Yesterday was Norman's birthday! It's hard to believe that our sweet boy is already one year old! It seems like just yesterday that we brought home our fuzzy, cuddly little guy from the breeder. That same "little" guy now weighs 105 lbs and is FULL of energy! He's been the perfect addition to our growing family... although we are a bit worried about his transition to "big brother" once Baby Harper arrives, as he quite enjoys all the attention he gets!
The little fella that we brought home in March...
...and the handsome boy that he's become!
Here are some highlights for the little birthday party we had for him. Norman asked his best friend Cooper (Laurie's Golden) to come over for presents, cake, and a sleepover.
Norman's "loot" and his frosted doggie bone with sprinkles and one candle.
Norman (and Coop) eager to tear into the new birthday toys.
At 8 months old, it was finally time. Yep, you guessed it... poor Norman lost his manhood. Of course we didn't tell him that he was going in to get neutered, but instead described it as a "tutoring" session. Norm came back a little groggy, and HATED wearing the Elizabethan collar we had to keep on him for a few days to keep him from licking his stitches. But otherwise he was no worse for the wear and back to his spunky self after a few days.
Pure misery with the collar... he moped and whined and put on a huge fuss when we put it on him. What a baby!
Back to his sweet self and waiting for a game of chase up and down the stairs.
I'm SO sorry for the inexcusable delay in postings lately! We've been out of town a bit and had some company, which has kept me away from my updates much longer than I intended. I'm attempting to make up for it by back-posting a few highlights from late June, July, and early August.
Stay tuned for some exciting future updates... I promise I will post more regularly!
Norm (on the right) is growing faster than we can keep up. He's just as tall as Cooper now, only skinnier and little ganglier. They are so sweet together and are truly best buddies.
Obviously, we love little (er, not-so-little) Norman to pieces, but he is without a doubt 100% puppy. With the puppy-hood comes some inevitable destruction to furniture, clothing, and other objects in our home. So I should have been prepared for this, yet somehow I've been shocked every time I've come downstairs to discover that something has been chewed. Our first 5 months with Normie were pure bliss! Despite his broken leg, he was the model puppy who only chewed his own toys (and my slippers, which he believes are his toys because I've let him). All of that has suddenly changed during month 6. Here is my top 5 list of things Norman has chewed:
1) The molding and trim in our entry way... he literally chewed right on the wall.
2) A 3 1/2 foot plant and ceramic pot. He chewed the leaves, bringing the whole pot crashing down, dirt and all. This is what I came home to after running down the street to a neighbors' one evening after work:
3) Two needlepoint rugs. Neither ruined, but both suffered severe damage.
4) The back tire of Joel's road bike.
5) My ceramic flat-iron for my hair. He gnawed the cord right in half, so I had to get a whole new one (at a whopping $150).
Our solution to all of this destruction? He is NEVER left alone in the house without us unless he's in his crate. He sleeps in our bedroom now (not his crate), so we've learned to always shut the door so he doesn't wander downstairs in the early morning. So far so good... for now. Getting "tutored" in September may also help.
Norman is completely recovered from his "adventure". Two follow up x-rays have shown that his leg is totally healed, and all the breaks in the bone have completely fused. Whew! So hopefully this whole ordeal (and price tag... ugh) is behind us. At this point, they do not think there will be any further follow up needed, and we can just monitor the leg to see if there are any problems down the road as he gets older. The doctors don't expect any, so hopefully Norman can stay out of the vets office for a good long while. Until the neutering appointment later this fall... or as we're telling him, the "tutoring".
Sorry for the delay in posting an update on our little patient. In a nutshell, he is doing really well. The vet's advice was no running, jumping or playing for 3-4 weeks... that's a tall order for a Golden Retriever puppy! That's basically all he does! So it's been a long few weeks, but he seems to be really healing. Since puppies grow so much, they heal quickly from something like this, which has been such good news. He's been getting around fine on his leg and doesn't seem all that bothered by the cast. He loves to come upstairs with us in the mornings and at night, so we're getting very tired of carrying him (at 55 lbs) up and down the stairs. Here are some pics of our little gimp:
Even with a cast, our little fella is a handsome boy!
Normie recieved a variety of get well toys, notes, and treats. Can we spell S-P-O-I-L-E-D?
Norm still managed to get in his crazy nap postions, cast and all.
Check out all the signatures Norm got on his cast. We had a big group of friends over for dinner one night, and everyone signed his cast.
After about 10 days, the vet had to take the cast off to remove his stiches from surgery. He got a blue cast the second time around.
He learned to work around the cast to do his "business".
His appetite didn't skip a beat.
And while we couldn't go on walks, Normie enjoyed sitting in the grass and seemed like his usual friendly self, greeting every neighbor that walked by.
