Edie and Effie Summer 2009

This past summer I’ve been pretty busy with different things like crafts, jewelry and suncatchers for my store and working on my family genealogy and learning to use a new SLR Sony Camera I got. I have mostly been taking photos of plants, flowers and such.

Edie had her 4th birthday in July and Effie is already 2. They are just amazing little dogs.

Here is a photo of us this year, I made a digital scrapbook page. It was a lot of fun. I do enjoy that too. I seem to enjoy so many things that are crafty.

May 4, 2009

My first Framed Layered Scrapbook Page made with digital papers and elements from scrapgirls.com and some graphics I used from Trina’s digiscrapkits.com/digiscraps/ I had a hard time fitting the photos in these frames.

Pretty cute and fun to make. I did this with a lot of old photos while working on my family Genealogy also. They turned out fantastic!
After I got the hang of it making digital scrapbook pages, I redid the one above and made this one. I used photoshop elements to make my pages. I love that program so much. It was hard at first, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it.

Edie and Effie March 2009

My Sweet Babies

Now I would like to talk about personalities of the dogs. Edie is the older Chihuahua the one on the right of the photo. She is really mild mannered and very sweet, likes to lick you to death and is very excitable. She loves to ride in the car and go bye-bye and on trips. We take them on trips with us, so many hotels allow small dogs now. If she hears a potato chip bag she is right there in a flash. She is very healthy and never has accidents in the house. She can be very independent but can also be very needy at times. She loves toys, mostly stuffed toys that squeak.  She loves to squeak a toy for a long time. She will play fetch and loves to shake your hand if you say “Shake Edie” she will shake your hand by lifting up her tiny paw.

Effie our Chorkie, has become very aggressive in her second year of life. She is the half  Yorkshire Terrier and half Chihuahua. She does not like it when my husband tries to touch me when she is sitting near me. She does not like him to pet her when she is near me and will growl. We’ve been working with her about that, but constantly testing her and doing it anyway, so she will learn. If she is resting and gets moved or touched she will growl. At night she will growl at Edie if she feels Edie is coming into her space. They both sleep in grates because otherwise they would want on the bed with us all night and my husband won’t allow that. However despite those things she is really good mostly. She loves to play ball and her favorite is a red small ball. She will play this all day……. if you allow her. She wants to fetch it constantly and will carry this ball around the house dropping it in front of you so you can throw it to her. It’s so funny but can also be very annoying. I sometimes take it away from her for the rest of the day when I have had enough. Not when she has had enough, because that will never happen. She does not like to travel or go bye-bye, she does not like it when I get out the harness and leash, she will go hide under the bed. I will have to call her several times and then finally she will come. So I got smart and I keep all the pets things in a basket in the walk in closet and I bring her in there with Edie and then I close the door and get them ready. She will walk sideways and all kinds of funny things she will do when she has anything on her. She just hates it, no matter how often I do it. She is very healthy and super hyper. She will follow me all day long through the house, but I taught her to do that, because she has a accident problem once in awhile, so I like to keep my eye on her.

Overall these are both super good dogs and I totally love them to pieces. Both my husband and I enjoy their company. I am so glad we have them both.

In August my mom and I are going on a little trip up the coast into Oregon. We will be taking our Chihuahua’s with us. Mom has one Chihuahua named Missy. So mom and I will be going to visit the beautiful coast of Oregon bringing our dogs and it should be lots of fun. I’m looking forward to spending time with mom and taking this trip.

Until next time have  a very happy summer 2009. ~Kat

Edie and Effie Summer 2008

Our summer is going okay except all the fires here in California. The pups are doing very well. I think Effie has some allergies and she has been to the vet two times since early spring for Foxtails. The second time it was not a foxtail but a scab. LOL! the pads of her feet are very tender but she runs up and down the fence line to play with the dogs next door, Cody and Possum, our neighbors dogs.  Effie is quite the barker and I try to get her to stop and have to stay on top of it by being consistent in not letting her get away with it. It’s hard.  

