Bailey Braun, the world's cutest Puggle

Bah Hum-pug

2009-12-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

Well... Bailey did it again. Christmas Eve night, 11:45 PM. Ryan and Bailey are outside running around on the hill in our backyard. I'm inside, feeding Taylor. All of a sudden Ryan comes running in the house and says "there's a skunk out there!" I ask "Oh no...did Bailey get sprayed?" Then Bailey comes racing down the hill into the house... and there's NO QUESTION that he got sprayed. He reeked so bad that our eyes were watering. The whole house instantly filled with the horrible skunk smell! Worse than that, Bailey's eyes were shut tight and we knew that the skunk had gotten him in the eyes.

So Ryan, who's still dressed in his nice church clothes, takes Bailey into the bathtub and is trying to rinse him off. He has the door closed, but I can hear Bailey's "toenails" frantically trying to claw his way out of the tub. Meanwhile, I can't really go anywhere because I'm still feeding Taylor, so I fire up the laptop and google "dog got sprayed by a skunk". I find a recipe for a "de-skunker", and it just so happens that we have the ingredients we need: baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and dish soap. Good thing, because by this time it's after midnight on Christmas Eve, and no stores are open!

So I mix up this "concoction" and go into the bathroom. The bathroom smells so bad... the best comparison we can think of is burnt plastic, the skunk smell is extremely potent in a confined space. (2 days later, we're still not using that bathroom because it still smells!) Bailey hates baths on a "good day", so you can only imagine how much he loves this. Ryan and I were both trying to hold him down and put the mixture on his fur. Luckily Bailey's eyes had started to open, but the whites of his eyes were pure red. I was trying to get his eyes under the water to flush them out, but he was jerking away and kept hitting his head on the water spout. Argh!

After the impromptu bath, he was running around the house, rolling on our rugs and trying to rub his face on the rugs. I called the emergency vet to see what they suggested. Oh, and by the way... a trip to the animal ER costs a minimum of $500! I didn't expect anyone to answer the phone on Christmas Eve at about 12:30 AM, but thankfully someone did. She said that there was no need to bring him in. She suggested the same bath mixture we had already given him, and she said he probably wouldn't be interested in eating or drinking for a while. His eyes might be painful, but it wouldn't permanently affect his sight.

So my mom and sister were supposed to drive 8 hours the next morning to come to our house for Christmas. I called them in the middle of the night to tell them that they probably shouldn't come. Our house was just filled with the horrible smell... and Bailey still stinks too. No matter that we had cleaned the house from top to bottom, purchased enough food for a large Christmas dinner, put up all of our decorations etc. This was also Taylor's first Christmas, which my mom was specifically hoping to attend. Bah Hum-pug, Bailey! We celebrated alone. :(

My mom and sister are still coming, but they're coming for New Years instead. And 2 days later, Bailey doesn't smell that bad... but he doesn't smell that GOOD either. The skunk smell is either out of our house... or we're just used to it! I'm sure we will be telling this story of "Taylor's first Christmas" for years to come!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-01T20:02:00.001-08:00

Silly Bo!

2009-11-25T19:10:00.001-08:00

Bailey is a big brother!

2009-11-08T21:58:00.000-08:00

Taylor was born on October 18th and we Bailey is now a big brother! He's doing great. We were a little nervous at first, Bailey has been wonderful around his new little sister. When we brought Taylor home from the hospital, Bailey even wore his "Big Brother" shirt for the occasion!

He loves to give T kisses!

Sock fun, part 2

2009-09-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

Ryan's sock is nicely air-conditioned, courtesy of Bailey. Well, at least he didn't eat the whole thing this time!

Bailey recovering...

2009-08-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

After his little trip to the vet earlier today, Bailey is recovering just fine. Curled up into a little ball and sleeping away in his bed. :)

The Great Sock Incident of 2009...

2009-08-10T13:24:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I've last updated Bailey's blog, but today was quite a noteworthy day. Today shall now be forever known as the "Great Sock Incident of 2009"... allow me to explain... this could be lengthy!

My mom had been staying at our house for the weekend, and I planned on taking her to the airport this morning on my way to work. As she was packing her suitcase, Bailey wandered into the guest room... usually no big deal. Before she could stop him, he grabbed a sock from her luggage and took off with it. He darted into the backyard with it and started chewing it up. Ryan and I both ran after him, trying to get the sock away, but that just made him think this was a "fun game". Eventually, he ran into a corner of the yard and gobbled the sock down whole!

