beckabean11404

Lady is slowly filling out nicely, but I'm still having trouble getting muscle on her. With winter slowly freezing us inside it gets a little harder and harder to get her outside to run. Can I purchase weights for Lady or anthing to help with the muscle gain? She is on vitamins and Authority harvest baked food. She has plumped up nicely, but she stil has a lot of extra skin...lol when I'm playing with her her face wrinckles up and she looks like a little old Lady. We've been doing the "stair step" lol where we walk up and down the stairs a couple times throughout the day, and her little legs are starting to show some improvement.
Also I got a shocking suprise over the weekend, wich is leading me to finding a new vet! For the first time since Lady has been here she gave me the one thing I've been wanting....a decent look at her so called blind eye. I could make out the brown around the eye and the cornea! There is something on the eye, sortof hard to explain, but it looks like a growth on the eye, and if you only get a small peek into the eye, it does in fact have that "blind" look. I've had no luck finding a specialist here in Tn that's reputable, but I contacted my old vet from Florida and he is willing to look at her free of charge, and go from there. From the conversations we've had, he seems to think he can save the eye, but untill he see's her we won't know for certain. That's the best darn news I've had in a while. I'm planning a Thanksgiving trip to Florida, so untill then we'll continue the medications in the eye and hope for the best. I really think that there is an underlying condition, that the vet didn't bother to take the time to diagnose. We run into that problem often here, being a part of the rescue and all. The vets here don't take much time to help us since we take away a lot of their $$ by doing our own vaccines, and have an out of town vet come to do our spay/neuters. Anywho other than all that Lady is one happy camper! I bought her a pink Cuz from Petsmart..but the only time she chews it is when she wants out of her cage lol. she realized mommy can't stand to hear it squeek!

DaKari

LOL don't I know all about the squeaker deal, they absolutely love it but just wait until she decides to get that squeaker out, once she does it once NO squeakers will be safe LOL.

So you are originally from FL?

My husband and I also live in TN now but he is originally from FL and I am from WV, born and raised a hillbilly . He grew up in Miami but when we met he lived in Gainesville (We met online). I had moved to TN in '97 and met him soon after, he tried to get me to come to FL but I don't like heat LOL. We have lived here 9 years, I love it here, it is a lot like WV but it was a complete change for him, which of course I am sure you can relate.

beckabean11404

I was born in Fl but spent most my life living in Ky, so Tn isn't tooo different for me lol. I still miss Fl though, we go down every four months or so to visit my family. I don't mind the heat so much, I prefer it to snow lol. This is my first full winter from begining to end so we'll see how well I do lol.

DaKari

I don't know what part of TN you are in but the part I am in doesn't get much snow, much to my regret, I love it! Being from WV I was used to plenty of snowy winters and loved it always, never tired of it. My husband loves it up here, he loves the season changes and he also wants snow. If we get any it is just a few flurries and if there is by chance a little coverage it is gone before the day is out. So disappointing. :-)

