My furbaby is one year old today...

I can't believe she's been with me since she was 8 weeks old. And that there was a dog person hidden inside my cat lady. Or that I could love a little ball of fur whose poop I have to pick up in a bag WITH MY HAND so much. She got me off the couch in December. She gets me out of bed every day. She's been better for me emotionally than any shrink I've ever seen (after all these years it's nice to discover that all I needed was a furry animal to tell my secrets to who would simply respond with a worried expression and a cock of the head...could have saved a some $$ on therapy if I'd figured that out 10 years ago).

Baby Lulu at 8 weeks:


Lulu today:


She's a very happy girl and we bought a dozen "birthday bones" from the dog bakery to hand out to her neighborhood fur-buddies. Happy birthday to my little furball!

Skip this one if you're not a dog owner and/or are easily grossed out...

Because dogs are gross. As many of you know, after being a cat person for most of my life (with the exception of briefly living with my former roommate's rambunctious beagle-hound mix that I never liked), I became a dog-mom to a Pom in December of last year. My Miss Kitty is still the love of my life and gets lots of attention, though you wouldn't know it by looking at my Flickr photos (more than 100 photos of Lulu the Pom and only 16 photos of the cat). But I LOVE this dog. I mean, I really love her. I never thought I could love an animal this much. And here's proof:

I have never changed my nieces' or nephew's diaper because I have a strong gag reflex, but I have cut more dingleberries out of my dog's butt fur than I can count. I pick up poop with a bag over my hand. I let her lick my face, fully aware of where that mouth has been. And more than once I've had to do a bathtub butt-wash on an angry puppy who clearly ate something that didn't agree with her (because sometimes the poop scissors just won't cut it, no pun intended).

The first time Lou threw up, I completely freaked out when she snapped at me when I tried to clean it up because SHE WANTED TO EAT IT. I have since learned how to play keep-away with the dog vomit, dog in one hand and paper towels in the other.

My adorable, sweet-faced puppy took a chunk out of my arm when I tried to move her off of my mother's living room rug while she had a t-bone in her mouth. She made me bleed and I blamed myself, not the dog.

She won't eat dog poop, but her affection for cat sh*t is much like a gourmand's for rare and expensive truffles. We have many outdoor cats in my neighborhood and when Lou takes a dive under a bush while we're on a walk, I know exactly what she's after. Most of the time, I am able to pull her away, but I have had to use a poop bag on my hand to extract cat sh*t from her mouth. Also, if I am not on litter box patrol 15 times a day, I am likely to find Lou somewhere in the house by the trail of clumping cat litter. And since Miss Kitty is purebred Himalayan (i.e. not that bright and very change-resistant), she refuses to use a covered cat box. I also have to keep an eye/ear out for Kitty hacking up a hairball, because Lou likes to eat those too.

Speaking of where Lou's mouth has been, we love to walk in Hampton Park, but I have to be hypervigilant because Lou also adores duck poop. I think if I had a steak in one hand and duck poop in the other (ew), she'd pick the hand with duck poop.

She licks my ankles when I get out of the shower or when I put lotion on. And I let her. I don't know why, because it grosses me out to be clean and then immediately covered in dog spit, but she likes doing it so much I feel bad about telling her no.

I do not want to admit how many times I've played "what's that smell?"

I've taken Lou shopping at SuperPetz and Petsmart and let her pick out her own toys, even if it's a toy like her fleece-covered squeaky man that she loves, but I know he's going to be covered in spit and will no longer be white within five minutes of returning home. And she'll want me to touch the spitty thing and play with her.

I think it's adorable when she farts while sleeping and wakes herself up, even if it smells really bad. I still laugh.

Cats are easy. When I brought Miss Kitty home, she weighed about one pound and was so teeny I initially followed her all over the house. I also thought I'd have to train her to use a cat box. Within 24 hours I realized she already knew how to do everything herself, that one does not train a cat, and that she was the boss of me anyway.

Dogs are a completely different story. Lulu was 8 weeks old when I brought her home and was the neediest creature I've ever met. I spent all of December and a good part of January cleaning up after her, as she peed joyously wherever she stood. I got up three times a night to take her outside in 30 and 40-degree weather. "Crate training" lasted for two days and she has been sleeping on a pillow next to my head at night ever since. There was even a two-week period during which I cried at least once a day because I thought I chose a mentally-challenged dog that would never stop biting me, eating anything she found on the sidewalk, and peeing everywhere except on her puppy pads.

