what now?

We've had a very busy month here - every weekend in July we have driven hundreds of miles up or down the east coast either dropping off or picking up a child from some adventure.  Last weekend we went up to the Adirondacks and then dropped Jasper at camp in New Hampshire - Zuzu even got to go on a boatride.

This past weekend it was Charlotte's turn - her first summer at sleepaway camp.  All day Saturday, she was diligently piling her clothing/books/flashlights/hairbrushes on her bed in preparation.  We were determined to have it all packed and by the front door so that we could just up and go on Sunday morning.  Despite all of our practice, this is highly unusual behavior for our family.    At dinnertime,  I happened to glance at the pooch who had been following me from room to room all day.  I noticed her right eye was swelling up.  Like the good mommy I am, I tried to ignore it, hoping it would go away.  How often does that work?  Um, never.  And true to form, by bedtime her eye had swelled to the size of a walnut, and she could no longer open it.  Perfect.

Given that we were once again piling everything into the car the next morning and driving for the entire day, we decided it was time for a Saturday night trip to the doggie ER.  For goodness sake, we can't have a one eyed French Bulldog!  What if?!?

I suspected she might be having an allergic reaction to something in the yard.  That, or the dreaded distichia had returned.   Back in March, when we took Zuzu in for her one year checkup, we mentioned that Zuzu's left eye was tearing pretty frequently and as a result she had long brown stains in her folds.

Distichia - an extra layer of eyelashes growing in toward her eyeball - were scratching her whenever she blinked.  Poor nunky.  She had to have them removed (to the tune of $1500!).  We couldn't very well let her go through life getting scratched every time she blinked.

After the operation, we were told that they could grow back, but that it was unlikely.  Hmmm.  It's about time for that, right?  And she had just started tearing again the weekend before,  rubbing her eyes on the sisal carpet when she got up in the morning.

As it turns out, she scratched her cornea.  Not sure exactly how.  But when they dyed her eye orange to examine her, there it was.

48 hours later, a cone around her head, and some antibacterial ointment 2x/day - all better.  At the follow-up with the vet it turns out there are no new distichia to speak of.   Phew!

poop patrol

Warning:  the images you are about to see are extremely graphic.  Some people may find them disturbing, even disgusting.  Please proceed with caution.

It's fairly predictable.  Whenever I take Zuzu for her 7am walk she heads for our big beech tree where she takes break number 1 (a peepee).  At the sidewalk we head left for about 15 yards and she starts sniffing for a spot, on the spit of grass between the sidewalk and the street in front of our house.   Interestingly, she never takes break number 2 (a poopie) at home.  No, she much prefers to cross the driveway to our neighbor Jerry's grass.  Every time. 

Personally,  I prefer the comfort of home - unless I happen to find myself in a fancy restaurant or hotel, where I always make it a point to visit the facilities.   I suppose it's much the same for Zuzu, she prefers luxury - a well-manicured lawn when she can find one, sans weeds.  And Jerry does an enviable job of tending his lawn.  In fact, Jerry, who is retired, is out there every day, sweeping the sidewalk, cutting the grass, tending to his curb appeal.  Who can blame Zuzu for wanting the best? I always worry that Jerry is looking...and thinking "here comes the poop machine".  But the sweetheart that he is,  if he is out there, he just wants Zuzu to give him some love.  

She also seems to have a penchant for pooping in front of white picket fences. 

It seems Zuzu is not the only one looking for a picturesque spot to do her business.  I spotted this one on a walk in Santa Monica a few days ago.

Isn't that a pretty gate?  The dropping was actually part of a giant chain of poo (of which I have spared you the complete picture).  Nasty, and remarkably, left right in front of someone's multi-million-dollar-mansion.   Why?  My husband's theory -

VENDETTA

out with the old...

This is Zuzu's chew toy of choice.   She's been chewing on it a little bit every day for about 6 weeks.  Yesterday when I was running errands I decided it must be time for a new one. Right?

That's much nicer, isn't it?  When deciding what size to buy, Nylabone suggests that if in doubt buy the bigger size.   After the Greenie incident - I wholeheartedly agree.  This one is chicken flavored.  Before I even took it out of the package she was ready.

Speaking of the package, there are guidelines (usually neglected, yet always informative) in which Nylabone advises:

No dog toy or chew is totally indestructible.  Frequently inspect any chew before giving it to your dog to make sure it's whole and intact, with no missing pieces.  Replace a Non-Edible Chew when knuckle ends are worn down, or if it becomes too small to chew safely. 