Effie was completely potty trained and then one day out of the clear blue she had a minor accident in the living room.  Last week on Wednesday I went to get my aunt from her assisted living home and when I came home Effie had peed on the bathroom floor where I keep the pups when I am gone. Normally she  never pees in the house ever when I am gone.  For some reason while my aunt was here for an overnight stay she peed three times on the bathroom floor while we were out. I had let her out to potty each time before we left that day at each outing. We had many things going on it was my granddaughter Morgan’s birthday. 

At first I was not sure who was peeing on the floor Effie or Edie so I tested the dogs. I put Effie in grate (the suspected dog), the next day when I went to take my aunt back to her Assisted Living, there was no pee on the floor. So I was very happy it was not Edie my three year old Chihuahua doing the bad dead, she is such a good little Chihuahua.   

Now all this week while I have had to go out I have put Effie in her crate and will continue to keep her there again for a few months until she can hopefully be trusted again. Each time I was gone it was not long except for Morgan’s birthday party about 3 1/2 hours.    

Edie just turned 3 years old this past July, Effiie was 1 in April.

Here is a photo of Edie just a few weeks before her 3rd birthday.

 

Edie

I will have had Effie for one year this August 9. It’s hard to believe it’ been a year already. Despite her little recent set back in potty training she is a good dog and we are working to get her back on track, so far so good.

Here is photo of Effie I took a few days ago.

 

Effie

They both are so sweet and cute. I need to look for some Chihuahua blogs to blog with people who have them and Yorkies or Chorkies, Chihuahua and Yorkie mix.

Last photo today is a cute July Patriotic Photo of both Edie and Effie.

Last but not least I just got a new domain for my dogs I am working on called www.katsdogs.com

I have all kinds of plans for it, can’t wait to get it up and running. Today is the last day of July, where did it go? Have a happy August! ~Kat

Edie and Effie in 2008

I have been meaning to write in here for so long so just a quick post will do for now. Edie is going to be 3 years old in July and Effie is 1 year old now this past April. Edie weighs about 6 lbs and so does Effie, though Edie is a few ounces heavier. Here is a cute photo of them, Effie is sitting up front with her huge ears, the cute little Chihuahua Yorkie Mix we call a Chorkie. She is playful and sweet and she and Edie get along great. She was harder to potty train then Edie but she is fully trained now and doing well in that area. 

Below is a cute photo of Edie in my lap, she is a real sweet Chihuahua. 

Here is Effie our cute little Chorkie. 

It’s almost summer, the girls keep me busy. I always say it’s like having toddlers with these two around. These little dogs have so much energy and especially little Effie. We call Effie, Little Effie and Edie, Sweetie Edie.

In March we took the pups on a Coastal Vacation with us as we traveled up the coast of California via HWY 1 staying in Monterey and our friends condo and then on to San Simeon to the Hearst Castle. Lucky for us the weather was not hot and we were all able to enjoy our trip with the pups. We ended our trip with a stop in Southern CA, Simi Valley at the Ronald Reagan Library. That was the hardest place to find a hotel that would take dogs. Shame on Simi Valley! But in San Simeon we found a wonderful place to stay right on the beach. Many hotels take pets these days and some don’t even charge a fee, which was the case in San Simeon they didn’t charge us a pet deposit. Anyway the dogs were good as dogs can be and our trip was great.

Lucky for us we took our trip before the awful price of gas hit to bad, though it was quite a bit higher then we would have liked. The previous year (07) gas prices were much lower when we took our trip to Las Vegas Nevada and the Grand Canyon Arizona as well as Sedona.   We took Edie on this trip and that was before we had Effie. We found places to stay that took pets in Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Sedona. It’s nice that you can travel with your pets these days. We had taken our trip in February. It was a great time of year to visit Arizona. 

