Karma the freaking wonder dog

So a few months ago we adopted a puppy. Her name is Karma and she is a valley bull pit bull mix.  It has been a long time since I raised a puppy. It has been a learning experience for me. 

 I went into it thinking it would be easy. She is very easy to love and is adorable. And she is very very loyal. She has brought me joy and has made me say dammit and f**k  A LOT!

First let me say I love her. 100% . But with some of the things she does, it is a good thing she is cute.  

Let me explain:

Puppies like to chew, some of the items she has chewed/eaten, are the following: an entire package of toilet paper (the jumbo rolls) she did this when we were not at home, to punish us for leaving her. This was before we learned about kennels and how wonderful they are. 
 She ate my entire Terry Goodkind collection.. (I have a glass book shelf Karma could reach the bottom shelf, guess what was on the bottom shelf)She did this while I was home, every time I went to the bathroom or looked in another direction she read destroyed a book)

Every single one of storm and Sophie's cat toys. Like human children, there is sibling rivalry among pet siblings.  Although half of her size Sophie and Storm are the boss and she knows it, but thier toys taste soooo good, so she munches on them whenever she can.
Anything wood, or with a zipper. 

Cat poop from the litter box.(ew)
Her OWN poop (even more ew)
The eyes out of every single stuffed animal she owns, ( nothing else just the eyes, there is now a collection of teddy bears in my home that look like they belong in a horror movie)
My work headset which I need to do my job.

There have been many other things but the worst by far was a loaf of bread I had rising on the counter.
In case you are not aware of what happens when a dog eats raw bread dough, allow me to paint a little picture for you. 

Raw bread dough is toxic to dogs , it can have one of two effects, It can turn to alcohol in their stomachs causing them to get alcohol poisoning and need an immediate iv and stomach pumping ( you will know this has happened because they will be wobbly and you will know they are not o.k also the stomach will be extended and painful -I learned this during a frantic phone call to Dr Barry our vet). The second thing is what happened to Karma.

 Diarrhea of epic proportions and vomit the projectile kind. 

For an entire week I followed my dog around with a mop and a bucket. Our home smelled like a drunken frat boy party in which several kegs of beer had been spilled and let dry. No surface was safe, I swore  a lot, I cried a lot I threw several things away. 
 I have not baked bread since. Until then we didn't even know she could reach the counter or that she might steal something sitting on it.

Once she seemed better John decided to take her with him in the car on a trip to Lunenburg..  I received a frantic text : The dog is NOT better, OMG MY CAR!!!!. When he got home , EVERY  surface inside the car had been hit, and stink oh my goodness! more stale beer smell.

Raising a puppy is so much fun.

 There have been funny things too, like the time Karma watched her brother Storm jump from the couch to the glass shelf set. Storm is agile and graceful, Karma tried to follow and the shelf set didn't make it, 

You are not a kitty ! is a common phrase in my home.  

In this photo Karma is pretending to be a cat and trying to sit on the back of the furniture like they do.

She is also an escape artist, to this day we have no idea how she was breaking out of her kennel, but when we would return home there she was waiting at the door, house destroyed.

Thank goodness we found a second kennel that is escape free.. so now she has one for bedtime and one for when mommy and daddy leave the house.

 We did learn that puppies like human children do so much better when they have friends, Enter Roper( an Australian sheep dog ) and Neeka,( a huskie) her friends from down the road. Roper and Neeka have a fenced in yard, so when Karma goes to visit they play leash free. Once she started regularly having play dates, she calmed down a lot. 

 The best part about Karma is the snuggles, she loves to be held even though now she is too big, and she makes no bones about that she loves us dearly.  I cannot imagine life with out her

Pure happiness (Karma playing outside with my son Brent)

Can't help but love her!

Good Karma

I am sorry I have been a little lax in posting lately, The truth is there are times that I want to write but I think to myself that I don't have anything interesting enough for anyone else but me to read. So when life is very quiet and boring you won't get to hear from me very much.

