Happy 7 month anniversary of me having Poppy in my life! I meant to write last month on the 6th, but I was swamped at work and things weren't going to well at hone, so I wanted to wait until it past before updating.

Daycare: I no longer take Poppy to the cheap-on-Tuesdays daycare. On the 3rd week, when I came to pick her up, I always take a look in the pen to see what she is up to before she can see me and I get her. She was curled up in the corner "sleeping" with a cute beagle like "guarding" her. It was cute, but it had me a little worried that she was just so stressed out. I think there were too many dogs in the pen and while part of the day, the dogs are split small and large, most of the day they are not and I think so many dogs around stressed her out. So I no longer take her there. She seems to just really like hanging out at home, so I only take her to the daycare near my house once a week and it seems to be going pretty well. Since it's summer, I changed my work hours a bit and only come home at lunch to walk her around the block (and it's kind of funny, since she knows I am leaving again, she just sits there in the pen and I have to go and PICK HER UP and sometimes even carry her outside, she just does not walk to come!) and then I leave work early and we talk a nice long walk after work and it seems to be going well. We don't go to the dog park as much, because she rarely plays with the dogs and just follows me around, so that is pointless!

Sleeping: Starting the first week in May, Poppy started waking me up every single night with a whine. It was so annoying as I am a very light sleeper and it takes me forever to get to sleep. She would do this like once a month during her first 6 months, and then all of a sudden, it was every night. She pee'd when I took her out, but she also wanted to play, which I was so NOT in the mood for. I thought something might be wrong as she was drinking more water too, but then we were also going on longer walks and it was getting hotter here. I wasn't sure. I took her to the vet and turns out she did have a UTI. She was on antibiotics for 2 weeks and just finished up last week. Some nights were better for sleeping and sometimes she still whined and then last week, after being off the meds for 3 days, I just lost it. She was whining and I finally showed her whose boss that I don't want to repeat here (which ended up waking me up anyway, which defeated the purpose) but that shut her up. I haven't had a major problem since but then, the weather has been cooler and that just always helps. I am dreading summer already.

Food: Pros of having a dog who doesn't really like to eat: she doesn't pick thinks off the ground and is very good at "leave it". Cons of having a dog who doesn't really like to eat: Some nights she only eats half her bowl and I feel bad because she is already so skinny and I don't want her to starve! Once I get the first little kernel in her mouth, she is okay, but last week was awful trying to get her to eat. And of course, Poppy is the only dog EVER who doesn't like peanut butter. I would put her antibiotic in peanut butter and I would have to hold her down to get her pill in. And then getting her to eat (pill to be taken with food) on top of it was a whole other fight I had to deal with TWICE on a daily basis. I am glad that is over for the moment.

This week has been very good. Cool nights, chill-out days. She doesn't bark when I leave the apartment and we haven't had an accident in weeks. We are finally on a decent schedule but with summer I am going to have to board her a few weekends and then for 2 weeks at the end of August, which I am not looking forward to already. I am so sad! But selfish me needs a vacation, especially after this year...