Archives for November 2007

If your in debt perhaps debt consolidation would help

November 28, 2007 by Tricia

Have you ever been in debt? I have thanks to school loans and the struggle I went through during the first year that I had started my business. I suppose I’m still in debt since I have a mortgage, but as far as I’m concerned a mortgage or a car loan is a good debt if you’re able to manage it.

The kind of debt that gets people into trouble is when they take out too many loans and get in over their head, or perhaps when they have a number of credit cards and they’ve reached their spending limit on all of them or worse gone over the spending limit. That’s when debt is out of control.

Did you know that the average American family has a debt of over $9,000 due to credit cards which are an unsecured debt?

If you’re in debt it might be time to look into Debt Consolidation. Nationwide credit counseling agency specializes in helping people who’ve accumulated debt.

The agency can help you Consolidate Debt and as a result lower your interest rates.

Visit the Nationwide credit counseling agency website and you’ll find information about debt consolidation, articles on do it yourself debt consolidation, money and debt videos, debt and credit calculators and information that will help you reach a Debt Settlement with your lenders. They’ve even got a forum where you can learn more about debt consolidation and talk to others who are struggling with debt.

Obviously the benefits of debt consolidation will be that you’ll reduce the interest that you’ve been paying, the credit collection calls will end, your total payment amount will be reduced and the best benefit of all will be that you’ll probably be able to sleep better at night because your stress over your financial situation will be reduced or perhaps even eliminated.

When I was in debt I didn’t even think about looking into debt consolidation. I know now that it would have solved a lot of my problems and my stress. I hope to never get into bad debt again but if I were to I’d consider consolidation all of my debt.

OMG puppies are just balls of energy!

November 26, 2007 by Tricia

I am exhausted!

This is the cause:

Meet our new Lab pup. We’ve tentatively named her Midnight, but I’m not sure if that name will stick or not. Names more suitable at this moment vary between Sweetness, Mischief, Trouble, and Chewy. Maybe Chaos would be a good name for her because she’s certainly turned our world Topsy turvy! (if you have any name suggestions for an energetic black puppy let me know.)

On Friday night we drove out to Tilsenberg. Our trip was delayed though. Remember I said we had a really bad snow and ice storm on Thursday? Well it took more than an hour Friday evening to get the ice off the car, and in the process Chris thought he broke one of the windshield wipers so we thought we’d have to replace it before we went on our long drive.

Also, our stupid car seems to seal itself shut in the winter. The rubber liner around the doors freezes and the doors can’t be opened! We had trouble getting into the car to begin with! One thing that helps that problem, that we still haven’t done, is to apply some Vaseline to the rubber around the doors. I’ve got to remind Chris to do that tonight!

It was about 10:30 pm when we finally arrived at the farm. The breeder, Lisa, greeted us when we arrived and she seemed very nice. She walked us out to this absolutely gigantic barn where the puppies were being kept.

As we walked to the barn we passed by the mother and father Labs. They were tied up outside and seemed to be perfectly happy outside in the cold. Both parents were yellow labs and they were friendly and seemed to be fairly well behaved.

The barn held three horses and had a number of empty stables. The couple that owns the farm rents out space to others for their horses.

The pups were in one of the empty stables on a bed of pine shavings. There was a large plywood box in the pen that the pups were using as a shelter. The box/den had a large heat light over it to keep the pups warm and in the pen itself there were two large dishes for water and dog food.

As we walked in the pen our feet were attacked by puppies. Puppies puppies everywhere and man did they like shoelaces!

Here they are attacking Chris’ sandals. (note the fashionable socks and sandals – yes my husband is one of those kind of guys!):

There was a mix of black pups and yellow pups. Chris really liked the male yellow pup at my hand here in this photo and so did I, but it seemed kind of timid and thin:

It took us a long time to pick out a pup, especially as we were constantly battling puppies that were trying to chew our shoes, scarves and anything else they could grab, but we finally decided on Midnight.

We went back to the couples house and filled out some paperwork for her registration papers and then we began the long ride home. I think it was 12:30 am or later by this time!

The puppy was really good in the car. I think the fact that it was so late at night and that the car was dark contributed to her doing so well. She seemed to lightly doze a good portion of the way home.

