Success!

I'm SO excited! We have FINALLY found a food that Bozley likes! He's eaten ALL his food at EVERY meal since Tuesday night which hasn't happened in, like, forever. 

Despite trying probably a dozen different dry dog foods...Boz wouldn't eat it. Most of them he wouldn't even take a single bite of it. So much of the advice said to leave the food out and eventually the dog would eat it...but he wouldn't. He didn't eat for two days before I finally caved and mixed it with some wet food. Even then...he still wouldn't eat most of it. I've thrown away so much food that I'd mixed for him...since it ends up as a mushy mess if you try to save it in the fridge after mixing the dry kibble with wet food (though I tried and he still wouldn't eat it). Even just the wet food by itself...he still wouldn't eat all of it. And for him to get all the nutrients for his size, he would need 6-7 cans a day which also gets expensive. 

There are only so many foods out there that don't have any chicken in them and aren't grain-free...and I'm pretty sure we've tried every single one of them. We even tried some that were grain-free just to see if we could find one he would eat. But...nope. We found a couple wet foods that he would eat sometimes (meaning he'd eat it one day but then just pick at it the next day)...which were Pure Balance Turkey and the Canidae Duck and Turkey. We'd tried the lamb options in both brands as well but he ate even less of those. And all of those are grain-free formulas. 

So I started looking at other options...and it looks like we've found one! The Honest Kitchen has a dehydrated dog food that comes as a dry, kinda chunky powder that you mix with water before serving. So...basically it's like buying dry kibble that you make into wet food. They have a whole grain turkey recipe that I thought we'd try since Bozley really seems to like Turkey. It arrived on Tuesday and we gave it to him for dinner starting that night. We mixed it with the dry kibble (which he hadn't actually been eating much of)...he ate ALL of it! And he's eaten his whole bowl of food for every lunch and dinner since then! 

It's SUCH a relief to have finally found something that Bozley actually likes. :) 

Two Happy & Healthy Pups!

Tuesday afternoon I took both Bozley and Nova to the vet...at the same time all by myself. They did SO good. :) Bozley used to hate riding in the car. He always wanted to be sitting right in my lap, refused to ride in the back seat, and would jump in my lap from the passenger seat as soon as I'd put the car in park. But now that Nova is with him? He rides in the back seat and enjoys poking his head out the window to look around. :) He just seems to have so much more confidence and is a lot more relaxed now that he has a friend. It's been such an awesome difference. 

Our vet's office has never done appointments (except for surgeries). But ever since the Covid shutdown last year, they've implemented a check-in process where we can check-in using the app and then wait until we're closer in line to actually drive over there. The lobby was still closed until a month or two ago...so we'd wait in our cars and then do curbside drop-off and pick-up. Now that the lobby is open, we're able to check-in on the app and then wait in the lobby until the vet is ready. We waited in the lobby for quite awhile but Bozley and Nova were very well-behaved. I had a hold of their leashes so they never got more than a couple feet from me, but neither of them acted anxious at all. They were more curious about the other dogs than anything else. They got a lot of compliments about how sweet and beautiful they are. :) 

Nova Lee weighed 58.5 pounds at almost 7 months old. We got her rabies shot and I also got her microchipped while we were there. Aside from that, we wanted to have the vet check out her skin to make sure she doesn't have an infection or anything. She is still scratching quite a bit, but the vet just recommended continuing the Benadryl for now to help the itching...rather than giving her an allergy shot (Cytopoint). Some of the spots where she's had scabs seem to be clearing up and we haven't noticed any new spots in the last couple days...so that's good! But other than that, Nova is doing great! 

Bozley really just needed his annual heartworm test so we got that out of the way. :) He weighs only 56 pounds...which isn't that surprising considering he's such a picky eater! He doesn't look sickly...he just has a more "lean" build. He's always been smaller than the average golden size though (he weighed just 5 lbs at 8 weeks) so it's not too out of the ordinary for him anyway. But we are still working on finding the best diet for him. The vet talked about some prescription diet options that are good for allergies, but his food allergy isn't really the problem...it's the fact that he just doesn't want to eat the kibble that we've tried. He prefers wet food...but that gets pretty expensive when it's like 6-7 cans a day for a dog his size. We've been adding a can of wet food as a topper, but he still leaves most of his kibble uneaten. We just got some dehydrated food for him to try...sort of an in-between of dry food and wet food. He would get 2-4 cups a day of the dehydrated food mixed with 3-6 cups of water...making it more of a wet food. So hopefully he'll like it! *fingers crossed* I have never known a dog who is SO picky! 

