Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Dog Days of Summer

These are the "Dog Days of Summer". I've always thought that meant just hot humid days when even a dog didn't want to do much, but this year it's taken on a different meaning. I now think it means these are the days when my dogs are trying to drive me crazy. I think they're succeeding.

Where shall I start? You all know that a few weeks ago my four Portie girls had tummy upsets caused by an overload of fireworks. Well, the fireworks lasted ten days and since then we've had several loud lingering thunderstorms. Three of the girls are much improved but Sunday night Lola refused her dinner. When a Portuguese Water Dog refuses dinner you know there's a problem.
During the night Lola vomited a couple times and she refused to eat on Monday. Monday night she had bouts of vomiting again. On Tuesday she refused to eat her food or even take a treat. When she went outside with the others she just sat down in the shade and waited to come back in again. I remembered last night that I had one Cerenia tablet left from last fall. Cerenia prevents nausea, so I gave it to Lola and she slept thru the night. This morning she ate a handful of kibble, then we went to see Dr B. She had no fever, didn't exhibit pain when he poked and prodded her and was well hydrated, so we started her on Tylosin powder and Cerenia. She's getting several small meals throughout the day and tonight she ate without coaxing. We don't know what the cause is, but we suspect the noise is still bothering her.

Monday evening when I brought everyone inside from a runaround after dinner Bailey was limping. She came up to me, sat and presented her foot. I put her on the table and felt her foot and leg. I moved and flexed it and she didn't pull back so I didn't think it was anything more than a twist or sprain. I started her on Rimadyl and today she's running and playing with no sign of a limp. She'll take the pain pills for another day or two, then she should be good as new.
The two little girls are really putting extra effort into driving me nuts. In my lifetime I've had thirty dogs. I've never been unable to housetrain any of them, though a few were more stubborn that others. These two refuse to tell me consistently when they need to go outside. Rob and I take them out frequently both with the other dogs and by themselves, but they are still having accidents in the house. We've tried any number of methods to get them to tell us but none have worked. I'm having more trouble training these two than all eight Portie pups at once.
 
I was thinking about it last night and a lightbulb went on in my bran. I rummaged thru a drawer and found the old sleigh bells that we used to train Bentley, my first Portie. We kept them on the back door and Bentley would ring them to go out. We had a few false alarms when he wanted to go out to play but mostly they worked well. We also used them to train Lucy, Monty and Morgan.
Last night I hung the bells on the front door and each time we take Syd and Mac out we ring the bells first. Syd has actually rung them once today but Mac doesn't like them and it may take some extra time to condition her to ring them. Wish us luck.

Even the birds want to help drive me crazy. These four birds have lived happily together for over a year and they seem like pretty good friends. They spend most of their day singing and playing, but Monday afternoon Rob and I raced for the dining room when we heard screaming from the birdcage.
 The green bird Stanley and the blue bird Caulder were beating up the small yellow bird Norris. They had him down and would have killed him if we hadn't intervened. We got them on their perches and covered them to calm them. I got the small cage ready in case we needed to separate them but they have been getting along since then. Fortunately Elwood stayed out of the fray and just watched from above. Bird fights are often deadly and I hope this doesn't happen again. All four birds are males so there aren't sex related jealousy issues, but we'll keep a close eye on them anyway.

Now it's not all bad. We have some good news, too. Sebastian started his diet three weeks ago today.
He's eating Hills Metabolic Diet, a new prescription diet. He went in and was measured and weighed, then his measurements were entered in a special program and they calculated his ideal weight, how much he should eat each day and gave us a graph showing how his weight loss should progress. I was skeptical and he's Dr B's first patient on this new program, but we decided to try it
On Monday Sebastian went for his first weigh in. He'd been on the diet for twelve days and I was astonished when the scales said he'd lost three pounds. He's actually eating more of this food than he did his other food so he's happy. He's still a couch potato but maybe as he drops the extra weight he'll find some new energy. So far we're all pleased.

I can hardly wait for end of the dog days. Snow is starting to sound like a terrific idea.





Sunday, July 28, 2013

Travels With Fudge

Hi Everybody,
Mom says I have to give the blog back to her soon, but I wanted to take you on a little trip with me today. Mom was telling me about a book called Travels With Charley by a man named John Steinbeck. 
Mr Steinbeck and his poodley dog Charley drove all around the country seeing the sights and Mr Steinbeck wrote a book about it and made lots of money. Mom asked me why I don't start making some money. I think she'd like to shop on Ebay some more.
So today I'm taking you on a trip to the library. We don't have to go very far. Come on I'll show you. First get yourself one of these...
and one of these. Mom says you can't eat or drink at the big library, but at ours you can.
First we have to climb a few stairs.
There's a gate here that Mom or Dad has to open. Entrance to the library is by invitation only. Samba chewed up a couple of Mom's books and that didn't go over well. Syd and Mac are too busy to go to the library. Mom says we have to be very quiet and lie down in there.
Once we get past the gate, it's there. It's red because Dad bought the wrong color paint, but it's OK, we all like it red. There are a couple of big comfy chairs in there and a window seat too. There's a table for writing or doing a puzzle and there are lots of books.
Mom still needs to organize them into categories but these are some of her Dickens books. She has a lot of them and even has them on her Kindle.
Dad was afraid that Mom's books would fill the shelves but we still have some spaces open for new additions.
Not all the books are there. The cookbooks are in the kitchen because that's where we cook.
Mom's craft books are in the office/studio because that's where she keeps her craft supplies.
When Mom reads a book she uses a thingy called a bookmark to tell her where to start reading. She used to use these cardboard strips for bookmarks but I liked to pull them out of the book and chew on them. So she stopped using them and got some pretty bookmarkers like these.
Look this one is even about dogs.
So now you've seen our library. I think I'll see if I can taste that berry cake and then take a snooze on the window seat.
Your pal, Fudge

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

A Royal Name

This week we've all been watching the TV waiting for the royal baby to arrive and then to meet the world.