 I'd say it was time, wouldn't you?   I think Zuzu would agree.

Why do dogs love to chew? With a 10 minute internet search here's what I found:

1. Chewing helps relieve tension and stress. 

Not sure this is the case with Zuzu.  She doesn't really let stress get to her.  She's a pretty firm believer in relaxation followed by a long nap.

     2.  Puppies start chewing around the age of 3 months, when their permanent teeth start coming in and they chew in earnest until the age of six to ten months when most of the permanent teeth have come in.

I'll buy that.  Teething hurts.

     3.  Dogs chew because they are bored.

Really?  Zuzu will chew anything chew-worthy in front of her, but does she really chew out of boredom? My guess is that dogs chew initially as a means of exploration, but once they get going it feels so good, they do it until they get bored.  (p.s. How can you tell if your dog is bored?)

When I gave her the Nylabone,  Zuzu got right down to business.  She sat about 3 feet from me but kept swiveling away to protect her treasure.  If I got too close, she'd pick up and move away again.

We have been very lucky that for the most part;  Zuzu does not chew shoes, or furniture - although she still can't be trusted in Charlotte's room.  There are about 10 different chew toys strewn about the house, which seems absurd for one small doggie, but there are so many choices in the dog toy aisle. What to chew? What not to chew? Currently there is a debate going on considering the safety of some of the more natural chew toys, such as rawhide, pigs ears, cow hooves and other body parts. We were instructed upon adoption that under no circumstances should we ever offer Zuzu rawhide or pigs ears.  They may be a problem for all dogs, but for Frenchies, the excessive salivation produced could cause them to choke (fatally).

So, the rule of thumb seem to be: if you see the item falling apart in chunks or pieces, dispose of it immediately, and, ironically, chew toys made of natural materials are the most dangerous.

That means if Zuzu was ever living in the wild,  she could only hunt in a forest inhabited by brand new,  artificial animals with nylon bones.  And she could not chew on them for too long.

tribes

If you've read much of this blog, you may know I'm a knitter.  Sometimes people ask me what I knit.  Not sure there's a theme really.  If I see someone who needs a sweater, I'll make it.

If I find a pattern that inspires me,  I'll knit it.

And sometimes I just like to make stuff up.

But I do knit - a LOT.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend the Squam Art Workshop in Sandwich, New Hampshire. Now that I think about it, I don't think I had a single sandwich.  But I did have one of the most exciting and inspiring 5 days of a lifetime.

It all began with a ride in the fabulous and talented Cal Patch's  dark green jeep.  We had never met which is so hard to believe now.  I guess I sort of hitchhiked on line and she picked me up.  Phew!

We left pretty early but we had so much to talk about that we missed several turns and didn't arrive until dinnertime.

I still can't believe that this was the view outside my window.

While there I took several classes where:

• I learned some excellent knitting tricks from the young knitting wizard,  Jared Flood.
• I learned the meaning of "upcycle"- the act of making something beautiful and memorable from treasured scraps languishing in our cupboards for far too long, from Charlotte Lyons. 
• Most importantly, I found the courage to try something new (which was really hard!).

Maya was the guardian angel sitting on my shoulder when I took the plunge.  Everyone in her orbit saw the halo.  I wish I could have put her in the maya*made bag I bought at the craft fair and taken her home with me.

I went to Squam completely alone.  I knew not a soul.  And yet once I was there, I felt I knew them all - from the women in my cottage to the teachers of my classes to the people I met at the dining hall or walking in the woods. Best of all was being surrounded by this tribe.   We all belong to several tribes.  The first, and most obvious is our family.  Beyond that we have geographic tribes defined by our neighborhoods, professional tribes at work,  political and religious tribes, and more. There is an automatic kinship with the other members - an understanding that creates a space to share ideas, knowledge, and stories.

Many of my tribes cross over.  But my craft tribe is somewhat unto itself.  I very rarely see them. Connecting to them made me see things about myself that I hadn't realized.  Spending time surrounded by them was profound - there were so many inspiring people making beautiful and brilliant work.  It was so hard to leave.  Is that how Zuzu feels when we take her to the dog park?