I just can't get over how well Nova Lee has merged with our family. She and Bozley bonded pretty much immediately. Where one is, the other is always close by. Shortly after we got into the exam room at the vet, the nurse took Bozley into the back to do his heartworm test. Nova immediately started whining and pacing between me and the door until he came back. 

Next up is getting Nova spayed. Even though we've considered breeding Bozley, Nova isn't AKC registered so I don't want to breed her. Even IF we decide to breed Bozley in the future (Johnny wants to), I would rather offer him as a stud and be able to keep one of his puppies. But...that won't be for another couple years at least (after Ashlyn and her dog move out). I'm hoping to get Nova fixed before her first heat...so we'll have to do that soon. 

Settling in!

It's been a week since we brought Nova Lee home and she's settling in quite nicely. She and Bozley spend the day playing and napping. I think having a playmate his size to run around and wrestle with is just what Bozley needed. They play hard and then they nap for awhile...then up and at it again. He's a lot more active now with her here and he seems less anxious. He still barks at noises but a lot of the quieter noises don't seem to bother him as much. And I think all the playing around makes him relax more and sleep better without waking up to every single noise. Nova follows me everywhere even more than Bozley does. She's SO sweet. Sometimes she'll nap sprawled out on the couch or the floor, but she seems to really like cuddling up next to me. She'll lay her head in my lap while I'm working on the computer. She's really mellow except when wrestling with Bozley. ;) 

Nova Lee is doing SO good here at home with us. When she got here, we realized that she had quite a few hot spots from biting/scratching...because of her food allergy. I don't think her previous owners realized that there was still chicken (the biggest food allergy, especially in Goldens) in the Purina Pro Plan Lamb and Rice puppy food and, unfortunately, continued feeding it to her. We realized with Bozley that you really have to check the ingredients so there's no chicken organs, chicken meal...nothing. We're very careful about making sure that all the food and treats that we give have NO type of chicken in them...because SO MUCH of it has chicken even if it isn't the main ingredient (it's a cheap option for dog product manufacturers). But we have switched her to the Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach which has no chicken and she seems to be doing better. She is still scratching a bit but her coat is already feeling softer and I haven't seen any new spots since switching her food. We did add pumpkin this week since she had kinda loose stools and they've firmed up now. She eats great...which is nice since we're still trying to find a food that picky Bozley will just eat. :P 

Last night was a big night! Nova Lee had been sleeping in the kennel at night but Johnny felt that since she is potty trained, she should be in the bedroom with us (like Bozley) because it isn't fair for her to be the only one in the kennel. ;) So last night we let her in our room. She immediately jumped up on the bed and stayed there all night. Bozley will sometimes get up on the bed while we're watching TV or something but then he prefers to sleep in his bed on the floor at the end of our bed. So we had Nova in bed with us, Bozley sleeping in his bed, and Milo actually got up on the bed and slept in his spot! 

I'd been holding off on letting Nova in the bedroom because Milo sleeps in the bed with us and he'd just been hiding under the bed those first few days she was here. Angel also hid under the bed...and because she doesn't jump up as high as the other two cats (which is needed to get downstairs while avoiding the living room), I actually pulled the mattresses up to get her out from under the bed and took her downstairs in the carrier where her food, water, and litterbox are...and she hasn't come upstairs since. Angel and Leo have just stayed downstairs for the most part, but Milo has gotten comfortable with going from our room to the basement as long as the gates at the hallway and stairs are closed. There is a "window" in the hallway that is over the bottom of the stairs, so the cats will jump up and go through there, walk along the half-wall and then down to the top steps and go downstairs that way to avoid the dogs. When I painted, I actually hadn't put the gate on the stairs back up because Bozley is scared to go down them...but as soon as Nova Lee arrived she ran right down the stairs to explore...so I put the other gate back up. ;) That way the cats are able to have a safe space away from the big, rowdy puppies. ANYWAY...after I turned off the TV last night and Nova settled down to sleep, Milo actually jumped up on the bed and slept on his pillow that's above my head. And Nova Lee didn't even get excited about Milo or anything...she just cuddled up next to us and slept. So that's progress! :) 