Then the training kicked in and she no longer bites me (except for the t-bone incident), she only potties outside or on her puppy pads, and she's just big enough now so I no longer have to pick her up and put her on my bed when it's time to go night-night. I beam with pride when people tell me she doesn't act like a "yippy little Pomeranian." I say thank you when they tell me how adorable she is, as if I am somehow responsible for her cuteness. I can have the worst day and come home to a wildly spinning little furball who is overjoyed to see me, even if I've only been gone for an hour.

So yes, dogs can be gross. But they're worth it. And now I completely understand all my friends over the years who let their dogs slobber all over them. I get it, and I hope I wasn't too judgmental about it. I feel bad about the times I've visited friends and they've had to patrol their dogs so they wouldn't jump all over me (as I stood frozen with my arms in the air in a "no touchy" position). I welcome it now, really. Jump and slobber away.

Also, if any of my sisters or nieces want to have more babies, I promise to give diaper-changing a shot.

Lowcountry Dog love...

My little Lou is in the April/May issue of Lowcountry Dog! The print edition hits the streets starting tomorrow, but you can see the issue online here. Click on the flipping pages to open a reader and you can see Lou on page 16 at the bottom of the page (wearing one of her Old Navy sweaters).

Follow Lowcountry Dog news on Twitter here!

Puppy looks less like hamster, more like dog...

Before, at 2 months old:



After, at 4 months:



She's over 5 lbs. now and I no longer fear she'll be snatched up by a bird of prey. Some milestones: She can jump up on the couch (and did it all day long once she discovered she could). She can reach objects on the coffee table (which is why my Prada frames for my favorite pair of glasses look like I have an oral fixation). She chases squirrels instead of running away from them. Best of all, no one mistakes her for another animal when I take her for a walk (she was accused of being a cat twice and a guinea pig once).

What I do all day...

As one of my nieces so elegantly put it over the holidays, "so now that you don't have a job, what do you DO all day?" I was sleep deprived and didn't feel like getting into it, so I told her I ate bon bons, slept late every day and watched DVDs. She said, "must be nice." It was Christmas, so instead of saying, "actually I'd rather have a full-time job and I've been applying all over the place and being on unemployment sucks," I said, "yeah, it is nice."

I can't even call myself a former workaholic, because I've discovered that I am a workaholic whether I have a "real" job or not. After spending almost 5 months of 12-14 hours days (sometimes longer) working on press for a congressional campaign, I'll admit to sleeping a lot in the weeks following Election Day. But that didn't last very long. I decided I needed a reason to get up in the morning, so I got a puppy. I've wanted a dog for a while (no one was more surprised than I, being a lifelong cat person) and it wasn't the only reason I decided to bring Lou into my little family, but there are a lot of benefits. The best one: I go for 4 or 5 long walks a day because she's very active and forces me to (a) get out of the house and (b) get some exercise. And having a puppy is like a job. Between Lou and Miss Kitty, I spend a lot of time feeding and brushing and bathing and taking care of my four-legged little ones.

Once I got my groove back, I started writing again. I have a schedule. I get up in the morning and after I walk the dog, I power on the laptop and start working. I've written a few pieces that haven't gone anywhere yet, one for Charleston Magazine's March issue, and have scheduled four speaking engagements and workshops to promote my book so far. When I run out of writing ideas, I run through my to-do list. I've done a lot of early spring cleaning around the house, caught up on all of the things I dropped the ball on while I was working for the campaign, and even managed to spend time socially with friends and family. I'm definitely not an anomaly. I think I actually have more friends who have been laid off or otherwise dismissed from jobs last year than I do friends who still have full-time jobs.

This is the short answer. I love working from home again, love afternoon naps, love being able to go to a yoga class in the middle of the day, love walks with Lou, and love that I always have clean clothes and a clean house, and I'm healthier than I've been in months. But since I'm on COBRA, I'm paying a ridiculous amount for health insurance, have been dipping into savings to cover bills (no idea how anyone can live off of unemployment), and have applied for jobs that I never thought I'd consider six months ago (like corporate management positions). It took longer than I thought to get my creative mojo back, but the muse is taking baby steps and she's beginning to trust me. And I've made a promise that I'll never ignore her for long periods of time again.

