Skunk Carpet

This is what happens when Roxie gets skunked and comes into the family room to wipe off the skunk oil.

The house stunk for weeks. We had to pull out the carpet, let the house air out, then replace it with new carpet.

Poor baby got a snootful. We love her in spite of it, stinky smell and all :-).

Roxie's Moving to Colorado!

Stay tuned - Roxie is moving to Colorado and taking Bob and Gena with her. She's looking for a ranch house with lots of critters.

Luckily Roxie is not having to help with the packing and de-cluttering of her current home. She hears from Mom that it's a b*tch of a job. Mom and Dad are going to bed really early these days and taking heating pads too. They moan and groan a lot, like old dogs........

Dental Adventure Resolves!

Five days after it began, Roxie's dental adventure has come to an end. Thankfully.

Last night (Tuesday) Rox slept through the night with no potty trips and this morning she presented us with two normal (ish) poops. No more diarrhea and no constipation.

We're attributing that to the discontinuation of imodium and the starting of yogurt in her diet.

She's back to eating on her own (no more hand-feeding necessary), although she has now decided she likes her plate on the carpet in the family room instead of the kitchen. Such a silly girl!

Our vet called again this morning to check again. I'm sure they were concerned too about how long it took her to get over this simple procedure.

All's well that ends well ~ although Bob is still peeved with me for making her have her teeth cleaned... sigh..........

A Dental Adventure

Yesterday Rox had her teeth cleaned. What an adventure! Bob took the job of Worrier, and I was Assistant Worrier.

Here is Baby Girl about 5 hours after waking from anesthesia. She's still groggy and we think her throat hurts from the ET tube. Her cry sounds different, sort of a froggy sound to it.

Bob also became Chief Sympathy Provider. I tell ya, he's head over heels in love with this dog!

So, the day started normally. No food or water, off to the vet at 7:30 AM. Rox was 5th in line for surgery. Due to a couple of emergencies she was bumped to 1:00 PM for a start time. Pretty sure she was unhappy about the cage time.

Her breath was just starting to smell a bit so I scheduled this as a preventive maintenance visit. The teeth cleaned up nicely, no problems with gums or teeth. The only problem seems to be that Rox takes at least a full 24 hours to recover from anesthesia..... not unusual.

Last night we were up several times for her to pee, due to the IV fluids. She was still pretty out of it, so we'd carry her downstairs, set her outside in the dark and stand there with her and a huge flashlight. She weave to and fro, sniff the air, stare out into the dark, then just when we were about to pick her up again, she'd toddle off and let loose a very lengthy pee-pee. Then she'd stand there thinking about it I guess, then back to the kitchen for a treat and back to bed. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

An hour later, we'd hear her crying. I think it wasn't pain, it was confusion from the anesthesia. At any rate, she's better today but she turned down her walk this morning. That qualifies for a stop-the-presses-news flash! She NEVER turns down a walk.

The vet tech called today to follow-up and it seems Rox is taking a long time to get the anesthesia out of her system. But actually it hasn't even been 24 hours yet. So we'll consider again around 3 PM..............

At any rate, her teeth look great! And hopefully we won't have to do this again for several years!

UPDATE: Sunday evening

Well, Roxie + anesthesia + stress = diarrhea.......... Friday night was sleepless due to voiding out all the IV fluids and anesthesia confusion. Saturday and Saturday night were sleepless due to stress related runs.

Sunday morning Roxie started some Imodium and a bland diet. Good news is that the med seems to be working and the effects of the Friday Dental Adventure are resolving. Also, the ET sore throat seems to be better; Rox is once again "woo-wooing" and "wah-rooing". No more sore throat squeekies.

It's 9 PM Sunday night and Bob and Baby Girl are soundly asleep, hopefully to stay that way allll night long!

Little did I know that this would be a three day recovery process..........

UPDATE: Tuesday morning

Sunday night was not a good night either... Rox was up several times to go potty and she vomited once. She decided to stay on the screened porch rather than go back upstairs. She actually seemed to sense it would be faster to go out if she was on the porch instead of in bed. Of course, this meant Bob or I had to stay up on the porch too, while trying to catch a few zzzzz's.

