don't mess with a porcupine

foster the puppy went out with dave the other day in the field for work. he came home all tuckered out after a fun day of tromping around in the mud, playing with sticks and running through puddles.
the following morning DH went fishing and i was alone playing with puppy before heading off to work. he was laying on his back getting some belly rubs with his mouth wide open and i noticed something in his tongue. what the heck? those look like porcupine quills, i thought. i propped his mouth open and gave one of them a tug. it didn't budge one bit so i decided it was best that i do no more. so i called dave.....
"hi hunny. did foster get into a porcupine yesterday? i think he has some quills in his tongue!"
"ohh yeah, he found a dead one. i pulled 1 quill out of his snout but didn't notice any others."
next i called the vet.....bring him in asap. do not try and remove them yourself. they are VERY painful.
$150 bucks later and he came home groggy but good as new yesterday evening. he got some anesthesia and they removed the 2 quills from his tongue. then he got a rabies booster shot. they also looked at his mange and said there's still a few mites in there but it's almost gone.
poor puppy!!!!! or as dave likes to say. "he's a big, dumb animal."
have a nice weekend everyone!!

weekend projects

we had a very productive saturday over memorial day weekend!
first: the garden
my darling hubby helped me with the final prep for the garden. together we built a modest little fence around the perimeter, about 6' X 3', with wooden stakes and chicken wire. hopefully this will deter any of the bunnies we've seen hopping around the yard. then i layed out a game plan for my veggies. and lastly i planted the loot!second: flowers
i cleared out a small spot next to my garden to plant some flowers. my friend judy told me it's a good idea to have flowers near your garden to attract pollenators like bees, etc. so i bought some seeds and planted my absolute favorite flower-snapdragons. we'll see in ~2 weeks if they start sprouting!
third: seating
dave cleared out a nice spot for some outdoor seating and mulched it. then he ran out to the mill store and picked up this adirondack loveseat we've been eyeing. we still need to stain it but i think it looks great! and it got quite alot of use this past weekend! a final shot of all our hard work. did you notice the rocks lining the seating area and flower bed? those are from all the digging i did this spring for the garden!

paddle on the assabet river

we had some visitors over the holiday weekend! our good friend matt and his girlfriend burns came up from d.c. for a few days. we spent a chunk of the day sunday floating the assabet river in stow, ma. foster has been in a canoe once before with dave when he was a little puppy and afraid of the water. so this was really his first trip out on the water and he was very excited. matt, burns and i took our canoe... while dave and foster shared his kayak. we pulled over for lunch and puppy did some retrieving.battling a big stickdave & doc relaxingthanks for a fun visit guys!

planting time!

i went over to russell's garden center in wayland the other day after work with my friend judy to pick out this years crop for my new garden! this place is huge. one could easily get lost there for an entire day just looking at everything. russell's has over 100 different types of tomatoes along with a bunch of other fun veggies and herbs to choose from. so we went with a plan to focus on that and not get distracted.
i picked out 4 different types of tomatoes:
la roma II (i got 2 of these)-typical italian tomato but with a larger yield and bigger, healthier fruit-dave's requestbrandywine-famous amish heirloom with large pink fruit
hazel mae-sweet, meaty yellow & pink bicolor heirloom beefsteakstriped german-ribbed bicolor red & yellow heirloom with marbled interior (VERY excited about this one!) i got a 'diva' cucumber-seedless, tender, crisp & bitter-free (sounds good right?)
i picked out 3 different peppers:
poblano
jalapeno
green belle
one very fun purchase which i was not expecting to find was a pineapple tomatillo. this is a mexican fruit used in salsas. this particular kind has a sweet taste, similar to a pineapple. they are much smaller than the variety you see in the supermarket. and lastly i got a few herbs:
basil
parsley
i guess you could say i'm going to have a bit of salsa garden this summer with all these tomatoes, peppers and tomatillo. hopefully it turns out ok!

kennel fun

one day last week dave had to go to CT for work so foster was home in his kennel for most of the day. when i got home i discovered this...apparently the latch that holds the floor of the kennel in place was not closed. so foster decided to somehow push the plastic floor of his kennel out and lo and behold.....a piece of cardboard was under there! oh what fun!! he likely spent the rest of the day chewing and eating up this piece of cardboard as i found about a million of pieces on the floor around his kennel. at least the day alone at home wasn't too boring! between this and the goose incident we will definitely not be leaving this puppy alone in the house anytime soon!

another one bites the dust

foster has pretty much destroyed his mallard. i think i've mentioned this a bit recently. over the past 10 months foster has removed the feet, wings and head. more recently he has removed all the stuffing and squeaker. all that's left is the shell of the limbless abdomen. and he still carries it around all the time. no more stuffed animals!

mange update

happy friday readers!
wanted to give you all a quick update on foster's mange. he went to the vet this week and she seemed happy with his progress. it hasn't really gotten alot better but more importantly it has not gotten any worse. so we'll keep giving him his ointment and hopefully it will clear up in another month or so. weight check: foster weighed in at 72.5lbs!
we're off to another wedding this weekend. this time up in NH. so my mom & dad will be on puppy duty saturday and sunday. i'm sure everyone will have lots of fun!
have a great weekend everyone!

just one hour

dave was away last week and i had to run out for an appointment after work. i felt bad putting foster back in the crate so i left him alone in the house. here's what one hour alone out of a doggie crate will do to a stuffed goose. i was terrified some piece of furniture had been destroyed and boy was i gonna get it from dave b/c he told me not to leave him unattended. but thank goodness foster (at this point) only destroys his furry friends. good boy puppy!

vacuuming

last week i did some vacuuming before unkie mike stayed over to watch foster. foster is in full-on shedding mode right now, apparently transitioning from his winter coat to a cooler summer one. i don't know if this is the case for all dogs but foster is terrified of the vacuum. he usually hides out upstairs or in the porch until the big noise is gone. i snapped a few pics of this while i was vacuuming last week...is it over yet? sideways glance go away evil device! yay it's over!!

brooke & jonathan are married!

we're back from HOTlanta! brooke & jonathan's wedding was beautiful and tons of fun! here's a few pics from the big day! congrats again to the happy couple!!

taking a week off

puppies foster will be on hiatus this week. DH took the laptop with him on his trip and for some reason i can't upload pics to blogger from our home PC. and i'm pretty sure AZ wouldn't appreciate me blogging at work! (not that i have time to anyway!)
i have some good pics and stories to post so stay tuned next week!
we're off to HOTlanta this weekend for my BFs wedding! so excited!! so i'll be back with many fun updates and stories to share!
MANY THANKS in advance to unkie mike, who is coming to hudson and staying with foster while we're away!

comments!!

hey blog readers!
i'm wondering who's out there reading my blog? do you enjoy it? are there other things you'd like to see?
i understand some people like blog stalking, i do a bit of that myself. but if you are out there reading and you like puppies foster gimmie a shout out in the comments section!
a big THANKS to my faithful readers who are always giving me love:

• my mom
• my sis
• my SIL laura
• my friend marisa
• my friend (and fellow blogger) liz
• my friend (and fellow blogger) catie
• my MIL

hope to hear from some more people soon!!
have a great weekend!