Random update… had to cancel out on my dog trainer. Molly, the running idiot got Kennel Cough at the pound. The trainer didn’t want to chance taking it back to his place where he boards dogs and does doggy day care and has obedience classes. And I don’t blame him…
Then my middle dog got it.
Then the other day, my big dog got it. The vet and I both thought she had bypassed it, it had been long enough.
This weekend was horrible. She was hacking her guts up, foamy spit everywhere, Saturday night was awful, she was puking and hacking. The pills came up, the food came up, there was clear stuff, there was some yellow stuff, there was a bit of green stuff, and the one that scared me the most, there was some bloody stuff.
The vet said Mucinex DM. and its not cheap, and I picked up at least 5 pills off the floor, I could not get one to stay down. She was hacking and coughing
“goose honking” so hard they would not stay down.
I spent all day Sunday shampooing carpets, I missed the Superbowl kickoff (but not the safety 12 seconds in). It was gross. explosive diarrhea would have been easier to clean. And the fricken dog couldn’t puke in the same place twice, no… laid down a nice irregular grid, just far enough apart that you couldn’t get a bunch of them in one swipe of the carpet cleaner.
I felt so bad, and I was so tired from working 16-20+ hour days for a week. That poor dog was so miserable.
And to make it all worse, Saturday night we ended up down at the emergency vet clinic. I’d put in a good 14 hour Saturday, 2A to 4P, that’s more than enough for a Saturday.
Fucking cat, one of the “more than enough”… Old cat, it was the little lady’s brother’s, and he moved to Asia, then her parent’s, then they both died, so now its ours. Stinky, horrible name, she’s old, her kidney’s are on the way out. Pretty cat, black and white, she’s a sweet cat, but she doesn’t take care of herself anymore. Her fur gets matted, no matter how much you brush her.
So, I’m sitting in the kitchen, petting the cat, drinking a beer, while the little lady is snipping off the matted fur balls, the cat turns around and I see a bald spot… I mention it and then the little lady looks at her side… little bit of missing skin on my side, a whole huge Quarter size piece of missing skin on her side. Paper thin old lady skin.
Watching that skin move over the muscle underneath was gross, only a tiny little bit of blood and the cat never once stopped purring or indicated it was in pain.
My little lady feels so bad, and I don’t blame her, but stuff happens, occasionally the stuff involves 12 stitches and $463, and 2 more hours where I didn’t get to go to bed.
Either way, I think we are making good progress with the dogs, even though we’ve only had little instruction (stupid kennel cough).
We’ve figured out a few things we were really doing wrong. Totally screwing up their hierarchy, creating the dog fights.
The other day, I had the middle dog, Ginger, in her crate, I was letting her out and she just layed there… until I told her to come out. My little lady was standing behind me, amazed, and she called me the “dog wisperer”.
My big dog with the big bark, who always went ballistic when people came over or came to the shop… No More. She barks when somebody shows up, alerting me, and then shuts the fuck up, and stands there like a good dog. Its awesome, and I don’t even know what I’m doing yet. She used to go nuts, barking her fool head off and running around like a nut case, now she just sits there quietly.
Can’t train an old dog, bunch of crap, Daisy just turned 8 years old, and the dog trainer told me she would be the most difficult to change. She’s been good about the whole thing. She’s been the easiest, she’s picked it up the fastest.
I’m excited to get these dog training (people training) lessons under way, it can only get better, and its gotten a lot better already.
And here are a few pics for those of you that read through all that.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7417/12336578263_f2440c8d32_b.jpg
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2813/9726252925_4515996a82_b.jpg
