Things have been going by fast and furry-ious since I last blogged.  I wanted to be sure to give you some important updates on some of the pets I've told you about.
Ladybug and her little bug babies came in the day after they came into the world, so that Ladybug could get the tube taken out of her leg.  The whole family was doing well.  Ladybug still didn't know what had happened and where the babies had come from, but she put up with the crying, crawling kids nursing on her.  She did a good job cleaning up after them too, so I guess she was starting to get used to the idea of being a mom.  Mother's helpers were so excited to hear that Ladybug's mom was not going to be keeping all of the puppies, but since there are only three of them I'm worried that a fight might break out over who's going to get them.  My kibbles are on Sweet Sally, she's not always as sweet as everyone thinks.
Ivanka, the dog who laid an egg, came back in clearly relieved to be free of the egg.  She was able to get her yellow marking liquid out in big puddles again, instead of a few drips at a time.  Mother has her on a special food now so she won't make anymore eggs, and they're watching for bugs in the yellow liquid that can make the eggs too.  Ivanka is such a sweet furry lady, I'm happy for her.

I also have some bad news too.  If you've been reading the blog for awhile, you'll remember a cat named Downy that was in and out of the clinic always with trouble getting his marking liquid out.  Dr Quinn surgery woman, had even worked on him and turned his boy parts into girl parts to help him.  Sadly, he kept making stones that kept getting stuck, and we had to say good-bye to him last week.  It was so tough to see him groaning, and pushing and crying, so I know he went off to a better place when he went to sleep for the last time.  Rest well, Downy. 

I saw the strangest thing at the clinic today. A tiny little Chihuahua named Beauty came in because her belly was so full that it looked like she'd swallowed a ball.  I guess she'd just eaten too much because Sweet Sally, and my folks kept looking at the black and white pictures talking about all the little bones they could see.  I never get to eat real bones. Sometimes mother gets me rawhide bones to chew on, which are terrific by the way, but the smell of those chicken bones my folks get, now that's something I would dive into a garbage can for.

Anyway, smelly goo started to come out of Beauty's back end and she was pushing and pushing but nothing was coming out.  So my mom and Vocal Vonnie went to work placing tubes and removing hair so that Beauty could sleep and go into the no-awake-dogs-allowed room.  But what happened next was what I will never forget;  mother took out the largest balloon from Beauty's belly that I'd ever seen. 

 And just when I'd thought I'd seen everything, out of the balloon came mice.  At first I couldn't understand how Beauty could swallow whole mice and they still be alive. 

 But as I was struggling to understand everything that I was seeing and smelling and hearing, Bea woke up out of her aftersnack nap and sprung to attention. Her ears were moving, her nose was twitching and she kept licking her lips.  I'd seen her act like that a few times before, and always when newborn baby dogs were around.

Ok so it took me a few minutes to figure it all out (maybe I need to spend less time with Brawny Brandon) Beauty had puppies today; three adorable little puppies that sure sounded healthy by the way they were screaming.  Bea says she always pushed her puppies out the normal way, but that she had 14 sisters that had to go to sleep to get the puppies out.  So Beauty had a happy ending after all, if going home with three screaming kids is happy.  Bea says she doesn't miss it one little bit, but judging by the way she held me down to clean my ears I sensed that part of her wished she still had puppies to clean. 

Since we've been back from summer break, Wednesday's are usually mother's day at the den.  Bea and I get to sleep in, and then wait in our cozy cave while mother leaves, then comes back, then leaves again.  Always carrying in different bags or books, and rarely, a special treat for us.  But today was a different Wednesday; we spent it at the clinic.  At first it seemed like business as usual.  Several nervous, shaking dogs in to have sleeping work done, getting tubes put in their legs.  Pretty soon, more and more dogs started to arrive.  Each one came in with hair longer than Bea's and I thought it seemed strange that none of the hairy dogs were getting the tubes.  Then Bea spotted her out of the corner of her eye -- Bea threw her head back and barked an announcement long before I knew what she was talking about.  No-more-hair-ica Erika was at the clinic.  I'd seen her once or twice, but Bea knew her well.  A few times Bea went missing for the day, and when she came back she looked and smelled like a different dog.  Today, I saw first-paw exactly how that happened.  I got to see No-more-hair-ica Erika in action.

Bea was not the only dog getting the hair removed, and each one got a soap treatment, too. The smell of fear was everywhere, but by the end of the day, the only thing I smelled was soap and toe-nail dust, with just a hint of anal gland essence sprinkled in -- subtle, yet magnificent!

