We've MOVED!!!!

Guess what? We’ve MOVED!!! We moved last Saturday so have been in our new place now for a week. And we are loving it! It’s taken me about a week to start loving it, as we have been getting the kinks worked out, but a week later and wow – we needed this!



The house is perfect – bigger than our old place (well, how could it not be?!) but not huge. And the yard – is AWESOME!!! The place has sat empty for several months so the yard was in a state of neglect but all it required was a little raking, tidying up and mowing and wow, do we ever have a beautiful place! PLENTY of room for two growing kids, two dogs and two growing puppies.

It’s a big change for the kids, although still right in the same neighborhood. They both seem to be adjusting well, although Frankie reverted back to his naptime stinky “gifts” in the pants for Sarah, for a couple of days. Yeah, nice Frank, and something I put an end to FAST. Especially since we don’t have the washing machine running yet (one of the hoses got cut during the moving process and is proving difficult to replace).

Ms. Dave is enjoying the nice big yard too!

The swing set got put up (wow is that thing ever BIG!) without anyone getting killed or injured – no small feat! And amazingly enough three men with NO LADDER did it, with me looking on worrying about my swingset getting broken (???? Um, it’s made out of TELEPHONE POLES!). I have a deep sentimental attachment to this swingset as my friend, Lisa, made it for Ella before she moved back to the States.

It is SO nice to let the kids run without fear of them being run over by a neighbor, or, um, being molested or anything. Something to consider when you live in a shared compound with people who you don’t really know.... I mean, it’s good to think the best about people but on the other hand, it’s also good to be on your guard. And on my guard I always was but let me tell you, it’s exhausting! And here Frankie can scream and cry outside, Ella can sing as loud and obnoxiously as she wants, and the kids can make as much noise as they want without any fears of bothering the neighbors.

We are SO loving it!

And the puppies are liking it too. They just keep getting cuter and cuter!

Ella, the "Doctor" with her puppy, Madea.

Oh, and here's a big surprise. We have decided to keep the little female puppy, Madea. She seems to be Ella's favorite and is well, much like Ella... I think she'll grow up to be a great guard dog, if we can just keep her from dominating our pack!!

Sleeping Madea

While we are NOT planning on keeping her, little Madea really is the cutest little thing when she sleeps! (SLEEPS - not when she whines, barks or poops!)

Can you see who sneaked into the crate to sleep with the puppies??

A walk in the park with the pack

The other day the H pack went for a walk in the Botanical Gardens. Ella took her bike and did great! The dogs were in "working mode" on their leashes and also did well. I even ran with them :).

Sanyu was being so calm and submissive that I gave her to Ella to take run with the bike

There they go!

Sanyu did great, even when we rounded the corner and there was a herd of goats being herded by a small boy (shorter than Ella) and two babies. Yes, babies. One slightly smaller than Frank and one, um, toddler. Out, by themselves herding their goats!

Frankie walked Bridger a little ways but as you can see, wasn't being assertive enough to make Bridger walk behind or beside him. But he'll get it eventually, I know!

The Pack - and I am their leader!

Two of the best dogs in the world :)

And, The H Pack again!

Ella snapped this pretty good picture of Frankie, Sanyu and myself. Too bad Bridger was looking behind us!

Ol' Frank collects all sorts of fun things on our walks. Here he had a couple of pinecones and various "perfect" sticks. He only fell once :)

Ella does great with her bike! Very little crying and she even pushes it up hills by herself (mostly).

A pile of pups!

This cat LOVES the puppies!

Our "balanced" pack - or not

The puppies are doing well! We have gone from three to two, thanks to our friends, Jennifer and Edward, taking the little white male, “Lucky”. We also seem to have eradicated the fleas, thanks to two baths, four scrubs with flea shampoo, flea powder and last of all Hertz flea drip (which you’re not supposed to use on puppies under 12 weeks – oh well!). They are much happier puppies now and don’t scratch or cry as much.

I really can’t believe how tiny these puppies are. They are SO CUTE. Since my parents left and we got back from our trip to Queen E I haven’t been doing so well and these pups are EXCELLENT stress relievers. I know, the last thing most people would want when trying to move is two little puppies but they’ve been a life saver for me!

