Flower’s Flowers Introduction

Hi, all! First off, we have to apologize for staying away for SO LONG. It’s been a busy year. Our humans, aka Mom and Dad, have been busy all summer making us a beautiful backyard. Since my name is Flower, Mom says I should talk about our flowers. So I am going to be doing that! Along with the flowers, I will be talking about other beautiful things in our garden, such as butterflies!

When we first came to live here, I don’t think there were that many flowers, but that has changed! I’ll be back soon, but for now, I thought I would share a picture of me, Flower, with some of my Flowers. Boy, I love my name, now that I know it means something really pretty!

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Shih Tzu Week 119: Snow!

Oct. 3 – Oct. 9, 2013

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Friday, Oct. 4 

It snowed last night. Snow! On Oct. 3! I’m not ready to see my garden die! Also, I have been leaving the backdoor open, since Candy and Dottie still don’t go through the doggy door. So today it is closed.

I have begun to think of myself as Flower’s “Daddy Bridge.” She climbs onto my lap, and without stopping, crosses me to get to Daddy. But I am in no way complaining. I am just happy that she is that comfortable with both of us now. When she isn’t with us, or at Shih Tzu Center, she likes to sit on the back of the loveseat where she can watch everybody from a comfortable distance, and look out the window when she chooses.

Candy also continues to make “couch progress.” I never knew what she wanted before when she came up to the couch. Nowadays it can mean she wants a snack or she wants up. Today, for example, I reached to get her and she stood still and let me pick her up. Dottie was already on one side and Nigel snuggled close on the other. I sat her on the other side of Nigel, and she eventually curled up and settled down. When she was there, I rubbed her ear and realized it was soft inside, not rough as usual. That roughness, or “elephant ear,” is a sign of allergies, although I am not sure to what. I have been putting a little Aquaphor in her ear, thinking if it works for my lips it might work for her ear. It seems to be working. Also, a neighbor gave us a water cooler, so they mainly get purified water to drink, and maybe that is helping.

Flower jumped up on the couch to join us a little later, so I had all four of the shih tzus for company, although Flower definitely looked bored on her corner perch. Candy can only take couch comfort for so long, so she eventually jumped down to occupy the bed she and Nigel alternate in, by the entertainment center. Although he rarely does it, Nigel actually took a bed at Shih Tzu Central.

I have the TV on today, like I often do when I’m working, with the volume down. I just saw an image of an abused dog on an commercial for an animal shelter and it almost made me cry. I am so happy our four shih tzus have a loving home and that there are so many animal rescues and shelters out there trying to make a difference.

Sunday, Oct. 6 

It warmed up enough for us to take the dogs for a walk at Majestic View Nature Center. Since we have worked so hard on our garden this year, I have really enjoyed looking at their plants and flowers, which are usually tagged with their names.

It gives me of ideas for the future. We don’t walk there nearly as much as the shih tzus would like to, since we normally just walk behind Wal-Mart, so it is always a special treat. I tried to walk all four of them once there without John, but it was a fiasco, and I would never try it again.

Monday, Oct. 7

Nigel got a bath today. Hopefully that will stop his scratching. Each one of the dogs took their turns on the couch today again. Of course, Dottie is there most of the day. I was watching Flower roll around on the couch for a while. Not sure why she does that, but it’s fun to watch. Maybe she is scratching her back on the couch? Each time I pick up Candy and sit her down on the couch, I think about the past, when she either hid upstairs or in her corner “apartment” in the dining room, instead of joining us. I continue to be thankful for how far we have come.

Tuesday, Oct. 8 

John gave the shih tzus their pre-breakfast snack (chicken-wrapped rawhide bone) as usual this morning and they were raring to go. For some reason, Candy often doesn’t eat hers right away. She sits it in front of her and guards it. I think she keeps it just to enjoy the game. If anyone comes near it, she sounds her loud siren bark warning. I need to record it, because it’s fierce. Sometimes, like today, Flower sits on the other side of Candy’s bone and growls, trying to terrorize her sister to giving it up. However, Candy instead decided it was time to enjoy it.

