Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Healthy as a... corgi
We took Gimli to the vet today for his checkup and to have blood drawn to test for heartworm.
Of course, Gimli was excited to see all the ladies there - they all love him and he does his best to appear cuter than he really is. He lay on his back and pawed at the air, he sat up and pawed, he lay down and gave the biggest smile and the ladies all fawned over him.
He's a smart one, this dog.
The only trouble he had was when he had to have his blood drawn. We put on a muzzle, as Gimli doesn't like needles, then the Dr. took him to the back room away from us. A looonnng 10 minutes elapsed and we heard some yelping and crying. Finally he came back with a nice star bandage on his leg.
All in all, Gimli's healthy. He's roughly 28 lbs, which is right where he's supposed to be corgi wise. We've recently discovered he's a larger corgi... or perhaps I haven't seen other male corgis to get a good enough comparison. When we visited his breeder, she had only females at home and Gimli was a good size bigger than the girls. I suspect Gimli's father was a big boy and that accounts for Gimli.
It's funny though, Gimli doesn't look ungainly, he looks normal... if that makes sense.
It was also a sad visit to the vet. We are leaving that practice for one closer to home. It takes about 30 minutes to get there... on a good day. If we have an appointment during the week, it has to be later in the evening because Mike has to come home and pick us up, then we head to the clinic.
The vet gave us some recommendations for clinics in our city, so that makes it a bit easier to achieve the same standard of care, but still... a little sad.
I'm sure Gimli will have the female employees at the new clinic fawning over him in no time!
Of course, Gimli was excited to see all the ladies there - they all love him and he does his best to appear cuter than he really is. He lay on his back and pawed at the air, he sat up and pawed, he lay down and gave the biggest smile and the ladies all fawned over him.
He's a smart one, this dog.
The only trouble he had was when he had to have his blood drawn. We put on a muzzle, as Gimli doesn't like needles, then the Dr. took him to the back room away from us. A looonnng 10 minutes elapsed and we heard some yelping and crying. Finally he came back with a nice star bandage on his leg.
All in all, Gimli's healthy. He's roughly 28 lbs, which is right where he's supposed to be corgi wise. We've recently discovered he's a larger corgi... or perhaps I haven't seen other male corgis to get a good enough comparison. When we visited his breeder, she had only females at home and Gimli was a good size bigger than the girls. I suspect Gimli's father was a big boy and that accounts for Gimli.
It's funny though, Gimli doesn't look ungainly, he looks normal... if that makes sense.
It was also a sad visit to the vet. We are leaving that practice for one closer to home. It takes about 30 minutes to get there... on a good day. If we have an appointment during the week, it has to be later in the evening because Mike has to come home and pick us up, then we head to the clinic.
The vet gave us some recommendations for clinics in our city, so that makes it a bit easier to achieve the same standard of care, but still... a little sad.
I'm sure Gimli will have the female employees at the new clinic fawning over him in no time!
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Friday, May 24, 2013
Flat Gimli to see the White Rabbit
Alas, Flat Gimli's travelling days in Germany have come to an end. Next on his agenda is California and Las Vegas!
Here he is at the White Rabbit's house in Disneyland.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Pitter Patter of little paws
*Click the image for a larger one.
Yesterday, we drove about 2 hours to visit Gimli's breeder. She had breed a different dog than the one that had problems last year and that doggie had a litter of pups. Out of 5 pups, there are 3 boys and 2 girls. We'll be getting one of the girls, though we aren't sure which one yet. Gimli's breeder wants to wait a couple weeks to see how they develop before she decides the one she's going to keep.
Both girls are docile and snugglers, which is what Mike and I wanted. They are a stark contrast to the three boys who are just like Gimli was at that age - bouncy, rambunctious and nibbling on everything lol. At one point, the 3 boys were nibbling on my laces, just like Gimli did.
The one in the image above is the quieter one of the girls. I have a sneaky suspicion that's the one we'll get - the other girl has some spunk but not as much as the boys. Gimli's breeder hopes that spunk will appear in the show ring. The quieter one, cuddled in my lap for nearly an hour. She curled up and I played with her head and gave her tummy scratches. She nibbled on my ring then decided to try my finger, which was a little softer lol.
She won't be ready for her new home til the middle of June. We've decided to name her Merida after the heroine in Disney's Brave.
Stay tuned for the puppy news!
