Curiouser and Curiouser

It's been a while since I updated on Elsa. She's almost six months now - and a seriously smart little thing.

She's getting fixed on Tuesday the 16th. I'm so nervous. Little dogs usually respond poorly to anesthesia. Or rather, worse than big dogs. But my vet is awesome, they have a great track record, and I comfort myself with the fact that if they can easily spay 2lb kittens, they can definitely spay a 4lb dog. Also, while she's under, she'll be microchipped.

She's also using the litterbox fully now. We're on step 3!
Step 1: Potty pads on floor.
Step 2: Potty pads in box.
Step 3: Litter in box!

She absolutely loves the litterbox. The transition went seamlessly, as I put in litter, she dug around, then went to the bathroom and came running over for a cookie.

The litterbox has some huge upsides. The house actually smells a whole lot better than when we used pads, we don't have to take her outside every 2 hours to relieve her tiny bladder, and she hasn't had an accident in the house since we made the switch, which is awesome. I guess since using the litterbox is fun, going to the bathroom has become an actively enjoyable activity. It also reinforces my theory that in her mind, pee on pads=pee on anything padlike. She'd thought it okay to pee on the kitchen rug and front hall doormat. But now with litter, there's nothing litterlike for her to generalize to.

Which further proves that she's a weird dog, since dogs typically can't generalize, and need to be trained to do so. Or maybe she's too smart for her own damn good.

The main downside to the litterbox is the fact that she loves to dig in it, and buries cookies in it to eat later. Nine times out of ten, she'll forget and leave it there, but still. We discourage her from doing that as much as possible.

She's on the head halter for walks now. I actually had to make one (thank god I can) since they don't sell one in Elsa's size, but it's amazing. She does spend about five minutes in "MOMMY I HATE YOU" mode at the beginning of the walk, but otherwise slips right into it. She no longer barks at geese (thanks to three weeks of threshold training) and has housebroken herself when she comes with me to the salon. Seriously. It's amazing. She learned that doors mean outside, and outside is where the strip of grass with all the pee is. So she runs up to the door and sits, waiting for me to clip her leash on.

Freaking genius dog. If this is what she's like at six months, I don't even know what she'll be capable of as an adult.

Speaking of growing up, she's in a chunkerbutt phase. See, puppies get lanky, then chunky, then lanky, then chunky, then even out to where they should be. And she is going from lanky to this slightly pudgy fluffball thing. And regularly spits out baby teeth into my hand.

On another note, Monday I groomed four Great Danes in a row. It was exhausting. My body is one big pulled muscle. It's very difficult to get a 180lb dog to do anything he doesn't feel like.

Time for tea and paperwork. And Ibuprofen.

T minus 44 hours until the Pupocalypse.

I still have a few small items to pick up, but nothing major. Her placemat and food dishes are on the floor in the kitchen, next to an airtight container holding her food. Vet appointment is set up. Toys collected into a laundry hamper. Crate assembled. Drawers labeled. Name tag made and attached to a collar.

elenuial has started to show interest in the puppy, which makes me indescribably happy. Not only has he decided to come with me to pick her up, but he's also (albeit begrudgingly) agreed to help out with feeding and taking her out for the first few months until she no longer needs to eat every six hours. With me working eight-hour shifts, and him being within walking distance from home plus flexible workdays, it seems like it'll be for the best until she's totally housebroken and can be trusted alone.

The crate will be in the living room so no one will be tempted to respond to begging.

Holy crap. The day after tomorrow, I'm getting a puppy. I will have a dog that my life will revolve around.

I'm so anxious, I don't know how I'm going to be able to sleep.

So, in the last few weeks, a good seven or eight people have asked me if I shoot portraits. Some to just have decent photos of themselves, some for business/professional purposes.

If I were to arrange a weekend or so with rates for shooting pictures, however plain or crazy you want them, would anyone be interested? Like, booking people by the hour. You get an hour of shooting whatever you want.

I will even shoot you nekkids. Or partially so. Seriously - a few people have wanted boudoir shots for their SOs. Those could work, too.

So, yeah. Portraits, fashion style/glamour, whatever. I need the practice, and proceeds will go into the Puppy Fund.

Comment if interested, and I can try to figure things out from there.

Crazy random happenstances, all good, in sequence:
-Woken up to Rock band
-Made jewelry!
-Cleared out tasty leftovers for lunch
-We got in a Bogart netflix movie (score!)
-The above was made even more awesome when elenuial let me know that today was the last day to see Coraline in 3D!
-...and I just happened to have two free movie passes tucked away!
-AND the theatre is doing $6 tuesdays again!
-AND they had blue slushies that weren't broken!
-Coraline was awesome.
-No traffic on the way home!
-More rock band!
-Tumbling around for over an hour =)
-...ending just in time to order from Nancy Chang's!
-...which I have a gift certificate for!
-And I went to pick up ice cream at chopper...
-...which had the awesome Central Market ice cream on sale!
-And one of my favorite songs was playing on the radio when I got in the car.

Today = made of win.

So, this is the female whose offspring I am being offered:


She's beautiful. And, after his wife comes back with the camera, the breeder will be sending me pictures of the individual babies. Here's one of the clutch:


That's $135 (including shipping~!) for a $150 -$300 (no shipping) snake.

And I can make my own custom enclosure cheap.

And have a breeding female in a year and a half.

And clutches are only available every couple of years.

Oh, man. This is getting harder and harder to pass up. This might end up my Christmas present to me.