We think he's probably a cute little guy though all we could see was the top of his head.
Today we've been waiting to hear what his name would be. Names are important as we all know. Our Mom took some time and found the perfect name for each of us. After all, a name is something that you live with for your whole life and it's how people come to think of you.

When they announced the royal baby's name today we were disappointed. George Alexander Louis. Yawn! He'll be another King George with a number on the end. How boring!
This is a modern baby for a modern age. We think he should be named Fudge Noah Sebastian. He would be King Fudge the First. Now doesn't that have a better ring to it?

Your pal,Fudge

Friday, July 19, 2013

A Long Hot Week

The weather map shows that just about everyone in the USA is trying to stay cool this week. Like everyone else we're spending a lot of time inside in the A/C and drinking lots of water. We have nice cold yogurt several times a day and mostly lie around doing nothing.

Mom wants me to tell you that the girls are feeling much better. It's been quiet for three nights now and the sick girls have been able to sleep. They're still getting their medicine but they all have normal poops now and that makes Mom really happy. She's not into mopping their pen at 3AM for some reason.

Here they are so you can see for yourself how good they look. This is Bailey. She was the sickest one.
This is Tess.
This is Norma Jean.
And this is Lola. She wasn't as sick as the other three but she still has to take medicine. 
Mom is worried that the firework booms may start up again this weekend but we're all hoping that they're over for a long time. There are thunder storms in the forecast but Mom says she'll play loud music for the girls to distract them.

This is how we spend the hot days.
This is how the little girls spend the time.
Thank you for reading my furry tale and saying such nice things. I'm trying to remember a few more for you. Mom says she's going to make a book of my stories and one of our Christmas songs too. 

About the dust in the Sitter-ella story, a long time ago a friend of Mom's told her that if you don't bother dust it won't bother you. Think about that. It just lies there quietly until you start messing with it. Dad get on these kicks where he wants to eliminate it from the house, but we're trying to convince him that dust is just a fact of life. Deal with it.
Stay cool everybody.
Your pal,
Fudge



Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Fudge's Furry Tales - Sitter-ella

Hi Everybody,
Mom is busy taking care of the sick girls today so she said I could tell you a story. She talked to Dr B yesterday and they think the girls are sick with stress related colitis from the boomers.  Mom is giving them some medicine and special food and taking them outside a lot and making sure they get plenty of rest. So now go find a comfy seat and relax and I'll tell you the story of Sitter-ella.
Once upon a time in a faraway place there was a pretty girl named Sitter-ella. I'm not sure why they called her that but maybe she sat around a lot. Peeps are weird about names.  Sometimes my Mom calls me Doofus and nobody knows why.
Sitter-ella lived with her mean Mom and her two mean sisters in a very dusty house. I don't remember any dogs in the story, but our Dad says that we make our house dusty and he and Mom have to clean all the time. We think he's wrong about that. It's probably the birds that make all the dust.
Anyway, the mean Mom and mean sisters didn't like to work very hard and Mom says dusting is hard work. How hard can it be really? I just wag my tail and the dust moves around. Peeps! The mean ladies made Sitter-ella do all the dusting and sweeping and other housework while they dressed up and went to parties.
One day the prince sent out an email saying there was going to be a big party at his house. The mean Mom and the mean sisters got all excited and ordered new party dresses online. Sitter-ella wanted to go to the party too, but they said no she had to stay home and clean some more and besides she didn't have any pretty dresses.
Finally the day of the party came and the mean Mom and two mean sisters got all dressed up and went off to the party at the Prince's house. Poor Sitter-ella was very sad and started to cry but then guess what happened! A special fairy dogmother flew in the window. She told Sitter-ella not to cry, that she'd help her go to the party.

The special fairy dogmother gave her a pretty dress to wear and fixed her hair and told her to wash the dust off her face. Then she turned a punkman into a car and they drove off to the party.
At the party everyone was dancing. We know about dancing, we've seen it on TV. Peeps act like dogs and jump and spin and stomp around. We've even seen real peeps do it. Mom and Dad dance sometimes, but the best times are when Mom dances with us. Sometimes she sings and we join in and then she jumps and spins and stomps around and we do too. It's lots of fun.

Anyway the prince danced with all the ladies because it was his party and that's what princes do. He really liked Sitter-ella and danced with her again and again.

But just at the end of the night Sitter-ella had to hurry home. She wanted to be there before her mean Mom and two mean sisters got home. As she was running down the steps of the prince's house she dropped her drink but she kept on going.

When the mean Mom and two mean sisters got home they were all excited about the party and they were sure the prince liked them. But he didn't. He wanted to find Sitter-ella but he'd forgotten to ask her name and address. That's why we always wear out ID tags on our collars.

The next day the prince went to every house in town and asked every lady to hold a slippery glass that he had with him. He said it belonged to his favorite lady.  The mean Mom reached for the slippery glass but she couldn't hold on to it and it fell on the floor.
Then the two mean sisters reached for the slippery glass but they couldn't hold it either. The prince handed the slippery glass to Sitter-ella and she held it and sipped from it. Yeah, he found her and they left the dusty house and went to live in the prince's house  and Sitter-ella didn't have to clean it either. They lived happily ever after.

I think the dust on her hands helped her hold onto the slippery glass, don't you?

I hope you liked the story. I think that's pretty much how it went when Mom told it.
Your pal,
Fudge