Nap Time

The dogs and I took a nap today. I used mom and dad's rollaway bed and Steffi and Phoebe and I napped on that. Fritz was on the floor. Phoebe must have been dreaming. Her little feet were moving and she even growled a little, but her eyes were closed.

It's a good thing Steffi and Phoebe get along. They both have to be in the chair with me in the family room. So, Phoebe ends up laying on top of Steffi. They don't mind. They both just lay there and sleep.

I'm getting pretty good at the easy sodoku puzzles in a puzzle book I bought yesterday. But I'm getting tired of them too. I think I'll take a break.

I made home made mashed potatoes and biscuits for lunch and supper today. I even have some for tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to go up to mom and dad's. I don't know if I'll take Phoebe. It's supposed to rain. I think I will take them some biscuits though.

My monitor is still in its blue haze. I unplugged it from the cpu and the screen still looked bad so I don't think it's a problem with the computer. I think it's the monitor.

I haven't been able to do my laundry today. Phoebe has not wanted to let me out of her sight. And I've had to watch her closely to see if she's using the puppy pads. I had her out for nearly an hour today and she wouldn't do #2. She kept getting distracted. I was not happy. Finally after being back inside for about a half an hour, she did #2.

Pictures

Mom found some pictures of Steffi as a puppy and brought them over today. I'm so happy I now have some of her.

Phoebe is regressing I think in the puppy pad training department. I think the move into the family room has confused her. At least I'll have two more days home with her to get her used to the family room. I'm taking Monday off.

I walked down and got the mail a little while ago. I finally got my state tax refund. It only took them two months to process a one page form.

Moving Day

Well, I got the tv and satellite dish receiver moved into the family room. Mom and Dad came up and got some of their stuff and then dad helped me move my tv into the family room. Phoebe was very happy to have company.

I think my monitor is going bad on my pc. It has a blue film across the screen and lines. Oh well, I always wanted a flat panel anyway. I guess I will now have an excuse to get one.

Nice Sunny Evening

It was so nice this evening when I got off work that I decided to take the dogs out for a longer time than normal once I got home. They went out for the potty trip, then we all came in and had our dinner, then I took them back outside. Phoebe got chained up so she could run around but not run off and I got to walk for a bit. Not too long because Phoebe looked like she might want a drink of water after about ten minutes. But we all got a little extra fresh air and sun.

I got my books from eharlequin.com today. I can't wait to start reading them.

I got some gas for the car this morning. I remember when $10.00 could actually buy you something, but these days you can't buy a trip to work for $10.00. This is ridiculous. Especially since they said tonight on the news that Exxon announced an $8 billion profit for the first quarter of this year. They are talking about the government giving everyone a $100.00 gas rebate. I hope the government gets that money from the oil companies.

Matt Mason's Gone!!!!!!

I can't believe they voted Matt Mason off Nashville Star!!!! He was my favorite!! Now there's no reason to watch the rest. Chris Young would be the only reason and I'm not as big a fan of his. I will have to keep searching the web for news on Matt Mason. If anyone out there can tell me if he has his own website or where to go for news on any upcoming record deals, let me know.

Cookies and Treats

I had to make toll house pan cookies tonight. I've got egg beaters that are going to go bad in the next couple of weeks.

Phoebe lost the rest of her broken toe nail. Maybe her toe will will return to normal now.

I had to give Fritz a rawhide treat tonight - he was eating a rug. I don't know what it is with these dogs but I swear I think both Fritz and Phoebe are eating cloth. Some time ago, Fritz had chewed the tie strings off of a dining room chair pillow. Well those strings keep disappearing, piece by piece, after Phoebe chews on them. I took the rest of them and threw them away.

Phoebe is still peeing on the puppy pad to get a treat. I hope she sticks with this and it works.

