Violet Puppy Dog

This picture was taken the day that we brought Violet home.

One of the reasons I haven't been able to blog so much this year is due to the topic of this post: our puppy Violet. We got a new puppy in June this past year and she has filled up much of our free time. It has been an adjustment having a new kind of baby in our house, but we really do love her. I have never really considered myself to be much of a dog lover (which is ironic, since I worked at a pet store for two and a half years as a teenager), but Violet won our hearts over. Just like with having kids, I think that often a person grows to love pets if you have one of your own.

Lucy actually was the first person to plant the idea in our heads about getting a dog. For several weeks she talked about how she wanted to have a white dog that she named Coco. I would look up pictures of white Bichon Frise puppies online to show Lucy, and she would gasp and say, "That's Coco!" This led me, out of curiosity, to see if there were any Bichon Frise puppies for sale in the area. When there was a litter of eight that was born on April 22nd, and the breeder didn't live too far away., I convinced J that we should go and "just look" when the puppies were old enough to leave their mother. Of course, the puppies were so darling that we couldn't resist them at all.

These are Violet's seven siblings. We watched them play while the breeder got Violet ready to come home with us.

Violet's siblings

The breeder had each puppy in the litter wear a different colored collar, so that she could tell them apart. Our puppy had a violet-colored collar, which ended up influencing the name that we chose for her. (I'm glad we convinced Lucy that we shouldn't name the puppy Coco, especially since "cocô" means poop in Portuguese.) Violet is sweet and demure like a small violet flower, I think, so her name is fitting.

The day we brought Violet home

Sam's friend Logan lived near the breeder, so we invited Logan to join us

After we got Violet home, I realized that I had a slight allergic reaction to her. We debated sending her back to the breeder, but we decided to stick with it - Sam sobbed and sobbed when we brought up the possibility of sending her away, and I felt like I couldn't break his heart (and truly, it was a sad thing for any of us to consider). For the first several weeks that she was with us my throat often had a tickle (especially after I vacuumed) and sometimes my nose would be runny. But we found an air purifier that helped and my immune system has since built up a tolerance to the small amount of dander that she produces. Luckily, she doesn't shed and that helps.

For the most part, Violet has been a fairly easy pet. She also doesn't bark very much. She loves to sit in our laps and likes to have J scratch her ears. She is patient with the kids; she adores Sam and tolerates Lucy's affectionate hugs. The only time she is really difficult -- which isn't that bad -- is when she gets a naughty streak and runs away from us. She zooms around the yard and often digs in the dirt while we chase her. We usually call this her "witching hour" behavior (J's co-worker calls it the "zoomies") since Violet goes back to her demure self afterward.

Violet likes to sleep in funny positions along the baseboards of the house that make us laugh:

One of Violet's other quirks is that she doesn't like to eat her food right at her dish. She gets kibble in her mouth and then steps a foot or two away (or even walks into the next room) to chew it. She also has a lot of self-control with food and will stop eating if she is full, which is different from the dog I had growing up (Maple).

Violet's favorite activities include picking up toys and bones and distributing them around the house to arbitrary locations. She also likes to join in when J plays a game he made up ("The Leg Game") with Lucy and Sam. She adores J and likes to be with him all the time. She also responds best when J is disciplining her.

Violet also likes to find makeshift dens around the house. She doesn't like to sleep in her crate, but she loves to sleep under couches and also in her soft travel carrier. Sam tried to climb under the loveseat and join her one day, but he got stuck after I took this picture (below) and I had to lift up the loveseat so he could get out!

It has been fun to watch Sam assume responsibilities and care for Violet. He is so good at taking care of her basic needs, playing with her, and walking her.

Sam carrying Violet on a hike in Lake Tahoe over this past summer

In fact, the only reason I have free time right now is because I'm watching Violet while J is with his brothers and their families at RB. We hoped to send Violet to doggie day care for the day, but Violet went into heat yesterday (her first and only one) and, for obvious reasons, should not be around other dogs. Currently she's sitting in my lap while wearing a makeshift diaper made from one of Lucy's Disney princess panties.

We plan to get Violet spayed, but she had some health issues this summer which led our vet to recommend that she get spayed after her first heat. The health issues really made this summer difficult for us and Violet - and I think that the stress is what caused me to lose all of the hair in the middle of my right eyebrow (which, thankfully, is now growing back). About two or three weeks after we got Violet, she began to squat frequently to urinate and would squat for long periods of time (as if straining to urinate). She also would wake me and Jeremy up multiple times in the night - it was worse than having a newborn! We thought she had a bladder infection, and we treated her for such, but her squatting and straining didn't improve. Our vet began to write off the behavior as simply a quirk, but then Violet began to have traces of blood in her urine. Again, she was treated with antibiotics but without result.

Finally, about two months since Violet's symptoms began, the vet did an ultrasound and found that there were multiple stones in her bladder. We made an appointment for her to go in for surgery, and a few days later the surgeon opened her up to discover that the stones were gone! After dealing with the stones for two months, she passed them just in the day or two before she went in for surgery! If only dogs could talk - then she could have told us that she didn't need to go in for surgery after all! We still had to pay for the surgery and Violet had to heal from her incision, which was really maddening and unfortunate.

This was taken just after Violet came home from her surgery, and the anesthesia still was wearing off. What a rough day!

Since that point, we have kept Violet on a special rice-and-egg kibble diet with a Cosequin supplement. In order to make sure that she gets enough protein (since she no longer eats the regular puppy food), she has a hard-boiled egg about every other day. She may be on the smaller side because of this special diet and her health issues, but I don't mind if she ends up being small.

Since Violet passed her stones and recovered from her surgery, she really has been an easy pet. She likes to sit in my lap when I work, and she is a cute fluffy buddy.