Itch problem

Zachary been itching over a week now and making himself raw. Places on his feet have no hair. He has been taking Hydroxyzine for awhile now for his itching, but it has gotten worse. Took Zach to the Vet for suggestions. Doc Paul said he has allergies either to food or environment. I questioned why now, said sometimes it starts when they become one. We are trying him on a Hypo-allergenic food and no dog treats unless specially made. If this done not work Zach will have to go thru allergy testing. We are keeping our paws crossed the new food works.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"

Tropical storm

With the Tropical storm Earnesta going over us we have had rain on and off. Some of it has been light, but we have gotten so heavy down-pours too. Zach is not crazy about going out in the rain, so today was a challenge getting the boy to go out to potty. We are thankful we have been spared from this storm going into a hurricane status.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

White frogs

Awhile back I mentioned a white frog that Zachary and I had seen in the backyard. At that time I was not able to get a picture. I did not miss him this time. One is a White frog and one a Grey frog.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

Zachary has lips

Zachary had just eaten and had jumped on the couch. He started licking his lips more than normal. I started laughing and I picked up the camera. Here is the results.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

Current Zach picture

It has been awhile since I have posted a picture of Zachary. After playing, the little guy slowed down for a moment and crashed.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year Westie puppy"

The leaner

It is amazing just how many characteristics that Zachary has, that are similar to our former Westie. One of he biggest ones is staying close and wanting to be on top of or lean against me. He wants no room in between us whether in a chair or on the couch. There can be lots of room on the couch, but he wants to be glued to one of us. I guess this must make him feel safe.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

House Alarm sounded

I knew it was only a matter of time that one day I would set off the house alarm with Zachary inside. Instant on is the way I set the house alarm the way I always do when we sleep. That means if any door or window is broken the alarm go off the out any warning delay time. Well when Zach and I stumbled out of bed and he had to go potty real bad, I forgot to turn off the house alarm. Yes you guessed it the alarm went off. I tried to cancel but no luck, even after 3 tries. So I grabbed the phone and we went outside to wait for the alarm company to call us. After about 2 minutes I called them to cancel the alarm so I would not have police showing up to make matters worse. After I had them cancel the police I asked them if they could remotely turn off my alarm. They trasnfered me to their tech help. After getting hung up on several times, I went back inside since alarm went off. Bad mistake, alarm had re-armed an sounded again. Back to the phone outside to call the techs again. Finally I got some semi useful info and headed back inside. After much screwing around with system I was able to silence the alarm.
Poor Zachary's ears hurt I know, but he never barked. I think he was scared to death and just stayed close.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

Weaving while walking

Today Zachary and I followed 2 large dogs around the block. Zachary wanted to catch up to them so bad he was pulling with all his might. At the same time he was smelling their smells, so he started to track them. So instead of walking in a normal pattern, he was weaving while smelling and pulling the whole block.
Needless to say he was pooped when we came home.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"

Played with a neighbor dog

Tonight as we were walking around our neighbor's dog got out. Zachary and this honey colored ball of fur went nose to nose with both their tails wagging. Next came a little boy hot on his trail. It did not take long to round him up since he was sticking to Zach like glue. Fur ball is a escape artist and has been in my yard many times, so I know him well. He likes Zachary a little better than our former Westie. Those two did not get along at all, fur ball was way too aggressive back then. Thank goodness he has mellowed out with age.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

Variety Snap box

Zachary loves Purina Alpo Variety Snap treats. Tonight I gave have a treat with a challenge. I put a Variety Snap inside an empty Variety Snap box. Well he had a blast, there is shedded box everywhere and no treat left. It did not take Zach long to figure out how to get the treat. Now he is just shredding the rest of the box.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

Visited the firefighter

Today Zachary and I visited the firefighter neighbor that visited us yesterday. He wanted us to see what they had done in their backyard. Zachary was in heaven watching all the wildlife and smelling all the smells. They made a backyard sanctuary with bricks and plants. We walked thru pathways of plants and walked past many squirrels. Zach and I hung-out on the screened porch watching a listening to the sounds.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

Visit from a firefighter

Today our neighbors thought that our house was on fire. We have had mosquito's that have be out in force that have become a pain. So we decided to fog the outside of the house. Zachary was put inside until 1/2 hour after we are done so the chemical is long gone. It was getting close to dark when we finished and our neighbor on the far ended of the street saw what looked like smoke. One of our closer neighbors noticed the smoke growing and started running. It was not until they came to the end on the yard when the smelled a chemical smell instead of a electrical or wood or BBQ. Well Zachary had lots of company at this point when the neighbors came to check on us, it is nice to have caring neighbors. We are glad they checked it out first before calling 911. If so Zachary would have had even more company.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

Protector Zach

Zachary is becoming more observant of things around him besides lizards on our walks. When we were our walking yesterday a lady was cleaning out her car on the otherside of the street. Also in a house ahead of us, you could heard dogs barking. Without warning, Zachary pulled sideways and barked out an alarm. I was surprised more than anything else, from our little non-observant puppy. I looked towards where he was barking and pulling. The lady that was cleaning out her car was shaking out a large towel. She was as confused as myself as to why the reaction from Zachary. I guess Zach is growing up and now feels he needs to be a protector.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"

Mary had a little lamb

Mary had a little lamb has been shredded by the baby boy. Mary had a little lamb was a squeaker toy that was passed on to Zachary from our former Westie. It was a cool toy that was in two parts. The first part was Mary and attached by an elastic cord a lamb. It amazed me that our former Westie never pull the lamb off. I went to check on Zachary when he was a little too quiet and found Mary had a little lamb in many pieces with stuffing everywhere. Zachary lay there pleased with the squeaker in his mouth. He squeaked it most of last night.