Second Try

After I got my bath I saw that it was about 10 after 7pm. So, I let the dogs out for a few minutes and then took Phoebe to the vet. This time it worked. No smelly dirty dog to bathe. We did have to sit there for a while. But Phoebe got a shot and her nails cut. I don't know what the shot was for, but the vet says that was all she needed. His nail clippers were dull though. But the way Phoebe runs in the pasture, she will wear the rough edges down.

The Vet Visit that Wasn't

I was going to take Phoebe to the vet tonight to see about her dew claw. She broke her nail but it's still attached. The toe is swollen but I've been dunking it warm soapy water and it helped yesterday. Unfortunately Fritz had other plans for me. He somehow found the stinkiest, messiest mud hole in the pasture and rolled in it. He was covered in this mud and he wanted in the house. He came trotting up the steps like nothing was wrong. Well, he found out something was wrong. I bathed him before he could come back inside. Now I smell like the stinkiest, messiest mud hole. I have to get a bath myself now. By the time I get cleaned up it will be too late to take Phoebe to the vet. So, I'm hoping tomorrow evening after work I can take her to the vet. It will be tough because I get home about 20 after 4pm and they are open until 5pm. I probably won't be able to get Fritz and Steffi in the house in time. Maybe if her toe doesn't get worse she can wait until Wednesday when the vet's open from 6:30pm to 8pm.

Sunday

Today has been a pretty good day. Except for the fact that Steffi is sick again. She's been throwing up today and eating grass. If she doesn't feel better by tomorrow after work, I'll have to take her back to the vet. But otherwise, it's been a pretty decent day. I opened the door to the family room today and let Phoebe play. Come to think of it, Steffi was out on the back porch looking for stray catfood today. Maybe she got into some that had been exposed to ant spray or something. Maybe whatever Steffi has will run its course and she'll be better tomorrow. Anyway, Phoebe played and I cleaned the fans. Phoebe even intentionally left the family room, came back into the living room and used a puppy pad today. If only she would do that all the time. After lunch I took all three dogs outside and chained Phoebe up to a chair I was sitting in. She walked around and rolled around on the ground for a while and I got some sun. Then we came in and took a nap on the couch.

I'm going to have to clean up the family room and that back porch area. I think I'm moving into the family room next weekend.

Phoebe's Day Out

I took Phoebe to mom and dad's today. Mom was thrilled to see her. Phoebe had fun and she and I took a nice nap on the big couch. I miss that couch. Phoebe responded to Dad more than mom but that's because she sees dad more often. Mom won't come to the house. I don't know why. It might have something to do with her oxygen tank.

I did sleep in a little bit today. I got up at about 10 after 5am instead of 10 til 5 am. Phoebe held it that bit longer so hopefully I can get a little more sleep next week when I go back to work.

I mailed off her AKC application and stuff this morning and did a little shopping. I bought these cd roms that have cookbooks on them. I think I will like them except that one of the cd roms doesn't have pictures of the food. I like to see the pictures.

I bought some potatoes today and plan to make mashed potatoes with my ricer. I have a lot of cooking plans. I think I'll be making soup or something tonight. Tomorrow is turkey breast day. Steffi ran out and has been eating bologna for the last couple of days.

Last night I put some pictures of Phoebe in the photo album. I need to take more of them all. I don't have very many pictures of Steffi and not many at all of her as a puppy.

The Dog Whisperer

The Dog Whisperer just fed a dog chicken. Not dog food. So, I don't feel so bad now for feeding Steffi turkey breast. Everyone says dogs should not eat people food, but if Cesar Milan feeds dogs people food, then it can't be that bad. Heck, Tippy lived 16 years or more on bologna every day.

Sunny Day

Today after work, I came home and took Phoebe for her walk. Then I put her in her crate, changed into shorts and a sports bra and went outside myself for some exercise and to try to get a tan. I think I got a little bit of a tan.

At work we had a potluck lunch. It was pretty good.

Dad came up and mowed the grass today while I was at work. He brought instant coffee to make since I don't have a coffee maker and I don't drink coffee. He spilled coffee on the counter just like he did when he lived here.

