Did You Miss Me?

Hey Everyone! I know I've been a really bad blogger as of late, but what with Rocco's transfer, all of my packing and saying good byes, and my trip I haven't had much time on the Internet. You all hear right! As of right now I am officially a student at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. This is why Rocco was transferred. GDB doesn't allow their dogs over seas as puppies you see.

Anyway, I have pictures from his transfer date and pictures of my trip which I think you will all enjoy because there are a few special guest coming! Can any of you remember who they are? Well, you'll just have to wait and see until I have finished unpacking and getting set up here before I can download pictures and write a post, but that should be no problem for you guys seeing as it's only 7:30am for the guys back in California.

Updates and pictures real soon! I promise!

The "I Miss Most" Post

So it's time for the "What I'll Miss the Most" Post. That's right everyone. Rocco is leaving me tomorrow afternoon. Right now he's sitting next to me on his bed chewing on a new toy I bought him. It's a sterile marrow bone and I got it so that he can take it with him and have a little something of here so the transition will be easier. Anyway, on the to rest of the post.

Things I'll Miss the Most about Rocco:

1. Rocco's colouring. I describe his colour as a picture of a dog done by a little kid. Only, the little kid wasn't too sure what colour yellow she wanted to use for the doggie. So, the kid used all of them. He's got a really dark stripe down his back, but the roots of his hair are white. Then lower down he's got a peach colour and his underbelly is completely white. And he's got really apparent angel wings. He's also got a white tip on his tail. I think he's one of the prettiest coloured dogs out there.

2. His really long cow tongue. It's so long and I don't think he has much control over it at all. He's a very licky dog and I love that he'll wiggle into the room, wiggle over to a person, lick them in the leg, and wiggle on by. It's really cute.

3. His personality. It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of male dogs and that I prefer females over males, but I really like this boy. He's such a goober! You can tell he's smart, but at the same time he can get this deer caught in the headlight look that make you think there's no one in there. He stumbles over his own and feet and doesn't seem to care. I really, really like this big boy.

4. The way he;ll wake me up by putting both front paws on the end of my bed then jump off and do it again and again until I wake up. It usually means he has to go do his business or that he's really hungry. He doesn't do it all the time. It's only like once a week where he eats earlier or he didn't pee enough before he went to be, but I'll still miss it.

5. I'll miss having a dog follow me from room to room when I get up in the morning or when I decide to go back to my room from the living room. It's going to be weird to not have that happen.

6. Mostly though, I'm just going to miss him.

Tomorrow after Mary gets off work we'll be heading off to drop him off at his new raiser's house. I'm so glad that he's staying so close even if he didn't get to stay in my group.

Labour Day Weekend:Part 2

The rest of our Labour Day weekend was pretty relaxing, but we still did a few "new" things. Rocco went to Ikea for the first time last weekend. I LOVE Ikea, but we don't have one here. All we have is a distribution centre. I love going to Ikea with the puppies because it's hectic, crowded, and there are a plethora of new noises, sights, and smells. He did great there even when some little girl came up and started to pet Rocco just out of the blue and her dad said "Ask the lady what the dog's name is." I felt like saying "How 'bout asking the lady if she can pet the dog first?" But I didn't. I should have though...

Anyway, we also went to the LA Arboretum and saw these things. Yep, that's a peacock!
He was a good boy and smiled for the camera.

Then I stepped back and tried to take a better picture, but this is the look that he gave me. You can tell that he's really interested in something right?
Well, this is what he saw. I was pretty surprised that he was SO distracted because he really isn't interested in other birds, but he REALLY wanted to get to these things.
We didn't get to see any tail feathers, but we did see baby peacocks! These little guys just ran up to Rocco to see what the heck he was.

Anyway, we went on the the tropical flowers and this was right before we entered the green house.

Isn't that a cool tiki?
Not the best picture of Rocco but I thought those red flowers were just too pretty.