I was at breakfast one morning realizing I was very near to knitting the buttonhole of a sweater I was working on.  I never liked my own buttonholes, they're just never quite right.  I looked around the dining room and thought, of all of the places I have ever been this is the room where someone will know how to make a better buttonhole.  In fact, sitting right by the entrance 2 women were wearing beautiful cardigans.  Sweet Natalie, who collected our meal tickets. was wearing her brilliant blue tea leaves cardigan with 6 perfect buttonholes.

Next to Natalie, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was wearing a gorgeous green cardigan, which upon inspection,  I realized had no buttonholes.

It had taken a bit of daring for me to get up and wander over to strangers to ask for knitting advice, especially from Stephanie. There were quite a few knitting superstars at Squam - Stephanie (aka the Yarn Harlot) being one. One night she told us stories that had me laughing so hard I couldn't see my knitting through my laugh tears. When I asked them how they make buttonholes they replied in chorus "Yarn over, knit 2 together!".  So obvious!  I said that I usually make the one row buttonhole to which Stephanie responded, "Yes, that's a good one too, but you need to wrap the yarn when you make it, let me show you."  She pulled out the socks she was working on from her bag and demonstrated, on the sock (!), how to make the perfect one row buttonhole.  I stood there smiling and nodding while watching her knit, but frankly I was so mesmerized by watching her knit that I couldn't hear a word of what she was saying.  I have never seen anything like it. It was more like watching a spider weave a web than any knitting that I have ever seen - fast, furious, and impossibly perfect.  I still shudder with disbelief to recall it. I thanked her and when I turned around I thought, "yarn over, knit 2 together".

I knit at every event, many meals, and during all my free time at Squam - and it wasn't rude!  In fact, everyone was doing it.  My concentration wasn't the best, consequently I made a lot of mistakes, but I did manage to finish a striped baby sweater just before I had to leave and head back home.

Zuzu seemed relieved to have me home.  Her human tribe was once again complete.  We have never been separated for 5 days.  She followed me everywhere until finally I sat down.  She jumped up on my lap, snuggled in and went straight into a snorry slumber.

harness!

Every once in a while you've got to shake things up a bit. Zuzu goes for her big walk around the block every day at 11am - that's not going to change, don't worry Zuuz!  Today, as I pulled out her collar and her leash I remembered that I had picked up a little purple spotted harness for her a few months ago.  It's been sitting in the closet mostly because it seemed a bit tight over her sweaters.  Now that we're done with sweaters, I thought it might be fun to take it for a test walk.

She did quite a funny little jump when I tried to put it on her.  And of course it's not so easy to figure out HOW to put it on.  I hope the ring goes toward the rear (please correct me if I'm wrong!).  Once snapped in she seemed to forget all about it.

Zuzu is most definitely not in it to win any races.  She's very curious and she has a lot of sniffing to do on her walks.  It can take 15 minutes to get to the end of the block - and we live in the middle!  We let her take her time when we can, but there are times when we just have to move it along and we need to pull her to get going again.   One advantage of a harness, especially if you've got a challenged walker like we do, is that rather than pulling her every 2 ft by her sweet little neck, the pressure is distributed around her front legs. I'd certainly prefer to be pulled around by my shirt than a necklace.   Wouldn't you?

ancient enemy: blue ball

With the warm weather Zuzu has been spending a lot of time outside.  Although she has a fenced in yard, we humans have to keep an eye on her.  She's quite the explorer.  Ever since she was a puppy she has had her nose to the ground.  Because she's a bulldog (of short snout) her whole face is down there with it.

Like a little vacuum cleaner she will suck up all matter of sticks and clovers and fungii that she finds hidden in the grass - even the plants in the garden bed are fair game.  There are quite a number of ways she can get into trouble if left unattended.  So far so good for Zuzu, although some of the plants are a looking a bit ragtag about 10 inches from the ground.

A dead flower is just as enticing as a moth (or worm - ugh).  I hate to think what we've missed.   If she finds something that smells just wonderful (mmmm...like rotting flesh) she just lays down and rolls in it.

But the biggest excitement is Blue Ball  -  seemingly, the ancient enemy of Zuzu.

It's always the same.  First there's the barking...

then, the chasing... 

until she is able to trap it in a corner where she barks it into submission.

It can be a very dirty job.  But some dog has to do it.

So comforting really, to know that Zuzu is protecting us from the big blue evil.

anticipation

As a producer who works in advertising this made me smile.
As a dog lover I am enchanted...
As a girl who's been on a diet for 4 weeks,  I completely empathize with the single-minded focus of my hungry, furry friends. There are times during the day where I'd do just about anything for a piece of dog food.