Tag Archives: Schnoodle

Herein Lies Schnoodle

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We have had Schnoodle for a long time, since we bought our house ~10years ago.  Schnoodle moved with Cassie from Nunn at my request.  She was such a cool dog and we had a good link from the first time we met.  In fact she wouldn’t ever let me stop petting her and always wanted more attention.  I knew she would be a good dog, and she always was.

She made friends wherever she went, and with whomever had food..lol.


Schnoodle and her friend Nikki at Christmas time

She always just fit in with us.  She could camouflage herself  like a pile of black clothes when needed and didn’t hardly ever complain about anything.  She was happy to be with us and was easily trainable by those with hot dogs.


Schnoodle in the Snow

We always tried to treat her like one of the family.  When she was younger we would take her with us everywhere.   To the store, to friends houses and she would even dress up for Halloween! We thought (and still think) she was the coolest dog ever.

Schnoodle and Cassie as Rabbits

She was already pretty old when she moved in with us and she lived a long life.  We think she was born sometime around 1997.  Cassie’s family got her as a pound puppy so some of her history is unknown.   It’s possible that she was saved from certain doom by Charlotte and the Davis family.   Justin wanted a chiwawa but got a Schnoodle instead, which I am extremely grateful about!

Over the years she started to slip further and further from us.  She used to sleep with us on the bed at our feet.  Then she started to not be able to jump up on the bed.  So she started to sleep on a pillow on the floor.  She liked that quite a bit as she was always looking for the softest places to sleep.  Eventually she moved out to the living room and slept on an old leather couch we had.  Then when she lost her eyesight and hearing she was sleeping in the kitchen right next to her food and water.   It was in these later years that she passed away after wanting to be let outside just as she had normally done.  I didn’t think there was anything unusual but went out to check on her and found that she had passed away peacefully.


Schnoodle’s Grave Marker

I learned a lot from Schnoodle about living and old age.  Even in her old age without being able to see or hear, she seemed pretty content to still be hanging out enjoying her routine of food, sleep and going outside.  I also am reminded that life, no matter how long, is too short.

She will be missed and unfortunately for other dogs will be always used as a comparison to all dogs.  I am sure we will always say things like, “Well Schnoodle wouldn’t have ever done that, she was patient”.  You will be missed Schnood and I hope you are just continuing on your journey.

Update On Me: I have my memory back and am just in a stage where I am going to try to figure out what is wrong and how to best treat it.  I have some time off work so that we can focus on it which is nice.  This is a big event for Cassie and I and I appreciate hearing from my friends and family.  It is a reminder that I’ve had a really good life and I don’t see that changing.  Just another step, another lesson and another thing to experience on my own journey.

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Schnoodle Takes a Digger

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Lately Schnoodle has been waking up at around 1-3am and wanting to be let out.  She barks until someone wakes up.   Her vision is deteriorating, her hearing is gone and it makes it really hard to communicate with her.  Her sense of touch works, and her nose still works pretty well.   Overall she still seems pretty happy to be around and spends most of her day asleep.


Schnoodle near the window well outside

Last night it was my turn to let her out.  I imagine taking care of old Schnoodle is sort of like caring for a newborn baby. So I let her out and she ran around in the fresh snow in the backyard.  I wait until she barks to be let back in and in a few minutes she did bark.  She wasn’t at the back door though.  She was about 10 feet off and standing near the window well.  I could sense what was about to happen.  She thought that the edge of the window well was the back step.

I put my slippers on and started to go outside to stop her.  Sadly there was no way I could have gotten to her in time.  She fell straight down into the window well.

She hit with a thud and then let out a yelp.  I ran inside and downstairs as quickly as I could.  I wasn’t sure how bad a 3-4 foot fall would be on our poor old Schnoodle!  I called for Cassie and opened the window in the basement. She had already gotten up so I figured she wasn’t too bad off.  I got a towel and wrapped her up and took her inside.

When I saw her fall head first and heard that thump, I really though that was the end of poor ol Schnood.  Amazingly, though she is doing just fine today like nothing ever happened.

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Schnoodle Gets a Shave

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Poor Schnoodle. She is so old and shaggy. My mom got Schnood from the shelter in 1998 where she was called Nicky (since then she’s had many a name). She was a full grown dog, albeit a fairly young dog. So even if she were only a year old when she came into our family, she would now be 13-14! That’s pretty old in dog years. I’m not sure of the current conversion rate, but somewhere between 70 and 98 dog years old.


Britton with Schnoodle-Doo in the kitchen

Schnooter Mcgavin has lost most of her teeth, she’s partially blind and mostly deaf. She also has some sort of tumor growing under her arm. But she’s still a happy dog. She sleeps all day long. Looks forward to her food and loves her walks. So, quality of life, I’d say is pretty good for old Noodle.

But one thing she hates is hair cuts. We think maybe our foreign exchange student, Kosei, from a few years ago traumatized Doody when we left him alone with her to bathe and shave. Ever since then she hates scissors. Nickerdoodle hates even being in the same vicinity as scissors. She runs away and turns her head a lot anytime she sees the choppers coming by. Which makes it practically impossible to cut the hair on her head! (Don’t believe me? Try trimming someone’s hair as they wiggle around every time the scissors come remotely close. Seriously, running with scissors is probably safer!)

Schnicker’s not like most dogs who shed, which is a good thing, but also means that her hair just keeps growing, and growing…and growing. Until she looks like a big rastafarian with a mess of matted hair and crusty eyes. So, we finally gave old Doodle a shave. We sat in the greenhouse where it was all warm and the air was still. The chickens were a little mad that we were in their space, and Kitty was very interested in us. Strudlemeister wasn’t happy about it, but she let us cut her after a lot of work. But in the end after a huge pile of hair, she now looks and feels so much better. Schnooters was running around like a happy little puppy with all that hair off.


Still a little shaggy for Snoodles, but mucho mejor!

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It’s Fffrrreezing! Arctic Cold Weather in Greeley, Colorado

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It is about 8am and it is negative 15 degrees Fahrenheit (negative 26 Celsius)! That is arctic Colorado weather! Kitty usually sleeps outside, but we took him in to sleep in the laundry room last night because it was so cold. The people on the news kept saying to take pets in, that it is so cold it will freeze human skin within a few minutes, so we were pretty worried about the chickens.

negative-15-degrees in Greeley

I boiled some water this morning and took it out to them and they were just fine. They were not moving much to conserve energy and the black one had frost on her feathers. I think the leghorn has frostbite on her comb, but they were happy when they heard the ice crack as I poured the hot water into their dish. The high today is only supposed to reach about 10 degrees, so the water will freeze again soon!

pine-tree

When I was bringing water to the chickens, Schnoodle ran out with me to go to bathroom (our yard that is). As I was walking back to the house, she just stood there on three legs. I thought maybe she was standing awkwardly as she peed, but she wouldn’t move. I had to coax her back in, but she was slow and looked  like she was in super pain. I think she might have arthritis in one of her back legs, and they say arthritis is more painful when it’s cold (low pressure). 

icy tree in Greeley

As I was coming to work, my car started slowly and the road conditions weren’t too bad until I tried to get up onto “O” Street from 25th Ave. My car slid around and let out a bunch of steam/smoke as I gunned it up there. As I walked from my car into the building, the contents of my nose froze as well as my hair that was still slightly damp from showering. All of this is to describe that it is frickin’ cold!!! Puerto Rico, you are looking especially lovely today! 🙂

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