Nova 7 weeks

 

One week since baby Nova became a member of our family! Surprisingly, Nova didn't seem to have separation anxiety issues when it came to leaving her mother and siblings. Now weighing 4.6 pounds, Nova is dwarfed by 22 pound Luna. Nova gets on and off the couch with her puppy stairs and can't really go up and down the steep stairs at our complex yet. Luna has discovered that she can win tug-of-war with Nova by jumping onto the couch...

Luna started taunting baby Nova by stealing her toys. Boy does that make Nova mad! Especially stealing a special toy that smelled  like Nova's mother. She has gotten to be quite vocal with Luna and has no problem telling her to back off. Twice Nova bit Luna and actually made her yelp. Go Nova!

Best Valentines Day Ever! (Helping Out a New Friend)

Yesterday, like most days, Luna and I went on a walk. Little did we know that this walk would lead us to one of the coolest adventures yet! You see Luna and I befriended a dog. Not just any dog. A loose dog! 

What a predicament! The dog was friendly and came right over to us, but wanted nothing more than to play with Luna (Which Luna was all too happy to do.). Because of this, the dog kept going into the street and I couldn't for the life of me grab her. So, what else to do? I kept cheerfully calling to the dog while Luna and I headed back to our apartment complex. That and crossing my fingers that a car wouldn't hit our new friend...

By some miracle I managed to FINALLY grab the dog by her collar. Now what? Then I remembered the slip leads shelters use and looked closely at my fabric leash. Carefully I shoved my handle through the collar's ring (as far as my baggie holder allowed). Then I held Luna's harness extra tight and unclipped her leash. I took the clip and put it through the handle of the leash, securing the runaway. Then of course, I replaced the leash onto Luna. Wrapped the middle of the leash several times around my hand and hoped for no squirrels. And a block later we were home.

Crisis adverted. We were home and safe from any escape, so off goes our new friend's collar so that I can call her owner. That's when I realized that she didn't have the stereotypical name and phone number tag! Just a rabies tag and dog license. I've never dealt with that situation before. So, as the girls played I hopped online to google "my county dog license, found ."  Problem solved. My county apparently has an online database so that you crunch in the serial number and get the info needed to get them back.

While the adults are away the children will play!

Within twenty minutes a young woman came to pick up her sweety! We had a lot of fun and was super excited that I wouldn't have to take her to the shelter in order to find her mum (Though a slumber party would have been fun!). 

Best Valentines Day ever because; Luna got to play "dog park", our friend had an adventure and arrived home unharmed (Heck, arrived home period.), and I know I'll be smiling about this for weeks. All because I went on a walk!

Road Trip! Enter Nova (6 weeks)

December 23rd had finally came and my family (mother, brother, sister/roommate, and I) headed out of our snowy Ohio to Florida. We were all so excited to get together with our extended family. It'd been years since we could all get together! Our uncle and his family met us at our grandparents house shortly after we arrived to take us to pick our puppy!

They were all too cute! It was very hard for my sister to decide which one she wanted. Boy or Girl? Tiny or large? All we knew was a boy would become our Comet and a girl would become our Nova. The smallest pup was a female at just 2 pounds and the largest was a 4 pound male. 

Finally it was decided. The pup named Charlie's Girl would become our Nova. You see, Charlie is the father and my uncle's dog. So, naturally it was decided that having a mini female Charlie would mean so much more to everyone. Especially since out of the kindness of our their hearts my uncle, his wife, and their two kids wanted to give my sister this puppy to celebrate her graduating college that previous spring. Of course, now it was Christmas Eve and her birthday had even come and gone. 

And so Nova became a Happy Gradu-birth-mas puppy! 

Now all we had to do was get the puppy all the way back to Freezing Ohio in our car. *gulp*  No problem, travel by night and wake the puppy up and take her out when we need to get gas. Problem solved. Just add a puppy sweater to help her out with the climate change. ZERO accidents in the car.

Itty Bitty Nova Plus Siblings

These are some of Nova's baby pictures sent to us by the mother's family to help us get to know the pups since we couldn't see them in Florida. Forgive me, I don't remember how old they are in any of them. I'll check around with my family and see if anyone remembers.

The first picture is of all eight of the pups. Nova is the one on the far right. You can see her bow tie.

This is a picture of just the girls. You can tell they are really coming along. Nova is the third pup from the left. You can see the swirl on her head.

This is one of the last pictures the mother's family sent us. This again is one of all the girls but, a boy snuggled his way into the group. They are HUGE compared to the first one! Nova is on the far right.

Meet The Kids

And without further interruption here are the stars of Trampled With Love.

  Luna: (Smooth coated Border Collie mix)
*Estimated age: 1yr   *Weight: 22 pounds

         Rescued from a kill shelter on June 26 2010. Poor Luna was what shelters call a boomerang dog. You see every time she was adopted out she was brought back. She was found originally as a "stray". The first time she was adopted out she came back because she was "too destructive". The second time she was adopted out to a woman who wanted a dog for her son. Luna came back the same day because that lady washed her 3 times with baking soda and she STILL smelled like a dog! (I know! Heaven forbid a dog smell like a dog, right?)

        Anyway, my sister/roommate and I fell in love with Luna and point blankly said, "Well, we'll put her in a crate when we leave so she won't destroy our house. We don't care that she smells like a dog, in fact we like that in a dog. Can we take her home? We live in an apartment and have no yard. Is that going to be  a problem with you?" (Which seems to be a big problem to most shelters...)

Nova: (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)
*Born 11-11-10     *6 weeks in photo

       Nova will more than likely be the star of the Puppy Feet, or at least until she grows up. (I'll be documenting her growth on Puppy Feet in the meantime...)

      Nova is the puppy of one of our relatives and we went on a 14 hour drive to Florida to pick her up during the holiday season. Nova spends most of her time being mischievous, harassing or being harassed by her sister, and sleeping. When she is playing Nova sounds like Gizmo, the mogai from Gremlins.  

     So far Nova is averaging out at one pound gained each week. Her breed standard is between 10 and 25 pounds. However, like most toy breeds it isn't uncommon for some to end up tinier or much larger then the standard size. Where she'll stop no one knows!