Day 8

Sorry for the delay in posting - I don't know where the time goes, I haven't got any crafting done, my days seem to consist of washing, cooking and cleaning and not a lot else at the moment.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of every day pics with you. As you know it was Pepsi's birthday on Friday, so here's a pic of her when we got her and some pics of her on her birthday...

God only knows what she'd found to chew, but she always manages to find something.

Here's a pic of some of the koi in the pond coming up to eat...

And this last one is for my other half's benefit - we finally got the fence and gates done and he hasn't seen them cos he's offshore. So Graham, this is what they look like....

yes, Pepsi had to sneak into the photo lol

Well, it's coming to the end of day 8 of my stop smoking campaign, I haven't been tempted - in fact it's been far easier than I thought it would be. In saying that, I'm not repulsed by the idea of having a cigarette, so I still have to be careful. I've bought plenty of gum and have various little tricks to take my mind off it when the cravings hit, but I'm getting there and I'm actually quite chuffed with myself.

Graham's been taking the Champix tablets while he's been offshore and I think this his 3rd day without a fag too - so I'm so chuffed with both of us. And will start putting the money we're saving away in the holiday bank account.

On another note, is anyone out there interested in being on one of the coolest design team's around? Well get yourself over to Simply Create and have a go at entering Jacqui's design team call. Simply Create is just fabulous - it's also a favourite haunt of local craft royalty - Oor Kath :) If you are ever in the North East of Scotland - you really need to give Jacqui a visit, I can guarantee you won't be disappoined (although you'll probably leave a lot poorer lol)

And if you haven't already entered - remember to enter my 2nd Blogaversary Candy celebration.

Happy Birthday Pepsi

My other baby had her 1st birthday today - yup, wee Princess Pepsi is a whole 1 year old now.

She got loads of treats and a new chewy teddy for her birthday. I have taken pics of her and have some other pics to share with you, but don't have time to get them off the camera just now.

Will hopefully be back tomorrow with all the pics

And in case you're wondering, I'm getting on fine - this is now DAY 5 nearly finished and I haven't given in.

A Tale of Woe

Now, before you start thinking, oh God, what's up with her now - this isn't about me, its about my poor little sausage - Princess Pepsi.

Over the last week I've noticed she seems a little wobbly on her back legs and has fallen over once or twice - the only way I know how to explain it really is to compare it to when my legs just go from under me, I have bilateral hip dysplasia so it happens now and again.

So I took her along to the vet and explained all of this to him, he examined her back legs pretty thoroughly and came to the conclusion that she has luxating patellas in both back legs. Basically what this means is that instead of sitting in the groove at the end of the femur (thigh bone), her kneecaps float around. She has quite a severe case so her kneecaps are sitting on the insides of her legs instead of where her knee should be.

She needs surgery on both legs - obviously not both at the same time though or we'd have to rig her up with some wheels!. She had the first leg done on Monday - they deepend the groove on the end of her femur so that the kneecap sits in place better and they also had to move the tendon with a bit of bone to keep everything straight. So quite major orthopaedic surgery really.

She got home on Tuesday afternoon and looks so sorry for herself. She's got one of those lampshade collars on to stop her from licking at her stitches - although the wee monkey still manages to have a sly lick when I'm not looking. They also shaved both hind legs from her feet right up past her hips - so she looks like she has a mohican on her behind.

I've uploaded a wee video and some pics of her so you can see my poor wee pumpkin.

She's actually recovering pretty well, but as is typical of cavvies, she is milking the sympathy vote. :)

 You can see her stitches in that one

And of course there's no show without Punch - so Ziggy, who missed her heaps when she was away at the vet's wanted in on the act...

Ziggy was just so lost - he spent the whole evening on Monday, mooching around looking for pepsi then curled up in her bed to wait for her .

Princess Pepsi

It's been brought to my attention that I haven't done a Princess Pepsi Update for quite a while.

So here's a couple of pics I took the other day - at first glance she looks awfully sad, but if you look closely, you can see the blur that is her wee waggy tail.

She's growing up so fast, it's so weird when I look back at the pics of her when we first got her and she looks so tiny. 

The garden is now secure - the fence is sorted, so she's running around the garden like a loony with the kids as I'm typing this.

**Edited to add...
Perhaps the garden isn't completely secure then, the little terror managed to escape next door - and what did the neighbours do? just stood there and waited for us to come and get her! didn't occur to them to grab her collar
Anyway, we've got her back and Graham is away planking up the gap. So here's a few pics of Pepsi and the kids in the garden this afternoon...
Here's her trying to find the frog at the edge of the pond...

