The "real" Paddy's day

Dublin has a lot of work to live up the the celebrations in New Orleans. In Dublin, I did not have to dodge any Irish foods: cabbage, potatoes, carrots, moonpies (huh??).

We just caught the end of the parade. Apparently they don't really throw anything, but it does attract over 500,000 people so there must be something great about it. The last thing that went by before they opened up the barricades for people to roam through was a Ferrari:


People go through great feats to see this Irish parade. Climb the nearest traffic light:


Or a post on a really spiky SOLID IRON fence!! Crazy kid.

We found our way through the crowds:

To our first pub: The Old Stand. Anyone who's come to Dublin and done the Literary Pub Crawl will have visited this pub. Started with a few Guinness appetizers and settled in for a little Irish stew and fish 'n chips. Mmmmm....After a stroll down Grafton Street and stopping for a little traditional Irish music:


What are they, like, 10???

Then off to a few more pubs for a few more Guinness-ii and back home to Oscar.

All in all, a great day!

Our boy

Isn't he adorable?? We love him!!!

Happy meat

Actually called Billy Roll and can be found in your local Tesco's - it's in mine!!

Nola had to be put down today. Her little body just couldn't take the stress.

Rest in peace my beautiful baby girl. You were so loved and will never be forgotten.

Nola's first (and hopefully only) surgery

My poor little baby girl had emergency surgery this afternoon. I came home early because she was so sick and when I got home, she had it coming out of both ends during the day. I watched her for a while and then just got too nervous so I took her to the vet. He said that she was losing weight rapidly and that he wanted to keep her and to call back in an hour and a half. That hour and a half was torture!

When we called, the vet said that he opened her up as he was sure there was a blockage somewhere and he found that her bowels were twisted. He said that it isn't common but he has seen cases like this. He says it can happen with playful puppies. Unbelievable really.

Back home now - exhausted from the stress, sadness, and praying. Then Derek dropped his cell phone into a big pile of her diarrhea and I got a good hearty laugh out of that.

Hopefully good news to come...

Young adventures

Nola had her first "my mommy is a hypochondriac so I had to go to the vet" day. She went from her normal playful self to sleeping constantly and very lethargic. She also wasn't eating or drinking. After a few phone calls to emergency vet numbers that no one answered, I did lots of internet research - cause whatever the internet says is true - and finally found the number to a nearby vet with a 24 hour number.

The result of the visit was that it was basically a big tummy ache from eating solid food (oops). In my defense, it says PUPPY on the bag. But oh well...I'm out of practice. Another possibility is that she may have worms. The vet seems to think that the breeder may not have wormed the mother as they should have.

He gave her a worming tablet and apparently what happens when they take one of those is the worms COME OUT. So I say, "will that happen while she's there with you???" Well, it didn't.

Current report = no worms yet. Let's hope the vet's hunch isn't all correct. She's much better now and sleeping as we speak.

Nola's first day in her new home

The drive from where she was born to here is almost an hour, so we made sure to stop a few times to let her stretch her legs. She's already spoiled, but she's too cute not to be! She woke up every 2-3 hours last night and would only stay awake to tinkle, eat a little, play for a few minutes and then she was out again. She loves her new bed and let's hope she'll love her new brother that comes next weekend!













More to come!

Meet Nola

Oscar's new sister.

It's a boy!

His name is Oscar: