Our Blog - The new addition to our family

For 2021, I have decided to switch the order of the list below so that the most recent entry is at the top. The text still goes chronologically.

Tom and I have always loved dogs but as adults, we really have never had them. We both had dogs growing up, but once we were out of college and working, we never felt that we had the time to get a dog and not have the dog get a complex when we were gone for 10-12 hours at a time (factoring in gym then work and commute time). And while we still like to travel and play golf, we thought that now would be a good time to get a puppy since we could spend as much time with her as we needed early-on.

We have been thinking about this and planning (yes, we are planners) for about a year. We decided that we would get a puppy when we got back from our US trip this year, and then we wouldn't plan any other "big" trip until our December 4-day Christmas Market trip. That would give us over 3 months to just work with her and get her trained well. Then we'll be able to either put her in a kennel for those 4 days or have someone watch her (we have a few friends who have volunteered for short visits). We will have to make sure we plan vacations with a puppy in mind ... either reserving kennel space early, or making sure we book puppy-friendly hotels and restaurants. Good thing is that in Europe, many places are puppy-friendly!

So the planning ... we knew we wanted a Welsh Corgi ... not that either one of us have ever had one, but we think they are gorgeous dogs and are very smart and easily trainable. We also wanted one with a tail, well, SUSAN wanted one with a tail. And while tail-docking is still allowed in France (it is banned in the EU but France opted out of it), most breeders now in France are not docking tails so we see lots of Corgis with tails! We decided on Pembroke vs Cardigan as they tend to be smaller and female vs male, also because they tend to be smaller. And we had already chosen a name before we got the puppy ... Lucy (from the Peanuts cartoon). Then we kept an eye on the breeders in France with puppies and were lucky enough to find a little Pembroke female puppy that would be available at the right time (they can't go to their new homes until they are 8 weeks old).

Here we can see what her parents look like, dad first and then mom.

Our first pictures of Lucy were at 5 days old, and Tom said she looked like a rat. She has a bit more of the dark brown/black coloring than either of her parents. However, we read that ALL red and white puppies are born with a certain amount of black highlighting on them. Some have more than others, some not so much but the difference between their puppy color and adult color can be drastically different.

By 13 days, we had moved from a rat to a hamster, and you can see that she has opened her eyes. You can also see the white tip of her tail, which we weren't able to see on the first set of pictures.

At 1 month old. Her eyes seem more open and you can tell she has grown a little bit. Her hair looks fluffier and starting to see more of the sable/red color and a tiny bit less of the black coloring.

And like any set of expecting parents, it was important for us to start shopping for the things we need when we bring our little baby home. Since we didn't have any children of our own, Lucy is literally our first baby! So we took a day and made a journey out to one of the larger pet stores and picked up a bed, a travel case (that we will use as her "den" during training), harness and lease, as well as a few toys. We'll pick up more, of course, since I suspect Lucy will be quite spoiled! We will be back in the US before she arrives, and so we plan at least a couple stops at specialty puppy stores. Since she will be a city-puppy, one thing that was recommended is a pair of boots for her feet. Not so much for wet weather, but rather, hot weather. The pavement in the summer can get VERY hot and so some recommend little boots when the pavement is really hot since while we have parks around with grass, there is a lot of pavement between us and the park. So either boots to protect the bottoms of her feet, or we carry her. I'm thinking boots ... Tom is thinking carrying her!

2 more weeks and we will be able to bring our little Lucy home! This picture was taken last week, right around her 6-week birthday. She is definitely getting larger and lighter in color. It is cute to see her white paws as well as the white tip on her tail. She still has a little white blob on her head as well as somewhat of a white "collar" around her neck. If you scroll up to look at the picture from just 2 weeks ago, she looks like she is losing the darker/black coloring on her nose (or it was just different lighting). It will be interesting to watch her color changes over the next few months to see what she will end up looking like as an adult.

8 to 9 weeks old ... coming home for the first time

After a couple of months, we have Lucy at home now! We returned from a trip to the US visiting friends and family and them immediately turned around and drove up to the Northern part of France, where she was born. The first meeting was a little interesting, as she seemed terrified. The breeder seemed to indicate this was normal as she hadn't known anyone but them for the first 2 months of her life. We got information on feeding, what vaccinations she had been given, and then off we went for a 7 hour drive home. She was really good on the way home, no car sickness and she slept most of the time. I tried to grab a few pictures while she was sleeping.

For the last week, we have been getting her used to us, playing with her, etc. Sometimes we aren't sure what all of her "noises" mean, but she seems to be fairing okay. It has only been a week, I guess we can't expect her to be doing surgery yet :-) We've gotten a few pictures in the house, and our friend Philippe also came to visit us this week and he took a few pictures as well. Still has one droopy ear, but hopefully it will pop up on its own at some point in time.

