Happy Birthday Niila!

Today is Niila's birthday, she's finally one year old. It feels like we got her yesterday, like she was a puppy yesterday, but now she's all grown up. You know, she was like this when we got her:

 And they were like this:

And now she's like this:

 And they're like this:

  

Of course Niila got some presents too. We couldn't decide in the pet store what toy we wanted, so we got her both toys we liked. They both make noises and they're crazy about them. Never seen them so excited about new toys!

Eye spy water fun and funny sausages

J.R. and Papu visited the vet yesterday. Her eyes have been quite bad after the last eye drop regimen. This time she was given two different eye drops. They both contain the same antibiotic than the eye drops that helped her while ago, but these new eye drops don’t contain cortisone, so they should be relatively safe to give her. I hope we’re finally on to something. According the vet this antibiotic is very effective one, so effective that they’re supposed to be saving it in case of some epidemic rather than giving it to dogs with eye conditions… But hey, whatever works. I gave her the drops this morning and I think her eyes looked better than they usually in on the morning, but that could have been just a coincidence. It’s way too soon to say anything.

There are some happier news too. Niila has started to show signs that she might enjoy swimming. There’s a brook near the dog park and people let their dogs cool there before they come to the dog park. Couple days ago we let Niila to play in the brook too. She seemed to be pretty excited about it, jumping after the pebble J.R. threw for her. Now we just need to find a lake where we can let her swim properly.

Papu put all her four paws in the water too, even though we didn’t especially encourage her to! Apparently she was appealed to it after she saw how much fun Niila was having. Maybe we’ll even get her to swim once Niila swims first.

We’ve also found a new type of food that works well for our pups. As you know, we’ve always searching for quality food for our pups. We’re currently feeding them with Acana Grasslands, which seems to work really well with both of them. And now we’ve replaced the regular canned dog food with this new raw food. They look like weird sausages when they’re frozen, but they’re nothing like that once they’ve melted and opened.

Nutrition wise they’re nothing but raw minced meat and vegetables. They’re intended for BARF feeding, but I don’t think we’re going for that. You never know though, BARF feeding is getting easier and easier these days.

Quick eye update

Just when we thought that everything's fine in our furry world... Papu's eyes were great for days after we stopped giving her the eye drops, but now they're back the same. They're exactly like they were on the first day when we started to give her the drops. It's like nothing has changed. I think we're running out of ammo soon. It could have been pollen... but her eye problems started way before there was pollen in the air. I guess she might be allergic to something, but I don't know what that could be. Maybe she's allergic to Niila?

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.