There's no show without Punch, here's Ziggy waiting to mug Pepsi as she races past him...

Fun in the Snow

We've had more snow here since Friday - although its starting to melt away now - only for more to be forecast tonight and over the next few days.


Yesterday I thought I'd try and capture Pepsi's party trick on camera and Faith wanted to play too. So I thought I'd share...





This one shows Pepsi's trick with her ball better - turn the sound up a bit so you can hear Faith at the end

A week of operations

well this week turned into a bit of a week for operations, as you already know, Pepsi had her operation on Tuesday, then my dad phoned me to say he was going in to hospital on Thursday and having his operation on Friday. My dad had a heart attack near the end of November last year and had been scheduled to have his operation at the beginning of January but it was cancelled as he had a cold.
So on Friday morning my dad had a triple heart bypass operation.
And I'm pleased to say it went very well, I was in to see him last night and he looks incredibly well. It was a bit distressing to see him all hooked up to monitors, drips, drains, catheters and pumps. I think he had 4 canulas in as well as a central line and he had an oxtgen mask on too. Mum phoned me this afternoon and he's got the drains out and is able to move around now so he's a lot happier. Its such a relief I can tell you. My dad is only 67 and has been active all his life.
Anyway, here's the quick get well card I made for him.

Image: Nurse Anya from TGF coloured with promarkers, cardstock is all core'dinations (panels embossed with swirls folder in cuttlebug), paper is Papermania capsule collection. octagon and scallop octagon nesties were used to cut the image, mat and greeting mat. Greeting is Hero Arts.

and her close-up...

Its half term here at the moment, the kids were off on Friday and they are off this Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday too. Today we mostly had a lazy day, the kids were all playing with their DS and DSi's .....

Willow was playing with Faith's fisherprice World of Little People...

And Pepsi was none too impressed with her lampshade...

And I was spoiled again for Valentine's Day, Graham got me these beautiful roses and lilies, a box of Thornton's choccies and that funny balloon - which pepsi absolutely hates and keeps barking at.

A Tearful Day

yesterday was absolutely manic, but before I tell you all about that, I'm going to show you the birthday card I made for one of my BFF's - Marion, whose birthday was yesterday.

Image: Dressy Ebony digi from TGF, coloured with promarkers.
Paper is MME Pretty Please, card is core'dinations and organza ribbon is Anita's
The greeting is Hero Arts, and the adhesive pearls are kaisercraft



and here's her close up

Ok, so onto the tearful bit...
I dropped Willow and Scott off at school then Faith and I took Pepsi along to the vet as she was booked in to get her baby canine teeth out and also to get spayed. Faith was fine in the vets until I had to hand Pepsi over and I could see the bottom lip quivering. By the time I got to the car there were tears and "mummy, please don't leave pepsi"
Then by the time I took her to playgroup there was full on bawling and snivveling. So I stayed with her a wee while until she calmed down. They told me though, when I picked her up again, that she'd burst into tears a couple of times and had a couple of tantrums.
I have to pass the vets on the way home, and again she burst into tears when we passed and didn't stop. And she pestered me to get Pepsi until I phoned in the afternoon to see how it had gone. Apparently everything was fine and Pepsi had woken from the anaesthetic well.
So then all I heard the rest of the afternoon was "please mummy, please can we go get pepsi"
Well, Pepsi is fine - feeling pretty sorry for herself as she's supposed to keep this silly lampshade on AT ALL TIMES for the next 10 days. She's eating and drinking incredibly well - although i did have to ration her for the first 24 hours.
This is her looking particularly sorry for herself....

Belated Pepsi Update

Yes, I know I haven't done a Pepsi update in a wee while, but better late than never.
She was 6 months old on the 30th January, so off we went to the vet for her adolescent health-check. The vet can no longer detect a heart murmur, so we're really chuffed about that - but obviously as she's a cavalier it will be something that will be checked again as she gets older. For those who don't know, Mitral Valve Disease is a heart condition that is common in cavaliers. The vet also noticed a problem with her teeth - her baby canine teeth haven't fallen out, but the adult canines have pushed through anyway, so she'll need the baby ones pulled in case it causes problems like rotting teeth or they push the adult teeth the wrong way. We also discussed gettinf Pepsi spayed. I did consider letting her have a litter, but having loooked into it I don't think it would be a good idea. Although I've had experience with cats having kittens, there seems to be a lot more that can go wrong with dogs and because I don't have the experience or knowledge I think its probably best if we just get her spayed. Pepsi hasn't come into season yet, so she's booked in for the 9th Feb to get spayed and to have her baby teeth pulled. Think I'll ask them to see if her nails need clipped while they're at it.

