and this:

and this:

and this:

But I'm getting carried away and far off topic.  

Back in Copperland, just before we left, Copper stopped eating.  Not just one meal, which would be so abnormal in itself to be a big warning sign, given her normal eating patterns of eating whatever, whenever (as I'm typing this I just had to stop and take her floppy frisby disk away from her as she had managed to eat a pie-sized piece out of it, which I believe must be in her stomach as I can't find it anywhere).  Copper pretty much stopped eating the whole weekend.  I even got her organic whole milk yogurt with the cream on top, which worked wonders for our little puppy Wembley who had such tough eating habits, and no dice.  But each time I thought we were resolving the issue, when she would take a few bites here and there, she would go outside and throw up.  By Sunday morning I was quite worried, especially once I found her big blue plastic ball outside, sans big blue plastic handle that looked to be chewed to pieces.  Pieces that I couldn't locate.

So off to the vet again, on a Sunday (which equals a higher rate, but better than the emergency vet, I think).  The Sunday staff knows Copper pretty well and they even let us in a little before opening time once they saw us standing outside.  A few tests and x-rays later, it was confirmed that Copper's toy was sitting in her stomach.  But it didn't appear to be blocking anything so she was pumped full of fluids to try to push the pieces out of her and, along with about 5 different medicine combinations and some high fiber wet dog food, we were sent home.

Needless to say, Copper is eating again, although we still haven't seen any of the pieces of blue plastic ball handle.

Otherwise, Copper got to spend a week out in the country while we were gone.  Lots of new friends, lots of running around and sleeping outside (albeit in a heated / fanned doghouse) for the first time since we brought her home.  Bliss.  When we picked her up we were told that Copper played played played played played all week long and that we could bring her back any time we want.  

Ummmm, don't tempt me.

Because tonight when we got home from work we found that Copper had been very busy today.  In our jetlagged state, we haven't fully unpacked and I had left the bag of snacks we had taken with us on the trip--Cliff bars, granola bars, peanut butter crackers--out on the kitchen counter.  Now don't get me wrong, I am pretty adept these days at Copper-proofing the kitchen when we leave and I had these snack bars where I thought they were totally out of her reach.  Clearly I was wrong as we found these strewn all over the back yard when we got home.  

At least she didn't swallow the wrappers, I guess.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Thursday, right?

Cheers to more Adventures in Copperland!