Nova has been really excited to meet new people. She met Aubry and my mom shortly after we brought her home. Then my step-daughter and her four kids came over for a little while yesterday and Bozley and Nova both were really good with the kids. Bozley is fine meeting new people, but sometimes he's scared of men. So far Nova Lee hasn't actually met any new men aside from Johnny, but hopefully she won't respond in fear like Bozley...and hopefully Bozley will see that it's okay. :) Boz really is doing a lot better though. And walks with the two of them have been great! Bozley seems to have a lot less anxiety when he's with Nova. I know I've said that multiple times, but we're just so happy to have two happy puppies. :) 

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Meet Nova Lee Pride!

So we did a thing... again! 

Johnny and I have been talking for months about getting a friend for Bozley. He's had pretty bad anxiety that developed seemingly out of nowhere in December. He's also desperately wanted the chihuahuas and the cats to play with him...but once he got bigger than them, they are not fans at all. We wanted to find him someone who will be more his own size that he can really play with. And he's been extremely interested in the female golden retriever on the other side of the fence. So we've just been thinking about it for awhile. 

Wednesday afternoon Johnny was looking on adoptapet.com just to see what kind of pets are out there. Then I just happened to be browsing my Facebook feed and saw a post in a local Golden Retriever group about a 7 month old female with food allergies...just like Bozley! It just seemed like it was meant to be. So I sent the woman a message asking for more information. She said that they'd had a lot of people asking about her but no actual offers. And then she asked about my maiden name. Turns out that she married someone that I'd gone to school with! Such a small world! 

So Johnny and I talked about it and we made the spur of the moment decision that night to meet them about half an hour away and pick up Bozley's new friend...less than two weeks shy of a year from the day we brought Bozley home! We took Bozley with us to meet her. Ashlyn went with us too...so that way she could sit in the backseat with them to referee if needed. 

She was already named Nova Lee and we decided not to change it. Johnny's middle name is Lee (and his mom's name and his kids' second middle names) so we thought it was meant to be. :) She was born on 12/31/20...so she's about 6 1/2 months old. She is just 1 day shy of 7 months younger than Bozley. She's nearly the same size as Bozley already! Her face is quite a bit different than Boz...he has a bit more blocky head while her face is more pointy with a much less pronounced dip from her forehead to her nose. She's not as red as Bozley...he's more of a dark golden and she's just golden. The fur on Nova's back is also really wavy. It'll be interesting to see how she looks when her coat is all grown in. She's in that awkward teen stage right now. ;)

Bozley was SO excited to meet her. He was excited in the Dillons parking lot when they met, continued to be excited on the way home, and they played for hours after we got home. Boz has a thing with ears (human, dog, cat...he loves all ears) so he kept licking her ears all night. They were SO excited running around the backyard together. They finally wore themselves out but Boz continued wanting to be within inches of Nova. She slept in the kennel and he laid by the kennel off and on that first night. She whined every once in awhile but she did fall asleep. She woke up barking at 5am. I took her outside and she went to the bathroom then went back in the kennel for a few more hours. I decided to just go ahead and sleep on the couch because it seemed to make her sleep better and Johnny had to be up for work. Plus I was super tired. :P But on the second night she slept through the night in the kennel with no problem. :) 

Nova Lee is the sweetest girl. She follows me everywhere and she loves to cuddle. She's made herself right at home like she's been here all along. She'll curl up on the couch next to me and fall asleep with her head in my lap then she sprawls out belly up. She's pretty laid back and doesn't bark a whole lot. She's definitely not a picky eater like Bozley, so that's nice! She came to us already housetrained and knows several commands: sit, kennel, and comes when called. 

