Is it really tinsel time?

Normally we're not quick to put up our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving, but this year is different! The tree is up, there are tinsel garlands on the chandelier, a big bowl of ornaments on the coffee table and snowflake lights waiting to be hung on the garage! And I think I like doing it right after Thanksgiving after all-- I feel like Christmas spirit is needed! This is, of course, Finley's first Christmas, which is very exciting!! I saw a little frame ornament at Pottery Barn the other day that is a little dog house! I may have to go back and get it...it's so cute!!

Last Christmas I was living on the east coast and it was Fiona, the kitten's, first Christmas! My mom sent A and me a gorgeous, gorgeous early '60s aluminum tree which she found us on ebay, and when I moved back home this year A sent it with me! So-- you guessed it-- it is now in the living room here, glittering and looking funky and wonderful. I can't find a good photo online and have found it is hard to take one myself-- the glitter and depth of all the branches just don't show up! But I'll try. Here A is putting branches on last year in Virginia.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun decorating last night and Finn has become a fan of tinsel garlands. She loves the feather duster, too, and man is she determined (too determined? more on this later)! I kid you not, she followed me around for at least a half hour on Thanksgiving waiting for me to forget she was there and unsuspectingly drop my dusting arm so she could slowly step forward and then grab the duster in her little jaws and hang on. Then I'd get her to let go and we'd do it all over again!! Here she is investigating a tinsel garland-- we vacuumed thoroughly after (no eating tinsel! no eating anything except dog food!), but I took this first. See the glitter on her nose? :)

Speaking of Finley obsessing over things, here is Finn with M, one of my greatest friends, who came down for Thanksgiving and was super excited to meet Finley. M gives off very good animal vibes-- Westly, who has a very short list of humans she greets and wags her tail for (me, Mom, Dad, K, and M), remembers her after months and months of not seeing her and dashes over to say Hi, which is almost unheard of!! It makes those greetings all the more amazing, I feel.  Here M is with Finn in the park near our house, with Finn in her favorite carrying positiong :)

M's family has a couple dogs here and they think one of them may be part corgi, and M brought up a couple stories of dogs they've had/known who have become TOO obsessed with things-- namely with laser pointers and shadows/light flecks. I had no idea this was something relatively common, but after watching Finn play with the laser pointer and then look for it for a while afterward, we've made the executive decision that she could definitely become obsessed and spend hours looking for it, so no more laser pointer! Weird, no?

On that note, however, I must go. My huge admissions exam is this coming saturday and I do not feel ready at all-- but I don't think I ever will, so I'm trying to not let that bother me. But I am going to really try to study this week. Not sure how many posts I'll make, but I'll be back after the 5th!! Send good thoughts my way next saturday!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We've had an eventful 24 hours.

Last night T, a very good friend of mine, came over for our semi-regular weeknight relax-out. He recently had to give up his wonderful dalmatian (who has since been adopted by the family who runs the rescue society-- YAY!) and is feeling kind of sad about having no dog. But, Finn looves him and I think the feeling is mutual. She has a special greeting reserved for when she sees him walk through the door and likes to sleep on his feet and he always drops down to his knees and gives her rubs and kisses and hugs before I even get to him :)

So last night, wednesday, T is over and we're chatting when suddenly Finn starts heaving and throws up twice in a row! I had just fed her because she was snuffling around in the kitchen looking for food, and it looked like she threw it all up. So that seemed odd... but then she went out to the greenhouse and threw up two more times and then curled up on the door mat! So I put her in my bathroom, on the linoleum, but she doesn't stop, except now it's mostly bile. I get my parents, especially my mom who has a good feel for sick animals, and my dad sits with Finn while we talk. Finn throws up at least 6 more times in the bathroom with him and by the time I come back from talking with Mom she has started to tremble.