11 weeks old

Lucy is now 11 weeks old, and it has been a couple weeks since my last post. While both ears are not fully up, you can see that one is quite upright and the other one is about 1/2 way there. She has been "mostly" doing good on her housebreaking ... sometimes she will sit at the front door when she needs to go outside. A few "accidents" in the apartment, but more good things here than bad things. She had been a bit of a handful around the house but with some advice from a Facebook group for Welsh Corgi's, we have figured out that our initial amount of exercise (recommended by someone) was not enough and therefore, she had too much extra energy. We have moved up her daily walks and she has become much calmer at the house. We have her in training class 1 time per week and tomorrow will be her first "puppy school". We had to get an extra vaccination that wasn't done by the breeder before she could participate, so we are looking forward to seeing how the puppy school goes. Her first individual class was on come, sit, and lay down, and we have been working with her daily on these. She is SUCH a smart puppy ... she knows that after I do the come/sit/lay, Tom does the command next and so she runs over to him even before he gives the command. So now she starts going directly over to Tom even before the command, so we have to change it up a little bit. We also are working gradually on leaving her in her kennel alone ... up to 20 minutes now! She is sleeping through the night about 1/2 of the time ... oh geez ... I sound like a new mother! Actually ... this is a bit funny ... I had asked for some advice on some of the things she was doing in a Facebook group for Corgi's, and someone's response was "well, she is a typical 2-year old child". My response to that was "since we didn't have children, never had younger siblings, and never baby-sat ... can you explain what a 2-year-old child is?"

She also does this "sploot" thing .... If you have never heard of a sploot, don't feel bad, neither had I. My friend, Chris, who is my Corgi expert, had to tell me what it was. A sploot is a type of stretch that is typically associated with corgis. This special stretch is defined as a pet laying on their belly while stretching their legs out behind them. Lucy is an expert already at the sploot!

More next week after her first puppy school experience!

3 months old - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Happy Birthday, Lucy!! Lucy is now 3 months old although we didn't throw a party or give her gifts. She has been growing a bit ... at least, everybody that lives in our building keeps telling us that she is growing ... and she is now up to a little over 5 kgs. She has been going to individual classes with a trainer once a week as well as puppy school. So puppy school is interesting. Each week, a whole set of puppies (of all ages and races) come out to the trainer and are separated into 3 groups by size. The first week, we were in the "small" group, the 2nd week, the "medium" group, and this week, we started in "medium" and moved to "small". Most of the puppies in the medium group are older and larger than Lucy is, and she only really plays with one of them ... a Cavalier King Charles that she met the first week. So then we were moved to the small section with a tiny French bulldog, also 3 months old. It was an interesting experience because while the bulldog was smaller, he was also a bit aggressive and so they were fairly well matched. One of the pictures below shows the two of them playing together.

In the individual classes, we have learned come, sit, lay down, heel, and stay. We also started working on "tu laisse", which means "you leave". You use this when she is doing something that you want her to "leave" and come back to you. We work on these in the house every day although I think she is a little too smart, since she anticipates the command and does it before we say it. For example, we do come, then sit, then lay dow, then give a treat. Now we do come and she comes and directly lays down, skipping the sit part. We have another class on Wednesday and need to clarify a few things on how to train her on the "heel" command since she again is anticipating the treat.

We are setting up play dates with a friend of ours who has 2 dogs, as well as trying to hook into a group of Welsh Corgi owners in Toulouse (via a French Welsh Corgi page) who do random meet-ups. Someone was asking about a meet-up this weekend and so if it is Saturday, we may try to join. Sunday is puppy school again, and Lucy wouldn't handle 2 of them in a single day. I'm not sure how she will handle a play date on Friday, a meet-up on Saturday. AND puppy school on Sunday.

3 1/2 months old, the Corgi Meet-up, and first grooming

It has been a very busy couple of weeks! As we mentioned last time, we were working on several playdates. Lucy went over one day and spent a few hours playing with Opie at our friends David and Annie's house, as well as a longer Corgi Meet-up. This group of Toulouse Corgis have been together before we joined, and a few new people also joined the group recently. A subset of them were able to meet on Saturday afternoon, so we all headed to a suburb of Toulouse. There are quite a few pictures, so I have added a separate Corgis in Toulouse Meet-up blog page.

A few other general pictures of her over the last couple weeks. She still likes to hang out on the bottom shelf of our coffee table. You see lots of pictures with her little blue harness on her as well. We love her little tilted-head look! We have an airline transport crate that is "her place", and she does great with it at meal times (she always eats in the crate and then takes a little nap, and sleeps overnight in it. She also has been very happy to go in and bring a toy out of the crate to play with it. But until this week, she hasn't just gone into the crate on her own and stayed, preferring to hang out in other places in the apartment. This week, she actually went into the crate with a toy and stayed there and played (door open) as well as going in and taking a little nap. Her little head comes out if the stretches her full length, as you can see. I guess we may have to get the next size up soon!

And now, the first grooming (here called toilettage). Talking to one of the ladies in the Corgi Meet-up, we decided it was time to get her nails clipped. I have nightmares about when we clipped our dogs nails as kids, since we were never really good at it. So we decided that we would take her to a professional and go ahead and get a full grooming.

She didn't seem to mind the various straps to keep her standing.

She actually didn't mind the nail clipping at all, although the ear cleaning was a little odd for her (pulled back, but no yelping, whining, or barking).

Back to the little shelf in the bathtub for the shampoo and rinse. She did "okay" here, although a few times she tried to get out of the tub. Overall, probably normal.