New baby in the family...

Miss Kitty has a little sister and I am a dog mom! I picked up my little Pomeranian last night (so hard to choose from the litter of four - they were all so stinking cute I could have taken all four home). She's 7 weeks old, is teeny-tiny (the little one of the litter), and is the neediest animal I have ever met in my life, excluding my sister's Yorkie. Miss Kitty hasn't really taken to her yet (she has been in her hidey box since last night), but she will eventually.

The new puppy has no name yet, but she does have the sweetest little face and is quite the spaz. She also has no discretion about where she makes peeps and poops, refuses to go potty outside, and woke me up 14 times last night chewing on my hair and my face, and another four or five times whimpering (potty? No. Food? No. Love? Yes. Just wanted to play at 4am).



I need help with a name! Her bio parents called her Apollonia because her daddy's name is Robin Masters Apollo. I'm not in love with the name Apollonia and don't want to call her Apple because Gwyneth already came up with that one. This is what I know about her so far: She enjoys running around in circles, chewing on the leg of my sweatpants when I stand up, will suddenly pass out for a nap in the middle of playing with her stuffed dog, whimpers if I leave the room and she can't see me, has the tiniest little white feet, and weighs about 2 lbs. I've come up with the following list with the help of family and friends (my mom and Michael have already met her):

Lulu Belle (Lou for short)
Tuffie
Mimi
Tiny Dancer (Tiny for short)
Little Lily

I don't want her to be three months old and nameless, so I have to come up with something soon. Ideas are welcome! Right now, I'm leaning toward Tiny. Tiny Dancer. Too weird?

More pics here.

Also, any training advice is welcome. She is wearing her collar now after some struggling last night, but I took her out this morning on a leash and she did not like it AT ALL. She has a box with newspaper where she is supposed to potty, but pretty much goes wherever she likes, even after I've put her in her potty box or taken her outside every single time she makes wee indoors. I know she's a baby and training is a lot of work. I can handle it, I just need to figure out what to do!

Despite the behavioral stuff, I adore her already. I love her baby growls when she fights with her stuffed dog. She barks at the television. She climbs me like a tree when I'm sitting on the couch. And right now, she's licking my laptop (don't think my Dell warranty covers dog spit, but she's only licking the outside). She smells like puppy, but in a good way. And I fell in love with her sweet little face in a pic the owner sent me before I even met her. Her cuteness makes me weak.

New family member?

Now that I'm working from home again, this might be the perfect time to get a puppy. I've checked with all the local shelters, and while some of them have puppies, none have small breeds (puppy or otherwise) and I really can't handle a dog larger than 10lbs.

I had considering getting a kitten, which would be cat #2 (and I wrote about getting a kitty as a pet for Miss Kitty a while back), but after a couple of vet visits (I go to Cats Only in Mt P) this summer, I realized that she hates other cats. However, she loves dogs. My former roommate had a beagle when I got Nina as a baby and she liked him. I had an upstairs neighbor last year who had a Maltese named Barkley or Barker or something like that and she LOVED him. She used to hear him in the entryway and I let her out to greet him a few times. After neighbor and dog went back upstairs, Nina would sit at the front door and cry for hours.

So my new family member might be a dog. I've been researching breeds, and would love a flat-faced dog to match my flat-faced kitty. I don't think I could deal with a Pekinese (yippy and nasal issues), Yorkie (neurotic as hell...my sister has one), or a French bulldog (gorgeous, but expensive). So I've narrowed it down to Pomeranian (you have to get them when they're babies because they are spoiled easily, according to the dog whisperer); Maltese (just so stinking cute), or Brussels Griffon (the dog from As Good As It Gets). Pure bred Brussels run upwards of $2,000 and I'm not spending that on a dog. I'd much rather adopt, but am also open to paying a small fee for a non-registered mix.

I have calls in to some breeders, trying to weed out the puppy farms (will not buy from puppy farm) and have found a few. One is selling a Pom Maltese mix for $500, which I think is a little pricey for a dog that isn't pure bred. In fact, I've found pure bred Pomeranians for less than that, papers included. But if you know anyone with Maltese, Pomeranian, Brussels Griffon, or any mix of these in puppy form that might be selling or putting up for adoption, put me in touch!