Taking Care of My Baby

Cookie is my fur baby ya'll. She's the current boss at home, don't tell her, and I love her to death.  Last week I noticed an odd looking patch of hair on her back. After doing some research I self diagnosed her with ringworm. I went to petco/petsmart and purchase an anti-fungal shampoo and conditioner. In my research I read that it can be passed on to other dogs, i.e. Leche ( my in-laws dog) and humans!

I decided to take her in to the vet. We are still waiting for the ringworm test results to come back, but she did test positive for a bacterial skin infection. A couple hundred dollars later and a bag full of meds we are on day 4 of her antibiotics. 

The trick you see... is getting her to take it twice a day, for 14 days. 

So my brilliant husband decided to 'gut' a goldfish cracker and stuff her antibiotic in it. Clever eh? after the second dose he was a pro at carving out (not pulverizing like me) the outer layer of the cracker, as if he had done it a million times in the past. Kinda made me nervous- not gonna lie. 

But you know they say that behind a good man theres a great woman?  I opened a jar of skippy and slathered a healthy portion on top.

She loves the fished cuz' their so delicious, and nutritious.

It's Over

Finally. It's over. There will be no more hearings. There will be no more depositions. There will be no more living those horrible moments that Cookie endured.

The kid who brought the pitbull into our yard and attacked cookie was 'sentenced' to serve his year probation at a Rehabilitation Treatment Center, RTC today.

Today we heard any last arguments. I addressed the court once again. I was composed and was able to express my empathy for this kid and his mom. I made it clear to the court that this, this whole case, went beyond what happened to Cookie, beyond the money and beyond any 'retaliation/seeking justice' for my dear Cookie. This was about getting this kid the help he needs to have a fighting chance at being a productive member of society when he grows up. This was about helping him find his way onto the correct path. This was about saving another person from potentially spending the rest of his life in jail. And we did.

The kid addressed me. He apologized, he sobbed... and i cried right along with him. My heart went out to him- because at the end of the day he is just another child, a victim of his family's inability to raise and educate him properly, another broken child, product of a broken home, who was never shown or taught how to be a good kid.

Today i feel such a sense of relief.

I really hope that we have changed his life for the better. I hope he can one day look back and feel appreciative of what he went through and know that if it wasnt for us, well... who knows where he'd be. I can only hope.

Cookies Justice

You might recall that my precious little princess was maliciously attacked by a pitbul back in April. If you are just joining me now, this is what I'm talking about. When ever i talk about what happened to cookie, my mom cringes and asks me to stop. She cant stand hearing about it, and while it still makes me feel that anxious pain in my stomach and that knot in my throat- i actually like to go back and read every thought, every emotion and every feeling that was running through me. It makes me appreciate how far shes come and realize just how lucky we are to still have her in our lives.

Anyone who has ever had a pet before a child knows that they are our babies. She means the world to Juj and I- and we have personified her to be our baby, well maybe me more than him. I refer to us as "mommy" and "daddy". a little weird??? sure! Oh but she knows who "daddy" is when she gets scolded by "mommy". Any how, everyday that i get to wake up to her rank kisses is truly a blessing, stinky breath and all.

And anyone who knows me, knows how much i love her.

That is why i have spent countless hours going to all the hearing and dispositions regarding the kid who owned the pit who attacked. I've been to court a total of 4 times now. This Friday should be the last one. It seems like obstacle after obstacle have been presented in court and has kept it from being resolved, but i have faith that this will soon come to an end.

Matter of fact, on Friday the judge will decide where this kid will spend his year long probation. Obviously his attorney and his mother want him to spend his probation time at home with therapy and social services involved. My family and I (& the state) want him to enter a Rehabilitation Treatment Facility, RTC to serve his year probation. In an interesting twist of events, this kid has been interviewed by an RTC and he "let the record show" that he wanted to go to the RTC that interviewed him. He would rather go to the RTC than go home.

As mad as I am about what happened to Cookie, I am also thankful that he will get the help he needs to give him a fighting chance at having a normal adulthood. I believe in giving people a second chance, and by this kid actually saying himself that he wants to got to the RTC, to some degree, shows me that he is repentful.

I only pray to God that this leads him into the right path and then we can all start to fully forgive him.