Phoebe had two accidents this morning. And one this evening. We have more work to do on the puppy pad/treat thing.

Alias is coming back on tonight. I missed the last two episodes but I found a website that had a summary of the last episode that aired before Jennifer Garner had her baby. So, I'm pretty much caught up. I did record the episodes I missed, but I figure that Alias is so complex that you can miss a few episodes and it really won't matter in terms of the big picture. You know, bad guys, good guys and how it all ends in a few weeks. Plus, I plan to get the dvds when they come out. I guess I'll have to get online tomorrow night to see who America kicked off American Idol. I'll be missing it tonight to watch Alias.

American Idol vs Nashville Star

Nashville Star started after American Idol and Nashville Star is already down to the final 4 I think. American Idol is on 7 people. No wonder I like Nashville Star. It's efficient and doesn't waste my time.

Today

I got Phoebe's AKC application in the mail today. I have to get that filled out and sent in. Dad came up and cleaned out the vacuum cleaner and took apart the carpet cleaner for me. He said he might come up tomorrow to mow the grass since it finally stopped raining. I had to make no bake cookies tonight. We are having a potluck lunch tomorrow at work.

Speaking of work, it really bothered me today when one of the old women brought her daughter and grandbaby into the work area. They sat down in the file room right next to my cube and the baby started screaming. She screamed for a half an hour. I couldn't get any work done because it was so distracting. You have to be a little flexible with the employees' families coming in all the time since I'm surrounded by old grannies who talk baby crap all day long, but it is a place of business and people who are employed there should work there and not hold family reunions.

Treats

Tonight I gave Phoebe a treat for peeing on the puppy pad. She peed again on the puppy pad and she got another treat. Then she just started squatting on the puppy pad hoping to get a treat. That didn't work. She did do #2 on a puppy pad that I couldn't see from where I was sitting. So, she walked out until I could see her, sat down and looked at me as if to say "where's my treat?". How quickly she forgets though, later she peed on the carpet. So, we still have a ways to go yet.

She and Steffi are playing pretty well together. They are kissing each other right now.

Phoebe's AKC papers are in the mail on their way to me today.

Rest of Sunday

Well, the carpet is cleaned and dried and the laundry and soup are done. Phoebe and I actually took a nap today. Yay! Getting up at 4:50am every day to take Phoebe out really wears me out. I tried my snow cone maker and it does in fact make snow. It chops the ice up finer than mom's ice crusher. I have eaten way too many cookies today. I'm trying to get rid of them so I don't have any more in the house, which is a bad idea. I froze the last few cookies. I don't think I'll be eating anything else tonight and I'll probably be sucking on this snow cone ice for a few days to recover from the sugar overload.

As for the housebreaking of Phoebe, she's probably 70% trained or so. Most of the time she uses the puppy pads, but there are times when she doesn't. She won't get her freedom for the rest of the house until she improves.

Right now I'm watching Globe Trekker on PBS. You know, the show where the host goes to exciting foreign places. Well, tonight's port of call is....... Florida. Not too exciting. But at least she moves on to the Bahamas after a while.

I finished reading a book I started last week. It was a bit boring and slow, and it was part of a series that I didn't know about before buying the book. So, I skipped a few chapters and read the last couple just to see how it ends. I even wrote some on the novel I'm sort of writing. I'm having a hard time writing it though because I only read dialogue when I read books so I have to force myself to write the extra stuff.

Sunday So Far

Well, this morning I got up and cleaned the carpet in the living room. Phoebe has made most of her accidents in that room. The carpet is drying even as I type. I still have to make some chicken soup for this week and do my laundry.

The vacuum cleaner died this morning. It does that whenever the dust and carpet fuzz get stopped up inside there. I might buy a new vacuum cleaner. The one I have is the one Mom and Dad left here when they moved. They didn't want that dirty old thing in their new house. It's pretty old and is falling apart. There is a strip of rubber that runs along the outside edge that is dangling and flapping around. We lost a screw somewhere.

