who did the surgery (who is not her regular vet - we had to take her to the shelter vet to get her spayed as part of our adoption agreement). They say this is very bad and we need to get her checked out right away. Well that vet who did the surgery is about 45 minutes away, so I call our vet and they say to bring her right in. So she has to get 7 STAPLES in her belly from our vet to hold the wound together because apparently it was on the verge of opening. OMG. I was obviously freaking out.

Since I ASKED the vet who did the surgery for a cone for her when I picked her up Monday and they didn't give me one...I was MAD. I KNEW she was going to lick/bite her stitches...hello SHE'S A DOG! She doesn't know any better. They told me it wouldn't happen and she would be fine without one. I'm already planning on sending a not so nice letter to this other vet who did the surgery (there were other things that happened with the spay that i was not too happy about) So she now has to keep the staples in for 10 days and wear a cone pretty much 24/7 to keep her from licking/biting these out. Let me tell you...she is PISSED. As soon as we put the cone on her, she pretty much becomes catatonic and just stands there, with a glazed look in her eyes. It's bizarre. Last night as we were going to bed, she was making the most pathetic whining noises...it was horrible! But she has to keep it on pretty much morning noon and night. We're going to ler her have some cone-free time when we're with her in the evenings, but that's about it.

I have to admit, it's pretty hysterical to watch and see her with the cone, but we're trying not too laugh at her too much. She's meeting Sailor boy's parents this weekend for the first time and we warned them last night that she may not be herself. I hope she doesn't figure out a way to get that cone off!

Random

So we went bridesmaid's dress shopping on Sunday and it was very interesting! Nordstrom was very disappointing, but we did find a few good choices at Lord and Taylor and actually Macy's. The most interesting part is as we were shopping, I think K may have changed her wedding colors!!! Since the wedding is on a huge lawn (ceremony and reception), I think she's worried that the aqua color might looks weird with all the green grass. We found one dress that both me and L LOVED...in bright yellow. We checked the designer's website and it doesn't come in any other colors. So that may change things a bit...I'm a big fan of yellow and I think K may be leaning towards it as well. Here's the dress (it looks much better on than in the pic -- the best part is the amazing big bow in the back...it's so cute!)

In other news, Sailor Boy is back from San Diego for the bachelor party and he's definitely struggling. I told him he's not as young as he once was and he can't party all weekend and then fly back for work on Monday morning. He was not amused. I think he's just mad because all the other guys he was with seemed to be able to "hang" (aka drink all night and then get up the next day and start drinking again) and apparently he can't. I've turned him into an old man. I don't think it's a problem to not be able to binge drink anymore...we're obviously not in college anymore and there's really no reason to do that to your body. I'm perfectly content having a glass or two of wine at dinner and then being able to wake up the next day and not feel like death.

Spencer got spayed yesterday and that was quite the ordeal. She's in serious pain and she's acting like she hates us. I've been giving her baby asprin mixed in with her food but I'm not sure if it's really helping or not. Last night was pretty bad, but this morning she was at least walking a little better and going up and down stairs on her own. She looks at you like she wants you to pick her up (since she wasn't really walking on her own), but as soon as you touch her, she howls in pain. I'm hoping she gets better today with plenty of rest.

This weekend at work (Saturday) I have 3 weddings and a bridal shower. What the HECK am I going to do??? I don't have an assistant (not that I haven't tried to get my boss to hire one) and I really think it may be physically impossible to set up for all 3 of these weddings. The hotel has 1 ballroom and then a smaller private room, so we have a daytime wedding in the ballroom and then an evening wedding up there, and then one mid-afternoon smaller wedding in the private room. The smaller wedding is the biggest headache of the 3 of them!! They have a ton of set up and they're very picky and somewhat bitchy about everything. It's a very last minute wedding and the bride and groom are very young (like 20 -- juniors in college). I've tried to be as helpful as I can, but I'm not a miracle worker - I'm sorry that they waited so long to start planning! Plus, the private room holds 60 people MAX which I've told them about a million times and she called me Saturday to tell me their guest count is at 82 and that's still not final. HMMMMM. So I'm dreading that wedding for sure...

