Eight is Great

Today we made the trek north for Sissy’s quarterly eye exam with Vision Vet.  I am very happy to report that her pressure was 8, which is low, but low is good for Glaucoma Girl.  Gretchen even almost traveled well; she did pant a lot and stood for the duration of both 2 1/2 hour rides, but she didn’t pace whine, or try to leap into the front seat and/or my lap.  Victory!!

Vision Vet and I have agreed that we’re going to call this ending a rough month for both of us on a high note, and we’re discussing how to just skip May next year.  Yeah, some of my favorite people have birthdays in this month, but otherwise, I don’t have much nice to say about it this year.  However, another good eye exam is ALWAYS worth celebrating!

Sorry for the very brief post, but we still have no internet per se, and my poor iPhone hotspot is only so strong.

 

New digs

Happy Thorsday!  Mama is neglecting us woefully, but in all fairness, she’s typing for us while using her phone as a hotspot because our house was attacked by lightning yesterday and… that’s what she has to do to be online.

We thought you might enjoy some glimpses at our new walking path.  Mama says it is an old racetrack, as in… horses used to run in circles on purpose there.  It’s kinda’ cool; it’s shaded and nearly wooded on one end and a pretty field on the other.  Mama always points out where the sand the horses ran on is still obvious – duh?!  It’s not the same as beach sand!

Mama says there are wild berry – she thinks blackberries – bushes everywhere.  Do you think the firefighters will come help us pick when they’re ripe?  I – Gretchen Greer – hate blueberries.  Will I like blackberries?  Mama says no, but there was also something about “more for me” in her reply…

Our yard is RICH with clover.  We like clover.  Dadaw calls it a weed and says it’s ruining the lawn.  What do you think?

Sissy has her regularly scheduled eye appointment in a couple of days, so stay tuned for an update!

 

The Best Therapists

Who can be sad with this face smiling at you?!

It’s a rather brutal time to be a human in these parts, but thankfully, there are doggy therapists on hand to provide exactly what is needed at just the right moment.  How do they do it?  Dogs seem to know when to comfort, when to distract, and when to try to lick your face off.

(And the Knight and I are fine.  We’re just in a life stage where it seems every time we turn around someone we care about is suffering… or worse.)

Thank goodness for dogs and their unconditional love.  But don’t worry; I squeezed in a quick walk between rain showers, a pot luck, and helping with a friend’s final affairs.  I don’t know if exercise really is good for the spirit, but seeing two happy dogs sniff and jump and … be happy dogs sure can cure a lot of ills.

 

 

Pet WEEK!

Whew.  We almost missed it, but it’s National Pet Week!  You humans are supposed to “celebrate the way pets enrich your lives.”

Get to counting, Mama.

***Mama here.  It might be easier to count if the basset DIVA wasn’t drooling and spinning and spitting as she sails through the air whilst chasing the wee one through the house, over the furniture, through every room, using the sofa as a trampoline…

Meh, either way, I love this sassy, silly, awesome dog.  She has more charisma and character than ten Hollywood stars.

Even though I use HBO words and my back aches when she pulls like a freight train on a walk, her dogged determination live life to the fullest delights me and dares me to make the most of every moment.

I also adore this precious wee one.   She’s a strange mix of fearlessness and anxious timidity, but when she’s happy and secure, she’s a beautiful, bouncing girl.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing Gretchen Greer bound down a trail or bounce through a field.

Getting them the exercise they crave keeps me healthy too, but I also take great comfort in their companionship when I am trying to shut out the world and they quietly insert themselves into my walled fort.  Heck, I even find Sissy’s not-delicate snores amusing and reassuring.  All is right with the world when the DIVA can sleep so soundly, with her puppy – I’m pretty sure that’s how she’ll always view Gg – intruding on her space in the name of togetherness.

And we all appreciate that others are kind to our pets too.  The girls got some pet week lovins’ from some students at our firehouse for an emergency vehicle driving class, and from some of the regulars who are used to Sissy slinging slobber far and wide, and who know to talk sweetly and make no sudden movements around Gg.

Happy Pet Week to each of you from all of us!

 

 

Specially-Abled Day

We missed it, but thanks to Facebook, at least we now know it exists.  May 3rd was National Specially-Abled Pets Day, a day to celebrate those pets that set a good example for us and face their challenges with a smile.

Of course, our own visually impaired DIVA is our favorite specially-abled, lead by unflappable example around these parts.  I’m not sure I give her enough credit for being a benevolent alpha, my best personal trainer, a sweetheart, a comedienne, and just an all-around good girl.  This picture is worth more than a thousand words; she is my inspiration and indeed, our Princess of Joy, even after being bitten by a neighbor-dog.

(She’s fine, by the way.  We did three glorious miles on Saturday, and five today on our new, safe route, that is also building Gretchen’s riding tolerance.)

 

Bouncing Back

Well… Sunday, we had another encounter with the biters.  One charged out at us, and while I guarded Gg, Sissy stood her ground, sweetly indignant that such a rude creature would rush her/us.  Before I could react, the dog that bit Gretchen over a year ago joined the fray, and Sis was pinned down in the middle of the road.

The other dogs’ owners rushed out and I thought we’d escaped with only emotional trauma and some bite-bruises.  We headed home  post-haste, with Gretchen in the throes of a full-blown panic attack, and an hour or so later, I realized Sissy did have a small puncture wound on her belly/right rear leg area.   She did have some significant soreness Sunday night, but fresh apple cider donuts made the world a better place.  (I’m sure the wound cleaning and Neosporin didn’t hurt either, but what do I know?)

Was this one of our last trips to the trails?