Shih Tzu Week 118: Dahlias & Dogs

Sept. 26 – Oct. 2, 2013 

We have been spending a lot of time working on our garden. I especially love the dahlias. I like to think the shih tzus enjoy them too. Candy spends the most time in the backyard, usually sunning herself on the bridge John made for them.

Sunday, Sept. 29: Spotlight on Nigel

Tuesday, Oct. 1 

Flower coming to visit us in bed each morning. Actually, I think she comes to visit John, with an ulterior motive of trying to steal Nigel’s pre-breakfast treat, if he happens to bring the leftover bone back to bed with him. Sometimes John lifts her up, but she does pretty good jumping up on her own usually. 

Wednesday, Oct. 2:

Morning Dog Walk behind Wal-Mart

 

Shih Tzu Review Board: Orijen Freeze-Dried Dog Food

Our Human, whom we call Mom, makes us “meatloaf” every couple of weeks, and we get it every morning for breakfast with our kibble. We love it! She makes it with lean ground beef, lean ground turkey, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, green peas, and she throws in other vegetables, like zucchini and squash from the garden. Sometimes she adds fruit. It is soooo good!

However, once in a while she gets things from Chewy.com and lets us try it. This time, she got Orijen Regional Red Freeze-Dried Dog Food. We weren’t sure what she meant when she told us it was “freeze-dried.” We thought it had something to do with our last name, which, ironically, is “Freeze.” Well, it doesn’t. It’s the process they use. Why Mom wanted us to try it was, first, because it is a “whole prey diet” containing really fun “wild” stuff: angus beef, wild boar, ranch-raised lamb, heritage pork, and free-range bison, and even fruits and vegetables. The second reason was that she said that since it is “freeze-dried,” it is fresh and has no preservatives.

Before Mom gave it to us, she did some weird things. First, she took these “medallions” out of the package, broke them into four pieces (one for each of us!) and then poured warm water on them. The hard part was that we had to wait about five minutes while the medallions “un-dried.” Then, Mom divided it into four bowls as an “afternoon snack.”

Orijen Freeze Dried Food

Today we tried Orijen Freeze Dried Food.

What happened next? Well, Mom set the bowls down. First, she set one down for Nigel, and then one for Flower, Candy, and me. However, in the few seconds it took for Flower to get to her bowl, Nigel swallowed his piece and came and stole hers! Mom scolded him and then had to split up the last two pieces for me, Flower and Candy. Mom was surprised we liked it, because she didn’t think it smelled as yummy as her meatloaf. The good news is that because of Nigel’s bad behavior, she fixed us another one to share!

You are not going to believe what happened next! Mom had us girls go outside, since we are better behaved than Nigel. She put his bowl down on the kitchen floor, quickly went outside with our bowls, and shut the door so he couldn’t come out and steal our food. Then, she put down our bowls, and FLOWER ate hers and then ran and stole my piece before I could get to it! Sometimes it just isn’t fun living with three other shih tzus! I hope Mom feeds that stuff to us again!

Shih Tzu Gardens: Flowers Galore!

Shih Tzu Gardens

Our four shih tzus will tell you it’s been a busy summer with lots of changes! One of the biggest ones has been their backyard! When they arrived at our home in June 2011, they had a very big backyard with nothing interesting to look at. Not anymore!

Over the last several months, we have added to our deck, invested in patio furniture and an umbrella, planted a vegetable garden and planted lots of flowers. I think we will all be sad when cold weather hits!

Candy and the Secret Garden

Candy Shih Tzu in the garden.

Candy rests near the “Secret Garden” of mainly coneflower (Echinacea) varieties.

Flower and the Blanket Flower Garden

A shih tzu investigates blanket flowers (Gaillardia).

Flower investigates the blanket flowers (Gaillardia).