"Happiness is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

Heavy thunderstorms

We had been without rain for so long that the thought of rain made us giddy. They weather dude had forcasted rain but they are usually wrong. Well the rain beat us home from church and the skies opened up. It poured and poured, then came the thunder and lightning. Some areas were told about storm weather warnings on the TV for hail and some did get moth ball sized hail. The rain lasted on and off for about 2 hours. Zachary was not a happy camper and stayed close. We on the other hand were excited to have rain falling on our not so green grass.

"Happines is being loved by a one year old Westie puppy"

Barking at children

Tonight Zachary started barking and would not stop barking at children. Lisa has come to the door with her little girls and Zach started barking a would not stop. We even tried taking him outside to see if that would make a difference. He did stop, but only for a short time. When he was little we exposed him to some childern, but I guess that no longer matters.

"Happiness in being loved by a Westie puppy"

Happy Birthday Zach

It is hard to believe that a year has flown by in Zachary's life. Today he turned the Big One-O and he is still not done growing up. We may have another 6 months for all his puppy behaviors to leave, but being one is still a landmark for our little Westie puppy"
Happy Birthday Zachary Taylor II

"Happiness is being loved by a One year old Westie puppy"

Buzzed by a Jet

I am not sure what has changed or whether it was a one-time flight pattern but Zach and I got buzzed by a jet. Now mind you it was a small corporate jet, but a jet. I think Zachary and I looked up the same time. I am hoping that this jet was just off course and does not make this flight pattern a habit. Between the helicopter and now the jet, this neighborhood is no longer the quiet little neighborhood it once was.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"

Buzzed by a Helicopter

Zachary and I were outside when we heard a loud whoshing sound coming from the trees. It did not take long to realize the we were getting buzzed by a helicopter flying low. We watched him as he made large than small circles around Zach and I. We live about 2 miles from the main highway so I thought there may have been an accident. I then noticed him staying mainly over the houses. Zachary did not like the loundness of his blades whoshing through the air and wanted to go inside. I let him in and watched the helicopter a couple more minutes. I never did see anything on the news about an accident.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"

Garbage Truck Walk

This morning we were trying to stay ahead of the Garbage truck on our morning walk. I saw it to our right when I came out of the house, so we went to the left. We managed to stay a couple house ahead by walking briskly. Now this is not easy when you have a dog that lives to smell each and every blade of grass. We only went one lap, so we would not catch back up to the Garbage truck. I walk Zachary many times a day, so he was not concerned that we ended our walk early.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"

Little frogs

For the past several morning dozens of little frogs have been around the roof drain spouts. Since Zachary loves to chase lizards around the roof drain spouts, he saw them before I did. Some of the frogs jumped when Zach put his nose to them, from then the chase was on. Zach loves to nose big frogs to try to get them to jump. This was the first time he encountered so many frogs at one time. Needless to say, Zachary was entertained for a long time.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"

Bath Tonight

After digging several holes and playing in the yard, Zach was a dirty puppy. Zachary does not like baths when he gets them, but he does seem to feel better when clean. So tonight a was bath was on Zachary's to do list.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"

Snowing inside

Zachary woke up at 4:30 this morning, wanting to go outside. When we came back inside, I stayed out in the livingroom with him so he would not wake up the whole house. I laid down on the couch and tried to get him to go back to sleep. It did not take me long to fall asleep, I am not sure about Zach. I woke up at 9am to the sound of a plastic bottle being dragged and bumped across the tile floor. Now this did not sound like an empty plastic bottle that he plays with, so my ears perked up. I got up to find the floor covered in what looked liked snow flakes and saw him dragging a large bottle in his mouth by the handle. I first took the bottle out of his mouth and went back to survey the snow flakes. When I went to pick them up they were wet and sticky, with a white box like thing under some flakes. It took drinking my coffee in a can (diet coke) to figure out that he had gone in the bathroom and somehow got a box of wet wipes and began to shred each sheet. Also Zach found the toilet bush to be interesting to drag out as well. He did not care abourt the brush just the holder, which now shows many teeth marks at the top. It took almost a half hour to pick up Zachary's mess, by hand. I had tried the vacuum but it was too wet. Zach appears to want to stay in puppyhood and long as possible.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"

Lifting wrong leg

We have a little boy dog, so you would think he would lift his back leg. Well not Zachary, he likes to be different. Every time he pees, he squats and lifts his front left leg. It is funny to watch him because he never lift his right front leg, only the left. I have never seen another dog who pees like Zachary. Anyone else know of a dog like Zach.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"

Bye Bye trip

Zachary had a busy day. He went over to see Grandma, Grandpa and his Uncle Victor. He kept going from person to person, getting his fill of attention. Whenever anyone walked out of the room, Zach followed them. Zach did not want to miss any activity and was right in the middle of anything we were doing. Tonight while loading boxes, Zach wanted to be right in the middle. The only problem, he was nose to nose with Grandpa and in the way. I had to put him on a leash to stay out of the middle on the loading zone. He is now quiet and sleeping on the floor.

"Happiness is being loved by a Westie puppy"