According to Boston.com, National Puppy Day is “an unofficial holiday designed to encourage the adoption of 10,000 puppies.”
In my house, it’s an unofficial holiday to provide links to pictures of really cute puppies.
Zoe is large, and a little on the clumsy side, and she loves to place herself in the middle of things. There really isn’t a lot that’s delicate about her physically. But she absolutely hates getting wet.
When we’re on walks, she takes extra time to step around a puddle so her belly doesn’t get splashed. And today, it’s raining. She went out once earlier, but turned right back around and trotted in the house. I’ve opened the door a couple more times, but she just sniffs at the air as she watches the menacing raindrops fall.
I don’t know why I find this so amusing, but I just do. Our dainty giant.
The dogs got to travel to the vet today. Zoe needed to get her vaccinations, and Otis needed some blood work to test his thyroid levels.
For the most part, they behaved well. Zoe didn’t want Dr. J to touch her ears, but she licked his face while he listened to her heartbeat. Otis compromised the air quality of the exam room while we were all in there, so that was fun. Dr. J took the dogs in back for their shots and blood work, and Tim and I waited in front. When the tech brought the dogs out, Otis took exception to a lovable tan and white lab mix, so I took him outside while Tim paid the bill.
Zoe weighs 71 pounds, and Otis weighs 58. We’ve been reducing their food from 2 cups twice a day to 1 1/2 cups twice a day, because we noticed Zoe was getting a little thick in the middle, and Otis didn’t need extra weight on his hips. They’re maintaining nicely.
In other travel news, I have some London trip reports up on my other blog. I’ve also got a photo set on Flickr. I hope I did the country justice. I truly loved it there.
I ignored my jet lag on Saturday and, along with Tim, ventured out to Chuck and Don’s Pet Food Outlet in Roseville. MN Boxer Rescue had several dogs there for adoption and for general information about the breed, so we knew there would be some adorable dogs. We left our rowdy pair at home.
There are more dogs available for adoption on the MN Boxer Rescue site than I remember ever seeing before. It’s good to see a lot of them in the recently adopted section, though.
We met an adorable dog named Joe Black. He’s in the list of adoptable dogs, but that’s not the case anymore, because his foster mom decided to take him in permanently. It’s easy to see why. He is the biggest cuddle hound I’ve ever met. He rested his head in the crook of my arm while I petted him, and he almost fell asleep in my arms. It was heartbreaking to think that he was almost euthanized. The people who gave him up said that he couldn’t be housetrained, but it turned out that he had a urinary tract infection that was causing all his accidents. Once that was treated with medication, he was fine. His owner said that he was quite happy in his new home, and he was getting her two older dogs to play a little more. It’s great to hear about a happy ending.
Our dogs sniffed us vigorously after we arrived home. They don’t give us that look of “hey, you were out cheating on me with other dogs” that Abby did, though. They were just excited for something new to smell.
[Things I learned while writing this post? WordPress and the latest version of Safari do not get along, especially when you're trying to add links.]
Otis finally got to meet Dr. J a couple weeks ago. We took him in for a blood test to monitor his enzyme levels, and we figured we would get Dr. J’s opinion on his hip dysplasia situation.
As he examined Otis, I asked if he had any idea how old Otis was, and he estimated between two and three years old. Otis has been getting a few gray hairs on his muzzle, and I was worried that he was older than we thought. (Now I’m worried that the gray hairs are caused from stress from his hip.)
Dr. J said that the best thing to do would be to get an evaluation from the University of Minnesota. We could take him over, they would examine him, and they would recommend the next steps to take. He also said to mention that he has a very active canine companion at home, and to ask how that would affect his recovery from surgery. Would it be too difficult for Zoe and for Otis to not play for several weeks? Also, Otis hates being picked up. Absolutely despises it. (Laurie, I’m sure this sounds familiar to you…) Or would it be worse for him to have this injury for the long term? How much is it really bothering him?
We’re going to continue to think it over. We don’t want to take him in until we’re ready to commit to the surgery, and financially and mentally we’re not at that point right now (but hope to be in the next few months). Also, the intermittent junk rash is back, so we want to get that cleared up as well. Dr. J said they won’t do the surgery if he has any infections or other health issues. So we’ll continue to give him his medicine and keep a very close eye on him to make sure he’s not exhibiting signs of pain.
Still, I feel guilty putting it off, that we’re not in there having him evaluated already, even though Dr. J said there was no hurry.
I just got back from an amazing week in London. I’m trying to post through jet lag and Daylight Savings Time, so if I’m incoherent, that’s why.
The dogs were apparently well-behaved while I was gone, so I’m relieved the trip wasn’t too hard on my other half. Zoe looked out the window a lot the first day I was gone, but she settled down after that.
Tim was updating the upstairs bathroom, and this further confused the dogs. One day, he had to kennel them because they kept getting into the wallpaper remnants and other possibly toxic stuff. They didn’t like it too much, and there was much whimpering.
After he let them out of their crates, Zoe would sit in front of the closed bathroom door as if I were in there. I found this endearing.
After I got back, they both told me all about their week, several times.
Zoe helped me unpack by lying on the bed and putting her head on anything I tried to fold.
Also, there might have been some sort of hostile takeover of my sleeping space last night. Luckily, they left a space for me in the middle of the bed as they were lounging on my side.
