wet vet

it has officially been raining in calgary for five days straight. i seriously think i am starting to get seasonal depression (my horrible mood was obviously reflected in yesterday's entry). i do not understand how people live in vancouver. i think the rain is getting to me just that much more because i am standing outside every 2-3 hours encouraging emi to do her business; when i am lucky i have on a raincoat for protection, when i am not lucky i suffer through the experience in my purple house coat. unfortunately for everyone, emi hates the rain. let me tell you, when a pup hates the rain and all mother nature wants to do is pour it makes potty training rather difficult. i think more than anything she just hates being wet (she shivered for a good thirty minutes after we gave her her first bath). also, it seems that emi has the opposite of a nervous bladder - she is only able to take care of business if you are within three meters of her... hence my consistant suffering through the rain. all complaining aside, i do think she is beginning to understand the concept. last night she nudged me awake at about, 12:30 am; when i took her out side she did her thing and we came back upstairs. apparently, she pawed jesse right in the face around 430 am to get his attention and, again, when he took her outside she immediately got down to business. then, this morning when we popped over to val and kev's she went right to the door. i am praying that these three events are not random coincidences because we have already gone through three cans of spot shot this week.

this morning we took emi to the vet. for some reason i was really nervous about this appointment. my friend maddy recommended an animal clinic mckenzie town where she takes her puppy, heinz. i was actually very impressed. the vet tech and the veterinarian we dealt with were both really knowledgeable and nice. they also give you your "first puppy check" for free with the puppy's shots. everything seemed good apart from the fact that emi is pretty under weight. apparently, 8 week old great dane pups should be between 22-25 lbs; emi is almost 10 weeks old and is only 17 lbs... the vet said that it may be either her food so we switched.  the vet also warned us about the typical issues that surround great danes: bloating and heart problems. i have come to terms with the heart issues since there is really nothing you can do about them: danes are genetically prone to being at higher risk for heart failure. since i, along with everyone else in my family (thanks dad), can be a slight hypochondriac, i am now all nervous about emi's stomach getting twisted and flipped upside down. apparently it is super common in big dogs, especially danes, and it almost always results in death. the only real preventative measure you can take is getting their stomachs tacked when they get fixed but otherwise you just have to make sure you dont over feed them or exercise them after feeding. this is incredibly hard with a rowdy puppy. fingers crossed her stomach stays put.

one thing i found odd about the visit is how shocked everyone was by emi's colouring. i know that our family and friends think she is beautiful and has such unique colouring but i didn't expect the same reaction from a vet or a vet tech since they see animals everyday. both the tech and the vet just loved her, saying how amazing her colouring was. the vet even asked us about it since she hadn't really seen a blue merle coloured like emi before. i guess our friends and family aren't biased and she really is as gorgeous as everyone says! haha

emi napping with her favorite toy, road kill.