The Life Of a Veterinarians' Dog

2011-01-13T14:05:00.000-05:00

It's been so long since I last blogged, I think I've forgotten a lot of words. Mother says I had rider's block, but I don't understand why since I ride in the car every day. Bea says it's all part of growing up; that I don't get as excited as I used to about visitors and playmates, and that nothing really shocks me anymore.

The holidays were tough on us dogs. At the den, Bea and I got to watch all of the happy gathering and giant feast-eating with nary a crumb dropped in our direction. The clinic was not any better; lots of food, but none for us, and few visitors with very few happy visits. It seems like during the cold dark days, we say good-bye to so many old friends.

Then, no sooner do the humans shout "Happy New Year" then all the new visitors start to arrive. Some come from the land called "Up North" and are just visiting to escape something called snow, while others are just new visitors; and by new, I mean only a few weeks old. Bea gets that motherly gleam in her eye when she smells the puppies, and the squealing sound of my mother and her helpers crying "Oooooooh, look how cute!" always wakes me up from my second mid-afternoon nap.

The puppies come in all shapes and sizes, and all from different places. The only thing that the humans go bark about more than how cute the puppies are, is how crazy the breeders are. Breeders are not the hard working dog mothers like Bea was, because that's what I thought at first. No, breeders are just humans who make all the puppy arrangements, and decide which boy and girl dogs get to be together. Bea tried to explain it all to me once, but I have to admit that for some reason I have no interest in where puppies come from.

One retriever puppy came all the way from a place called Chesapeake Bay -- he was not allowed to have more than one poke per visit, and then it had to be with special stuff that mother had to drive all the way to Fort Myers to get. Another breeder instructed the new parents never to get the dogs boy parts removed because people like my mom would kill him with the sleeping medicine. "Of course, she thought it was just fine to use anesthesia to crop his ears though" mother barked up.

Even though each puppy comes with a different set of breeder "rules" there is a real sense of new beginnings; of starting over. All of the humans keep saying that they are hoping for a good "too-thousand-and-eleven" -- if that means puppies, I know it will be a good one.

2010-12-17T13:29:00.000-05:00

So the humans are still singing and dancing. They are also eating and laughing.... a lot. Vocal Vonnie hurt her back the other day and was walking funny, and before too long my mom and dad were walking just like her and following Vonnie around the clinic. The humans can seem to amuse themselves for hours with their games.

Sometimes I follow my mother all around, but it never seems to make her laugh.

The other thing the humans are doing these days is putting tiny versions of their clothes on their pets. It seems like this time of year they really like to put things on our heads. I have not yet figured out what this is about, but the wearing of the red hat is always followed by someone holding the one-eyed flashing machine. Of course, after that the treats abound, so I really don't mind wearing whatever it is they want me to wear.

The pets visiting the clinic this week, have all been happy. We had one scare with a poodle puppy eating something called Gorilla glue. "That stuff's really scary" Vonnie said "it expands to triple in size after they eat it and it usually has to be surgically removed!" The poodle was lucky that he was stopped after only a few licks and so far none of it is stuck.

Mother says, "only one week left until Christmas!" which make me tail-wagging happy. Things can't get back to normal too soon for me!

Cat fight!!!!

2010-12-10T21:33:00.000-05:00

As winter comes, so do the odd colored lights at night, the funny-smelling indoor trees, the music that plays the same three tunes over and over, and cats. And you might bark, cats? Why, cats?
I have barked the same question. Bea says when it turns cold, cats feel frisky too and it doesn't take much to turn a frisky cat into a fighting cat. Just today we saw two cats come in with thick green goo pouring from wounds. I have to admit, they smell delicious.
Every time one of the cats comes in, mother launches into her scary tale about a cat that lives in the neighborhood; a tale that according to her is more fact than legend.
Mother likes to tell her cat parents:

Once upon a time there lived a big orange cat. His name was Freddie Hussler. He was the only boy cat in the neighborhood that could make babies because his parents thought neutering him was cruel. So instead of him being a sweet, docile, indoor cat, he was a lean, mean, baby-making fighting machine. He would come into the clinic at least three times a year with bite wounds. One time his eye was scratched so bad, it was leaking eye fluid out. But his parents insisted that he was always the victim, and despite living in a world of neutered cats, being neutered himself would ruin his life. He was so mean that even the veterinarians couldn't touch him, and he had to get gas pumped into a box to make him fall asleep. One year, after having been bitten for the third time that year, he tested positive for the Feline Immune-deficiency Virus (or FIV). His parents still insisted that sweet Freddie was never the cause but always the victim. To this day he still roams the streets of North Port, whether it be mating or fighting, to spread his deadly disease. In fact, in the past month we've seen two cats come in for cat fights, right in Freddie's neighborhood that have also tested positive for FIV.

Usually after she's done telling the story, the cat parents are speechless.

Usually, the cats stay in the house from then on.
I mean, can you blame them?

2010-12-09T14:40:00.000-05:00

It’s been so cold the past few days I think my fur is stuck permanently on end. And I find it so hard to get out of bed in the morning. If mother would just keep letting me go on the bathroom mat, things would be great! I find it strange that at the same time the nights come early and the cold wind fills the air, the humans string lights, and put up many colored objects around the house. Mother says “it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas”. But if Christmas is cold, why would anyone look forward to it?

Things are staying warm and busy in the clinic. Many of the furry friends coming in are dressing like the humans; bundled up in sweaters and coats. Sweet Sally and Dancing Debbie get such a thrill to see the outfits.

Of course, Bea and I and decked out for the holiday too. Mother denies that she dresses us up. She says the “coats” are just harnesses, and that I can’t wear a collar on account of my sensitive neck.

Barking of sensitive necks, we’ve had lots of dogs come in coughing recently. My dad says “Tis the season for kennel cough with everyone traveling”. Many of the dogs feel perfectly fine, they are just doing “the goose honk” Vonnie says.

One German Shepherd named Barley came in,

and had to have the black-and-white pictures taken. Mother said, “His chest looks fine, but what’s wrong with his stomach? Has he been eating anything unusual?” “He does like to eat dirt. In fact, just today I saw him with a mouthful!” Barley’s mom said.

“Well, at least he won’t mind taking his antibiotics then!” mother said, laughing. I couldn’t help but think that Barley probably got so hungry watching the humans eat and eat during this time of year, and never getting any for himself that he just took to eating dirt. Funny, when I think of everything I’ve put in my mouth, I never thought to try the dirt. I’ll have to see if I get any of the big feast planned for Christmas, if not, watch out dirt, here I come!

2010-11-30T22:36:00.000-05:00

So it must have been weeks now since the humans gathered to enjoy their endless parade of food. I can still smell the roasted meats. Partly that's because they take it out of the box with the cold doors and heat it up day and night. The worst thing about the food parade is how little of it I actually got. I can see the food, I can smell the food and every once in awhile I can taste a crumb of the food, but none of the food seems to find it's way into my bowl. It's a process I can't begin to understand. I heard mother telling Anna that it's about "being thankful for everything we have". I guess the faithful companionship that Bea and I provide so willingly is not included in the things she's thankful for.

Based on the pets we've seen this week, no one else got to enjoy food from the feasts either. We did have a scare from some Boxer sisters that were left home alone with two pumpkin pies. When their parents got home the pies, tins and all, were gone. Of course, those girls kept their mouths shut and didn't get sick even once. Mother's worried that the pie tins haven't been seen either. "I'll bet the dogs just pushed them under the oven or the fridge, even Boxers can't digest aluminum" she said. I don't know what the aluminum is, but if it tastes like pie, I'd try it!

Mother's biggest problem this week came from one of our tiniest patients. Nutmeg Place was a 4 lb Chihuahua that came to see her for trouble walking. "We only left her alone for a few hours two nights ago and she hasn't been able to walk right since. We think she may have broken her hip!" her dad, Rock, said. Nutmeg couldn't stand up on her own, and when made to stand, all of her little legs would buckle and collapse. Mother knew that the tiny dog was in trouble. "None of her legs are working properly" she explained while placing Nutmeg's small paws upside down on the table. Her paws just stayed knuckled over. "This means that the spinal cord in her neck has a problem. It's most likely from a pinched disk and she needs to be seen by a neurologist immediately" mother instructed. Nutmeg's mom, Hart, said they couldn't go, so mother gave Nutmeg some pinches instead. "It's very important that she stay strictly rested for the next two weeks. If she's too active she can make things worse" mother instructed. "Now you're sure it's not a broken hip?" Hart asked. Mother assured her that all of her other legs would be working if only one was broken. "Don't you need x-rays to know if she's broken?" Rock asked. "We do like to take x-rays to investigate a problem like this, but we would need to sedate her for x-rays of her neck and if surgery is not an option, there is only one treatment left, and that's medicine" mother worked to explain. It was at this point, that I knew mother was stuck between a Rock and a Hart Place.
Over the next 5 days, there were questions and calls every day. Nutmeg did well for the first few days and was back "running in the yard when her back legs stopped moving altogether" Mrs. Place told Vonnie yesterday. "I figured that lady vet just didn't know my dog so she had to be wrong" she volunteered. Vonnie's only answer was the number to the nerve-ologist.

So today, mother found out that Nutmeg has since been to see two specialists (because the first one didn't know Nutmeg very well either) and the results were that all the doctors recommended the same thing: Nutmeg has to have surgery to get better. Mother smiled sadly and said "I guess I knew her dog pretty well after all!"
Mother knows me pretty well too. Now, if she would just put some of the super smelling roasted meat in with my dinner, I could be really thankful as well.

Lessons learned

2010-11-18T21:49:00.000-05:00

So life in the clinic has slowly returned to normal. My parents had three whole days where they didn't have to say good-bye to any of the pet patients.
It seems like what I've been hearing more than anything this week is "Wow, talk about learning a lesson the hard way!"

One such lesson was taught by a Cocker Spaniel named Lady. As a puppy she was adored by all, and no one could be in the same room with her without squealing "ooooooh, how cute!". Her folks were such proud parents and brought her every few weeks to get her puppy pokes. By the time she was ready for her sleeping procedure to remove her girls parts -- what my mom calls "puppy prevention" -- she had lost some of her puppy cuteness and seemingly some of her parents devotion. "We do want to get her spayed" Lady's dad said "but things are getting tight and we're going to shop around for prices to get the surgery done". Sweet Sally tried to explain the care that she takes with every sleeping patient, but Lady's dad wasn't listening. That was the last we saw of Lady until yesterday. It had been months since she had been in for a visit, and months since her surgery. "She started acting really sick yesterday and hasn't wanted to eat or drink, and then this morning I noticed the sore on her belly. What do you think that could be?" Lady's dad asked. Mother took one look at the red, hot and oozing Cocker belly and said "Oh!" in that surprised-but-trying-not-to-sound-alarmed kind of way. After a closer look under the green smelly scab, the skin started to fall away over the place where her belly button used to be. Mother and Sweet Sally took a sample of the green goo and looked into her my-crow-scope, "Yep, white blood cells and bacteria, this is the source of her 104.2 fever", mother confirmed. Mother was less condemning when talking with Lady's dad "Dogs can have suture reactions after surgery, and if she licked the area after surgery she could have planted the bacteria in the sutures.". Lady was given a big poke of Antie Biotics and sent home with two containers full of pills. Vocal Vonie yiped in after they left, "Well, if you ask me, you get what you pay for. Low cost spay means low cost suture, stuff not sterilized, and who know what other corners they cut. I wish we could help people to realize just how risky it can be. It's just too bad for Lady" Vonnie barked on. Mother said "So long as the infection is just in the skin and surrounding tissue we're ok, if it goes into her abdomen, then it's a whole other problem. At least she only has to be spayed once."

The other lesson had a happy ending. Spotsie is a Papillon that is completely adored by her mother. She is so adored that she never leaves her mothers arms. When Vocal Vonnie once asked about getting a microchip put in Spotsie the answer she got was "But why? She never leaves my arms.". 'Never' to humans, means never until they go away on vacation and leave you at home with your human sister. And apparently no one ever told Spotsie's sister to carry her everywhere because as soon as she hit the ground she was off. She disappeared for two full days. Dancing Debbie first took the call asking if we had seen the missing Papillon. Her first question to the caller was "Is she microchipped?". Luckily, Spotsie was found flirting with some workers in an empty lot not far from her home. She was limping,had a bee stinger in her leg, and was really thirsty but otherwise seemed impressively composed.
I admit, I don't know what I would do for two days away from home -- no laps to lie in, no food and water brought to me on request, and I shudder to think of what might happen to Bea's ears in my absence. Thank goodness for microchips, I don't know how they work, but I can sleep easy knowing that I have one.

Pack of poodles

2010-11-11T20:54:00.000-05:00

It took awhile for the humans to stop making the water come from their eyes, but by the afternoon, things at the clinic felt like they were getting back to normal.

Mother says, "nothing makes you feel better than a hug from a poodle!" and as luck would have it, we had 3 poodles in the clinic at the same time. Taco, Moe and Jax all happened to be visiting at the same time, and all for different reasons. Vonnie says, "They're just brothers from different mothers". Mother says, "happiness is a poodle in your arms". The small one, Moe, showed up bright and early at the clinic -- he arrived before I did. At first I didn't even think he was a poodle, he was nothing more than a head in a bed.

Pretty soon, mother was carrying him around hugging him and I realized that he was a mere canine with four legs like the rest of us.

Bea wonders why I don't get jealous with all the poodle-hugging going on, but I'm pretty confident of my top dog position around here. After all I was the one licking the salty water off mother's face last night, not one of the fluffy poodleheads. Mother says Bea and I just aren't as smart as the poodles, but I don't remember ever reading a poodle blog before, or even wanting to for that matter. Enough barked.

2010-11-10T21:47:00.000-05:00

The past 5 days have been some of the longest for my parents. They were busy through the weekend with one of our super special dog friends. Mother said, "Don't you dare blog about this, Ronnie. Because you can't help but be cute, and there is nothing cute about this story."

So my paws have been still, my tongue quiet.

Today the sad story came to a tragic conclusion. I gave dogs honor that I wouldn't blog about it, but with water streaming down her face, mother wrote a poem that I wanted to bark out to the world:

A veterinarian's lament:

You come to me with eyes so sad,
you wish you didn't feel so bad.
You never complain, or cry, or whine,
and I wanted to say "you'll be just fine."
Just take these pills, you'll feel brand new,
but sicker you got, after only taking a few.

Over the years you've been in so much,
with your parents we were forever in touch.
Always a delicate stomach, and then bladder stones too,
We perservered and you sailed right through.
High fat in your blood, even a broken toe,
we would fix you up and off you'd go.

But this time was different, this time was bad,
you used up all of the cells that you had.
You didn't like the pills, and the pills really didn't like you,
and despite all the drugs away your time flew.

As patients go, you were the best,
never a growl or a snarl for any test.
All you wanted was to get back to your bed,
and back to your family of which you were head.
Four doctors you had, and no one a clue,
as to what, if anything different we could do.

Your parents so loving, wanted only what's best
and instead they were forced to lay you to rest.
You presence so strong, your abscence leaving them hollow,
and your pawprints so big, no other will be able to follow.
And now you are gone, and I can't explain why,
and all I can do is just sit and cry,
and hope, hope, hope, hope
that tomorrow no one will die.

2010-11-04T14:21:00.000-04:00

I sure am glad that Halloween is over. Sweet Sally got caught up on her rest at her den, and is back at work looking a lot more like herself now. I don't miss the spooky pumpkins or the giant spiders being thrown around either. And now that all the candy collecting has happenened there are always sweet crumbs to find on the floor.
My parents are staying busy. Each day we see more and more of our friends that went to the place called 'Up North' for the summer. I guess Up North closes in the winter.

My sisters on my father's side, Mona and Daisy, are visiting this week. They brought along their evil cat sister, Grizelda. Vocal Vonnie calls her "the meanest cat in the world!" No one is allowed to even walk by her condo without getting hissed and swatted at. Mother says she's so mean and busy frowning all the time, that her face just froze that way!

Most of our visitors have been in for the happy calls, eating lots of treats and getting their nails done.

Today I saw something I've never seen before. The giant brown lab named Lake insisted on paying for his visit. With wagging tail, he gladly carried his dad's rawhide pouch filled with paper, up to Laughing Laura. Pretty soon, all the humans were laughing. I have to paw it to him, it was a pretty good trick. I don't think my dad's paper-filled pouch will fit in my mouth, and, of course, if it did, I might find some other things to buy with it. But Lake was doing us dogs proud with a high brow trick like that. I just might be up all night working on something that can top it!!

Working to death...

2010-10-30T09:23:00.000-04:00

I know it's been a long week. We've had lots of pets in and out, and mother's stayed busy in the no-awake-dogs-allowed room, cutting the strange looking lumps and bumps off. I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend at the den. But I was still surprised with how tired Sally looked when I came into the clinic today. Hard work really takes it's toll on the humans. Vonnie says "we worked Sally to death". I guess she needs a quiet weekend at her den too!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

Alien creature found on golf course

2010-10-28T21:48:00.000-04:00

I know that I usually blog on and on about the dogs and cats that come to visit my clinic. But I sometimes forget that the people that belong to the dogs and casts are important too. At least they are to my folks and their helpers. Somtimes, the humans get really close to one another, almost like one of the pack, especially when the dog or cat has to come here all the time to get pills or pokes or the red syrup taken. This was the case with Feisty and his mom. Fiesty got sick last year and after lots of visits and lots of medicines he ended up taking his final sleep. None of us had seen Feisty's mom since then. That was until today.

So it was a big surprise when she walked in holding a box saying, "You'll never guess what I just found on the golf course." Which was followed with a chorus of "Awwww' and "Ohhhhhhh" from Sweet Sally, Vocal Vonnie and Dancing Debbie. "We're going to keep him," said Feisty's mom " we're going to name him Kane." Vocal Vonnie picked up the tiny creature that didn't look like any kind of animal we normally see here and said, "Oh, Kane you're so cute. But you're covered in fleas so we need to give you a bath right away. Actually, Mom, maybe you should probably name him Kandi instead of Kane because he's a she!"

