Wordless Wednesday

 

Rock Star

Today, Quincy had the opportunity to visit with another of his kind, a cutie patootie little female named Sweetie Pea when we stopped by to visit Aunt Robin, the breeder we bought Q from.  Sweetie Pea is about the same age as Q but exactly half the size - maybe Half Pint would be a good nickname for her!

Although Sweetie Pea is so teeny tiny, her big personality says otherwise.  :-)  Poor little thing was born with a cleft lip and is just about the cutest little thing you've ever seen.  Hopefully, she'll soon get the surgery she needs to fix her up like new.

 

 

Q also visited the vet today and got a Lyme booster vaccination which he handled like a real trooper, barely even flinching.  In fact, he handles needles waaaayyyyy better than I do!!  He now weighs 4 lbs, 1 oz.  He's already as big as his parents (bio parents, that is).  His body will soon be in proportion with his head and paws (for those of you who've commented about his sizable cranial area - yeah, you know who you are!). :-)

In the wise words of his male puppy parent (that would be Bob), Quincy is a rock star!

The perfect medicine...

As many of you already know, my blood results from earlier this week came back indicating that my levels are still dropping which is a TRUE blessing considering where the levels were about four months ago as a result of the staph infection I got during my hip replacement in April.

It's hard to imagine that in just four short months so much good could come out of so much bad.  It's even harder to imagine that if I wouldn't have gotten that same staph infection, we wouldn't have Quincy here in our lives today.  You see, in May when I became horribly ill with the effects of the staph infection, I had to reschedule a dental appointment since it would have been too dangerous to even think about introducing any more infection into my body.  My new appointment was on Monday, August 15th and that's when the story of Q really began...

I went to my dental appointment for a routine cleaning - looking forward to that awesome feeling of newly cleaned teeth!  I happened to be scheduled with a wonderful Dental Hygenist, now known as Aunt Alli.  Early into my appointment, I learned that Alli was a Yorkie lover too and from that moment on, our conversation centered around Yorkies (well, most of the conversation since I had her hand in my mouth for the better part of the visit).  Alli told me that she had been doing a ton of research on Yorkies as she began her quest to find a breeder that met her expectations.  I knew that we'd be looking at doing the same thing in the spring of 2012 so I asked Alli if she knew any breeders here locally.  As my appointment ended, Alli quickly emailed me the contact info of a breeder in Hughesville that she had spoken with.  Before I left, Alli and I joked about setting a 'puppy play date' in the spring once we both had our Yorkies. I didn't think much of it and went on my merry way.

By Wednesday, I thought I'd do some early investigating by calling the local breeder in Hughesville, Robin Landgrebe.  We had a wonderful conversation and she even emailed me some pictures of her Yorkies.  I had decided that we'd continue our investigation in the spring, as originally planned.

On Thursday at 4:30 p.m., Miss Robin emailed me these photos of what would soon become our Quincy...

Don't these photos just scream "Please take me home with you, I'm looking for some good puppy parents!".   Within a half hour of receiving these photos, I was on the phone calling Bob at work to see if he could get to a computer.  Unfortunately, he was busy and had to call me back.  Finally, I was able to email the photos to him at 5:49 p.m. - I think the decision had already been made, at least in my mind!  Much to my surprise, it didn't take any convincing on my part - I think Bob was hooked the minute he saw him.  By the time Bob arrived home from work just over an hour later, we were already making a list of names.  We have a history with the phone book (Spencer) and now with presidents (John Quincy Adams).  We know nothing about JQA but knew we liked the Q portion of his name so we went with it!  The rest is pretty much history and fairly well documented on my previous posts.

As I sent out the email update this morning regarding my blood results and thanked everyone for their prayers, one very wise friend (Roni) emailed me back and said, "I think prayers and Q (there is a reason dog is God spelled backwards) combined to be the perfect medicine"!

New buddies...

Quincy had a blast the other night with some new friends he made (I'm pretty sure the kiddos had fun also)!

 (Left top: Davin; Left center: Karly and Q; Left bottom: Davin; Right: Davin and Brady)

Check out this little guy (Cole) - he'll be a wiz in no time!

Four weeks later...

Wow, where has the time gone?  It's hard to believe that we've had Quincy for almost an entire month - exactly four Fridays ago today, we took the plunge into puppy parenthood again!  What a little fluff ball he was...

There have been plenty of ups and downs (mostly ups) during the last month.  I think the thing that sticks out in my mind most is that I've never said these four words SO many times in my life, "Go pee" and "Go poop"!!  I swear, our neighbors must think I sound like a broken record because every time I'm outside with Q, I'm either chanting one phrase or the other or BOTH!  And don't even ask me how many times I've said the word "NO" in a really firm voice within the last four weeks - if only I had a quarter for each time any one of those words were spoken!  :-)

All in all, Mr. Quincy has been the best thing that has happened in our lives since the springtime.  He brings such joy and fun into our home every single day.  It's hard to remember what life was like before him.  Our love for the Yorkie breed began over 14 years ago with Quincy's predecessor, Spencer, who passed away on March 7, 2011.  Had we not experienced the unconditional love of Spencer, we wouldn't have little Quincy today.  We see so many of Spencer's characteristics in Quincy that we continue to be amazed. 

 Thank you Spencer for being part of our lives for so many years and thank you God for leading us to Quincy!