Now I'd like to show you the usual process of getting a good picture of Rocco.

Me: "Hey Rocco!"
Mom: "Rocco! *raises hand above his head* Rocco"
Me: "Rocco!"Me: "Roooocccccccoooooo!"
Me: "Rocco! Nice! Oh I'm a horrible person...shoot! He blinked!"
Rocco: "Maybe I'll give her a smile and she'll stop taking pictures."
Me: "Rocco boy! There's a smile, but you're not looking at the camera."

Rocco: "Fine. Cheese!"

Me: "Oh Good Boy Rocco!!!!"

From there we went to this cool fountain that I don't have a picture of. BUT! There was this cool looking tree next to the fountain.

I just love how there's green all around him.

Then went to find Queen Anne's Cottage (which was gorgeous) and on the way we bumped into some very pretty flowers.

I really love these blue flowers.

I love this picture of him!
Though I think this is my favourite of him in front of the blue flowers.

This is now my computer desktop wallpaper. This is definitely my overall favourite picture of the day.But I also really like this one. He wasn't looking at the camera so I kept called him and finally he looked at me for a second, gave me this smile, and when I snapped the picture he turned away again. Yes, my dog posed for me.

Ok, here are those babies that were so interested in Rocco. Rocco is equally as interested in them.

That Mama Peacock had a field day trying to get her babies away from the dog.
Then we came to this pretty waterfall and I couldn't resist.

Now some pictures of me and the boy from the day.


He did so good, but I really hope that he and his new partner never come across a peacock. I got him under control but he was still really distracted and it's not like I have an unlimited supply of time or peacocks to work with that. :)

Labour Day Weekend: Part 1

So, our weekend started off with a trip down to my mother's down in LA. Normally I drive the boy and myself down there, but this time we did things a little differently. Now, Freya was on the Bus and Train down there at 5 or 6 months old because she wasn't shy of anything. That girl had no fear. That is not the same with Rocco. Rocco showed a bit of noise shyness and noise distractions when he was a little puppy so we've put off going on the train until he was older. This seemed like a perfect time to do it because it'll be his last trip down to see my mom and he's almost 8 months old. So that is what we did this time.

Here's Rocco asleep on the Train. It didn't phase him at all. He really seemed to enjoy it.
Rocco laying down on the bus like a good boy.
I absolutely love this picture of him.
Though this has to be my favourite because it really shows off his tongue.

Such a happy boy!


I love how the sun bounces of his golden coat and shines real bright.

In both of these pictures.

One of the first things we did was go shopping for some orchids for my mommy. She loves orchids and she recently got her own classroom (yay! no more sharing!) and she wanted a few plants to liven up the small space. So please enjoy a few pictures of Rocco at various Orchid Farms.

I don't know what was up with the lighting here, but I like it!

The Orchid Farms were really close to the beach and I figured that it would be fun to take Rocco there and we hadn't had lunch yet so we sat at a bench in front of the ocean (none of us brought our bathing suits) and ate our lunch while Rocco got to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the ocean.

This is my favourite picture at the beach.

I think if he were allowed he would have loved to swim in the ocean, but of course, we weren't really there for the day.

Coming up...Rocco has an encounter with a new kind of creature.

A Suicidal Dog?

I haven't been doing my normal "Mostly Wordless Wednesday" for the past few weeks and I'm not going to do it today because I have so many pictures from the weekend that I want to get up there. Anyway I wanted to share this story with you.