We got home at about 3:00 or 3:30 am and let the dog roam around a little bit. We eventually turned on the TV while Chris and the pup cuddled on the couch. Chris insisted that we watch PetTV and Midnight seemed to enjoy watching TV. She’d sit up and look at the TV whenever a dog was on.

Around 4 am we went to bed, bringing the pup upstairs and putting her in our medium sized pet carrier for the night. She whined on and off for a while but eventually settled down to sleep until about 7:30 am.

Chris decided to let me sleep and he ended up getting up with the pup and had quite an adventurous few hours before I got up to join them.

Unfortunately, it turned out that our puppy was sick. By the time I got up Chris had cleaned up poop at least 8 times! He was seeing the shredded pine bedding in her stool!

Oh and I forgot to mention that as a result of having been kept on pine shavings she smelled like pine and that got my nose all irritated. I still have a stuffed up nose. I’ve bathed the pup so I’m not 100% sure that the stuffiness was just the pine shavings … maybe it’s my allergies. Chris’ eye has already swollen up once too. Yes we both have allergies to dogs … but if Chris can manage to not rub his eyes we have allergies that we can live with, or at least I hope we can.

At about 3 pm she started having diarrhea and as I cleaned it up I noticed that there were some blood streaks in it so we immediately got the phone book out and tried to find a vet in the area that was open. (we have two vets that we use for our reptile care (box turtles only now) but they are pretty far away so we decided to try to find a vet in the area since it’s much easier to find a dog vet!)

This post is getting really long. I’ll continue our puppy saga in another post later on today … besides … it’s time to take the pup outside for a little adventure in the backyard.

We’ll be leaving to pick up a puppy soon!

November 23, 2007 by Tricia

If a few short hours we’ll be leaving to go and visit the Labrador Retriever breeder and hopefully pick out a new puppy!

For a while we thought we might have to delay our trip. We had freezing rain several times yesterday which of course resulted in icy streets and then it snowed, and snowed and snowed some more. Not that a lot of snow built up or anything, but with the intermittent freezing rain it created a heavy ice covered crust over the snow and it was generally miserable to be outdoors yesterday.

We weren’t sure if it would have cleared up enough today for our long drive to the dog breeders. We have to drive West towards Niagara Falls, and setting aside weather conditions, driving out that way on a Friday, a US long weekend (shopping weekend) no less, and we’re bound to end up being in heavy traffic.

Chris wants to wait until about 7 pm to leave so that the traffic will hopefully have died down. So we won’t get to the breeders until about 9 pm and if all goes well it will be around that time that we’ll be setting eyes on our new dog for the first time!

I think we’re just about ready. We tidied up the house last night so there will be fewer things for a puppy to get into when it gets here.

I also cleaned our old medium sized pet carrier. I think we’ll use that as the puppies crate until we get a proper training crate. It’s a good size for a puppy. We’re also going to bring the pet carrier with us when we go tonight. I plan on holding the puppy when we drive back so it won’t be scared, but since it’s so cold out I feel better having a safe place to put the pup just in case the car breaks down or something happens along the way.

The puppy bed is set out as well and I cleaned the toys we purchased too. I also cleaned the food and water dishes that we bought and have them in place and ready for us.

All I’d like to do before we leave the city this evening is perhaps hit a pet store and maybe get some of those puppy training pads so we’ll have them on hand as soon as we bring the puppy home.

Perhaps while we’re at the store we’ll look at dog gates. The baby gate that Chris purchased the other night is held up by pressure mounts and it’s just not sitting securely enough. I’d rather return it and get one that actually attaches to the wall and has a swinging gate. We’ll probably be going to PetSmart. I’ve already checked out their online store to see what kind of dog gates they have and I think I know which one I’d like to get. So maybe we’ll pick that up too if we make it to the store before we leave and if we can decide on one quickly enough.

Now, all you experienced puppy/ dog owners out there … maybe you can give me some advice on dog food? The breeder has apparently been feeding the puppies Purina puppy chow so we already bought a small bag of that in order to be sure the dog will eat when it’s here, but what kind of puppy dog food would you recommend? I know I’ll probably get several different brands recommended, but I’d just like to know if there’s anything wrong with feeding the puppy the Purina puppy chow of if we should be feeding it something better?

