G' Mornin'

Sammy isn't much of a morning dog. This is after I had been up gotten myself some cereal and brought out the camcorder.


Hope he catches up on his sleep before Normy comes home. Less than a week! :)

State Attack!

Sammy more than doubled the amount of states he has been to this past weekend. Not that it was hard. Sammy had been to South Dakota and Nebraska. Now he can say that he has been to South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. Quite the little traveller, eh! We have had this trip planned for a while. I have family that lives in Illinois. My cousin, her husband and three kids come to Omaha quite often to visit all the family here. Erik and I are quite close to them and love to see them at any possible chance! Sammy looooves them, especially the kiddos. Origianally we were going to go back this past spring break, but my grandpa's health was in a quick decline, and we never quite made it. So instead, we pushed it back to this fall. Neither Erik or Sammy had been there before, so I was super excited to show it off! "Where's we goin Momma?" Our detour through Missouri was already explained two blogs ago. Next we continued our journey to Illinois! Sammy was exhausted after seeing Normy and the kitties, so he esentially awakened in Illinois. We were staying with my cousins, and they have a puppy themselves. Eva. She often is called Eva the Diva. Eva is a doberman mix who will be a year old this Halloween. She has been extremely timid. We were hoping for the best with Sammy and Eva, and we got it! Immediately Sammy picked up on her timid nature and exploited it. Immediately Eva was very interested in the Sammy pants. She kept coming up to him, and he kept showing his teeth. We think that this is a reaction from Max, Erik's sister's dog. Max is around the same age and has a very lean, taller than Sammy body as well as energy to spare. Max is more agressive with Sammy than most dogs and really doesn't ever slow down or take it easy on Sammy, so Sammy usually needs me to intervene. Eva however, would not be of the same nature, but Sammy didn't know that. Over our weekend, Sammy continued to show his teeth, but would often have his ears down or kiss her with his teeth snarled. It really didn't make any sense to have the aggressive teeth mixed with the passive ears and licking, so we were really confused by it. Both Eva and Sammy would wag their tails (or nubs) so we just let it go since neither seemed to have a problem with it. Eva figured out how to get Sammy to chase her. Sammy being such a little good herder could never resist. Those two wore themselves out doing this. I tried and tried and tried to get a video of them, but Sammy being a little poser when the cameras come out, I never got a good one. I did get one of them kinda chasing each other and one of them wrestling, but that was it. They mainly enjoyed running around the kitchen table. They just kept going and going and going. It was hard for them to go around, but they kept at it. Then would divert into the family room, and back into the kitchen and around the table. Silly pups.

Sammy loved being around the kids, too. He loved all the attention he got from everyone. Sammy loved all the action in the kitchen. He was ready for anything to fall! He doesn't remember the Nebraska game too much. And remembers some of the game night. We played the Wii Fit Plus. Mostly it was Erik and my oldest cousin that night. Here is our home video of some of that evening. It's not up on our YouTube page, but I will put it up here because it shows how much Sammy is loved and just how tired he was to sleep through all the fun! PS...the Wii fit is awesome! It's now on our Christmas list!Sammy loved naptime. And although he love, love, loved it there, he really loved coming back home where all is his, there are no children, and plenty of naps.