Friday, May 10, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Mini
If a benefactor wanted to buy me a car, no strings attached, I wouldn't refuse this one...
What can I say, I have a short dog and he'd fit in here quite nicely.
What can I say, I have a short dog and he'd fit in here quite nicely.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
5 things going on - May
1. It's finally Spring! Our shrubs in the front yard have little leaves making an appearance and the ones in the back are almost fully green. It turns out the tree branch that fell last month was the dead branch. Very big thank you to Mother Nature for taking that down for us! The rest of the tree now has little buds starting to appear. It's not dead yet!
2. I'm working on something special for my Mom for Mother's Day. I think it's going to make her cry, but in a good way.
3. Mike started his new job yesterday, YAY!
4. Mike's also been going to physiotherapy and it's starting to help with his mobility.
5. This Saturday is going to be a crazy, happy, tiring day and I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't want to give this away just yet, but I will say something on Sunday.
2. I'm working on something special for my Mom for Mother's Day. I think it's going to make her cry, but in a good way.
3. Mike started his new job yesterday, YAY!
4. Mike's also been going to physiotherapy and it's starting to help with his mobility.
5. This Saturday is going to be a crazy, happy, tiring day and I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't want to give this away just yet, but I will say something on Sunday.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Checking out the dog park
This past Sunday, we took Gimli to the dog park... in the city next to ours. Mainly because the city where we live have "off-leash" places but not enclosed "off-leash" places. A big difference when you have a dog whose recall isn't 100%.
We had taken Gimli to the dog park before, but it didn't end well. A naughty little pug decided to "mark" Mike's wheelchair, Gimli saw it and went on the defensive. The naughty pug's owner was calmly walking the perimeter like a caged animal and so didn't see the squished nosed little monster's actions and couldn't intervene. The pug kept coming back and Gimli kept trying to defend Mike. We ended up staying about 5 minutes that day.
This time, we allowed Gimli to sniff some of the dogs through the fenced and when he was sufficiently calm, we took him in.
He handled the first grouping of dogs well, he grumbled back at a few who were a little overzealous and in his face. He was engaged in some nose to nose sniffing with this one dog, when an excited puppy crashed into him. Gimli didn't bat an eye.
We met this gentleman who Gimli took a liking to. He asked us plenty of questions mainly because I don't think he'd ever seen a corgi before. He thought Gimli had a cute butt and he remarked that Gimli was so soft and cute. At one point, the gentleman went walking far to the other side of the fenced in area with his dog and Gimli followed. Mike and I stayed back and watched him slowly walk behind the man and "sneak up" on him only to be played with. :)
At that point, a group of dogs ran up and Gimli successfully held his own with the much taller doggies. The doggies moved away and then Gimli realized he had "lost" us. Well, lost sight of us. We could see him slowly start walking back in our general direction. Mike yelled out the recall command and Gimli came racing back. I've never seen him run that fast before with that big corgi grin! He got a good cookie for that one!
By that point, a family came in with their small, shy dog. Some of the dogs came running up to her, including Gimli and then she stiffened. It was amazing to see Gimli, who was trotting at the time, stop in his tracks and slow down as he approached her to say hi. They sniffed briefly and then she went away to hide. Gimli didn't seem to mind and the family's girls lavished affection on him and he ate it all up!
I wanted to try an experiment to see if I could get Gimli to follow me around the park. We started walking and Gimli did follow me until he stopped and looked behind. Mike was back at the picnic table and Gimli didn't want to leave him behind. He didn't want to leave his pack.
We ended up staying about 20 minutes. We wanted to end the session on a high note and we were immensely proud of Gimli. He handled himself well, he took himself out of sticky situations without the need for us to intervene and he was nice to everyone and every dog.
After we came home, he lay like this for the rest of the evening.
We had taken Gimli to the dog park before, but it didn't end well. A naughty little pug decided to "mark" Mike's wheelchair, Gimli saw it and went on the defensive. The naughty pug's owner was calmly walking the perimeter like a caged animal and so didn't see the squished nosed little monster's actions and couldn't intervene. The pug kept coming back and Gimli kept trying to defend Mike. We ended up staying about 5 minutes that day.
This time, we allowed Gimli to sniff some of the dogs through the fenced and when he was sufficiently calm, we took him in.
He handled the first grouping of dogs well, he grumbled back at a few who were a little overzealous and in his face. He was engaged in some nose to nose sniffing with this one dog, when an excited puppy crashed into him. Gimli didn't bat an eye.