At this point, things went downhill. Back to the table after being dried slightly with a towel. They turned on the blow dryer and starting drying all of her fur. It started as a 2-person job, with one holding her head with the towel and the second doing the drying. Eventually, her whining and yelping got SO bad that I was asked to come back and calm her down. With me there, she still didn't like it, but she quieted down immediately and subjected herself to the drying. So now she is all nice and fluffy again and her white paws and very white! Of course ... the very next walk in the park, she decided to do her "roll upside down on really nasty smelly stuff" .... oh well!

4 months old

In fact, Lucy is a little older than 4 months, but only by a week or so! I'll start with a couple pictures from her last "Puppy Recess". Here you can see Lucy meeting a couple of the big puppies in the next area over, along with two little a couple little black puff-balls (Shih Tzus). She is getting more comfortable meeting larger dogs, and always wants to jump on them. Then a couple of pictures of Lucy with Wanda, a black border collie. This session, Wanda was her best friend and the two of them played together for almost the entire time. Mind you, Wanda is a bit faster than Lucy (hence the tongue hanging out on both pictures).

And now, just a 4-month picture of her with her normal quizzical look on her face.

Halloween was not really good this year. We had planned to go to an AIT (Americans in Toulouse) Halloween celebration with munchies and trick-or-treating for the kids. We had bought a container and a sack of candy to give out and since it was in a park, we had fashioned a little costume for Lucy. Nothing fancy mind you ... but with her blue harness on her chest, it made us think of SuperGirl. However, without a sewing machine, the "S" was going to be a bit difficult for me, so instead, we created her a little cape with an "L" for Super Lucy. Unfortunately, it was raining on the Sunday that the event was planned and so they moved it into someone's house. We didn't really think that Lucy would do well in a strange house with lots of kids, unlike a park where we could just walk around with her, so we decided to skip the event.

Sunday also ended up not a good day for another reason. Lucy woke up and wasn't acting normal at all. She didn't want to go out to the bathroom, didn't want to play, and just laid around the house and slept. We know that puppies sleep a lot, but this was not normal. Then we took her out mid-morning and she threw up her breakfast, then came back inside and crawled up in her crate and went back to sleep. Definitely not normal Lucy behavior. We cooked up some white-meat chicken and rice to feed her for lunch and dinner, which is sometimes good if her tummy is upset. The rest of the day was more of the same ... she ate and slept. We took her out every couple hours and she only peed, o poop was coming out at all, even though she was eating. Monday morning, same ... she got up on the couch and slept next to me for several hours, also not normal. By now, we are quite concerned. Our vet was closed and so we took Lucy up to a different vet that was the vet of some very close friends of ours, Annie and David. Annie actually stopped by and made sure the vet could see Lucy that afternoon and David accompanied us since the vet doesn't really speak English (she understands it since I would ask a question in English and she would answer before David translated, although she spoke basically only in French). She checked Lucy out and took her temperature (she had a fever). Then she tested some blood (Lucy now has a little hairless patch on her neck that they shaved to take the sample) and determined she had a bacterial gastro-infection. A shot and a few medicines to give her and off we went. She is going to test a poop sample that we took and see if we need to add any other medicines.

Tuesday morning came around and Lucy got up and ran straight for the water bowl (not normal) and then headed to the front door. She REALLY had to go! Everything that had been bottled up for a couple days is now coming back out (I know, too much information). She seems to be feeling better, a little pep in her step when we took her for a little walk, and she has played with a few toys around the apartment this morning. The weather is horrible here ... I think today is the 5th or 6th straight day of cold and rainy conditions ... so we try to take her out for a short walk any time that it isn't raining. We don't want to get too far away from the apartment in case it starts raining again. I looked at getting her a raincoat but the local stores don't have one that fits well.

5 months old

This week is Lucy's 5 month birthday. She continues to grow ... almost 9 kilos now with an adult weight that should be 11-15 kilos. We can definitely tell that she is growing when we see her laying on the bottom shelf of the coffee table, as she is starting to take up the whole shelf! We also noticed that while she fits okay in her crate, if she really wants to stretch out as she sleeps, her head falls out the door. So we ordered a new crate this week which is a bit larger and will allow her to stretch out. It also is collapsible, so that it is easier to travel with. While her airline crate fits in the car, it takes up most of the space in the back and doesn't give us much room for other things, like luggage. This new one collapses all the way down so that it will be quite a bit easier to pack in the car.

She also has started changing her napping areas. A few weeks ago, she would go into a different room to take a nap during the day while we were home. She has now started sleeping more in the living room with us, either on the rug, under the desk, or on her coffee-table-shelf. She has also started asking to come up on the couch more often with us. We don't let her jump up or down by herself, but if she puts her front paws up, we will put her butt up to the couch. Here we caught her napping with the silk comforter.

And then a couple of her, with those big ears. We were looking back at the first week pictures and reminding ourselves of Lucy with her floppy-ear!

Videos from two different puppy recess Sundays. The first ones show her with Wanda, a border collie, that she has been playing with for a couple weeks. They played together the whole time, even when a few other puppies were added to the group.

Then they moved us over to the "medium" sized area, although it is probably more like the no-longer-puppies area. Here she is with a Cavalier King Charles ... Lucy trying really hard to play but the other dog is a bit older and not quite in the "play with me I'm a puppy" phase.