More Flea Woes

Sammy had the fleas not too long ago. We gave him a flea bath and they were gone. Or so we thought.
The flea bath really seemed to dry out his skin. We washed it out, and waited the suggested amount of days until giving him another bath with normal shampoo. He was very itchy until then, and the new bath really seemed to help him out. We thought we were doing really well. Gave him his weekly bath right before leaving for Illinois. Just wanted to make sure it was all out. He didn't seem too itchy while we were there, and neither of the other animals were itchy either.
We got back and yesterday I did all the laundry from the trip, unpacked and gave the Sammy pants a bath. He had become increasingly itchy from our return, combined with the slobbers from the trip, I really thought it would help him out.
While in the bath, I stumbled upon a really yucky wound looking scarish thingy. Hard to describe. It was right above his nub where he had been trying to chew. His bath only made him more itchy. It was time to call in the professional.
It was time to do his yearly shots. We were supposed to get his rabies during September, but our last vet never sent anything or called us like they usually do. With all the moving and everything, we didn't really think about it til after we should have gotten him in. We lumped it all into one. We called up a new vet place advertising half price vaccinations. sounded like a good deal considering we didn't know how much his current condition wuold cost us.
The earliest we could get in was the next day (today) at 1 pm. Sammy was just miserable. His skin was red and you could tell through his white fur. He just wanted to lay on my lap and get my attention. He was so itchy he couldn't stop itching and licking and biting himself. Oh I just felt awful. i couldn't wait to get him to the vet. I got so wrapped up I never got to blogging our Illinois adventure!
He couldn't sleep during the night. I didn't want him to itch it and make it worse or rub it so raw it bled, so I ended up waking so frequently to hold his paws I didn't feel like I got ANY sleep.
We got up for the day and he just attached to me some more. I just couldn't wait to get him there. The vet and vet tech were so nice. Sammy was on his best behavior for them, too. I was worried he would be a little grouchy from the little sleep and itchies, but he wasn't! He got tons of compliments. Everyone loved him and said he was just so handsome and such a great dog! Which he is, by the way.
Right away, they knew he still had fleas. Which was an awful thing to hear after all I have tried thus far. However, our vet searched and searched him. She found 1. She found almost no "flea dirt." She explained that he was basically hyper-sensitive or hyper-allergic to fleas. She didn't phrase it quite that way, but basically what she was saying.
Omaha is having some trouble with fleas right now. She said they have seen tons more fleas than usual. We are just going to have to be extra careful with him. Aside from his yearly shots, Sammy got an extra shot to help get rid of fleas faster and also got a shot to help his skin from the itching. It will last 5 to 7 days, so hopefully everything will be out of his skin by then. He also is now going to be on Sentinel, which is for fleas as well as heart worm, along with his frontline. At least until the flea count in Omaha is this high. He will be uber covered! Which I am just fine with considering how awful he has felt with these fleas that we can barely find!!
Sammy's shots took immediate effect. He has been able to stop itching and nap the rest of the day. Something MUCH needed after his big trip and all this darn itching. I'm so happy for him. And I'm pretty happy that this happened while we were supposed to be gone, so I had the day off to help take care of him. Even more excited we can sleep in tomorrow and enjoy one more day off together tomorrow!! Yay! Then I can get out Illinois trip blogged!!


Oh and PS...I'm figuring out the whole YouTube thing. I am now up to getting 2 videos up! Woo hoo! I am TheCorgiMomma on YouTube, and I have 2 videos that are from our visit to the breeders to meet the puppies. I took 3 total, and I'm going to try to get the third up there eventually. But they are my "home videos" of our expiernce with Norman. Sammy was totally distracted by the cat and didn't care about Norman unless Norman was trying to feed from his belly!! Haha. Oh, and since we were planning on getting a girl, we didn't have a name picked out for Normy, so he is still reffered to as Brimley, the name given to him by the breeder, and his middle name. My camcorder is a HD camcorder, and I haven't been able to figure out how to get it HD on YouTube. It looks a lot better on the computer or tv or camcorder than on the YouTube. But I will get there. Come check us out:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCorgiMomma?feature=mhum

These are also from the breeder's page. These are the videos uploaded from the past week with Norman and his brothers. His litter was 7 boys and no girls.



and her YouTube page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/carolscorgis#p/u/2/B54XWj615CQ

