A Trip To The Vet

I had to take Rowdy to the Vet the other day because he chewed the base of his tail and his rump raw.  The skin was flaking and oozing where he chewed and it looked infected.  Still not certain what caused him to do this.  He doesn't have fleas or worms.  He did need his anal gland expressed, badly.  This might have caused his itching and the Vet also said that sometimes dogs get hot spots, that when those spots get a little wet will itch like crazy.

Anyway he got his butt and tail shaved, his anal gland expressed, got an allergy shot, ointment for his irritated skin and some antibiotic pills for possible infection of his anal area. The skin is healing nicely, but trying to get him to take his pills is another matter.

This is the first time I had to give him pills orally.  I tried several methods of disguising them by either taking the powder out of the capsule and mixing with food to wrapping them in food but he has thwarted me every time.  He will either eat around the capsule or around the powder.  I finally found the only way I can get him to take them is to shove them down his throat.  That wasn't easy either as he seemed to have a way to spit them back up.

One thing I remembered about dogs is that if you grab around their nose and hold a thumb or finger against the roof of their mouth, they will hold their mouth open in an attempt to get your thumb or finger away from there and at the same time you can push the pill down their throat.  And it's a yucky job too!

Woof?

It was the cutest thing; I was sitting on the couch and Rowdy was lying beside me on his back with his head on my lap.  I had a song on YouTube that I was replaying over and over and singing along with it, while reading the lyrics and learning the song.  While I was singing, I was tapping my foot and bouncing my leg along with stroking Rowdy's chest with my hand.

I started feeling a rumble in his chest and I thought he was snoring, but now I think he was growling in his sleep.  As I was singing along, all the sudden he went "Woof!"  It was a startled type of bark, like he was barking at someone at the door.  I looked down expecting him to be wide eyed wanting to jump up and bark again, but he was fast asleep.  So he loudly barked one time in his sleep and it was so cute!  First time I ever seen him do that, other than very muffled woofs.  I wonder if singing along with the song stirred up his dream, sort of like when you are dreaming and certain noises become part of the dream.  

A Wide Berth

The last time I took Rowdy with me to see Doc (my Chiropractor) when we left the office, he naturally took a left turn out the door, to take his usual walk around downtown.  This covers an area of two square blocks thru the downtown business district.  The cars are parked diagonally along the streets and there is a wide sidewalk which butts right up to the business fronts in this area.  He loves to go for a walk around here and check the sights and smells and to send and check his Pmail. 

As we rounded the corner from the end of the first block, I noticed about a half block ahead, there was a cat lying curled upright in front of one of the cars.  I told Rowdy in a slightly whispered voice to "Get the cat!"  He immediately perked up and noticed the cat, as I repeated the get the cat phrase several times.  The cat never moved from his spot and just watched us as we went by.  Instead of Rowdy getting after the cat, he just made a wide berth around the cat against the building fronts and then went on down the sidewalk.  I guess he only wants to chase something that runs away from him.  I laughed and said to him, "Chicken dog!"   

Frantic!

Coming home from the farm the other evening, a big thunder storm was brewing and moving toward me as I was driving home.  By the time I got into downtown the storm had moved over me and lightening was flashing all around.  This wasn't your normal lightening that flashes every so often followed by thunder, but almost continuous flashing across the sky with streaks down to the ground.  I have never seen it this severe before.

From downtown I had to turn toward and into the storm for another 3 miles before I got home.  When I got to my house, Rowdy was waiting at the fence on the west side and followed me around the house to where I park on the east side.  He was frantic with all the lightening and thunder and was yelping at the gate.  When I got out of the car and headed inside, he was at the back door barking and yelping for me to let him in.  I let him in immediately and he was sure happy to be back inside the house and away from the storm, as he whined his happiness to see me.  I gave him a cup of his food for dinner and he was a happy dog again.  

All This Out Of One Little Dog?

With the fall and winter seasons always comes the raking of the leaves and yard cleanup.  Though I had removed most of the leaves by about a month or more earlier, there was still a back corner of my yard that I had yet to finish.  Due to other obligations and/or the weather, I was just now getting to it.

After grabbing the lawn bags and rake, I went back to the corner and discovered that Rowdy had been using this area for his number 2!  In fact, the amount I had to shovel up before raking made it look like he had been having a poopa-paloosa back there.  And. of course there was not much in the other areas of the yard where he usually goes.  He had to pick the very corner that I hadn't raked yet.  That little $#!%.  

What Do YOu Want?

Okay, it's 4:30 AM and I am awaken by Rowdy whining, with his paws up on the side of the bed and trying to get my attention.  In a groggy voice I asked, "What do you want?" and then I laid there quietly.  He continued jumping up on the side of the bed, vying for my attention.  I said with a little more angry tone, "It's 4 friggin' 30.  What do you want?  Do you need to go wee-poo?" which is our word for him to go outside to the bathroom.  He dropped back down and tore down the hall, so I got up, went down and let him out.  He just stood by the door outside and didn't go, but then I saw it, a bright flash of lightning.  I knew then what he wanted.  He wanted up on the bed, so I would protect him form the storm.

It was odd to see lightning in the middle of winter and there was little thunder, but I guess the flashes were disturbing him.  So I let him back in and went back to the bedroom, where I pulled up his special 'on the bed' blanket and let him jump up and lay by me for protection.  He was fine after that and I got back to sleep....but not as well as I was sleeping before he woke me up!  That little devil!