We’ve named our little male “Ranger” but Ella likes to call him “Danger Ranger” which hopefully he’ll live up to, eventually.

Madea killing the wubba- which is as big as she is!

We have committed an almost unpardonable sin in looking for a home for the female puppy, by giving her a name. We are calling her “Madea” just because we had to call her something other than puppy! We’re still looking for a home for her but will keep her in the mean time. She’s a really nice little puppy too. Really spunky.

Ranger, Lucky and Madea, before Lucky went to his new home

Ms Dave meets Madea. Be calm and assertive, Ms Dave! And she was :)

Frankie forces himself to like the puppies. Peer pressure you know! He's still working on being calm and assertive. It'll take a while!

Bridger is MUCH better with the puppies and now, like a normal, balanced dog, can even sleep comfortably (obviously!) in the same room with them.

Ella and Ranger watching the Dog Whisperer

Madea likes watching the Dog Whisperer too!

She really was watching!

Mr Danger Ranger fell asleep

As one whose watched the entire series 2 of the Dog Whisperer, Bronco has a very calm and assertive energy about him and there is no doubt that he is “pack leader” material! Poor little guy is so emaciated from his mange that I hated to post his picture, for fear of being thrown in the slammer for animal cruelty.

Bronco's been bathed every five days in a borax/hydrogen peroxide solution (and flea shampoo that makes his hair nice and fluffy) for the last six weeks, which has seemed to control the mange, but not get rid of it. He also had his vaccinations and was dewormed last week which really seemed to have hit him hard. He is SO SKINNY. Looks like hell. Last Thursday I decided to start him on his topical Ivamectrin treatment, even though they say to wait until your cat is four months old. Ivamectrin is a dewormer for cows and allegedly cures mange in cats and dogs, although you have to be careful that it doesn’t kill the cat or dog in the process (it’s strong, potent stuff). Surprisingly, even in his emaciated state, it didn’t seem to affect him negatively at all! Wish I would have started that treatment sooner but oh well.

A great find and new family member!

The kids, dogs and I were headed out for a walk today and guess what we came upon? Three little puppies abandoned under a tree, in a box!

Of course we brought them home and cleaned them up. As usual when we find an abandoned puppy, they were COVERED with fleas. And I mean COVERED. Poor little things. I don't think that I've seen fleas so bad on a dog before. They each got two scrubings with flea shampoo and then flee powdered.

There are two males and a female. The gray pup is a male that we're keeping as we were in the market for another dog! Amazing how that happens. And dog food went on sale at Game, too! And we were just "happening" to go into Kampala on Saturday anyway! Is it just me or do you think that God likes to work out little seemingly insignificant things in our lives too?

I didn't really take any "before" pictures of the pups, but in this one you can kind of see the spots, or "freckles" on the pups, especially their ears. Well my friends, those aren't freckles or dirt, they are CLUMPS OF FLEAS!!! Their skin was raw under their chins and behind their ears from flea bites and scratching.

Ella and our new puppy, "Ranger." She was TOTALLY into the bathing and cleaning up of the pups. She started pretending that she working at a babies home (???). Thank God that we didn't find an abandoned baby today! It's one of my worse nightmares. I can't think of anything more heartbreaking

After we'd bathed them and killed most of the fleas, we had to go through their hair with a fine toothed comb to try to get most of the dead bodies out. It was gross! There were dead flea bodies all over the porch that we had to keep sweeping off!

The little guys feel SO much better now, although there are a few die hard fleas left that we will try to catch tomorrow or the next day. Thank the good Lord for my Mom sending flea powder! We had everything that we needed to clean these little pups up.

I was so happy that they happily dived into this dog food that I'd soaked in water. I was a little worried that they'd just been weaned and wouldn't know to eat the solids. But they did!

They are little - about 6 to 8 weeks old I think - and all three fit comfortably into the cat crate!

