Snipping Postponed

We have decided, on the advice of our breeder, to hold out on Echo's neutering. She convinced us that if he doesn't have any "bad" male traits yet, then to hold off on that until 12-14 months as it will result in a better looking dog.
She said as long as he doesn't get a sniff of a female in heat, he'll most likely be fine, but if he does he could "change" in a matter of a week. But that we should also do it if he starts showing any "strong male behaviour" like lifting the leg while peeing, or aggressive advances at other dogs.
So we'll wait... Marnie is counting the days.

TV Room

On the weekend, we managed to get most of the room done upstairs, minus some painting. Chris came over to help me mount the TV -- it looks awesome. We need to find new furniture for the stereo components, though, so we're constantly on the lookout at Winners/Homesense and other furniture stores. This week we are going to stop at Ikea to get some "hidden" shelves or whatever they're called for the two walls near the windows. Dad's old entertainment unit was taken out which made the room look so much bigger. While moving that heavy sucker, I think I hurt my back. Chris and I both struggled to lift it to get it out to the garage. I bet it weighs 160 lbs..
We also made the decision to put Echo's crate into the spare room/office once we get our new computer (2.5 weeks after ordering, and it's still not here...), and put the new computer into the living room with the TV near the front windows. We will have to pick up a smaller computer table as well for that. The large computer table will go into the basement as a craft table for Marn.
We love it so far, and are looking forward to getting it all done. We are going to have to try and get most of it done - at least the painting - before next week as we want to have it ready before our neighbours come over to watch LOST! (they may not be able to come, though).


Michelle's visitation and funeral are on Wednesday and Thursday in Markham. Marn and I took both days off, but I'm not sure what we're doing yet. We may try and meet up with our friends either before, or after one of the visitations, and then go back for the funeral on Thursday. A lot of my friends from around here are staying overnight, but I don't think we're going to do that. It's going to be a tough next couple of days....

the worst news...

Yesterday I received a call letting us know that our friend Michelle, who has been fighting breast cancer over the last year, had succumbed to the disease at around noon. She died in hospital surrounded by her family, after arriving home from a family vacation in Florida last week. 2 weeks ago we received an email from her explaining that after yet more tests, the cancer had spread into her liver and spine. She never did tell anyone what the doctors had told her, or what time line they gave her, but it was apparent from the email that the news was devastating. We never for a second thought that we would have to deal with this only 2 weeks after that email.
Mid-December she had a full hysterectomy and second mastectomy to try and stay ahead of the cancer.

She was a beautiful person, full of life and happiness and that's how we'll remember her. She leaves behind her husband Terry and 2 children Nate and Noelle.

We will miss you, Michelle!!

Is this someone dying of cancer?!

Taken January 23, 2007

Snip, Snip

It's getting close to the time that we wanted to neuter Echo, so I thought I'd check into it at our vet's to see the costs and what the procedure is like, etc... What happens is, he goes in the morning for blood work to see if he'll be allergic to the anesthesia or any other health issues, and if that's OK, they perform the operation that afternoon. He then stays overnight for observation and then we pick him up the next day. Because of his size (the top of the cost structure) it's going to cost about $230 for the operation, $70 for the blood work, and then $35 for the "pain package". Sheesh, that's an expensive procedure! We were originally going to wait until he was at least 10 months old - and we may still do that, but I thought I'd look into it now. "Technically" we can do it anytime now. The vet's usually recommend it at around 6 months, but our breeder suggested waiting until at least 10 months so that he takes on more of the masculine attributes. I've emailed her again to ask her what she thinks.

When you snip male dogs too soon, they grow really tall and never really fill out the same. Their heads also remain thin and pointy more than usual. For example, there's a Dantry Dane owner with a male from a few years ago (I think he's 3 years old now) who got it done at 4 months... Why? Because he was going in for surgery for something else, so they thought to do it then. This dog is now 41" at the shoulders and really lean (skinny)!! That is incredibly tall. Echo is about 35" now; his dad is 36 and his mom is 32. So, we think (hope) he's about done in height. He's definitely getting thicker fast than taller now. We don't want him to get any taller so the dilemma is, do we snip him now and risk him growing taller, or wait and let him fill out more - which he most likely will anyway.

