#388 - Darn Fox Tails

We recently had to take our black dog, Ellie, to the emergency vet after hours. (The photo, left, is from the day we adopted Penny over a year ago, but it's a great shot of Ellie too.)

It was about dinner time when she started having weird sneezing attacks... and it got more bizarre when she started sneezing blood all over the kitchen. She continued to have fits as the evening wore on, and by the time my wonderful hubby got home from his evening activity, I was more than concerned. She wouldn't let us get near her, and it seemed to be getting worse. The final straw for me was when she started making a mess on the carpet outside The Little Guy's room as I was trying to get him to go to bed.

Finally about 9:15pm, we called All Creatures Veterinary Hospital, which had a vet on-call until 10:00pm. My wonderful hubby loaded up our poor pup and ran to the other side of town, where the vet had to put her under anesthesia and plucked a giant fox tail out of her nostril. Thank goodness for the doggie ER!

Our little Ellie has fully recovered and we have been keeping the pooches out of the dog run, where the fox tails grow. I do hope we don't have to experience this one again any time soon.

#317 - The World of our Other Dog

Yesterday, on top of throwing the ball too-vigorously-and-too-long for our other dog, Ellie, it seemed as though Penny was biting at her legs. So last night she was limping around, not putting any weight on her back right foot. This afternoon, I took a dog to the vet. My wonderful husband usually handles this chore at our house, and growing up it was always my parents who did this. The visit went fine, Ellie's leg has a sprained muscle but she got an anti-inflammatory injection and some pills for the next five days. I think the hardest part about the take-home instructions will be the part about not throwing the ball for her until we run out of pills! She loves to chase a ball.

#315 - This Dog Will Eat Anything

For the past few days, I've been conducting a test: how many days will it take our dog Penny to eat (and destroy) a professionally-recommended rope toy? The answer: four days. My sister and I visited a pet-themed booth at the Rib Cook-Off a few weeks ago, and I asked for a professional's opinion on toys for my dog that can eat through anything. This toy came with a strong looped rope handle and then a large red mop/pom-pom looking piece. The woman in the booth said her five dogs had theirs for a long time and hadn't destroyed it yet, so I paid something like $12 for it (because hey, if it will make her stop eating my porch swing and destroying our grass, then it's worth it). To make a long story short, I gave it to her on Friday night, and today at lunchtime I came home to the mess seen in the photo. So much for getting a professional's opinion. The other toy she recommended is a rubber toy that you put treats inside, so we'll try that one next.

#263 - No More Chewing!

Our newer dog, Penny, loves to chew things that are not toys. So far she has destroyed a bunch of pillows, blankets, water buckets, pieces of wood, and dragged trash and recycling items into the yard. Her newest thing to chew on is the little guy's still-new swing set. While at Whole Foods today, I bought a bottle of Hartz brand "Clean Earth" Natural Chew Prevention Aid, which is supposed to make things bitter to taste for pets. The little guy helped me spray it on each of the areas where she's been chewing, so we worked on this project together. I really hope it helps, because we spent too much $$$ on that swing set to let our dog eat it!

#236 - Honey Bear for the Doggies

Our doggies had a new adventure this weekend, staying in luxury at a kennel we've never tried before: Honey Bear Kennels. The kennel we used to use was small, dark and seemed a little creepy to me... though I never saw the cages where the animals were kept. Honey Bear came recommended by a friend, and it seems like our puppies enjoyed it very much! Penny, our newer dog, destroyed her bed while she was there (par for the course, because she eats all sorts of non-toy items at home). But they became friendly with another black lab in the next cage, and the owners tell us that they let all three dogs into the play yard together to have fun! We will definitely be going back to Honey Bear and I'm so glad that the pooches got to have some fun this weekend, too.