By now I am nearing that mental state where you kick it into hyper drive-- you know the one? Haha, this is my puppy! my baby!! And she does not look good. She's shaking and kind of lying on my dad's shoes in an awkward way. And my dad looks worried, looking down at her, which freaks me out. So I rush over and google emergency vets nearby, wondering who the heck is open the night before Thanksgiving, find one that is relatively close, call and talk to to the girl at the desk-- she tells me that if Finn threw up that many times in such a short period we ought to come in, and we're off! Dad drove, Tim navigated, and I talked to Finn in the backseat. Poor mom was in bed sick. Finn was still shaking and very sleepy. But by the time we got there she had stopped and was feeling well enough to clean her paws on my lap.

We go in (this great bright, clean, re-purposed old brick warehouse building) and the people behind the counter are wonderful-- friendly, informative, professional and quick. A vet tech comes out and gives Finn a quick assessment, determines it isn't life threatening and tells us that it's hard to say what is going on when dogs get sick like that. She told us normal procedure is to wait 12 hours w/o food or water, and see how they handle that. Then re-introduce water and if that stays down, then food, and then if that works all should be well. Since Finn was no longer throwing up or shaking she said we were welcome to hang out in the lobby or waiting room for as long as we wanted to make sure she didn't start looking bad once we left again, and that we could take our time deciding if we wanted to see the on-call vet or go home. Until then they would not charge us.

(We have a magnet now :)


I didn't want to leave until I was sure Finn was going to be fine w/o their attention and skills. So we all went and hung out in a room-- a tech came in and put a towel down for Finn and T got us all tea from their little beverage stand.

T, always with tea, at my house or at the vet :)

We waited around for about 30 minutes, talked with another tech and then decided to go home-- Finn was alert, walking around, sniffing, playing and wagging her tail at the nurses. She seemed 100%!! Thank gooooodness!!! We all had to assume she got whatever the heck was in her system out during her vomiting spree. So we piled back in the car, told the vets we thought they were great but all agreed we hoped never to have to see one another there again. But knowing they are there, and now how to get there, is incredibly comforting. They were great-- the whole facility was great, and without that pressure to pay $$$ as soon as you walk in the door, which is really the last thing you want to be hassled about at the vet and is what seems to happen a lot.

We got home and my mom jumped out of bed to see what had happened and was beyond relieved to see Finley blinking sleepily out at her from my arms. She had spent most of the time online while were were away looking up dog poisoning and worrying. I had caught Finn with a box of borax laundry detergent that morning-- it was empty, but there was soap residue-- and it was the only thing I could think of. Why that would bother her... 9 hours later was beyond me.  =(  it's very scary business.

Finn passed out on my bed for the rest of the night until about 8 this morning, and has been totally great all day today. Here she is sleeping last night-- I think you can tell she isn't feeling super:
 

But today, her first Thanksgiving, was all smiles and cuddling! My Aunt and Uncle loo-ooved her and she even got a bath with Westly and got in a scuffle in the yard with a neighborhood cat. Not bad for the day after puking your little guts out, hmm? I'm watching her like a hawk, but she really seems fine. Still, it scared me. I don't know what she ate, but we've scoured the house and yard. I don't think she'll get into whatever it was again.


So, today I am thankful for lots of things, as I always try to be-- for a safe, wonderful place to live, for my amazing family and friends, for a healthy home, for knowledge and ability and love and happiness and empathy and laughter and spunk. And for Finley, who the thought of losing after a mere 2 months of being in my life caused me to burst into tears last night; for my Dad who is willing to drive as fast as safely possible to a little vet clinic on the edge of San Francisco for her; for T who always finds me tea and doesn't care if his silk and cashmere are covered in puppy fur; and for the kind of people who work at 24 hour vet clinics and let you hang out until you feel alright leaving.

Lounging post-bath, feeling gooorgeous:

A shoutout to our first non-family blogging friend, Betty!

Betty, of A Corgi in Southern California! =)
Was I successful in fixing the comments option?? You were so determined to track me down via comments on Corgi Butts, I want to make sure I get it right! Thank you for not giving up, I've missed your input! I left my email in a comment on your last blog post in case I still have not righted it. Hope all is well and Happy Thanksgiving!!! <3

¡¡¡YAYY!!!

