Corona is famous! Last weekend we took a road trip to Creston, BC where she got to meet both the Jessie Farrell band, and the Aaron Pritchett band. Needless to say, she was a hit! And dont worry, she was safely sleeping out in her crate during the concert... gotta be careful of those sensitive ears! She was also a perfect angel! The trip ended up being 7 hours long, but she slept the entire way, only waking up for the two or three pee stops along the way. And she was absolutely fantastic meeting everyone! She seemed to really love Mitch Merrett (that's my girl!) and he loved her... they are totally "BFF", lol. But she got to meet the whole gang, Ron Briggs, Mike Sanyshyn, Mitch, Mike Norman, Darren, Carmen... only one she didn't meet... ya, you guessed it, Mr. Pritchett himself! Just a minor issue with timing really, haha. She also got to meet "Team AP"... my friends Gillian, Cheryl and Andrea... they were in love and threatened to steal her.

After Creston we headed back to Christina Lake and spent a night in a hotel, again, she was perfect. Minimal crying when we had to step out, and even slept in a whole two hours later than normal so we could get a good nights sleep in, what a girl! She met some more people there and again was very good... not really fond of meeting other dogs though.

We got back from our trip on Monday evening, and then Tuesday was off to the vet for booster shots and a deworming. All seemed well until we fed her lunch that day, after which she began to tremble badly for a couple of minutes.

Unfortunately, this problem has persisted... strong trembling after every meal. So a call was finally made to a vet today who believes it may be a problem with her liver, or perhaps her glucose levels. Needless to say, we have another vet appointment this Monday morning to hopefully diagnose, and resolve, whatever may be wrong. Hopefully it isn't anything too serious.

Will update again Monday night with the news from the vet visit.

So much for my daily blog, huh? lol

Recent developments, lets see... well, Corona can no longer be left unsupervised in her x-pen, as she can, and does, climb out of it easily. She bites and chews everything in sight... her favourite items being ankels, toes, her leash, and her nice leather harness... NOT, of course, her stuffy, or her ball, or her chew tire, or her kong, no no....

Unfortunately we also haven't been terribly consistent with her training, and she has regressed on her "sit" command. My fault of course. We'll have to get back on track with that.

On the up side, she is still, mostly, sleeping through the nights (although last night sucked!), and she hasn't yet had an accident in her crate, *kock on wood*.

Oh, we also switched her to the raw food this past weekend and

from the get-go, she has been eagerly devouring her meals. Her

system was a little out of whack for a couple of days, but seems to be settling down now, and hopefully we'll see improvements in a couple of weeks.

It's late... I'm tired... I'm not sure where to begin, haha.

Yesterday was a trip to Kelowna to do some puppy shopping. Picked up some complete meal raw food patties, which we'll hopefully be switching her over to this weekend. I've been doing a lot of research on the raw feeding and I really like the sound of it, so hopefully it will all work out well. We also got a new harness for her, one that fits much better... still a little big, but she should grow into it fairly soon.

Then we came home and headed off to the vet for a check up. Everything was fine... the vet didn't seem to find any reason for her persistant scratching, which seems a little odd to me... but nevertheless... we weighed her in at about 1.4lbs... and made an appointment for the 22nd for her next shots.

Overall she was quite a good little traveller, which is great news because I love road trips, haha. And when we got home she was insanely hyper for nearly 4 hours!! I'm not quite sure what her issue was, but she was wired! Had us worn out in no time, haha.

Today was supposed to be an easy day... I was going to make a quick trip home on my 1/2hr lunch break to let her out for a pee and give her some lunch... except that when I got home, she wasn't in her crate, or in her pen. Nope... she was down the hall, in my bedroom, tearing the place apart.... oh ya, I even found my $600 camera under my bed - NOT WHERE I PUT IT!!! Needless to say... we now have quite a problem on our hands! She can't "hold it" long enough to be kept in her crate all day (even if I do come home on my lunch breaks, that's still 4 hours in the crate at a time, thats no good), but now she can't be left in her pen either.

Sooo.... really, I have no idea what I'm going to do.

But right now, I'm going to bed!

