An Explanation

Sometimes, just when I think I have things under control, life throws me a curve and I find myself back where I started.

I haven't been around to blog this week. Rob had a medical emergency Monday evening and I've been running back and forth between home and the hospital all week. Up early to get dogs fed and in and out, then off to the hospital to meet with doctors. Home in the middle of the day to get dogs settled, then back to the hospital. Home in the evening to feed dogs and get them ready for the night, any household tasks that can't wait, then sleep for three or four hours before starting all over again.


Rob came home yesterday afternoon, so I'm trying to dig my way out of the mess this has all created. Now at least I don't have to run across town, but I still have to deal with doctors and insurance companies and taking care of a man who is an impatient patient. I feel like crawling into Bailey's hole.

My fantasy now is taking a hotel room and sleeping for 48 hours straight. Anyway, I'll be back as soon as I get control of things again and to my prize winners, be patient. I haven't forgotten you, but things are a little delayed.

World's Worst Mom

Me. I feel like the world's worst dog mom.


You all know my problem child, Bailey. She has a totally different personality than any of her siblings. Bailey is a hunter. She spends all her outdoor time hunting. She has caught a bird, several lizards, a couple frogs, a squirrel and a skunk. She's always the last one inside and we often have to leash her to persuade her to leave her hunt and join us indoors.

Friday morning Rob left early for a business meeting. I got up, started a pot of coffee, gave the dogs their meds and took everyone outside. The problem started when it was time to go back in.


Everyone came except Bailey. I left them all in the garage and went out with a leash to get Bailey who was hunting in the weeds around the rock pile. When I leashed her and started toward the house, I saw that she had been in some burrs. Bailey can find burrs that no one else can find. Rob and I pull the plants out and destroy them, but Bailey will find more. All summer I've been pulling burrs out of her coat.


Friday she had burrs in both front legs, her chest, her face and one ear.

I went inside and got a comb and scissors and started removing the burrs. I got the ones in her chest and the side of her face. Her ear was folded back with a big bunch of burrs wrapped around it. I started cutting them away when she jerked to look at something.


I continued working, then noticed that I had a hand full of blood. Bailey hadn't made a sound, but my hand and arm were covered with blood and it was running down her neck and chest. I had cut her ear flap.



I know from personal experience that ears have a lot of tiny blood vessels close to the surface and they bleed like crazy. A barber cut my earlobe once and I thought it would never stop bleeding. I led Bailey into the garage, snarled at the other dogs to get back and they knew from my tone of voice that they'd better do it. I grabbed the styptic powder and poured it on the cut. The bleeding stopped.

I put Bailey in her crate, took care of the other dogs, then went back to check on her. Since the bleeding seemed to have stopped, I put her in the doggy bathtub and washed the blood out of her coat. Then I washed her ear with Betadine solution. I got a good look at the cut. She has a little notch in her ear flap.

I coated the cut liberally with antibiotic ointment, gave her a Rimadyl for pain and put her back in her crate with several cookies.

I wanted a cup of coffee badly, but since I looked like an accident victim, I headed for the shower instead. Rob returned home while I was in the shower. I told him about the incident, so he changed into old clothes and we went to check on Bailey. She was fine, happy to see us. We took her outside and she bounced around. That afternoon the cut began to bleed again, so we repeated the steps I'd taken earlier.

Bailey spent the weekend in solitary in her crate. She enjoyed it because she got lots of individual attention. On Saturday we got a good look at the cut and decided she didn't need stitches. We've been coating it with antibiotic ointment each day.


Bailey is doing well today and got to rejoin her sisters for play. They sniffed her ear, then walked away. The cut appears to be healing well, but I can't help feeling like a really bad mom to have hurt my pup. She knows I would never intentionally hurt her, but I felt crummy all weekend.

Something to Think About

Over the weekend I read a blog post that I've been thinking about ever since.


Kim posted it on her blog Life At Golden Pines. It's the story of her neighbors who used to live a block and a half from the World Trade Center. It tells what they went thru to rescue their two dogs who were in their apartment that morning.

Go take a look at her story and think about what emergency plans you have for your animals or what plans you should be making for them.

And The Winner Is------

Today is the day we announce our 500th blog post giveaway winner.


Here it comes everybody. Mom's going to give away stuff to other dogs.

What?

We're giving stuff away?

Can we give away some of that awful food you try to feed us?

You're not giving away my monkey, are you?

We're giving stuff away? What stuff? To what dogs?

Yes, we're giving away stuff, and no, Bailey, not your monkey. Samba and I discussed this giveaway and we felt that since we had so many wonderful responses that we should have two winners.

Everyone who left comments received numbers and though Fudge likes to draw the winning names, there were just too many for him to handle. Instead, we used the random number generator. It loses some of the personal touch, but it works.

The winners are...... Can you feel the suspense?

Sasha....

and her friend Misty are one set of winners. You can see their blog here.