Also if you have any more tips for me – especially about traveling in a car with the puppy for the first time (2 hour drive!) I’d love to hear from you! I was reading on a site that the puppy will do better and be less frightened if it’s held and reassured.

Wish me luck on finding a healthy puppy to bring home!

BTW if we get a puppy I’ll post photos as soon as I can!

Getting ready for our new Puppy!

November 22, 2007 by Tricia

Ever since we decided to get a puppy and possibly found a breeder to buy our new puppy from we’ve been busy trying to get ready for the new addition.

When we went to the Humane Society Tuesday night we stopped in their pet supply store before we left and looked at all the dog toys, the huge assortment of dog foods and snacks available and so on. I must admit we were pretty confused.

I mean, what kind of things do puppy need?

We decided to get a small dog collar and a leash to go with it. I know we won’t be talking the puppy out to the park until all it’s shots are finished but I want it to have a collar and we might use the collar and leash for short walks around our yard and property.

We also got a double food and water dish set. It’s on a stand so it’s less likely for a dog to make the dishes tip over and spill.

Then we stood looking at the array of doggy toys that we could purchase. We ended up picking two that would be good for teething puppies/ small dogs. We tried out some squeeky toys but we both nixed them fairly fast and they were loud! Maybe we’ll give in and get the pup one at some point but for now it’s all set with two toys to chew on.

We also got a really nice camouflage fabric doggy bed. It’s stuffed full of microfiber and if the pup doesn’t use it maybe I’ll roll it up and use it as a cushion … really, it seems pretty comfy.

Now I bet since we bought the dog a doggy bed already it will never use it!

Last night Chris came home and went right out to a department store. He had to get something from the baby furniture department. No it wasn’t one of those nice baby cribs although I hope one day we’ll get one of those too.

We’d talked the night before about what to do about our stair case. It’s a narrow staircase of only 29 inches and we opened up the one side of it in the dining room. There’s no banister which is legal since it’s such a narrow stair way … but still it could be dangerous for a small child or animal. So we talked about getting a baby gate.

We figure that the dog will likely spend most of it’s time with me and I’m on the main floor most of the time, but when we are upstairs the dog will still probably want to be near us … so when Chris went out to the store he got a baby gate that slides open.

Unfortunately since our stairway is so narrow a gate that barely slides open due to the narrowness of the opening won’t do. Chris actually expected me to get to the top of the stairs and lift my leg up over it. Yeah … try that when you’re dizzy or nauseated or maybe carrying a puppy in your arms? Uh huh. Back to the store he went!

He eventually came home (after we took a look on the internet for the kind I’d wanted him to get) with one that has a true gate that will swing open in either direction.

Tomorrow we’ll install that either at the top of the stairs or perhaps in the upstairs hallway just on the other side of the bathroom. Might as well keep it easy to get to the bathroom right, since it’s almost at the top of the stairs anyway.

What would you do? Put the gate at the top of the stairs or keep it easy to get to the bathroom and put the gate on the other side of the bathroom entrance?

Chris also picked up the kind of food that the puppies are currently being fed and some small treats to help with training.

Is there any other essentials that we really should get before we have a new puppy in the house?

Does your cellphone ever make calls on it’s own?

November 22, 2007 by Tricia

Don’t you just hate it when you discover that you’ve had an unlocked phone in your purse or pocket and oops it’s made some calls?

One of our friends seems to forget to lock their cell phone fairly often and we must be high up on the speed dial. He’s a car salesman and we get these long rambling messages on our home phone of him talking with customers obviously unaware that the cellphone has made a call. He must put his phone in his pocket because there’s always a lot of staticy fabric rustling sounds to go with his accidental calls.

I always try to remember to lock our cell phone before I put it in my purse, but I’ll bet I’ve made one of those strange calls accidentally in the past.

Have you?

If your in debt perhaps debt consolidation would help

OMG puppies are just balls of energy!

We’ll be leaving to pick up a puppy soon!

Getting ready for our new Puppy!

Does your cellphone ever make calls on it’s own?

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Archives for November 2007

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