Anyway, here's a couple of recent pics of Princess Pepsi of Porty lol...

 

That's the little menace investigating my desk and trying to see what all the fuss about farmville is

And here's her pretty face shot..

 

Pepsi Update - 20 and a half weeks

Gosh, that's been a quick week!
Well we've had our first snow this winter, about 3 inches fell and is lying. Its gone all cruchy with the drop in temperature last night.


But Pepsi loves it!!
I wasn't sure how she would take to the snow. I know the cavalier my mum had when I was a teenager was none too impressed with the white stuff. But Pepsi has great fun in the snow, she loves it more than the kids do. She careers round the garden at about 100mph, then does her snowplow impression with her nose.
I didn't manage to catch her tearing round the garden with the camera, but I did manage to capture this wee clip of her. Sorry about the sound, it was pretty windy yesterday afternoon.





Thank you for all the good wishes you sent for Kizzy, she's definitely on the mend now - she's not limping nearly as badly. Unfortunately though Faith decided she wanted a dose of Kizzy's medication, and the sneaky little madam managed to swipe the syringe of medicine while I was trying to grab the cat. But a call to NHS24 confirmed that it was a tiny dose, and it wouldn't be toxic. Thank goodness - I really need eyes in the back of my head with Faith around

Pepsi Update - 19 and a half weeks

Pepsi is getting big! I took a couple of pretty pictures of her the other day that I thought I'd share with you.
She's still not a fan of the car, even sitting on my knee it felt like she was clinging on for grim death, so I tried letting her sit in the footwell at my feet, but she just cried.

Her and Ziggy (my 2 yr old ragdoll cross cat) get on like a house on fire, they'll play together for hours at a time - firm friends. And even Kizzy is mellowing out with her. Kizzy is my old lady cat - I owned her mother and have had Kizzy since the day she was born, over 11 years ago

Talking of Kizzy - I know this is a Pepsi update, but hey-ho. She had a wee accident last week, I was driving away from the house and heard a noise under the car - I knew there hadnt been anything on the road and when I looked in the mirror I saw Kizzy running off the road. Well she didn't come home for a day or two and I started thinking I must have really hurt her. But she appeared back on Friday night and I called the vet cos she was limping on one of her back legs. The vet didn't think her leg would be broken if she was still putting weight on it but asked me to take her in on Saturday morning. So she had a look, and checked her all over and it would appear that nothing is broken, but she's torn some ligaments round her knee. So I have liquid painkillers to give her everyday and see how she gets on. But I have to keep her inside. Kizzy is a pretty good patient really and has taken up residence on a faux fur blanket under the xmas tree - that way she gets peace from everyone, and she takes her medicine fine. So we'll just have to wait and see if she starts baring more weight on her leg as it heals - otherwise the vet will have to x-ray her.

Anyway, here's the pics of Princess Pepsi that I promised...

Pepsi Day - 17 and a half weeks

Its that time again folks, where I waffle on about our puppy - Princess Pepsi. I think she's actually doubled in size this last week - must be a growth spurt - or it could be connected to all the scraps the kids keep surreptitiously dropping on the floor.


I'm still taking her out in the evenings (less distractions) into the garden without the lead and getting her used to coming back to me when I call her - and she's doing really well, rewards are helping immensely.

 Relaxing with Scott.

 

Pepsi Day - 16 and a half weeks

My goodness, little Princess Pepsi is 16 weeks old already. 
I'm sure you'll all be glad to hear that her tail has healed very nicely - she was very good and didn't lick it.
I haven't made it to puppy classes yet, as things have been a bit hectic, and now that Graham's away, I won't be able to go until he's back. But in the meantime I've been teaching her to sit which she manages quite well, I'm trying to get her to give me a paw, but that'll take a bit of time. She knows what "stay" means, and I'm also taking her into the garden without a lead - armed of course with a bag of treats - which is also going quite well.
Pepsi's biggest distraction is hearing other people - she's such a friendly little thing and just loves humans, so as soon as she hears another person she wants to go say hello.


I tried to get a bit of video of her this week while she was sleeping - she's so funny with her little barks, but I didn't manage to capture it this week.


Faith decided she wanted to take Pepsi for a walk in the garden the other day, so I'll share those pics with you instead.