Gosh there's been way way way too much stuff to tell you all about Derby. Let me do my best... and I'm going to cheat and do it in list form since that's the fastest and easiest:
-he got neutered
-he's losing most of his grey and is now mostly white/beige-ish
-he got A LOT bigger (maybe around 15lbs now? guessing)
-he still has a bad "i'm going to bite you so you'll play with me" complex
-we take him to dog parks often
-we take him to visit our friends' dogs often
-he's pretty much potty trained completely now
-he comes to work everyday for at least part of the day
-he loves loves loves to stick his whole upper body out of the window during car rides
-we get frustrated with his stubborness and his bad habits on a daily basis
-but we love him to death!
If I were to write a short blurb about Derby for a Personals page I'd probably say:
Super energetic dog looking for playmates at all times of the day. If you're not into leashed walks but enjoy long trips to the dog park I'm your pup! Easy to train if you have treats, don't bother me if you don't. I'll eat just about anything and I love just about everybody... just be careful, I bite if you ignore me! I'm a sweet dog with a loooot of energy just looking for fun fun FUN!
Friday, August 1, 2008
7 Weeks Later...
I refuse to let this blog die. Some days I've wanted to write about Derby and I've loaded up the page and the first thing on top was the post about my Dad. It would just bring back the flood of emotions from that first day that it happened... so fresh, so raw still... and I couldn't do anything but close the window and leave the writing for another day.
So 7 weeks have passed since my Dad passed away. I can't believe it... 7 weeks. It feels like it just happened a few days ago. Hell it feels like it didn't even happen and that I'll walk into work one morning and he'll be sitting there, sipping his coffee, reading his newspaper as he would so often be doing by the time I got there. But what more can be said? I miss him, my mom misses him... everybody misses him. I think about him every few minutes. Sometimes coming in to work in the morning is agonizing because I expect to see him there. Sometimes I cry for almost no reason because something so small will remind me of him. Like the time I cried in Circuit City because they were showing Top Gun (one of his faves!). I have pictures of him that I got from my mom, but I can't even bring myself to put them up anywhere in my house yet.
There's a lot more that I can and want to say about it, and maybe as time passes I'll write more... if for no other reason than for me to get it off my chest, out of my head, and written down somewhere so that someday I can go back and read it all again... and remember. Remember how I felt, what I thought, what I went through. So I guess that's a warning to all of you... this blog is now 50% serious posts about my feelings and 50% posts about Derby (he's doing well! thanks for asking!).
So just know that I'll be updating the blog again... in fact I'm gonna write a separate blog entry right now to update you all on Derby. To anybody reading this... I hope you're doing well, I know I've been pretty MIA lately.
So 7 weeks have passed since my Dad passed away. I can't believe it... 7 weeks. It feels like it just happened a few days ago. Hell it feels like it didn't even happen and that I'll walk into work one morning and he'll be sitting there, sipping his coffee, reading his newspaper as he would so often be doing by the time I got there. But what more can be said? I miss him, my mom misses him... everybody misses him. I think about him every few minutes. Sometimes coming in to work in the morning is agonizing because I expect to see him there. Sometimes I cry for almost no reason because something so small will remind me of him. Like the time I cried in Circuit City because they were showing Top Gun (one of his faves!). I have pictures of him that I got from my mom, but I can't even bring myself to put them up anywhere in my house yet.
There's a lot more that I can and want to say about it, and maybe as time passes I'll write more... if for no other reason than for me to get it off my chest, out of my head, and written down somewhere so that someday I can go back and read it all again... and remember. Remember how I felt, what I thought, what I went through. So I guess that's a warning to all of you... this blog is now 50% serious posts about my feelings and 50% posts about Derby (he's doing well! thanks for asking!).
So just know that I'll be updating the blog again... in fact I'm gonna write a separate blog entry right now to update you all on Derby. To anybody reading this... I hope you're doing well, I know I've been pretty MIA lately.
Friday, June 13, 2008
4/24/47 - 6/13/08
I'm not sure this is a fitting place to post something like this, but most of my friends read this page so it seems like the best place to do it. It'll be easier than telling each and every one of you individually.
This morning at 2am my father passed away. His surgery had gone relatively well, and he had just spent all of Thursday at home for the first time in a couple weeks. However, at night he complained of a severe shortness of breath. By the time the ambulance got him to the ER, he had already bled too much. Something in or around his heart gave way and he bled into his chest. My mom was with him when he passed, and my brother and I made it to the ER shortly after.
When I gather some strength I will write more. But I thank you guys ahead of time for keeping me and my family in your thoughts and prayers.