Normy

Sammy is now a big brother! Well, kinda.
After lots and lots of consideration, and an almost dog before, Erik set up a little stop along our trip to Illinois. As disappointed as I was about our almost puppy, he was even more. He was a little more puppy gun-ho than I. I was still quite concerned Sammy wasn't ready. Nor us.
Even if we didn't end up with a puppy, I wanted to stop and see how Sammy did to determine whether or not it was an even idea to ponder. Erik found this website online, and there were 2 liters available. One of 7 males, and one of 4 females. We had it all planned. Little girl to go with the big bro Sammy.
It was mostly highway, something Sammy isn't used to. Sammy knows car trips. He is well aware of turn signals and stopping means....we're there! But not on highways. We slow down for towns and actually turn. He was quite unsure of our trip. But we got there, and Sammy got to meet some corgis!
Sammy stayed upstairs while we went down to meet the puppies, so the mom's wouldn't feel the need to protect their babies. The girls were just soooo cute. Then, out of no where, Erik looked over at the boys. Bent down and suddenly had a little boy on his arm. He picked that little puppy up, and what do you know....he was ATTACHED!! He handed that little puppy over to me. I recieved a kiss, and Erik asked if we could take him upstairs to see Sammy.
Sammy was distracted by the cats, so after just a couple of seconds, we were outside with the puppy and Sammy. This little guy's name is Brimley. Brimley instantly began following Sammy. Sammy found another cat and couldn't care less about puppy. That gave Erik and I plenty of bonding time with Brimley. Erik and Brimley had a moment just as Sammy and I had a little over 14 months ago!
Without looking at another puppy, there we were, ready for puppy number two! I was still somewhat nervous. Even though Sammy was not jealous of our attention given to a new puppy, he was not excited about this puppy. I was concerned about this. Erik had NO concerns.
We got back in the car and Sammy passed out. We got to our destination in Illinois, and unloaded into my cousin's house. They had a, almost one year old, doberman mix named Eva. She hasn't done well with dogs before. Not bad, just really, really timid, so little interaction. I knew Sammy would take care of this. Sammy first was quite assertive and took advantage of the timid behavior to show his dominance. Sammy also took to his herding abilities. This did not make me feel much easier about the future puppy coming home.
Loooong story short (I will share our trip fun next blog entry), Sammy and Eva became the bestest of bestest of best friends. Sammy just loved running after her and Eva just loved being chased. Perfect world for them. Eva really came out of her shell and was egging him on, trying to get him to play. They became pretty much attached. He misses her, and we got a text pic of Eva sad without Sammy. This has made me so sure, and so excited to bring home our puppy.
In fact, while we were there we were coming up with names, looking for the right one. Brimley is his current name, and we are fond of it, and knew it would remain his middle name. We needed to come up with a name for his lazy, "whatever" attitude. Brimely is very laid back, not scared of a thing. Was great at running up to Sammy as he was spazzing over the kitties. Happy to run to person to person and check out the yard. Not getting too far, but definately exploring. But he was certainly BIG! He is going to be bigger than Sammy. The lady calls him, "the st. bernard of the corgi pack!" That should help sum up his size and 'tude! Haha.
So.....alas, Sammy's little brother is.....Norman Brimley!
Norman Brimley was born August 29, 2010. He will come home in a couple weeks. We still need to look at the calendar and determine the day. Normy will be a tri color, with a red head, ears and tushy and black back. He is our blackshirt! (You might hafta be a Husker fan for that!) Hopefully Sammy will be excited! And hopefully we will be wonderful with the mid-night potties! We got lucky with Sammy and didn't have any mid-night potties. He was too lazy to get up to potty! Haha.
I also finally got my camcorder I have been saving for, for 3 months! We got some video of Norman, Sammy and our whole trip. I will be trying to figure out the uploading and all that to share our Norman meeting. Until then, here are our photos. The first three are from the webpage of the breeder we are getting Norman from.




And these are Sammy, Norman and I for the first time!




Finally, to our readers. Once we get our newest addition, we are going to be needing a new name for our blog. Anyone have a suggestion? I'm really only at the obvious...."Adventures of Sammy and Norman." Any other ideas?

18 Months

Yesterday was Sammy's half birthday. He was one year and a half old, exactly. Now offically closer to two than one. What does 18 months mean to most people? Not much. As a kid, I remember it being really fun. Extra special to say, "I'm 8, and a half!" What does 18 months mean to a corgi? Not much. What does it mean to Sammy? A super yummy cookie from The Gourmet Dog Shoppe. Unfortunately the store is at the mall and he can't go with me. But it's so fun. It's like the cases at a bakery, or deli, where their cookies are displayed. Then there are some things packaged up for presents or just to take more to go. And it's all made for dogs. They avoid oils, bleached flour, sugar, chocolate, salt, ....all that stuff. And it really isn't too expensive, which means I could easily go a little crazy.
Last year, for Sammy's half birthday, Sammy got a peanut butter bone cookie double dipped into doggie chocolate (that carob powder stuff). We took it to my grandparents' and he enjoyed it unlike most dogs. He licked and licked and licked. Licked all the chocolate off before chomping a bite of the cookie!
This year, I got him the exact same cookie and he did the same thing, except much faster with his giant tounge! He also got the same kind of cookie (dipped once) in a football shape with a Nebraksa N on it as well as Puppy Popcorn. The Puppy Popcorn was popcorn made without any of the oils or salt, then drizzled with the carob powder sauce and some kind of peanut butter sauce concoction.


He got his half birthday cookie yesterday, got his Nebraska cookie today, and will have to wait for his Puppy Popcorn.



"Mine?!"







"Still my's half birthday?? Ok's!!!!"







"Go Huskers!!"


***Just for a look back to a year ago!






I can't believe it's only been a year! He has gotten so big...he grew into those ears of his!!! And now he's really filling out...my little chunky monkey!

Greetings

"Greetings from my I rug. I'm enjoying a nice fall evening nap on my rug.
....then my eyes get flashed."

Ugh...Finally

After moving in, Sammy took to our new deck. He loves it. Just loves to watch the neighbors and come in and out all on his own terms. Seeing him take to the deck, I promised him we would get him a rug or something to have out there for him. Today I finally made good on that promise.
Sammy was very happy.

