Christmas Finery!

The day after Thanksgiving, when the Christmas season officially kicks off, Milton likes to begin sporting his festive holiday attire, and since the Milt is a dog (I hate to admit it!) that means his Christmas collar! 

Fancy, huh?

Milton has been strutting around pretty proud of himself and getting lots of compliments on his flashy candy cane collar!  He likes to look good, especially since Momma and Daddy don't take him to a groomer...  This particular collar was handcrafted by the talented Julie at MiboCollars.  Julie is one of my "Internet friends," as Jeff likes to call them, who I met through Doodle Kisses, and she is the proud mama of two doods - Boomer and Milo.  MiboCollars offers a wide selection of fun holiday and everyday prints too!  This collar was actually a steal at only $14; Milton has decimated his other collar playing rough and tumble at daycare...  Since I am a big fan of holiday decorations, especially window clings, I plan to decorate the Milt all year long from now on!  Here is a close up:

Visions of sugar plums dance in his head.

Don't mind the blue paint - Milt was just helping out around the house yesterday...

If you feel the strong urge, like I do, to adorn your pup as well (it's fun!), check out Julie's shop at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mibocollars?page=2

If you haven't bought that special four-legged pal a Christmas present yet, here is your chance!  Julie might even include tasty pumpkin milk bones with your order, as she did for me.  Since we are all set on Christmas, the next holiday on my list is Valentine's Day.  I think the Milt can easily pull off some pink hearts, although Jeff might protest a bit.  Oh well... Milt is a Momma's boy!

As Dull as Watching Paint Dry, Literally...

All my life has been lately is paint/grade, paint/grade, paint a LOT, and grade some MORE!  This old house is an awful lot of work.  It seems to have come at a bad time when I have endless stacks of multiples of 94 papers in the crush of work prior to Christmas vacation.  It hasn't even felt like Christmas around here because Jeff and I have been working so hard.  We have not dabbled in the traditional Elf viewing or seasonal shopping outings.  We have been moonlighting as painters in the evenings and the weekends, often staying at the house until 2 A.M. on Friday and Saturday nights!

Milt likes to lie on our drop clothes and chew what he can find.

What's the rush?  Our apartment lease is up January 7th, and we have very few weekends to accomplish everything especially with travels to both Louisiana (to drop the Milt with his grandparents and later pick up), as well as New York to visit my family.  We feel the pressure.

Milton likes to take his rightful spot in front of the fireplace

For our color scheme, (as I like to explain it), we are going with sun (yellow) all throughout the house, sky (bright blue) in our bed and bath, and grass (mint green) in the guest bed and bath.  Picking the exact shade of paint that I had envisioned was more difficult than I would have ever thought.  The yellow is too pale and the blue is too bright, and hopefully when I pick the mint it will be just right.  After a few weeks though, I am certain the walls will just fade into the background.

A temporary declaration of love in the kitchen

Painting is not cut and dry in our household.  Jeff is absolutely fastidious with the details.  Here are the steps of painting for us per room, and we are painting 10 rooms total!:  spackle all the cracks, texturize the cracks, sand the cracks, tape the important parts, edge around the important parts, roller the walls, return for edge touch ups, return for roller touch ups, sweep, scour floor for drips and clean.  When I think I'm almost done, I'm not because Jeff the Taskmaster creeps in and spots something that needs a little more work...  Oh, joy.

The outside looking in

While we paint, the Milt can be in the room if we are prepping or working up high, but when the rollers come out, the Milt is banished to the outside which he is not too fond of.  To think that this doodle now has his very own yard, and all he wants to do is scurry back inside with his Momma and Daddy.  At least he gets to bark  at the neighbors a bit while he's out there, so it could be worse...!

Puppy Photo of the Week

Some of you may recall last week's post of Milton's new found freedom of sleeping outside of his "cage" throughout the night.

Daddy really, really liked this pair.

After this late night/early morning incident in the dark, Milton's privilege has been rebuked.  What a doodle...

A Dollop of Humor!

Recently we have been allowing Milt to sleep in the free wild outside of his cage.  Thus far, it has worked out pretty well.  Each evening, on my side of the bed, I place all the bed throw pillows which encourages Milton to sleep right by my side, of course, where he belongs.  He remains there for the majority of the night, unless he is a bit hot or restless and will wander somewhere else in the room.  There is also the occasion when Jeff gets annoyed by Milton's travels, and he pens him back up.