My Tough Cookie

*warning- picture attached below, not for the sensitive*

When cookie came home, she looked quite awful. Obviously not as bad as the day of the attack, but she was still in a lot of pain, she was very nervous and all stitched, bandaged, covered, and wrapped up.

The night of her surgery that Dr discovered that the pitbull has bitten and broken a piece of her eye socket bone off. She talked to me about placing the bone back and doing a type of reconstructive surgery that typically runs 4/5 thousand or she could try reinforcing the area with a ligament. The Dr. explained to us that if cookie were to get into another fight ( she made it sound as if my cooks was running around picking fights =-]) or while rough-housing with other dogs the chances of her eye physically coming out were high. She would also be more prone to bone infections because of the missing bone. We opted to reinforce the area with the ligament and we would cross any other bridges (complications) when we came to them in the future.

The next day we went to go visit her, in hopes that she might get discharged and would get to come home. The Dr. on shift explained what our responsibilities would be if we were to take her home. She was on 2 oral and one topical medications, plus she had a pump/drain going thru the back of her neck, under her chin and around her face to help drain any fluids and blood she was retaining, that we would have to 'pump and drain' a few times a day. She had not eaten anything since she arrived at the hospital. She was actually starting to feel lighter too. That too was a concern. Many times the patients ( dogs/cats) are so scared and nervous they wont eat, little less pee and poop. My heart was aching, i couldn't leave her there another night. So we took her home.

We had to make sure that Leche (my in-laws dog) didn't bother her or try licking her, so we let them see each other when she got home, but otherwise kept them apart. She slept, and slept, and after she was woken up to get her medicine, she fell back asleep. She was extremely drowsy, shaking, and moaning constantly. She still had no appetite.

This picture really doesnt show the extent of her injuries, really. You see the gauze around her neck? She has more stitches there. The bottom of the chin is all scrapped up, she broke a nail (she was very upset about that one) she had a cartilage injury on her left ear, her inner arms and legs were scrapped and cut up and she had multiple bite marks, these were only scrapes, they didnt break skin. You also can't see just how swollen her entire left side of the face is. That net shirt? ( not wearing it by choice) was holding her drain in place. They also shaved an area, about 4x3 on her back to place a fentanyl patch for a constant release of pain medicine for the next 3-5 days.

The next 72 hours after the attack were difficult. All she would do was sleep and softly cry because she was in so much pain. We never left her side. We had a hard time giving her the pain medication because it was so bitter. Not even hiding it in peanut butter would do. She would lick the peanut butter off of the pill and spit it back out.

At one point, while watching her sleep i asked Juju if he thought we did the right thing. Not only by bringing her home, but by putting her through surgery and now the recovery. I started crying, just thinking about what she had been through and now what was ahead of her. I started thinking that perhaps i was being selfish by keeping her here if her quality of life was going to be affected because of her injuries. Thankfully juju was there to see me through my little meltdown. Its just been so hard to see her in so much pain, then juju reminds me that its only been a few days since the attack. And then it all falls back into perspective.

My Cookie Was Crumbling

Friday has to have been one of the hardest days of my entire life. I got a call from my SIL, Sasha, who frantically told me that a dog had came into our yard, attacked my poor innocent cookie, and now cookie was no where to be found. My heart dropped to my knees immediately. I was still at work, not even done for the day, when i just got up and told my boss what was happening and told him i had to go.

I packed my belonging up and headed to my car. My mind was racing. I feared the worst. I started crying, and praying between sobs. I prayed and i prayed. My heart was beating so hard i could feel it in my head. I was shaking. I was a total mess. I managed to call sasha and told her not to give up looking for her, that i was on my way, just to not stop looking for her. 15 minutes later from the first phone call i received, I tried Sasha again. She answered and all i could hear on the other end was commotion. After a few seconds of trying to talk to sasha, She said- There she is! Come here Cookie, come here mama and the phone went dead.

A part of me was relieved to know that she had been found, but another part of me was terrified to know what the extent of her injuries would be. Sasha called and told me they were on their way to the hospital. I told her i would meet her there. Before we hung up, my MIL took the phone and told me she didn't look too bad, but her face was pretty bit up. I lost it. I couldn't get a word out. I sat in my car praying to God not to take my baby, I always thought, and hoped, that one day, when it would be Cookie's turn to go to doggie heaven- she would pass away in her sleep, in a beautiful dream. I prayed to God to not let her life be taken away because of the stupidity of others. If it was her time to meet Him, let it be because He called upon her. Not because someone was heartless enough to kill an innocent animal.

