Tell me she's not the cutest damn thing you ever saw.....

ittle Elphie (short for Elphaba) came home yesterday, and I'm exhausted already!

She wimpered a little in the car on the way home..but nothing too bad. We got inside and I put her on the kitchen floor. She promptly took off after Joey and Zella. And for you to understand how funny that is.... Sweet little Elphie weighs in at 1.75 lbs currently. Zella weighs 11lbs and Joey weighs 17lbs. After the cats were out of reach Elphie took off after TMX elmo..and promptly knocked him over and started jumping on him. To put that in perspective...she only comes up to his hands!

Most of the day was spent in the crate with Elphie not too happy. I was laying on the floor working on my final paper for this class (worth 18% of my total grade) and she was CRYING away. Then Wicked came up on iTunes and she got quieter...just a wimper. Then when Defying Gravity started with the sharp "Elphaba!" from Glinda...she perked right up and got super quiet...so Elphaba it is!

We had to make a Petsmart run despite all my advance purchases, as the breeder said she needed some moist food to mix in with the dry they gave me (she'd just run out). And I wanted to pick up some Nutrical while I was there as everything I read said this was important to keep on hand to avoid hypoglycemic shock for my little munchkin. Of course we picked up a little something for Joey and Zella too. Anyway, Elhpie was the HIT of the store. We had SEVERAL people walking up to us to ask about her and give her a little pet...and she was loving EVERY minute of it. Though she was very happy to have her mama hanging onto her the entire time. In fact...she's happiest in general if she's touching me.

Oh...did I mention the worms yet? That was fun...not sure how the vet didn't know she had roundworm since .... well....her 2nd time at #2 it was QUITE obvious....spaghetti in the poop....means roundworm. I know this is extremely common in puppies...but it was a little frustrating on the first day.

Anyway, bedtime came and my little sweetie was NON too happy to be in the crate....I'd made a last minute run to CVS for a hot water bottle at mom's suggestion as the crying was driving me crazy. This seemed to help a lot and the crying turned back to a low wimper that I could barely hear while upstairs (she's downstairs). But that wimper turned into serious noise again after about 2 hours. When she quieted down for a second I ran down to see her (only taking her out of the crate when she's quiet so she learns crying doesn't do her any good). Crate was clean so we went outside and back into the crate she went. Two more hours of sleep and I was up again with the noise. Again...waited for her to quiet down and went to check on her..and she'd made a little mess in the crate (thank god no spaghetti this time though, YUCK!). So back outside we went, cleaned the crate, and in went Elphie. This was around 2am. And thankfully...when I woke up at 6:30am (thanks Joey...its okay...mommy doesn't need any sleep!) it was still quiet downstairs. I wanted to take advantage of the quiet so I went down to take her out..and she was still sleeping away cute as can be. Woke her up, took her out, tried to feed her...and then during "playtime" she promptly curled up in a ball and passed out...so...back in the crate. This time I stayed downstairs and slept on the couch..and got another 2 hours before Joey came and started hissing at her and upset her.

Anyway, this morning she seems to be doing better at sleeping...been in the crate most of the morning with not a peep out of her except when joey walks by and hisses at her. Problem now is eating...which she's not doing (the cats on the other hand LOVE her food). So I'm forcing little dabs of Nutrical onto her tongue to make sure she's at least getting her calories and nutrients. Hopefully the roundworm is the cause of the not eating and the vet can get us all fixed up on that when we get in this week to see her.

Back to my project.... oh ..and here's another pic of my sweetie.


L