Puppies, week four

We're into the middle of week four with the foster puppies, and I finally have some videos. I even added some elevator music. Enjoy!

Here are some highlights from the puppies at three weeks old. At this time, they were living in a large box that a nice person gave to me for free.



Here are the puppies at almost four weeks old. They were being incredibly cute, so I didn't edit the video. Consequently, it's a bit long, but if you really need a puppy fix, here you go.



And here are the puppies recently, at four weeks. They have moved out of the box and now have most of the floor in our guest bathroom for running around.

This is probably my favorite video. The puppies are really in their cutest stage right now. Can you guess which one is my favorite? :)



It's a pretty far cry from a month ago, when they were like this:

To be fair, I didn't invite it in

Text exchange between me and Byrd

Me: Sad to report we have another mouse in the house. I think bcause no sheetrock in back room. Critters wander in from outside.

Byrd: bs they think its a flop house after seeing u bring in all these animals

Well played, sir.

In other news, the puppies are in the dangerously adorable stage, so no photos right now. Your eyes will bleed and you will vomit. They are just that cute, and I don't want to be responsible for your medical bills. Photos to come, later, when they are less cute.

If you recall, or you may not, I am taking a series of prerequisite undergrad courses as I apply for grad school in pursuit of an MPA. The prereq courses are intro to accounting, microeconomics, macroeconomics, and statistics. Sounds fun, right? (Barf.)

Summer semester is over. The accounting professor said to me "I don't know why you're in this class." Possibly because the students were asking me to tutor them. The microecon professor told me (ironically) that I should be a proofreader, because I kept emailing her with corrections to the quiz questions. Hey, I ignored the minor typos and whatnot. I only sent her the major problems, like answers that were, um, totally wrong. Anyway, I made an A in both classes, hooray.

Fall semester starts next week. I will be in a statistics class and macroeconomics. Both are online courses. The macroeconomics course has already opened for the more ambitious folks, and I was very excited to see that the first 4 of 12 chapters are identical to the first four microeconomics chapters. So I will only have to read 75% of the total material, since I remember 25% of it from last semester. Yay!

I am biding my time waiting for the graduate school application to open up. I can't even start on it until next month, and then I won't know if I'm accepted until January or something, and then I don't even start the degree until Fall 2011. Argh! Impatient!!

Next Tuesday I take the GMAT. I'm ready for it. I think. I hate the math part. But I generally do well on standardized tests, and I never did learn how to study for things like this, so I'm not stressed. I don't know what to be stressed about. Ignorance really is bliss!

Foster puppies, week three

The puppies are now 18 days old. Here are the updated glamour shots.

King Louie. This guy knows how to play it. He will scream AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS until you pick him up. Then he's all sunshine and rainbows and cuddles and sleepy round adorable baby, and you forget why you have a pounding headache.

Princess Peach. Along with Louie and Bowser, Peach is one of the "scream team," though she's a lot quieter now that her eyes are open and she can avoid getting stuck behind things.

Mario. He's a big, quiet, slow fellow. He doesn't do much except sleep.

Luigi. My personal favorite, the most developmentally advanced of the group, and very easy going. He's almost walking on his own now.

Princess Daisy. She chirps like a prairie dog. She's a really quiet, sweet puppy that gets trompled on by everyone else.

Yoshi. The smallest puppy. He likes to sit and stare with HUGE round eyeballs and a bobbly head. Freakin' adorable. He's so dangerously cute, I have to constantly resist the urge to squeeze him until he pops.

Bowser. The BIG boy. His two talents are screaming, and peeing. Once you get him started peeing, be prepared to wipe for about three minutes.

Poor Nancy can't hold up against the swarm of hungry puppies. I have to supplement with formula occasionally.

So that's the crew.

Nancy avoids the puppies whenever possible. I have to make her lie down or sit down to feed them every few hours--and I have to sit there and make sure she doesn't run off while they're eating. I also have to: pee and poop them, bottle feed them, comfort them when they're crying, medicate them as necessary, clean up after them, etc.

I'm going to be SO glad when they're weaned and pottying on their own! No more 2 am / 6 am potty times...

Star and Dozer have taken this invasion in stride. Since the puppies aren't vaccinated yet, we have to keep their exposure to our dogs at a minimum anyway. So the pups and Nancy stay in our guest bathroom, and our dogs are not allowed in there.

Sometimes I will bring a puppy (usually Louie, who is screaming to be held) out of the bathroom with me. Dozer could care less. Star is very curious, but not so much that she's naughty. She likes to gently smell the puppy, then run off and do zoomies at a safe distance. Dozer gives a few sniffs, but shows very little interest in anything more.

I don't mind the puppies myself, but they are SO much work, I can't do this again any time soon; I don't have the time or energy for it. One puppy is a lot of work, seven puppies is truly a full time job!

Anyway, if you live in the Austin area, tell all your friends: these pups (and Nancy!) will be available for adoption in mid-September, from Austin Pets Alive.

Grocery Shopping

As it turns out, Nancy is one of the most detached mother dogs there is. I'm doing everything. Right down to stimulating the puppies to pee. I haven't had a full night of sleep in two weeks. I'm exhausted to the core.

I'll have two-week pictures of the puppies in a few days. Yes, they're two weeks old tomorrow, can you believe it? Some of them already have their eyes half-open in a sleepy, drunk look.

Today I went on a typical grocery trip, but I got a kick out of the list this time. We are supposed to add things to the list as we use up supplies, but Byrd always adds a bunch of stuff at the last minute. So I am sometimes surprised by things on the list when I arrive at the store.

Our grocery list

I walked into the store, unfolded the list, and got stuck immediately at this first item Byrd had written down.

What does this say?

All I could tell was that it is a fruit that starts with the letter "p." I eventually guessed peach, but not before running through prune, plum, and grape (in case he'd gotten the letters mixed up).

I was then startled by this "vegetable" request.

Vegetable-hating man says what?

Until about a month ago, Byrd maintained that the soybean was the devil's bean. When I finally tricked him into eating edamame at a Japanese restaurant, he *gasp* liked it. I then revealed that edamame was soybean. He can't spell edamame, so that's why he wrote "soybean" here. Yes, folks, he's asking for soybeans--hell has frozen over.

And finally, there was this mysterious scrawl for me to decipher.

Lots of juices with orange, p, and m?

Turns out this was orange juice, pineapple-orange, and mango-orange. Why he chose to abbreviate in this particularly cryptic way is beyond me.

The list afforded me some entertainment, but as you can see, there isn't a lot of stuff on it. A little under 40 items, right? And yet, the basket looked like this in the end.

Where did all this stuff come from?

Total tally: 63 items, $206.01, and 1.5 hours.

Then I went home to feed and potty seven puppies...