A belated welcome to the blog

I meant to start this blog a little over a month ago, when I first got Sasha. But little did I know that every waking (and sleeping) minute of every day and night would be spent caring for what I thought was a Yorkie-Bichon puppy, but in fact was a human infant in fur.

No one warned me about how difficult it is to take care of a puppy those first few weeks. No one. I don't care how many "warnings" the shelters and others give you about "whether you're really ready for the responsibility of having a dog." No one really tells you how bad it is. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm still glad I got a dog. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit to having some serious doubts about what I did to myself, and my life, by getting a puppy. You simply are not prepared for being woken up twice, or five times, a night to take the pup out, then she wakes you up every day two hours before your normal wake up time, when her day - and now your day - begins. And that's just the lack of sleep.

It's amazing how quickly your psyche can get worn down by going without enough sleep for a good two to three weeks. It's the puppy version of waterboarding. She actually made me cry. And I really don't cry.

Fortunately, now that we're in our fifth week of Sasha, things are better. The crate training, which was truly one of the worst experiences of my life, is finally getting better. Don't get me wrong, she still hates the crate - well, to be precise, she hates the crate in the kitchen that I put her in when I go out. She loves the crate in the bedroom that she sleeps in at night. But the first few weeks, watching her scream and claw at the crate, and then crap and pee all over the place, was unbearable. So was the smell. There are only so many times you can give a dog a bath (she hates those too), and in fact, the vet said to only bathe her once a month. Well, you let your dog roll in her crap for a few hours and see what you do after she gets out (I find myself constantly apologizing to strangers that I really do bathe my dog).

Then there was the coccidia. It seems my pup came with a parasite. I didn't know it at first, and though that her frequent bouts of instant-sleep were just a puppy thing (the vet told me it was). For example, there was the time we were walking around the block and about 3/4 of the way through, Sasha had had enough, and promptly fell asleep in our neighbor's driveway.



Or the time that she visited my sister's work, and was all happy and peppy, and then suddenly was down for a nap, and that was it.



Several readers told me that she looked sick. And once her poop started getting a bit too soft, I asked another vet what was up, and bam, we had coccidia. Fortunately, it's treatable, though it took a good two weeks. And as she got better, Sasha got more energetic, and no longer needed her mid-step naps. That was, until a week ago when the insta-naps came back. So again to the vet, where she now got a clean bill of health on the coccidia, but the vet agreed that something appeared to be up. Sasha has been more tired than usual, and she started nesting two days ago. Instead of napping on her bed, which she always does, she started sleeping on the floor between her crate and the litter box (I plan on litter training her soon).



The vet said that old dogs that are dying do this, as do young dogs going into heat. But Sasha is just short of 4 months old, so she's not going into heat. Since she's eating okay, and drinking, and is gaining weight, doesn't have a fever, and otherwise appears healthy, except for her slight lethargy, the vet said to simply watch her.

This a long-winded way of explaining why the Sasha blog didn't start a month ago, as I had planned. I've only now begun to steal back some of my free time. So AMERICAblog Pets is born. I did, however, populate the blog with photos from the past month, and dated the posts to reflect when the photos were taken - so you can get a sense of how growth over the past 5 weeks.

The new blog won't just be about Sasha. I'm hoping Joe will find the time to give us Petey updates (his adorable cocker), and Chris can update us on Nasdaq and Sushi (his Parisian cats). I'd also like to post photos and stories of your pets, so send me pictures and your stories about your pets here: ablogphotos@gmail.com

Oh, it seems someone is now awake. So I'm off to be fooled again by her making her "I need to go out" signals, when in fact she doesn't have to go at all, bur rather simply wants to play outside.