Not a whole lot of changes to report from the last few days, just trying to get settled into some kind of routine... uh, we're still working on that!

Corona's biggest accomplishments to date are that she has learned how to climb on top of her crate, and half way up her ex-pen... that's not good news! No escapes yet though.

I've started clicker training, but am not yet consistant enough with it for it to be effective, my own fault of course, I just never seem to have that darn clicker with me. It's also a challenge as the rewards I am using are her kibble food and even those TINY little pieces take her quite a while to chew, so it really slows the process down. Obviously I'm going to have to find an alternative.

More adventures outside as well. She gets cold so easily, so she can't go out for any length of time unless it's good and warm out (like 18degrees C or more), but we do what we can. She follows very well, so it's a riot to just walk around the yard and have her fumbling alongside, she's getting better though, less faceplants with each passing day! She's also quickly learning to get up our back steps, which is quite a feat as there are about 8 of them and each one is taller than she is. We haven't attempted going down yet, haha.

So, that's about that... hard to believe she's only been here a few days yet, it feels like it's been ages!

Good news - we got sleep last night! Yup, little Corona spent the night out in the living room in her pen and only woke me up twice, briefly, the entire night. Thank goodness!


She seems to be settling in well already... she spends an awesome amount of time sleeping, which is okay with me. When she is awake, she's either an insane, sporatic ball of elastic energy... or she's getting ready to sleep again, lol.


Unfortunately, she's already showing some bad habits, she's decided that chewing on the couch and chairs is great fun... fingers also make suitable chew toys... and if ya gotta go then just go! Hmm... I'm also wondering if she may have a food allergy already, as she is spending a lot of time scratching her ears and chewing/licking her paws, but we have a vet appointment next week, so I'll ask about that and see if I can start her on her raw food diet instead of the commercial kibble. It's always something, isn't it.

Well, she's still more cute than she is a pain in the butt, so I guess she can stay... for now.

Well, it seemed like a good idea for me to keep a blog on my newest addition, to share her with others, and also as a visible tracker for myself of our progress together. So, I'm going to give this a try!

My newest addition... a 7 week old short haired female Chihuahua puppy whom I've named Corona (something about my Mexican cruise and Mitch Merrett... hehe).

I purchased her from a breeder in Okotoks that I met when I lived out there last summer. I never used to like Chihuahuas... thinking of the stereotypical yappy, snappy, buggy-eyed little runts... but after visiting this breeder and their dogs, my mind changed quickly. They are good looking, well behaved, fun little dogs and, for a person who is likely moving into an aparment fairly soon, they are a pretty good choice. So, I contacted them in March and asked to be placed on the waiting list for their next litter, which was born just a few days later. I didn't expect that I'd get a pup from that litter though, as it sounded like there were quite a few people on the list ahead of me but... I guess it was meant to be! They contacted me a short time later to let me know that they had reached my name on the list, and there was one puppy left. A quick chat with my mum about financial and emotional support on the matter... and that puppy was mine.

And now, almost two months later, here we are!

Corona came home yesterday afternoon and started off well... doing her business where she was supposed to on her "puppy pad", and quieting down to nap after only (?) crying for about 45 minutes. She slept most of the evening and had two accidents on the carpet in our play session before bed time (you ever tried to catch a chihuahua "in the act"? geeze). I fell asleep cuddling her and slept for almost three hours before she woke up and that was it... I put her in her crate beside my bed and she cried and screamed for the rest of the night... needless to say, I got not more sleep.

Up at 6am, and she spent most of the morning crying as well, back in her pen. Finally at about 9:45 she quieted down and curled up in her crate, where I left her, silent, for about ten minutes and then let her out. We had a little play session and now here we sit. She is currently curled up in my lap sleeping... how I wish I could be sleeping too!

Overall a pretty good day. She seemed to learn that if she couldnt see/hear anyone from her pen, then she may as well just go lie in her crate, so hopefully she'll retain that thought tonight!

She also got her first play time outside, she did laps of the backyard at my heels, stumbling through the grass, it was pretty cute.

Anyway... here are a few pictures... and lets hope tonight is more restful for all!