Pin cushion Queen

Life isn't easyfor the Pin Cushion Queen.

When she sits on her throne

Pins push through her spleen.

from the book "The Meloncholy Death of Oyster Boy" by Tim Burton

Today Roxy dog went to the vet. why you ask? because when no one was looking she stole the pin cushion on a side table, ran outside with it and ate it. shredded it really i should say. i found lots of pins on the ground but who could really be sure if she ate any or not? so gregory called the vet, who wasnt there and was referred to someone else and brought to have pictures taken of her insides.

she was apparently really badly behaved, trying to bite the vet. the vet gave her a sedative to calm her down and she apparently resisted sedation and kept trying to bite the vet. we havent picked her up yet so its unsure wether he is still alive or not.

dont worry though, she didnt eat any pins.

fun with webcam

last Friday i finally went to get my hair cut,and colored. I've been wanting to cut it for months. it hasn't been cut or even looked at by a hairdresser since end of November. my hair was well overgrown, heavy, too long, dead feeling.

i wanted a short cut so the hairdresser to a hunk of my hanging, heavy hair and just cut it off, an urge i had myself that i had to keep myself from doing. i literally let out a sigh of relief. i was already lighter, and feeling much better.

my hair is much easier to maintain now! not only was it cut short but i got the very necessary DE-thickening treatment. you know, when they run a razor through your head and take the thickness out of your hair. i have plenty to spare and love when they do it. now i can get up and run my fingers through my hair to get it back in place, whereas before i would have a huge rat's nest in the middle of my head where the bulk of my hair lives,tangling around itself because it was too long and unruly for its own good.

i took some pics with Gregory's web cam because my camera is out of batteries. silly pics of hair!

OK so this last one isn't of my hair but there's something about extreme closeups on web cam photos that i love. so there you go.

Roxy and the dog (non) whisperer

Last night a dog behaviorist came to our house. or at least thats what he called himself. he's the trainer at the new dog school we're bringing Roxy too. at her first lesson, she tried to rip his eyeballs out of his head, so after class we had to stay. then, she was a peach. i swear she's possessed. anyway he said he's also a dog behaviorist and he gave us his number.

when he came he read a long list of questions off his paper. alot of things we were already doing correctly, according to his paper. he proceeded to her cage to do some exercises. she did OK. he gave us a few new tips but he also didn't have any tips for some of her problems. like when i touch the vacuum cleaner she goes crazy; if she sees people passing on the street she barks all day long. all he said was "ah ja" yeah, ah ja--aaaaaaaand what can we do to stop it?! oh of course! distract her!
derrrrrr i knew that already! hopefully with a "professional" telling Gregory that Roxy needs distraction from those things (including the doorbell!) he'll actually help me now. i asked him about a month ago one weekend to help me desensitize her to the doorbell but he never did it. he told me "OK so when you're vacuuming you're going to have to distract her then" haha! buddy! to told him i cant vacuum and distract all at the same time, that he'll have to help me perform an exercise with her.
the dog "communicator"(?) said she's not a lost cause but it will be alot of work. he told us to expect at least 6 months before it sinks in and then another 10-12 weeks after that before it sticks like glue in her doggy brain.

Gregory and i already found a good distraction tool for her: she loves squeaky things. lucky for us she also loves tearing things up, and had already torn the squeakers out of one of her toys, so now Gregory and will equip ourselves where ever we go with a squeaker in the pocket. i took my squeaker and some treats on a walk today with her, and when she had her nose buried to the ground smelling something particularly interesting and wouldn't listen to come, i squeaked and she came and she got a treat. and after that, as i was sweeping up her confettied toy, when she tried to attack the broom i squeaked and her attention was on me rather than the broom. its working!

now we just need to invited people over to do people exercises with her. the dog guy said to have the people she doesn't know very well treats when shes being calm and good. I'm thinking of asking people along our walk route if we can stand and watch them garden or go about their business for a couple minutes so she can get lots of people "contact" i wouldn't go close to them but she gets angry if someone is moving around in their yard while we're walking by (sometimes) sometimes shes too distracted by the birds to even care what other people are doing. but I'm pretty shy and i feel nervous asking people "hello, my dog is not socialized but i would like her to be, could we watch you for a couple minutes while i try to make her not bark and growl at you?!"yeah right if someone asked me that I'd probably run back inside the house.