One of todays visitors to have the hair removed, was a Yorkie puppy named LadyBug.  She was a demure, well-behaved girl that endured all of the hair brushing and trimming and soaping and bow-pinning like a champ.  So I was really surprised when I heard Vocal Vonnie say, "She gives new meaning to the term 'land shark'.  Just look at how many extra teeth she has!"  My dad took a quick peak and said, "Wow, I don't think she's lost even one of her baby teeth, but all the adult teeth came in anyway!  Her poor little mouth is so crowded now.  Let's talk to her mom and set up a time to remove those next week." he instructed Vonnie.  I listened with interest because usually barking about 'land sharks' mean that some little dog is about to launch themselves teeth first at one of mother's helpers.  But not Ladybug, she was as sweet as ever.  I'm glad I get to see her again next week, and happy that after her sleeping procedure no one will think of her as a shark ever again.  Us little dogs have to stick together you know!

Mother always says that your heart is where the love is.  That made me especially worried this week for two of our most loved dog friends; each of them were found to have heart problems.
At first I thought having a heart problem meant that maybe they weren't going to be loved anymore, or that one of their people had left and broken their hearts.  What I found out was that even with all the love in the world from your people and your other den mates, your heart can still get sick.

Candy, a large, regal Doberman Pinscher, is a regular visitor to our clinic.  She's on the old side and has been having trouble for awhile with her back legs.  Pretty soon, she was having a hard time getting around at all, and my Dad had to take a look with the black and white pictures.  Turns out, Candy had bad hips and bad knees.  She had too many parts that were too bad for Dr. Quinn -- surgery woman to help, so Candy's mom wanted to try a brand new treatment called Stem Sells. I never found out who Stem was, or what he sells, because Candy couldn't get the procedure.  My mom listened to Candy's heart on the day the work was to be done and declared, "Candy can't have surgery today; not today, not ever. Her heart sounds sick".  My dad had to get some moving pictures with the goo covered probe, and when the report came back he said, "Candy has cardiomyopathy.  We see it a lot in Dobermans. It's too risky to put her under any anesthesia, but we can start her on some medicine to make her heart work better."  The funny thing about Candy was that even though she has trouble walking, and sitting, and standing and ticking, she acts like there's nothing wrong, but after getting all the news it was Candy's mom's who became heartsick; she had the water from the eyes and everything. 

Another one of our favorite visitors, a little Pomeranian, named Spunkmeyer came in to have a cough checked. His mom said he'd always coughed a little, but now, she told Sweet Sally, "It seems like he gets short of breath.  We can't even finish our walks without him sitting down and panting.  That's not like him".  Mother took one listen to Spunkmeyer and knew his heart didn't sound right.  "Let's get some x-rays and see what's going on" she said, and quickly added "Good thing you brought him in". I know that she says that to make the pet parents feel better, but I always feel worse when I hear it because it means that something is seriously wrong. After taking one look at the black-and-white pictures my fears were confirmed, mother explained "Spunkmeyer has gone into heart failure.  It's not unusual for little dogs to have bad valves in their hearts that get leaky with age.  But Spunky's heart isn't able to compensate anymore and it's failing, so fluid is building up in his lungs.  Don't worry though, there's been some great advances in treating heart failure in dogs.  We have medication now that can really help him."  Mother called my dad in to get some moving pictures with the goo covered probe, so the heart specialist could see inside Spunky's heart. Again, we had the tail wagging spry little coughing dog unaware that anything was wrong with his heart, but an owner whose heart was breaking.
I do have some good news; since starting their medicines both Candy and Spunkmeyer are doing well.  Spunky's not even coughing anymore.  Of course, Candy's mom is still trying to find ways to help Candy's legs. If only love was enough to keep their hearts healthy, those dogs could live forever. 

kittens anyone?

Another busy day at the clinic.  Dogs in, dogs out, cats in, cats out.  Even Vocal Vonnie brought her kittens in for everyone to play with; everyone but me I guess.

.  One of our favorite visitors, Willow came in for a sniff.  She really liked the way those kittens smelled; or at least she did until Vonnie put one on her head.  She was such a good sport about it.....way better than I would have been.  Vonnie wouldn't even let me near those kittens.  I can't imagine why.

The Poodles have it --- problems that is. I know that mother has a special place in her heart for poodles, and sometimes I wish I had the flowing curly hair that her one-true-love-poodle Jessica had; but not this week.  This week has been a bad week for poodles.