I think Bozley is getting used to her and figuring out that she didn't just come over to play. I think he's starting to get annoyed with her too...like a little sister who is playing with his toys. ;) But he's been playing with the toys she brought home, too. So they don't play with toys much together (although they did play tug-of-war once) but they still love running around and chasing each other. Which is nice, because it wears them out! ;) The only time Boz got really upset is when he was burying his bone in the blanket and she took it...he did NOT like that! But other than that they've been getting along well. Neko and the cats on the other hand...they're NOT a fan. Hopefully they'll all warm up to each other after awhile. Neko growls and snaps at her and the cats have been in hiding. The entire first night and second day Milo just stayed under the bed. The second night Milo and Angel both jumped on the bed at bedtime since Nova Lee was in the kennel in the living room. And Leo even came out in the living room while Nova Lee was asleep. 

We did have to get a bigger kennel for her. Bozley hasn't used the kennel (which we'd bought to keep the chihuahua brothers in) since he was about 3 months old. So we went from the medium-size kennel to the large-size kennel and she fits much better. ;) We also got her a new collar for her tags, a prong collar and leash like we got for Bozley, and I got some more bones so they're less likely to fight over them. :P

Here's a photo of Bozley and Nova Lee the night we brought her home after they finally stopped running and playing in the yard. 

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RECIPE: Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

So...I've been making Sour Cream Enchiladas since 2001 and they were pretty much the only enchiladas I made. My sister sent me a green chile chicken enchilada recipe that looked pretty good...but I almost never stick to a recipe I find unless it's a family recipe. Plus...I'm not a fan of green chile enchilada sauce. So...I decided to come up with my own recipe for a creamy, cheesy sauce. I had a deadline for work Wednesday morning so I made these a day late for Taco Tuesday...but they were delicious! Johnny said he would still like to try them with a little green chile enchilada sauce poured over them as well...so next time I think I'll get a can of it for him and he can just add it on his plate. ;)

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas 

Ingredients:

1 pkg of flour tortillas (I used the soft taco size) 

2 lbs of chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (I cooked frozen chicken breasts in the Instant Pot)

8 oz shredded Monterey or pepper jack cheese 

8 oz finely shredded fiesta blend cheese

1 tbs paprika

1/2 tsp garlic salt 

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp onion powder 

1/8 tsp oregano 

1/8 tsp chili powder 

16 oz cup sour cream, divided

3 tbs butter

3 tbs flour 

1 can chicken broth 

4 oz or 7 oz can diced green chiles, medium (more or less depending on your preference)

Diced cilantro, green onions, and/or black olives for garnish (optional)

Directions: 

1. Preheat Oven to 375.  Combine both kinds of shredded cheese together in a bowl and stir a bit to mix them all up.

2. Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in flour. Add chicken broth and whisk until slightly thickened.  

3. Reduce to simmer. Add 1 cup of shredded cheese mixture, 1 cup of sour cream, and the can of green chiles to the saucepan and whisk the sauce until smooth. 

4. Combine chicken, 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup of cheese, paprika, garlic salt, cumin, onion powder, oregano, and chili powder. Stir until it is all mixed well. 

5. Spread a thin layer of the sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. 

6. Fill each tortilla with the chicken mixture and fold like a burrito. Layer the burritos in the 9x13 pan. 

7. Pour the sauce over the enchiladas. Top with the remaining shredded cheese. 

8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly. 

Sometimes I want them to be even creamier...so I will add another can of chicken broth and another 1-2 cups of shredded cheese to the sauce. Sometimes I'll even stir in a bit of the sauce to the chicken mixture as well. :)

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Just a Random Update

I haven't posted a whole lot lately. Between getting the house all squared away after painting and all the normal chores around the house plus transcription work AND trying to get a new business up and running...I've been pretty busy! I haven't even made any new recipes lately to post. But I think next week I'm going to come up with a chicken enchilada recipe so we'll see how that goes. :) 