We met this gentleman who Gimli took a liking to. He asked us plenty of questions mainly because I don't think he'd ever seen a corgi before. He thought Gimli had a cute butt and he remarked that Gimli was so soft and cute. At one point, the gentleman went walking far to the other side of the fenced in area with his dog and Gimli followed. Mike and I stayed back and watched him slowly walk behind the man and "sneak up" on him only to be played with. :)
At that point, a group of dogs ran up and Gimli successfully held his own with the much taller doggies. The doggies moved away and then Gimli realized he had "lost" us. Well, lost sight of us. We could see him slowly start walking back in our general direction. Mike yelled out the recall command and Gimli came racing back. I've never seen him run that fast before with that big corgi grin! He got a good cookie for that one!
By that point, a family came in with their small, shy dog. Some of the dogs came running up to her, including Gimli and then she stiffened. It was amazing to see Gimli, who was trotting at the time, stop in his tracks and slow down as he approached her to say hi. They sniffed briefly and then she went away to hide. Gimli didn't seem to mind and the family's girls lavished affection on him and he ate it all up!
I wanted to try an experiment to see if I could get Gimli to follow me around the park. We started walking and Gimli did follow me until he stopped and looked behind. Mike was back at the picnic table and Gimli didn't want to leave him behind. He didn't want to leave his pack.
We ended up staying about 20 minutes. We wanted to end the session on a high note and we were immensely proud of Gimli. He handled himself well, he took himself out of sticky situations without the need for us to intervene and he was nice to everyone and every dog.
After we came home, he lay like this for the rest of the evening.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Saturday Smiler - High on life
You know how we all have those pictures where we look horrible or drunk or stoned when we really look fine and it's just a product of poor lighting or poor timing?
Well, here's Gimli's...
Well, here's Gimli's...
Friday, May 3, 2013
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Munich Part 1
The day we arrived in Munich, we checked into the Vier Jahrzeitsen Kempinski hotel. This was my first stay at a 5 star hotel and I could definitely get used to it. The hotel sits on Maximillianstrasse, which is one of the main streets in Munich. All the fancy designer shops are located a stone's throw away from the hotel. The Hofbrauhaus, Odeonplatz and the English Garden are within walking distance.
We dropped off our bags and headed off for a walking tour of Munich. We met up with our guide, Michael, and off we went.
Our first stop was at the girl and wolf statue, where we received a crash course in the history of Munich. The geographic location where Munich sits dates back for centuries, but it wasn't officially named a city until 1175. As the story goes, Henry the Lion - Duke of Saxony and Bavaria built a bridge near the Isar River, then destroyed the pre-existing bridge owned by the Bishop. Henry then charged a fee for the usage of his bridge.
We then walked around the main city center where we were able to get some of these shots.
We ended our that evening in the Odeonsplatz and a bunch of us ended up eating dinner at a small outside Italian restaurant, Luigi Tambosi. The food was amazing! I could only make out a few of the dishes from the menu, but we ordered some plates of Ravioli and Spaghetti Bolognese.
After dinner, we were heading back to the hotel and saw a bunch of these little cards strewn across the ground and the sidewalk. A series of words caught my eye and what I saw made me giggle.
Nothing in life this happens by chance.
We retired early that night because the next day, we were headed to our final castle of the trip.
The main entrance to our hotel.
We dropped off our bags and headed off for a walking tour of Munich. We met up with our guide, Michael, and off we went.
Our first stop was at the girl and wolf statue, where we received a crash course in the history of Munich. The geographic location where Munich sits dates back for centuries, but it wasn't officially named a city until 1175. As the story goes, Henry the Lion - Duke of Saxony and Bavaria built a bridge near the Isar River, then destroyed the pre-existing bridge owned by the Bishop. Henry then charged a fee for the usage of his bridge.
The top of the statue
The base of the statue and fountain
We then walked around the main city center where we were able to get some of these shots.
The back of the Bavarian state Theater
The Jewish Museum
Passing through the Viktualienmarkt, horse meat anyone? Ick!
After dinner, we were heading back to the hotel and saw a bunch of these little cards strewn across the ground and the sidewalk. A series of words caught my eye and what I saw made me giggle.
Nothing in life this happens by chance.
We retired early that night because the next day, we were headed to our final castle of the trip.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
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