But Sunday life in our little bubble changed for the better. I met and fell in love with a tiny puppy at a friends house, I went to visit her a few times and each time I knew I wanted to bring her home with me. So last  Sunday we went and picked her up and brought her home.

Baby Karma

She is a 12 week old black valley bull /pit mix.  Her name is Karma.   I have not had a puppy in my home since my children were very small.  I have never lived anywhere that allowed dogs in that time. So we always had cats instead.   We still do, So now we are a 2 cat one dog family. I had forgotten how much fun and how much frustration having a puppy can be.

We started right away teaching her how we want her to behave, it is very possible she may take after her father Oden who is a very very large dog. So in that event I think it is important to make sure she has manners and is the kind of dog that we can be sure wont hurt anyone accidentally or intentionally.

The first thing we taught her was sit, and she had already learned that a bit from her previous family, stay is a bit harder for her but she is getting it.  We work with her constantly , rewarding her when she does really well. She does really well most of the time. She is a very smart little thing. I am not the only one who is teaching her, Sophie and Storm are teaching her as well.

When we brought her home, the cats expressed their feelings in their own way, Sophie was more curious, and Storm was very unsure and a bit annoyed. He let out a very deep growl and she heard him loud and clear, she backed off and stayed away.  I don't know how much animals understand one another, but I am pretty sure they understand each other way better than we do. Karma must have understood that Storm didn't think much of her because a few minutes later when he decided to exit the room and jumped off his chair she screamed and hid. After that though he tried to get to know her a bit, and decided he doesn't like her and still growls at her when she gets too close.

Storm the night he met Karma, this is not his pleased face.

Sophie has decided that she will have to  teach this little puppy who is invading her world that she will just have to learn to behave like a proper cat.  It might be because Karma has also rapidly become attached to me as her main person. I lead her pack in her mind so she is always near me and watching everything I do. This is a good thing because it has made it easier to train her and she is doing very well. Sophie has always stayed right next to me too, So for that last few days I have observed her with Karma, I am not sure what she is saying to Karma, but Karma is willing to share her toys and her food with simply a look from Sophie and sometimes a little swat if she doesn't listen right away. She plays with her by batting after her tail and then running away so Karma will chase her, then she turns around and chases Karma, they will do this until they fall down tired or one or the other gets bored.

Storm on the other hand has kind of gone into anti social mode. So we decided to leave him be a bit, and see if he adjusts.  Karma showed me that she knows more about what storm thinks of her then I thought.

A day or two after we brought her home, I became worried because she hadn't pooped for 24 hours.  When we take her out we take those little bags with us to pick up the poop to throw away. I don't want doggie doo all over my yard. So I ask John boy, has she pooped when you take her, he said no. So I call the vet and am told, if there is nothing by tomorrow bring her in.  So about an hour later I venture into my living room to dust and tidy up a bit. The living room is where storm has set up his formal protest of Karma, behind the curtain. We don't really use our living room much,  Our sun room which I have claimed for my office has a couch and chairs  its cozy and has a fantastic view of the ocean, Also you can smoke out there, so it tends to be the place where we spend our time,  It might be days before we go into the living room.

There on the floor in front of the exact spot where Storm is hiding were 6 little messages from Karma apparently she wasn't  pooping for me or John because she was sneaking into the living room when we weren't looking. She is a quick little bugger, in a perfect semi circle right around the spot where Storm was hiding were her doggie bombs, clearly she knew exactly what Storm thought of her and she wanted him to know exactly  what she thinks of him. We don't get upset when Karma has an accident, it happens, but this, this really didnt look accidental, while I was cleaning it up she was as low as she could get when she approached me, which tells me she knew she had done a bad thing, Seeing I did not see her make the mess, it was too late to try and correct her, so instead we barricaded her out of the living room so she does not have access, storm and Sophie can go in there as they please but Karma can't, So no more doggie hate mail.

The good thing is she is very smart and I like that, I also think she is going to change our world for the better and I like that too.

Oh boy I can watch people outside

Here is a little video of Karma sitting for a treat.