Well that’s about it for my post right this time. I have totally neglected my little pet blog.  ~Kat    

Edie and Effie Having Fun with Dress Up

Tomorrow will be three weeks since I got little Effie. Much improvement on the potty training. She does not like it outside though yet, but she is starting to get interested. She does not go to the door yet, but she looks over at the door, so that’s a good sign. I still take her every so often and after eating and playing and drinking and sleeping. You know just like changing a babies diaper, it’s a constant thing right now to go outside and go potty. That is what I tell my dogs is to go potty, I try to train them to go on command. I don’t let Effie play when I’m waiting for her to go potty.       

Edie has taken her place as leader of the pack just today, no more giving in to the puppy I guess. I’m glad she has done that because I did not like Effie taking all the toys from Edie because Edie loves to play with her toys. She is willing to share though, just don’t take the one she has in her mouth. You see, lately Effie has been taking every toy Edie touches and Edie was allowing this. It really bugged me, so I would give her the toy back sometimes and then throw it, then Edie and Effie would run to get it, but Edie runs faster so she would fetch the toy and bring it back. Effie caught on quick to this fun game.  

Today I went to their favorite place and perhaps mine too right now Petsmart, I wanted to be the first to pick out a Pumpkin outfit for Effie. Last year I bought Edie one and I wanted to go get Effie one too. I found one, it’s adorable check out my photo’s in the smilebox! they’re so adorable. I decided to go ahead and purchase some winter coats and jackets for them because I know they will be needing them and the stuff goes fast and especially the small sizes I need. Last year Edie got good use out of her jackets, she gets so cold. I’m sure Effie will also get cold too, she probably will not be as big as Edie, but I’m just guessing. Right now Effie weighs 4 lbs, she is 4 months old, I figure she will weigh about 6 lbs or less. Edie weighs 7 lbs and the AKC standard is 6 lbs, she could weigh that if she were a show dog but she is so skinny as it is. I think 7 lbs is good for her. Her breeder predicted 5 lbs, that was to low. I’m glad she is not 5 lbs, she is healthy and that is good. I feed them both Wee Bits from Solid Gold and then a wet food for Edie also from Old Mother’s Hubbard. Eventually Effie will eat some wet food too, mixed in with the dry, but for now I just give her the dry food. Their food has sweet potatoes in it and other good for you foods, no fillers or starches. Both the Solid Gold and Old Mother’s Hubbard are excellent health foods for your dogs or cats. I also feed my cat Tabitha food from these brands. Earlier in the year both these brands were not on any of the list of bad pet foods, one reason is they do not use fillers or starches in their foods. Go check out their websites for more information.   

While shopping today at Petsmart I also got them both a leopard jacket, it’s so warm and cozy, you will see it in the smilebox photo album and a reversible pink jacket for each of them, for slightly chilly days. Edie had this same jacket last year, she wore it a lot but the inside was black last year, this year it’s brown on the insdie. I had to get a new collar for Effie already too because her neck has grown quite a bit.

I also ordered online cute little name tags for each of them in Pink, I can’t wait to get them, they are heart shaped and made out of a really nice thick plastic so you don’t hear all that clanging noise, though both my babies wear bells so you will know when they are behind you, because they are so small, well so tiny really that you can step easily onto your little Chihuahua or Chorkie and not know they were there, they just follow your every move. Edie always walks to the side of me and I’m always looking back for her, but she knows it’s safer to the side, they learn this quick.      

Effie has to get her Rabies shot this week and I will need the heartworm medication and flea and tick ointment or whatever you call it. It’s been pretty expensive the past month with all the new things for the puppy and now I bought the jackets and Halloween outfit, but what the heck, they are so darn cute, I can’t help myself!!! 