At first we were more annoyed by anything. Just when we think he's growing out of his puppy stage, he does something like this. Although he's 15 months old, he is still very much a puppy, and he loves to play "keep away" and chew things. He regularly chews his blankets and even eats portions of them sometimes, but the fact that he ate this sock whole is what concerned us. After I got into work and thought about it for a while, I decided to call the vet.

Of course the vet told me to bring him in right away, after scolding me that I should have brought him in no later than 1 hour after this happened. (It had been about 3 hours at this point). I rushed the 1/2 hour home to pick him up, and then rushed him over to the vet and they gave me the options. I'll list them below with their relative costs in $:

1) Give him an injection that will make him throw the sock up: $$
2) Take him to the pet hospital and give him an endoscopy to pull the sock out manually: $$$$
3) Do nothing, but if the sock causes a blockage he'd need surgery: $$$$$

I decided with option #1, although they warned me that since it had been so long (3 1/2 hours at this point) that it probably wouldn't work. They said the injection was a nasty one, and it would make Bailey "violently ill" within 5-10 minutes. I felt so bad for him, but at the same time ... it was his own dumb fault. I sat in the waiting room and called Ryan, mentally freaking out and trying to figure out how we were going to pay for an endoscopy or surgery. Luckily, after about 10 minutes, the tech came out from the back... the injection was success! They got the sock!!!

The injection they gave him was part morphine so they said he'd be groggy and "out of it" for the rest of the day. It was so funny though... anyone that knows Bailey knows how hyper he is. Right after they warned me that he would be "out of it", he came out and started jumping all over me, wagging his tail, licking my face (eww he just threw up!) and sniffing the other dog in the waiting room. So much for "out of it"! The tech even said "Wow, I've never seen a dog act like this after that nasty shot!" Go figure... we already knew that Bailey is definitely not like other dogs!

The moral of the story is that Bailey will be fine. He is curled up in a little ball right next to me on the couch as I type this. We did have to pay some money today (...that we don't have, with a baby on the way!) but at least we didn't have to pay thousands of dollars for an endoscopy, or even worse, a surgery!!

Bailey doesn't know about this...

2009-06-04T10:32:00.001-07:00

Um Bailey, how do we break this to you.... this is NOT your new bed. Your world is going to change in a BIG way very shortly!

One more cute picture

2009-05-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

Where's Bailey?

Bailey is 1 year old!

2009-05-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so he actually turned 1 on May 3rd.... I guess I need to get a little better at updating his blog more regularly! What a year it has been.... we have definitely been through a lot with this little guy, but each day he's becoming more and more of a joy. Happy belated birthday, Bailey boy!

Ouch!

2009-03-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Bailey bit my fingernail off this morning! Owwwwwie!!

We were on our morning walk, and Mr. Scavenger found some sort of moldy food in the gutter. "Mmmm" he thought, "This looks good, I'm going to eat it!" So once I realized what he was doing (I guess I was still a little groggy) I reached down and did something I have done millions of times before: I pried open his jaws, reached into his mouth, and went to pull out the gross thing.

Well... didn't happen that way. Bailey was too fast for me, and he snapped his jaws down on my finger. Ouch! So along with the moldy food, he ate the fingernail off the index finger of my right hand! Yes, at least I'm left handed.... but I use my right hand a lot too... for typing, using the computer mouse, preparing food, washing my hair.... ugh. Thanks Bailey!!!!

LOL!

2009-03-10T22:08:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this isn't actually Bailey, but I can totally see him doing something like this!

Let's go for a walk, Daddy.... let's go let's go let's go!

Bailey graduated!

2009-03-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

I don't have any recent pictures of Bailey, but I wanted to report that Bailey graduated from puppy school! Ok, so he was the only student in his private class, and it's not like he could "fail", but we are very proud of our little boy.

Bailey learned a series of new commands, and he's getting more obedient as well. It's almost as if, now that he knows some commands, he realizes that he's not "the boss" anymore. So far, he knows: sit, down, stay, wait, leave it, drop it, shake, and roll over. We're still working on some of them (drop it and roll over) but overall he's doing great!

