Hello world!
I'm in Ohio now. This is my first full day away from Weaver since I got him July 1. It's a little odd. My friend who's taking care of him said he was fine! He's eating and I guess he's getting along with my friend's dog!

Jon and I gave Weaver a bath late Wednesday night. He did his usual funny running around thing where he rolled around on the floor to dry off. We love it when he does that. It's so super cute. I'm sure that's not his primary intent. I think he probably just wants to dry off, especially his floppy ears!

Here's a photo of me and Weaver after his first bath on July 9. As you can see, I kind of got involved in the bath too. I basically had to sit in the tub with Weaver to be able to wash him. And Jon sat outside the tub comforting Weaver. So in this photo I'm cleaning his ears. It's kind of like cleaning your ears with a cotton swab, but his ears are way bigger than people ears!! I'm supposed to do it every few days. I recently bought a toothbrush and doggie toothpaste, so the next doggie job I have is to work on his teeth.

Here is Weaver's page on the Triangle Beagle Rescue's website: http://www.tribeagles.org/gallery/view_photo.php?full=1&set_albumName=album01&id=weaver
I hope it's a persistent link that continues to work. He's such a sweetie. The photo up there doesn't really do him justice. I should take him for a walk now, but I should also do work. Not that I'm doing work either. So basically I'm doing absolutely nothing right now!
Katya

Hello!!!
It's my birthday today (July 12. The time stamp on this blog must be Pacific Time because it's 3 hours early, which reminds me... I need to call my grandma who is in Pacific Time). I have a lot of random stuff to do on my birthday. Meeting at 10 a.m. Then a work thing at 2:30 p.m. I'm actually facilitating that meeting. Hmm. Hard work on my birthday. Not fair :(
Oh well. I do like my job and I hope the meeting goes well.

I got a cool birthday card from my family on Monday. It's so nice that it arrived early :)

Weaver is rolling around on the floor right now. It's kind of funny. He's either bored or has an itchy back. If his back itches, maybe I should help scratch his back.

OK, I need to go to go to sleep now so I can wake up and do lots of work tomorrow (actually today)!
Katya

Well I've been meaning to post a photo of Weaver with his belly showing. He seems to like sleeping on his back, as he is in this photo. My boyfriend thinks Weaver is part-cow because his belly has all those black splotches. One of the kids we met on our walks thinks he looks like a dalmation on his belly (a slightly more plausible, but not as funny, comparison!).

Jon and I gave him a bath on Sunday (two days ago). That was a challenge because Weaver really wasn't keen on the whole being stuck in the bathtub thing. He wanted nothing more than to hop out of there. I started out the bath by myself, but I ended up calling Jon over to give moral support, comfort Weaver, and keep Weaver from jumping out of the tub. Before the bath, I'd vaccuumed the rug in my apartment because of what I susptected Weaver might do after he got out of the tub ... He proceeded to throw himself on the carpet and roll around like a maniac. I think it was his way of drying himself off (or maybe just to get the apple-fresh scent of shampoo off him). I did have trouble washing his head because he was sticking that out of the tub and I didn't want to get shampoo in his eyes. So his head ended up smelling like wet, dirty dog. The rest of him smelled like apple and dog. Oh well.

Once he dried he definitely seemed cleaner. Oh and I put the flea and tick medicine on him after the bath because I know I saw at least a few fleas on him. I hope the medicine works. So far so good. Although I woke up this morning with two itchy bumps on my shoulder. I hope they're not flea bites (the one time in life when I hope I really was just bitten by a mosquito!).

Well, ok, no more procrastinating. I've really cut down on my daytime TV watching, but in response I think I've increased my daytime internet time wasting...
Katya

By the way, Happy 4th of July!!!

It's way too hot here to go outside. I don't even want to go for a long walk with Weaver. It's too darn hot. It's supposed to be 95 degrees, but feel like 100 degrees!! Wow.

I'm not sure if I'll make it out to see fireworks. I assume I can see fireworks on TV.
I did see fireworks on Saturday at the Durham Bulls game. So that was cool.

Wow, I'm watching on the news a story about a man who went into a low blood sugar diabetic shock yesterday and crashed his car. His young son died in the crash :( Wow, how terrible. They said his blood sugar was 50. According to a WebMD article, ideal blood sugar for adults with diabetes before meals should be 90-130 mg/dL. So he was really dangerously low. How scary that must have been for his son.

Hello!
So I just got my new foster beagle from Triangle Beagle Rescue.
His name is Weaver and he's a 15" beagle, which means he's 15 inches high. The woman from TBR who gave him to me says he weighs about 30 pounds.

He's a real cutie, as you can see from the photo.

I also discovered that he's really good with kids. We were out walking last night and he saw some kids playing at a nearby apartment complex. So he walked toward them. I asked the adult who was supervising the kids if it was ok for me to bring the dog closer. Soon Weaver was surrounded by three small children, one was less than 2 years old and the other two seemed to be about 4 or 5 years old. Then some other kids came over. He was so calm and chill with all the kids around. He just sat there and let them pet him. He didn't jump on them or anything. The toddler even sort of stepped on Weaver's tail and he didn't even make a peep! My brother cautioned me that I would be responsible if he bit a child, but I said he wouldn't bite anyone, and besides when was the last time you heard of a beagle biting someone!

Here's a photo of my boyfriend Jon with Weaver on July 1, the day Weaver arrived at my house! My good friend Phil was also over. It was really nice having different people there initially to meet Weaver and help me out with him. I was excited to have him, but it was really sudden. I'd gotten a call from Madeline (a foster mom with TBR) that morning asking me when she could bring Weaver over. I hadn't been expecting to get a Beagle for a week or two.

Weaver is sleeping now. It's nice. I keep thinking I need to be entertaining him or doing something with him.

I actually was talking on the phone and watching him at the same time and he went "number 2" on my carpet in my bedroom. Yuck, gross. So that's a problem. I'm not sure why he did that and why he didn't let me know he needed to go out :( I said "no" in a loud firm voice and dragged him away from where he was going. The I took him right out to finish. He did not go "number 2" any more outside, but he did go "number 1". I wish I knew why he did that. I'm really not good at punishing him. I'm not good at putting him in his crate (I feel too bad when he resists going in). So I just try to limit it when absolutely necessarily (like when I'm leaving the house for a while or going to sleep at night). After we came back inside, I probably should have put him in his crate as punishment for going to the bathroom on my carpet, but I didn't know how to get him in there.

OK! That's it for now.
Katya