This morning I got up, did the usual-- make sure the dogs' door is open & they have food and water, put on a kettle for tea, open the blinds, feed the fish etc-- but when I logged into blogger I had...7 followers. That's two more than I had last night! I figured when I started that I might eventually find cool fellow corgi-enthusiasts but that no matter what I wanted a place to record the first dog/first corgi adventures! I had no idea that there existed such a corgi community out there on the web! Nooo idea. Boy, was I missing out.

So I login, blogger always displays in big bold black letters how many followers you have, and the number caught my eye and I thought...'What in the world could have changed sinc-- gasp--the Corgi Butt's contest!!' Haha, so I rushed over and sure enough, there was Finn's cute little dirt-covered face on the post for the winner of the drawing! YAYYY!!

Finley came dashing in because she heard me making excited sounds, and we played and chased to celebrate. :)

Then I may or may not have made overly-excited phone calls to a handful of friends and family....and posted it on facebook....

Suffice to say we are THRILLED and suuuuper excited to talk with Kelly of Corgi Butts and give her as many photos and anything else that she wants! And thank her so much for her wonderful blog and fabulously creative contest. She has no idea how happy and excited I've been all day! And will be tomorrow, and the next dayyy, and how I'm going to tell everyone at Thanksgiving and call the bf once he gets off the ship and on and on! :) Totally made my week!

Let you know how it goes!! can't wait!

zzzz...

These next two weeks I am trying to focus on studying. But I want to keep posting, too. I am really proud of Finley. She has really embraced speaking to us when she needs something--mostly to go out, but occasionally when she's hungry or wants to come in from the yard where she plays with Westly-- and I love that! She no longer sleeps in her boudoir, but on top of my bed, which I love, and she likes to snuggle ino the blankets I've put there for her and lean against my legs. awwww :)
Last night, though, I discovered a cute new thing-- I woke up at about 6 and Finn was awake and my nightstand lamp was on! I think I turned it on in my sleep (I do things like that allll the time) in response to her asking to go out. So I got up, put on bathrobe and uggs (it's cold out!) and came over to pick her up. She's been harder to carry lately. She's getting long and heavy. But I bent over and tried to get her to walk to the edge of the bed so I wouldn't have to pick her up at a funny angle. She came over, but she put her two front feet on top of my shoulder and scooted close to my chest, so I could just scoop up her butt and carry her out! And she could be in her favorite carry position-- head up over my shoulder, looking around. It was so cute. and she does it all the time now!

Dressing up...

I love dressing up-- the perfect day when I was little was dressing up in an impressive combination of vintage outfits, halloween costumes, fabric yardage, and my mom's amazing clothes. This of course meant that I liked to dress up other things, too-- dolls, bears, friends, our cats, our dogs.... they were all great sports about it.

Here's Blondie and me! :)


Now that it's getting cold, and I've observed Finn curled into a dog donut I begin to wonder...does she need a jacket? The answer is no, I don't think so, it's not THAT cold here (40s at the worst) and she has a lot of fur! But that little tummy is naked... So she sleeps on my bed now and she loves that. But it's still kinda fun to think about her in a little puff jacket or a horrific sweater. I'm not one for dressing them up in normal clothes, because where's the fun in that? But I can't resist the occasional ridiculous get-up. :)

Not a whole lot has changed! Except the sizes are reversed.

Our first official Corgi Saturday, complete with loads of pretty bad photos!

There is a group of corgis who meet a couple times a month at parks around here and we went for the first time last weekend! Mom, Dad, Finn and I piled into the car and went off to locate Finn's larger, almost entirely tan and white, adorable digging, chasing corgi brethren. and low and behold, we found them! are you ready?

We met a long-haired corgi, a Giants Fan corgi, a pembroke with a tail, a sweet 7-month old corgi, a huge shaggy Golden Retriever named Guss (love that name!), a tennis ball-obsessed corgi named after an ancient philosopher, a slightly overly-hormonal young french pug (fear not! we avoided un-wanted amorous contact), a corgi who peed in other corgis holes (but not ours), and one *one* corgi who was black with a red head and red flecking on the flanks! I am thinking this is what Finn's coloring may evolve into.