Our trainer was awesome - Erin Castro of Woof! San Diego. We may have her come to our house for additional training as October gets closer (wink wink!)

Bailey Braun, couture afficionado

2009-02-05T12:11:00.000-08:00

So I thought we needed to spice things up a bit with a few pictures of Bailey in his new t-shirt... isn't he a fashion plate?

Bailey 1, Couch 0

2009-01-21T17:42:00.000-08:00

What can I even say about this? The picture speaks 1000 words....

Bailey's first trip to the beach

2008-12-18T12:49:00.000-08:00

Now that Bailey is FINALLY vaccinated, we finally got to take him to the beach for the first time a few weeks ago! Not that he really enjoyed it. There were tons of dogs there, most of them bigger than he is. Since he's not used to being around other dogs, he was pretty scared. Bailey doesn't like the water too much either (although I don't blame him... it was freezing cold!) All in all, we only stayed at the beach long enough to take some pictures. Bailey liked the car ride home (with his head out the window) MUCH better than he liked his first trip to the beach! Oh well!

Bailey is at the kennel!

2008-12-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

Today Ryan dropped Bailey off at Snug Pet Resort, since we're leaving tonight for our Mammoth trip. Snug Pet Resort is owned by LaDanian "LT" Tomlinson, the star of the San Diego Chargers. Will Bailey get to play with Fendi and Gucci, LT's dogs? Only time will tell!

I can only imagine that dropping Bailey off at the kennel for the first time is somewhat like taking your child to their first day of kindergarten! I was so sad about it, yet Bailey couldn't wait to get started playing with the other dogs he saw there!

We will provide a full update upon our return!

Bailey, the surfer puggle

2008-12-10T12:05:00.000-08:00

My mom gave Bailey a new t-shirt! It's a little snug (that's our big boy!) but he's oh-so-stylish.

The Meerkat!

2008-12-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

We had a great time with our family during Thanksgiving. My dad made a new friend, whom he nicknamed a "Meerkat" because of his tendency to stand on his hind legs. Here, my dad is giving a stern talking-to to the mischevious meerkat...

Bailey, King of the Backyard

2008-11-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

Bailey thinks he owns the backyard. It's definitely his favorite place to hang out. When he's not eating lemons and limes off the trees, "helping" Ryan do yardwork, or laying out in the sun, he's darting up the hill so we can't catch him. Here is a picture of Bailey, overseeing his domain.

Look how we caught Bailey last night!

2008-10-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a small party at our house. About 6 of our friends came over for brunch and the Chargers game. Bailey loves meeting new people... but I guess we really tired him out yesterday!

Slow for the CONE ZONE

2008-10-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

Bailey was not a happy camper on Friday. That's because we took him to get "clipped". Being that he is 5 months old, the time was right. I dropped him off at 8 am and we went and picked him up at 4 pm. I will spare everyone the details, but Bailey is recovering nicely. He's almost back to his hyper, crazy, silly self. Until his stitches are removed on Oct 17th, he has to wear this cone on his head. We can't help but laugh! It's hilarious! Poor Bailey.... he hates it!

Bailey and Daddy chillax...

2008-09-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

So it seems like I could give Bailey attention all day long, play with him, feed him, take him on walks... but the SECOND that Ryan comes home, I'm chopped liver! It's the cutest thing to see Ryan walk by, with Bailey trotting behind him like his "little shadow".
Bailey loves his daddy!

Our little boy loves the outdoors

2008-08-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

Bailey loves playing in our new backyard. We just got our yard sodded (is that a word?) and it's nice and soft for Bailey to play on. Unfortunately, he eats the grass a lot, but we figured he would. He eats just about everything else he can put in his mouth, so why would the grass be any different?

Bailey updates will be coming soon

2008-08-11T12:25:00.001-07:00

So... for the 3 or 4 people that actually read this blog (haha) we have some new Bailey pictures coming soon. Our little boy is glad that he gets to spend a little longer as an "only child." Lately, he has been enjoying our new grass in the backyard... he loves laying out there in the sun. Now, if we could only get him to stop eating that grass....

It's exhausting being this cute...

2008-07-29T08:46:00.001-07:00

Our naughty boy

2008-07-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

We have so much fun with Bailey, he always keeps us laughing! Check out what happened when he got a hold of a roll of paper towels...

