Fly pretty birds

Yesterday I got a random gift from J.R. He gave me a pair of really lovely pendant earrings by This Charming Girl, and I love them! I'm so proud of him, he knows so well what I like. I don't have to pretend I like his gifts because I really do like them. You know, I'm a girl who started to wear scarves extensively after my ex-boyfriend gave me a ridiculous golden heart pendant. It was so not my style yet I felt obligated to wear it... so I hide it with scarves. Hmphm. But J.R. knows better. He would never give me anything tacky or ridiculous. He's the best boyfriend ever.

Visiting dog parks again!

We are finally able to visit dog parks again! First Papu was on heat and then Niila was on heat. Of course we could have taken them to the dog park separately, but neither one of us liked the idea of going to the dog park alone, so that's why there has been a really long break between the visits. But at least the weather favors us now! It's been so warm and sunny in Finland recently, and it's probably gets warmer and warmer as we approach the summer.

Yesterday we visited our regular dog park. It's usually pretty empty after six, but yesterday it was quite busy. Niila made friends with a white bichon frise. They ran couple circles around the dog park. Papu was her usual self, stood distant and minded her own business.

Today we visited a dog park that is located further away. We visited the regular dog park too, but there were some kids running around and Papu wasn't too keen on that. She hates kids and she hates kids than run. So we decided to move on to the next dog park. And I'm happy we did! We met a new dog who was also called Papu, and he looked almost exactly like Papu. Except he was Manchester terrier. The owner of the other Papu was surprised to meet another dog with the same name, but for us it was already a second time. Funnily, all three dogs have been named after different things. Our Papu is named after a can of beans ("papu" is bean in Finnish), her Papu was named after the shape and the color of the puppy, and the third one was named Papu because when he was a puppy he liked to sit on her shoulder like a parrot (in Finnish parrot is "papukaija"). Anyway. Niila played with the other Papu, and our Papu, once again, stood distant and minded her own business. She's not exactly a social butterfly...

And then some other news: Papu is not on eye drops anymore and her eyes still look nice! I think it's pretty safe to say now that her eyes are healthy now. My pretty girl is pretty again!

And Niila... she stills looks stupid:

She sits like that all the time, and it's so embarrassing. Why won't she sit like a dog?!I can't understand how Papu always looks so ladylike and elegant and Niila looks like a... silly joke of a dog.

It's a miracle

Papu's eyes don't weep anymore. I know, it's a miracle. After all, she was on cortisone/antibiotic eye drops for a month, got her tear ducts punctured and tried some super expensive eye drops for dry eyes and they did nothing to her eyes. Absolutely nothing. We had already given up hope. We thought that her eyes would weep forever and that I would always feel guilty for not being able to make her better.

But then after one dry windy day her eyes started to produce yellowish eye discharge. Lots of it, so we took her to a vet again. First the vet wanted to inject her with cortisone and to give us some antibiotic eye drops, but I told the vet that eye drops that only contain antibiotics and no cortisone has rarely worked for us so she then gave us some cortisone/antibiotic eye drops.

She was a full month on cortisone/antibiotic eye drops but they didn't help her. This time however we got different cortisone/antibiotic eye drops... and after a day or two her eyes started to look healthy and completely normal. No more yellowish eye discharge... no more weeping! You can only imagine how happy I am now... though I kinda wish they'd given us those eye drops in the first place as it would have saved us some money. Anyway. We're still on the eye drops so we don't know if the weeping comes back after we stop giving the eye drops to her, but I'm staying positive. At least we know now that there is something that helps her.

And I really thought that I would never see her beautiful eyes healthy again, but here they are:

The fur under her eyes is completely dry! Remember, her eyes used to look like this on a good day:

 What a difference!

"She is a weeping dog, her eyes are meant to weep"

Yesterday we visited a vet with Papu. It was a completely new place, and when we got there, we were greeted by six gigantic mastiffs. They were there for an eye check too. Despite the rush hour our turn came quickly. The vet asked about Papu's eyes, like what kind of treatment she had got already and how had they worked. She then decided they should check Papu's tear ducts. Blocking tear ducts may cause the weeping.

