After I “finished” my latest drawing of Nelly I had all kinds of things I wish I did differently. I thought, “Aw shit, next one.”
Wait! What? What a complete dumbass I was to think a piece I am working on has to be “done.” Duh, Julz!
After working all morning, I got out my pencils again and are you ready for this? I erased the leg that I drew too straight and made it how I wanted it. What a concept!
The first drawing I postedThe one I touched up today.
I also added some black to Nelly’s muzzle and eyes as they have darkened up a bit over the last few months.
I am 100% happier with my piece now. I texted my friend Maria and told her this unimaginable thing I could do.
She’s is an artist so I am sure she will get a kick out of it when she reads my text.
Happy Friday, Friends! I wish you all a good weekend!
I haven’t written about Nelly lately. She has been enjoying the glorious sunshine we’ve had for the last few days as much as we have.
Nelly loves to play and is also great about keeping herself occupied. When she’s tired, she naps.
She always finds a warm, sunny spot in the house when it’s sunny out. I’ve been joining her, living in her moment.
On Saturdays, when Marty is at the Troy Farmers Market, she looks out the window for him.
Yesterday, the three of us hopped in the truck and went to Clifton Park, NY. We had errands to run but found time for an adventure at PetSmart.
Marty said Nelly’s heart was racing when she met her first kitties. My heart broke watching how interested and cute the cats were waiting to be adopted.
Getting out and “going for a ride” through farmlands with blue skies and sunshine galore felt great. Hallelujah! We have another one of those days today!☀️
Nelly is a mischievous and funny puppy who loves to play as much as she loves to cuddle up to someone; it’s a 50/50 mix, exactly what I asked our breeder for.
While she plays with Klaus most of the time, she can also keep herself occupied. She is not a needy puppy and doesn’t whine; another must we told our breeder.
When she is keeping herself occupied, she likes to drag whatever she can find, either outside or inside. We purchased a customer-fit walk-through screen for our sliding door that closes magnetically and works brilliantly!
While we are outside working in our production kitchen, Nelly and Klaus have access to a portion of a fenced-in part of the yard. We can keep an eye on them with one of the surveillance cameras.
When we are working, they usually sleep inside, I put on babysitting for dogs music on YouTube for them, and it works like a charm. When I turn it on, Nelly immediately jumps into one of her beds, and Klaus climbs onto the couch. It’s a beautiful thing!
When Nelly needs to go out, she runs out of the screen and can go. They also can go outside and sunbathe on the back deck. We start early in the morning and are usually done by 1-1:30, with a couple of breaks in between to check on them.
Last week, Nelly brought her puppy food dish, the toilet bowl brush, my socks, and Marty’s shoes outside. The toilet bowl brush sounds gross, but I always clean it well and rinse it in clean water when I am done with it—no chemicals or other nasties to worry about.
On Sunday, she dragged in a heavy piece of rusty chain from 1850 that was used when they moved our house from one side of the street to the other. We find pieces of chain every now and again. They come to the dirt’s surface like magic near our house’s foundation.
I’m used to finding sticks, rocks, and big pieces of mulch in the house, but like my sons did when they were small, she found a portion of the heavy chain and dragged it in. I laughed when I walked inside; as Noah and Sam did, she was a proud little puppy showing me what she found.
We have Nelly proofed everything we can think of, but sometimes she still finds a treasure which makes me think, look what the cat dragged it. Today, after production, the toilet brush holder was in the middle of the lawn, and the brush was on the deck.
That’s it for that little stunt; it has a new home when we are working. Nelly definitely keeps us on our toes, that’s for sure. Have a great day! ☀️
One thing is for sure; Nelly is not a girlie girl. She isn’t a fruffy princess, kind of like me! She gets filthy dirty when we are outside working on projects. She loves to play hard with Klaus and explore.
When I saw her shirt, I died of laughter! She also needed to be thrown in the Biz bag for those of you that know what I am talking about.😂
Nelly graduated from her puppy classes. She mastered sit, down, off and come. We practiced at home and out of the house. When she wants to listen, she does, but when she doesn’t, she is a mischievous little puppy.
If you looked up what a mischievous little puppy is, it would be about Nelly. She is better than Hoodini breaking free of fencing or blocking areas off.