This is a wire-haired dachshund who basically barks a lot and retrieves a tennis ball when it is thrown. In general, he also has no interest in playing with the other dogs, especially puppies.

Fast forward a week and many of the puppies that are normally there for recess were not. Initially, Lucy was all alone as the 3 other puppies that came were just too big for her to play with. I guess I couldn't blame the parents for not coming ... it was cold and had been raining for multiple days. But we were supposed to go out for another Corgi Meetup but medical issues at the house of the hostess cancelled that, so we decided to brave the cold and head to the puppy recess. Finally, a Malinois showed up. He was there the week before as well, but Lucy was so focused on playing with Wanda that Pups (the Malinois) was totally ignored. This week, it was Lucy and Pups going at it.

At 3 months old, the Malinois weighed about the same as Lucy at 5 months but it won't be much longer that the two of them will be able to play together, as Pups the Malinois will eventually get to 29–34 kilos whereas Lucy should only get to 10–13 kilos as a top weight.

This week, we also did another group course on Saturday night (in the cold and wind). Lucy did okay this time as while there were other dogs there, each dog got to work within its own little area. We did a few different commands, set to music (although we couldn't really hear the music from where we were). Heel, sit, lay down, sit back up. Then also working on having the dog circle around your legs, and then go in between your legs as you walk. Lucy did better than I did on this one, as we have a long leash and it kept getting wrapped around my ankles! Then we also worked on basically shaking hands, having her lift up a paw for you. She was able to get that one fairly well although we had never worked on that one before. We'll have to try it at home to see if it stuck or if it was a 1-night thing :-)

6 months old ** Happy 6 moiniversaire! **

Our little bundle of joy is now 6 months old! She has grown quite a bit which we see clearly when we pictures like these, where Lucy is "attacking" Tom's ears and licking his face, and compare to the earlier pictures with Tom holding her. She is about 10 kilos now, so 22 pounds or so. Based on the weight graphs, she would be on the upper end of the weights of Pembroke Corgi females. It will be interesting to see her up against the adult Corgi's at our next Toulouse Corgi Meet-up.

A very good friend of ours, Brigitte, gave her a little gift for her moiniversaire/Christmas, and Lucy took right to it! Normally, she barks at a new toy a couple of times and then starts playing with it, but this time, no barking at all!

In the last few days, we have taken Lucy out for a few nice walks (without the leash) and one day, she got to play with a very nice black lab puppy.

Then we also got a two videos of her playing at the puppy recess. The first is with a puppy that she has played with multiple times (you have have seen other videos with her) .. Wanda. Mind you ... when we first met Wanda, she was a bit skinny and now she has filled out quite nicely! She is getting to the point that Lucy can't really play well with her as she is too large and too fast. The second video is with Potter (like Harry Potter) ... Potter is about the same overall size although Lucy weighs more (stockier), but Potter is definitely faster!

A couple portraits for her 6th moiniversaire, and her napping with Mr Cow.

The last walk in this field, we got a nice video that show her imitating both a bunny (doing a little "bunny hop" that she likes to do in grass and ivy vines that are a bit tall for her) and a cow (eating the grass). Then another that is just a large vine patch in the park behind our apartment.

And they recently "opened" a bunch of changes at the Basilica Saint Sernin, including changing a parking lot into a lovely open plaza with a fountain, and cleaning up around the back-side of the church and having lots of open grass and trees.

Christmas 2019

Christmas morning, and Lucy had a couple gifts under the tree. We started by having her open them herself, but she was more interested in eating the paper than opening, so we helped. In addition to some treats, she got 2 toys: a squeaky crocodile with a Santa hat, and a plush elephant with a pink plastic mesh around her torso.

Then a tired puppy hanging out on the couch after a long day!

The weekend after Christmas, Lucy got to go to puppy group school as well as the puppy recess on Sunday morning. Although one of her best buddies (Wanda) was not there, she had a nice time playing with Potter (like Harry Potter). Potter is much faster but Lucy has her "herding" instincts turned on, and as they would run around, Lucy would cut the corner to catch up faster. In the first video, it doesn't look like much at the start but you can kinda see her crouching down and "stalking" Potter before they take off running.

This one is getting towards the end, and you can see her herding Potter with her tongue hanging out!

We have been lucky and found a new place for Lucy to walk, which is about a 20 minute drive away from home. It is a large green area called the "Base de Sports et de Loisirs des Argoulets". It is a huge area that sits up against the highway between two exits and includes tennis courts, rugby fields, a skatepark, and lots of green spaces. While in the majority of the areas, dogs must be kept on leashes, there is a huge open field where, for the most part, all the dogs go off leash. Lucy got to run through the field and met up with 4 other puppies (one smaller, 2 larger). Thanks to Wanda (the border collie) and her family for giving us the information on this space.

7 months old

Just past Lucy's 7 month birthday and we grabbed a few pictures and videos. The first few pictures are with Tom in Place du Capitole, with city hall (Hotel de Ville) in the background. The building is not that visible in the first picture since it was actually a nice, sunny day and to be able to see Tom clearly, the building ended up being very light. The 2nd is with Lucy on one part of the Occitanie medallions on the ground, and then in the last one, the building is more visible but Tom & Lucy are a little darker.

