The Brave Xsara

It wasn't easy, but Xsara was spayed on Tuesday. The operation went very well and she is recovering really fast. We are already doing some easy tricks and obedience, mostly to let her know nothing has changed since she seemed to be worried about that.

Xsara is an incredibly friendly dog, but if there's one thing she hates, it's probably vets. Well, she doesn't really hate the vet, she just hates his office. So the whole thing was very scary for her.

First we did the pre-anesthesia test, which showed that all of her organs are working properly. The most important organs for the anesthesia are liver and kidneys, which process the medications. The vet asked me if I wanted to be in the surgery during the operation, but I didn't think it was a good idea since he couldn't administer any sedatives to me.

Waiting was the most difficult part for me, while Xsara probably thought the entire day sucked pretty much the same. Luckily her uterus was very nice so the vet didn't have to remove it. This reduces the chances of her becoming incontinent because of the procedure. The vet also looked at her paw and said the nail is healing very nicely, probably also thanks to the EMT gel I've been apllying into the wound. I'm so glad I ordered it for my birthday!

Anyway, I was able to take her home as soon as she woke up. She was very cold, sick and terrified and she wouldn't stop shaking. I wrapped her into all of the blankets I could find and cuddled her until she felt safe again. I was kind of questioning my decision, but having her spayed was the right thing to do.

The next day she felt a lot better, and keeps improving every day. She's still sleeping a lot, but when she's awake she's all over the place. It's so hard to keep her calm, she just doesn't know when to stop until she is so tired I have to carry her to bed and then she falls asleep right away. I feared she wouldn't want to go to the vet ever again, but we went for her check up yesterday and she even wagged her tail when the vet gave her a treat. They will remove the stitches on Tuesday, we can't wait to get rid of the satellite over her head!

The Dangerous Training

They say that accidents never come alone. I guess it's true. Yesterday we got our first agility-related injury, or any type of injury for the matter of fact. Xsara broke her nail during agi training, well she practically pulled it out, since it fell out when the vet just touched it.

She took it very bravely, so at first I didn't even notice she was hurt. She finished the run like it was nothing and Daša even said it was a very good run. But when we finished the course Xsara went to drink and we noticed she was holding her foot in the air.

Fortunately our obedience trainer Polona (who is also a vet) was on the course at the same time and she looked at it. She said the toe was fine. I rushed her to the vet and now she's on 2 weeks rest and antibiotics, she also has a bandaged foot and a shoe over it.

I don't know how I'm going to make her rest for that long! I guess we'll be doing a lot of new tricks where she doesn't have to move a lot (steady tricks?). The vet also suggested to have her neutered now instead of next month, since she currently has to rest anyway and she wouldn't have to do it twice. I wanted to do it after the winter trials, but we can't compete now anyway so it doesn't make much of a difference. If I'm emotionally ready by next week, I guess we'll probably do it then. One way or another, she's going to be my little patient for a while, so we've got a lot of cuddling coming up.

Oh So Hungry

The past two days were very full of events in our house. And Xsara was equally very full. I had some errands to run on Tuesday and Xsara was home alone for the entire morning. Somehow she managed to steal my backpack from the top of the closet, open it and eat the entire 0,5 kg bag of dog treats (1.1 lbs). She was so full that she could barely scratch her ears! I took her for a long slow walk, gave her water to drink and called the vet who said it was too late to make her throw it up. So I had to give her some cream and milk to cause the diarrhea. Yesterday I took her to the seaside for a very long walk and her tummy seams about normal size now. And would you say the little furry thief felt full or regretful about her actions? Of course not - she even had the nerves to beg for food when I was eating a yoghurt!

And it totally slipped my mind the other day: we had a "4fun" trial on Sunday. Since it wasn't an official thing we ran in the "open" cathegory (levels 2 and 3 combined) and were 3rd. I was very pleased since the two dogs who placed higher both run on the 3rd level, which is for the pros. So I think we did quite OK.

How It All Started

How did Xsara get her name? That's an interesting story. First of all you have to understand that I always wanted to have a dog but my parents wouldn't allow one in the appartment. So I waited. I started raising money to buy a house for our family when I was 4. I remember keeping little coins in an old pickles jar. But one day I realised that a house costed a lot more than I could save up.

20 years passed by and I still didn't have a dog. I walked all of the neighbours' dogs, but they insisted I had to give them back after walking them! So I decided to buy myself a car because by then I really needed one. I set my eyes on a nice red Citroen Xsara, a really beautiful car.

Just then my family decided to finally move into a house - which meant I could now have a dog. I found the perfect breeder in a couple of weeks and one month later I was on the waiting list for a pup. I remember being terrified when I went to pick her up, she was so perfect and she deserved perfect. But she seemed to be happy with what she got - the non-perfect me! This is going to sound so sappy, but I really believe that Xsara and I belong together.

However buying and having a dog costs a lot, so I had to give up on the car and spend all my money on Xsara. That's why I decided to name her after my favorite car, so in a way I could have both, a Xsara and a dog. I must say it was really difficult having a dog without a car. I wanted to train with Silvia and the club was on the other side of Ljubljana so we often spent the night before the training at the house of our friend who lived a 45 minutes walk away from the club. That was OK when the weather was nice, but less tempting in snow or rain. Fortunately one year later I could afford to buy a different car, less expensive, but I couldn't care less.

The only thing that matters to me now is that I have my little princess and she is the smartest, the cutest and just the best dog ever. Whenever I'm sad, I remind myself of just that. And every time I look at her, I know I am the luckiest person alive!

Beagle Puppies!

Today I went to visit Xsara's breeder, who has a pack of beagle puppies. Xsara didn't come with me because we didn't want to upset their mother. These puppies are not related to Xsara, they have totally different parents, just the breeder is the same. They were so cute, I made a lot of pictures and some videos. You can see some of the pictures here, I will add more of them as soon as possible. I would take home all of them! But it's not the right time for me to get another puppy yet. One day Xsara will get a baby sister, but I still have so much work with her that I couldn't handle another puppy right now with the diploma and work and everything. But someday definitely!

The House Is Still Not Done

We are still remodelling our house so right now it's a real mess. I can't even get online most of the time, so I apologize for not writing regularly.

The wonderful dogs also known as The Army of Four gave us this award:

They say: this award is given to bloggers who have wonderful outstanding styles and a fantastic ability to keep us thinking, amused and entertained. We now need to send this to ten writers of outstanding style and ability. We would like to pass this award to Amber, Liza, Pacco, Marvin and Diesel, Serendipity, Lorenza, Thor, Furkids,
River and Jazz and Dixie. There are so many great blogs to choose from!

Now, I just hope our house is done soon!

Beagle Doggy Tricks Part 3

It stopped raining today, so we managed to film the third part of Xsara's tricks. I didn't include the "diagonal legs up" in this video, because she can't do it with distractions yet. She was in a pretty good mood so I'm quite happy with the result, but she can do some of the tricks even better. I hate being a perfectionist, but what can I do, it's just how I am. Anyway, I hope you like our video - I'm going to change the music next week, when I think of something more appropriate. Enjoy!

New Trick!

Ta-daaaa! I proudly represent: diagonal legs up! And winter is not over yet so we win :) For now she can hold them up for a couple of seconds, but I'm sure she'll soon be able to do it longer.

We wanted to film the third part of tricks today but it's raining so we had to postpone it. But I bought a new camera today so the quality of the next video should be better.

Jazz and Dixie, Patience and Eddie, Peaches and Bella all gave us this wonderful award:

Thank you so much! We would like to give it to Johann because his blog always makes us think.