So it was that Kandi came to stay at the clinc for the soap treatment. I was pretty sure that the tiny creature was not one of my canine brethren and was even more convinced once it got wet.

It sure looked like something from a far off land that I've never seen before. None of the humans could get over how cute she was, none except mother. "Kittens at this age just look like aliens to me, they're all ears, bellies and eyeballs" she said. "Just in time for Halloween then" Vonnie added. Vonnie loves Halloween, in that same strange way I love to clean Bea's ears and Brawny Brandon loves anything edible.

I'm glad that Kandi found her way off the golf course and into a great home; Feisty sure never had any complaints. And lucky for Kandi, she won't have to wear a silly costume for Halloween, according to mother she's ready to go!

Here's to wagging tails...

2010-10-27T11:14:00.000-04:00

So last week I barked on about all the sick pets that came to visit. Well, today we got to see first paw, one of the happy endings. We've known Arnold since he was a puppy. Well he's 3 years old now, and one day last week his legs stopped working. Mother said "He's ruptured a disk in his back and it's pressing on his spinal cord. He's going to need emergency surgery to get his legs moving again." Arnold's mom wasted no time in getting him to the nerve-ologist. Arnold had to spend the past two weeks at that clinic recovering from his sleeping procedure and learning how to use his legs again. Apparently, once a disk gets ruptured you forget how to use your back legs. But judging by the way he was waddling around today, his sleeping procedure was a success. Those dachshunds have such short legs it hardly seems like anyone would notice if his legs didn't work, but I guess Arnold would notice.

I could hardly keep my tail from wagging, I was so happy for him. Way to go Arnold!

The Eyes have it....

2010-10-20T19:14:00.000-04:00

Today was all about eyes. I've always thought of eyes as producers of crunchy, salty goo that tastes delicious just after breakfast. And I know that when I close my eyes, I can't see anything, so I figure they must be pretty important. My parents are always seeing pets for eye exams. Lots of dogs, like my Aunt Becky, have trouble making enough tears. Those dogs get green goo in their eyes, instead of brown crunchy goo -- it tastes different, still good but different.

We had one dog come by today to get her "take-a-nap-and-dream-wake-up-with-teeth-clean" procedures. Her name was Melody. She's a Shih-tzu, so somewhere back we could be related, because I am half Shih-tzu too. Anyway, all mother and Vonnie could say was "Wow, her eyes are so big. Don't hold her too tight, her eyes could pop right out". And every time Vonnie touched Melody's face she said "Ewww, I think I touched her eyeball." Melody went to sleep and woke right back up with sparkling clean teeth. Her eyes were as big as ever when she woke up and as she batted them at people walking by they couldn't help but stop and pet her. Us Shih-tzu's really know how to work it!

The other case we had of eye trouble belonged to one of mother's favorite patients -- he's a boy Cocker spaniel named Fella. Fella has had every problem a cocker spaniel can get, at least that's what Vocal Vonnie says, "He's got allergies, ear infections, bad teeth, glaucoma, torn cruciates, hypothyroidism and skin cancer -- it just figures, because he's such a sweet dog!" So I guess according to Vonnie -- Terrible Tara will live forever.

So Fella was in to have a growth removed on his side, but since he had the glow-coma in his left eye and it had gotten all stretched out, mother recommended to remove his eye too! Bea and I sat in silence as we watched Fella's eye get removed from his head! I was really glad that he slept through that. Of course when he woke up, he was more upset about the sore and strings on his side than the eye missing. He told me that he couldn't see out of the eye anyway, so the fact that he couldn't open his eyelids anymore didn't really bother him. I can see why mother likes him so much. I told him when he feels better he should chew something up in his house, drop some nuggets on the floor, or bark everyone up at 3 am; that way he should be able to live forever.

2010-10-19T21:50:00.000-04:00

It's been a whirlwind of a week since I last got to blog. So much has happened.
Last week we had a visit from Dr. Quinn - surgery woman, to fix a knee on my good maltese friend, Bruce Lee. Dr. Quinn said he'd be doing high kicks again in no time.
We had two sad dachsunds get rushed in -- on separate emergencies -- one for not being able to move his back legs, and the other sick in her stomach from eating spare rib bones. The first one, Billie, took a trip to the nerve-ologist to have back surgery. He had to spend the whole week in the hospital, and now his legs have started working again. The other little dachsund was not so lucky; she started with red syrup coming out where the nuggets come from, and while mother was trying to "stabilize" her, red syrup began to pour out of her mouth. She went to the forever sleep shortly after that. I don't know if I have any spare ribs, I'm pretty sure that I need all of mine, but even if I did have some spares I've definitely learned not to eat them.
Over the weekend, my folks went away to get something they call "continuing education" and Bea and I stayed with our Aunts Tara and Becky; my girl Anna came too. Tara is what mother calls "Tara-ble" around toys and loves to steal them and chew them up. My girl Anna lost a toy to Tara-ble Tara this weekend, and before I knew what happened Tara ended up in the toilet. Everyone got really angry with Anna. I knew there was a reason I left her toys alone!

Today, the clinic was filled with the sound of happy barks and purring cats. Mother was pleased that she got to see 4 poodles today, I think she said that was some kind of a record. I started to think that poodles were taking over the world when No-more-hair-ica Erika showed up with her crew. Bea and I were quickly informed through thick accents that the band of black giant dogs were in fact Portugese Water Dogs. I thought that their barks sounded different. Bea says she doesn't bark Portugese. Well, neither do I, but that didn't keep me from announcing their arrival and warning them to watch their step -- after all, they were in Ronnie territory; at the Her-Ron Creek Animal Hospital. I guess they really didn't understand my American barking because they seemed to ignore every bark I said. Instead, they acted as if they owned the place.

Guess I have to add learning to bark Portugese on my list of things to do.....

2010-10-12T23:15:00.000-04:00

So far the week is not off to a great start. We had another cat get sick and depart after not being able to get his yellow marking liquid out. It may have been because at the end his yellow marking liquid looked and smelled a lot like red syrup. His name was Gadget and seemed really cool, for a cat.

One of our other really sick cats seems to be feeling better these days. His name is Ivan and he has what father calls 'can't sir'. I'm still not sure what he can't do, except that when he first started to visit he didn't want to eat much at all. I think he could, his mouth smelled ok and his licker seemed to work, but he just didn't want to. Vocal Vonnie says Ivan is more famous than me now, on account of the fact that he got his name in the newspaper. I wanted to tell her that I use newspapers for my marking liquid, but I was a bigger dog than that and focused my frustration on cleaning Bea's ears. Her ears are very clean now.
Mostly Vocal Vonnie is upset that her new cats have to eat the wet kibbles in the cans in order to keep away the very problems that Snuggles and Gadget struggled with. Vonnie blames mother for recommending the smelly food, that she says "her cats crave like addicts" and that the cat litter box smells bad. Of course I heard her dogs bark a different story about the litter box. They say it's delicious. Mother says "canned food is a small price to pay for a healthy urinary tract. All of the current literature supports canned food as the best choice for cats", and although I can tell that it pains Vonnie, she knows mother is right. I know it's a tough lesson to learn Vonnie, but barking from one who knows, it's easier to learn it now than the hard way.

Fall is here

2010-10-06T22:16:00.000-04:00

Summer seems to be over. The days are getting shorter, a cool breeze is in the air, and Bea shows flashes of puppyhood as she tears around the yard, thinking she can run faster than me. Of course, her long legs make it look like she's faster, but I always catch her. More and more visitors come to the clinic every day too. Some are stocking up on kibbles for the winter, while others heard about Big Mike and want to do whatever they can to keep their pets from getting sick . I like to think that I am responsible for getting the bark out on that one.

Mother's helper are acting different too. Today, they just would not stop laughing. It started with Taco the poodle. Taco is one of our regulars and on mothers favorite list on account of the basic fact that he's a poodle. He came in for the take-a-nap-get-clean-teeth routine, but was supposed to give mother some of the yellow marking liquid before he went to sleep. Turns out, he only puts his yellow marking liquid on top of his sister's yellow marking liquid, and nowhere else. Of course, Alice didn't come to the clinic today. So mother decided to get the yellow marking liquid from Taco while he was taking his nap. The laughter started when mother asked Sweet Sally to hold Taco's boy parts so she could put a tube in to take the liquid out. It only got worse when Dancing Debbie was unpacking some boxes during the procedure and Vocal Vonnie asked, "Hey, what's that?" Smirking, Sweet Sally replied "Gee, Vonnie you can see what I'm holding, do you really have to ask?" Mother finished her work quickly, and said "Sorry, Taco, if you'd just have peed in a cup like we asked, we wouldn't have had to do this the hard way". Which, for some reason, made Vonnie and Sally both break out in laughter again.
The strange human barking continued into the afternoon. Taco and another girl dog, Dizzie, were getting picked up by their parents - something mother refers to as 'discharging' them. Taco had just left and Dizzie's parents were on their way in. Vonnie didn't realize that Dizzie hadn't left yet and asked mother, "Aren't you done for the day? Are you going to head out?" "No, I can't leave yet" mother replied "I have a discharge". At the same time, Sweet Sally and Vocal Vonnie's eyes grew big and they laughed "Thanks for sharing Dr. Smith, but it's ok to keep some things to yourself!" Mother grew red in the face and walked off, I can honestly say I've never seen my mother speechless before. And just as I turned in disbelief, I heard her grumble "....children.." under her breath. I think all the laughing is what the humans do instead of having tails to wag.
So far, as much as I miss the warm days of summer, fall is turning out to be pretty interesting!

2010-10-04T20:42:00.000-04:00

Last week there was a lot of growling and grumbling from the humans, I often ignore many of their strange noises unless they're making important words like cookie, cheese or car-ride. But I couldn't help but listen when they were talking about dogs getting sick. Turns out that some of the dogs that had gone overnight camping at the special dog-only camps, were coming back sick; sick as dogs. I guess that's where the phrase comes from. I wasn't worried at all about getting sick myself -- mother said she was worried about the dog flew, which I know I can't get because I do not know how to fly. Bea had to go on an airplane to come to our den, so she flew, but she never got sick.

Big Mike, one of our regular visitors, goes to day camp a lot. On Thursday, he was Sad Mike and kept snorting and sneezing, and didn't even try once to get a treat off the counter. Mother took some red syrup and some black and white pictures of his chest. "Mike's got pneumonia, but I think we caught it early. We'll get him some antibiotics and he should be feeling better in no time." mother advised.
Vocal Vonnie took some of the goo out of Mike's nose and sent it off in a tube. We found out today that Mike must not have flown because he did not have the flew, instead it was something I'd never heard of, called Mike-o-plasma. Go figure, Mike would get something named after himself. Lucky for Mike, the bug is treated easily with Antie Biotics and as expected Big Mike was back to stealing-treats-off-the-counter Mike by today.
Mother's worried because more dogs might get sick from the Mike-o-plasma disease, and there's no poke she can give to prevent it. She says camping dogs, or dog park dogs, and those dogs that have to go to school should all still get the flew shot, even if they don't plan on flying, better to be safe than sorry -- or sick as a dog!

2010-09-29T11:31:00.001-04:00

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.

2010-09-24T22:53:00.000-04:00

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.

2010-09-22T20:49:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-09-16T21:43:00.000-04:00

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?

2010-09-10T20:49:00.000-04:00

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.

2010-09-08T22:34:00.000-04:00

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?

2010-09-07T21:21:00.000-04:00

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......

2010-09-01T17:58:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-08-27T18:12:00.000-04:00

I guess I'm the only one who's sad to see the rain go. Rain makes the best stuff; giant water holes to splash in, tons of tiny frogs to chase, and I love the towel rub down I get when I come in from the rain! Bea doesn't like the rain, she's says it makes her feet too cold and wet, and then she can never play until she's done licking all the water off. My folks get mad when it rains too 'cause sometimes Bea decides that it's too cold and wet outside to put the brown nuggets in the yard where mother wants them, and prefers to leave them as presents in dad's work room. Everyone has to hear about that when it happens! Guess dad really wants to keep his territory all to himself.
This week at the clinic we had a mix of tail wagging and tail dragging stories. One of our smallest patients had the forever sleep poke -- his name was Alan and he had the problem with too much sugar, the kind that needs pokes everyday to control. Three days ago Alan stopped eating, a rare event for any dog, much less Alan, and then he got really sick. "Most people think that any problem a diabetic patient has requires treatment with insulin, they don't realize how dangerous insulin can be when given on an empty stomach" mother commented. I hardly recognized the tough little Yorkie when he was carried in, he could barely lift his head. It was something of a comfort to know that he wouldn't have to get poked any more.
This week we also took a bladder stone out of a pug, removed unnecessary girl parts from some lab puppies, and my dad found cancer in a young cat whose kidneys had stopped working. The best part of that story was that the cancer was the treatable kind and so the cat got sent to the on-call-ogist. Dad was sure happy to have figured that one out.
So tail wags all around.....it's good to be back at the clinic again. I can tell the place just wasn't the same without me.

Summer's over

2010-08-25T18:29:00.000-04:00

I'm......bark, bark, bark! Arrh woo woo woo. Rahr rarara rahhhr!!! I mean, I'm BARK, uh BACK. I'M BACK!
Sorry my human speak got at little bad over the summer. It was a good summer too. Spent lots of time at the den, chasing lizards, chasing Bea, chasing my girl Anna, getting chased by Anna, and then chasing more lizards! But FUN; down-dog-dirty-tail-wagging FUN. Warroo roo roo (head back) raroooooooo!
Anna had to start school this week, so mother agreed to let me back at my blog.
The clinic had a fairly calm summer. I will try to fill you in on everyones story as they visit us.
Bea is doing well, but hairy as ever. One of my parents friends works at removing the hair from the really hair dogs -- trimming them up. She started visiting my clinic once a month now, so mother said it would be fun to do some before and after pictures. She says "what a difference a hair cut makes"! I can't wait until it's Bea's turn. Less face hair to pull on, but worth it to see her have to spend the day getting soap treatments and her hair all taken off!

Mother says I probably won't get to bark er... blog everyday. But I will be nipping at her heals to tell all the good stories. Promise.

2010-06-08T09:45:00.000-04:00

The only problem with a blog is that I can't really show you how I feel. For dogs, it's all about body language.
Right now, I'm lying on my back, not looking in your eyes with my paws up in the air -- it's what mother would call "submissive behavior". It's how dogs apologize.
I'm so sorry for missing my blog the past few days. Mother says our 'net' is broken at the den; and without a net the blog just won't work.
Mother let me use some time at the clinic today to get this message out.
Mother says it's actually good timing, since Anna is out of her school for the summer, she doesn't have as much time to help me with my blog.
She says whenever something really cool comes up, we'll make sure to let everyone know, but it probably won't be every day anymore.
No worries, just more time for me to get Bea's ears completely clean!
Also here's a quick update on some of our recent cases:
Luigi did not have cancer. I couldn't stop wagging my tail when I heard that. His butt bump may come back though, it's something called a 'fistula' which means he may have to take pills from now on.
Sadly, Fanny's spleen did have cancer. Dad saw it with the goo covered probe machine.
We said good-bye to her last week.
Super licks to you all, and have a great summer!

2010-06-03T21:07:00.000-04:00

Luigi has done well after having all of his parts removed. He's eating all of his kibbles and is almost back to acting like himself.

Since I put Luigi's story on my blog a few days ago there's been lots of grumbling and barking on about the "stomach tacking" that Dr. Quinn did in Luigi's belly, while she was in there taking the spleen out.

I admit, I didn't know what a stomach tacking was, except that it sounded like it might hurt.

I overheard my dad explaining it to some visitors today: "Large deep chested dogs are at risk for having their stomachs twist. It's a condition most people know as 'bloat'. Since Luigi fits into that category we had Dr. Quinn suture his stomach in the right place so it can never twist. As a profession, we don't really have a handle on why some dogs get this condition -- but it's life-threatening and requires emergency surgery when it does happen. The 'prophylactic gastropexy' that Dr. Quinn did, is one of the few ways we have of truly preventing it".

After hearing that, things started to make sense to me. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to have my stomach tacked and now I know it's just one more reason that small dogs rule. Dad's story also reminded me of a dog that mother had worked on last year. His name was Lucky, and he was a yellow lab. He came in at the end of the day, and his parents thought he was 'bloated'. Mother confirmed their worst fears with a black and white picture. But before Lucky could have surgery he 'crashed' as Vonnie would say, and didn't wake back up from the crash.

It's comforting to know that bloat will never happen to Luigi. Even more comforting to know that my stomach doesn't have to get any tacks put in it.

NOTE: mother says the large black hole on the x-ray is a stomach that is filled with gas, but because it's twisted the gas can't be released. She also says if you think your dog ever has this problem, to call a dog doctor right away, it's very serious.

2010-06-02T18:09:00.000-04:00

Today I chose to dedicate my blog to claws; or nails as the humans like to call them. This is yet another part of a dogs body -- or a cats for that matter, that the humans seem obsessed with. Rarely does a day go by when the humans aren't working on dog or cat claws for some reason. Big dogs get the big nail trimmers, fancy dogs get the dusty grinding treatment that smells like a cookout, and little puppies and kittens get the metal snippers. It doesn't matter what method is used the result is still the same -- pets leave without their weapons and toenail bits abound throughout the clinic. As an aside, toenails make a mighty tasty snack. The best thing is that the toenails never go bad. I can find an old toenail under one of the apartments or hiding in a corner that's been there for months, and it still tastes as good as the day it was cut.
I happen to be very attached to my own claws. Whenever mother or one of her helpers try to take mine I usually bite at whatever tool they're using. Here I bark a word of wisdom -- the dusty grinding tool bites back.
The thing I find most surprising is that some humans will gladly shorten the long claws of their pets and yet will keep long claws for themselves. Dancing Debbie and Vocal Vonnie are some of the people here that love to show off their long claws. The really funny thing is that they don't use the claws for any reason I can see -- we don't have any new holes dug in the back, they don't paw at each other and they can open doors without having to scratch so I have no real idea why they would want the claws. Mother thinks claws are dirty. She says that no matter how much soap treatment they get, the claws trap the dirt. Which to my thinking is just another reason to keep claws around -- you can never get enough dirt!