Another one on the floor of the apartment with that lovely quizzical look that she gives us.

These three videos come from the latest Puppy Recess, when puppies get together and play for an hour. They separate the puppies by size, and now we are normally in with the "medium-sized" puppies. This first one is Lucy and Potter (think Harry Potter), that is a mix between a miniature pinscher and a Jack Russell.

In this second one, you can see Lucy and Potter, but also a little French Bulldog (Platon). You may remember seeing Lucy playing with Platon in earlier videos, as they had played together when they were younger. We hadn't seen Platon for awhile and so we were quite happy to meet up with him again.

And this last one shows a bunch of puppies .... Lucy, Platon, Potter, Oscar, and Neenou (I doubt this is the right spelling) ...

8 months old

Hard to believe that Lucy is 8 months old and she has been part of our family now for 6 months! She is now pretty much (we think) fully grown based on her size and weight, along with the fact that our puppy food has her total amount per day of food going down this month (so I guess she no longer needs the extra food/nutrients to grow).

These first couple pictures were grabbed on various days, as she was napping in various different places around the apartment. Sometimes we look at her and think "that CAN'T be comfortable"!

Then, we have a few that are just Lucy around the house in different poses ... although I have to admit it takes a long time to get a good picture .... she just doesn't like to be a model

While not a large Corgi Meet-up, we met up with someone in our Toulouse Corgi group at the canal and walked up to a new open field that dogs can run in. She has 3 Corgis, and then another of her friends also joined in the fun with a French Bulldog. The last time we met up, Lucy was so much smaller than the others (who are all adults), and this time, they were all about the same size. You can pick out Lucy as she has the yellow harness.

Some people may have already seen this, but here I will give a little background. You may be the "M" on the upper part, these came from McDonalds. There is a special promotion right now the Toulouse Football Club (professional soccer here) where if you buy the right Meal at McDonalds (there is a list), you can add a kids soccer ball for 2 euros. There are 3 colors available, but purple is the main color of the club. So I went and got a BigMac meal the other day so that I could get her a ball. She took right to the ball, but instead of chasing it, or pushing it around with her feet/nose, she decided to eat it. It has a thin vinyl covering and she quickly dismantled that! Well ... no more ball for her!

These are outside in the large park behind us. There are a few sections that she really likes, so we grabbed a couple pictures to show them. This first one is on a hill with a dirt path between little areas of vines. She loves to run up and down this path, stopping at the top to look at us (the second video below shows this). This time, she stopped at the bottom also to dig a little bit at some roots. You can see how dirty her little paws got!

Then this area with a bunch of tall wispy grasses, where she decided to actually do some really nice poses!!

Another video at her puppy school, playing with Potter (like Harry Potter). It always looks like they hate each other and are biting, but it is just puppy play and they are great friends. Lucy is going to miss puppy school for the next few weeks. This weekend we are going to take her to a puppy-friendly beach on the Mediterranean (her first experience at a beach) and then she is scheduled to have her sterilization surgery and will have a couple weeks of recovery. It will be interesting to see how they react when she gets back to puppy school after this long break.

South beach trip

Happy Leap Day! Lucy was scheduled to have surgery (sterilization) on Wednesday and so we decided to take 3 days and go to the beach before her surgery. We wanted to let Lucy experience the beach, especially since we see photos and videos of other Corgi's that seem to love the beach. There is a nice page that lists the Pet-friendly beaches in France by department. All of our beaches were in Langeudoc-Roussillon. First day, we stopped at Mouret Beach in Leucate which is one of the 3 beaches listed there. The second day, we went to Argelès-sur-Mer to the Racou beach, but it was really not very good, and we didn't bother taking any pictures. It seems that they haven't recovered yet from Tempète Gloria, that hit the area in January. The last day, we headed back to Mouret Beach again, since it was a "known quantity". Needless to say, Lucy truly enjoyed her time on the beach!

Surgery (spay/sterilization)

We had already decided before we got Lucy that we would have her spayed when the right time came, as we really didn't want to have to take the risk of her getting pregnant. While there are risks with the surgery, most vets say that the benefits outweigh the risks. The timing was a little interesting as well. Some vets recommend before the first heat cycle, while others recommend after the first heat cycle. Most corgis come into their first heat between 7 and 10 months, and we had already passed the 7 and 8 month timeframes. We also have a trip back to the US (without Lucy) coming up and if she didn't come into heat or have surgery before that, it becomes a bit more difficult with the people who will take care of her. So we went ahead and scheduled the surgery for the end of February.

We bought two different things for her: an inflatable "cone of shame" collar and also a post-surgery onesie. We took both with us to the vet and she recommended using the onesie. She said the inflatable collar isn't bad but that it may not be ideal when she tried to sleep. The onesie kept the area covered and didn't allow for licking or biting in the area. She could still scratch but the fabric would give some amount of protection, which the collar actually wouldn't have. We then quickly bought a second one so that we could change it if it got wet or dirty. It didn't seem to bother her at all and it was easy for her to sleep with it on, which she did a LOT of during the first few days.