Milt's bed

The other evening I woke up in the middle of the night, and when I looked down, Milt was not by my side.  I checked under the bed, by Jeff, and in front of the door but no luck.  I'm easily alarmed, so I ran down the stairs and started calling out, "Milt! Milton!".  All of a sudden, I heard the pitter patter of my doodle's feet, and I looked up to see him staring down at me like, "Whaaaat, Momma?"

As I stumbled back upstairs, I was dumbfounded over where Milt had been hiding.  As I gave my doodle, a couple of good pats before crawling back into bed, I noticed that his belly was a little bit wet.  Our Milton had been sleeping in the bathtub.  Oh my doodle...!

A Gingerbread House for Christmas!

Jeff and I finally bit the bullet, and we bought a YARD for the Milt!  Ok, we bought a house...!  As the post title alludes, why is it a gingerbread house?  Well, take a look for yourself.

Do you see the resemblance?

This is why one of the first things I have done in my early attempts to decorate is place my telltale holiday window clings smack in the middle of our kitchen window overlooking the sink.

It is a perfect match!

We finally decided on this house after many, many months of searching.  Jeff and I chose this charming home for a number of reasons.  First, the house is located in a very central area in the heart of Dallas.  It is still close to both of our jobs, Milt's daycare, and my yoga studio.  Second, I really wanted a period home with engrained character rather than something crisp and modern, although new can be nice too.  I just tend to always be a bit old-fashioned, and I like to drag Jeff along on my whims!  The Milt needed a yard, and this home just so happened to have one!  The last, and probably most important point, is the price was right!  The house should retain value, and despite having an endless laundry list of to-dos, we think we can make it beautiful and ours.

A close-up of Momma and Milton

Milton is proud of his new home.

I do hope Milton realizes that this house is his Christmas present!  It is certainly ours too.

The Deed is Done... Finally!

As of last Wednesday, Milton is officially neutered, and what an ordeal it was.  After our poor experience with the SPCA (who never returned my phone call!), we decided to go to our routine veterinarian who we know and trust.  This is probably what we should have done in the first place instead of trying to cut costs.  Oh well, you live and you learn!  We won't make the same mistake with our next pup.

Milton was dropped off bright and early, to welcoming arms, at the vet's office, and his operation took about one hour to complete.  Three incisions were made, and the search for the missing testicle was on!  It took a while, but it was finally located next to his bladder, which is very unusual.  For good measure, Milton spent the night at the vet, and he was placed on liquid pain medication for that evening and five nights subsequent.  After his little sleepover, Milt was pretty happy to see his Daddy when he picked him up, especially because he thought Jeff might remove that dreadful cone!  We know the cone is necessary, but it sure makes our goldendoodle look silly, and he crashes into everything.

In case you are curious, the grand neuter total rang in at $455, including the actual operation, anesthesia, pain medication, cone, overnight stay, etc.  It was pricey, but this amount bought a great deal of relief for us knowing that Milt's wayward body part was discovered and could no longer develop into cancer.  Now the recovery for this operation is a bit longer because Milton had the three incisions rather than the normal one.  Our vet is encouraging us to leave the cone on for 10 - 14 days, no full inclusion daycare during this time, and no bath!  We will see how long that lasts.

We are just thrilled to have our happy, healthy boy...

Zonked out

Milton is still the Milton doing Milton like things.  The cone, and the neutering, have not changed much!

Puppy Photo of the Week

Milton and I recently made a grand discovery of a small local dog park only 1/2 mile walk, 10 minutes away from our apartment.  The "park" is actually a unique situation because it is a vacant corner lot that is owned by the house next door, and to prevent development, the home owners have generously allowed four-legged pals to run free there.  The park has a wonderful community feel as tennis balls, chairs, and water dishes are left outside, visitors drag the trash to the curb, and the apartment complex across the street allows dog owners to fill up water jugs at their outdoor spigot.  The park is low-key and convenient, especially on a weeknight after our goldendoodle has been home alone all day.

One frequent visitor of the dog park is this charming fellow below.  He is a massive Great Dane, who is speckled just like a Holstein cow.  Still a young pup, only 1.5 years old, he is a bundle of gangly, long limb energy.  Of course heads turn, our Milt's included, when a dog of such gigantic proportions enters the dog park.  Milton immediately seeks him out for a romping.

Action Shot

I thought our Milt was tall, but dogs can easily scurry under and around this "horse," and when he needs to use the bathroom, watch out!  It is either like a water fountain, or his owner is rushing to catch it with a plastic grocery bag because it is easier clean-up that way.  All and all, at the dog park, he is quite the character to watch.  The world of dog parks is a fascinating one, and I almost enjoy going as much as the Milt does!