Mother did a little test in the clinic. She used a white stick to take dirt samples from under Debbie's and Vonnie's claws to prove that even when you couldn't see the dirt, that it was still there. She rubbed the white stick on some red syrup tester and a few days later, there it was.

"Ewwwwwww" was all any of the helpers could say. Even Dr. Quinn surgery woman saw the test and was surprised. "That's why I cut my nails, and why we scrub so hard before surgery" she added.

Mother says "Rubber gloves anyone?" as she washed her hands for the fifth time after looking at the test. I don't see what the big deal is about myself. If I find something particularly good smelling outside, I love to run my claws through it -- that way I always have a snack for later!

2010-06-01T21:17:00.001-04:00

I had a thoroughly enjoyable long weekend at the den. Bea and I systemically rid our domain of the rabbits. Mother tried to cheer us on, always following and wondering where we went. She wasn't much help except that the louder she yelled our names the more she made the rabbits run.

My enjoyable weekend came to an end this morning. I was just settling down to get ready to defend the clinic from all intruders when in came Luigi the police dog. Sure he looked all tough -- ears forward, sniffer working, but I was not afraid at all and I let him know it. My parents and all the helpers were really impressed that the big dog didn't get nervous or misbehave. He was a true professional. Even I couldn't scare him away.

He was at my clinic today to have a special procedure in the no-awake-dogs-allowed room. It was so special that Dr. Quinn surgery woman came to work on Luigi. She was in that room for what felt like days. "That sure was a lot of surgery" she said tiredly "We removed his spleen, tacked his stomach and took out a perianal mass. I guess you could say he's a new dog from stem to stern".

My dad was particularly worried about the way Luigi's spleen looked, "Well, that's not right" was all he could say. "I'm so glad we took this out" he added.

Luigi didn't really smell like a new dog to me. Other than the odor of red syrup he had his basic scent of leather and confidence. Everyone was so happy to see him when he woke up. Vocal Vonnie said that she would consider being a police officer just to have a dog like that.

Now I don't have to remind anyone that dogs like that come in all sizes. I mean you won't see a single rabbit anywhere around my house, and I didn't even go to a fancy training school.

2010-05-28T21:34:00.000-04:00

Friday is finally here. So many things happened this week to make me truly happy to be me.

Today we had a large furry cat visit. She had to have all her fur removed so that according to Vonnie she would look like a lion.

Better her than me. Enough barked.

I hope that everyone enjoys the long weekend with their pack!

2010-05-27T22:03:00.002-04:00

Along with my appreciation for my pack and my parents, I've started to be happy that I don't have some of the many problems that our visiting pets have. Today, the problems with the pets were so complicated that I had trouble keeping everything straight. Bea said after the first few cases, that she was lost. I assured her that we were still at the clinic in Florida -- but it didn't seem to help her. Sometimes I think Bea has no sense of humor at all.
Remember Luigi? He was the police dog with the butt bump that put on a show for Vocal Vonnie. His dad took him to a specialist to have a second look at the lump. Turns out that his tests showed that the lump wasn't cancer, but in the process the specialist found a lump on his spleen, and he'll probably have to have it removed -- his spleen that is. I don't know what a spleen it, but for Luigi's sake, I hope it's not too important.

Fanny the beagle, was in today as well. My dad confirmed that Fanny had the Cushions disease a little while ago, but Fanny's mom didn't want to try any medicine. Today Fanny wasn't feeling well; she was bringing up the kibbles and acting really sleepy. The disease with the Cushions usually makes dogs extra hungry and thirsty, but not usually sick, so my dad knew something else was going on. Black and white pictures showed that Fanny's spleen was big too. By this point, Bea was certain that her spleen getting bigger. We still don't know what a spleen is, but Bea's sure that hers got bigger because of Fanny.

Chloe the Min.Pin. was another pet my dad thought had the Cushion disease. Even after she had two negative tests Chloe kept drinking all the water in sight. Turns out, she has the sugar disease instead. She has to stay insulated to keep her sugar normal. As far as we can tell, her spleen is ok for now.

Dr. Brett came in at lunch to speak to all the helpers about one of the medicines. I could tell from the pictures that he was talking about a medicine for itchy skin, because all the Westies were red and missing fur. Dr. Brett had Sweet Sally laughing when he talked about a sign of food allergies called "Red ring around the rosy" which he stated while pointed to a dog's back end.
That made me think about Luigi all over again. I hope a spleen is not part of Luigi's back end, I really think he'd miss that part.
At the end of the day, I was so hungry. Mother was surprisingly happy to make me dinner, I think she enjoyed knowing that she could at least fix one problem today.

2010-05-27T00:05:00.000-04:00

Once again I find myself wagging my tail to live the life I live. I belong to a great pack, with the possible exception of Anna who is altogether too fond of my tail. I have a super comfy den at home and a lively pet clinic to visit during the day. I also have Bea, my trusty sidekick and all around chew toy.

I find that some days I appreciate all that I have more than others. Today was one of those days. With the full moon we've been seeing more of the pets that have the twitching fits. I think it's because it's a basic canine desire to howl at that beautiful full moon, but seeing as most of us don't get that chance the wild urges build up inside. Some dogs can't handle all of the bottled up energy and instead have wild, twitching outbursts. At least that's how I explain the dogs. Why the people come in here acting all strange as well, I have no explanation for.

Mr. Tolunch came in with his dog, Beamer, convinced that he'd had a stroke. His wife, Mrs. Out - ToLunch met them at the clinic. "We really have to find out what is wrong with Beamer" Mrs.Out - Tolunch pleaded, "We've been to 3 different doctors and one specialist and no one can figure it out. They all give me medicine for him, but I don't make him take it. No one likes to take medicine. Plus I have to hide it in food, and the only thing I feed him is chicken, because he's allergic to every kind of dog food. That's why we thought he would stop breathing. But this time he was just sleeping when it happened." Mother looked at Beamer, the 14 yr. old Lhasa who was frantically panting but otherwise acting normal. "He may need a neurologist to look at him as well" mother offered "they can run tests to look inside his brain and see if there's a problem inside". "Why can't you just x-ray his head then?" Beamer's mom asked. Mother smiled and answered "All I would see on an x-ray of his head, is his skull, not his brain". Mrs. O was speechless.

Later that afternoon, mother was reading the news aloud:
"ORLANDO, Fla. - WESH.com

Authorities said an Orange County man set his 1-year-old Lab out as trash earlier this week.

Dillinger’s owner put the canine in his crate, covered him with a blanket and placed him by the curb to be picked up with the rest of his garbage, officials said.

"He had been hit by a car at least 30 days prior to that and never taken to a vet,” said Jessica Chapman, a volunteer at Pet Rescue by Judy. “So, I don't know if they just couldn't afford him anymore."

Dillinger was in terrible shape when he got to Pet Rescue by Judy, a nonprofit animal rescue located in Orlando. The dog had suffered a broken leg, as well as ear and skin infections.

The dog underwent more than four hours of surgery to fix his broken leg, which cost close to $3,000."

After hearing about Dillinger, I was glad to belong to my pack.

Full moon or not, there's no understanding why some humans act the way they do.

2010-05-25T18:34:00.000-04:00

Mother says summer officially starts on Monday. It already feels like summer around here. The mornings are warm, the afternoons have the dark clouds and water falling in buckets from the sky and the visitors are becoming scarce.
We had a few interesting visitors today -- a Beagle recovering from a sloshy red-syurp filled ear, a Sheltie getting over her skin rash and a Golden Retriever with a red syrup disease, mother called 'leukemia'. That's the first time I'd heard of a dog getting that, I'd always thought the 'leukemia' was a cat thing.
Sweet Sally and Brawny Brandon filled their time making the place look spotless. Brandon even got a new loud dirt sucking machine in his very favorite color, purple. Sally's favorite color is purple too. I have to take her bark for it, I find that so many colors look the same to me.
My favorite line of the day came from one of the pet parents; they said "My dog has the best personality -- I mean dog-onality, if that's what you call it". I couldn't agree more -- doggone-nality, it's what make me one of a kind!

2010-05-24T21:04:00.000-04:00

It was a warm, sunny beautiful weekend. At least that's what I could tell from inside the den. My parents were out the whole time enjoying themselves. Of course, when they came back to the den they told me and Bea about everything we had missed.
Saturday night the whole gang from the clinic, except me and Bea of course, went to something called a 'baseball' game involving crabs. I love balls and games so naturally I was interested in the whole story. Turns out people gather to eat hot dogs and watch a group of humans play with a ball. They don't even get to play with the ball themselves. Now, I would have gone just for the hot dogs, but I don't understand why you would go just to watch someone else play.
Sometimes I carry a ball around the house, and I know that Bea wants to play with it, but I don't let her. Then she chases me, and I run, and then I act like I'm going to let her catch me, but it's just a trick. After awhile she gets tired and goes to sleep under the bed.
I guess that's what happened with my folks because when they came home they were dog-tired and went to lie in their beds too.

I think they need to have a dog day at the ball park. I have some good moves that I could show them!

2010-05-21T21:29:00.000-04:00

Bad news for Lance; he didn't pass his red syrup tests. It turned out that the testicle tumor was keeping his body from making more red syrup, so my parents were worried that even once the tumor came out, Lance's problems would continue. Lance and his mom said a watery-eye-filled good-bye this morning, and Lance took the kind of nap that I've never seen a dog wake up from.

On a more tail-wagging note, one of my favorite visitors, Orchid the pug, came in to show off her new wheels. And by new wheels I don't mean the big rolling machine her parents brought her in. Orchid had been having back trouble for about a year. Each visit she would have a harder and harder time getting around; her little pug legs would slip and slide out from under her. Orchid even went to visit the special back doctor but her parents just couldn't make her have a cutting procedure. So mother finally suggested the wheels.
I had no idea that dogs could wear wheels just like the big rolling machines. Orchid enjoyed every minute of her visit to our clinc showing off. She ran through the place, bouncing off the walls and careening off the human's feet. "Freedom" she said with every step "finally my back legs can keep up with my front legs again!"
I was so happy for her. I think I was happy -- part of me wanted Orchid to leave so I could try the wheels out for myself, but most of me was happy for her. You just can't keep a good dog down!

2010-05-20T21:10:00.000-04:00

My dad was super busy today. The morning started off quietly with a girl black lab named Twinkie, having a procedure in the no-awake-dogs-allowed room. She was an excellent guest and barely made a noise.
But the afternoon was as crazy as the morning was quiet.

It started with an old man Chihuahua named Lance. He hadn't been feeling well for a few days. "He's just not himself and he won't eat. That's just not like Lance" his mom worried. It only took a few moments for my dad to find the problems; "Lance has a mass in his belly the size of a baseball, and he's missing a testicle. There's a good chance that the missing testicle has turned cancerous and is causing Lance's issues."
Lance got settled in an upstairs apartment while Sweet Sally started fluids running into his arm and took his red syrup for some tests.
From there it was one sick patient after another. One coughing dog whose air pipe kept collapsing. Then there was the big scary police dog, Luigi, who came in to have dad look at a bump on his back end. He was ever the professional and took the whole exam in stride. Luigi even did a demonstration for Vocal Vonnie of some of his police dog skills. I didn't get to see it, but I heard Vonnie scream and then my dad was rolling on the floor laughing. He said he'd never seen Vonnie so scared, she almost lost her yellow liquid!
Just when we thought all the visitors had gone, Downy the cat came in. Downy was really sick last year when he couldn't get his yellow marking liquid out. He even had to have his boy parts turned into girl parts so that he could go, and spent the weekend at my den recovering. Downy's mom was worried that it was happening all over again. Turns out that Downy was fine but needed help from Auntie Biotics. It was a happy ending to an otherwise crazy day. Lance had to spend the night and is set up for mother to open his belly tomorrow. Stay tuned and I'll let you know what she finds.

2010-05-19T23:10:00.000-04:00

It was a quiet, steady happy day at our clinic today. I was able to fully clean each of Bea's ears from start to finish without interruption. The afternoon started as usual, with a leisurely stroll to mark all the required spots. I was just settling down to enjoy my lunch time treats when a fabulous aroma reached my nose.
It was the smell of beef, bones and saliva all mixed together.

The smell was coming from a Springer Spaniel puppy named Sarah. She was holding an enormous bone in her mouth. I asked her if I could taste her bone, but she refused to let it go. I turned on the characteristic Ronnie charm; I gave her the tail wag, the downward dog, even the 'I'll show you my belly' trick but nothing worked, Sarah was very attached to her bone.

I didn't realize how attached to her bone she was until mother tried to get the bone too, and Sarah still wouldn't give it up. Mother had to give Sarah some pokes and make her take a nap just to get that bone away from her. I've heard the humans say "as stubborn as a dog with a bone" but I never understood where that came from until now.

Sarah went home as soon as she woke up from her nap. Her parents didn't want the bone back. I was really hoping mother would let me take a taste, but it ended up in the garbage bin. Just one more thing I'll have to go looking for in there as soon as I get the chance!

2010-05-18T22:22:00.000-04:00

Today I dedicate my blog to one of my canine comrades. His name is Jack. He and I are nothing alike, but he finds himself in a tough situation, and we dogs like to stick together. The truth of it is that Jack does not even realize the trouble that he's in.
Jack lost a very important member of his pack earlier this year. Jack's dad died suddenly of a heart problem, that he had apparently been born with, but that no one knew about until after his death. But Jack did not just lose his dad that day. Part of Jack's mom died that day too. Of course, she still walked around and fed Jack, took him for walks and scratched his ears, but the warmth that had always fed the pack was gone. Water ran from his mom's eyes day in and day out, and Jack waited patiently for the mother he once knew to return.
Recently, some of the joy that Jack remembered showed up in her voice. She was talking into the machine on her ear and speaking of 'moving' and 'starting over'. Jack breathed a sigh of relief that the dark days were coming to an end.
Today, our clinic received a notice:
Trying to find a home for a Rottweiler named Jack. Due to a death in her family she is relocating out of Florida and the apartment will not accept dogs. Jack would be best suited in a home without children or other pets. He is very loyal, playful and would make an excellent guard dog.

Jack is 3yrs old and neutered. His vaccines are current and has no medical issues. Please view his picture and if you know any one who may be interested contact the owner ASAP as she will be leaving town shortly and if a home is not found will be forced to place him with the humane society.

Mother thought putting Jack's story on the blog might help him out.

My aunt Becky came from a 'rescue place' that had a great motto: You can't change the world by rescuing one dog, but you can change the world for that dog.

If anyone knows where Jack might find a happy home, please contact my parents' clinic at 941-423-3503.

2010-05-17T20:39:00.000-04:00

We were visited today by a most peculiar dog. His name was Oskar and he was a Schnauzer.
We'd seen him before, on account of the fact that he gets sick a lot, but this was the first time that he really opened up. Most of his dialogue came from his body language; which was good because his bark had an accent that I was unfamiliar with. "Uggh... not here again. I would rather face the gestapo in mein homeland than come to dis place. For years, I have been a double agent, living with my American family. They have no idea what I am capable of. My hatred is so strong for this hospital place."
Mother could sense that Oskar was not happy to be visiting. "He's had diarrhea for two days" Oskar's dad recounted, "he acts like he feels fine, but when we started to see blood we got worried. The only thing he's eaten that's different is rabbit poop".
Rabbit poop, that marvelous lawn time snack clearly has an allure to dogs other than me and Bea.
"It is verboten" Oskar grumbled " but try as I might I cannot resist it".
Perfectly well-behaved, Oskar endured the entire exam including the finger prodding up the back end with no reaction at all. When mother was done looking him over she found that his only problem was his nuggets. "We can get medicine to get his colon back on track. I just wish we could get him not to hate us so much." mother added with a smile. She tried rubbing his ears, stroking his chin, even the impossible-to-resist butt scratch, but Oskar did not react. "You're attempts to seduce me will not work. I am highly trained to resist such tactics" Oskar spoke wordlessly.
"He doesn't hate you, he's just all business" Oskar's dad offered.
"I hate you with all that I am. But you did not break me. You can never break me" Oskar huffed and he walked out without a backward glance, or even the slightest tail wag.
Sometimes mother talks about traveling the world. I think I'll just stay home.

2010-05-14T21:31:00.000-04:00

I've heard the humans say that things were 'going to the dogs' before, but today things were definitely going to the cats. Billie the cat who was here earlier in the week has a younger brother named Bart. Bart took his turn last night donating the yellow marking liquid. Bart is not loved as much as Billie by Vocal Vonne and so he didn't get to have his run of the clinic. Naturally, he was glad to leave once his donation was complete; so happy that he attached himself to his travel den and didn't want to let go.

We also had some baby cats visiting today. Sweet Sally, Vocal Vonnie and Dancing Debbie could not get enough of them. Sweet Sally did her kangaroo impression putting a kitten in each pocket.

Vonnie and Dancing Deb had to get some face time with the furry screamers as well.

Of course, when they wanted give the little furballs back they found themselves too attached, literally.

I have to admit I don't see what all the fuss is about. I'm small and cute, but nobody swoons when I scream. Actually, I can do everything a cat can do except purr and cough up hair balls. Maybe it won't be so bad if the place 'goes to the cats', but I refuse to share my den with them; a girl's got to have her limits!

