Meet Rowdy Well, well, well, my house seems to be getting smaller these days. I've added a 2nd dog into the home, Rowdy. He's actually my sis' dog, a border collie, but he doesn't like the the condo life he's been having to live the past year.
Border collies are a working dog breed and when G. was in her house he had access to the backyard all of the time. Now he doesn't and she would take him out before and after work for him to take care of his "business" but that was it. Only about 10 min. a pop. I knew that that was no wheres near the time he needed to be walked and did try to tell her but she just ignored me most of the time, as usual!
Border collies are a working dog breed and when G. was in her house he had access to the backyard all of the time. Now he doesn't and she would take him out before and after work for him to take care of his "business" but that was it. Only about 10 min. a pop. I knew that that was no wheres near the time he needed to be walked and did try to tell her but she just ignored me most of the time, as usual!
This was Cray-ray when I first got him at 2 months Hmmm, as of late he began to tell her so himself. Since he couldn't tell her in words, (I know, DUH!) he started to show her. Yup! You guessed it. He began peeing in the condo. This was driving her nuts. She was stressed out about it and the place really began to reek. New rugs by the way. G. was not happy. Again, I tried to tell her he was bored and needed more exercise but no response. And no change in his behavior no matter what she did.
She was really getting upset, understandably so, so I offered to take him in. We gave it a trial run for a few days and SURPRISE!, no peeing, nothing bad at all. She decided to take him to the vet to get checked out, urine & blood work to rule out any physical issues but, no news to me, he checked out fine. She finally had to admit he was bored. she decided to keep him that night, last Thurs., and uh-oh, not only did he pee but he also pooped in the condo. I got a call from her the next morning while I was walking Putney that she was on her way over to bring him back.
She's worried that now she's gonna be totally alone. This is new for her. It's gonna be a tough transition for her but of course I said she could come over any time she wanted.
Animals can be a wonderful stress reliever, but in cases like this, they can cause more stress than relieve. I'll probably go over to visit her a little more than usual to keep her company for a time but thats what family does, right?
Luckily, all 3 of the "boys" get along fairly well. Rowdy charges at the kitten in play alot, the kitten runs around like crazy and Putney looks at them both like, "What the hell are you doin'?"
Actually, I think the kitten may well be a full grown cat now. We got him in early October of last year and he was 2 months old, It's now August so doing the math, he's a year old now.
She was really getting upset, understandably so, so I offered to take him in. We gave it a trial run for a few days and SURPRISE!, no peeing, nothing bad at all. She decided to take him to the vet to get checked out, urine & blood work to rule out any physical issues but, no news to me, he checked out fine. She finally had to admit he was bored. she decided to keep him that night, last Thurs., and uh-oh, not only did he pee but he also pooped in the condo. I got a call from her the next morning while I was walking Putney that she was on her way over to bring him back.
She's worried that now she's gonna be totally alone. This is new for her. It's gonna be a tough transition for her but of course I said she could come over any time she wanted.
Animals can be a wonderful stress reliever, but in cases like this, they can cause more stress than relieve. I'll probably go over to visit her a little more than usual to keep her company for a time but thats what family does, right?
Luckily, all 3 of the "boys" get along fairly well. Rowdy charges at the kitten in play alot, the kitten runs around like crazy and Putney looks at them both like, "What the hell are you doin'?"
Actually, I think the kitten may well be a full grown cat now. We got him in early October of last year and he was 2 months old, It's now August so doing the math, he's a year old now.
Cray-ray at 1 year This is Cray-ray now. He's still nuts and has become quite the little hunter. Yuck, lizards and birds. I'll leave it at that. He gets so mad at me when I take his "toys" away and try to save them.
Any ways, doing the right thing for the animal rather than ourselves isn't always easy and I commend my sis for letting Rowdy go even though it hurt her to do so. He's pretty happy here. We just came back from a long walk and both dogs are out cold. We walk most every day. Occasionally, I wake up late and we have to miss 1 but thats rare.
On a whole other note, I woke up Thursday morning with pink eye. Oh, just great. The left side of my left eyeball is completely red. It looks horrible. The good news is that it doesn't hurt, just looks ghoulish. I looked it up on the internet and found that I could've scratched it a little or something like dust or a fallen eyelash can cause this to happen. "They" say that if it's only 1 eye, it doesn't hurt one should not be alarmed, so I'm not. That is until someone looks at me and screams out "Whats wrong with your eye?" which I heard quite a bit at work from my colleagues.
Of course my best bud D. took it to the extreme, worrying, I guess rightly so, that it was my blood pressure. I do have a mild high blood pressure issue but I kept telling her that that was more than likely, not the problem. But, in fairness to D., it could've been a huge issue.
It really looked gross when I looked to the right with my eyes. Kinda fun to freak my friends out.
Well, I'm happy to report that this morning though not gone, it is considerably better with some white showing on the left side of the white of my left eye. Whew! Got that? It was a mouthful to put together.