OCD

I think Phoebe has OCD. I took her out because she very nearly did #2 in the house. Well, she spent a half an hour running from one tree to another and trying to get back to that trail every time I picked her up and put her in another spot. I did that about 10 times and finally just gave up, brought her in and put her in her crate for 15 minutes like the book says to do. She was really trying my patience out there. The positive sign was that in the house, she was sniffing the puppy pads so maybe she would've done #2 on the puppy pads. Steffi growls and jumps at her though when she's trying to use the puppy pads. That's not really an ideal situation.

Dr. Who

I watched Dr. Who last night. Well, Phoebe and I watched it. She sat on my lap for part of it. It was a good episode. Supposedly the last of the Daleks committed suicide. They can't get rid of the number one villain of the series, so I'm sure there are more Daleks out there. I really, really am not going to like it when the Doctor changes at the end of the season. I like this one.

Shopping and Company

This morning I went shopping early. I left here about 8Am and went to walmart first. I bought a shirt that was on clearance for $5.00, a Doug Stone cd and a snow cone maker among the usual weekly items I buy. They didn’t have the chicken treats that the dogs love. I was very disappointed. Stopped and got gas and turned in my winning lottery ticket for two more tickets. Took my paycheck to the bank and then headed to the Dollar General store to see if they had any short sleeved shirts I would like. I bought two there. After that, it was time for the grocery store and then I came home. I put my groceries away and had Phoebe out for a while. Watched Nashville Star. I think it will end up being between Jared Ashley and Matt Mason. They are both pretty good, but I like Matt better. It was that Marty Stuart song he sang early on that did it for me. I had just finished making some spaghetti when Mom and Dad came up. Dad had to take the studded tires off of their car and put the regular tires back on. Mom puppy sat Phoebe while I washed the floor and her crate, cleaned the bathroom toilets, washed Phoebe’s squeaky toy, and sacked up the trash. Then I was able to actually get a bit of a nap. Yay! Phoebe took a nap too apparently. But she was really happy to see Mom and Dad. Dad took Phoebe out for a walk but she didn’t get off the porch. She was hunting for cat food. So, I took her out after my nap. It took her about a half an hour to get around to doing #2 and that was after carrying her off the porch about three times. I would take her off the porch and she would go right back. So, all the dogs were happy to see Mom and Dad.

I got an Easter card in the mail today from my niece and nephew.

I think tomorrow, I’ll use the carpet cleaner on the living room carpet. Since I get up at 5am to take Phoebe outside, I have all kinds of time in the early morning for work.

Weekend

Yippeee!!! The weekend's here. It's horrible to work a whole week after having time off. I have a lot to do this weekend. I need to go to the grocery store in the morning and to the bank and to some stores to try to find some t-shirts to wear. My shortsleeved shirts from last year won't work since I've lost the weight. I plan to leave early tomorrow morning and do all the things I can do before 10 am. At 10 am Nashville Star comes on the USA channel and I'd like to be home by then. I'm hoping mom and dad come up this weekend to watch Phoebe so I can clean the floors and her crate.

Phoebe used the puppy pad this evening. She also went outside and did her business. I'm hoping she's catching on to the housebreaking, but I don't know.

Sunny Day

I got home this evening and changed into a sports bra and shorts and took the dogs out. I'm hoping to get a tan. Phoebe didn't want to come in and her little tongue was hanging out all curled up on the end. I had to make her come in, but once Fritz and Steffi started following us in, Phoebe was more willing to come in. She got a drink and I put her in her crate for a nap. Hopefully, she'll stay in there for a couple of hours so I can watch Martha and clean up the bathroom. Phoebe did #1 and #2 on the pads in the bathroom. Last night and this morning she was good and used puppy pads. Hopefully, we are turning a corner in the puppy training project.

Martha says she's never used cool whip topping. She has eaten opossum and raccoon.

Why?