2010-05-13T21:13:00.000-04:00

Her name was Twinkie, but I called her Twitchie because she couldn't sit still. Her tiny body was in constant movement; eyelids fluttering, body quivering, tail twitching. She was a 4 year old Chihuahua and the mother of 3 very hungry puppies. "She's such a great mom" Twinkie's dad boasted "she's never away from them and after 3 weeks the pups are doing great!". "Too bad Twinkie's not" Vonnie whispered so that only mother, Bea and I could hear. Bea took an instant interest in Twitchie, not so much because she liked Chihuahuas but more because the smell of milk and fresh puppy was irresistable to her. "I don't miss it one bit" Bea mumbled, licking her lips, mesmerized by the helpless little pups.
Twinkie's dad continued to give us the rest of the story, "She stopped eating yesterday, and just isn't acting right, like she can't get comfortable. She's always moving."
"Unfortunately, this is really common in the tiny dogs when they have puppies" mother advised, "The mom's can't keep up with the milk demands of the puppies and they rob their own bodies of calcium to make milk. But without calcium your body shuts down. It's very serious...but also pretty easy to fix" she added.
As Twinkie's stunned father tried to understand what could have gone wrong with his plan to breed his tiny little princess, mother and her helpers went to work. Red syrup tests confirmed what mother had thought, "Her calcium is down to 5, it should be at least at 8. We'll start an iv and give her calcium slowly, and she should be alright. She won't be able to feed the pups anymore, though." mother instructed. "Well, if she's not going to do it, who is?" Twinkie's dad questioned. "You can do it" Sweet Sally said encouragingly, "and you don't even need milk. I can give you a recipe for them".
So Twitchie stayed with us for the day. After the first few hours, she became Twinkie again and fell fast asleep. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought she enjoyed the time away from her brood. "Enjoy it while you can" I heard Bea panting to her.
After seeing everything that these moms have to go through I'm sure that I don't want any puppies of my own. My mom has always said that I'm too small anyway; plenty tough, just too small!

2010-05-12T22:21:00.000-04:00

Such sadness today at the clinic. It makes me long for my carefree time at the camp when my only concern was how to make the big dogs trip over each other.
The first sad story was about a old lady American Bulldog, named Burley. Her sister Bessie came to the clinic a few years ago and died from a disease where her body ate her own red syrup. I admit that the red syrup smells tasty, but I'd just as soon my body didn't eat itself! So there was already a somber mood when Burley's mom came in. "Burley's been vomiting for the past 5 days, she can't seem to keep anything down. The strange thing is that her belly looks bigger, and according to Sally, Burley weighs more now than she did at her visit three weeks ago." Mother adopted a 'that's curious' head-tilt and I knew she was concerned; especially when Burley didn't even try to lift her head when she walked in. Burley just lay on her side like a she'd swallowed balloon. One feel of the old lady's belly and mother had Burley on the black and white humming table. A few more minutes and mother was delivering the news to Burley's mom: "She's got a mass in her belly and a mass in her chest. It looks like cancer. We can try to get biopsies, but her prognosis does not look good." "We decided after Bessie that we wouldn't put another dog through a lot of treatment just for our sake" Burley's mom said as the water started to fall from her eyes. "We just want to keep her comfortable". So Burley got some fluid for under her skin and some pills to help her stomach feel better. It was all Burley could do to heave her big belly up to walk out the door.
The second sad story was a Jack Russell terrier pup named Miss. She had the sad look from the moment she was carried in; a look like at any minute the kibbles were coming up. Sure enough, ten minutes after she arrived they did, all over the visiting room. "She's been doing that for 2 days" Miss' mom said "we only adopted her 3 days ago. I know we've changed her food, but she seems sicker than that". Patient Pam had a hunch and started a test for the Parvo. Sure enough, her hunch was right. "Miss has parvo" said mother as she broke the news to Miss' family. "She'll have to be in the hospital for a few days. There's nothing we can give her to attack the virus, but if we keep her hydrated and give her medicine for nausea and to fight off bacteria, she should pull through." The family seemed to take the news well. "After all, we did say we were going to rescue her, right?" Miss' dad offered. Since it was late in the day, Miss had to go off to the overnight clinic.

I was sure glad to leave the clinic tonight, I'll definitely be dreaming about being back at camp. Ahhh, the good ole days.

2010-05-11T22:42:00.001-04:00

It's good to be back at my clinic again. Being away gives you a fresh look at things. No longer do I worry about what the humans might be planning. I think that's in part due to the fact that all I saw today was cats. It does help me to rest easy knowing that my precious dog parts are not anyone's target, but I am troubled by the sheer number of feline visitors I've seen.

Grumbles, the cat has been staying for awhile. She frowned so much that her face got stuck that way. Sweet Sally says that she's my Aunt, on account of the fact that she belongs to my dad's mom. "So, if Becky and Tara are Dr. Smith's sisters, then that means Grumbles is your sister, right Dr. G?" Sally questioned teasingly. "No way" my dad answered, "I will never admit to being related to that evil cat!". Admittedly, Grumbles was the angriest cat to have stayed at my clinic. Sure we have the screamers and the criers, but they only stay for a few loud minutes and then they're gone. Grumbles had been at the clinic for a whole week. She had a whole condo to herself, it was bigger than the apartment Bea and I shared, and she still yowled and growled and hissed whenever anyone by. The humans take one look at her and say, "She's so beautiful", to which my mother always replies "Beauty is way more than skin deep!". Not everyone can have the combination of good looks and inner sweetness like I do.

Billie was our other outspoken visitor today. He's one of our regulars. He comes several times a year for the humans to collect the yellow marking liquid. Sometimes my parents will take the stuff directly from a cats' belly, but for Billie they always wait for him to provide it. It must be more useful that way.

Billie knows just want the humans want too, but he makes them wait for it. He gets them to give him treats, lots of attention and even free roam of the place over the lunch time kibble break! Bille really knows how to work it. Mother says Billie gets special treatment because his kidneys stopped working awhile ago, but "he's not even half way through his nine lives yet" she always adds with a smile. Billie got carried away today using Vonnie's leg as a scratching post, and he didn't even get into trouble. Vonnie said "Good job Billie, you need to get mean, 'cause it's only the mean cats that live forever. The good ones always die young!"
I really hope that's not true, otherwise Grumbles will never ever take that final trip across the bridge!!!!

2010-05-10T21:33:00.000-04:00

Camp was great! A much needed break from the humans. Bea and I got to hang out with our dog friends everyday. We had our own den; and by den I don't mean a little apartment like we have at our clinic.

We had a full two room den with a door leading to a covered outdoor play room. We also had a giant grass space to play in. Bea was scared at the beginning, but I fit right in immediately. All of the dogs there were the big kind, but I'm big on the inside and I told them as much. The big yellow lab named George became my close friend and after that I didn't have trouble with anybody else. We spent our days lounging in the cool den with trips to stretch our legs outside several times a day. Of course, I made my special bed in Lady Laura's lap. I know she'll be so sad now that I'm gone. These three weeks went by really fast, almost as if it was only three days.

I was thrilled to see my mom again. I was even more thrilled to prove Bea wrong who was convinced that we would never see her again. Bea is sort of a worrier that way. I knew mother couldn't live without me -- I mean really, who could?

2010-05-04T23:42:00.000-04:00

I'm having trouble sleeping these days. I find that I have to keep one eye open. Each visitor to our clinic gets my normal outspoken greeting, but I've slipped more than once to bark out to Dancing Debbie or Sweet and Sassy Sally as their walking by. I don't know what these humans have planned. Vocal Vonnie smiles at me and I can't help but wonder if she's scoping my soft silky coat, coveting my anal sac essence or plotting some other as yet unrevealed poaching of my valuables.
Bea's not worried, and Bea worries about everything. Of course, she doesn't have all the goods that I do, so maybe if I were her, I wouldn't be worried either.
I decided by the end of the day that I would make a statement. When the roaring floor machine came by I turned the Ronnie anger on, and chased that mechanical beast away.

I hope the humans get the message and find another target for their plans.

2010-05-03T21:38:00.000-04:00

Last week mother and Vonnie were busy removing the sweet smelling anal glands. This week the focus is on removing something equally as valuable - fur coats! First it was my gal pal Charlie. Vonnie said that was to keep the dirty girl clean. Today, Misty was the target. Misty is one of our pet visitors that has the Cushions disease. She had it so bad that one of her legs stopped working temporarily on account of her red syrup got too sticky and made something called a 'clot'; at least that's what mother said. Mother also said the Cushions was making Misty's skin and fur all dull and flaky. Her coat looked kind of like the breakfast kibbles that my girl Anna eats, but for some reason when I looked at Misty, I was not the least bit hungry.

Well, Vonnie is always going on about when she lived in the new York City how she used to help groom dogs all the time. So mother had her remove all of Misty's hair. "It'll help the shampoo to work better" mother reasoned.

Vonnie spend a couple of days in dog time removing all of Misty's hair. To hear Misty tell it, it felt like weeks. Misty was really cool about it though, and kept wagging her little nub tail through the whole thing. Her parents call her a "Havanese" but mother says she must have some poodle in there somewhere because "She's just the coolest dog". Of course, I am naturally excluded from all such comparisons.

I barely recognized her when she was done.

Her transformation was way more dramatic than Bea's. For awhile there I thought another dog had come for a visit, and I barked "Who are you? Whoooo are youuuuu?" a few times. Then I saw the little nub wagging and I realized that the humans had just taken her coat. Flaky or not, it just doesn't seem right to take another dogs outerwear that way.

Being the adorable, center of attention that I am I don't know why they don't try to take my coat. Except that maybe they know I wouldn't give it up without a fight. They're smart to not want any part of this!

2010-04-30T22:22:00.000-04:00

"Better living through chemistry" that's what my mom likes to say. She give lots of different medicines to lots of different pets: there are eye drops, and ear drops, pills, pokes and tasty syrups all given to fix problems. The problems can be anything from runny eyes to liquid nuggets, bringing up kibbles to red itchy skin bumps. Today it seemed like the problem the visitors had was a strong desire not to be at our clinic.
Believe it or not, there are medicines for that too.
Vocal Vonnie brought her daughter Charlie in today. Charlie and I go way back. We were puppies together. I have 4 weeks and a half a pound on her -- I owned her then and I still own her now.

Charlie was at the clinic to have her hair cut off, and she did not like the idea one little bit. Bark, bark, bark turned to yelp, wrestle and cry as the hair removal went on and on. Finally, Vonnie whined to mother about giving Charlie "something, anything, whatever it takes to make her stay still!". So Charlie got a poke in the arm and soon after sat perfectly still for the rest of her body work.

In a similar story, Jacob was a storm of raging cat fury trapped in an 18 lb body. His last visit had him climbing the walls and biting one of mother's helpers even through the arm coverings. So for his visit today, mother had Jacob's mom give him "a little something to help with his nerves". And quiet his nerves it did! Vonnie was able to get Jacob on the weighing machine, and put the beeping machine up his hind end before he tried to bite the first time. By the time mother got a chance to look over the angry cat he was growling and chewing on Vonnie's padded hands, but with much less vigor than in visits past. Once again, a triumph of the medicines.

In case anyone was wondering, I did find out about the blog last night. And no, Bea was not on any of mother's medicines at the time.

2010-04-29T21:39:00.000-04:00

Muthr out for kibbles with dad. B to do blog. Not gud at wurds or typeing. Ron wuld be maddddd if she found out, so no barkin. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr -- sorry, mann on bike go by.

Paisssly doing well. Tung on Humvee not cancr. Happe for him.

Oh no, Ron wakin up. Got to go.

Think clinic shuld be called HerBea Creek Animl Hpsital.

2010-04-28T22:01:00.000-04:00

The humans are always up to something. I wonder if I'll ever stopped being amazed at what they'll do next. I know that I've barked on and on about the sweet smelling anal gland essence that each of one of us canines possess; a scent so unique and special that the humans spend time harvesting it. By her own admission, it is Sweet Sally's very favorite thing to do.
Today, the humans took that obsession to a whole other level; and I growl a warning at you, it's pretty disturbing.

Paisley was the cutest little black and tan Pomeranian that you've ever seen, at least that's what Vocal Vonnie said. "The black and tan ones are really rare" Vonnie barked on and on, "and Paisley's really cute. I would totally steal that dog" she added. Of course, we all know that Vonnie wears the Pomeranian colored glasses and thinks pretty much all of them are super cute. I would have to agree that Paisley had some cute elements and was really well behaved during her stay with us. I could tell that she had no idea why she was at the clinic though.

Vonnie got all set up for a procedure in the no-awake-dogs-allowed room, and after a few pinches Paisley was fast asleep wandering through dreamland. The next step always involves Vonnie taking some fur off some part of the pets body, and it was then that I knew something wasn't right. Paisley's back end was stuck way up in the air and Vonnie emptied all of the anal gland essence, but then mother went right back over to those anal glands to put something in. She used a thick waxy material that didn't have any of Paisley's special scent. After that Vonnie and mother were in the procedure room and I couldn't really tell what was happening.

It wasn't until after Paisley was back in her apartment, regaining her awareness that I saw exactly what it was that Paisley had had removed; two perfect little anal gland grapes sat on the towel near all the metal tools.

Paisley had suffered the indignity of an anal gland harvesting like no other. I could not image what she would do the next time she got frightened, or went to a new place and wanted to leave her mark. Sure, she still had the yellow marking liquid, but any self-respecting canine knows that sometimes it's just not enough.

Paisley's mom was elated when she came to get her little girl. "I'm so glad to hear that everything went well, and, no offense, but I won't miss having to bring her every month to get squeezed. For a little dog, she sure made a big stink!" Paisley's mom shared. "No kidding" echoed Vonnie "those glands were so big we had to use two tubes of the wax to fill them. They were Golden Retriever sized glands!".
That made me feel even worse for Paisley, to have such talent and no longer be able to share it with the world. I have to bark that I look at all the humans a little differently now, and to keep them from sniffing around my hind parts I'll have to work extra hard at keeping my sweet smelling sac scent all to myself!

2010-04-27T23:34:00.000-04:00

Full April moon and dogs will be dogs. I have to admit that some natural animal instincts tend to emerge at certain times of the month. I've noticed that this is not only true for the canines. Sweet Zanie came back from the school that she devotes her life and her uterus to. She spent the last 6 weeks nursing her puppies and was glad to leave them behind.

"I love being a mom, and I love bringing kids into the world that will help others" Sweet Zanie told me "but I'm just as happy to leave them behind and start logging some serious nap time."

"True that" Bea barked in response. I barked up too, not because I know what having puppies is all about, but just because sometimes you have to bark.

We had three Zoe's visit today -- each very different. One Zoe was having fits that had recently gotten worse -- mother thought the full moon might be having some effect - either that or her brain was just built wrong. The other Zoe couldn't stop crying and had smelly tears so thickly attached to her face hair that mother had to cut them off. Her grandma said no to the tests, so Zoe got eye drops to make her feel better. I don't know if it was the moon or not that affected Zoe's grandma's decision, but I don't have another good explanation.

The third Zoe was a Persian cat. If you think that sounds like a fancy kind of cat, that's because it is. I have learned that Persian cats are very special and beautiful -- at least that's what Zoe says, and even though I don't think she had any nose at all, I'm pretty sure she kept it way up in the air. She wouldn't even let me get close for a sniff.

The humans have been acting strange too. Patient Pam and Vocal Vonnie were do the laughing about breast milk today and who's ever tried it. Pretty soon, Pam was glowing a startling shade of red and lying on the floor laughing, something about how everyone should try things that come out of your own body. Of course I agree with this; I routinely try to sample what comes out of Bea's body, but naturally when I do it no one seems to think it's funny.

Finally, the scary teenagers were doing a ritual type gathering in front of our clinic. Everyone inside was getting the fear smell and Vocal Vonnie had to call a man called the police to make them move. Now I don't know if we can blame the moon for that one, Vonnie just likes to get people in trouble. They should have just let me at them, I can be pretty scary you know.

2010-04-26T22:16:00.000-04:00

A seemingly quiet Monday, did not end up that way. My dad was seeing some happy visitors, Vocal Vonnie was grumbling on about not getting enough sleep and I was only halfway through cleaning one of Bea's ears when Sugar was rushed in. Sugar was a 6 month old Standard Poodle puppy, and she was covered in the red syrup and had some of her insides on the outside of her body. "Help! Help!" her parents yelled as they carried her in. "She was spayed on Friday and now everything's coming out!" Sugar's mom shrieked.
Vocal Vonnie and my mom set about to make the panicked puppy comfortable while Sally asked questions to Sugar's parents. Mother got out some of the clear liquid goo and some white coverings to protect the parts that belonged on the inside. Vonnie put a tube in Sugar's arm, amd mother pushed some medicines through the tube until Sugar could barely hold her head up. Mother then grabbed a bag of fluid and started to rinse off the inside parts, "Looks like it's just fat from her abdomen, thankfully no intestines are stuck out. I think the blood is from the fat getting cut on the staples. Hopefully she didn't chew on any of this.".
Sally came back shortly with the whole story, "She was spayed at the low-cost place in Fort Myers on Friday and she seemed to be doing ok. Her parents came home an hour ago to find blood everywhere and Sugar licking her insides. They've agreed to the surgery to have us repair things" she quickly added.
So Sugar got more things put in the tube in her leg, then she got a tube in her mouth and was wheeled into the no-awake-dogs-allowed room. Mother had to check everything on the inside but didn't have to remove anything other than the fat. "I can only find one piece of suture from her first surgery. I wonder if she ate it all. If so, we're really lucky that's all she ate " I heard mother say as she finished up and put Sugar into the apartment next to mine to recover.
Then mother left Vonnie to watch over the sleeping poodle and went to discuss the situation with Sugar's parents, "I think Sugar's going to be ok" she began, "The biggest thing we have to worry about is infection, but I've started her on two different antibiotics. We are going to have to keep a cone on her head to prevent her from disturbing the incision -- no exceptions." she added.
Sugar had to go to the overnight clinic to get more of Auntie's biotics. "Wow, so much for the low-cost spay" Vonnie commented. "Cost aside, I feel bad that the little girl had to have two surgeries in 3 days, and now is at risk for peritonitis" mother answered.
As for me, after watching everything that Sugar went through I'm just glad that I resisted the urge to chew out my belly strings when I had them. I guess I'm smarter than I look too!

2010-04-23T20:46:00.000-04:00

A nice quiet Friday; nothing I like better after a long week. The slow pace gave my parents a chance to catch up with some of the recent cases.
Zeke had his test with the goo-covered probe, and then had to have some more red syrup tested. Turns out he doesn't have a tumor in his belly, which I guess is a good thing. Patient Pam seemed relieved to hear the news and satisfied that she could get some pills to help with Zeke's problems.