Norman had a horrible accident on Sunday evening! We were coming home with him in the car, only about 200 yards from our house when Norman fell out one of the back windows of our SUV! Like all dogs, he loves to put his head and paws out the window to feel the wind while we drive. He ended up sticking the front half of his body out too far, lost his center of gravity, and tumbled out onto the pavement. Luckily, we were slowing to a stop, so were only going about 15-20 mph. He let out horrible yelps and cries, and we found him crumpled in a ball with his leg curled up and blood on him and on the ground. It was awful and we were both freaking out!
Long story short, we rushed him to an awesome 24-hour animal hospital a few miles away where they x-ray'd him and confirmed that he broke his back right leg. It was a bad break in 3 places, and they warned us that sometimes the breaks can't be repaired and dogs have to loose the limb. Well, that sure didn't settle well AT ALL with us.... Joel had flashbacks of the accidents he went through with the various Fiji labs in college, including an amputation on one of them. We had to leave our poor baby at the hospital and spent a sleepless night back home worrying and praying. The orthopedic surgeon saw him the next morning, called us, and explained that the breaks should be able to be corrected without much difficulty in surgery. WHEW! The surgery happened later Monday afternoon, and he came out just fine from it. They installed some "hardware" in our little guy, so he's now our bionic puppy with screws and plates in his leg! They kept him another night for monitoring, and we got to bring him home on Tuesday afternoon.
Check out some pretty pathetic pictures of our little patient. Will update more on the progress of his recovery and our attempts to keep him off his leg as much as possible.
This was poor little Norman when we picked him up from the hospital earlier tonight. The nurses and vets at the Hope Clinic in Vienna were awesome and took such great care of him. It is an incredible facility and we felt very blessed that Norm got such great care.
This is a close up of the leg all bandaged up. Although it looks like a hard cast, it's actually soft and just wrapped with colored gauze (which happens to be in Boomer Sooner red, which is Norm's favorite color!)
Norm looks pretty tragic and can't quite get comfortable in any position.
May has been another exciting month for little Norman... who is not so little anymore. While we were in Ireland, Norm went to "camp" back at the breeder where he was born. He came back exhausted from playing with other Goldens non-stop for 12 days, and seemed to have no trouble getting back to his normal routine at home. In addition to his BFF Cooper, Norman has made lots of other friends in the neighborhood. Most notable is his first girlfriend, Maggie the Irish Terrier! I'll try to get a picture of them together soon, but they absolutley love each other (she's quite the tease, chasing him everywhere and wearing him out... classic female tactic, no?) All in all, our little guy is growing fast and getting sweeter each day!
His favorite things this month= chasing his own tail, swimming, jumping up on our bed, and chewing Melisss'a slippers (which are holding up well... those are some well made slippers!)
"My mom and dad went to Ireland, and all I got was this stuffed sheep. But I really like it! "
Norman got a new bed for his crate that he seems to like (despite this pathetic little face in the picture).
He also got a cute new collar with Golden Retreivers on it that you can kinda see in this pic. There he is going after Melissa's indestructible slippers.
He loves to sit at the glass door and look out, so this is what people usually see when they walk by our house.
We took Norman to a shallow creek near a favorite dog park to experience his first swim. We took along seasoned swimmer Cooper to show little Norm how it's done. In true Retriever fashion, Norm was a natural. We're so proud of our little guy! :)
At first, he seemed a little cautious...
... and then his curiousity got the better of him.
He finally decided, "If it's good enough for Cooper, then I think I can handle it."
"Wait, I want that stick!"
Here are some of the latest and greatest of our puppy who is growing way too fast!
Norm's BFF, Cooper, who teaches him all about sharing.
Norman has loved being outside in the warmer weather. Unfortunately, he also loves to chew on people's pretty spring flowers like daffodils and tulips.
It's been such a busy past few weeks for us that Norman seemed to grow bigger right before our very eyes! Melissa's sister Alison, nephew Jackson (5), and niece Mollie Jane (20 months) came to visit for a week during Spring Break. We had such a great time, and Jackson was the best playmate little Noman could ever possibly imagine. Even little Mollie Jane loved to "pat the puppy". Despite all the fun and activity going on, I hardly got any pictures of Norm with the kids! The Brawner visit was followed (and slightly overlapped with) a visit by Melissa's mom and dad over Easter. So little Norm has gotten to meet alot of relatives! Again, basically no pictures of Norman with his Mammy and Pops! But we did manage to snap some pics of his latest antics-- check out how fast he's growing!
We went to Great Falls National Park with Alison, Jackson and Mollie Jane. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great time climbing the rocks and checking out the falls.
Pardue family photo.