When she arrived at hospital i looked at her, i looked into her big beautiful brown eyes, and she looked so at peace. She wasn't crying, she wasn't whinnying, not even shaking. The Dr. immediately gave her pain medicine and we quickly discussed my options. I knew it was going to come with a hefty price tag. I didn't care. I counted all my nickels and dimes, and called upon every last one of my life lines and signed off on her surgery orders. I kissed her goodbye and washed all of her blood off my hands, literally not figuratively.

During all this time, Juju was at work. He had no clue what was going on. Sasha had called and left a few messages, but he hadn't yet listened to it. I, thinking he already listened to at least one of the messages, sent him a text saying "we were at the animal hospital, cookie is ok, she is going to need a very expensive surgery, but i can't put her down i cant''. Poor guy, i really freaked him out.

Once we got home we tried talking to all of the neighbors to get a better account of what happened. From everyones account this is what I've compiled:

Two boys, 10 & 12, opened our front fence, with a pitbull on a leash. Cookie and Leche were lounging outside like they usually do. The boys walked the pit up to Cookie and said "get her". Our next door neighbor saw the pit attack cookie and she started pounding on the window. The 2 boys started running out of our yard and out the back fence. The pithad Cookie in its mouth. Her boyfriend and another young man ran out of the house to chase after the boys. They were able to catch up to the boys in the alley, a few house down the road. At this point you could hear the struggle going on between Cookie, the pit and our neighbors. Ourneighbor across the street and his wife ran out, saw what was going onand started pounding on the windows outside of the kitchen asking my MIL for a bucket of hot water to throw on the pit. Meanwhile all of this is happening, Leche is barking and pushing on the door to get someones attention. At that point they tell my MIL that it was our dog, our dog was getting attacked, my MIL responded, "what?! what are you talking about? My dog is right here!" referring to Leche. He said "No, Its the other one, the chihuahua, Its Cookie" Our next door neighbor had to punch the pittbull 4/5 times in the head, while another tried choking in. Cookie was still in its mouth and they were doing everything they could to free her. Once they were able to get her out, she ran away and hid.

This is when I got a call from my SIL, Sasha, who frantically told me that a dog had came into our yard, attacked my poor innocent cookie, and now cookie was no where to be found.

Sasha eventually found her hiding across the street, in a neighbors garage. As the entire entire neighborhood was out looking for my little cooks, she had found refuge by sneaking into an open garage. When Sasha approached that particular neighbor she said that she would check her garage to see if cookie was hiding there since her cat seemed to be standing guard at the entrance. She go her garage door opener and sure enough cookie emerged from the dark corner.

And so i sit here today. With a heavy heart. Praying for her quick recovery.

Hair Today Gone in 3 Hours

Other then the usual wedding related weekend activities, I wanted to talk about a certain little Xfurry family member. He is Juju's family dog. This is Leche. Leche (meaning Milk) is a designer pooch-PomaPoo. Not to be confused as a cross between a pomegranate and a poodle, but a Pomeranian and a poodle.

This is him at about a year of age. He's a tiny little guy but he is feisty and hyper and a bit uncoordinated. Cookie and Leche started off to a bit rough. Cookie is turning 9 in 30 days and leche, well leche is still a puppy. Therefore he loves to play and jump and bark and even nibble on a shoe or two.

I recall once helping juju give him a hair cut. It took up nearly 6 hours, and to top it off, he wasn't even trimmed all the way. During the winter months they abstained from cutting his hair, you know, to help him keep warm. Well as time passed and the weather got warmer his hair became long, and tangled and simply unmanageable. Knots became to large and nearly impossible to brush out.

Juju's parents invested in a (almost at the) top of the line clippers and cut his hair on Sunday. It took Juju a little over 3 hours to cut his hair, mainly because of the knots. Also, Leche was relatively nervous and as the hours progressed, and his coat disappearing-he got cold, anxious and pretty sure he was hungry.

Here are a few before and after pictures-
And after, it was hard to get a cute picture of him, I know he feels naked, therefore he darts from place to place. Possibly to hide, but for all i know he probably thinks he's streaking.