Spent most of the day frog doggin on his new rug. However, everytime I tried to take a picture, he heard the beep of the camera and went to his poser mode. Jumped up and got a more "standard pose."


Sorry to not be updating very well this past week. I had a crazy work schedule doing 12-14 hour overnights. Then switched back to my normal 6 am shifts. Trying to get as many hours in as I can before our trip next weekend. The Nebraska game was also on Thursday this week, so we spent today getting our new tv stand and setting up the living room. This next week won't be much better, but we will update the best we can! We are excited to take him on his first big trip (something other than the 3 hour ride to Erik's parents' or camping).

Big Bro?

Well, if that title didn't kinda tell you this blog entry, I don't what teaser to use! Over the last week Erik and I have looked into a corgi puppy more. I really wanted, kinda still want, to save a corgi or corgi mix. I love the whole puppy expierence, but the idea of saving a dog really makes me feel better. The idea of skipping teething and housebreaking is also quite alluring. However, there really are few and far between corgis to rescue here in the Omaha area. I really have my heart set on another corgi or corgi mix just because Sammy fits so well into our lifestyle and apartment. Not to mention we both have smaller cars, and then we wouldn't hafta worry about bigger or smaller being a problem. Plus his breed personalities really do work with us. And gosh darn it, they are just adorable! However, bringing in a grown corgi could be difficult in many ways for Sammy, the new dog, as well as for our place. All the articles I have read say when bringing in a second dog, the best results come from a younger dog of opposite gender than the existing dog. So in many ways a puppy would be easier on all of us.
There are very few breeders anywhere near us. Haven't found one within 5 hours of us. Because they are so few and far between, the supply and demand can make the price go up as well. I did find a breeder that is 5 and a half hours from us, about an hour and a half away from Erik's parents, that has an affordable price tag. They breed once a year, most years, as well as horses on a ranch. They have a few pictures online and they have tri colors. The male that would be the future dad is only 20 lbs! Sammy is more than 50% more weighing in at 32 lbs! He doesn't seem like a chunky monkey either! So a pup would most likely be smaller and fit in our cars and bed easily. (Hopefully.) They are looking to have puppies in March, bringing home the puppies in late May/early June.
But it's so hard to decide. It would be nice to have a little one for Sammy to wrestle with, play with, and have while we are at work. Plus, maybe he would learn to share better. On the other hand, potty training again, puppy food again, would this little one be a chewer (Sammy never once got the knack to chew and really never got into anything, ....ok so he ripped a present last Christmas, got trail mix out of Erik's backpack and has chewed up 3 or 4 plastic bottles, but nothing serious), walking and picking up the potty of two pups simulateously, fitting them in the car, would they want the same spot in bed? If we had a house, I would probably not hesitate a bit, but with our 900 sq ft apartment....little bit. My biggest concern, if Sammy could, would he choose to be a big brother or want to be an only dog?
When we go to the dogpark, Sammy picks puppies and little dogs and protects them. He doesn't allow others to rough house with them. Sammy loves just walking with the youngins. Sammy even lets me pet them at will. He does not allow this with older dogs. Sammy is a very social dog. He loves other dogs wherever they may be. Even driving by them on the road, he somewhat bounds toward them. But Sammy doesn't have to share me with any of these puppies. He can curl up with me whenever he wants, and often when I want him to. He can have all his toys whenever he wants them. He can have his bones whenever he wants them. He can sleep on the bed where ever he wants to. But often when we just get home, Sammy wants to play right away, and we want to sit for a half hour first. Would a puppy help him with this?
Ugh. So hard to decide what to do. The breeder already have 4 and a maybe on the waitlist. We have to decide fast. She invited us to her ranch to meet the future parents, which I want to do. She keeps all puppies as house pets until they go to their homes. Crate trained, and at least partially house broken as well as all the vaccinations and such to be expected from a breeder. All sounds great on that end, just deciding what we should do. Anyone have an opinion?

Also a couple reminders. I posted a post about the Paws it Forward package we got. We still are looking for dogs to Paw it Forward to. So if you are interested, please, please, PLEASE let me know! \
Secondly, in case you don't already know, the calendar is available.
http://www.corgibutts.com/calendar.html
Sammy is Mr. July and wants everyone to get it! Kelly did a fantastic job where they are many options. The Corgis with Blogs calendar (where Sammy is Mr. July), a digital calendar for your computer (also with Sammy as Mr. July) and a More Corgis with Blogs mini calendar with even more corgis!!