She has squeezed thru a tiny space on the side of two different gates and has gotten out. She has given Marty and me numerous mini heart attacks.
She is primarily housebroken but pees a little when she and Klaus play hardcore inside the house. She knows what no and good girl is and loves praise.
She can’t help herself; she is always making discoveries, hiding under the couch, and teasing Klaus, which he loves; they play that way for an hour.
Overall, she is the sweetest girl, so full of love. She loves to cuddle; we look forward to bed every night because she snuggles up to each of us during the night. She burrows way down under the covers and sleeps near our feet.
She emerges and will come up and sleep in between our heads. Nelly loves sleeping in, making it hard to want to get out of bed and go to work.
She can hold it for 10 hours at night, so it’s frustrating that she is “little miss pees in the house.” I know it’s a female Frenchie thing, and most do it. Being stubborn is another well-known trait of Frenchies.
When Nelly doesn’t want to do something, she squints her eyes at us. It’s not only in the sun, but anytime she doesn’t want to do something. We say, “Don’t squint your eyes at us, missy.” Lol.
We are so head over heels in love with her and watch everything she does so she doesn’t hurt herself. She pulls things off tables, benches, shelves, or whatever she can reach. She wears little bells so we can hear her where she is.
Her training will continue now that puppy classes are over. She learns quickly and is incredibly food driven. She wants to please us and be with us.
That’s the update on our little nugget of love, also known as little miss pees in the house. We should buy stock in the company that makes the miracle pet spray for accidents; it works, thank goodness!
Nelly has brought us all so much joy. Even with the shitty ass septic debacle, she has made us smile and laugh continuously.
For the record, the septic system was completed yesterday afternoon. They are putting up a new retaining wall today, then the rest is beautification. I’m excited about that part and can envision what it will look like.
Nelly is supervising Noah and Marty cutting outdoor grass for Marty’s new outdoor train layout. This was before operation septicS
After seeing my friend Kat at bellydance last night, she asked how Nelly was since I haven’t posted anything new about her.
I plan to post about her “growing up” weekly. A weekly dose of cuteness. Everyone can use a smile after all.
Nelly has mastered the sit command and we are working on the down command this week. I’ve been training Klaus along with Nelly.
I never taught him to shake before, which he learned after just one time. Yes, you can teach old dogs new tricks!
They played until the crashed in front of the fire. This melts my heart. ♥️
Production will be shut down until at least Monday, I’ll be using that time to train the pups and try out a couple of new springtime vegetarian dishes.
As always, I’ll let you know how the dishes come out and share the recipes with you if they are good. It feels so good being back in my kitchen again!
Nelly needed the next size-up dog collar. I found this super cute 6-pack on Amazon. I attached little bells to each collar so we can hear where she is. I get to pick out her collar of the day like clothes. ☺️
At dance last night, I was able to dance slow and fast, and teaching was so much fun for me. After taking a two-month medical break, I am reenergized, making my classes new and fresh. Yip!
Have a great day, guys. We have a beautiful day today after two cold, rainy, raw, nasty ass days of weather. Enjoy! ☀️
*** I am getting better at writing blog posts from my phone, allowing me to blog anywhere.
I feel like a new mom with a newborn baby. Lol. Tired, a disheveled mess, and in need of a shower. The only different thing I can have a glass of wine at the end of the night, and I don’t have a baby monitor in my pocket.
Nelly is precisely what Jacob, our breeder said she was. She is playful, but when I want to rest with her, I scoop her up and hold her on my lap, and she falls asleep or sits perfectly still.
When she is in a playful mood, she’s hell on wheels. Klaus didn’t know what to think of her. He has growled occasionally but wears a collar that beeps or vibrates, stopping him in his tracks.
Klaus had fun with her today and didn’t growl even when she went into his toy basket. She tired them both out after Marty got home from the farmers market when Klaus usually wanted Marty to play with him.
He was smiling and wagging his tail. He is still trying to figure her out, but I think he likes her. They will need constant supervision for quite a while, but it’s fun to see her run like crazy, and he follows her.
I read a lot about Frenchies, training them, their daily grooming, and other important information. Frenchies love to be clean and have a hard time, especially girls, cleaning themselves in those hard-to-reach areas.
