Cant Keep Quiet!

For nearly 12 years now, my dog has acted like an air-headed, happy-go-lucky mutt whose only care was who would rub her belly next.  It turns out that Artie has been hiding her brains behind a stupid grin/act for all this time.

A couple of weeks ago, Artie started having problems with incontinence.  It started out just happening in the morning before she woke up and then got to the point where she was dribbling all over the place.  When I took her to the vet it turned out that her urine was way too dilute, especially for a dog that hadn’t had anything to drink in over 12 hours.  Urine and blood tests also came back showing that she had way too much protein in her system than was good for her.  Basically, her kidneys aren’t working properly.

Since then she’s been on medicaton for the dribbling and a special low protein diet ever since.  Well, she’s been on medication ever since, the diet she just won’t eat.

I’m not a big fan of shoving pills down my dog’s mouth.  I’m not afraid of it, I’ve done it several times and she’s never tried to bite me, I just don’t like to do it.  So I bought some pill poppers/pockets.  I managed to hide the pills in those for less than a week.  Then she figured out what was going on and would just eat around the pocket and leave them.

That is, when she was eating the food she’d eat around the pill pockets.

I started out giving Artie the dry low-protein food mixed with canned low-protein food.   She’d eat the whole thing up.  That lasted about 3 days.  Then she’d eat the canned food and leave the dry food.  Now she’s leaving the canned food as well.

I mixed up a piece of cheese in her food tonight to tempt her.  She brought out a mouthful of food, dropped it on the floor, and pushed it around until she had just the cheese.

She’s never been this smart.  We’ve always been able to get her to eat something she didn’t want to eat by mixing it with canned food or some other treat.

Right now, besides the pills I’m shoving down her mouth and a few biscuits, the only thing I’m sure she’s eating is grass.

Any suggestions? I’d mix cat food in her bowl but that would defeat the whole “low-protein diet” diet.

If this continues tomorrow I’ll have to call the vet and see what he suggests.  I’m not keen on buying a different type of low-protein brand at $30 a pop to see if she eats that.  I still have most of the last bag I had to buy.

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My dog nearly choked to death tonight on her own collar.  It’s been at least 20 minutes since it happened and I’m still a bit shaky from the whole thing.

I had put the dog out in the backyard for a bit.  Because of the way the land slopes beneath our house, the door leading to the backyard actually has a landing and then stairs that lead to the yard.  Artie will go out and do her business and then either explore the backyard or come up and lay down outside the kitchen door until we let her back inside.

I’m not sure how it happened, but today when she laid down she managed to get her dog tags and part of her collar between two of the boards on the landing.  The dog tags dropped below the boards and then twisted so that they kept her in place.

Artie could only lift her head about an inch and couldn’t move from her spot.  She panicked (understandably) and twisted and kicked around on the landing.  During her struggles, she knocked out two or three of the balusters near her.

I wasn’t that far away and I heard her struggles and came to see what was going on.  Since she was right in front of the kitchen door, I really couldn’t see what was wrong.  At first I thought she had a stroke and that was why she couldn’t get up.  I managed to get out the back door and when I tried to pick her up I saw her problem.

I couldn’t get the tags out, either, and I didn’t have anyone around that could help me out.  Luckily, I managed to force Artie’s head down against the landing and work the collar over her head.  It wasn’t easy and I’m sure it hurt her but it finally came off.

She seems just fine now.  She’s not acting hurt at all and I gave her a snack bone and she ate it right up.  She still doesn’t have a collar on her, though.

Even with the collar off the dog, I couldn’t get it out of the space between the boards in the landing.  It wouldn’t go up or down so it’s wedged in there pretty tight.  I might be able to get it out from the bottom, but I’m not going to try that until tomorrow.

My cats all have collars that supposedly break away if the animal gets caught by the collar.  I wonder if they make something similar for dogs.

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This video is too, too funny.

Thanks, Mom, for showing me this video.

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I have three cats.  Two exhibit some bizarre (at least to me) behavior.

Stormi my oldest, isn’t the least bit worried about the dog.  The dog pretty much leaves her alone because Stormi will not run from Artie.  She’s also not afraid to slice her nose if the dog gets too close.

Artie is at least 10 times the size of Grace yet Stormi lets Grace terrorize her.  If Grace sees Stormi she’ll chase her out of the room.  Stormi who is bigger than Grace lets the brat scare her away.  And yet, Grace is terrified of Artie.  Artie doesn’t even need to notice Grace for Grace to have a fit and  run away.  All Artie has to do is enter the same room with Grace
That’s what I don’t understand.  Why is Stormi not afraid of a 60+ pound, tall greyhound/lab mix but scared of a 10 pound cat?  Why is Grace such a bitch to Stormi

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Not too long ago I bought a loofah dog for my dog. It was a foot long, blue, squeaky dog that she loved.

Tonight, though, it is dead. I knew this day would come.

Artie tore the stuffing out of it. Literally.

I walked into the living room to find white fluff, a squeaker, and the loofah dog looking decidedly less full in the back end. Artie stood over the destruction wagging her tail proud in the damage she had wrought.

I picked up all the fluff and the squeaker to throw them away. Artie picked up what was left of the toy and shook it madly.

Who knows, maybe she’ll still love that silly toy even though it’s only half full now.