This morning at 2am my father passed away. His surgery had gone relatively well, and he had just spent all of Thursday at home for the first time in a couple weeks. However, at night he complained of a severe shortness of breath. By the time the ambulance got him to the ER, he had already bled too much. Something in or around his heart gave way and he bled into his chest. My mom was with him when he passed, and my brother and I made it to the ER shortly after.
When I gather some strength I will write more. But I thank you guys ahead of time for keeping me and my family in your thoughts and prayers.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Life can be a mean bitch
I am exhausted.
... What a week. Some of you know what's going on, some of you don't. I'm not going to get into the details of it in a blog, but long story short, my dad had to have open heart surgery again. He already had a valve replaced once about 5 years ago, but it recently got infected and needed to be replaced again. The last few days have been excrutiating, knowing he needed the emergency surgery and not knowing if he would make it.
Do you tell him everything you want to tell him just in case it's the last time you talk to him? Or do you maintain the confidence and optimism to keep his spirits up?
I just got back from the hospital. He had his surgery early this morning and it was a long procedure. For now he's critical but stable, and the next 4 or 5 days are going to be crucial to see if he'll be ok or not... he better be ok...
Thank god for my wife and my mom or I wouldn't know what to do. Oh, and this being a puppy blog I better thank Derby too. It's nice coming home to him to take away some of the stress.
... What a week. Some of you know what's going on, some of you don't. I'm not going to get into the details of it in a blog, but long story short, my dad had to have open heart surgery again. He already had a valve replaced once about 5 years ago, but it recently got infected and needed to be replaced again. The last few days have been excrutiating, knowing he needed the emergency surgery and not knowing if he would make it.
Do you tell him everything you want to tell him just in case it's the last time you talk to him? Or do you maintain the confidence and optimism to keep his spirits up?
I just got back from the hospital. He had his surgery early this morning and it was a long procedure. For now he's critical but stable, and the next 4 or 5 days are going to be crucial to see if he'll be ok or not... he better be ok...
Thank god for my wife and my mom or I wouldn't know what to do. Oh, and this being a puppy blog I better thank Derby too. It's nice coming home to him to take away some of the stress.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Lazy I am
So did I ever mention I'm good at starting blogs, but terrible at keeping them updated? Basically I've been way too freakin' lazy to update this thing and that's why there's been no recap of the camping trip. It's way too far past now to recap in detail so I'll just say: we ate a ton of good food, we had way too many supplies as nobody trusted anybody else to bring their share, we had a really good time, and I didn't catch any fish despite being able to see some huge fish swimming 3 feet away from me. Overall, A+, will do it again for sure!
On to more recent activities... Derby had a crazy busy weekend (as did we). Let's have a recap!
It starts on thursday night when our good friends Brian and Elissa come by to drop their dog Bailey off before they head out to Vegas for the long weekend. Bailey is a cute Bichon-Poodle mix and is about the same size as Derby (~10lbs or so). The boys immediately start "playing" with each other... which is actually a strange mix of gay-loving and fighting. They basically alternate humping each other with some wrestling and play biting thrown in. Totally awesome homo-erotic stuff. This pretty much continues non stop until bedtime.
Friday morning the boys pick up where they left off with more playing and fighting. Tritia practically wants to shoot herself from the loud barking and whining, but she soldiers on (reluctantly, hehe). By the afternoon the boys are much better as they're starting to get bored with each other. By the time I get home from work at 4, they are chilled out and can handle just walking around and sitting near each other. I do some dog whisperer shit and have them sit together and do tricks together... it's good times! Unfortunately the truce is short lived and more play fighting happens intermittently. Overall though it looks like they're having a lot of fun together.
Saturday is basically more of the same with me confined to a 10'x10' section of our living room with both dogs all day. I could leave if I choose, but the ensuing whining and crying would have the neighbors up in arms... so, I choose to stay. All day the cycle continues... play fight for 30 minutes, go find something to chew on for 15 minutes, play fight for another 30 minutes, be happy with each other for 15 minutes and sniff around/do tricks, then chill out/nap for an hour, rinse, repeat. By the end of the day both pups are totally exhausted and pass out. So do I.
Sunday is more of the same until Brian and Elissa make it back from Vegas. They pick Bailey up and the world returns to normal. That all changes again on Monday, however. We decide to take Derby to visit Susan and her dog Siku. Siku is a gorgeous 65 pound Husky. Yeah, 65 pounds. I'm not sure why we thought it would be a good idea, but in retrospect... not so much. Derby was freaked out by the sheer size of Siku and decided he would spend the day under the patio chairs and tables and behind the bushes and trees. Siku, sweet as he is, just wanted to play with Derby and when he got the chance would try to chase Derby and swat him with his paw playfully. Too bad 65 pounds of playful sends 10 lbs of Derby flying. Long story short, not much playtime was had, and Derby was too scared to even pee in Siku's territory. Yeah... maybe we'll see you again when Derby is 20+lbs Siku!