Lastly...Red and White Preppy, can i get an invite?? I really want to read your blog!! Thanks!

Happy Puppy!

Sailor Boy is away this weekend and I had to work all day today, so my wonderful bff K offered to watch Spencer for the day so she didn't have to spend all day cooped up in her crate. She has a fabulous fenced in back yard, so Spence got to play and hang out all day. Here's the adorable pictures she took of Spencer today:Happy Weekend!

Friday evening wedding

So I have a Friday night wedding this weekend at work. They're not very popular, but I usually have a few every couple of months. It always seems like weddings that are held on Fridays or Sundays always have a different dynamic than Saturday weddings. I'm not sure why, but it's definitely a unique vibe for Friday and Sunday weddings.

The wedding here tomorrow should be no different...the couple is covered in tattoos from head to toe! They are actually super nice and have an adorable 5 year old daughter named Ruby, but when I first met them, I was a little surprised. Our hotel is very traditional and nautical, so I was very shocked that they would be interested in it for their wedding. But they really loved it and the bride is so excited every time I talk to her. Another good thing about this couple is that they are very laid back...It's so refreshing to have a bride like that. It makes my job a lot easier (since I'm a very laid back person myself and I handle my job just like that too...which I think surprises some people). I totally understand that there is stress in planning a wedding, especially when it gets down to the weeks before, and I have definitely seen my share of crazy bridezillas. So I hope tomorrow is nice and relaxing and fun.

I actually DO NOT have a Saturday wedding at work this weekend, which I'm super excited about. I will actually get to leave work Saturday at like 4pm...and enjoy my weekend! Sometimes the strain of working every Saturday gets to me...especially in the summer when all my friends and Sailor Boy are out having fun all day. I get off Sundays and Mondays to make up for it - but it's not really the same since everyone else is working that day. I usually will just go lay by the pool all day by myself in the summer, but it does get lonely. I do LOVE my job, so it's definitely worth it...but this field definitely has a high turnover rate. I've been here for about 2 years now and I definitely don't know if i'd be able to do it once I'm married and have kids.
Luckily, that's still a ways off...hehe...so I get to enjoy my job for another few years at least :-)

Changing the subject, I'm loving alot of the new spring sale stuff at jcrew.com. I'm so tempted, but I'm REALLY trying to be good with spending money. I may just have to treat myself to 1 or 2 new things...

We may have a breakthrough!!

Spencer didn't bark this morning!! Well I won't say she didn't bark at all, but she only barked for about 2 minutes, then settled down and enjoyed her new rawhide toy. I am so relieved! We also covered her crate with a sheet at the advice of the rescue group we got her from - apparently it makes them feel calm and safe. So we have a happy and quiet puppy!!

So I promise I'm not turning this into a dog blog...I do have other things going on in my life! My stupid camera is still broken (but it is in the shop as we speak), so hopefully as soon as I get it back I can post the pics from the engagement brunch we threw my bff, K a few weeks ago. It was a total success!! She was so surprised, she cried! I love when you can pull off a surprise party! The weather didn't coorporate, so we had to do it inside, but it will still fabulous and everyone had a great time. I have to say - my days of planning surprise events may be coming to a close. It's so hard!! I've already told K that her shower will NOT be a surprise...haha.

Sailor boy is going to San Diego this weekend for his cousin's bachelor party, so I will have the house to myself. Just me and the puppy dog. I think Sunday I'm going with Bride to be K and the other bridesmaid L to try on dresses for the wedding...we're going to try Nordstrom and Lord and Taylor first. Since there's only two of us, i'm hoping it's nice and easy to find something. K has basically said we can pick whatever dress we both like, doesn't matter where it's from and it can be any style. We're both almost the exact same size too, so we should both fit into the same dress easily. The colors for the wedding are red and aqua (which i totally LOVE - it's so chic), so I think we are going to wear aqua dresses with red bouquets. I personally like this aqua dress from my fave place:

I love the pockets and i think it would be amazing with some bold red jewelry and a red bouquet. The JCrew at our mall is tiny (boooo), so it doesn't carry any of the bridal line dresses. I guess you could twist my arm and i could just order it...you know, to try it. haha.

