He wasn't ready…

Sebastian has been sleeping outside his crate at night with us in the bedroom for a couple of weeks now. He’s been doing really well, and he hasn't chewed up anything. We thought it might also be time for him to try staying outside the crate during the day, so we tried it this afternoon. He was not ready. We had him in the bedroom with Abby. We had picked up everything off the floor. Unfortunately, he decided to chew on the door trim. He had actual chew toys, but I guess they weren't what he wanted. We're worried he's going to outgrow his crate before we can let him be out of it again. I guess we’ll buy a larger crate if need be.

Puppy update a few weeks down the road

We've had Sebastian almost a month and a half now. Here's updates:

• We're now giving him 5 mg of prednisone once per day, not twice, and it seems to still be fairly affective at stopping the itching. He's still itchy, though, so we may end up having to take him to the vet anyway. Sebastian is also way less manic and ravenous. Usually. He gets super annoying around bed time or when he's tired.
• We've started him on one pill of fish oil per day. Hoping that might help with the itching too.
• He's finally losing his puppy teeth. He's very bitey still.
• He's pretty well house trained at this point. Messes are rare.
• He really likes squeaky toys.
• Oscar tolerates him much better, but I still wouldn't call them buddies. There are brief moments when I think it looks like Oscar wants to love on Sebastian or play with him, but it doesn't last long, and usually ends with Oscar hissing and/or swiping at Sebastian.
• Abby and Sebastian have finally started to play some in the evenings. They never play outside, though, which is weird. And most of the time Abby doesn't want anything to do with Sebastian; it's just sometimes at night when she gets a wild hair and decides it's play time.
• He sleeps really well at night. He's great in the crate. :D
• The diarrhea cleared up after a week or two when we first got him.
• We messed up and didn't continue his deworming meds like we were supposed to, so now he has worms again, and we're treating all the animals this time. Ugh. They'll all get a second dose in two weeks. And we'll continue treatment as directed this time.
• He's learning his tricks pretty well (sit, up, down, spin). He might be pretty smart!

Puppy Update

Quick bits:

• Sebastian seems to have come to us already crate trained. Yay!
• He's not house trained. Several messes, but he might be slowly starting to get it.
• He's very very itchy. We've tried benadryl with no luck. Oatmeal baths didn't help much either. So we're trying prednisone (5mg twice per day at the moment). It helps with the itching, but the Sebastian is very thirsty, VERY hungry, and is pretty manic ALL THE TIME.
• Abby doesn't like him much. She's not aggressive towards him, but she also doesn't want him messing with her. So, of course, he's constantly trying to get all up in her business. He wants to play. She does not.
• Oscar isn't a fan, but Sebastian is VERY curious about him.
• Sebastian came to us with diarrhea, probably due to a combination of intestinal parasites, changes in food, and stress. 

New Puppy: Sebastian

We got a new puppy! We saw MS Critterz post a puppy that had been found, and nobody claimed it. We were first in line to adopt him. He still has all his milk teeth, so we think he's about 3 months old (probably born some time around the beginning of July). We hadn't planned on getting a dog so young, but here we are.

Photo shared by MS Critterz

Adoption day!

On the way home.

Ellie's First Night

Our first dog's name is Samson, and he is a Great Pyrenees (that is to say mostly Great Pyrenees - we think he has some Labrador in him too). He is a great joy to us, but after a couple of years with him alone, we decided he would do well with a friend.

And so we brought Ellie into our lives.


Ellie Stats: 8 weeks old, 18 lbs., born December 28, 2008
Brought home at 10:30 pm by Anna. Feels skinny. Very standoffish and scared. Cried throughout the night.