The other set of winners is

Zona and her pack mates....

Phoenix and...


Cali. You can read about them here.

Congratulations to all of you. We'll be busy getting your prizes together, but we need you to email us with your mailing addresses. We need street addresses because we'll be sending your loot by FedEx.

Thanks to everyone who left comments. We wish we could send prizes to all of you. We're so happy that you visit our blog and leave comments for us. It makes us feel like we know you all.

Remember

It was nine years ago today, but this morning the feelings came back as strong as if it were yesterday.


The fear, the pain and the tears are all still there, close to the surface.


This is a day to remember and to experience love and unity.


Those who want to spread hate will not be allowed to steal the true feelings of this special day. This day belongs to us, to learn from and to try to make the world better, to help others and to listen to others. We will not allow the haters to usurp our day of remembrance.


Call a friend today, smile at a child, hug you pet and remember the real heroes, not the hate mongers.

500th Post

Welcome to our 500th post. I never expected to have enough to say to fill this many blog posts, but my furry companions have given me plenty to write about and continue to do so.



We've been sharing our highs and lows, good times and bad times with you and you've offered us friendship, advice and laughter and even shared our tears at times. Thank you.



This morning we paid a visit to Dr B with Tsar. About a week ago Tsar scraped his nose. We're not sure how he did it, but my best guess is that while hunting for mice, he shoved it under a rock. I put antibiotic ointment on it all last week and watched it closely, but this morning the little bumps were spreading across his nose.

After a careful examination, Dr B confirmed that he has some infection and now Tsar is taking antibiotic capsules twice a day. He'll be getting warm compresses on his nose along with the ointment and I'm sure in about a week, he'll be good as new and back to hunting again.



Yesterday afternoon Rob was hungry so we went out for a snack. I wasn't very hungry, so I ordered some potato skins, ate a couple and brought the rest home. When we arrived home it was time to feed the dogs, so I set the box of potato skins and an open soda can on a cabinet in the garage and proceeded to feed the dogs.



Rob stood in the garage chatting with me as the dogs ate and then were sent outside. Tsar is always the last one to finish eating and by the time he was done, several of the others were at the door ready to come back inside. I opened the door, sent Tsar out and brought Samba, Bailey and Norma Jean into the garage.



I left Rob and the three girls in the garage and went outside to round the others up. When I came back, Rob had gone upstairs and left the three girls alone in the garage.



I opened the door to see the three of them finishing off my potato skins and the soda that they had overturned onto the floor. All that was left was a small container of ranch dressing. I'm sure they would have eaten that, too if they'd had a few more minutes.

I know Porties are thieves. It was Rob that I blamed for leaving them alone with my food. I received a typical male response, "Oh, I didn't think about it." Duh!!!


So you see, I have daily adventures with this wave of pups and we love to share them with all of you. Thanks for stopping by and sharing our posts. We treasure all of you.

Don't forget, this is your last chance to enter the mystery prize drawing. Just leave a comment and you're automatically entered. How easy is that? I'll give you all a couple days, then we'll announce the winner.

Our Labor Day Picnic

Today is Labor Day. It's a holiday for working people. We're working dogs, so it's probably a holiday for us, too.

Mom and Dad had hot dogs and potato salad for lunch today. Mom let each of us have a little of hers. Then she told us we could have our very own picnic outside.

We waited forever.

Finally, Dad came out with our bowls.

We were jumping up trying to see what was in the bowls.

He wasn't telling us what to expect.

He just kept walking over to the tree.

This was so exciting!

What could be in those bowls? Could it be more potato salad?

I, Norma Jean, was trying to get a sneak peek at what we were having as a treat.


Here I was saying "please tell us, Dad", but he wouldn't say.

Everybody was getting really excited and we were jumping up and down.

Then he started handing out the bowls.

It was watermelon! One of our favorites.

Tess could hardly wait for her bowl.

This tastes great!


This was a good surprise.

Dad had some for Tsar even though he doesn't usually eat watermelon.

Dad asked Tsar to try it and Tsar said he would.

Dad gave him a little piece and Tsar ate it.

Look, Tsar is asking for more.

Dad kept feeding Tsar little pieces of watermelon.

I think he liked it.

Wow, Tsar says he likes it a lot.

We were all asking to help with the last few pieces.

Morgan and Noah always take their time and savor their food. The rest of us eat as fast as we can and go looking for more.

We cleaned out the last bowl and licked off Dad's hand. Then we were done. We all think Labor Day is a pretty good holiday.

Go over to Dogs-N-More and check out a great post by Laurie of Dog Foster Mom Blog. She writes about her experiences living and working with deaf dogs. It'll give us some good ideas whether we're living with an aging dog who's starting to lose it's hearing or if we're considering adopting a dog or puppy that has hearing issues.

The next post is #500, so leave your comments to be entered in the mystery prize giveaway.