Why did I watch American Idol last night? I try not to watch that show, but I ended up watching it. There wasn't much of anything else on. They did Queen night last night and all the contestants sang Queen songs.

Phoebe peed today in the bathroom, but she held #2 until I got home and did that outside. And she held both 1 and 2 overnight and did her business this morning when I took her out at 5am. And tonight she was sniffing around the puppy pads in the living room so I took her out again. After a bit of running, she finally peed.

On TLC they have a life lesson commercial - the one where there are better rewards than food. I know what that's like. My dogs beg like that for treats and I give them treats just like that woman did the kid. That's funny.

Good Shopping

I've discovered that eharlequin.com allows you to pay by money order or check when you order books from their website. They will send you a bill with your order. I now have several things in my shopping cart over there. More than $25.00 and you get free shipping on some orders. I haven't placed the order yet. I think I read something about deals offered on Fridays. So, I'll wait until then to see what they have.

This morning

I don't know if it was a fluke or deliberate, but Phoebe waited until this morning when I took her outside to do her business. She did #2 this evening in the family room even though I had her out for a half an hour before that traipsing around all over the pasture. We still have a ways to go.

The Answer

The bare floor. I have to clean up the bathroom tonight and tape down puppy pads all over the bathroom floor for phoebe. I got her a couple more squeaky toys today. Dad was nice enough to take phoebe, steffi and fritz out when he was here today. And he got some biscuits for it. I made some yesterday and didn't want to keep eating them. I'm going to try to stick to the chicken soup diet for a week or two. I ate way too much while I was off. But housebreaking Phoebe is pretty stressful.

This Morning

Well, I got up at 5:40am this morning, just like yesterday, to take Phoebe outside to do her business. Yesterday I was working on the puppy pad thing, but today I'm working on the outside thing. This morning she peed outside. She had done #2 in her crate overnight. I've been taking her out for the last half hour or so to try to get her to do #2 again. She ate breakfast this morning so I know she has to go. Tomorrow will be interesting. She will spend the day in the bathroom so I will see if she uses the puppy pads or her blankets or the bare floor.

Maybe a Switch

I'm thinking of changing a bit of the puppy training method. Now that I know Phoebe will do her business outside, I'm thinking of using the 7 days method with taking her outside instead of having her use puppy pads. I don't think using the puppy pads is teaching her the right thing. I don't know how Fritz got to be paper trained and outside trained and learned the difference between the pads and the carpet, but I don't think Phoebe is going to learn the difference. I don't know if Phoebe will ever be really trained since I have to leave her for the 8 hours I'm at work and then when I'm asleep at night. Why can't the Pet Psychic, Sonia Fitzpatrick, just tell Phoebe to do her business outside? That would be easy training.

I went to Mom and Dad's today for a little while. Dad wanted me there to do something for him. So, he took my car down to the shop to get the tires and oil changed and I drove his car back to his house. He came back there a couple hours later and looked around and said "where's the dog?" I told him I left her at home and he seemed really disappointed. If he wants to see her that badly, then he can come up to the house every day I'm working at noon, like they first agreed to do, and let her out to help with the housetraining.

Wednesday's Mail

I just got around to looking at Wednesday's mail. That was the day that I was so rushed in the afternoon, with getting my pc fixed and taking Phoebe to the vet. Aside from the phone bill I got, I was happy to see that I got Season 4 A-Team dvds. I'm a little concerned though. There's a bonus episode from Season 5 on these dvds. Does this mean there won't be a release of Season 5? I hope they do release all the season 5 episodes.

This Morning

Phoebe had to be corrected once for trying to pee on the carpet. But later, she chose to pee on a puppy pad. So, I think that's a positive sign. I don't think we are there yet and that I can say she is trained. I still don't think she knows enough to think to herself "hey, I have to go, let's find a puppy pad."