beckabean11404

We're located about an hour north of Chattanooga...in Dunlap. It doesn't snow that often...from what I've heard lol, but we had about 25 days from Jan. to March that there was snow on the ground. It's not so bad, but with two kids lol I hate to try and go anywhere past the front yard. The whole bundleing them up and trying to get anywhere on time is nearly impossible. When we were preparing to move up here I kind of compared it to living back in Kentucky, untill we got here. I haven't had any trouble "fitting" in lol, it's my husband that has. I guess people up here aren't used to "Americans" with dark skin (he's Italian) so he gets some weird looks sometimes. Myself on the other hand, people seem to welcome here. DH used to have to make me talk to people lol because he had a hard time understanding their "southern" accent. I grew up in the hills lol, so I still hold that hillbilly close to me :P I can finally walk around barefooted and no one laughs. We did get a huge suprise over how behind the times people are up here. It's hard to find many people who value their animals and treat them like members of the family. That's how I got sucked into volunteering with the Animal Welfare Network. We used to joke about it at first with family members..."oh you can just drive around and pick any breed you want" but then reality hit, and it's true, but very pathetic. We were up here for about 4 months before I got my car situated around so I could drive it, after we got it taken care of DH told me he better not come home to find that I've been driving around picking up animals lol. I stayed true to my word, but him on the other hand.....he picked up our first rescue. Kaycee. I call her my minature lab lol. She looks just like a lab, but she's only 35lbs, and stands a little taller than a minpin. Buddy our second dog kind of picked us. We came home from a week in Fl to find this hound mix happily sleeping on the front porch. I started to feed him and the ticks on him were so bad, they had stopped dropping off, they were HUGE! He was anemic from so many parasites that I was worried he would die or need a transfusion. Luckily I was able to save the old boy. I had him neutered, which went terrible. He was my first neutered male so I didn't know what to expect, and the amount of swelling that was really bad, didn't trigger any worry (since I didn't know). A week after his neuter Buddy's inscision burst open. I stayed up all night with him untill the vets office opened the next morning, that's when we learned that he was hemoraging from the moment I picked him up. He came through well, but has a nasty scar to show for what mommy did to him lol. Buddy was going to be our last dog, and I would only be allowed to foster from time to time....DH got a little upset seeing all his hard work on the house go to peices lol. Kaycee ruined our area rug, Buddy tore up all the blinds from being alone, and one of them chewed the bathroom cabinets. When I was told about Lady I had a very hard descision to make, Dh knew how much I had been wanting a Doberman, but he also knew how much I loved having puppies here too lol. I decided that Lady's life was more important to me. I didn't want to see her adopted to a family and not know if she was being loved, and taken care of. I'm sure if some really needing puppies came in Dh wouldn't hesitate to let me foster them, he just likes to pretend that he has set "rules" lol. He knows I'm better at getting them adopted that his mom lol, she has 18 dogs in her care, and her last set of puppies she was really hesitant on getting rid of. It's tuff when you invest so much love and time into them and then have to trust someone else to do the same. Everyone looks good on paper, it's what they do in real life that matters. If it were up to me I'd have about a dozen dogs too lol. I had one foster that it killed me to adopt out. He came from a member of another forum I frequent. Aparently he was extremely agressive, had a bite history about a mile long and they didn't want to Put him to sleep. I went against everything I knew and decided to give him one last chance. Dallar is a GSD mix, and was very high energy, I'll never forget the first time he set foot in my house, he took a running leap at the coffee table, jumped onto the table then onto the couch, I about died! I immeadiatly started NILIF training with him. Dollar proved himself well, and I had actually considered keeping him. Then I was offered a job that would keep me away from the house for more than 10 hrs a day. I couldn't keep a high energy dog like that couped up in a cage and still expect him to be happy. I went through leaps and bounds trying to find the perfect home, and finally it paid off. Two weeks after getting him adopted I decided against the job, because of my children. I was going to work at TAFT....the correctional facility for boys. After hearing the horror stories of hostage situations, and the extent of crimes the boys in there had commited...oh boy I thought it was best to continue my stay at home career for just a while longer lol. Anywho now that I've written a novel I'll stop lol.

DaKari

LOL wow we sound alike in some ways. I am too a hillbilly of course being from WV and also fitting in TN quite easily, but even though Mark is a "city slicker" he does ok. He is half Italian and half Ukrainian so he is dark too. He of course favors the Italian side as he loves anything pasta.

I am about 45 minutes (52 miles) north of Chattanooga too but in a different direction, I am going straight up toward Knoxville, right smack in the middle of the two in a town called Athens.

That is funny about your husband not understanding the southern accent, my husband loves my accent LOL but he says some weird stuff if you ask me LOL. The good thing about Mark is that he lived in WV about two years when he graduated so I guess that broke him in a little, though that has been quite a few years ago since we are in our 40's now.

I guess I don't notice a lot about them being behind the times since I was born and raised in WV LOL so it averages out about the same for me. Actually from where I was from in WV it is a little more a step up for me living in the city, though very small one, from living near Matewan WV where the Hatfield/McCoy feud happened. I was actually married to a McCoy at one time, my children are McCoys. Now divorced and remarried I have a weird last name LOL. It's Ukranian. Oh well, hehehe, such is life.