As for my workouts, I had to change up the exercises. I kept adding weight and not really feeling any results and I don't want to bulk up just regain my strength & stamina. Besides, it was time for a change. I didn't bother with the scale at all this last week. It just ticks me off and I don't need the pressure I put myself through when I don't like what I see.
You all do know that you should change your workouts every 4-6 weeks right? Well, if you didn't, you do now.
I'll post my new workout on the workout page a little later today for you.
I'm also happy to say that my cardiovascular stamina is returning too. I did a HIIT workout on the stationary bike and my heart rate came down quickly again. 30 bpm (beats per minute) during the 1st minute of recovery at the end of a 30 minute workout.
HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. I did a Tabata workout, or 20 sec.s hard 10 sec.s easy for 4 minutes followed by a 5 minute active recovery and repeated that for 3 rounds with a warm-up & cool-down each consisting of 5 minutes.
It's not how high you can get your HR (heart rate) that gives you your cv fitness but how quickly it comes back down. The 1st minute after exercise is when your HR should really drop. At least 20 BPM's in the 1st minute shows good CV fitness levels. A drop of 12 beats or less in the 1st minute of recovery is considered "abnormal" according to Berkeley Wellness website from the University of Berkeley.
Yes, you can improve you CV fitness levels by working on it. Remember though, don't do intervals every day. You can do cardio every day but only 1-3 of those workouts should be intervals. The rest of your workouts should be Steady State workouts of where you keep your HR around 70-75 BPM for at least 30 minutes.
Here's some good news for those of you who don't have 30 minutes at 1 time to devote to exercise. 3 -10 minute bouts of cardio will give the same benefits of 1-30 minute bout.
Go do something, get up off the couch, move your body. You'll feel so much better after.I promise you. another great way to relieve stress, activity!
Any ways, doing the right thing for the animal rather than ourselves isn't always easy and I commend my sis for letting Rowdy go even though it hurt her to do so. He's pretty happy here. We just came back from a long walk and both dogs are out cold. We walk most every day. Occasionally, I wake up late and we have to miss 1 but thats rare.
On a whole other note, I woke up Thursday morning with pink eye. Oh, just great. The left side of my left eyeball is completely red. It looks horrible. The good news is that it doesn't hurt, just looks ghoulish. I looked it up on the internet and found that I could've scratched it a little or something like dust or a fallen eyelash can cause this to happen. "They" say that if it's only 1 eye, it doesn't hurt one should not be alarmed, so I'm not. That is until someone looks at me and screams out "Whats wrong with your eye?" which I heard quite a bit at work from my colleagues.
Of course my best bud D. took it to the extreme, worrying, I guess rightly so, that it was my blood pressure. I do have a mild high blood pressure issue but I kept telling her that that was more than likely, not the problem. But, in fairness to D., it could've been a huge issue.
It really looked gross when I looked to the right with my eyes. Kinda fun to freak my friends out.
Well, I'm happy to report that this morning though not gone, it is considerably better with some white showing on the left side of the white of my left eye. Whew! Got that? It was a mouthful to put together.
As for my workouts, I had to change up the exercises. I kept adding weight and not really feeling any results and I don't want to bulk up just regain my strength & stamina. Besides, it was time for a change. I didn't bother with the scale at all this last week. It just ticks me off and I don't need the pressure I put myself through when I don't like what I see.
You all do know that you should change your workouts every 4-6 weeks right? Well, if you didn't, you do now.
I'll post my new workout on the workout page a little later today for you.
I'm also happy to say that my cardiovascular stamina is returning too. I did a HIIT workout on the stationary bike and my heart rate came down quickly again. 30 bpm (beats per minute) during the 1st minute of recovery at the end of a 30 minute workout.
HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. I did a Tabata workout, or 20 sec.s hard 10 sec.s easy for 4 minutes followed by a 5 minute active recovery and repeated that for 3 rounds with a warm-up & cool-down each consisting of 5 minutes.
It's not how high you can get your HR (heart rate) that gives you your cv fitness but how quickly it comes back down. The 1st minute after exercise is when your HR should really drop. At least 20 BPM's in the 1st minute shows good CV fitness levels. A drop of 12 beats or less in the 1st minute of recovery is considered "abnormal" according to Berkeley Wellness website from the University of Berkeley.
Yes, you can improve you CV fitness levels by working on it. Remember though, don't do intervals every day. You can do cardio every day but only 1-3 of those workouts should be intervals. The rest of your workouts should be Steady State workouts of where you keep your HR around 70-75 BPM for at least 30 minutes.
Here's some good news for those of you who don't have 30 minutes at 1 time to devote to exercise. 3 -10 minute bouts of cardio will give the same benefits of 1-30 minute bout.
Go do something, get up off the couch, move your body. You'll feel so much better after.I promise you. another great way to relieve stress, activity!
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