Rose, the pug, got her test results back from the lump my dad removed. Her lump was a mast cell tumor but dad got all the bits out and it received a grade 1 which I understand to be a good grade for that kind of tumor. I don't really understand the grading system. Mother gives out a lots of A's and A+'s on her report cards for our furry visitors, but no one ever got quite the happy look that Rose's mom had after getting her Grade 1 report. Maybe mother needs to change her grades.
We also saw Pookie the sheltie back. He has healed well and his mom is "so grateful for the extra time with him." His report came back, but his news wasn't as good as Roses', "The type of cancer in his spleen is something called a hisiocytic sarcoma. We all thought that it would come back as a hemangiosarcoma. Unfortunately it is still a malignant cancer and the prognosis is about the same." Mother went on to discuss other medicines that Pookie could have called 'chemotherapy', but Pookie's mom said she was happy with every day she has with him now, and "enough is enough".
Finally, Humvee came back for a visit today. Dad didn't have enough extra skin to close the hole that the extra tongue came out of, so he wanted to make sure things were healing ok. "Wow, it looks great" he said surprised "we don't have his test results back, but it's a good sign that things seem to be healing well." I have to say for a big giant scary looking dog, he's not scary at all. In fact, I bark and bark and bark at him and he looks almost as if he might just do what I tell him. I guess he's smarter than he looks too.

2010-04-22T20:15:00.000-04:00

So today Pam found out that her giant dog Zeke has the Cushions disease.

He had been in last week for the long day of getting his red syrup taken. His 'court of zones' were all out of whack, at least that's what mother said the tests meant. "Well, at least I know why he's been eating the crayons" Patient Pam admitted.

I love to eat crayons. I think the red ones taste the best. I wonder if my zones are in whack?

"His cortisone level is so high" mother said to Pam, looking over the red syrup paperwork "and it barely changed when we gave him the medication, so he could have an adrenal tumor. We should have Dr. G do an ultrasound to see if he can find a tumor. If not, Zeke should respond really well to the medicine" mother added. Patient Pam was both relieved and worried, "I'm glad to have found the problem, and at least it's something we can treat, but I was secretly hoping it was all in my head".
"Well, if you're lucky Pam, it's all in Zeke's head" mother said jokingly. Only her and my dad laughed. Vonnie said "Ha, ha, because it could be because of a pituitary tumor. That's really veterinary geek humor. You two are sad."
And yet they were laughing, so they I don't think they were sad at all. Sad usually involves the water coming from the eyes. Once again, the humans were not making any sense. I just hope that all of my zones stay in the right place. I hate pokes and I hate giving up the red syrup; although if it meant I got to eat crayons without getting in trouble I might reconsider.

Strawberry anyone?

2010-04-22T06:35:00.000-04:00

Humvee the enormous Rottweiler came in to the clinic today. I could tell that it was going to be one of those crazy days. Mother said "Oh look, he's sticking his tongue out at us!", but when I looked at Humvee his mouth was closed. Sweet Sally said "What do you mean, his mouth is closed?", and the answer she got was "not the tongue in his mouth, the tongue on his leg!".

One look at the big, big, big Rottweiler and I knew what she meant. He had a tongue growing right out of his leg.

It reminded me of Brawny Brandon.

Humvee was every bit as tough as he looked when it came to getting all of his pokes to help him fall asleep. My dad worked on the giant black dog and removed the extra tongue, "I hope if it's cancerous, that it's not one of the really bad cancers" he remarked. "Humvee is such a good dog, it's never good news for the nice ones".

Vocal Vonnie was very busy today being vocal. Mother squirts me and Bea with water when we talk too much and I have a feeling that if Vonnie were a dog, she'd be soaking wet most of the time.

Vonnie was tired after lunch and lied down for a nap. There was lots of growling and snarling after she woke up, and it wasn't coming from Humvee. You know it's a strange day when the scariest thing in the clinic isn't the 150 lb Rottweiler that just had some parts cut off.

True to form, Sassy Sally was right there to calm the angry beast. Maybe we should call her Sweet and Sassy Sally.

2010-04-20T21:42:00.000-04:00

Spring is in full swing and every one is acting a little strange. Bea keeps sniffing the air, as if there is someone, somewhere leaving her scent messages. Sweet Sally says that Gomer will not stop jumping on his sister Shadow. In fact, even Sweet Sally is acting a little off. Dancing Debbie says we should all call her Sassy Sally now.

One of our regular visitors, Big Mike, also came to play. It started off as a nice visit, we went through all the usual sniffing and greeting. But then the spring fever took over and before I knew it he was acting like one of the humans.

The humans had left some food out, as they usually do, just to torment us, but Big Mike decided he would just stand up and help himself. Spring fever or not, I was impressed. I took note of his moves.
Now I just have to figure out how to gain a little height and none of their food will be mine.....all mine!

2010-04-19T21:36:00.000-04:00

Mother says "truth is stranger than fiction". I have no idea what that means. I overheard her talking to Patient Pam about a pet that went to the overnight clinic. Pebbles was the oldest of three sister Dachshunds that lived with their human mom Mrs. Bea Fuddled. Mrs. Fuddled had been to visit our clinic before, but always for food or treats, I hadn't had a chance to actually meet any of the Dachshund girls yet. Mrs. Fuddled travels back and forth to the place called 'Up North', so she already had a doctor for her girls.

Mother was reading aloud to Patient Pam from the report from the overnight clinic; "Mrs. Fuddled recently purchased Advantage Multi for her pets. She was used to giving heartworm prevention by mouth and was happy that her new heartworm prevention came in a liquid form. She gave one dose to her dog, Diamond and she vomited shortly afterwards. She gave the next dose to Pebbles who started drooling but did not vomit. She didn't give a dose to her third dog but called the clinic that sold her the medication to see if it could be making the dogs sick. That's when she ended up at the emergency clinic."
"Wow", was all Patient Pam could say. "Topical medication has been around so long, I would never have thought someone might give it orally!" mother mused. " It really teaches you that you can't take anything for granted."

"So does the report say what happened to Pebbles?" Sweet Sally chimed in. "It says that Pebbles acted drunk and wobbly for a few hours but then she was fine. The report includes a bit about contacting the manufacturer and in the studies they did, giving the medicine orally, most dogs didn't get very sick. I guess that's good to know" mother added.
We never did get to see Pebbles, Patient Pam called and she's 'back to normal' according to her mother. I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what 'fiction' meant. Bea was no help at all, she thought it had to do with fish and said it sounded yummy. I think it must have to do with Dachshunds, their backs are so long there can't be much stranger than that!

Be happy for what you have....

2010-04-16T22:45:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I lie in my villa and stare at the ceiling. Sometimes the ceiling is so shiny it looks as if another set of cute little dogs looking right back.. As I lie there I take in all the smells and sounds around me. On Fridays there are lots of good food smells because my parents take turns bringing in muffins, or cakes, or fruit. I always watch out for the crumbs so I can beat Bea to them when we're supposed to be heading on our trips outside.

Sometimes I find myself focusing on things I can't have, like the freedom to jump right up on the counter and devour every last tasty morsel, or a super long tongue to get that last bit of ear wax out of Bea's ears that I've been trying to reach for weeks.

It never fails that when I start thinking like that, I meet a new friend who has less to wag their tail about than I do, and yet wag it they do. Her name was Stacy, and she was an American Eskimo. Now, I know what you're thinking, but Stacy was like no American Eskimo anyone at the clinic had ever met before; she was sweet, and super friendly. Not only was she sweet and super friendly, but she acted so in the face of what had to be agonizing pain. I could tell by the way she carried her paw. The smell of rotting meat wafted in with her and I've learned by now to know what was under the makeshift bandage wasn't going to be good. “She done got loose from the yard three days ago” Stacy's mom twanged “we noticed a gash on her leg and brought her over right quick!”

My mother and Vocal Vonnie went right to work. They removed the green smelly covering and both let out a quiet “ewww” so as not to alarm Stacy's mom. “That wound looks pretty old and there's skin missing down to the bone” mother stated. “Ohmigosh I see a maggot” Vonnie squealed. “And you say you just noticed it?” mother questioned again. “Well, she did up and disappear for 3 days, which is not unusual for her when she's in the 'heat'. But we knew something was wrong when we found her down in the yard so we tried fixin' her up ourselves with a bandage, but now the swelling's got worse. The thing is we just moved into a new house on 4 acres, and now our regular vet said he was through with us, and if we couldn't pay our bills we shouldn't own dogs. Can you imagine?”

Vocal Vonnie sat speechless and mother just gulped. I saw them go back and forth to the clickety-clack screen over and over, always showing Stacy's mom new pieces of paper. Unhappy with what she saw, Stacy's mom stood up, “I guess we're stuck fixing this ourselves” she concluded.

Patient Pam was in on the case too by now, and offered to take sweet Stacy home with her and fix her up if Stacy could be 'donated'. “Oh no, I could never do that. I love her too much to live without her. I'm sure we can figure something out on our own.” So sweet Stacy was carried out to the car with a fresh bandage and some donated medications. No sooner had they left that I overheard Vonnie talking to someone about 'control' and 'sending an officer'.

Like I said, sometimes I sit in my villa and think about what I don't have, but most of the time I'm just happy for what I've got.

2010-04-15T16:00:00.000-04:00

Her name was Rose; and she smelled as sweet! She used to smell like corn chips and cheese like Aunt Becky but since she started on the special itch medicine she's been better. Dad saw her last week for a lump that just "popped" up. He said it was something called a "mast cell tumor" and that "those can be really bad. But we won't know until we remove it and send it to the lab".

Rose is really a super tough dog. No wonder every one thinks that I am part Pug. She didn't complain one bit for any of the pokes. My dad spent a long time in the no-awake-dogs-allowed room making sure that he removed every bit of the puffy lump. Rose says she's not afraid of any 'tumor'. She already takes medication every single day and all it means is extra treats for her. I think next time someone asks my mom if I'm part Pug I will stand and wag my tail in agreement; especially if it means I have some of the toughness of sweet Rose!

2010-04-14T22:45:00.000-04:00

Precious was a 10 year old, 4 pound teacup toy poodle. And like most precious things, Precious was breakable. Her parents found that out the hard way today.
"We carry her everywhere, and don't even let her go outside to the bathroom. I just set her down to make myself a snack and she didn't get her legs under her quite the right way. The next thing we knew, blood was coming from her mouth!" Precious' exasperated parents recounted as they rushed into the clinic. "Do you think she's hurt bad?" they questioned worriedly.
The only thing I knew for sure was that she smelled bad. My sniffer is usually pretty good at sensing when things are wrong, and by the smell of it, something had crawled up and died in Precious' mouth long ago.
Mother got the worried look on her face when she looked at the little dog with red syrup dripping from her mouth and teeth jutting out at odd angles. "Well, judging by the look of her, she might have broken her jaw" was the first thing mother could offer. But no sooner did mother try to peek under Precious' lips than she was met with ugly brown teeth snapping at her. "Oh, don't mind her" Precious' mom said "she doesn't like strangers".

"It's good to know that her mouth isn't bothering her too much to keep her from biting" mother offered politely.

Precious got a poke so that she would relax for the black and white pictures. She wasn't fully asleep but she lied still enough for mother to feel the tell-tale grinding in Precious' jaw. "Her jaw is definitely broken" mother told Precious' parents. They sat astonished, "but she barely brushed the ground, how can that be?" they questioned.

"From the look of the x-rays, most of her teeth are rotten and the gum infection turned into a bone infection and weakend her jaw bone. All it took was one little bump and then it broke. She even swallowed one of her teeth -- you can see it in her stomach!" mother pointed out.

So the angry little Precious dog got medicine to fight off the infection and directions to the nearest dog dentist to have her jaw repaired. I see my folks send toothbrushes and toothpaste home with lots of their furry patients. I guess no one ever showed Precious how to care for her teeth -- either that or she tried to kill the toothbrush. I guess it won't matter now, judging by the way her mouth smelled I don't think she'll have any teeth left after the dentist gets done with her!

2010-04-13T21:22:00.000-04:00

Tough to focus today, I can't get my mind off the dog park. Images of frolicking through the fields fill my every thought.

We had lots of visitors at the clinic today, but most were familiar faces. Debbie brought her son, Prince,

and Vonnie brought Shakespeare. Prince came to get a soap treatment, his nails trimmed and to donate some anal gland essence. Shakespeare was on the receiving end of lots of pokes; the kind made to keep us healthy rather than treat us when we get sick.

My dad says "Tax day is keeping the clients away." I don't know where the taxes are but they're not here so I don't know why people would stay away.

Our day got cut short because our girl, Anna, had to go to the human doctor. Turns out that she has a step in her throat and can't go to school. I volunteered myself to nap with her. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it.

2010-04-12T21:33:00.000-04:00

I always look forward to Mondays; a welcome break from the quiet of the den with treats to eat and pets to sniff. But today was a day like no other. Today was the first day of the rest of my life. Today I got to sniff the future, and I have to bark that the future smells great!

Bea and I and my parents were invited to a ground breaking ceremony at the new North Port Dog Park! Every dog who was any dog was there, of course none as nicely dressed as me or Bea. The site was absolutely beautiful, with green as far as the eye could see. There weren’t a lot of good smells there yet, but judging by the furry attendees it won’t take long to make it smell as good as it looks. Of course Bea didn’t waste any time laying down her mark!

There were cookies to eat for both the humans and the dogs, and lots of people with the flashing machines. The humans were busy talking about what the place would be: separate large yards for the big and little dogs, shady trees and fences to keep everyone safe. Bea and I instinctively knew what the place already was; a taste of freedom.

Mother says it’s scheduled to be completed by September 1st. I hope that’s soon because I cannot wait to make my mark. Well -- to make another mark.

2010-04-09T22:37:00.000-04:00

Another day, another Yorkie and another patient needing treatment with the special air. His name was Joe, and he was a 5 year old boy. When he first entered the clinic I thought it wasn't a dog, but a a goose making the strange honking sound. Patient Pam carried him straight to the back, "He doesn't look good. He's purple!" The little guy was trying hard to breathe, "Can't......stop.......coughing", was all he could manage to get out. Although he looked like the normal black and tan color to me, Sweet Sally must have understood the 'purple' code word from Pam because she rushed to get out the special air machine. Mother took one look at the tiny heaving dog and put some drops up his nose followed by an orange tube that she attached to his head. The helpers went about attaching the orange tube to the special air machine, as well as sticking one of the special little tubes in Joe's leg. Mother started putting medicine into the leg tube and pretty soon Joe was so sleepy he was barely able to lift his head. Finally, his breathing slowed, and his harsh honking became more of a gruff snore.
When mother was satisfied with all of the numbers on Joe's monitoring machines she went to go talk to Joe's dad. "Does Joe have a history of coughing like this?" she asked. "No, he's always had a problem with spasms in his throat, but we were told it was some sort of sneezing. He's never been this bad." Joe's father answered.
"It sounds like he's had a problem with reverse sneezing before, but this is a different problem" mother advised. "Joe is showing all the classic signs of a 'collapsing trachea'. It's pretty common in toy breed dogs, their windpipes are born with weak cartilage that collapses easily. If they start to cough, the trachea collapses, and the collapsing irritates the trachea so then they cough more; the more they cough, the more the windpipe collapses, until they're not getting any air at all. The treatment involves getting him to calm down and stop coughing to allow the windpipe to relax and stop collapsing so much. I've sedated him and he's already breathing easier" mother continued.
So Joe stayed for the rest of the day, attached to the special air machine. Mostly he slept but whenever one of the helpers tried to look in his mouth, or put the beeping machine up his hind end, the honking would start again. By the end of the day, he'd had almost three consecutive hours without a honk. Mother told Joe's dad that Joe should go to the overnight clinic to stay on the special air, and stay on the special sleepy medication. "We need a good 24 hours without him coughing at all, to allow the inflammation in his trachea to calm down. If he calms down you can take him home, but you'll need to keep medicine on hand to break the coughing cycle as soon as it starts.
Mother has always said that my trachea collapses because sometimes I cough after running a lot or drinking water. In fact, she says that's why I have to wear a jacket instead of a collar around my neck. Seeing what Joe had to go through, I guess I'm lucky to have a mom that knows what to do to keep me from needing the special air treatment. Although, the sleepy haze medicine doesn't look too bad. Maybe I do feel a little cough coming on.......

2010-04-08T21:56:00.000-04:00

Mother says "the moon must be full". Every furry visitor these days seems to be sick. Yesterday, father kept busy making some dogs teeth go from brown to white, while mother had lots of sick puzzles to figure out. Two cats came in for bringing up red syrup. Their lips were lined in red, but that's where their similarites ended. The bigger cat, Wally, couldn't seem to catch his breath and within a few minutes of his being at the clinic he got the special air blowing in his face Mother had her helpers take some samples of Wally's red syrup and even though they only wanted a little, all of this poke marks kept dripping. "Could he have eaten rat poison?" mother asked Wally's mom. "Not possible" she replied. "Could someone have hurt him? "No, I live alone". "Does he go outside?" "Only on a screened lanai". Questions were answered, as quickly as they were asked. Soon, mother had all her reports back on Wally's syrup and everything was normal. His black and white pictures told a different story, "He's got fluid in his lungs, and since he's bringing up blood, it's probably blood in his lungs. Since Wally's clotting times are normal, something traumatic must have happened to him." "Well, Wally and my other cat, Wilma, do play rough. I have an open second story at my condo, could he get blood in his lungs if he fell?" Wally's mom inquired. "Absolutely " mother answered. "But I thought cat's were always supposed to land on their feet? Wally's mom asked. "Nah, that's sort of an old wives tale. You only hear the stories about the ones that land on their feet. No one ever talks about the ones that don't" mother answered. Silence followed, and I think I heard Bea sort of snicker. She never did like cats. The good news for Wally was that he seemed to respond well to his treatment, and it looks like he'll get to be one of the cats people talk about.