Tom said that the onesie reminded him of an old-time bathing suit, which I somewhat agree with. She just looks SOOO adorable in it!

She had a large bandage stuck over the stitches for the first week, and then that was removed. It was a very painful ordeal for Lucy, it seemed. The bandage was stuck pretty well and as it got pulled off, Lucy cried quite a bit. You can see the red area, which is her very irritated skin, and the stitches. The vet gave us a cream to put on the irritation, which helped. We asked about the grey area and the vet told us that it was something to help with the cut area close and lessens the scarring.

We kept the onsie on her for the second week, and she became much more playful than the first week. We still tried to limit her running and jumping but started taking her to the park and letting her run a bit inside the apartment.

Two weeks after the surgery, we were back at the vet to have the stitches removed. All is well and the vet gave her the green-light to go back to normal activities, which started when we got home with a nap in one of her favorite positions! You can see how the redness has gone away and even the grey area is limited.

10 months old

WOW, hard to believe that Lucy is now 10 months old, and she has been part of our family for 8 months! This past month has been a little boring, really, as we are in a lock-down here in France. If you are coming directly to our Lucy Blog, you may have missed our Coronavirus Lockdown 2020 blog, which talks about our life under lockdown. We also have figured out that Lucy is not much of a model, and so many of our pictures tend to be when she is sleeping. Like this first one, where Lucy decided to take a nap on my lap with a kitchen towel underneath. This is a very odd photo due to the fact that Lucy doesn't tend to lay on my lap much.

There really isn't that much grass around for Lucy to run around in, as the public parks are closed and we aren't really allowed to take her by car out to the countryside to the open areas there. Near our apartment, there is a small grass area on the back side of a government building, and she likes playing in that little area. One of the things she likes to do is chase (and destroy) the seed pods of the Southern Magnolia trees that are there. She will go chase it when we throw the pod, and then will sit and destroy it by pulling out each of the little "leaves".

I guess it is a Corgi-thing, but Lucy likes to sleep on her back with her feet up in the air. IN this case, she is in her day-time crate with the door open, up against one side. We put her in there when we leave the apartment (she doesn't get run-of-the-house when we are not there), and then unzip the door when we get back. Sometimes, she is still snoozing and stays in there for awhile.

Early-on, we bought 3 squeaky-toys that are round balls: a pink pig, a yellow chicken, and a white cow. She played with them when we first got them, but has ignored them for the past couple months. Just recently, she has started playing with them again, although she has managed to un-squeak them. One of her favorite games is to bring it up on the couch and play with it right on the edge. She will drop it on the floor and when whine until we come over and pick it up for her. Another minute of playing, and she drops it again. She does the same kind of thing with balls and toys under the couch and under the TV table. It is almost like she consciously puts the toy under something or drops it so that we have to come over and retrieve it for her.

There are several Facebook groups with Corgi's that I have joined (one in the US/English, and the other in France/French). One of the things that is talked about in these groups is how destructive their Corgis are ... I see pictures of books that have been destroyed, toilet paper pieces all through the house, their puppy beds in shreds, and clothes with puppy-chew-holes. Lucy tends to destroy her toys, but almost only her toys. She has done a little damage to the rugs in the bathroom, but she has NEVER chewed on the furniture, NEVER touched clothes, couldn't care less about books that are within her reach, shoes within her reach, or the toilet paper rolls. Her toys ... she seems to clearly believe that her toys are just that ... HER toys, and she can do with them what she wants. Case in point ... a brand new Kong Wubba Comet, what it looks like new on the left, and what it looks like now, after only a couple weeks. She finds the weak link ... in this case the fabric loop at the base on the balls, and once she works that loose, the rest of the toy starts coming apart.

We had just started getting Lucy used to eating lunch and dinner with us, at a few restaurants nearby. One of her favorite places is called Classic Cafe, which is just a couple blocks away. Sometimes we will take her there for breakfast or just coffee on our way to-or-from the market ... sometime at the end of an afternoon walk for a couple glasses of wine ... or at night for dinner. We don't take her there for lunch as it is very, very busy at lunch and it is difficult for Lucy to relax with that many people at this point in time. And the owners there are wonderful with Lucy (they are dog owners themselves) and will come over and pet Lucy every time we go there with her. However, with the lockdown, restaurants are closed. But Lucy still remembers that she likes going here and will take a left-turn and head straight to the front door when we cross the road that runs in front of it.

A few generic pictures of her. Her fur is definitely coming in a bit more around the neck and chest, and just recently we have started to see what may be her first Spring-shedding.

Here is me holding her, and she is now pretty much fully grown.

11 months old

We've started going over to the small grassy area by the Basilica Saint Sernin a little more often, which we started going to during the lockdown. Sometimes we are lucky enough to meet up with others. Here we see a cocker spaniel as well as a black lab. She had a nice time with the lab, who chased her around the petanque area.

One of her favorite games is to have something in her mouth and then also play with a 2nd ball. Sometimes, like shown here, she jumps up and down asking us to throw the 2nd ball to her. The picture is a little blurry but you can get the idea ... she has a toy in her mouth and she is jumping around the ball as it goes by.

Lucy getting some relax-time on one of the chairs on the balcony.