As far as snow, you must be in an area that gets more than we do, it seems if it does snow at all that the chance of coverage is low but if there is that chance it ends up being all around us, like a circle and we get very little if nothing. Mark and I joke all the time that of all the places we decided to buy a house we had to pick the very spot that doesn't get snow. Not that it hasn't happened, everytime I talk about snow to someone here they freak out and say NO, you wasn't here in 1992 or 1993 (can't remember exactly) but from what I understand they got a LOT of snow and it pretty much shut them down for a couple of weeks LOL. Those at work stayed at work, those at home stayed at home, no movement. LOL that is just so crazy to me because in WV snow didn't stop anybody! It was a way of life, just another snow day. My ex-husband was a coal miner, he had to be at work, many nights he would come home in terrible weather, slipping and sliding his way home but he always got there safe. Here in TN if the forcast even remotely hints that we may have flurries you better hope you have milk and bread because people rush out and grab it ROFL, I just find it humorous!

DaKari

LOL sorry I hijacked the thread, this has nothing to do with muscle gain

beckabean11404

Lol it's ok..it's nice to talk to someone close. We've been to Athens once, I really wanted a house there, but couldn't get the husband to agree. We both LOVED the house, but he was worried about being to far from work. He's a professional tile installer, so he was hopeing to get most of his work out of Chattanooga or Georgia, unfortunatly he's working from Dunlap and gets sent all over the place. He was in Crossville a few weeks ago, and now he's in Pikeville. Oh do I know all about Pasta lol, and it's so funny because we cook so differently, but I've learned some really great italian secrets lol. My mother in law is full italian and GOSH can she cook. I love going over there for dinner lol, plus it saves me the hassle of trying to make something my italian man will eat. So picky!
I'm a happy camper up here, I fit in well and I love being in the middle of no where lol, Joe wants to move again in a few years. We'll do some renovations to our house and then figure out where we want to go next. We ended up here following his parents, and they aren't needing to work so this is a great place to retire, us on the other hand lol well we have to college tuitions to save for, then our retirement so it looks like moveing someplace more productive is in our future. I'd love to go back to Kentucky to be closer to my sisters, but Joe is thinking of a happier medium between our families....somewhere in Georgia. Since all I do for 11 hrs on the way to Fl is complain lol. This next trip he's making me drive my car, he's taking his car and sticking me with the dog and the youngest of our two girls.....he sure does love me huh lol? I just hope Lady doesn't mind the long trip.
Yeah the first "BIG" snow we had it was all over the news being the worst snow storm in the area for a while, lol ended up being about 4 inches....where in Kentucky I was used to going to school with a few ft on the ground. I think it was the 3rd day of snowing I went to get some groceries and couldn't find anything lol. I guess people just panic here. Since we're on top of a mountain instead of in the valley the snow usually sticks around a lot longer and comes down more often. We'll have a couple inches on the ground at home, go into town and it's raining lol. I still miss Florida more than anything though.

DaKari

Marks's mom is full Italian too, LOL, his dad is Ukraninian which is actually Polish. We aren't around his parents much at all just occasionally but I have eaten her food on visits, they live in Melbourne FL as well as his sister. Mark is not a picky eater at all and it is a good thing LOL. I cook so different than what he was ever used to but he loves my cooking.

So that is why you get more snow, you are up, that is what my husband would love to get, we want to move eventually out of the city to the country, his dream is to be up higher but mostly to have privacy. Of course I enjoyed the convenience of being in the city because I had never lived in one but I really do prefer the country more so in time we will move but it will be pretty much in the same vicinity.

You may have told me but I can't remember, what part of Ky are you from and what part of FL did you live?

It takes us 11 hours to go see his parents in Melbourne, only 8 to get his son for summer and Christmas visits.

Mark doesn't miss FL at all, the only thing he was hesitant about when making the choice to come was the good job he gave up when he moved to TN.

TomAndKing

Buy a pair of boots and exercise her outside. there is no replacement for outside activity. King loved going out in the snow and playing. I hated it, but he had a blast.

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