The other cat with the red syrup in it's mouth, was not so lucky. He was just a teenager, and his name was Frisco. Mother knew right away what was wrong with him, she could see it in his mouth, "It looks like something's caught in his throat, I can see a cut on his tongue too." Frisco got a sleeping pinch, so mother could take a closer look. She was not expecting what she found. As she pulled Frisco's tongue out of his mouth to peek behind it, his entire tongue came out in two pieces! It had been cut in half! "There's nothing in there that I can see" and even the black and white pictures were normal. Frisco's dad didn't have any idea of what could have cut the cat's tongue and water started to stream from his eyes when he was made to realize that Frisco couldn't live without his tongue. Silence filled the air again, as we all said a quiet good-bye to the young cat who had managed to purr the whole time his tongue lay in pieces.
Definitely, not a good time to be a cat. Mother says that curiosity disease is a tough one. I sure hope I don't catch it.

2010-04-07T15:48:00.000-04:00

"Things always happen in three's", that's what Sweet Sally said. I heard her say it yesterday after running her 3rd test in a row on cat red syrup. "It's so funny how we won't run one of these tests for months, and then all of a sudden -- three in a row!"

This morning the same thing was true but for Yorkie dogs. Mother saw cute Theodore,

adorable Isabella

and then the Reed couple also came in.

They are truly an amazing couple; for two dogs of the same breed they couldn't look more different. Yogi is a much older man dog, whose heart has been giving him trouble for years, while his young wife, Carmen is three times his size . Vocal Vonnie says that Carmen is a 'gigantor of Yorkies'. "Their physical differences didn't seem to matter when it came to having puppies. They had 21 babies together" Mrs. Reed boasted. "The sad thing is, he really can't stand her but nature took over 3 times and the rest was history" she added.

I imagined myself trying to find a suitor as old as Bea but three times smaller than me, and I just couldn't picture it. In fact, I find it strange that I have no desire to have babies at all. I think that maybe I'm all the cute that this world needs. Bea says, she never really wanted her babies before they came, she just always felt drawn to the boy dogs, some months more than others. She says she never feels that way anymore.

Maybe once you've found a happy den to call home. you just don't want things to change. And I do love my home!

2010-04-06T21:57:00.000-04:00

Busy, busy, busy again today. Mother says “pets are coming out of the woodwork”!

She says, “Some people take their pets to visit their veterinarian twice a year, others twice a decade… and 2010 is the end of a decade.” Now, I admit that I don’t know what a decade is, and that the walls don’t look like their made of wood, but we sure are seeing a lot of pets these days.

Dr. G cat doctor was occupied seeing the whiskery purring patients today. It wasn’t long before the clinic was filled with the sounds of Dad’s sneezing and sniffling. Mother saw a few cats too. One of the “once in a decade” visitors came in for bringing up kibbles mixed with red syrup.

His name was Siam and he was a type of cat called a “Balinese” but he didn’t seem to have any balls in or on his knees. What he did have was a taste for easter grass that he satisfied this weekend. He had been bringing up the kibbles ever since, at least that’s what his mom said. Mother looked the skinny outspoken cat over and thought he looked pretty good for one so sick. Siam’s mom was certain of her furry son’s problem and declined most of the tests but requested some ‘x-rays’. But then Siam’s mom was disappointed that the pictures didn’t have all the answers. “So is the grass in his stomach? Will it pass? What about the stool, is there grass in there? Will he stop vomiting, or will he need surgery? Actually, he’s been vomiting for years, do you think this is related?” My mother went over the pictures, “It does look like there is something in his stomach, but we can’t tell with x-rays what it is. He does not look obstructed right now, or have any signs or peritonitis. I think Siam should stay hospitalized and get intravenous fluids and then see if his stomach will calm down and empty”. Siam’s mother had a different idea and decided to take her sick boy back home. As she was leaving, I heard her mumbling, “all that and still no answers”. I don’t know what will become of Siam, but my mother’s pretty sure that no matter what happens we won’t be seeing Siam again for another decade!

2010-04-05T20:26:00.000-04:00

What a wonderful long weekend! Bea and I certainly enjoyed the extra time at the den. Not only did we get to relax and enjoy ourselves, not being stuck to our usual schedule, but there we wonderful things falling on the ground. Cheese, crackers, ham, cake left over from Anna's birthday, and all sorts of things shaped like eggs. Bea and I didn't really get to enjoy any of the egg shaped delights because whenever one of us would snap something up, mother was right there to shake it out of our mouths.
Anna left some treats lying on the counter though, and Bea already has a plan on how to get them. My parents kept talking about the "bunny", and how it leaves treats behind, and about "going on a hunt". Maybe my mother doesn't notice, but Bea and I go hunting for what rabbits leave behind every day, and even though we don't call it a holiday, Bea and I celebrate and feast whenever we find the treats in the yard!

The humans are definitely acting stranger than usual these day. Bea says it's called "spring fever". Vocal Vonnie has taken to singing a lot and people keep mistaking her from someone on the moving picture box in our den. There's been lots of laughing while they make signs and put them on each other's backs. I don't know what it means, but mothers always using the flashing light machine when she see's it.

Bea and I weren't the only ones eating treats falling from the sky this weekend, because lots of visitors today came in for bringing up kibbles or having nuggets that looked like brown water. My parents had to give out lots of pokes to treat the upset tummies. After seeing what the furry visitors had to go through today, I guess I'm glad all I got was a little mouth shaking.

2010-04-01T21:51:00.000-04:00

Another busy Thursday today, but with one exception. His name was Ace, and his mother brought him in for not acting right. "I saw him sniffing around on the lanai this morning and then I saw him eat something. I didn't worry about it at first, but now Ace is having trouble walking." she reported.
Sweet Sally asked all the usual questions, "Do you have any idea what it was he ate? Anything toxic on your lanai, any pesticides?" "Oh no, nothing like that," Ace's mother replied, "but my son and his friends were out there last night, I'll have to ask him."
Ace's human brother was waiting up front, and from the moment I got a sniff of him I got the sense that he wouldn't have any answers. He had a wide-eyed far away look, almost as if he was asleep while he was awake. I realized, as did my mother, that Ace had the same look. They both had the same smell too; a mix of cigar smoke and skunk.
Mother looked Ace over and took notes as he stumbled when he walked, his general twitchiness, and his subdued attitude. After examining Ace, mother went to talk to Ace's family again. "Are you sure you don't know what Ace could have eaten? If we knew what it was, we wouldn't have to spend time and money running unnecessary tests." mother urged. "Well " Ace's mom started reluctantly "someone might have dropped some pot" .
At the news, mother gave a knowing nod. "In that case, Ace will need to have some activated charcoal and intravenous fluids, and he should be back to his old self in no time. Depending on how much he ate, there is a risk of seizures, so we should keep him for the day." mother quickly summarized.
Ace got the apartment above ours. He had to have a tube put into his mouth with black liquid pumped in, along with the standard tube-in-the-arm treatment. I could hear him stumbling and snoring for most of the day. By the afternoon, his pleasantly mellow attitude had begun to fade and when mother went by the apartment to check on him, Ace lunged at the door. He stayed snarling that way until his mom arrived. "Oh my boy is back!" she squealed with delight, on seeing him.
I have to admit that I liked Ace better when he got into the pot. I hope when they take him home, that they put him back in for awhile.

2010-03-31T18:18:00.000-04:00

Her name was Mandy and she was a toy apricot poodle. Poodles are mother's absolute favorite; and by favorite I mean Bea and myself excepted.
Mandy's dad brought her in because he said "I was sitting on the couch petting her, and her heart felt funny to me; like it was racing. I just need to make sure that nothing's wrong." The comment garnered an unwitnessed eye roll from Vocal Vonnie; that was until she started to look at the panicked poodle herself.
"Well, I admit that I thought this man was crazy when he called, but that's the weirdest feeling heartbeat I've ever felt" Vonnie admitted. "The dog acts like nothing's wrong, though" she added.
Mother spent some time examining the fluffy apricot girl. As she took the tubes out of her ears she said "Well, you're right. Her heart is definitely not normal. She has a very loud heart murmur and the sensation you can feel over her ribs is what we call a 'thrill'. A thrill means that the blood flowing through her heart is flowing so turbulently that it's making everything vibrate. It's a pretty uncommon sign and, by itself, it doesn't tell us what's wrong. We'll need to run some tests to know more." mother advised.

Mandy had to stay for some black and white pictures, and then for the goo covered probe treatment by my dad. All the while Mandy had no idea why she was even at the hospital. "I'm fine. Where is my dad?" she panted. My parents were busy for the next few hours working on the bright screen machine. By the afternoon they had their answers and were talking to Mandy's dad: "We took x-rays and ultrasound images of her heart and sent them to a cardiologist. The good news is that her heart murmur is not causing her heart any trouble right now. The bad news is that the murmur is from a bad valve in her heart and the reason the vibration showed up all of a sudden is likely because a cord holding the valve in place, ruptured. So far her heart is not having a problem, but we except her to start having trouble soon. The first signs will be coughing, lack of energy or not wanting to eat. At that point we'll want to see her back and start heart medication" my parents advised.

"I told you that I was fine!" Mandy panting, eagerly wagging her tail while facing the door. "Time to go, Dad". As soon as she got the signal, Mandy pranced out the door. I could hear her heart sloshing all the way into the parking lot. Mother said Mandy gave new meaning to the term "heart felt good-bye".

2010-03-30T22:56:00.000-04:00

Something I have noticed recently......we are seeing an awful lot of puppies these days. And by we, I mean my parents and their helpers. Bea and I don't as much see the puppies as bark hello in their general direction and try to get a good sniff. Sometimes I notice Bea reverting back to her momma days and she goes for the smelly end to try to clean things up, but mother always makes her stop.

I don't know where all the puppies are coming from. All the humans here at the clinic make such a fuss when the new puppies show up. They come in all shapes and sizes too; some fuzzy, some bald, some with fluffy tails, others with no tails. Mother says puppies are the cutest things in the world. And by the world, she means every where except where I am, of course.

Mother saw one puppy the other day that came in for being 'bloated'. His mother thought he'd eaten a rubber tire, but it turned out that the worms were eating him instead. "We'll give him some medicine and the worms will come out and his belly will shrink in no time", mother advised. Funny, I thought worms made you look skinny, not fat, but I guess that why she's the doctor.

I just know that mother is going to add all the adorable puppy pictures to this blog. So I made sure to put my puppy picture in the group so we'll just let the readers decide who wins the cutest puppy award. I mean, they don't call it Her"RON" creek animal hospital for nothing!

2010-03-29T18:44:00.000-04:00

Today was not a typical Monday. It started the same way they usually do, except Sambuca stayed over.... again. We all rode to the clinic together without incident. It wasn't long after arriving at the villas, that Sambuca's parents came to get him. He was so happy to see them, but I could tell that he was torn about leaving me. He'd developed quite an attachment to me over the weeks, and I knew it would hurt him to be without me. Sambuca fought through his grief and put on a brave little smile and waddled out the door with his parents all the same; tough little guy.

The strangest thing about today was that my mother was having something called a birthday. What I've learned about this strange human ritual is that not all humans celebrate this 'day' the same way. It seems that most of mother's helpers enjoy song and cake on their days, but mothers' was a much more somber event. In fact, it seemed like most of the helpers took to whispering about the birthday, and started to smell of fear if mother got wind of the discussion. There was still cake though, and since Anna was visiting today on account of the fact that she was on a 'spring break', there were lots of delicious crumbs for me and Bea to enjoy.
Well, some people are scared of my mother, but not me, so here goes "Happy Birthday, Mom". You don't look a day over 5 (in dog years, that is).

2010-03-27T22:00:00.000-04:00

It was father's Friday at the clinic. That means mother, Bea and I got to sleep in. Our girl, Anna, was home as well on account of the fact that her ear hurt and her nose had stopped working.

When we did finally make the trek to the clinic, I was not happy to discover that Sambuca had taken over my role as official greeter. He throws his head back just like I do, but he doesn't have the high pitched alarm quality that my voice provides. He practically demands attention, and simply cannot stand for Bea and I to get any sort of affection without getting involved. He's mostly cute and harmless, and I do feel bad for the fact that he can't even walk in a straight line, so I mostly let it go. Today, however, he over stepped his bounds. Not only did he visit our apartment uninvited, but he helped himself to my clear liquid refreshment.
I realize that most dogs do not see sharing a water bowl as any particular infraction. But my mother keeps a tight watch on the water bowl that Bea and I share, on account of the fact that sometimes I have a hard time holding my marking liquid. I admit that I have a tendency to get carried away when I drink and the next thing I know it's coming out the other end. So mother rations our drinks accordingly.

I decided to take the high road and not teach the disabled boy a lesson. I said to Bea, "He's just a guest right, and it's not forever". Of course, Bea kept her mouth shut. I was glad that it was Friday and was looking forward to a quiet weekend at the den when who showed up in our car, but Sambuca. Again. Well one more weekend won't kill me I guess, " But no more piggyback games", I barked at him, "I do have a great game called Tug-of-war-facial-hair that you just might like!"

2010-03-26T14:04:00.000-04:00

Wednesday ended a crazily as it began. In fact, some of the cases from Wednesday turned into cases on Thursday. The last visitor of the day on Wednesday was a Sheltie named Pookie. He was about 10 years old and his parents said “something's just not right with him. We were taking a trip to the Keys and when we got to Marathon and he didn't want to walk or wag his tail anymore, we turned right around. His gums were pale too.” Sweet Sally was the first one to look at Pookie and she told mother that his gums looked light pink when he first came in but have gotten pinker since he sat down. When mother looked Pookie over, she noticed the same thing “His gums get pale when he stands up, but pink up again when he lies down. He also seems tender in his belly. Let's run a few tests.” she said.

Pookie got the black and white pictures taken and some of his red syrup removed. When the testing was all done, mother wheeled the stool into the room with Pookie's parents, which I have learned is never a good thing. “Pookie is anemic” she reported “which means he's losing blood. And on the x-rays there seems to be fluid in his belly, and what looks like a mass on his spleen. We need to get a sample of the fluid. If it turns out to be blood then it means his spleen has ruptured, and he'll need emergency surgery to survive.” Pookie's parents nodded their consent and mother returned shortly with a syringe taken from Pookie's belly that was filled with red syrup. “So the fluid in his belly is blood. This means that he likely has a tumor on his spleen that has broken open and is bleeding. He'll need to have his spleen removed to survive. The other thing you need to know is that these are very aggressive tumors and have almost always spread by the time this happens. Even with surgery today, this tumor will likely recur within 6 – 12 months.” Pookie's parents spent some time in the room alone; water coming from their eyes. Pookie's mom poked her head out a few minutes later and said, “we're just not ready to say good-bye today. This is happening too quickly. Please go ahead with the surgery.” So the team went to work; a pinch in the back, a tube in the arm, fluids running and soon Pookie was asleep, upside down getting his belly shaved. Next was mother's turn in the no-awake-dogs-allowed room. The smell of red syrup started to fill the air and about an hour later, Pookie was getting placed back into one of the empty apartments. Another hour later and Pookie was standing up looking for his parents. They got instructions to take him to the overnight clinic for 'observation'. “Thank you so much for giving Pookie a second chance” they said as they carried him out the door. By that time I was too tired to even bark a farewell, but was glad to know that I didn't have to say good-bye.

Mother posted some pictures of Pookie's spleen below. Don't look if you get squeamish.

The thin part is the normal part.

2010-03-26T12:39:00.000-04:00

Don't worry faithful Ronnie readers....I'm back. Well the truth is I never went away, my blogging connection got temporarily interrupted.

Wednesday was a super busy day. Mother was seeing the visitors and father was cleaning teeth. Helpers, pets and my parents were running all over the place.

Vocal Vonnie fell head over tail in love with one of the visitors. The fluffy little one had wandered up to some new parents and they knew instantly that this was to be their new dog. They called her Gina, until Vonnie pointed out that 'she' was a 'he'. And that's how Gina became Gino. Vonnie wanted Gino for herself and made every effort to convince the new parents that she was the one who had lost him. For those of you that don't know Vonnie very well; she has a thing for boy Pomeranians and Gino was no exception. Mother looked him over and took some red syrup to look for heartworms. There were no worms on the test so Gino left with a clean bill of health, and a promise from Vonnie to take him if things didn't work out.

2010-03-23T21:53:00.000-04:00

It seems like our weeks follow a pattern now; a quiet Monday and then a whirlwind Tuesday. And so another hurricane Tuesday rolled in. Mother spent the morning making the visitors nap with the help of some pinch medicine. The large American Bulldog, Bull, came in to have his boy parts removed. After he was done most of his parts looked the same, but it was as if mother just let the air out of the part between his legs. Bea said some of the girls she used to live with had teats that looked like that, especially after they'd had lots of babies, but she'd never see a boy grow anything like it.

Another dog, Smiley, came in and was soon snoring away with the help of mother's sleeping pinch. He had to have one of his big teeth removed. I'd overheard Smiley's mom talk about food falling out of Smiley's mouth, like it hurt him. Mother had found a broken tooth and spent the morning removing it.

When Smiley woke up he wasn't making much sense. He panted something about a dream involving a rock hitting him in the face, and that it didn't hurt him to pant anymore. I was happy to see that Smiley would be smiling again soon.

Dr. G, cat doctor, was also in full swing today. He had a pair of sister kittens come in for their first visit. They were not shy in the least and had a great time roaming around the visiting room. Mother spoke of them having a life-threatening disease, something called 'curiosity', but they didn't look the slightest bit sick to me. My dad let them leave with a smile and wave, so he must have thought that they looked ok too. I guess that's why they call him the cat doctor.

2010-03-22T21:15:00.000-04:00

I had a dog filled weekend. And you won't hear me bark one complaint. From my blog on Friday you know that I had a visitor at my den this weekend. Sambuca was lots of fun, but I never did understand the game he wanted me to play. It worked out well that the next day mother took him back to the clinic. Bea and I spent the rest of the weekend with my Aunts Tara and Becky. Usually I see Becky on my turf at the clinic where she specializes in shaking and drooling. She is a different dog in her own territory and a formidable opponent; I have to work very hard for every toy and treat. I was honestly dog-tired by the end of the day. Bea gets tired too, but for a different reason; she has to work hard to find hiding spots.

