Easter, Linn-Gust style

The plan had been to post these on Easter but thanks to a laptop that decided not to cooperate, it's Thursday and I'm catching up. My sister Karen bought the rabbit ears for Hattie who absolutely hates them. This year she was napping with Joe on Easter afternoon and the other three dogs followed me outside so I decided since Gidget isn't much bigger than Hattie, well, why not let Gidget wear them? Then I was having a problem getting Gidget to pose so I thought I would put them on Nestle. And then I put them back on Gidget. I finally had Chaco wear them as well. You can see the fun we had in the photos.

It's nice to be missed!

So I know that when I walk out the door with my handbag, even if I'm just going to be gone 20 minutes, the dogs all gather in the living room looking sad. And I know that when I get home, they are excited to greet me at the door. But I had no idea this was the scene when I drive up. Joe took this photo the other day and shared it on his facebook account.

Gidget snoozes under Daisy's watchful eye

Spring arrives as the Linn-Gust house

Despite the snow that is currently falling outside the window the pool is being opened tomorrow. Gidget has had 2 1/2 months to play on the winter pool cover and tomorrow we find out how much she likes water. She likes to walk toward the middle of the pool and create puddles to drink out of (and sit in). Our past experience has been that the dogs are afraid of the pool when they first are introduced to it but we'll find out for sure tomorrow. For the most part, the others have been easy– not getting in when we're in the house, etc. But Gidget might need a little more disciplining especially as I had food poisoning Thursday/Friday and she didn't get her walk. Instead she spent the day (as I lay on the couch) wreaking havoc with toilet paper and anything she could find in my shower. She managed to drag several items across the master bedroom. Right now she's outside chasing herself around the backyard in the mud.

Need I write a caption?!

Gidget is 37.7 pounds! Yikes!

I am in Chicago but the report from home is that Gidget now weighs 37.7 pounds. She's not quite six months. When I got Daisy who was about five to six months old, she was 26 pounds. She also had a parasite but yikes is Gidget going to be a big girl! About a week ago, it was like her legs grew in a matter of hours. I saw her standing out on the pool cover and at the same time Joe (who was looking at her out another window), and I remarked how long her legs looked. I'm attaching a few more photo of her and the others. Joe took Gidget to see the holistic vet, Dr. Wilson, yesterday because we've been having issues with Gidget eating everything in the yard and our concern for her intestinal tract. Joe talked to Dr. Wilson about how we would do things differently knowing hindsight obviously is 20-20 since Daisy died. I was thinking this morning about all the people who post on various sites how much the supplements and this or that that they gave their dog have been working. But I look back on Daisy's life and I don't think any of that would have helped even without the chemo that caused the tumor to rupture. It appears to me that Daisy's life was supposed to be short and we extended it because we thought we were trying to help her. Now I see that we should have tried to help her by keeping her comfortable and letting her go when she was ready which would have been sooner than we would have allowed. Lesson learned.

More Gidget...as usual

Gidget survived her spay pretty easily. That first night she was exhausted but the next morning she was back to her usual self. It's been interesting to watch her continue to develop. This week she appears to be growing longer whereas last week she seemed to be getting taller. She is a bundled of energy though. I thought I had a great idea to play fetch with her (she thinks she is a Labrador Retriever!) Saturday morning while I washed the dining room floor. It was working well until I hit my head on the dining room table. Ouch! Today I got this photo of her enjoying the warm sunshine. It takes several hours to get her tired though!