Sleeping :)

So, all of my boasting about what "balanced" dogs I have and guess who completely freaked out with the puppies? BRIDGER!!! He decided that he was scared of them and wouldn't come near. Um, what??? I'm proud of myself though. After watching season 2 of the Dog Whisperer I decided to treat it as if Bridge was afraid of nail clippers or something. I WRESTLED him to the ground (which I NEVER have to do with my dogs!), which took quite a while, and just waited and waited until he was in a calm and submissive state of mind and wasn't freaking out with the puppy next to him. I did NOT reassure him as that just rewards insecure and "unbalanced" behavior. And you know what? It WORKED!! He finally fell asleep with the puppy laying next to him!

You can tell that he's not totally comfortable yet but he had calmed down a LOT and wasn't hiding under the bed. Yes, hiding under the bed from this sleepy puppy! I especially like the cat, Bronco, watching. He was totally NOT afraid of the puppy and couldn't believe how unbalanced the pack was...

A little closer... with Bronco helping to instill confidence

Ah well, what the heck... You can see that his head was kind of turned away from the pup here so maybe he wasn't 100% submissive, but at least he WAS calm!

Bridger hates Cesar Milan now.

Grace is trying to find homes for two puppies now.

The "Whisperers"

So, the kids and I have finished Series 2 of the Dog Whisperer. Yes, that’s 20 episodes PLUS bonus features, in less than a week, so you can tell that with two small children, work and an upcoming move which I should be packing for, that I have been using my time very wisely and responsibly : )

My take on Cesar, the “Dog Whisperer” - That is one dude full of common sense. Some dog trainers don’t like his techniques (too rough) and I’m sure that many “good” Christians don’t like his talk about “energy” and “mother nature”. I don’t have a problem with his techniques and it makes total sense to me to study a pack of dogs, figure out how the leader behaves, then emulate that behavior (to a certain extent – I’ve never seen Cesar sniffing butts!) in order to control one or a pack of dogs (We do the same thing in the adoption world – study the natural bonding cycle of an infant with their mother or caretaker, and then try to recreate that for our adopted, often older child). And all that talk about “mother nature?” Just knock off the “mother” part and refer to it is a “nature” or “natural” and he’s right on. It is NOT natural for people to substitute dogs for children or other people, and bad things happen when that occurs. We were told to subdue and care for the earth and when we don’t some crazy things can happen.

Oddly, after watching all of those episodes, Ella was quick to go out and grab the CAT and start ‘training” it. Um, what part of the DOG Whisperer didn’t you get in 20 episodes???

Your cat should be in a calm and submissive state of mind...

... get plenty of exercise....

...then you can give your cat affection!

(Ella dressed herself this day, by the way ;)

If dog psychology doesn’t work on a cat, you can just stuff the cat into a trash basket and get a dog : )

Bronco has decided that he loves to sleep in here!

Another thing that struck me is how similar good “pack leadership” (being calm, assertive and THE BOSS) for dogs is so similar to good parenting. Cesar stresses over and over how dogs need BOUNDARIES and clear leadership, as these make a dog balanced and secure. Sound familiar? It should as we all know that the same is true for children! Think of how “happy” the child who has no boundaries or parental control is, and the havoc that they reek.

There are skills involved in being able to control a pack of dogs solely by your calm and assertive “energy,” no matter how old or weak you are. How empowering that is! This self confidence can carry on into other areas of your life, which is exactly what I want my kids to learn. Cesar always says that you need to be “calm and assertive” to control a dog. So with Frank I’m hoping that he can learn the “assertive” part and with Ella she needs to work on the “calm” part. Lord knows she’s plenty assertive.... I also am thinking of the self esteem and confidence that it will give Frankie once he can control our dogs.



The problem with being a little boy and having a big sister who LOVES the John Deere cup and plate – you are left with the princesses! Again, we’re working on the “assertive” part with Frank :) And, well, after years of drinking out of a princess cup, he will need anything to boost his self esteem!

And my psychoanalysis of our dogs? Well, I think that they’re pretty balanced. I think this explains the reason why they never really fight with the huge pack of dogs that are loose in the Botanical Gardens and although I’ve never really obedience trained them, they’re just good, secure dogs. Both dogs are more pack “followers” than leaders so they seem content not dominating our family.

If only we the people were more balanced!