Prozac is our Friend

Our vet finally recommended Prozac for Stevie. I don't like the idea of medicating her for life, but man it sure has helped. She no longer runs and hides when she needs to pee. Her anxiety is gone, her confidence is back. She still pees a little when we put the leash on her, but that didn't bother us as much as her anxiety around it. Hooray for drugs! Sometimes, they are for the best.

A Face to Love

Such a face!

Portraits

I painted two portraits of Stevie. She's so much fun to capture! What a face.

Pretty Smile!

Stevie is half Pug and sometimes we are lucky enough to witness a full smile. Half smiles are good too. This was taken this morning in the bathroom. 

Banned!

Not everyone is as patient with Stevie as we are. After we started leaving Stevie at home all day, we still wanted to give her exercise and companionship, so we hired a dog walker. The dog walker lasted about 2 weeks before she fired Stevie. She had to chase Stevie around the kitchen and then when she put a leash on her, Stevie would pee and then the dog walker would have to take the time to clean it up. NO FUN! 

Next, we turned to a doggie daycare. She lasted 1 month before they told us she needed to wear a diaper if she was to continue going there. Doggie diapers are embarrassing for everyone, especially because they are basically shorts with a maxi pad for a dog. We found a nice denim diaper set and sent her off to give it a try, but she only lasted another week with the diaper. She was fired from doggie daycare.

About a month ago, we found a place that accepts Stevie for who she is. We take her to a doggie daycare that is a massive warehouse with a fenced in back yard. She's only been going there for a few weeks, I hope she can stay there! Fingers crossed ...

PETaPOTTY

This is so cool. It's called a PETaPOTTY and it's like a litter box for dogs. It's hard to believe that we trained Stevie to use this, but we did! When she was a puppy, she used it all the time. Somewhere around 6 months, she refused to use it in front of us, but she does use it when we're not around.  This made us feel a little better about having to leave her alone all day. Each night, we come home to something that's been respectfully left behind on the PETaPOTTY. We bought it on the internet, of course. www.petapotty.com. 

It's All Our Fault

Let's go back to the beginning, shall we? It all started New Year's Day 2007. Chris and I were looking at photos of dogs on the internet. He'd always wanted a French Bulldog, but they're really expensive and we couldn't afford one. Google led us to a dog breeder site in the Ozarks that breeds designer dogs. They've got all kinds of mixes. They are like the Island of Dr. Moreau. They happened to have a French Bulldog / Beagle mix. We fell in love, hit the PayPal button and got an email that our puppy would be on a plane in a few days. We let the kids know that we were getting a puppy and there was love and excitement all around. A couple of days later, we got a call from the breeder. He's a really nice guy named Tony, who doesn't feel right sending this puppy to us because she's been sick. We wait a month and he's doesn't want to send us a sick puppy. He does offer us another dog, however. A new mix. A special mix. Her name was Eve.

Now, I'm not claiming that we were being responsible by any means. We did so many things wrong. We should have adopted, but we have 3 kids and weren't sure how that would all work out. Also, we needed to have a small dog that could travel, since we travel a lot. Small dogs are harder to adopt. We should have known that getting a puppy in February would not be very much fun in New England, since you have to take the puppy out every 2 hours. But we wanted the puppy NOW, RIGHT NOW and the internet was accommodating. That's right. We bought a dog on the internet.

We did think about what we would do with the puppy during the day so she wouldn't be alone all day long. We both worked at a large advertising agency in Boston and asked our Chief Creative Officer if we could bring our puppy into the office. He agreed and everybody at work was really excited to have an office dog. 

We voted on a name, and came up with Stevie, since she looked more like a Steve than an Eve. She arrived via American Airlines and suddenly we had this cuttle little roly poly puppy. She was awesome and everyone loved her. We brought her into the office every day for 5 months. People took turns watching her when we had meetings. She got tons of attention and affection all day long. The only problem was that having a dog in the office was against company policy and I was eventually busted for breaking the rules. I was actually caught on tape by security cameras. I really wish I had those photos, they were priceless. At around the same time, she was spayed. Not only did we have to start leaving her alone during the day, but we took away her womanhood. I'm not sure exactly, but I feel this is where it all started to go downhill. 

Tweeter

You can now follow Stevie on Twitter: SteviePeesAlot. 

Welcome to ...

Stevie! The Internet Dog.

This is our first blog, ever! We've been talking about some sort of internet presence for our dog, since after all, we did buy her on the internet. Stevie is a "designer dog," a fancy word for a mutt that was bred on purpose. Remember two years ago when Puggles were all the rage? Well we got a "Pugland," a Pug/West Highland Terrier mix. We like to think of her as our little Freak Show.

We really love our dog, but she is challenging for sure. First of all, she is very ... umm ... enthusiastic. Every time she gets enthusiastic, she pees. And she's enthusiastic a lot. Sometimes, she pees when we put a leash or collar on her. Sometimes, she pees when we pick her up. Sometimes, she pees while she walks. Sometimes, she pees when we just look at her. Our dog has a pee problem. She's been fired by a dog walker and a doggie daycare. She once had to wear a denim doggie diaper, which was embarrassing for all of us. According to her vet, there is nothing physically wrong with her. Therefore, she's just "special."

Stevie has tons of personality and she makes us laugh. Like all the time, even when she's peeing. We want to use this blog to share our experiences with Stevie, good and bad. Mostly bad. It's a love/hate relationship that we just can't get out of, so we're making the most out of it. Hope you have fun reading this blog.