This we thought was funny ... so she has this little beaver toy .... she likes to pull out individual strings on the face. She doesn't squeak it or play in any other way ... her view is to find a "weak link" to try to tear it apart piece by piece.

Then a few random pictures ...

Okay mom and dad ... I'm ready for my walk .... what is taking you SOOO long???

Another friend ... this time a beagle.

She seems to like her cooling mat!

1 year old

And just like that, our baby is a year old! The last few months has been interesting for her. First the lock-down and then we got back to meeting up with lots of other dogs. She still has "puppy recess" on Sunday mornings, but we alternate weeks between puppy recess and a walk with her friends Wanda (a black border collie that you may remember from her first few blogs posts on puppy recess) and Nouka (an Australian Shepherd or Aussie). Then we met up with someone during the lockdown who added us to a WhatsApp group of dog owners who meet twice a day (morning and evening) in a large park on the other side of town. We started trying to take Lucy there on Wednesday mornings and once on a Saturday morning. We have to drive over and park, so we try to avoid the early evening one. We've also met up with several other new puppies that Lucy has been able to play with in a little grassy area next to Basilica Saint Sernin. I'll give a little commentary in front of pictures, but they tend to be most Lucy, or Lucy playing with friends.

Lucy is all grown up with big perky ears. Hard to believe that when we got her, one of her little ears drooped and we were worried about if it would come up or not.

This is her friend, Fox, who we met at the Prairie de Filtres. He is a Pompsky, which is a mix between a Pomeranian and Siberian Husky. Lucy was initially a little afraid of Fox but they quickly became great play-buddies.

Also at the Prairie de Filtres, this is Lucy playing with a French Bulldog named Perle (Pearl). What is nice about both Perle and Fox is that they tend to play at the same level at Lucy ... a little bit aggressive but never hurting the other one.

And here we have Fox, Lucy, and Perle all together. Again, they seem to be all about the same size and like to play in the same way, so it works out well.

Fox and his parents were going on vacation for the summer and we agreed to meet them early on the morning of their train ride up to Brittany. They wanted Fox to get lots of running before the train so that he would sleep (which, in fact, worked well based on the pictures we got from them). They were also joined by a large Labrador (we think) who played really well with Lucy despite the size difference. We love the 2nd picture, which looks like Lucy is on the attack! But really, it was all great fun!

Lucy also goes to a group class on Saturday evenings. Since there aren't many dogs there right now, the dogs play get to play together for part of the time, and then we do obedience exercises. Here is Lucy with Pongo, a border collie-golden lab mix. They also had a great time playing together ... at least until a couple dogs walked by on the path next to the fence and both dogs perked up to check out who was going by.

One of her favorite play buddies at puppy recess a Jack Russell mix named Potter. There is also a Cavalier King Charles who seems to want to be romantically involved! Here you can see Lucy and Potter playing after Potter's dad stops the King Charles from "stalking" Lucy.

This morning at puppy recess, there were a lot of new dogs. While there were a few that we knew, the majority of the dogs were new, and mostly younger puppies. Lucy seemed to be the largest and oldest of the group for a change! Her buddy Potter was not there this morning but she found a new friend, a Whippet named Ruby. It was sunny and a little warm, so they found some shade to play in. The Whippet was only 2 1/2 months old and much thinner than Lucy but liked to run and play.

After a long playdate, she just relaxes and sleeps. We bought a blue cooling mat for her so that she has somewhere cold to lay during the summer months.

13 months old

I am a little behind getting the 13 month blog for Lucy up, but we have a few really interesting pictures and videos. We continue to take her to "Puppy Recess" on Sunday mornings, where she can play with dogs/puppies that are around her same size. Her favorite play-buddy at recess is Potter, a brown jack russell/pinscher mix (I think that is the mix), who basically is a little Energizer bunny. Lucy, for her part, plays for awhile and then goes over and rests somewhere for a bit, and then heads back out to play more.

As the temperatures got warmer, Lucy starting playing a bit differently. She tends to stay a good bit of the time underneath one of the agility training apparatuses, where there is shade. So here you can see her and Potter, with her basically conserving energy and staying cool ... playing on the ground in the shade.

I caught Lucy with one of her rope toys .... her face is like "what??".

These may be duplicates if you also read my other blogs. We did a trip to Italy and Italy tends to be more puppy-friendly than France! Lucy had a great time being able to go into Churches and roll around on the floors. These are just a few pics from Lucy's first trip to Italy.

She also got to have a play-date with her friend Opie, who lives up in the suburbs with our friends David and Annie. You would think that they would have a problem playing together, as Opie is SO much bigger than Lucy, but they have a great time when we go up to visit them. A little side-note for this trip ...Lucy got into Opie's food bowl and ate WAY too much ... we didn't realize how much until we got her home and she looked a bit lumpy around the middle. We weighed her and she had gained A KILO (2.2 lbs) in the afternoon! Needless to say, she was uncomfortable for about 24 hours until it all made its way through and out.

14 months old & 1 year "gotcha" anniversary

This is both Lucy's 14th month birthday and the 1-year anniversary of the day she came home to us. She has changed quite a bit ... we tried to get a couple then-and-now pictures. The first is her sitting on the rug and the second is laying down. You can actually see the same little giraffe toy in the "now" sitting picture and the "then" laying picture.