Such a naughty boy!

Our poor little latchkey puppy

2008-07-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

Bailey isn't exactly enjoying being at home alone all day. Not that I blame him, but we really don't have any choice until he's housetrained. Plus, he chews everything in sight! Nonetheless, we feel so guilty about leaving him all day. Ryan has been going home at lunch to check on him, and he's usually howling away when he gets there. We have baby gates up to keep him in the hallway and give him space to run. Hopefully Bailey gets used to it soon enough... it breaks my heart to think about him!

More gratuitous Puggle Pics

2008-07-21T17:54:00.001-07:00

More from this weekend. PS - just click on the pictures to see them larger or download them.

We survived our first weekend with Bailey!

2008-07-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

...I say "we survived" because puppies are a HUGE challenge. We knew that going into it, but nevertheless we love having Bailey in our lives.
We went to pick up Bailey at 6 PM on Friday night. He did great during the car ride home. When we got home, he was very hesitant and shy... but that sure didn't last long! We gave him a tour of his new home, and we had to laugh when Bailey saw himself in our mirrored closet door! He was convinced there was another puggle in the house, and was pawing, licking, and whining at his own reflection. Too cute!
We learned very quickly that we need to watch Bailey's EVERY move! He seems to enjoy peeing on every rug in the house. Luckily, since we have hardwood floors, there aren't that many rugs to choose from... but he pretty much "christened" each one this weekend. Our solution was to roll them up and store them... now hopefully he finds the peepee pads and uses those instead.
Like most puppies, Bailey is a chewer. Although we bought plenty of chew toys for him, he seems to have a taste for shoes, slippers, rugs, electrical cords, plants, leaves, twigs, grass, fingers, ears.... pretty much everything!
Our first night went pretty smoothly. Bailey seemed to take to his crate pretty well, and he stayed there the entire night. We set up the crate on top of a hamper, so his crate was level with our bed. Whenever he whined, I would just reach out and put my hand in there so he would know I was there. I got up every 2 hours or so to take him out to go potty and then I couldn't get back to sleep... in fact, it was hard to get much sleep at all the entire weekend. (Bailey has a cold!) but we figure it's great training for our newborn!

More about Puggles

2008-07-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

So it turns out that not many people know what puggles are. Many of my coworkers went "huh?" when I told them I got a puggle.

Puggles are 50% pug and 50% beagle and 100% adorable. Although they are not a registered AKC dog breed, they are really gaining popularity in the US as a "hybrid breed." Most puggles are either all fawn-colored or all black, but sometimes they can be multicolored or spotted (sort of like a beagle.)

Puggles usually have the leaner body of a beagle, and also the beagle's longer snout. This prevents them from having many of the breathing (and snoring!) problems that pugs have. (Trust me... a snoring pug can keep you up at night... my sister has one.) Puggles also have a beagle's long floppy ears, while they can have the brindled forehead of a pug. Their tails are usually longer, but they curl like a pugs.

Character-wise, puggles can take either the traits of a pug or a beagle. Both breeds are known to be great with children, which is obviously a major plus for us! Pugs are generally thought of as "lap dogs", while beagles are more active. Beagles can be howlers, so we're hoping our puggle does NOT get that trait!

Meet Bailey, our new puggle!

2008-07-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

Monday morning Ryan emailed me a listing he had found on signonsandiego: puggles for sale! We have been waiting and planning for a dog for well over a year, and we had decided on the coming weekend to finally get one! The puggles were in El Cajon, and from the pictures they were totally adorable. The price was $575, and that included vaccines and microchipping.

So we drove out there at lunch to meet the puppies. Ryan had warned me ahead of time that I had to "control myself" and not get too attached. All I have to say is... YEAH RIGHT! Even as we drove up the driveway, we could see the adorable puppies.

After meeting with D'Anna the breeder, we went out to see the pups. There were 3 puggles available: a fawn male, a fawn female, and a black female. They were jumping all over the place and totally excited. Once we picked up the fawn male, it was all over. He's such a lovable guy... gave both of us kisses and loves to be held. It wasn't 5 minutes before we told the breeder "We'll take him!"

So tomorrow (Friday), after a long week of waiting, we will finally go pick up the little guy. How could you resist that face?