#221 - Greenies

A very good friend, a reader of this blog, brought me a box of Greenies dog treats to help me freshen our doggies' breath and clean their teeth. She has two very small dogs ("yippers") so the treats are a bit smaller than we would have bought for our very large dogs... but when I got home, I let them try a treat each. Ellie, our older dog, took a lot longer to chew hers up and I even had to close her in the in the office so she would have a chance to eat it without Penny stealing it away. (Penny ate hers really fast, as she eats everything.) I didn't notice a discernible difference in their breath right away, but maybe with a treat a day we'll see some results in a few days? One can hope.

#184 - Running, Snowing, Panicking

Oh, if you had only seen me this morning, you may not have believed your eyes. In a sad turn of events, I ended up chasing Penny up and down our court in the snow, wearing my p.j.s with a windbreaker and my hubby's shoes. *sigh* Sure, I've chased dogs around the neighborhood before, but never on my own and never with a 2-year-old alone in the house. And never have I panicked like I did, not knowing what to do next! I finally gave up chasing her and went back to the house to call my wonderful hubby, who came rushing home. The dog came back home before he got here... in fact, she came all by herself and went straight back in the house. How frustrating was that to start my morning?!?

#180 - LOL Dog

This afternoon I created this submission to icanhascheezburger.com featuring a photo of our girl Penny. I love this website, and if you have never visited, give it a shot because some of the stuff people come up with crack me up.

#156 - Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat

OK, our house doesn't actually have a smelly cat, but we do have one extremely smelly (new) dog. For some bizarre reason, the Nevada Humane Society did not give our Penny a bath before spaying her yesterday. And since she was a stray dog, she was pretty dirty to begin with. Now that she's had the surgery she can't have a bath for 10 days while we wait for the stitches to dissolve. The staff member at the NHS had suggestions for making her smell a little better, including using a wet rag to wipe her down, or trying to sprinkle a little baby power on her. But tonight, I did some internet research to see if there were any other suggestions for giving a dog a better smell. I didn't actually find much, to my surprise, though there were lots of pages encouraging the surgery (which I was happy to see). I guess we'll try the powder and cross our fingers.

UPDATE 3/16: After a trip to the pet store today to look for a product ("Cowboy Magic") recommended to us from a member of a ranching family, and having no luck finding such product... we tried wiping Penny down and sprinkling some powder. She does smell much better now, thank goodness! But I still can't wait for her to get a real bath.

#155 - Whatever Lola Wants

Today our family adopted a dog from the Nevada Humane Society. They told us she was a stray, so they don't know anything about her... but they were guessing she was 3 years old and probably a yellow labrador retriever. (That's her in the photo with TLG, me, and our other dog Ellie.) After much debate over a name, we thought we had chosen Lola, because as they say, "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets!" But after a lot more talking, we finally chose Penny. It just seems to fit her calm attitude and loving nature.

They gave her a microchip and spayed her first thing this morning, so we know she's not feeling 100% just yet. So far, she's the most mellow dog I've ever met! She does seem very OK with our toddler and dominant dog Ellie, so far she hasn't even barked once (though she did growl for a second at the cats at the shelter). Penny also seems house-trained (what a blessing!) and has already gotten the hang of the doggy doors. Mostly so far she just wants to be with people and has been following us around. Welcome, Penny!

#152 - Empty-Handed

Our little family, including our dog Ellie, visited the Nevada Humane Society today to try to pick out a new canine companion for us. As an adult, I've only ever visited the pound/NHS once, on the day we chose Ellie (whose name was something else at the time). So today we visited the dog shelter and came home empty-handed. That's not to say we didn't see lots of nice-looking dogs, of course. We even took one out to the exercise yard. She was a cream-colored lab mix who was more interested in chasing a ball than in introducing herself to us humans (if I were in her shoes, I might have done the same, as a matter of fact). She seemed like a nice enough dog, but we didn't get the right vibe, so she stayed at the shelter. We did put our name on a waiting list for one of the dogs in the pound side of the shelter, who will be available Wednesday if her owners don't find her by then. So we'll see how that goes. TLG was a little intimidated by the dogs barking, and made us carry him most of the time. But Ellie did great, I was very impressed with her!