Busy week!

What a crazy, busy week it's been- hence the lapse in time between updates. So, a lot happened since the last post. When I titled that "Worst Night Ever," I had no idea what was in store the following night (Tuesday). Greg and I were pretty wiped out on Tuesday night and put the boys in their crates around 9:00 and fell asleep soon after.

We were awoken by frantic barking about an hour and a half later- which Greg got up and responded to. He took the boys out to go potty, but noticed that both had very loose stools. He came back to bed, and we were woken up about 30 minutes later. And this continued until about 4:30 am. Poor Lance had it worse, but both had diarrhea all night long (which Greg referred to as "chocolate pudding). They were miserable and obviously in pain, and there wasn't much we could do. They slept for about an hour after that, and then we were up for the day. Greg ended up taking a sick day, and I went in to make sub plans so that I could come back home after teaching my 1st period class. The boys were sick- but so were we. Two nights with no sleep is enough to make anyone sick (and crazy!). We got a vet appointment late that morning, and the boys tested positive for coccidia, which is a parasite they could have picked up anywhere. We were given a special (icky) food to feed them and 2 different medications to make the boys all better. By the time we were at the vet, the boys already seemed to be higher in spirits and otherwise looked okay.

By that night, their poops were solid again (yipee!) and they seemed to be pretty happy, but definitely tired. They continued to get better throughout the week, and we'll be taking a stool sample back next week to make sure that everything is okay and the parasite is gone.
The whole experience made me appreciate the boys even more. I have so much love for them already, but I was so upset when they were sick- I guess this is how parents of human children feel in a similar situation. And all of the experiences that we are going though with puppyhood make me a little less scared about being a mom someday.

We are continuing to use the gentle leader collars with the boys on walks, and they get a little better each time. They still don't really like them, but I'm sure (and I've heard) this will change in time. Lance has been much better with his, and Greg has been walking him on it for the past several days. Jackson didn't take to it as easily, but had his first successful walk with me today with it on. We've been teaching them to sit and stay (which they have mastered) and are trying to work with them each day to learn new commands. I keep thinking about how great it will be to start puppy kindergarten already ahead of the game.

After a long walk this morning, we took the boys back to Central Dawgma to give them a bath and get more dog treats. We love this place. It was a little easier to wash the boys this time, even though they are still scared of the hose and terrified of the blow dryer! They look so cute and fluffy and feel so soft now. I had to take a bunch of pictures, and was just playing around with different camera angles, which are shown on this page. I'm guessing that they will stay clean for 2 days, tops.