My parents went off to their special school in Orlando. This time they learned about drugs. I only know this because today at the clinic mother was busy rearranging and organizing all of the pills on the shelves. I don't think I'll ever understand higher education.

The clinic was filled with soothing white noise today. Bea was licking, Sambuca was snoring and Patient Pam was cleaning. Sweet Sally helped mother with some happy visits and all in all it was a nice day. Even our tiniest visitor, an old lady Pomeranian named Pixie, survived eating some of her mother's medication. At least that's what everyone thought. “The pills rolled under the oven” Pixie informed me as she fought to keep down the black charcoal syrup she had been forced to swallow, “why would I eat some bitter pills when I won't even eat dog food” she reasoned. I had to admit that sometimes the humans don't make any sense. I guess that's why my parents had to go to the extra school to understand the drugs. If only the school had known that the pills were under the oven, then Pixie would have been allowed to keep her kibbles down. Goes to show you, school can't teach you everything!

2010-03-19T22:40:00.000-04:00

Friday is finally here! Visitors are great when they're just visiting, but when they start renting villa space and treating the place like it belongs to them I'm much less enthusiastic. Mother says that guests are like leftovers, after 3 days they both start to smell. I've smelled some of mother's leftover and no way do these guests smell that good!
Mikhail has done a good job healing. Sadly, his aroma of cat nuggets and red syrup is gone. His mom was able to come and take him home. I wasn't sad to see him go. His first few days here he was a typical cat guest; quiet and sulky. But today he found his voice and was telling everyone that it was time for him to go home. We agreed.

Sambuca got all packed up to go home too. He's been a perfect guest; not so much as a single whine or howl to get out of his apartment. I was a little sad to be seeing him go. Little did I realize that the only place he was going was home to my den. I would happily have endured a little sadness rather than share my den.

I am not the least bit jealous -- just because Sambuca is quiet, polite, has a flatter face than me and everyone thinks he's super cute, is not a reason to be jealous.

To prove that I could rise above any petty problems (no pun intended), I made every effort to make Sambuca feel welcome. Bea says he's a big flirt. I thought he just wanted to play a different kind of game, one I was not familiar with. It started with us taking turns comparing our tails, whomever puts their tail farther up the other one's nose wins. Sambuca declared me the winner but then I had to give him a piggyback ride. Strange game. I didn't really get it and Bea didn't want to play at all.

Mother said "Ewwww" when she saw my jacket after we were done playing; it was all wet. I guess that's what you get for being nice to visitors!

2010-03-18T22:07:00.001-04:00

Strange days. The humans gathered at lunch and raised their voices in song. I do kind of admire their ability to all sing together, and they don't even throw their heads back when they howl. It's amazing how the voices carry nonetheless. Todays song went something like "Happy Bird day to Pam, Your as old as the sand, Happy bird day ear jam. Happy third day to you."

I don't pretend to understand this human ritual. Usually it is followed with blowing on flaming sticks and the eating of cake. I've only tried the crumbs of the sweet cake and let me tell you that enduring the humans song is well worth the ear ache. But today, there was no cake to be found. Instead, an arrangement of sweet smelling fruit pieces appeared instead.

There must have been something extra special in that fruit because Brawny Brandon and Patient Pam started acting very strange. Mother always steers clear of the fruit -- now I think I know why.

Brawny Brandon thought one of the red fruit pieces could look just like his tongue. Sambuca took one look at the odd party and thought he'd try to fit in. He managed the look pretty well, and without a strawberry. He's more talented than I thought.

2010-03-17T22:27:00.000-04:00

Our clinic was filled to the brim with the pitter patter of happy feet. And when I bark about feet, I mean feet, not paws, because the pitter patter was from lots and lots of human feet this morning. Vocal Vonnie had arranged for a special meeting with Dr. Summit, the pet tooth doctor, and people came from all over to hear him speak. He brought dog and cat skulls, lots of pictures of teeth and some delicious smelling breakfast snacks. Bea and I were shuttled to our portable den in the back. Mother sometimes does this when she wants to have people concentrate on something other than how cute Bea and I are.

Of course, to add to the chaos of the human visitors we had several dog and cat friends staying for the day. Giant Mikhail was still there. His mom wanted to make sure that the smell of cat nuggets and red syrup was well under control before taking him back home. While I adore the smell of him, mother was less than pleased that Mikhail's odor was the first impression her human guests got of the clinic.
We've also had another furry friend visiting. Mother calls it 'boarding' but our villas are much nicer than just some place made out of boards. His name is Sambuca and he's a pekingnese. His back went out a few years ago and he had to have special procedure done so he could walk again. Now his back sometimes still bothers him and he has to get carried everywhere he goes. None of mother's helpers seem to mind carrying him though. He's got a cute short face like mine and his tongue's too big for his mouth. Obviously not quite as adorable as me, but pretty close.
Mother says to bark a "Happy St.Patrick's Day" to everyone, especially people like Vonnie. I think it's nice that the humans who like to talk a lot and come from a place called 'New York city' get their own day. I wonder if there will be a Veronica day; everyone could wear large fluffy tails, have a dress-up-and-wag parade and we'd eat all the rabbit nuggets, lean treats and kibbles a pup could ever want. Now that's my idea of a holiday!

Smell my finger

2010-03-16T21:49:00.000-04:00

Mikhail spent the night at the clinic but to my dismay most of his yummy aroma was missing. I don't think he had moved from where he woke up from his nap. I'm not sure if that was because he didn't feel well, or because he was just too heavy to move.
Brawny Brandon gave him the soap treatment in the morning and Mikhail regaled us with his singing voice. All in all he's a pretty mellow cat. I don't think I would be as polite the morning after father had let his fingers do the walking in my colon.

Mother often refers to my dad as 'Dr. G, cat doctor' and that was definitely true today. There were two other cats in the clinic for procedures; one having his boy parts removed, the other having his fish breath removed. My father is super brave working on all those cats too. Not just because they hiss and scream and swat, but because cats make my father sick. He doesn't bring up his kibbles or anything, but when cat hair touches his nose the clear slime starts to drip, water fills his eyes and a strange gurgle comes to his throat. And yet, he will not let a cat visitor go without his help. I truly love my dad, but sometimes I wish he'd help me as much as he helps the cats that make him sick. Since yesterday he says that his fingers smell like cat nuggets and he won't even let me lick them. Come on, dad, just one lick!

2010-03-15T22:37:00.000-04:00

Today started out quietly enough. My parents were up extra early this morning for some reason; mother hurried us out of the den while it was still dark out. When we got to the clinic I still couldn't figure it out; no visitors were waiting for her. The morning proceeded smoothly, and all of the visitors were happy. It wasn't until the afternoon that all the mayhem broke loose.

It started with the biggest cat I've ever seen. His name was Mikail and he was bigger than me and Bea put together weighing in at over 26 lbs! He smelled like a cat nugget sand box and I was instantly intrigued. "He's been having trouble going to the bathroom for quite awhile" Mikhail's mom said "but today I noticed the blood and brought him right over". Red syrup and cat nuggets, without a doubt two of my favorite smells! Mother took one look at the large cats' hind end and said "Well, it looks like he's got an anal gland abscess" as she started to put on the green hand coverings. After feeling around she revised her diagnosis, "The anal gland is infected but I think that Mikhail's biggest problem is that he is very constipated as well. He'll have to stay to be sedated and disimpacted." My father got to oversee the removal of all of Mikhail's nuggets while mother continued seeing her afternoon visitors; one dog with heartworms, another bringing up the kibbles, a third needing family counseling for biting his grandmother. The clinic was humming right along as the sweet smell of cat nuggets filled the air. Sweet Sally was helping my dad wash the nuggets out and when some of the brown liquid flew through the air and Sally laughingly said "..and that's why you keep your mouth shut when you do this." Good thing Vocal Vonnie wasn't at the clinic today I thought; she's always wishing she'd kept her mouth shut.

2010-03-13T21:37:00.000-05:00

Teeth. I've always thought of my teeth as tools; tools to help me eat, tools to help me pick up my toys, and they come in very handy to nip Bea in the backside when she refuses to play with me. I've never thought to use my teeth as weapons in any real sense. Sometimes when I'm playing kind of rough with my friends, and they get a little out of control, I'll bite them extra hard just to get them back in line. But I've never used my teeth to hurt anyone for real.
The past few days, I've seen several cases where dogs have apparently used their teeth with the sole purpose to inflict harm. My little human sister, Anna, has gotten in big trouble before for trying to use her teeth. She sometimes gets really angry when she's playing and not allowed to have her way, and out come the chompers. My folks get really angry when she tries that. I've seen her sitting in a special chair facing the wall more times than I can count. Not that I know how to count anyway.
Yesterday we saw two dog bite cases. One was on a sweet older Golden Retriever. Her wounds were more of statment than an injury. She had two holes on one leg and neither of them were very deep, according to mother.

The other dog that we saw was named Jack Daniels, he was a pitbull. Jack had a big giant head, and was every bit as gentle as he was scary-looking. To bark that he was brought in for a dog bite would be an understatement, sort of like saying that I'm a little bit cute. It was actually hard to find a place on Jack without a bite wound. Mother was amazed that he was still standing. Red syrup oozed from his nose, his lips, and three out of four of his legs. The fourth leg was oddly swollen with straight slashes in his flesh. "We came home to find that my other dog had been fighting him. He must have got out of this cage" Jack's father recounted. Mother and her helpers exchanged knowing glances as they took Jack in to clean his wounds. "Do you think this is a fighting dog?" Vocal Vonnie asked. " I've never seen a pitbull get this chewed up before. It's got to make you wonder. The wounds on the swollen leg look like he was tied down" mother replied. Jack got the benefit of a sleeping pinch as the team went to work removing all the fur and cleaning his sores, and getting medicine to clear out any infection. Mother was also worried about the way Jack's heart sounded, "I think these wounds are at least a day old. I'll bet he's been too weak to drink anything and now he's dehydrated." So Jack got the fluid treatment too. Within a few hours his raw, shaved tail was starting to wag.
Mother talked into the box on the wall asking, "Can someone come down and take a look? I don't want to scare off the owner, but maybe you can do a drive by their place? See if there's any signs of other dogs, or a fight ring?" But sadly no one came, not before Jack's dad came to pick him up. The saddest thing of all was that Jack was wagging his tail more at mother and her helpers than he did when his dad came to get him. Seeing what another dog had done to Jack with his teeth, really made me realize what weapons teeth can be. I sure hope that Jack never has to be on the receiving end of those weapons again.

2010-03-11T20:39:00.000-05:00

I discovered a completely new and novel threat today. I was always under the impression that fleas were my biggest enemy. Bea's had fleas before, and tells stories of the pesky critters keeping you up at night crawling all over your skin. We've had numerous visitors here at the clinic come in with similar complaints; so itchy they can't sleep, chewing holes in their own skin! Mother sends them with something called Comfortis. It tastes like dirt, but you won't see a flea on me! Today I realized that fleas are nothing compared to the other crawling creature - the tick.

Jojo, the 85 lb american bull dog was carried in today. He seemed happy enough, panting and looking around. As mother looked him over he told me that he'd had the strangest past few days, "It started on Monday, I kept tripping over my feet, by Wednesday I couldn't walk without falling down and today my back legs weren't working at all! I feel fine, nothing hurts, my legs just won't move!" Jojo panted. Mother was definitely intrigued, and she told Jojo's parents, "Usually this type paralysis is from a ruptured disk in the back, but that almost always causes severe pain. Jojo acts like he's perfectly fine otherwise." No sooner had mother finished explaining disk problems than I heard her say "Ah Ha!" as she pinched a brown ball from off of Jojo's skin. "It's an engorged tick.... that would explain everything. Some ticks carry a toxin that will cause tick paralysis. If this is the problem then Jojo should start walking again in a few days" mother gushed encouragingly. "You mean ticks can paralyze you?" Jojo's parents asked in disbelief. "Absolutely, I've seen about three cases of it in my career. If the tick stays attached long enough, the dogs can even die. Lucky we found the tick. Now Jojo stands to make a fully recovery" mother advised. Patient Pam and Sweet Sally then went about the task of giving Jojo a bath in something called Frontline spray, which was supposed to kill any other ticks that mother didn't find.

Even though that spray smelled really bad, I was hoping that mother would bring some my way. I cannot have my legs paralyzed by some creepy crawly bug. That would definitely ruin my signature whole body wag that everyone loves so much.

2010-03-10T20:37:00.000-05:00

After the late night last night, we got to sleep in a little today. And by sleeping in I mean that I wake mother up at the exact same time every day, but after she feeds me and lets me out, I let her go back to sleep for awhile. Bea and I are extremely thoughtful that way.
Father trudged on into the clinic early. He had a day of Busters. Buster One had to get his parts put back in by Dr. Quinn surgery woman. Buster One has had surgery once a year for the past three years, father says. His folks say that Buster One must work for the IRS because every year the tax check pays his bills.
Buster Two, is one of the beagle clan that came to our grand opening party. He was the newest arrival to the clan and still had all of his boy parts; at least he did until he came in for his sleeping procedure with my dad today.

By the time Bea and I arrived at the clinic there was quite a duet of singing Busters. Shortly after we got there, Aunt Becky came for her soap treatment. Mother couldn't get over how long Becky's nails were. "It's been too cold to walk her for the past few weeks, so I've just been letting her out in the yard" Nana said. "I guess what she doesn't grow in hair, she makes up for in nails!" she added.

Mother just shook her head, "Poor ugly Becky" she said " a face only my mother could love ".

You would think that a dog that looked like that would make up for her furry shortcomings with a shining personality. I mean I don't even need to be as sweet and wonderful as I am, given my extreme cuteness, but I can't help it, I just love everybody. Not ugly Becky, she likes Nana, and her sister Tara, and pretty much growls at everyone else. Nana says she's all talk, but when it came time to having her toenails done, no one wanted to chance it.

Becky had to wear a black 'party hat', as sweet Sally calls it. Call it what you want, it doesn't look like a party to me!

2010-03-09T22:27:00.000-05:00

Strange day. We went from a sleepy Monday to a crazy Tuesday. In the morning I was certain that there was something wrong with my eyesight. Everything I looked at was in black and white. We had two Papillon brothers come in, Harvey and Jack. They spent the day with us while mother and her helpers gave them pokes, gathered red syrup, trimmed toenails and looked them over. They were cute boys, but decidedly too bossy. The Papillons enjoyed one of the big apartments and that somehow made them think that they were in charge of the place. I had to raise my voice more than a few times, just to drown them out.

I had to do a double take when the next dog that came to stay also was black and white. She was a puppy; a screeching, wiggling, wagging puppy. She was terrified to be by herself, and was shouting to anyone who would listen. Her name was Hayley. She took one look at Harvey and Jack, and felt a connection with them.
I was busy being terrified that my eyesight was going and was imagining a future of only black and white.
Then, I looked over at Bea; her pink ear calling to me, longing to be cleaned. I realized that her pink ear was neither black or white. What a relief!
As it happens the rest of the visitors were a variety of colors, and I enjoyed every one of them. At the end of the night we even had a visitor covered in red... syrup that is. Laughing Laura wasn't laughing when she told the team that the dog, whose name was Bessie, had been "hit by a car". I've never smelled or seen so much red syrup in one place. Bessie was bravely stoic, and behaved calmly despite that fact that her elbow was broken in two pieces with bone parts sticking out. My parents remained calm; father put a plastic tube in the dogs back leg and mother gave her some happy sleep medicine. With a large bandage on her mangled leg, Bessie went off to the emergency clinic for the night. Mother's pretty sure that Bessie will have to have her damaged leg removed. Bessie sure is one tough girl though, if anyone can make it with only three legs, I know she can!

2010-03-08T21:30:00.000-05:00

It was the best of times....

No, I really mean it; we had the best time at my parents party on Saturday. Absolutely, everyone was there. It was a sniffers paradise. It seems like Beagles really know how to sniff out a party too, because there were lots of beagles at our grand opening. JJ couldn't make it. I think he just wanted his house to himself for a little while. Kali and Ruben stopped by, and were wearing their Saturday best! They were working hard to win the costume prize money but a cutie pie Min.Pin named Maggie Mae stole the show. Mother's not so much into letting Bea and I get dressed up, otherwise I know that I could have given Mags a run for the prize. We had to wear our black football jackets that mother just loves – go figure.

The best news of the whole day was that Penny got to find a new home. The nice lady from the Canine Castaways van took one look at Penny, started talking into a little box in her ear and the next thing I knew Penny was meeting a nice new family. I think Penny knew it was her big chance. She had stopped growling and me and Bea a couple of days earlier, but I really thought with all the new dogs in the place that she would be extra nervous. But she was just the opposite. As the visitors came in, Penny was wagging her tail and even doing some sweet howl-talking to get attention. That Penny was sure smarter than she looked. Her new family was so happy to have an older dog like her to go walking with. I hope that they'll live happily ever after.

Duke the police dog came and put on a show. All of the little humans were very impressed. I didn't see what the big deal was. So he can sniff things out. Believe me, if mother had any idea how much popcorn and sandwich bits I sniffed out that day, she'd have me working for the police too. Either that or locked in my apartment for the next party, one or the other.

I sure hope that my parents keep having these parties. I was so disappointed that only one of my Brussels relatives came for the gathering. I just know that if I can get the bark out that I can rally the Brussels troops and we can outnumber the Beagles.

2010-03-05T22:43:00.000-05:00

What I love most about my clinic is that I learn something new every day! I realize that I'm young but I don't exactly lead a sheltered life. I've probably met more dogs in the past year than most pups get to sniff in a whole life time. I feel that I'm an authority on all things canine, and yet, after a day like today, I find I still have things to learn.

We had the pleasure of some Beagle sisters visiting today. Their names are Mahjong and Miley. Their dad works next door to our clinic so whenever they need anything they usually stay for the whole day. This was the first day that they both came together. The girls needed their nails done and were perfect ladies while their paws were getting worked on. It was only after the pedicures were finished that I found out how close these sisters really were.