So that's the weekend in a nutshell. I really think Derby is a new dog after the weekend... in a good way. Actually, he did pick up two new habits that are sort of bad. The first is that he now goes potty on the concrete because that's where Bailey went. Totally not Bailey's fault in any way... he was in a new place and going outside was the best we could settle for... but yeah, Derby used to jump into the dirt and potty up there ONLY. We'll see if this behavior continues. The second bad habit is he'll now jump up and chill on the couch. This isn't a huge problem and we're ok with it... he just didn't really do it before. Once again Derby's just copying Bailey who always hangs out on the couch.
As for positives... Derby is much more chilled out. Not sure why... maybe he realizes he's not the only dog in the world. Or maybe he realizes that if he's not a good puppy then we can replace him with another dog, haha. There was some jealousy in competing for attention over the weekend though, so maybe something clicked. Who knows? But yeah, he's been great the last couple of days and just seems much more mellow... actually, I hope he's not sick. Blech. He's also much more affectionate than before. Just another thing he picked up from Bailey I think. Bailey is much more of an "inside-the-house-lap-dog" type puppy, whereas Derby always has access to the outdoors and likes to run and get dirty in the plants and mud. So Bailey is much more clingy and all about cuddling up on the couch and stuff... Derby never did that kind of crap until this last weekend. Good stuff! It makes me feel wanted. *tear*
So I have some pictures to post when I'm not too lazy to upload them. Until then, I hope you enjoyed my picture-less block of text.
On to more recent activities... Derby had a crazy busy weekend (as did we). Let's have a recap!
It starts on thursday night when our good friends Brian and Elissa come by to drop their dog Bailey off before they head out to Vegas for the long weekend. Bailey is a cute Bichon-Poodle mix and is about the same size as Derby (~10lbs or so). The boys immediately start "playing" with each other... which is actually a strange mix of gay-loving and fighting. They basically alternate humping each other with some wrestling and play biting thrown in. Totally awesome homo-erotic stuff. This pretty much continues non stop until bedtime.
Friday morning the boys pick up where they left off with more playing and fighting. Tritia practically wants to shoot herself from the loud barking and whining, but she soldiers on (reluctantly, hehe). By the afternoon the boys are much better as they're starting to get bored with each other. By the time I get home from work at 4, they are chilled out and can handle just walking around and sitting near each other. I do some dog whisperer shit and have them sit together and do tricks together... it's good times! Unfortunately the truce is short lived and more play fighting happens intermittently. Overall though it looks like they're having a lot of fun together.
Saturday is basically more of the same with me confined to a 10'x10' section of our living room with both dogs all day. I could leave if I choose, but the ensuing whining and crying would have the neighbors up in arms... so, I choose to stay. All day the cycle continues... play fight for 30 minutes, go find something to chew on for 15 minutes, play fight for another 30 minutes, be happy with each other for 15 minutes and sniff around/do tricks, then chill out/nap for an hour, rinse, repeat. By the end of the day both pups are totally exhausted and pass out. So do I.
Sunday is more of the same until Brian and Elissa make it back from Vegas. They pick Bailey up and the world returns to normal. That all changes again on Monday, however. We decide to take Derby to visit Susan and her dog Siku. Siku is a gorgeous 65 pound Husky. Yeah, 65 pounds. I'm not sure why we thought it would be a good idea, but in retrospect... not so much. Derby was freaked out by the sheer size of Siku and decided he would spend the day under the patio chairs and tables and behind the bushes and trees. Siku, sweet as he is, just wanted to play with Derby and when he got the chance would try to chase Derby and swat him with his paw playfully. Too bad 65 pounds of playful sends 10 lbs of Derby flying. Long story short, not much playtime was had, and Derby was too scared to even pee in Siku's territory. Yeah... maybe we'll see you again when Derby is 20+lbs Siku!
So that's the weekend in a nutshell. I really think Derby is a new dog after the weekend... in a good way. Actually, he did pick up two new habits that are sort of bad. The first is that he now goes potty on the concrete because that's where Bailey went. Totally not Bailey's fault in any way... he was in a new place and going outside was the best we could settle for... but yeah, Derby used to jump into the dirt and potty up there ONLY. We'll see if this behavior continues. The second bad habit is he'll now jump up and chill on the couch. This isn't a huge problem and we're ok with it... he just didn't really do it before. Once again Derby's just copying Bailey who always hangs out on the couch.
