Dog Party!

Our friends D&D - parents of Axl & Rosie the best Brittany Spaniels in the world - recently both had work trips canceled, so we were able to get together for an impromptu Tuesday night dinner party.



On the menu - Steaks, salad, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin bread for dessert. Easy & delicious for a chilly night.

But our real reason for getting together is so the dogs can play - these three LOVE each other and tear around the yard (and house) for hours.


Rosie checks out what's on the menu


Difficult to see but this is all three dogs wrestling on the couch. Oops.


Amazed that we got them to sit still long enough for this picture!

Rotten Beastie

Prairie the dog is currently on the naughty list.

She has a hotspot between her back toes which she licks incessantly. Admittedly, we should have caught it earlier, but for the last few days we have been applying ointment & wrapping her foot to help it heal. She doesn't love it, but it has been working reasonably well.

Cue last night - At 1 am Pdog jumped in the middle of the bed (resulting in startled yelling from me and shattering both of our sleep); I took her outside to potty and left her to sleep on the couch; barking and scratching on the couch ensued; Tom brought her back to our room where she wandered around the room for the next several hours, intermixed with obsessive licking of her (bandaged) foot; at 4 am I got up to rewrap her foot with a simple sock since the only cause I could think of for her refusing to settle was that her bandage was too tight/twisted/wet; she settled for the next couple of hours and was then whining to get up this morning bright and early as soon as the sun was up. Thankfully sweet TD took over her exercising her this morning.

Fingers crossed that last night was an aberration and her foot heals soon. I don't know how we will ever be able to survive a tiny human one day - I hear they have even less regard for their parents sleep than a 3 year old GSP.

Poor Pdog!

Pdog had her first accident last Sunday at the dogpark - she was bitten by another dog! The whole thing was pretty strange - we had just arrived at the park and Prairie ran by another dog that was chasing squirrels. As Prairie ran behind that dog, it turned and bit her. She yelped and we thought she was just startled, but she came over to us and TD immediately saw that she was injured. She was pretty freaked out & just laid down, but neither of us thought she was too injured, although we definitely knew we needed to head to the vet.

I carried P to the car while Tom got the owner's information & filed a report with the park - its ALWAYS best to report an accident/injury/etc immediately before leaving the scene. (This includes calling the police - they will not come to make a report if you have left the scene.) Standing around waiting for authorities is usually the last thing you want to do when you or a loved one is injured, but do yourself a favor and do it! That said, I am very glad the two of us were there together because I am not sure I would have done all of that if I had been by myself - even though I know better!

Ouch!

But thankfully, police do not need to be called when one dog bites another dog, so as soon as TD got the info we could head to the Emergency hospital. We are lucky that there is a vet school with an excellent hospital here. We received great care and didn't have to wait more than a few minutes. We saw a resident who examined Prairie and recommended general anesthesia so that they could thoroughly clean the wound and make sure there wasn't any other damage before stitching her up. They then gave her a sedative and  let her fall asleep with us before they took her back.

They told us to come back in 2 hours and so we did. Apparently, she had a "rough time" coming out of anesthesia - we didn't know what that meant but the doctor said she bit him (!!!!) and so they put her back under. She ended up then being hypothermic and they wouldn't let her go home til she warmed up enough. It took about 90 minutes for her to get to a good temperature, but the doctors were nice about letting us know how things were going every 20 minutes or so - usually by saying, "Should be about 20 more minutes!" over and over. But eventually she was ready to go home. (This is a good time to mention that Prairie HATES the vet so sitting in a cage with hot air blowing on her & getting her temperature checked for 2 hours was not her idea of a good time.)

She was pretty pathetic on Sunday evening - still pretty groggy from all the meds and generally feeling sorry for herself but she woke up on Monday feeling 100% and ready to run - which she can't do until she gets the stitches out in 10 days. 

In the meantime we are going on lots of walks around the neighborhood and trying to keep her from bothering her incision. The t-shirt helps, and while its not her favorite, it is infinitely preferable to the e-collar which is like kryptonite to Prairie.

And, on a legal note, there is a law in our state deeming dog owners responsible for any damages from their dog to humans, livestock or domestic animals. We are lucky that the owner accepts full responsibility and will pay for Prairie's medical treatment - which wasn't all that bad - about $350 total. 

All in all, we were pleasantly surprised with the response of the dog park staff and the owner and the vet care we received. We got a call from the ER doctor on Monday asking if everything was ok and we even got a call yesterday from our regular vet who received a message about Prairie from the Emergency Hospital. He was calling to make sure everything was fine and that we didn't need anything or have any questions. If only human doctors were so attentive!

Meet JB!

We have a new Foster Dog - JB! He was picked up as a stray near Pensacola and was in the county shelter there. We are fostering him through the SE German Shorthair Pointer Rescue. He came to us with kennel cough and a little underweight. We are working on getting him in good shape and then we will advertise him for adoption!

Here are some (not great) photos. He was happy to sit for me, but didn't like the light on the camera!

He's a sweet dog, very affectionate, though not so nice towards Prairie at times. For now he's on a leash or in the crate at all times - best for everyone including me since his kennel cough is producing TONS of mucous! He's also shedding a ton - he's already had 2 baths.

He's got three patches down his back - cute!

I have been walking the two dogs together and that seems to be helping get them more used to each other. We will also visit a dog trainer friend (who also volunteers with SE GSP) later this week. I hope to have him out of the kennel and on a leash in the house by the weekend.

He would much prefer to lay on the floor rather than in the kennel. The vet estimated he was 4 or 5. He weighs about 55 lbs and I hope to get him up to about 60. Mostly he just needs to gain some muscle - hopefully we can get him running around the yard soon.