Finn was overwhelmed but not too much-- she hung out by us and observed, dug a handsome hole that the philosopher corgi wanted, snuffled around, was not barked at by the bossy long-haired corgi and sniffed and touched noses with lots of nice dogs!
She was, however, totally the belle of the ball. There was no denying it! Finley, in her puppy cuteness, with her pirate patch and different colored eyes and mellow demeanor and willingness to be petted by everyone, was the most unique and zen little lady there. And frankly, the cutest, too. Not that I'm biased or anything.
Digging:


This guy was SO CUTE. He was so energetic and happy and wanted to play. I hope when Finn gets bigger they can play! check out the gorgeous corgi plume, too!

Here is the long-haired corgi! See the butt of the black sadled corgi with tan coming up the sides?

Corgis corgis everywhere! and one french bull dog!

Saying hello to the next youngest and also very mellow and happy girl corgi!

She had the most fun, aside from digging, on the way back to the car though, when she felt comfortable racing me on the grass and found a pile of ice cubes someone had dumped out of their cooler.


Then she discovered the tennis courts and was fascinated! Maybe she'll be a fetching dog... that'd be funnnn.

*Next time I'll bring my big ol' offical camera, because the exposure here is not so good. But I wasn't really into snapping shots-- I was into making sure Finn was feeling comfortable and having fun. But Finn had her photo taken a lot by other people! I wish I had asked them to email me the good ones. Next time.

Lastly, here is my attempt to capture us running after watching all the corgis. Finn is pretty subdued around lots of hyper dogs-- she observes and plays a little, but I think she's very wise to hang back. She's still really small and those corgis were fast and hearding! But give her a space where she us and West or other mellow dogs and she is quickquick! anyway, I love this shot. :) and with that, we're back to the books!!


HAVE A GREAT PRE-THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!!!

The online Corgi Community...

...is pretty dang cool. I'm still amazed at how corgi lovers are everywhere, when I never knew they existed before, and now I wonder if all animals have followings like this and how I missed them before? Is there a MyLab.com? Or an online Siamese cat club? There should be support and fan networks like this for everyone, but I am thinking it might be the corgis because...well, there's just something about corgis. The ears? the huge little spade-like feet? the way the seem to assess all situations? the way they jump up and hit you with their nose? how they warble and talk? I like to think it's all of this and more, but that something has to do with the fact that they are fairy horses :)

One of our favorite corgi bloggers, Corgi Butts, is holding a contest in honor of having 100 followers (wow! I was totally excited to realize we have FOUR today! haha, I even called Andrew). If you win you get either a customized blog header or an illustration of your pet based on a photo! How fun is that?? I can't wait to see the results of whomever wins!
Finn is a big fan of the online corgis, too! Here she is a few weeks ago-- I wanted to see if she'd be interested in a video of another corgi. And she was! hehe :)

hello? is it the weekend yet? no.

It feels like the time is inching and flying by all at the same time. Less than three weeks until The Test. The holidays are coming (YAY FAMILY!!! if ever a girl needed her cousins, this is that girl!), my hours were eliminated at work (sigh) since it's winter, which means nooo money for meeee! All the animals are being weird (earthquake? let's hope not), and by weird I mean irritating and bad, and by all I mean everyone but Finn and Fiona (although Fiona did bring both a semi-dead bird and mole in as offerings to my parents-- and put them on their bed in the middle of the night. but, since it was not my bed, I find that endearing! Tis the season to give, after all!) and sometimes living in a small house with things designed to be in a larger house combined with a troope of wacky animals, no work, a huge test and a boyfriend and best friend that are both a long ways away just ...sucks. Who am I dating again?

But fear not! We are hanging in there. And we're even having fun doing it.
Promise!! I call these the 12-o'clock-and-all-is-subject-to-analysis blues. :) Though Finn is
clealy unaffected, as she is sprawled atop my bed, running in her sleep. Those monstrous, and yet miniature, feet are flicking away!

What Finley does if you whistle her a song...

operation homework is underway!!

Good morning, sunshine!

This week is going to be full of STUDYING. But waking up to this makes it soo much better!

Finn meets K and Ella!