K also ordered two sample color swatches from Two Birds Bridemaids (one in deep ocean and one in peacock) to see if either of those colors would work as an aqua. Has anyone heard of those dresses before? Its one dress, fits any size, that can be worn like 8 different ways. It's pretty amazing and I'm sort of obsessed. That's one dress I would definitely wear again. So fingers crossed that the color is right.

Happy Wednesday everyone! Enjoy the gorgeous spring weather!

Doggie Advice Needed

Sailor Boy and I live in an apartment, obviously. We have 3 neighbors, two across the hall and one next door. We've never actually met or seen any of these neighbors in the year we've lived here (very bizarre i know...it's not by our doing...we just never see them). Anyways, we knew getting a dog might be a little straining for our current living situation, but we figured we could make it work for a few months until we started looking for an upgrade when our lease is up in July.

Well Spencer has extreme seperation anxiety. Like, EXTREME. You can even close the door to the bathroom and take a shower without her going crazy and barking/howling like mad. Now, we know she is part beagle so she's prone to barking and being loud and we have no problems with that. But this is not normal. We need to be able to live our lives and run a few errands without her flipping out. She is in the crate all night long without a peep, happy as can be. But the second you put her in there during the day to leave for work or run errands, she's freaks. It's starting to become a big problem because if our neighbors complain, it's all over for us. We really can't risk getting evicted over the puppy (as much as I would want to pick the puppy over our apartment - which I told Sailor Boy last night and he was not amused).

She's such a wonderful fun puppy 95% of the time when you're with her. She hardly ever even barks outside of the crate and being alone. We called the foster mom she stayed with before us and she said Spencer never did this with her - she would bark for a few minutes and then quiet down. We've left toys, chewies, kong bones stuffed with peanut butter in her crate with her and nothing works. Yesterday was my day off, so I put her in the crate while I ran to the grocery store. I left quietly and then drove around to the back of our building to see if i could hear her. I sat in my car outside our building and waited - she didn't stop barking for 20 minutes. So I finally left and went to the store for about an hour. When I came back, I pulled around back again and listened - you guessed it - still barking. That's a total of almost an hour and a half of straight barking. And this barking is not just little barks...I could hear her from my car with the windows rolled up!! So i walked up to the building and came inside to the apartment. She was like freaking out when she heard me come in. I let her out and didn't say a word or make eye contact with her (that's what it said in our puppy book). We just walked straight to the door and went outside. She's still barking like crazy and jumping up on me. I turned my back to her and just stood there (another tip from the puppy book). She finally quieted down and we walked - and she turned back into her normal loving self.

What can we do??? She obviously had something happen to her when she was really young, but this is super extreme! I don't understand why she's doing this now, when she didn't do it in 2 months at the foster home. We really have to get this figured out ASAP or else our neighbors are going to kill us! So I need advice badly...if anyone is reading this and has any, please let me know. We are desperate! I'm going to call some dog trainers this afternoon to get some advice and figure out what is going on. Help!!

wow...

i had a whole blog typed up and then blogger ate it before it could post...boo. so i'll start again.

spencer has lived with us for 3 full days now and it's definitely getting a lot easier. because she's a little older, and she's lived with another family for 2 months, she's had a hard time adjusting to us and to her new home. but today she is really starting to respond to us (she will actually look at us when we say her name) and she seems excited when we come home. i guess having a rescued dog can definitely have it's challenges! we think that by the end of next week, she'll have warmed up to us completely...at least we're hoping! she didn't sleep AT ALL the first night we brought her home. 8 straight hours of whining, crying and barking. it was seriously the hardest thing ever...i was crying myself! I think sailor boy was freaked out and wondered if we did the right thing.

so after that night, things have progressively gotten better and better. last night she barked/whined for only 2 minutes before she went to sleep!! success! the thing that's hard is that her foster family let her sleep in bed with them...that's a big no way for me and sailor boy. so she's having to get used to her crate for bed and when we're not there. it will just take time for her to want to sleep and hang out in there. but we still love her and think she's a sweetie.

my camera is still not working properly, so here's a few pics i took with my cell phone of her napping on the couch the other day...