Dusty, the tiny silver toy poodle (and by tiny I mean smaller than me) came in to have his teeth cleaned today.  I didn't realize that to clean some of the teeth that meant they had to be taken out of his head and placed in a bowl, but that's what happened to Dusty today.  I heard mother bark something like, "Wow, there are so many holes around his teeth" and I couldn't help but think that teeth are for making holes, not having holes.  "See these dark spots around the roots of the teeth, they are abscesses" mother said while looking at the black-and-white tooth pictures from Dusty's mouth, "that means these teeth can't be saved and have to be extracted".  "They really do look like holes in his jaw" Vocal Vonnie admitted.  "I thought teeth were for making holes, not having holes" Sweet Sally said jokingly.  Funny how Sally and I think so much alike.

After getting his teeth taken out for cleaning, Dusty seemed to wake up surprisingly calm.  Mother was not surprised though, "Of course he's tough, he's a poodle" was all she would say.

The other poodle having a bad week was Lavender.  Lavender was not fully poodle, the way I'm not fully Brussels Griffon, but she was enough poodle for mother to fawn, and pet, and love all over her. 
Lavender had been on hunger strike since her mother had gone away last week, but even now that her mother had returned to the den she still refused the kibbles.  I honestly can't imagine turning down food, of any kind, at any time; even toe nails look tasty to me.  When Lavender first came in last week, mother took some red syrup. Yesterday she got black and white pictures, got some yellow marking fluid and then took more and more red syrup. Lavender even had to stay to get the fluid run into a tube stuck in her arm.  "Well, that all makes sense now!" mother finally exclaimed after looking at the last of three pages of test results, "Lavender has Addison's disease!".  Mother clearly thought that everyone knew what this meant, but I don't think anyone did since it got really quiet.   "Addison's disease is a pretty rare hormone disorder where the body can't produce it's own cortisone, but it totally fits: a young otherwise healthy dog, stomach upset after a stressful event, lab work all out of whack.  Thank goodness we have an answer."  Actually, thank goodness for Lavender that Addie's sons disease can be treated with one poke once a month and a treat once a day.  I was happy for her, and I was wagging my tail that the dog that mother loved to pet and snuggle with would be going home soon; so I could have a cure for my poodle-envy too!

Dog park anyone?

The paw park is here, the paw park is here!! I can hardly contain my excitement, I've been barking about the dog park for days. All of my dreams were realized this Saturday.

As we drove up to the park of my dreams I knew that I had arrived when I saw dogs of every size, shape and color gathered to celebrate the wild plains that the people had reclaimed for us, their doggie companions.  Every pooch was so proud of the park too, they were dragging their people everywhere.

I have to admit the my first visit was a little overwhelming.

My girl, Anna, had to introduce herself to everyone. 

It was nice that there were places to cool off for both the dogs and their people.

I just know that I am go to enjoy every minute of marking these lands as mine.  Hope to see you there!

Which came first, the dog or the egg......

Usually things get quiet at the clinic when Anna and the short people like her go back to their everyday work, called school.  But not this year.  We've had lots of furry friends visiting.  Many of the pets are here for happy visits -- Dancing Debbie and Laughing Laura welcome the pets and their people, Vocal Vonnie and Sweet Sally collect all the samples of yellow marking liquid, brown nuggets and red syrup, while my folks give the pets their massages, and listen to the thumping in their chests.  No one leaves without lots of treats; except those picky cats who would turn their nose up at anything.  It doesn't bother me, though, just more for me to find on the floor when they leave.  Sweet Sally and Brawny Brandon use the roaring machine to suck up all the crumbs, but some always get missed and I know just where to look.  There's nothing better than finding a surprise treat or toenail snack on the way out for a walk.

One of our recent dog guests was not here for a happy visit.  Her name was Ivanka and her family came from somewhere called Siberia.  They must make dogs different in Siberia because Ivanka's problem was that she had an egg stuck inside her.  I caught a glimpse of her in the exam room trying to get it out; she squatted, she strained, and pushed and strained again, but all that came out was a puddle of marking liquid, that smelled and looked more like red syrup.

After a quick ride on the humming table, Sweet Sally looked at the black and white picture and announced the problem ,"Wow! Look at that, it looks like an egg!"  My dad went on to discuss the situation with Ivanka's parents, "She has a very large stone in her bladder, causing her discomfort and not leaving her any room to hold urine.  Sometimes when these stones are small we can try to dissolve them , but since this one is so large, I recommend surgery to take the stone out."  Ivanka's parents agreed immediately.  It wasn't long before Ivanka was sleeping on the table in the no-awake-dogs-allowed room.  Mother did the cutting and then....out came the egg! 

 I could not believe my eyes.  Bea assured me that dogs from around here don't make eggs, they make puppies instead.  She would know, she had lots of puppies come out and never once did she pass an egg.  That made me feel better.  I couldn't help but wonder what else the siberian dog could do. She tried to sing, but I can't really say that she was any good at that.  I hope she doesn't try flying next!