Fritz chased her through the house this morning like he chases cats. That may not be a good thing, but I think I will need to let him chase her and catch her so he can settle down and realize that she's not all that special. Phoebe pounced on Steffi this morning and Steffi whipped around and snapped at her. She didn't bite. She stopped just short of that so I don't think she will hurt Phoebe.

I got Phoebe a stuffed doggy toy at Walmart yesterday. She loves it. She runs through the house with it and shakes it. Thankfully, it has saved my hands from the biting.

It's Friday

I worked half a day today as part of the puppy training thing. I went to walmart early this morning and got a super-duper surge protector power strip for my computer. I did not want to have to take it back to the computer fix-it guy again. We are supposed to have bad storms and we are under a Tornado watch until 11 pm so I thought I had better get the power strip. I took Phoebe out to work today so the people at work could see her. Then I stopped by Mom and Dad's for a bit. Uncle Harold is in from Indiana and he has his pomeranian, Penny, with him. I was hoping I would see Penny, but they weren't there. Mom's neighbor liked Phoebe. The neighbor has several dogs. I don't think Phoebe's had an accident today. For some reason she shredded the puppy pad in her crate overnight. I don't know why. Phoebe did do her business outside a few times today, both here and at Mom's. Mom and Dad seem to really like Phoebe. Dad even kissed her as we were leaving. Of course, she isn't there all the time.

I have a headache. I don't know if it's from needing more sleep, or from sinuses, or from the sugar I got from the two doughnuts I ate at work this morning. John brought in some for the office. He also brought in a brownie for his secretary. She hates the smell of doughnuts.

Puppy Training Obstacle

Fritz and Steffi were chasing and herding Phoebe tonight and she couldn't get to a puppy pad when she needed one. I try to keep Fritz and Steffi outside when Phoebe's needing to do her business, but I can't keep them out all the time. I got the water bottle after Fritz tonight because he was just too jealous of and overbearing to Phoebe.

As Promised: A Picture of Phoebe

Phoebe Today

I worked a half a day today so I could come home and look after Phoebe. I let her out of the crate at around 12:15pm. She did her business on the puppy pads (both 1 and 2) and so I let her out into the house. Since it was warm today, I put the leash on Phoebe and took her outside. She wasn't so scared of the outside today and she even peed a couple of times out there. She played a bit with Fritz and Steffi and even smelled one of the cats. Phoebe played a lot in the family room and I found a couple of rubber doggy toys for her to chew on. Maybe that will save my hands. After all that peeing, you'd think she would be peed out. But no. I brought all three dogs into the living room where I have puppy pads on the floor. Phoebe sniffed them all and then peed on one of them! Yay!!! I gave her a treat for that. I know the dog whisperer would get on to me because I'm sending her mixed messages - pee on the pad, pee outside, don't pee on carpet, here's a treat, but no treat for that. Hopefully it won't confuse her too much. I seriously think I'm going to give up my bathroom to her during the days I'm at work so she won't have to spend so much time in the crate. But I will still have to use that bathroom for baths and hair washing. The other bathroom in the house only has a shower.

Phoebe Notes

Here's what I wrote on 4/4/06 in my Phoebe Diary:

Tuesday April 4, 2006

I’ve had Phoebe for three whole days now. It’s 8:19am. I thought she was doing well with the housebreaking, but this morning she was a complete wreck. She had to be corrected three or four times on peeing and she peed and pooped on the couch. So, I have placed her in her crate and will be following the 7 days schedule from now on. Hopefully, that will work. One of the problems with the 7 days schedule is that Phoebe doesn’t pee and poop 30 minutes after eating and drinking and she doesn’t eat all at once. She likes to graze. I have a feeling she will be in her crate a lot. I wish I didn’t have a job and I could be with her for a few weeks to housebreak her. My parents could do it, but they don’t want to.