He is not showing any aggression towards people or other dogs at all, so that's not even a consideration for doing it now. The most "aggression" he has is when he starts bugging you to play with him. He'll stand there and bark at you and run around - sometimes gets out of control. But, with a firm voice and sometimes having to grab him, he'll calm right down again. This could get worse as time goes on... At the dog park, if another dog (ALWAYS another smaller dog) barks at him for getting too close, or for whatever doesn't like Echo, he cowers with his tail down and backs off - that's good (sometimes I'd like him to stomp on the other dog once to put it in his place, but that's asking for trouble). So, having him intact so far has not even been an issue. That may change though if he starts getting a smell for other females in heat.... OR starts showing more confidence towards other more aggressive dogs. It's something we'll have to keep an eye on more closely in the next few weeks/months. We're not even technically allowed to take Echo to the park anymore since he's over 6 months and not neutered. No one has questioned us on him, but they do ask how old he is occasionally.

Update on the painting:
We haven't done anything else since the one wall was painted red on the weekend. I want to get started on the green tonight, but if not, it will definitely get done this weekend. Then maybe on Sunday get the TV mount on the wall!
Also, with our TV, we get free High Definition for a year, so that should be coming soon too! Actually, it was 12 months of the standard HD box, or 10 months of the PVR HD box, so we went with the PVR model. Can't wait for LOST in HD!!!

Finally Painting!

Well, we have finally decided on colours for the room upstairs above the garage. It wasn't easy twisting Marn's arm to go for some colour instead of the beige/browns that we both like, and what's already on the walls - everywhere.
We are really excited to get it done because the only painting that we've done in the house in the 2+ years we've been there is in our bed room. I'm really getting sick of the drab beige/browns everywhere, although I still like it on the main floor living room.

I started on the weekend with the Deep Cranberry-like RED - wall behind the couch, opposite the TV wall. In certain light, it also takes on a burnt orange colour... We both really like it. For the three remaining walls, we have a creamy grey-green sort of colour. Hard to explain, but hopefully it'll look nice together (It does on the (Martha Stewart) pallet, and also next to the green painters tape I had on the wall!). I think we're going to start that colour tonight. For our TV wall, we're actually going to paint a lighter cream/off-white colour rectangle that will sort of frame the TV that will be mounted on the wall. The reason for that is to breakup the green wall, but also so that the ambilight from the TV is not affected as much from having a colour behind it.

This is SORT OF the colour scheme... it should give you an idea until we're done when I post a before and after shot. (I couldn't remember the colour names when I 'created' this, but it's close...)

I've also discovered (again) that I'm a pretty good painter, except when it comes to NOT hitting the ceiling! We're going to have to purchase a small ceiling white can of paint to try and patch up my miss-hits during this room, AND our bedroom which hasn't been fixed yet -- And I've only done one wall so far!

Echo update

Echo, over the holidays, stayed with Marn's parents and we are eternally grateful for that. We both know that he's a very large dog to take care of, and especially because he's a puppy. They did a great job and I think probably got spoiled with attention while we were gone.
I think he gained at least 10 lbs while we were gone and probably 1 inch in height. I'm sure his size was exaggerated because we had just spent 2 weeks with Mariner, who is a small and skinny dog, but he's still big! I don't know what he weighs now, but if I had to guess, it's 135lb - at least! We measured him just the other day and at the shoulders, he's now approximately 34-35 inches -- almost full height, we hope. Yes, I said 35 inches at the SHOULDER. Add his long neck and huge head, and he's easily 4 feet tall when stretching his head up to the tip of his nose. I also tried to pick him up a while ago, and almost couldn't...
It's funny; we know he's big, but a lot of the time he doesn't SEEM huge to us until we see him with other people. Like Teresa, for instance! They came over the other weekend to pick up their skis and boots and stayed for a tea... Echo looked MASSIVE next to Teresa. I think it's partly that we don't see him next to other people very often, and also Teresa's not very tall. He'd look up and lick her face no problem. LOL. I wish I had a picture... He was pretty excited when they came over and he can be hard to control when he gets like that. It's something we're going to have to work on really hard for the next few months. I don't want him going down into the entrance part when people come over. First, there's not enough room for him, and second, he knocks people around trying to say 'hi' and get by them when he is down there. It's annoying and frustrating.

But he's still the greatest dog, even with his largeness combined with tendencies!