Aubry's birthday was toward the end of June. It was on a Monday and then the following Friday she had to get her wisdom teeth taken out. :P So she spent the night here at home Thursday and I took her in on Friday. The IV sedation made her super emotional...so that was interesting. :P After we got settled in back at the house I got her some Chicken Gnocchi soup from Olive Garden for lunch and then we had Panera broccoli cheddar soup for dinner. Before she left to go home that evening, I helped her pick out a new Dell computer she wanted to get with her birthday money. Then for her birthday present from us, I ordered a lap desk, cooling fan, and a cool mouse for her on Amazon. :) 

We didn't really do anything for Independence Day this year. Ashlyn spent the week at XH's parents' house and went to my grandparents' house with my mom for the evening of the 4th. Usually we go over there as well but Bozley was too freaked out by the fireworks -- even WITH his anxiety treats -- so we didn't want to leave him home alone. So Johnny grilled some barbecue chicken and we watched some episodes of Manifest on Netflix. Then on July 5th Johnny was still off work for the holiday "observed." Aubry drove Ashlyn home that evening and Johnny grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. 

There were SO many fireworks in our neighborhood. Legally, people could shoot them off here from June 27th until July 5th...but there were fireworks sporadically from June 26th until July 7th...including some at 5am on July 5th! I know there are some people who do it just to spite the people who have been complaining on Facebook about all the noise. When I was a kid...we did fireworks ON 4th of July and that was it. I don't think an entire week of fireworks is necessary. But...I'm not a loud noise person. Also, the "biggest" fireworks you could do back then were fountains. To see the big fireworks, you'd go to a fireworks display. But now (at least in our area) you can shoot off the artillery shells in the mortar tubes for the ones just like the "big" fireworks shows. And with EVERYONE doing it...it's super loud around here. And we have a dog who is terrified of loud noises...so it's an entire week of giving him meds to try and calm him down. This year we just did the CBD treats, but next year we may ask the vet for some actual anxiety medication for all the fireworks shot off during the 4th/weekend. It was a little more sporadic during the week and the calming treats helped for those...but it still wasn't enough for the weekend when the fireworks were a lot more constant. 

OH...and my phone also broke during the holiday weekend. I was SO bummed. I was sitting on the couch and the phone fell off my lap and fell only one foot...but it landed right on the corner of my desk stand. The glass was crushed on one side and it messed the screen up. There was a bright line through the middle and the bottom half of the phone under that line would flash orange or bright white so I couldn't even see half of my phone. Plus no touch would register where the bright line was across the middle of the phone. I had to use Johnny's phone to call Asurion because I couldn't press the 1, 2, or 3 buttons on my phone to dial. :P And of course the place to get it repaired was closed until Tuesday. So I dropped it off when they opened Tuesday...just for them to tell me 2 hours later that they couldn't repair it because the screws inside of it were stripped when it was manufactured. So then I had to call Asurion back and they were going to send me a replacement instead...but they were sold out of the Note20 Ultra in all colors so they sent me a check for the full retail price of the phone instead. Since my Note20 Ultra was still on a AT&T Next payment plan that was being paid for by credits that made it "free" since I traded in my Note9 at the time...I used the money from the check to just pay the entire retail price of a new phone and continue the Next "payments" for the Note20 so I wouldn't be out that discount. Otherwise I would've had to pay off the $900 on my Note20 and then just get a new Next plan that I'd have to actually pay for because I couldn't trade in my broken phone for a discount on a new phone. So it all worked out. I ended up getting the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. I really, really hate that it doesn't have the expandable memory that the Note20 Ultra had...but it has a better camera and ultimately the camera is the biggest deciding factor for me when it comes to getting a new phone. 

We also upgraded Johnny and Ashlyn's phones while we were there. Johnny got the iPhone 12 Pro with $700 off for trading in his iPhone X. And for Ashlyn's birthday, she got upgraded from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone 11 since they were having a special for $10 a month. She was SUPER excited. :) They like dumb ol' iPhones...I am an Android girl forever and ever. :P 

This weekend I'm hoping to get the basement rearranged a bit so that I can move all the cat stuff (litterbox, food bowls, cat tree) from the office to the basement so that I have enough room to reorganize and get all my new equipment set up for my new business! Plus I have some transcription work to get done as well. So...busy, busy!