Devastated isn’t the word for it.  Both girls are ready to walk again, but I am not.  Tuesday, we did take the trash up to the road front and then walk the road to our property line, but Gg turned around right at the line and made it clear I’d promised we’d only walk that far.  Sissy was rarin’ to go further, but it was raining and I didn’t want to cause a setback with her stellar recovery.  (I couldn’t even find the wound last night; I thought it was just a glob of dirt at first glance.)

I honestly don’t know what’s next.  I don’t want to discuss the legal ramifications… just whether or not I dare walk my dogs ANYWHERE again.  There are simply too many loose dogs on our road.  I could drive them to the trails we have access to, but Gg hates the car almost as much as she hates to be left behind.  Clearly, I cannot keep my dogs safe and that is something I’m struggling with too.

Sissy proclaimed her recovery complete yesterday, but Gg is still extra-anxious and I am just … distraught.  We love our walks and runs, and most of our neighbors are truly wonderful, but there are at least three who feel it is their right to let their dogs roam, and they don’t seem to care that I have no confidence in their notions that their dogs are friendly enough, and clearly, the leash law doesn’t apply to them.  I can’t put an animal control officer on speed-dial either, so … again, I’m at a loss.

How am I to exercise two very active dogs if we don’t walk?  I can go run on the elliptical, but they can’t, and their efforts to do yoga with me aren’t appreciated either.   Is there a website where I can find truly dog-friendly walking paths?

 

 

 

How do our dogs see us?

The DIVA doesn’t cover her grey!

Last week, I rather unintentionally went from blonde to “warm brown” (read: auburn?) hair in the course of a few hours.  I came home from work, took the dogs for a quick run, and headed to the salon.  I knew I had gotten too blonde (because yes to the co-worker who is also my hubby’s best friend, I *DO* know what my natural color is [medium, blah brown]), and I knew I wanted to fix that…

… and I trust my stylist.  I mean, she’s a dog person.  When she changed salons a few months ago, the first thing she said was, “… and if you want to bring one of the girls with you, that’s totally fine!”  Anyway, I was shocked that the dogs didn’t seem to notice.

I don’t believe dogs are color or even necessarily shade blind.  My JRTs have ALWAYS had a color preference on toys, and Gretchen can distinguish PANK (her signature hot pink) from orange.  So, I’m pretty sure they knew Mama had done something to her head, but they didn’t react.

They *DO* react to what I wear.  They know running tights from street wear leggings.  They know I *NEVER* wear footies unless a walk or a run is in order, and – over share ahead – they know a sports bra from normal lingerie.  So, I find it really hard to believe they didn’t notice my hair color change.

Do your dogs notice differences in your appearance?

 

Wild about Wild Cravings

Because Mama gets more traffic than we do (what’s up with that?!), OUR Chewy goodies have to be blogged there, but we wanted to tell you about the review.  It’s good stuff.

We’re happy to report that we are getting regular walkies.  SHE missed Monday, but it was pouring rain, so … add in the long mid-week run this evening, and all is forgiven.

Happy Thorsday!

 

 

 

Allergies 14.1

Things are blooming here in the woods, so that means allergies are showing themselves too.  Sissy – thankfully! – seems not to have seasonal, environmental allergies, but she and the Knight went back to have her anal glands expressed again and to drop off a special package (read: specimen) we gathered on a walk for just that purpose.  Sis’s bum is looking better, and there’s less scooting and such.  The vet also told me that it’s not unusual to need to express the glands twice in short order when they are as full as Sissy’s were the first time, so they’ll check her again when we go back in about 10 weeks for her next local eye pressure check.

I apologize for my inability to post consistently on Thorsdays recently.  I fear that trend will continue through at least next month.  But, we’re still logging 20 miles per week, and the girls hopped in the creek on the warmest day this week, so we’re all getting our exercise and Vitamin D, regardless of the otherwise chaos in my/our lives.

Unfortunately, Gg does seem to be true to her terrier roots, and she’s been doing a lot of sneezing and that reverse sneeze thing that almost every Jack Russell I know does.  If she shows any additional signs, we’ll consult the good doctor and make sure she isn’t too miserable.

In other news, I’ve resigned myself to a serious discussion on better living through chemicals for little Gg at her next vet visit.  Being a JRT, she insists upon pressing on, even when she’s having a panic attack.  She doesn’t want to miss a walk, even if passing the biters’ house is almost too much for her.  (And we have to pass it TWICE to get to the woods and home again, poor gal.)

Do any of you have any experience with … psych drugs for your dogs?  I hate the very thought of it and anticipate Gg fighting me every step of the way, because she doesn’t even like pain pills because she fears a loss of control (why yes, I do think I can read her mind), but I also can’t bear the thought that most days, she has some sort of panic attack for one reason or another.

 

White wool?!

Around these parts, March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb.  Evidently, lambs are COLD, white and fluffy.  We’ve had so much snow this winter that even Gretchen Greer now prances in it with just a wool sweater.

What you can’t tell from the photo is that it’s pouring snow, and Lady Gg is still bravely ripping and racing in the cold, wet stuff.  I’m especially proud of her because she was charged AGAIN by a neighbor-dog on Saturday, and while the weather helped us choose to skip the walk on Sunday, Monday she was ready to go, and Tuesday in the snow, she was actually the one impersonating Dora the Explorer and blazing new trails.

She wasn’t physically harmed, but I honestly don’t know how much more my skittish girl can take.  We have been assured that dog won’t be allowed loose again, but I REALLY wish my neighbors would just opt-in on the local leash laws.  Yes, we’re in a rural area, but there’s a reason for the laws and Gretchen and I are happy to advocate for the enforcement of said rules.

Happy Thorsday to you!  Are you ready for spring?