So you have to look at the little photo album and see them all dressed up, As you can see in the last photo, Edie was tired of this photo session. ~Kat

Edie and Effie the Chihuahua and Chorkie

Today is two weeks since I first brought Effie home, a little half Yorkshire Terrier and half Chihuahua also known as a Chorkie, she was just so adorable that I had to have her. Edie my purebred Chihuahua is two years old, she is having tons of fun with our little Effie.

I was looking through the Sacramento Bee for a purebred Chihuahua when I noticed a very cute puppy in the Chihuahua section. I checked out her photo but she was to expensive, the breeder wanted $800.00 for her. I was not going to pay that much for a dog that did not have papers. But I was interested to call this woman and ask questions about the little pup. So I called her up and asked her some questions, she had bred the sire which was the Yorkshire Terrier with the Chihuahua (mommy) once before. This was the second time, she sold all the other pups for $800.00, but once summer came the phone calls stopped. I offered her $350.00 and said I would like to come look at the puppy if you would consider taking less? she said she would, so the next day which was Thursday the 9th of August I drove to Sacramento to see the puppy. She was darling just like the photograph in the newspaper and very spunky and funny. I asked to see the parents and they were right there, the little pup seemed very healthy so I told the lady I would take her. I paid for the puppy and she gave me some food and off I went for my hour drive back home to Placer County with my new puppy. I had my Chihuahua Edie with me during the whole trip, I let her out of her carrier to see the new puppy they both wagged their tales as they greeted each other. It was better then I thought, not one growl out of Edie. She normally does not growl at other dogs, but you never know what to expect with animals.

 Above is the photo of Effie from the Sac Bee

I stopped at the Petsmart and bought all kinds of things for the puppy, a crate, toys, leash, collar, harness, a nice fluffy Berber fitted pad to fit in the crate and a blanket, carrying case and maybe a few other things then off again, now just moments from home. We arrived home and the puppies were anxious to visit with each other smelling each other and playing with each other. The new puppy had a few more members to meet, one my cat Tabitha and my husband who was not home from work yet. Tabitha our cat excepted the new puppy right away no hissing at all. My husband came home and thought the puppy was darling, but did we have to name her Effie? yes I said, I did have to name her Effie, she looks like a Effie and I thought Edie and Effie was perfect. It’s not Eddie but Edie, pronounced Edee which is a girls name.  

Everything is going good with the new puppy she is a bit hard to potty train but we are getting there, I know it took Edie at least a good month to get the hang of it all and then she would have a few accidents now and then, but Edie is really good about going outside and letting me know by sitting at the door or whining very softly, sometimes if she has to go really bad she will scratch at the door.   

Above Edie with her Ty toy Pinkie

Once I had time to sit at the computer I started reading about the Chorkie and how people were really angry about people mixing these dogs and other purebreds. I thought it was ridiculous to get upset and write awful things in the comment boards and so forth about mixing breeds. Every breed of dog has had to come from somewhere one time or another, someone had to breed one type of dog with another to get the different breeds, they didn’t just fall out of the sky now did they? some even call it unethical and all sorts of bizarre statements. I don’t consider my Effie to be a Chorkie since she would be a first generation Chorkie, but I consider her to be a half breed. This provokes people to call her a mutt and say I should have got a dog at the shelter then. Well that could be said about everyone then and what would happen to all the dogs that were not at the shelter who would buy those dogs? the more I read the message boards the more I got angry with the stupidity of some people. If you want to buy a dog at the shelter because it makes you feel good to save a dog then go for it, I’m all for that, but me personally I like to get a puppy and one that I can train the way I like and I want a certain kind of dog, and I want a puppy, so I being the American Citizen that I am and as far as I know this is still a free country went and bought me a beautiful puppy that is a half breed and gorgeous and I love her just the way she is. Both my little doggies are so sweet and precious!

So it’s just two weeks into our life with Effie and she has adjusted quite well. You can peek above at our little photos of Edie first on the left and then in the middle is Effie, me and Edie, then in the the last photo on the right is Effie standing in the grass, this is someplace she goes to a lot right now.   ~Kat