It sure has been a while! Carmen has gotten big too! I can't wait to show you another picture of her! We took her to the humane society to be spade, and they found out she had a tick disease. She keeps going under the house to cool down and getting bit by ticks, so we have to keep a good eye on her and Bubbles, because Bubbles does it too. Bubbles recently snapped a kitty for getting too close to the food and ended up killing the poor thing. She didn't get a scolding because she didn't mean to kill the kitty, she was just being protective of her food.

Carmen is still just as bouncey and clumsy as she always was, well, with a little more dexterity. She will never be as fast as Bubbles though, and she is starting to surpass Bubbles in size. She is really starting to take shape now.

I wish they would stop getting outside the backyard. They keep getting out and it really scares me.

This is what playing with kitties will do!

EEK! Carmen has fungus on her face. I KNEW she did! I kept telling Ben but he wouldn't listen. He said it was mud. She has it under her left eye, a little on her right eyebrow, and a little on the right side of her nose which has grown into a little bump of fungus. She's been nipping at the baby kitties running around and they've been scratching her. They have had the fungus since they were born, and it's gotten worse, so it's no wonder silly Carmen got it too! Poor baby...hope she learns her lesson!

No pictures of it because I didnt take my camera over. Well, you can sort of see it in two pictures below this post. The ones on the bottom. But it's worse today.

Ben says to add that we ARE treating her for it.

Welcome to the Adventures of Carmen! Carmen is a chocolate labrador puppy whom was given to my boyfriend for his birthday this year. We've had her for about 3 weeks now, and I decided that I should make a space just for her on the internet to share the exciting stories of Carmen; her successes through training, her troubles, her jealous friend, Bubbles, and her adventures with the outside world.

Just to catch everyone up on the story, Ben and I didn't know that he was going to be getting a dog for his birthday. His uncle was distressed because he did a job with a friend and instead of getting paid, he opted for a dog. Well, he lives in an apartment and they can't have dogs there, so Ben's mom suggested he give it to Ben as a birthday gift. Ben accepted and we got her and brought her home. She was a very tired puppy as most baby dogs are. She's starting to come around now though.

Her first night she slept inside Ben's room and whined all night. The next night she was introduced to the outdoors, and slept in a room right near the backyard. She still whined a lot, but she had to learn that she didn't belong inside. She now sleeps outside tied up to a doghouse and still whines some, but she's getting better. She's also gaining more muscle, agility, endurance, energy, and stability! Hurray, our puppy is growing! Not only that, but she's catching on GREAT with the training.

The other animals

His family already has lots of animals; many cats, and 2 dogs which look like rottweilers, and pinschers. There's Dot (the eldest) and Bubbles/Precious (the middle one). Dot doesn't care about the other animals, so she just sleeps by herself a lot. She's got a lot of tumors, and we're basically just waiting for her to keel - poor baby.




Bubble's Story

Bubbles was kind of just dropped on Ben's family from his cousin's girlfriend. She never took her puppy home, instead she brought it to Ben's house and took care of it there. Well she ended up breaking up with Ben's cousin and left the dog there (and throughout this time we had been taking care of the dog anyway). She was initially named Precious but we don't like that name so we've been calling her Bubbles/Puppy. Although now that Carmen is with us, we don't like to say "puppy" very much. Bubbles is already a year old. Bubble was treated like a toy, just being held and pampered WAY too much and never trained, so it's a struggle training her now because she's a year old. She's also jealous of Carmen because she gets some attention, and Bubbles LOVES all the attention. Bubbles steals Carmen's toys and treats all the time, even though we give them each a toy and a treat. We play with both of them, and they play with each other, but sometimes they hurt each other because they get jealous of each other. So, luckily they are friends, but it's somewhat of a love-hate relationship.

Carmen's first REAL adventure

The other day we decided to take Carmen to the "beach," so we took her downtown to a park to play in the sand and go walking on a leash in public. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera. She loved it there. She was sniffing the sand like crazy and other dogs we barking at her. I tried to get her to go in the water, but she was scared of the waves. I can't wait til we can take her to the real beach so I can get in the water and call her to me. We know she loves the water because she stands in the tub of water at home when she's drinking it. AND she splashes around in it sometimes too.

But the SCARIEST thing was when a pitbull about 100 yards or so away was barking like crazy at her. She didn't think much of it, but after about a minute or two the barking stopped and all of the sudden I turn to see the pitbull about 10 feet in front of us running toward Carmen. It escaped it's owner to come over to Carmen! I didn't know what to do, so I kept tugging on Carmen to get her away. Well this was the first real time she was on a leash so I was choking her. I felt so bad for doing that but I was freaking out, So I grabbed her and held her close.

This pitbull kept jumping up at me trying to get at Carmen and I just kept turning away from it. Ben was right there trying to grab it. He finally did grab her by the neck and the owner wasn't rushing over to get her. He just kept yelling at Ben to grab her. Then he finally came over, and I don't recall him saying "sorry" or anything. We just walked away both with adrenaline pumping and Carmen was spooked too.

Many people came over to us petting Carmen and saying "poor puppy" and things of that nature. This experience makes me want to really scope the area before taking her again. There were other dogs there really trying to get at her too. She's only a puppy though, so she's not going to defend herself much.

Ben adds that the pitbull just wanted to play, but at the time it seemed pretty scary, altho it wouldve been scary even if it wasnt a pitbull that was running toward us.