So she was sedated and they took her away. We got her back in less than an hour. The poor baby was so sleepy! They had checked the tear ducts but they were fine and open. Her eyes started to weep as soon as we got her back. The vet gave us some different kinds of eye drops. They're basically for dry eyes, which Papu definitely don't have, but the vet said that the drops may chance the way her tears are. That maybe her eyes weep because her tears are too runny or maybe she does produces too much tears. If these eye drops don't work, then her diagnosis is that "her eyes just weep".

This is how her eyes look... when they're looking pretty good.

It's good to know that there's nothing wrong with her eyes causing the weeping. But I would like to see her pretty eyes again. Now I only see the tearfulness. And I'm afraid that's what other people see too. That they see a dog with seriously weepy eyes and think that I'm a bad dog owner because I don't take care of her weepy eyes. If only I could. I can wipe them, but after a second they're as bad again. No tear drops work.

Still my precious, that's for sure.

 I wish I had taken video of her sleepiness. She looked so funny! Her ears were bent down and she looked nothing but sad, and then she walked around like a very, very tired duck.

Here we go again!

Just when we thought everything would be alright in our dog hairy world... Last time it was Niila's teeth, now it's Papu's eyes. She has had a series of eye infections and her eye problems just keep on coming. First we got an antibiotic eye drop regimen for two weeks. Then week off and the problems came back. Then two weeks with antibiotic cortisone regimen. Teary eyes again. Now we have given her antibiotic cortisone eye drops for a month and guess what? Her eyes are still teary! The vet doesn't have anything else to do, so she suggested we go see an eye specialist. Here we go again...

I'm just worried that it might be something that can't be fixed. My dogs are my babies and I can't stand the idea of losing them. Ever. I hope they live forever. I know that their vet history could be a lot worst. There's one Finnish blog where the min pin owner has described her dog's clinical history and it makes me cry every time. I'm happy that so far we have only had such minor problems. Teeth. Eyes. At least it's not epilepsy or cancer or anything. Probably.

I think I should talk about something happier too. Like the fact that we made the pups to sleep outside the bedroom. Papu was never allowed to go in the bed in the first place, and she never really tried it either. It was like she knew that the bed wasn't her area. But Niila, the stubborn, lovely Niila. She wanted to sleep in the bed. She really, really wanted to. She started sleeping in her own bed like a good girl, but during the night she always insisted to sleep under our duvets. And imagine trying to teach that little dog when it's 3am and you only want to sleep before the alarm bell rings. So she had her way and slept happily in the bed.

But it was unfair to Papu, so eventually she was invited to the bed too. Which was mistake obviously because our bed is ridiculously small. And J.R. started to complain that he doesn't sleep well anymore because the pups are sleeping on him.

But Niila has one embarrassing feature. She likes to pee in our bed. She was quite house trained but this was just a habit she seemed to have. "Yay, peeing in mommy's and daddy's bed is so much fun". Fun for her, but not to us. Especially since we usually noticed it only after we got to bed. Stupid tiny bladders, stupid tiny brains!

Anyway. Since Niila is so eager to pee in our bed, we decided that they're not allowed in the bed anymore. And to make sure that they don't keep us awake with their requests to sleep in the bed, we decided that they're not even allowed to sleep in the bedroom. So now they sleep in the living room in their tiny little beds.

At the first night Niila whined and whined and whined because she wanted to sleep with us, but the next nights after that has been all quiet. It seems that they don't really mind sleeping in the living room. After all, they have each other so they're not completely alone and isolated.

But I miss them. I miss them sleeping in the bedroom with us, not necessarily in the bed with us. But I miss them. They're my babies like I said, and I worry about them when they're not close to me. What if Papu gots an upset stomach and can't wake J.R. to take her out? What if?

But look at their tiny little beds! And they have matching sleeping bags nowadays!

I've noticed that the pups don't prefer much where they sleep, but there's one pattern they have: they always seem to sleep next to each other, cuddling.

I think they're just precious when they sleep like that. They look like best friends or real sisters. When I watch them sleep together it makes me happy. It makes me happy that they seem to like each other genuinely.