He looks so tiny with out any fur! He looks like a completely new different dog. Juj had no other option then to basically shave all of his fur off.

Snow day!

This year, I invested in a good set of winter tires. Juju got winter tires as well. We were initially looking for an used SUV. We found what seemed to be a good deal on a Ford Expedition, only to later found out it had humidity/moisture in the engine. We really lucked out, we were ready to withdraw the money from the bank to pay for it, when a Ford mechanic took a look at it and told us to skip on it. So that was a no go. I know you think we are crazy, seeing that gas, up until a few weeks, ago was an arm and a leg. But Jujus car, being a rear wheel drive, wouldn't cut it for the winter. But now, with his snow tires on, it handles like an SUV. He even enjoys plowing his BMW through snow banks.

You see that little black blob there, to the right. That's my little Mazda. You can see its wheels, and that's about all you can see on it. I waited until it stopped snowing to go dig it out. I was just about done when a neighbor offered some help, and 5 minutes later I drove right through all the mounds of snow and parked it on the opposite side of the street, where i had literally shoveled the street to make myself a parking spot. I was proud of my shoveling. I wanted to mark my spot. I though of having cookie "claim" it, but i couldn't convince her to come outside.

And this is how cookie spent her snow day.

She wanted nothing to do with it. The colder it gets, the deeper she digs into my comforter. I'm afraid i might find her inside the mattress one of these days. I'll cross that bridge when i come to it though.

Houdini's Offspring

Because cookie is a short hair chihuahua, and takes after her mother [me], she is a coldy-cat. She shakes and shivers, I think I might have heard her teeth chatter once, but I'm not certain. She has a few tee shirts and sweaters for the winter and skirts and dresses for the summer. She even asks for 'special event' outfits, such as thanksgiving, Christmas & new years.

Well, last week, we had a few snow flurries and i decided to throw some salt on the stairs to prevent it from icing over. I took cookie upstairs and sat her on the couch. She was fully dressed in her red poinsettia sweater and winter coat. I went downstairs to salt the stairs... and when i returned.

I give you:

My Little Escape Artist

Notice where the sleeve of her sweater is....
See her paws?
empty shell..
Perfect!

Cookie

Cookie has been a true blessing in our lives. As a child I always wanted a pet, a real pet, not like a bird or a fish or a hermit crab. (RIP yellow bird, grey bird, Herman, Herman II, Herman III, Chocolatito, Pinchy and Shady)My mom never let me had one, I remember i once cried at a flea market because they were selling puppies and i really wanted one. Nope, nothing. I tried negotiating down to a kitty. She didn't go for it. She wasn't a pet person, she didn't want the house smelling like pets. And since i was only 8yrs old, i figured this was a battle i wasn't going to win.

Until one day I came home with a dog, Cookie.

I adopted Cookie from the local Humane Society. She had been abused and neglected in the past and she was simple looking for someone to treat her the way she deserved.

This is what she looked like when i adopted her.

She looked so frightened. She laid at the corner of her cot, rolled up in a little ball, her nose was buried into her body. All you could she were her big brown eyes. In her eyes, you could see how sad she really was. It was heartbreaking, really. So i decided to bring her home. Boy was that night fun. I was nervous, I had never been a pet mom before. She was nervous, she was going into a brand new house. Needless to say the first night she cried and whined until 2 or 3 in the morning. I put her in kitchen, i was afraid of letting her sleep in the carpeted rooms. The next night, i let her into my room, but again i wasn't sure about her sleeping on the bed, so we crashed on the floor together. And little by little she made her way up to curl up right next to tummy. After the next couple of week she made her way to my bed, and every since that, bunk together (im usually the back spoon =-) )

This is a 'glamour shot' of cookie... I never thought I could ever love a pet so much. She truly is a part of our family, she is my mom's first Grandpetdaughter, and my siblings see her as a niece. She is loyal, protective, always greets you at the door and is happy to see you, and above all her love is unconditional. She loves to snuggle and lounge around, and she greatly enjoys a good scratchin' behind her ear or a nice long belly rub.
Unfortunately Chihuahuas have a bad rep for being little vicious 'yelpy' dogs. Not Cookie, i think that what she has gone through in the past has taught her to be grateful, as funny as that sounds.