It is interesting going back to look at pictures and remember the day we picked her up from the Northern part of France and drove her back down to Toulouse .... trying to housebreak her while in an apartment with no yard .... crate training and getting her so that she really likes her crates that we have for her now. All of her puppy training and socialization ... making play-dates with various puppy friends of hers .... remembering how she has changed from that first day, and how, in some ways, she has stayed the same. For awhile, she slept on the shelf of our coffee table, now she never does. Then she would sleep on the tile floors in the bathroom or storage room, now she never does. How she likes to sit on the balcony and just watch what is going on in the park ... and how she likes when we drive on small roads where the speed limit is 50 k/hour so that she can keep her head out the window.

This next one is a little funny ... We recently got her an ID tag for the Republique Francaise .. it is meant to mimic a French identity card. You put her name, address, phone and other information on it, and you can add a picture and a few little *cute* things (like the I'm a spoiled little girl! statement. It comes from a company called TagsForHope and they have all kinds of design options (I think almost every state drivers license in the US, for example). They currently don't ship to France, so we sent it to mom's house in the US, planning to pick it up in April when we were home visiting. The trip got canceled and so it got forwarded to us.

Now back to puppy recess again. For the past few weeks, there has been a new little beagle puppy named Romie (not sure the exact spelling, in fact). One of the first weeks, most of Lucy's normal play puppies were absent and so she played with Romie most of the time. Mind you ... Romie was the size of a small guinea pig the first week, but Lucy played really nice and gentle with her. Then the next week, Potter was back as well as Romie. Potter seemed to want to play a bit too aggressively with Romie and Lucy had to defend Romie! She would get in between Potter and Romie. You'll see Romie on her back most of the time ... right now, she runs around chasing Lucy and then when Lucy stops to play, Romie lays down on her back.

Romie is really hilarious .... she really wants to play and wants to get right in the middle of things!

Second Corgi Meetup

Normally I put all of the pictures and text directly here, but sometimes there are just too many! In those cases, including this one, I just link to a separate page with all of the pictures/videos. The little Toulouse Corgi Meet-up group had another meet-up in August, a couple weeks before "rentrée" (end of the summer holidays). There were many new people there, and the corgis from last meet-up were not able to make it. This one was also held at a different location than the last one. So, without any further delay ... my Second Corgis in Toulouse Meet-up blog page.

Stay tuned for an update where Lucy was able to meet up with her brother, Pogo, for the first time in over a year, since she was adopted and moved to Toulouse. Pogo lives in Nantes, in Northern France, but they are in Toulouse for several months for some training (Pogo's mom, not Pogo!).

 

 

15 months old

I decided to also put this update out into its' own page, since it has several videos and I think that the page is starting to load a bit slowly with all of the pictures and videos on it. Lots of pictures and videos of Lucy playing on my 15-month old Lucy page.

16 and 17 months old

Another update although I skipped the update last month so this month, I'll have pictures from both 16 months old and 17 months old. As you can imagine, there isn't as much change now that she is getting a little older. We've been in our 2nd lockdown for a month now, so 16 month pictures/video are before the lockdown and so we were actually traveling a bit. The 17 month pictures are during the lockdown and so it is really playing in the park behind our apartment with various dogs that we meet up with there. The pictures and videos of Lucy playing on my 16-month old and 17-month old Lucy page.

18 months old

Wow .. hard to believe that our little baby is now a year and a half old! She truly does fits her name, "Princess" Lucy. She is quite the spoiled little girl, which I suspect is quite normal for an only child. Lockdown number 2 is now over and we are able to travel and meet up with others. This second lockdown was less strict and the park was open, so we have had plenty of opportunities for her to play with her friends in the park. The pictures and videos of Lucy playing on my 18-month old Lucy page.

19 months old

There is talk of another lock-down in France, so it has been good that we have been able to get Lucy out for a few playdates as well as puppy recess and an agility course. The rumors are that we will go into a 3rd lockdown in France next week, so we are going to try to get Lucy into another agility course on Wednesday in case the rumors are true. We assume that the school will be closed again if there is a lockdown and are just hoping that the parks stay open and we have a 3km radius around our home. That means that we can go visit and play with her buddy Elmo and hopefully meet up with others in the park. The pictures and videos of Lucy playing on my 19-month old Lucy page.

20 months old

We were a bit lucky in that the government did NOT do another lock-down in France and only continued the curfew (6pm - 6am). We continued this month to get Lucy out for a few playdates as well as puppy recess and her agility course. The pictures and videos of Lucy playing on my 20-month old Lucy page.

21 months old

We continued this month to get Lucy out for a few playdates as well as puppy recess and her agility course. The pictures and videos of Lucy playing on my 21-month old Lucy page.

July 2021

I have been really bad at making individual blog updates for her for the last couple months, but I had a good selection of things now, so I thought it was a good time for another update. You may see I've moved to dates vs months from birth since she isn't changing that much and many of the things that she does is getting to be in a more normal schedule. She did get to do a few different things this month ... CaniMarch (I'll explain in the blog) and some swimming. Here it is ... Lucy's July 2021 blog page.