This and that

I've been very sick with a cold for the past week and a half, but Pip has been super sweet about my not being able to play with her very much. She's not feeling all that well herself--or at least, her mouth isn't as her adult teeth keep coming in. Her baby incisors seem to be all out now, and I've found two of her baby molars--one in my shoe and one on the floor, which I stepped on. Two molars are VERY loose, but her baby canine teeth seem firmly rooted still, even though the adult ones are mostly in. The tooth fairy brought her a good chew toy and a Greenie shaped like a toothbrush.

This was while she had a double set of incisors as well as canines!

I wrote a blog post about birding with Pip for my own blog, and some photos I've taken of her have been popular on facebook. Everyone who meets her loves her.

Pip and Marge Gibson

Pip and her friends at Eagle Optics in Middleton, Wisconsin.

Pip and Drew Lanham

To protect Pip from ticks, which carry several diseases up here (and deer ticks are SO hard to safely remove!), I twice administered Parastar—a topical like Frontline. The first time didn't seem to bother her in the least, but the second time, her skin at the site of application seemed to bother her quite a bit for two days. That scared me, so next time we head into tick country, I'll be rubbing some food grade diatomaceous earth into her fur. If that works, that'll be ideal. Of course, no matter what we do, it's essential to check her closely, with literally a fine tooth comb, after outings. Being a little dog means she has less surface area to check, and being an adorable dog means she makes this little chore into a pleasure.

So our first four months together have been smooth sailing. I had a lot of hopes riding on this little puppy before she was even born, and a lot of people chuckled at my "great expectations" for her. But as big as those hopes were, living with the real live puppy turns out to be better than I'd dreamed.