My mom and step-dad have a balcony that leads from the guest room. Rocco has been on balconies before so when my step-dad and I were instructed with the task of moving and watering plants I didn't think twice when Rocco followed us out there to check out what we were doing. The laundry rack had collapsed so we were trying desperately to get the POS thing back together (luckily they got a new one at Ikea the next day) when someone started talking below our balcony. So what does my brain child decide to do? He thinks, "Hey, I'll go say hello! Never mind this wall in the way." So all I see is a yellow blur run to the side of the balcony and jump! Thankfully the wall was too high for him to clear because we were on the SECOND floor! I quickly grabbed his collar and threw him inside with a few curses under my breath and a few "Stupid DOG!"s here and there. When he looked at me as if he didn't know why I wouldn't let him out there with us I told him if he had survived that landing all the way down onto some poor person's car then I would have personally skinned him alive and had him for dinner. So either way he would have been killed. My question is this: Can dogs be suicidal?

Today Rocco's morning business looked normal!! YAY! It's the first poop I haven't been worried about since last Monday so I'm very happy! That means that when we get back home from my mom's house on Tuesday I can start transitioning him back to normal puppy food.

Now that you are all aware that Rocco is having normal poops again I have a funny story to tell you and I really wish I had gotten it on video. This morning I woke up before my mom and step-dad which is quite normal. So I'm going about feeding Rocco his horrible Cottage Cheese and Rice with a side of Antibiotics like normal. He finishes eating so I start to make my breakfast (toast because we went to a Cuban bakery last night around closing time and they gave each of us a bag of bread to take home) when my mom starts calling Rocco from their room. Now, I've sort of trained Rocco not to go into rooms which have their doors closed or slightly cracked so I had to help him along with going in there because he wasn't too sure if he was allowed. This is for the sake of all four of my parents so that they don't have a bouncy puppy on them at 7am on a weekend. Well, he goes in there and I see it before it happens because he gets this look in his eyes. He's not smart enough to hide what he's thinking before he does something naughty and the look in his eye this morning was, "I'm gonna do it! I'm not suppose to, but I'm gonna!" So, he stops for a split second in the bedroom, sees the two of them, then springs like a bunny on top of the bed and starts liking both of them at once. I was laughing too hard to immediately tell him to get down, but as soon as I caught my breath I said, "Rocco..." in that stern parent voice I used to hate to hear and he looked at me and just simply stepped off the bed. It was one of the funniest things I think I have ever seen him do.

After that we all went to Kozen-rufu Gongyo. My mom and step-dad are Buddhist and today was their monthly World Peace meeting where the objective of the meeting is to "pray"* for world peace. As a puppy raiser it is my job to expose these puppies to the most I can and the most that they are able to handle. Last time Rocco and I didn't go because I wasn't sure if he could handle all the noise, but he's older now so I decided to take him. My theory is that you never know who your dog is going to go to. So Freya actually wen to church, Buddhist meetings, and I believe she went to Temple once. I do try and make sure they know how to behave in any religious setting. Anyway Rocco did fantastic. I love the Kozen-rufu Gongyo meetings for puppies because it's a pretty big deal. There is generally music, lots of people all "praying"* at once, the bell used at the activity centre is large and loud and of a different pitch than the one we have at home, and of course there are always little kids. Rocco did beautifully and he's really progressed on his clapping thing. I got him to lay calm through half of the clapping and the other half he looked at me. So there is definite progress there. He just did so wonderfully that I'm sure he's going to be great for his new raisers when he leaves in a week.

Poor Sick Puppy

It seems like I have too many posts that are titled with the word "sick" in them. Anyway, you remember how Rocco went to the vet all Tuesday? Well, his stool samples came back positive for coccidia. For those of you who don't know coccidia is a bacteria in the stomach that cuases really bad poop. That's the basic explaination. Why did he pee so much though? Well, the vet said that the bad tummy probably caused a bladder infection. So, Rocco's on his fifth set of pills. Fun stuff right? At least he only needs to take one for both the coccidia and the bladder infection. He's seems absolutely fine. He's just as active as ever so he'll be right as rain to get on the train to visit his grandma tomorrow through the weekend. I'm pretty excited about taking him on the train for the first time. I know he's going to do great!

I promise pictures will be coming of Lance. He's so stinking cute that I took a whole bunch!