Bronte and Olivia Update

Today the girls, Bronte and Olivia, went to visit Dr. Sheila for a check-up and for a round of vaccines. We were pleased as all get out to see that both have put on weight. Bronte is now three pounds (up from one and a half pounds when we got her). And Olivia tipped the scales at five and a half pounds! We were also relieved to find out that Olivia's skin infection is completely healed, meaning no more medicated baths every three days. Both were good as gold, but just plum tuckered out when we got them home.

You would not believe how much Olivia's fur has grown. Remember how she looked like this?

 

 

Take a look at her now!

 



She still doesn't have any fur from about the mid-point to the bottom of her ears, but hopefully that will start coming in soon. Dr. Sheila wasn't ready to hazard a guess as to what breed combination Olivia may be, but did think she'll probably grow to about 25 pounds.

Whatever her make-up, she does have something in common with Sam, one of the two older dogs we adopted when we bought the house:

Sam

 

Olivia

 

While Olivia has a number of tomboy tendencies, Bronte is all girl and clearly sees herself as quite the princess with an attitude to boot. It's amazing something so little can be so bossy and sassy. She gets into everything, and while she understands what the word "No" means, chooses when she hears it. She is a prime example of selective hearing. On the flip side, she loves to be cuddled, purrs a great deal of the time, and hates to be out of sight of us or Olivia.

If you've read prior posts, you know these two hang out together to eat, sleep, and play. We were stymied at first as to what to do about pet toys. Having animals as pets here is still a novel concept and there is no such thing as a PetSmart store. With a little creativity, we came up with some homemade items that seem to do the trick:

A baby sock filled with cotton balls and knotted shut. Have had no success in locating catnip. Quite frankly, I don't know if we could deal with the level of maniacal behavior should Bronte ever encounter the stuff.

An old hand towel tied into a knot



The plastic wrappers on the top of our five gallon water jugs. This is the best toy...ever! It's light enough for Bronte to carry around, but makes enough of a crackling noise to keep Olivia occupied.

A toothbrush. This brilliant idea is from our friend Julie, here in Belize. The plastic handle is perfect for Olivia now that she is entering the teething stage and the bristles massage her gums.

 

So there you have it -- the latest and greatest about our new additions!

 

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