Finley got to meet the best friend of Westly (and me) this weekend!! K came home for a couple days, which means lots of dog walks and dog attention and dog-filled cars. Westly loves Ella, K's black lab, more than any other dog in the world (except Finn, but little sisters are different). K was dying to meet Finn, and it was weird that they hadn't met yet-- I've been sending her multiple photos a day for weeks of all of Finn's antics, so it was like they already knew each other! Apparently Finn is much smaller in person =)

We got the phone call-- demanding that a one, Finley the baby corgi-- be delivered immediately to the home of K and her family and we rushed over! Finn was pretty sleepy, but she had fun and scooted around, meeting everyone and sniffing Ella's bed and being smothered in kisses.


This morning we all piled into the Jeep (aka the dog sleigh) and went to the favorite park. We looked something (though less romantic) like this:

Westly and Ella love each other. They tackle and lick and chase and play and nuzzle and then take off on full tilt through the grasses and bushes. There has yet to be a bad mood they have failed to lift.

Finn was a little intimidated-- and smartly so-- by all of this, and kept near K and my feet. Later she was accidentally wiped out mid-run, much to our dismay. I felt so bad! I had called her, and she was doing her adorable puppy gallop to me, when she and Ella collided. But both were fine!! Finn whined a little, but I think it had just scared her, and Ella bathed her in lots of slobbery dog kisses to make up for it.

Later we put the big girls on their leashes and let Finn run around wherever she wanted with no worry of tackling from her frenzied dog aunts. That was a great success and she decided that she wanted to explore the grasses-- so we all explored in the grass, which is taller than we are! On the way home she passed out and slept for a good 2 hours! So much excitement. And the big dogs make all the distance look so easy!

Another first puppy moment!

I love firsts. They're such incredible things to think about.... Finn's first toy. her first storm. her first walk. etc etc... Here is Finley and her first--- pizza. That's right! She got her first taste of an extra cheese pizza, and funnily enough her little bit looks like a mini slice. Needless to say, she loved it. Though there are, actually, foods that she does not eat! I have heard corgis, like most dogs, will eat anything, but not Finn! She has a discerning palette. which includes pizza. mmm

Finley's triumphant return to the pet store

I love places that allow dogs inside. Being accompanied by an adorable puppy is the ultimate, though.... Really. I think few things are that fun. and getting to take Finn places is my faaavorite. I was in the Apple store the other day and a woman was in there with this totally mellow, totally huge greyhound. Today we went to the pet store, and I have to be honest: I love being That Person. You know, the one with the puppy, who is dying for you to come pet it? because it's so cute and nice and socially adept?? unlike the crazy dog at home? Yes. I love being that person.

The first time we went in she was so little and sleepy I carried her around and everyone oo'd and ah'd appropriately and she didn't notice much. The second time we went there, she did not have fun-- she tried to hide under the huge metal shelves (omg, what if one collapses! forget the hundreds of pounds of organic cat litter, it just might go the second you get under there!) so I ended up coaxing her around and then carrying her.

But, this time, with a respectable 13 weeks under her little belt, she owned the place. She greeted, wagged, climbed the shelves, smelled, and then she discovered the cart's lower level-- the one normally for cases of water and such? She found it and decided it was the coolest thing, climbed up and rode around on it for the rest of our stay!

Finn got pretty fed up after we were in the leash isle for 20 minutes and began to talk to me-- barks, warbles, rrrrrr's. She talks at home, but I thought it was nice she felt comfortable enough to do it in public. I am endlessly thrilled every time she proves to be a little socialite. Though we did discuss the barking-- that's not too polite.

iPhone photo shoot!

One of the best things about this phone (and I know I'm way behind the iphone bandwagon, but I can still be excited!) is the camera. I love taking photos to begin with and used to haul my gorgeous dslr around with me all the time, then I got a fabulous point and shoot for traveling when the good ol' Nikon was a little too valuable to be backpacked around, and now the iphone is perfect for daily moments! Like today. And yesterday. and last week! and this morning. and last night. and three days ago. and tomorrow. and you get the idea.

I had fun making them into groups, I just wish they would show up larger. working on figuring this whole thing out. kinda fun!