I can’t get enough
of them.
Or of my zoom lens.
Or of my sweetie pie little girl.
Of all my children (and believe me, I love them all with the ferocity of a mother bear gone mad) Felicity is the one that I would keep for a few more years as is. I keep looking for some sort of fixative that I could spray on her to stop the growing…
…but I have yet to find such a product.
And because this post is getting just a wee bit sentimental…
…here are some more of those puppy patches that I talked about two days ago:
And here:
I think that our neighbors are getting ready to call the zoning department…or the mayor…or that hippie guy at the green house…
…and have us shipped right the heck on out of here.
I know it’s gotten pretty bad but what do you do? The dog’s gotta pee!
Well stave off the neighbors because we’re trying. I picked up a 300-count jar of these tablets at PetSmart—“Puppy Patch-B-Gone” I think it was called—and supposedly they will reduce the acidity in our dog’s urine or something. You know, make it a little less nasty a substance than it obviously is right now.
Ellie loves them. She gobbles them right up. (Then again, she also eats the plastic cap off the milk jug.)
My husband does not love them—at least, not financially. I called him from the store and said, “I found that product you asked me to get. It’s—hang on a minute—$5.85 a bottle. Do you want me to get two?” He did and I did.
When I got to the counter I found out I was wrong. (Imagine that.) A 300-count bottle was not $5.85 but rather, $30.00. “Um, honey?” I whispered into my cell phone, while the big, burly PetSmart dude tapped his foot impatiently. “Do you still want me to get two bottles?”
So yeah. We’ll give one bottle a try and go from there.
Meanwhile I keep telling myself: Spots are in! Spots are in! Spots are…
Pardon me.
There’s a woman with a clipboard at our front door.
And a policeman.
And the mayor.
Ad Jesum per Mariam,
I know it’s hard to do, especially with our weather, and early mornings and late evenings, but…it truly is better for the yard, for you, for the neighbors, and for Ellie if you train her to pee in the same place.
haha!!!
We moved into this I’ll say “ritzier” neighborhood and everyone seems to get their lawns sprayed and fertilized by some company, well, not my hubby,(I’m glad) Why spend that much money on grass? People are starving in the world…Well, because we are not going to pay a company to do this, I’m sure we will have dandelions all over and our neighbors might not like that…but I will! 🙂
Beautiful pictures by the way!
This couldn’t have been yesterday, it was freezing here and no sun!!
Love the zoom lens, the photos, the beautiful girl, the idea of a growth fixative…
I’ve read that simply putting baking soda on the areas that the dog pees on will fix the puppy spots problem. I’ve never been motivated enough to actually get out the baking soda and try it… so our lawn doesn’t look so green in some areas either;)
Maybe you’ll be more motivated than me. I’ll frantically check back on your blog to find out if you try it and if it makes a difference. WAY easier than digging out the baking soda and going outside:)
Wow, what a FABULOUS idea–a fixative spray. I could use some of that myself….can’t get enough of my kids–well, you know, at least those moments when they’re looking and being sweet and beautiful as all get out…that’s it, a fixative spray for those moments!! Beautiful post, Margaret!
We are lucky. Our lawn is in the country and nobody can see it. So sometimes it looks like we have a hay field out here.
Your photos are great. I need one of those zooms lens. I see all this wildlife over by our pond. But no close ups!
Enjoy all those precious moments they do go by fast!
You crack me up! LOL! I tell ya, I gotta hand it to you for having a puppy. I don’t think I could ever do it. And that stuff better work for thirty bucks a bottle. Wow! Maia is my little girl that I would just like to freeze and hope she never grows up. Alas, she’ll be four in July and I may get a bit weepy when we blow out the birthday candles. *sniff* Hope you have a great day, with more beautiful flowers. 😉
Here I am adding my two cents unasked. I’ve never trusted or liked those supplements that change a dog’s urine or keep them from shedding, etc. In my mind, they could be harmful over time to a pet. Here in Indy I’ve never had dog urine make brown spots on the lawn. Of course, because I have a lot of dogs, my grass gets trampled to mud only. Perhaps that’s why. As Paula said, one location for business is a good idea #1 and #2, maybe even a puppy sandbox like a kitty litter box. Your pix of Miss Felicity are super. lois in Indy
It’s supposed to take 6 weeks to teach a dog a new habit. You would have to dutifully take the puppy out on a leash every single time for 6 straight weeks to get her to remember that’s where she’s supposed to go.
And even then, I did this with my dog, and in week 7, she went right back to her old ways. I’m just happy she sticks to the fence line.
I have also heard that mixing their food with tomato juice helps and its natural. But, if you were to see my backyard you would know that I have not tried that…
Those photos are amazing! How beautiful!
I think it’s the age (Felicity, not the dog). I am just lovin’ Miss Peach right now. I could just squeeze her sweetness all day. I think that age is just on the verge of crossing over — to the not-so-sweet-and-squeezable.
Love little girl’s with dandelions too! I have some right now.
Dogs: my siter tried to teach us how to train the dog: walk them every day to a place with gravel till they do their business. You can let them have freedom in the yard after that. The gravel makes even cleaning up a bigger mess easy.
But we got the dog when the oldest were babies. Once I started training them the dog got short shrift and killed one patch of grass, then a bush, then the next bush, till we had no landscaping at all!
How old is Felicity? I want some of the magic pills for my daughter Natalie who is 4 1/2. She’s so adorable and funny. (well, when she’s not acting 14!)
God bless,
Gretchen
http://www.simonpeters.org
Great pictures of your little sweetie pie!
I am really surprised about the puppy patches. Never heard of it before and I’ve always had dogs. Of course, we live in the country, but still…
So sweet ~ the pics of your sweetie, not the puppy spots. You have to let us know if that stuff works… &:o)
We had our dog do all her business in one place and after she got the hang of it, she never strayed, unless we neglected her. 🙂 Then there’s only ONE puppy patch.
I agree with some of the earlier suggestions–train your dog to pee in one area, preferably not too close to the house. We were letting ours pee near the front, and in the warm weather it began to smell . . . unpleasant. We’re taking him to the back edge now, and that works better. We don’t have a fence, so our dog is in the house most of the time and is taken out to pee. If your dog is out all the time, training would obviously be trickier. Good luck.
Our dog decided to go in one place this winter with the cold. Unfortunately it is the very first thing I see when I open my back door. Where I live people just buy a patch of sod and fix it. I’ve never heard of the baking soda thing, but that stuff does magic for so many things. My husband used to be Mr. Arm and Hammer man.
Beautiful photos of some sweet little girls. I absolutely know what you mean about bottling up a child. In my world, {K} who is 10 is just at a great age. I know those hormones will surface, but right now she is my most agreeable, sweet, helpful, and happy child. FREEZE!!!!!!
A very easy solution for us was to train our puppy to “go on the rocks”, where we’d take her to an area under our deck to do her business on the landscape rocks. Now (10 years later) all we do is get under the deck every few days to pick up. The kids know not to go under there and it’s well hidden too. Also, when we are at someone else’s house, all we have to do is say “on the rocks” and she heads for the landscape rocks instead of grass. She only goes on grass when she’s on a walk.
Our neighbors in Iowa had the puppy patches in their yard. Sadly, it still looked better than our ‘no-pupppy-patch’ yard. 🙁
Adorable pictures of your sweet, barefoot daughter!
Margaret. I just have to say taht your little girl is so beautiful!!!!
Beautiful pictures! I have been a lurker for a while, but I find your blog very encouraging and I like to mine it for ideas with my own kids.
I have the audacity (after not usually commenting) to tag you with a meme to list 6 unspectacular quirks!