As for positives... Derby is much more chilled out. Not sure why... maybe he realizes he's not the only dog in the world. Or maybe he realizes that if he's not a good puppy then we can replace him with another dog, haha. There was some jealousy in competing for attention over the weekend though, so maybe something clicked. Who knows? But yeah, he's been great the last couple of days and just seems much more mellow... actually, I hope he's not sick. Blech. He's also much more affectionate than before. Just another thing he picked up from Bailey I think. Bailey is much more of an "inside-the-house-lap-dog" type puppy, whereas Derby always has access to the outdoors and likes to run and get dirty in the plants and mud. So Bailey is much more clingy and all about cuddling up on the couch and stuff... Derby never did that kind of crap until this last weekend. Good stuff! It makes me feel wanted. *tear*
So I have some pictures to post when I'm not too lazy to upload them. Until then, I hope you enjoyed my picture-less block of text.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Friday Bullets
- Yay, it's friday!
- This week, that means camping for a group of 12 of us. Which also means lots of beer, sausages, bbq, snacks, and my personal favorite, fishing!
- Unfortunately, it also means Derby is at home, alone. :( My cousins/roommates have volunteered to take care of him, but I'm sure he won't be getting as much loving as normal. Poor Derby, I'm going to miss him!
- Lakers vs Jazz game 6 of their playoff matchup tonight. First Laker game this playoffs I won't be watching... better win it!
- I hated the first Chronicles of Narnia movie. I would've given it a D at best... yet here I am debating going to see the second one when it comes out. Apparently it's "more violent", has better effects/more cool scenes, and is general not really a children's movie anymore. I might give it a shot, though I'm not sure anything can live up to my desire for more Lord of the Rings. Damn you Peter Jackson! You've ruined me for life!
- Speaking of movies... I still need to freaking watch Iron Man. It got good reviews from both the critics and the viewers. Anybody seen it and want to comment?
- Watch Lost. No really, watch Lost. All of the episodes are online at abc.com. This season has been ridiculous good.
- Almost time to leave for camping and it's freaking hot. Have a good weekend everybody!
- This week, that means camping for a group of 12 of us. Which also means lots of beer, sausages, bbq, snacks, and my personal favorite, fishing!
- Unfortunately, it also means Derby is at home, alone. :( My cousins/roommates have volunteered to take care of him, but I'm sure he won't be getting as much loving as normal. Poor Derby, I'm going to miss him!
- Lakers vs Jazz game 6 of their playoff matchup tonight. First Laker game this playoffs I won't be watching... better win it!
- I hated the first Chronicles of Narnia movie. I would've given it a D at best... yet here I am debating going to see the second one when it comes out. Apparently it's "more violent", has better effects/more cool scenes, and is general not really a children's movie anymore. I might give it a shot, though I'm not sure anything can live up to my desire for more Lord of the Rings. Damn you Peter Jackson! You've ruined me for life!
- Speaking of movies... I still need to freaking watch Iron Man. It got good reviews from both the critics and the viewers. Anybody seen it and want to comment?
- Watch Lost. No really, watch Lost. All of the episodes are online at abc.com. This season has been ridiculous good.
- Almost time to leave for camping and it's freaking hot. Have a good weekend everybody!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Vet Trip #2
Saturday morning was vet trip #2 for the Derbster. He got his second set of shots and we got to ask a ton of questions. Derby was pretty good with the vet... no crying when he got his shot so all went well. Unfortunately Derby was diagnosed with Giardia. It's nothing too serious but it could lead to some diarrhea and stuff (basically it's what you can get drinking out of a stream or the tap in Mexico). Anyway, he's already on his treatment plan which is 5 days of some powdery medicine mixed with his food.
Oh, Derby also weighed in at a hefty 9lbs... a full 4lbs heavier than when we bought him. He gained 4 lbs in less than a month! Sounds like his owner. :(
Anyhow, I'm already counting down the days until he gets his third (and last) set of shots. After that we can take him out on walks, to dog parks, and to meet other dogs. I can't wait! Hopefully that'll help us burn off some of his crazy puppy energy.
Oh, Derby also weighed in at a hefty 9lbs... a full 4lbs heavier than when we bought him. He gained 4 lbs in less than a month! Sounds like his owner. :(
Anyhow, I'm already counting down the days until he gets his third (and last) set of shots. After that we can take him out on walks, to dog parks, and to meet other dogs. I can't wait! Hopefully that'll help us burn off some of his crazy puppy energy.
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