I think I've barked about my sister, Bea, before. She's not really a sister in the sense that we came from the same litter of pups, but rather my sister through life; loving me no matter what. Miley and Mahjong are the same kind of sisters. But unlike Bea and I, they choose to show their love for one another in a very different way.

Admittedly, the villas at the clinic are both spacious and private and I could see that the girls would feel perfectly at home. It wasn't until the entire apartment complex started shaking that I knew something very different was going on. Bea knew right away, she smelled something in the air. Penny must have known too, because I caught her tail wagging. My dad said "if the cages are a'rockin' don't come a'knockin' ". Mother was both shocked and amused wondering, "Are they contributing to a sexually charged work environment? Do we need to get them a private room?" All the while the rest of the staff were laughing. Mahjong and Miley were not fazed in the least and continued their antics for most of the morning.

One of our most handsome guests is a beautiful Labrador Retriever man dog named Dallas. "He's gorgeous" as vocal Vonnie would say. "Well I am looking for a mate for him" Dallas' mother offered. "If you know of any pretty girls for my Dallas, please let me know". Dallas had his own ideas. He took one look at the Beagle sisters and thought that he'd found his match. It was all the girls could do to keep him from knocking down the villa walls.

As you well know, I'm a big fan of mixed breed dogs such as myself, but something tells me that LabraBeagles were not what Dallas' mom had in mind!

2010-03-04T21:19:00.000-05:00

Lots going on at the clinic today. We had one old blind lady dog in to have her red syrup tested; father thinks she has the Cushions disease and it caused her to lose her vision.
Dancing Debbie brought her son Prince in to have a pedicure done. He was really good for it. I hate having my toenails done. It doesn't matter if they use the quick-snip tool or the grinder; I hate them both. I've tried to bite the grinder before, but it doesn't make it stop.

Mother's tail would have been wagging today if it could have. She's been working to make the clinic pretty and Mr. Kirk came by to help. Before I knew it, the plain wall was transformed into the most glorious wall of food. Food, food, as far as my eyes could see. I could hardly believe it. I'm pretty sure that if I was a human, water would have come to my eyes. But instead the water just filled my mouth as I imagined myself scaling the shelves to sample each of the delights.
Yep, I sure do like coming to the clinic. And it just keeps getting better.

2010-03-03T20:38:00.000-05:00

I think I'm starting to make some progress in the Penny department. For the first time, I walked and even sniffed by her apartment and did not get the snarling teeth. It seems that I am every bit as adorable and irresistable as I'd thought. I can't say that we're friends yet, especially since she's been rubbing her nose raw to try to hide her food from me, but we're definitely making progress. And just as Penny was getting used to me and Bea, in walked Aunt Tara and Becky. Penny gave them the snarl-spit-go-away show, but I can't blame her, Becky is pretty scary looking.
Even though we've been light on visitors, the clinic's busy energy has been steady with everyone putting the finished touches on the party preparations. My parents finished working with the wet wall color and manage to get it only on the walls today. Mr. Kirk is due back tomorrow to "make the place look fabulous" as mother says. Vocal Vonnie spent the day organizing goodie bags and ordering tasty treats. I did my part and worked tirelessly on Bea's ears. I want those puppies spotless for Saturday. A clean ear shows love, that's what I say.

2010-03-02T22:00:00.000-05:00

Work is ongoing for the big party on Saturday. Mother really got into it. She was in charge of putting new wet color on the walls and managed to color herself too.

The smell from that color makes you feel funny in your head. The smell was the reason that I thought I was seeing double today.

We had two Shelties come in, that looked just like my Aunt Mona. One I knew pretty well, her name is Alice. She's been here a lot, usually with her little brother Taco, attached to her hip. Today her hip was hurting so she left Taco at home. Alice had lots of black and white pictures taken to find exactly what was bothering her. "Nothing broken" mother concluded "but Alice has some pretty bad arthritis". "We're not surprised to hear that" Alice's mother offered "she was abused as a puppy. She was kept in the basement in her former home, and little kids would ride on her back." Mother was shocked to hear how such a sweet little dog could be so mistreated.

But she was not nearly as shocked as I was. At the very same time that Alice was being discussed, I was listening to the sad beginnings of the other sheltie. He had been in the clinic overnight for bringing up his kibbles. His name was Ubu. "I've lived a good long life" he started "although it didn't start off so good. I was kept in the basement for the first 6 months of my life. Finally I was rescued by my human parents. Since then I've lived a life of luxury, but my time in the darkness has never left me. I only really come alive at night. My parents like to say I'm 'nocturnal', whatever that means." Listening to Alice's story, and then to Ubu's I couldn't help but wonder if they shared the same basement at some point in time.
I didn't even know what a basement was until Bea explained it to me. Apparently it's part of a house that is under ground; usually cool, dark and with the comforting smell of earth. But neither of the sheltie's stories sounded comforting. No wonder they are both such tolerant patients; compared to life 'in the basement' time spent in our clinic is a walk in the park.

See a Penny pick it up......

2010-03-01T21:26:00.000-05:00

Monday morning arrived as expected and there Penny was to greet us. And by greet us I mean have all her hair stand up on end and snarl at me and Bea. So far, I haven't got close enough to Penny to see if she really means what she says. Mother's fond of reminding everyone that Bea growled and snapped and me when we first met, and now Bea's a big push over. Mother says Penny's really a good dog; and by good dog she means that she doesn't yell at any strangers or mark her cage with the yellow liquid. She spent the day taunting me and Bea by leaving a completely full bowl of food in her villa and not eating it. I even smelled some super delicious treats intentionally left uneaten. Mother thinks Penny is just used to eating people food. Mother says we're just going to wait her out until she gets hungry. My plan is to sneak into her villa when she's out for a walk and polish off her leftovers. I've never met a leftover I didn't like.
Mother and Brawny Brandon worked on Penny's sore anal gland. Penny did not like it one bit! Mother says "It's healing just fine". I don't know how long Penny will be staying with us because I heard mother talking about her to someone today. I don't think she's a bad dog, but you do have to wonder about anyone who doesn't like me.
The clinic was kind of busy today otherwise. Mother mostly saw itchy dogs with problems ranging from flea bites, to tick bites, to growing yeast and allergies. Father was working to get the place ready for the big party on Saturday. I can't wait! It's going to be just my thing; wagging hello to throngs of future friends and showing off my den away from den. Many of the pets mentioned in this blog will likely be there, and I'm always looking for new friends to feature. Plan on coming to clinic at 10 am on Saturday; you won't want to miss it!

Penny anyone?

2010-02-27T00:26:00.000-05:00

The bark must be out. Every pet and their person stopped by today to see the new and improved clinic. Some came for their happy visits too, and despite getting the pokes tails kept wagging.

We had one very scared visitor today too. She was a 9 year old black lab mix and her name was Penny. At first I thought she was scared thinking my parents might hurt her. It was only a short while later that I realized why she was really scared.
"She's just too much for us" Penny's mom pleaded. "My husband's disabled and can no longer care for her. I'm so busy caring for him, that I can't care for her. And now her back end is bleeding. We think she should be put to sleep." Bea instantly cringed at hearing this. I didn't think twice, knowing that mother gives out sleeping pinches every day. The difference was, that pets wake up from mother's sleeping pinches. Once Bea told me what this lady was really talking about, I understood why Penny was so scared.
Mother examined Penny, who had to wear a muzzle because she was afraid for her life -- literally. "It looks like the blood is coming from an infected anal gland. We can treat that with antibiotics and she'll get better right away" mother advised. But the news that Penny's problem was easily fixed did not register as happy news to Penny's family. "We just can't take care of her any longer. She's afraid of people and other dogs. None of the shelters will take her. What are we supposed to do?" Penny's mom ranted. Mother looked into Penny's frightened eyes and said "If we can find a shelter to take her, will you agree to not have her euthanized?" And that was how Penny came to stay at our clinic.
Mother called one of her friends at Canine Castaways; the same place that Aunt Becky came from. She agreed to keep Penny until they could judge for themselves if she was too scared to live. I've heard of being afraid for your life, but I never knew that being so afraid could cost you your life.

Mother says that anyone who might like to give her another chance should call the clinic on Monday. Penny's resting quietly in one of the villas now. She turns her back to us, but is otherwise pretty calm. I'm sure she would say 'thanks' if she could.

2010-02-25T21:22:00.000-05:00

Cold weather is back, and pets and their people must be staying snuggled safely in their dens. Our clinic was strangely empty today, especially after our busy past few weeks. It was a nice break since Bea, mother and I got to sleep in. Actually the new clinic was the patient today. Mr. Kirk came in to "dress it up" as mother would say. I sniffed around but didn't see a single new dress in the place, but things sure do look different. Mother says change is good. Bea says nothing good comes when things change, and likes to have the exact same routine day in and day out. I still haven't made up my mind yet. I have smelled some of the good snacks closer to the ground, so I think change might be good after all.

We did get updates from some of our recent visitors. Turns out that Teagan the golden retriever didn't have cancer after all. Lots of tests were done, and so far the humans seem really sure what Teagan doesn't have, but no one really knows what she does have. Teagan doesn't mind too much. The look of relief on her parents face when they found out it wasn't cancer has kept her in good spirits despite it all.

Donatello came back for another black and white picture of his leg. Mother says "it looks good" and for the first time in a month, Donatello did not have to have a wrap on his leg. He was ecstatic. "You don't know how hard it's been to do my ninja moves with that thing on my leg. Wait 'til they see what I can do now!" he beamed as he trotted home. There are some things I just don't share with mother, no point in worrying her.

One final update, Shadow's test on her yellow marking liquid came back free of the bugs. So Sweet Sally bought Shadow a big bag of new food to keep the crystals away. Wonder what I have to do to make some crystals in my marking liquid?

2010-02-24T21:39:00.000-05:00

JJ came in to the clinic today. He's one of our regulars. Sweet Sally brushes his teeth once a week, but despite all her hard work, the brown crust kept building on his teeth. So he came in to have his teeth cleaned -- not that he knew that when he arrived. His signature move is a whole body wiggle. I think he's trying to wag his tail, but it ends up that his whole body wiggles instead. Everyone thinks he's "just the cutest thing".

He was also the bravest thing for all of his pokes, and he woke up from his nap with out some much as a whine. Of course, as a toy dog, I would expect nothing less. JJ knows how to represent. My dad seems to totally love the little guy.

Of course, all the attention served only to make Bea jealous. I am always secure knowing that I am my family's one true love. JJ may have a cute wiggle, but nothing compared to me.

Poor Bea, she only has a little nub of a tail that barely shakes. So when she got the chance to jump into dad's arms, she took it. Little did she realize that Sweet Sally was coming for some of the sweet smelling anal sac essence. Be careful what you wish for Bea, that's all I can say.

2010-02-23T21:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I told you all about Shadow's visit, and barely mentioned my good buddy, Gomer. He was dropped off at our clinic one day, by some nice people who had found him wandering down the road. It was love at first site for Sweet Sally, who knew right away that Gomer belonged in her family. Shadow accepted him right away too, which was big for Shadow seeing as she usually picks fights with smaller dogs. Everyone thinks Shadow is Gomer's mother, which is just fine by Gomer. In fact, he'll let anyone be his mother if you have food, or are offering to pet him, or have food, or a squeaky toy, or some food....

One of the things I like best about Sally's kids is that they are mixed like me. Sweet Sally did a test on Shadow's red syrup to find out exactly what kind of mix Shadow was; turns out she's American Eskimo whatever that is.
Sally's been saving up to run the same test on Gomer, and for her birthday, she got her wish. Gomer's red syrup went off in an envelope and soon we will all know just what his parents looked like. Most of the bets seem to be on Beagle, but the other half is the real mystery.

He certainly has the beagle persistence. Yesterday, Gomer came along for the ride to keep Shadow company. To occupy him, he was allowed to have a squeaky toy. In all of his vigorous play he would push the toy just out of his reach. But Gomer's not one to take 'no' for an answer, and before anyone realized what had happened he'd chewed his leash in half getting to the toy. His effort and dedication was truly impressive. I knew then that he must be half Brussels Griffon.

After all, we Brussels always get what we want.

2010-02-22T20:31:00.000-05:00

Another week ended and no Friday blog. Mother spent the night working at an emergency clinic and all Bea and I got to see was the inside of our cozy cave. I gave the typing thing a whirl but only mother can seem to translate what I want to say into the written word.
I think everyone was busy enjoying the beautiful weather today, because the inside of our clinic was pretty empty. The only pets that came to see us were the itchy ones. Dad says it's cause of the pollen in the air. Pollen doesn't seem to bother me any, or Bea for that matter. Come to think of it, all the pets that came in today for ear problems were some form of bull dog, both english and pitt. Looks like the tough dogs may not be so tough after all.

Since we had some free time this morning, Sweet Sally went home to get her furry children and brought them for a visit. Their names are Gomer and Shadow. Gomer is a complete sweetheart but Shadow always licks her lips when she looks my way, and I don't think it's to give me a kiss.
Shadow had to get some pokes and some of the red syrup taken. Also Sally got some of Shadow's marking liquid and found that Shadow had crystals. Sweet Sally says "having crystals in your urine is like peeing glass". Mother says "girls dogs usually only have crystals for one reason -- infection". So poor Shadow had to go upside down while father poked her belly to get even more of the yellow liquid. Sweet Sally whispered into Shadow's big ears the whole time. "It's ok Shadow, just one more poke, we need to see if you have an infection. If the culture turns out negative, you get to try a special diet to make the crystals go away for good!" You have to paw it to Sally, she finds the good side of just about any situation.
Of course, knowing that Shadow likes to munch on little dogs, I thought seeing Shadow on her back was the good side of that situation.

2010-02-18T21:49:00.000-05:00

Mother was busy up to her elbows in dog mouths again today. Actually the dogs were all my size so only her hands seemed to disappear in the sleeping dogs jaws. Watching mother and Vocal Vonnie work on pets teeth you'd really have to know that they were even working on a dog because to look at them all you see is a heating blanket covered in wires and tubes. Mother says "Keeping the little guys warm while they're asleep is one of the most important parts of the procedure". It makes perfect sense to me. I love to be warm. My favorite place to sleep is buried deep under layers of blankets.

Vonnie says that one of the patients was famous. Not famous like me; the star of a veterinary clinic with people waiting on my every need, but famous in that he was in a movie. The dogs name was Humphrey and apparently he starred in a movie about aliens that turned angry when they got wet. Mother thought that he was super cute and adorable. Not super cute and adorable like me, but still pretty good. I was happy to know that even the famous pets get bad breath and need to have their teeth cleaned. As it turned out, mother found another one of those buried missing teeth in Humphrey and he's going to have to visit the special tooth doctor to have it removed. I didn't have to remind Bea that all my teeth came in perfectly and not one of my baby teeth had to be extracted. I had to paw it to mother though, that Humphrey dog had a certain I don't know what. I will keep a look out for him after his dentist visit, maybe he can give me some pointers on how to start my own movie career. I'm pretty sure that I was meant for the spotlight!

2010-02-17T21:41:00.000-05:00

Finally a day with a more normal pace. Mother was able to spend time with all of her visitors today.
Kris spent the morning with us, and finally had resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't getting any of the good people food in his bowl. He still followed my dad around like a lost puppy, but considering his long sleep and teeth removal procedures yesterday, he was in good spirits. At least I thought so until his real parents came to get him; then his generally happy demeanor turned into true joy. He bounced to greet them with his tail waving like a flag. I was glad to see him reunited with his parents -- not only because his attachment to my father was more than a little threatening, but also because I'm a sucker for a happy ending.
My mother's mother, Nana, brought Aunt Becky for her weekly soap treatment too. Vocal Vonnie had been badgering Nana to make her something called pot roast. Today Vonnie got her wish. Nana brought clanky pots filled with the stuff, enough for everyone. Everyone except me and Bea, I guess. I do have to tell you that it smelled better than anything I've ever smelled before. Better than a fresh bag of lean treats, Bea's ear wax or even newly made rabbit droppings. Vonnie ate some right in front of me, and I could tell by her expression that it tasted every bit as good as it smelled.

Patient Pam had a bad case of the hiccups which is funny enough considering it's Pam. She gets embarrassed so easily. But funnier still was watching all the people chime in to help her with her affliction. "Hold your ears closed while you drink water" one said, "No, no, no, you have to drink upside down." "Take a spoonful of sugar and slowly suck on it" Nana chimed in. Shortly after, Pam was sucking on some sugar and her bouncing belly came to rest. "Wow, it really worked" Pam raved.

So Nana was the hero of the day, to everyone but Becky that is. She still had to have her soap treatment, and she still smells like old cheese. Some problems just can't be fixed!

2010-02-16T22:40:00.000-05:00

It was a long day, and I don't just mean in dog time. The morning was set to be busy as it was; a cocker spaniel mix named KC was scheduled to have a funny smelling lump removed, and it was Kris' big day. No one had told Kris that the real reason he was staying with us was to have mother make his breath smell better. He was his normal loud self this morning telling everyone that he didn't get his breakfast. Of course, the sight of my father put Kris at ease and he barely noticed the pinches and the pokes and before I knew it the barking was replaced with snoring. Three hours later, Kris was back but with fresh breath and missing a few teeth. I think he must have spent his sleeping time dreaming about my dad, because he was wagging his tail from the moment he woke up. And even though his nose was stuck in the window of the villa, his stubby little legs just kept trying to walk.
In addition to the scheduled visitors, we had a some unexpected ones: a kitten not using her leg, a maltese with a sore back, a boxer with a large spleen and a round belly, and a cat draining pus from it's face.
The humming machine that takes the black and white pictures was used so many times today it felt like it was still humming long after it was shut off.
I never thought that I'd be so glad to see my cozy cave at the den. I definitely think those snow birds mother keeps talking about brought more with them than just their fleas.

You won't hear any complaints from me -- barking maybe, but no complaints. The more pets I meet, the more I realize how special I am. In fact, it finally dawned on me, that I put the 'ron' in Heron Creek!