Phoebe also has a problem with chewing. She chews on my hands. It hurts too. I try to substitute but she likes the hands. She is a cute puppy. She tries to play with Steffi and Fritz and sometimes they actually play with her. But they also growl and snap at her. Phoebe will learn what she can get away with when it comes to Steffi and Fritz. Sunday night, Phoebe slept almost all through the night. She only cried once. But last night she cried a lot all through the night. I think this is just a setback day since not only is the housebreaking regressing but so is the nighttime crate behavior. But she is still going to follow the 7 days schedule. I hope I can get it to work. I have to cover the crate like she’s a bird to keep her from crying a lot. So, I can’t see if she’s doing her business in the crate. She isn’t supposed to be. Overnight she will pee in her crate. The crate is bigger than it should be and I don’t have a divider for it. At least the crate is big enough that she can sleep on one side and pee on the other so she’s not really laying in her pee. As she gets older she should stop peeing in there. Especially since I feed her in one corner of the crate.

Tomorrow night, Phoebe has to get her last round of vaccinations and her rabies shot and get tested for worms. She’s had two doses of worm medicine but the vet wants to check her anyway.

I'm Back!!!

My modem got fried this weekend. The electric went off and then came back on while I was online. My modem paid the price. Today I finally got to take my cpu to some computer tech geek in a neighboring town and got a new modem put in. He also added 256K of ram. He was really upset that my computer was soooo slow. Now it's fast.

As for Phoebe - There have been so many little things that she's done or not done that I could write about. In fact I have written about some of them. I started keeping notes on the computer since I couldn't blog. Yesterday I instituted the 7 days schedule. I gave her a couple of days here to get to know things and the dogs and me. She knows what the puppy pads are for, but she doesn't think she has to use them. So, she's on the 7 days schedule of being locked in her crate for most of the time and only getting out for potty time, feed and water time and play time. I'm only going so far as puppy pad training. I think it's too much to ask her to learn outside too when I will only have about 8 hours a day to train her - I'm sleeping and working the other 16. If I can get her puppy pad trained, I will be really happy.

Since I didn't have the internet to play on, I wrote a little on the novel I started some time back. And I watched some of my I Dream of Jeannie dvds. I like that show. I watched American Idol last night - it was country night.

I have to go to work for half a day tomorrow and Friday. It's Masters Golf Week this week, so I picked a good week to take off for puppy training.

Busy, Busy

Well, Phoebe is keeping me pretty busy now that she's here with me. Phoebe being my new little chihuahua puppy. I will have to post a picture sometime. Fritz and Steffi are tolerating her and sometimes even playing with her a little. Phoebe is very afraid of the outside. I don't think she had ever been outside before I bought her. So, I'm thinking puppy pad training will be the way to go. She did get to meet Lapcat today. No fights there. I've only had Phoebe at my house since last night and she already has some idea of what the puppy pads are for. I think it's now just a matter of making sure she remembers that she has to use them every time. Good thing her collar has a bell on it so I can hear where she is in the house. Mom's getting about three or four phone calls a day from me about Phoebe. She likes to get the updates. Although she does call Phoebe Susie once in a while. That's because Phoebe looks a lot like Susie, Mom's chihuahua who died some years ago. Phoebe doesn't like the crate at night. She cried and howled much of last night. But she will get used to it. I had her in the crate a little bit today and she settled down after a while. But when that girl on Nashville Star was singing, Phoebe started howling. I guess she liked that song and wanted to sing along. I'm taking a lot of this coming week off from work to work on housebreaking Phoebe. Hopefully, I can reinforce the puppy pad idea enough in the next week that the training will work.

What else is going on? Well, Dad got his other tree cut down. Mom's computer still won't work. It's a shame she's paying for internet service and can't use it. Oh well, the pc will make a good planter for mums this spring.

Yesterday was Mom and Dad's 39th wedding anniversary. Today was Dad's birthday. I got them a joint present for both occasions - A Roy Orbison Greatest Hits CD from Walmart. It was on sale. Dad's still on his diet allegedly so I didn't get him a cake or anything. He did make a cheesecake today, but that was because the expiration date was coming up on it and they had to get it used.