Quincy's new BFF

About 2 weeks ago, I introduced Quincy to some of our neighbors, one of which was Miss Gianna.  Little did I know that she would fall head over heels for the little guy and has done nothing but talk about Quincy morning, noon and night (sorry Chris and Nancy!). 

Miss G was able to finally visit with Q a couple of nights ago and she became buddies with Quincy instantly.  In fact, Miss G informed us in the most adorable, excited little voice that, "I have to go to school tomorrow but I can come back and see Quincy right after school!" 

Can't wait for another visit, Miss G!  Quincy really likes you!  :-)

no leash required

Whew, what a horrible few days for so many people who experienced all the devastation in so many areas of Central PA and other locations of PA and NY due to the flooding this week.  Our hearts go out to all those who were affected!  We had no phone or DSL for about two days straight but it seems to be back in service now - THANK YOU Verizon!!

As puppy parents, we're trying to introduce Quincy to as many new things as possible like:

• traveling in his new doggie duffle travel bag which he LOVES...

• learning to walk/run along side of my electric wheelchair (still working on that one - no photo available yet).
• exercising as recommended by the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan, on the Nat Geo channel.  Cesar says that all dogs need exercise and what better way to provide them exercise than this...

I think he's getting the hang of it! Now when we put the treadmill in the walk position from the upright/storage position, Quincy hops right up on it and just looks at us as if to say, "what are you waiting for?"!  Way to go Q! (Video taken with my new Sony Bloggie - LOVE IT!  Thanks Aunt Tammy for the tip!)

By the way, YES, that's more '80s music, in case you were wondering...gotta love the '80s! :-)

taco soup...

You may look at the title above and wonder, "what the heck does this post have to do with Quincy??"  WELL, nothing really but I have to share this recipe for taco soup with you because it's sooooooooooooo delish and what a perfect way to spread the word!

Now you're probably thinking that this doesn't look much like soup, am I right?  In fact, you're absolutely correct! This is actually my version of a taco omlet!  :-)  I wanted an omelet for dinner so I thought it I'd jazz it up by adding a little twist to it and create this masterpiece!  It was a two egg omelet and 3/4 of my way through eating it, I wished I had made a three egg omelet...yes, it was that good!

Ok, now for the recipe:

1 lb ground beef (or your meat of choice)
1 onion (chopped)
1 16 oz can chili beans
1 16 oz can kidney beans
1 16 oz can black beans
1 16 oz can white beans
(or any combination of beans that YOU like)
1 15 oz can corn
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1-2 cups water
2 16 oz cans peeled/diced tomatoes
1 4 oz can green chile peppers
1 pkg taco seasoning mix

Cook the meat and onion together and add the taco seasoning packet to the mix. Drain the meat as necessary then place all the ingredients in a pot or even a crock pot and let simmer for a couple of hours...simple, simple simple! Serve over a bed of nacho chips or scoops, top with sour cream and the green chile peppers and, of course, some Mexican cheese! For those of you (DAD and Tammy) who like more of a kick, help yourself to some chili powder!

bonding time...

Some days are just so rainy and dreary that you just want to stay in bed all day - I'm sure you can relate.  Well, that didn't happen for me today BUT, for my little friend Quincy, it did and I'm SO jealous!  I've heard that a puppy's growth occurs during his sleep time so this guy may not be able to do this for much longer.  His little furry bed made a nice arm rest for me and it seems that he's only bothered when the phone rings. (Sorry little buddy, I'll see what I can do to lower that ring tone!)  :-)

I wonder if I'm spoiling him too much?

hol-EE Roller Dog...

Several days after Quincy came home with us, our wonderful neighbor - now known as "Aunt Marion", dropped off the most adorable gift bag of goodies and THIS purple ball has turned out to be one of Quincy's favorites.  It has a ton of holes in it making it seem really flimsy but it isn't, it's made of a very durable rubber-like material so Q is able to put it in his tiny mouth easily AND the best part is that he hasn't chewed through it...yet.  He loves, loves, loves this toy and would play with it for as long as you could throw it.  BTW, the name of this dog toy, as you may have already suspected...is hol-EE roller dog toy. (NO, I'm not getting any kickbacks for those of you that are wondering!)

The video to follow has some tunes that were inadvertently included (Bob was "turning, I mean 'spinning' some vinyl", forgive him, he's still stuck in the 80's...he not knoweth any better!).  WARNING: you may want to make sure you're sound is adjusted accordingly so you don't jump out of your chair when you click on the link! Also, if the video below shows up as a red X, that means your email provider has blocked the delivery of the video - just click on the title of this post above and you should see a new window open in your browser that will allow you to view the video directly from blogger. :-)

This puppy is definitely showing more and more characteristics of his predecessor, Spencer!  Q has some pretty big paws to fill but so far, he's doing an amazing job!

did someone say "shopping"?

Quincy made his first official trip to TJ Maxx this past weekend (thanks Aunt Lori who just happens to work at TJM!).  Quincy had his first unofficial shopping trip the very first weekend he was with us - I disguised him as my "service dog" as he rode on my lap and Bob pushed me in my wheelchair around Wal-Mart! Surprisingly, no one booted us out. On this trip, though, we were in search of a reasonably priced travel bag for Q to ride in.

Found one and it was ONLY $15 bucks!  He's such a little bargain shopper!  Even though he looks a little annoyed here, he was really enjoying the shopping experience and all the attention he was commanding (don't let that semi-scared look fool you)!  :-)

Here he's taking a snooze in his new bag at home just a short while later...

 Such a tough life...