We start our grooming routine every morning after breakfast and going out. She jumps in my lap as soon as she sees me get out of her grooming basket.
I use an unscented baby wipe and start with her wrinkles. It’s essential to keep them clean, or they will get infected. Klaus refuses to let us go near his wrinkles and has had issues with allergies and infections.
People have pointed out there are special cleaners for her tears. Thank you for the advice, but those are her coloring markings.
Next, I clean her ears and body. I clean her butt, under her tail, and, finally, her itty bitty girlie parts. She loves to be brushed and have her nails clipped. We finish by brushing her teeth. It takes 5 minutes, ten if I do her nails.
I can do anything to her as I did with my Barbies and baby dolls growing up. I played with dolls and Barbies until I was 12; poor kids these days grow up too quickly.
Our boys played with matchbox cars and Play-mobile for a long time. I’m so glad they grew up before social media and Xbox.
Nelly is 80% housebroken; she had an accident because I wasn’t watching her for signs she needed to go out. She gets it, and we are trying to keep a schedule as to when she needs to go out.
She’s been getting up at 3 am to go out, which we do, then immediately return to bed. I’ve been in bed by 8:30-9:00 every night and fall right to sleep—no insomnia issues, which is a dream in itself.
Learning from previous mistakes, Marty didn’t touch or hold Nelly the first day but did up in her room upstairs when Klaus was in bed downstairs.
Klaus listens to Marty and accepts him as the alpha, so he is fine when he picked up Nelly to go outside with them. She loves to play outside with Klausie.
Nelly looks into my eyes, snuggles up to me, and breathes a breath of contentment. She doesn’t know it yet, but I am the one content.
It gets easier every day; Klaus and Nelly will become friends; we can tell that already. He’s much more tolerable than we imagined with a new puppy.
My ESA letter is ready for me to pick up. An ESA is entirely different than a service animal. Federal law allows service animals everywhere; ESAs had many of those rights removed in 2021 due to fraudulent ID cards & phony certifications.
Many people were scammed with sites promising access anywhere or purchased an ESA vest online and put it on their pets, demanding to take them everywhere. People abused it and ruined it for people that needed it.
I plan to carry Nelly’s letter and her small metal to wear on her harness, but if she is denied access to places, I can’t bring her in. The last thing I need is situations to cause me anxiety defeating the point of an ESA in the first place.
Many stores and restaurants are pet friendly, and we shop at them anyway. Most restaurants with outdoor seating allow pets; we will frequent those places when we are out on delivery days.
Nelly is already an ESA for me. Her love fills that empty hole in my heart and makes me laugh. She gives me something to take my mind off my worries, fears, doubts, anxiety, and depression.
Nelly is the perfect dog for me; Jon Katz was right when he talked about his dog Zinnia. They find their way to you if you take the time to find them.
Right after my little Nelly arrived. Look at those blue eyes.
You can never say never; in my case, that saying is 100% true. I got a puppy last night, and her name is Nelly.
It’s been a rough six months for me. In October, I got hit by a dipshit vendor’s tent at the farmers market that wasn’t secured, was airlifted, and hit me in my left side, back, leg, and hip. I was pissed. She or the owner of the business never apologized.
I saw it coming from across the street and ran as fast as possible, but I couldn’t outrun it. I was injured for three months. I didn’t write about it; I try to stay positive on my blog as much as possible.
In November, my sweet boy Otto got sick and died at the beginning of December, leaving me completely heartbroken. That month Sam moved to Essex Jct, VT, to work in the ER department at UVM.
We are very close, and while I was proud and happy for him, I was sad. I knew how much I would miss him and his silly antics.
January ended with good news, Noah and his girlfriend, Aja, moved to Salem, NY, and moved in together.
I was so happy for them that they found each other after both of them patiently waiting to meet that special someone.
February started and ended with me having a severe case of pneumonia. I didn’t share how sick I was, but it was scary for us.
March brought the news of a cat scan results revealing I had pulmonary fibrosis. I read a little about it but was still sick, so I didn’t dig too deep.
