(4 months)

This is my Callie girl and currently the only member of my "pack." (But we're working on that!) Right now we live with my mom who has a Chocolate Lab that's just nearing that 1 year old mark and a Chihuahua (almost 4!) Cals is a 4 month old boxer/lab mix and that's really all I know about her, biology-wise.


(3 1/2 months)

I may as well share her story.

I was looking for a puppy to keep me company after my move to Florida. A huge reason my first college didn't work out was because I wasn't around my dogs. I had to fix that this time around. So I started looking for pups of all different breeds when I stumbled on Cal. I had my heart set on a boy so I really was just like "okay, I'll go see her, but i probably won't take her." Yeah. That was until I held her. She was 8 weeks at the time and she just laid there like a baby in my arms. I was sold. The woman I bought her from said that she'd had her for a little over a week. The original family she'd been with took her away from her mommy at 6 weeks then decided they couldn't afford to take care of a puppy. This woman took Callie off their hands and had her checked by a vet. She wanted to find a good home for her because with 5 kids, several dogs and a few horses, she really didn't have time for a new pup. This had me convinced I had to take her even more.


(Callie at 8 weeks on her first day home)

She is the sweetest girl in the world and I couldn't have asked for a better pup. Yes, she's a brat at times and she gets into EVERYTHING and yeah, if you tell her no to something she turns around and starts gnawing on the next disallowed thing but she just looks at you with this face that says she loves you to death and you have to forgive her. For the past two weeks, I've stopped crating her at night and she stays curled up with me all night, not moving until 7am when it's time to pee.

She does have demodex mange, which I am currently treating so that explains the spots you might see in some pictures. I would be more than happy to share my experience with mange if anyone has any questions. First let me advise you not to google it and get yourself all panicked. It's not worth it.

What a sweet girl! And a great story too. I couldn't move away anywhere and not have any animals with me. I'd probably just turn into a big ball of depression.

She has such huge paws! They look too big for her in that last picture. Hehe.

What a cutie!

googling something is almost always a bad idea!! All worse case scenarios come up, I avoid doing it myself!

Shes gorgeous!

Thank you, Ashley! I'm pretty antisocial so making friends doesn't come easy. At least with my dogs around I get some sort of interaction. And they always love you no matter what so even better! The last picture she was so severely underweight so yes, her paws look extra big! But I got her to a healthy weight and now I'm just dreading the huge growth spurt that is about to happen so she can grow into those paws!

Thanks Dietra!

Thank you June! I definitely learned my lesson about googling. As serious as mange can be, in Callie's case, it's more annoying to her than anything else so I got myself all worked up for nothing. I've been learning to not google things because it's hardly ever that serious, or at least I would have probably already had her to the vet if it was. The small little symptoms are rarely as bad as google convinces you!

She is so cute! And in that pic of her at 8 weeks, her paws are huge!! Glad you are treating the mange and hope she is back to full health soon. I definitely agree with not googling pictures of it!

Thank you! I think she'll be fine as long as I figure out some way to boost her immune system. I'm so glad I got her and not someone who would have dropped her off at the pound because of the extra costs.

yeah... that's me

great pics of Callie

Thank you!

So Cal is officially 5 months as of this past Tuesday. I took her up for a weight. 30.5 lbs. She's slowing down! It's been 3 weeks since her last weight where she was 26 lbs. Before that she was getting a weight about every week or two and gaining 2 to 4 lbs each time. I don't think she's even going to make it to the 50lbs I had expected. Although she looks lab, she must be favoring the boxer in her as far as build goes. But even so, she'll be on the light side for boxer females too! Just goes to show that you really don't know what you'll get with a mutt. Everything says compare all the breeds in the dog and you'll have a good baseline but I'm thinking Callie makes her own rules.

She's had a pretty bad case of diarrhea since yesterday so she's going on a bland diet. If she's not better by Monday, she's going into the vet. I would pass it off as she got into something that doesn't agree with her stomach, but I would think that after 24 hours, that would be out of her system. She's had loose stools since her spay at the beginning of the month and when I think about it, she's really had loose stools on and off since I got her. I'll talk to the vet before deciding if I need to switch her diet. I've asked the vet since day one if I should have her on grain-free since most boxer/lab mixes have an intolerance to grain but he said she was fine. I will be highly upset if it ends up being an issue with grain.

IMO, i do grainfree anyways. I feed TOTW. I tried a high quality food that had a grain low on the ingredients and it failed with my girls. So do what you want, not always what they vet says. I will only feed grain free. If she has soft stools pretty much all the time, i would look into a diet change. That is a sign that something is going on that should be.

Best of luck with Callie, she is a great looking dog.

Isnt she beautiful. I had a boxer mix before getting Freya, he was an amazing boy. Miss him with all of my being.

She looks like such a great companion for you. I agree, life just isnt the safe without a dog.

Thank you Kevin! Right now she's on a bland diet and I've toyed with starting her on raw so I might start that now. The breeder I got my chihuahua from is very supportive of that switch and said that while wellness is good, I should think about switching to see if something else works better. She suggested Origen if I don't go to raw. I'm going to look into it further but a change in diet is most likely in her future.

Francine, she's the best first dog I could have asked for. She's a handful sometimes but other times she really is just right there for me. She's very good about warning me if someone's near the house so it'll be nice to have that piece of mind after moving so far from home.

5 1/2 months - 33.5 lbs

Mange is under control, only to turn around and have seasonal allergies. So we're still itching
Eventually we'll be in the clear!

She is adorable! Glad the battle with mange is under control! Btw we have the same name tag:)

Thank you! The name tag is temporary as I'll be switching addresses soon. Not enough rhinestones for me! But it's still pretty awesome because it's purple.

And yeah I completely understand about her being a handful. I think we all do. I love Anna to death but she knows how to get on my nerves. Hahah. She likes to walk around the house like she has to potty and it drives me crazy!

I want to get Anna a name plate type thing I can put on her actual collar. The jiggling noise between that and her rabies tag is annoying when I am trying to sleep. She seems to get ants in her pants if she had them.

Callie's collar is rarely on when we're home, so it doesn't bother me much. Then again, I can't get her rabies tag off the hook my vet gave it to me on, so it's not on her collar. And I didn't bother getting her a license since it would have been a waste to pay for a full year when she wouldn't be in the state that long. So I can't say there's much noise to be made even if she did wear her collar all the time!

Chihuahua snuck in.