Last Friday night, after Marty went to bed, I played the game Dr. Google and discovered that the prognosis for pulmonary fibrosis is 3-5 years to live.
Don’t play Dr. Google; trust me, what you find is never a happy ending, so don’t do it.
I lost my shit. I mean all of it. I went over the deep end. I had a nervous breakdown; I was exhausted from crying and went to bed.
The second I got into bed, I started to cry, lying next to Marty. I was thinking about all the things we still wanted to do. All the things we wanted to see and places to go.
I wouldn’t get to play with grandchildren and would die with a broken heart. My heart was an empty void after Otto died. I realized I hadn’t been happy since the summertime. Marty woke up, and we talked for a long time while I ugly cried.
In the morning, after he went to the farmers market, I called my dance sister, Kathleen, because she knew a lot of medical stuff and knew she would say something smart to calm me down.
Smart she was. She asked me when I was playing Dr. Google in the studies I read, if they were done on men, how old, did they get it from inhaling asbestos or industrial dust.
Did they smoke, or were they fat and out of shape? She continued and asked if I had read a study that included patients who got pulmonary fibrosis from a medication. Um, no.
We talked for a long time, and I realized that that wasn’t my prognosis by that evening. I was referred to a pulmonologist and wouldn’t know anything until I saw her.
I put the cart before the horse big time. I was so scared I wasn’t living my life to the fullest, not doing the things I kept putting off.
I was a horrible emotional mess over everything that had happened since the summertime; this was not just about another chronic disease, even though I struggled with others.
My attachment disorder was out of control again, and I realized how sad I’d been. Even though I have Marty, my sons, and friends, I was in a lonely, dark place again.
I’ve wanted a female French bulldog for a couple of years but knew it wasn’t a good time since we already had hands full with two dogs.
Marty asked me on Saturday when he got home from the farmers market if it was time to get that little Frenchie girl. My response was typical for me. For those who know me, you will be able to imagine this.
I asked, “really?” He said, “yes.”’I started skipping and jumping around the house the best I could with my shortness of breath and singing about getting my little Frenchie puppy. I was so excited I couldn’t believe he had suggested it.
Marty started looking for a breeder while I spoke with my friend Jon Katz and his wife Maria and asked for advice since he knew a few things about dogs. 😂
Jon is an expert on dogs and has written many books on the subject. I listened to his advice and shared it with Marty.
After finding out quickly how many fucking scumbag scammers are out there, our street sense kicked in, and we followed what Jon told us.
It took a lot of searching, but Marty found an AKC-recommended breeder of Frenchies. They were located in Ohio and had an excellent reputation as one of the best.
It happened quickly, we found a puppy, and Marty put down a deposit. Bright and early the following day, the breeder called us, and we chatted for a long time.
We asked questions about them, and he answered everything. I told him what I needed in a dog, and he assured me, speaking to me all about her personality and how she would fulfill my wishes.
Jacob, the breeder, is a very trusting man. You don’t have to pay the balance of the puppy until they are delivered, and you meet them. The second I held her, I knew she was the right puppy for me!
Nelly is playful, intelligent, and laid back. She likes cuddling and being a couch potato, the breeder said. I wanted a low-key snuggle bug, a puppy who loved me as much as I loved her.
Nelly is a literal lifesaver for me. While with her, I feel all my stress, anxiety, worries, and sadness go away.
Cuddle bug.
My primary provider is writing a letter recommending or “prescribing” her as my emotional support animal so she can always be with me.
I’ll have proper documentation and a tag on her as an ESA, an emotional support animal. Under federal law, she can’t be denied entry anywhere I go.
I think I got some good news yesterday, the pulmonologist’s office called to make an appointment for me on April 26.
That’s over a month away, so I can’t be in that bad a shape; I guess Kathleen was right.
Today, I can go up and down the stairs without shortness of breath, even carrying Nelly. Thank goodness my coughing is only occasional now. I heard Marty tell Sam he hasn’t seen me smile this much or happy for a long time. It’s true.💗
As I write this, Nelly has been on my lap the entire time. I started to cry when I wrote about my crack-up on Friday night, and she looked up at me with those blue eyes and melted my heart.
I’m crying again; they are tears of joy and happiness. I feel like George Bailey again; I want to live again.