Monday Rox seemed "not like herself".... she's got very little appetite and will only eat from our hands. And only chicken - meat is the magic answer.

Monday night was better, she got up only once. But Tuesday (today) she is not eating. We haven't seen her poops yet today so we don't know if the diarrhea is gone, but I am stopping the imodium as I fear it might be making her feel bad. We have moved on to yogurt with it's good bacteria cultures in hopes that will be a good holistic approach.

This shouldn't be happening. Rox had a simple dental cleaning and now 4 days later she's still having problems. We are beginning to regret taking her in for an elective procedure..........

Sun Lover

No matter where she is, Rox loves the sun... unfortunately for her the summer sun can be very, very hot with her dark coat....

As much as she loves her walks in the woods, she does get hot and tired when the temp is above 70. Bob takes water and a bowl so she gets a drink in the car on the way home, but it wears her out. She will sleep for 2-3 hours after a long walk in hot temps....

We've decided to try to temper the length and time of day so she won't get overheated, but she seems to have some self-control. The other day it was really warm and Bob said she just found a shady spot on the path and laid down to rest. Laid down on her side with her head on the ground, as if she was going to sleep! Caused some momentary concern on my part "Was she breathing!" But Bob said she just wanted a little rest, so she took it!

After a few minutes, Bob picked her up (all 30 lbs of her) and carried her for about 100 yards. Then she wanted down, and went right back to sauntering along on the walk, sniffing bushes for signs of other critters.

If she doesn't get her morning wake-up walk AND her mid-day park walk she gets a little feisty. As soon as I can figure out how to video with my new cell-phone I hope to post a video of her giving us hell.............. she's a talker!

Spring Time in Full Bloom

Life has been going along quite nicely lately. I haven't blogged because Rox has become such a routine part of life now that her antics seem common place!

She's gotten 2 rabbits, 2 chipmunks, 2 birds and many flies this season. We've learned not to holler in a panicky tone because she takes her catch and disappears under the shrubs where we can't get her. She cannot understand why we get all hot and bothered...

Bob has tried to use reverse psychology with her. When we see her with a prize he praises her... "good girl", "what have you got there?"............. if she thinks he isn't upset she'll actually share it.

Her winter coat is almost shed. She has the thickest, thickest coat and we get bags full of hair when we use the Furminator to groom her. The warmer weather is hard for her; Rox's favorite temperature is about 60 degrees. Moving to Phoenix would never work for her!

Colorado is looking good for retirement. Bob and Rox can wander up into the Rockies for some good hikes.

Hope Springs Eternal

I'm not in the least bit surprised. Roxie got up this morning, had her walk and breakfast, shared rice chex with Bob while he read the paper and then went right outside to check for any of Peter's relatives who might be stupid enough to still be hanging around.

She's circling the yard in surveillance mode, stopping to sniff from time to time.

As I type, she's sitting in the sun on the patio, waiting until it's time to make another trip around...

My heart aches for the bunnies of the world.

First Kill of the Spring...sigh......

We have been pretty lax about blogging lately because things have been so darned quiet. Just "going along"... life has been good but uneventful. Until today.

The Huntress was spotted on the porch with a furry thing in her mouth. First glance didn't make any sense... second glance made me want to vomit.

Roxie had herself a good sized rabbit and was happily eating it's back leg off.

Luckily Bob, being retired and always around, was johnny-on-the-spot to take charge. This being Roxie's second rabbit kill, I was able to keep from hurling, but just barely. Amazingly she obeyed our frantic commands to "drop it"... although she must have been thinking she could slip away unnoticed and moved her meal to the porch outdoors before giving up.

Bob confirmed complete leg dining when he shovelled Peter into a plastic garbage bag.... I'm thinking it will be 6 more days until trash pick-up... perhaps double or triple bagging is in order.

I feel ashamed that I had the presence of mind to grab the camera, but it was 6 inches from my hand and instincts are sometimes strange in the face of .... whatever the hell this penchant for rabbits is.......

A call to the vet - they hadn't heard from us in a while because, like I said before, we were coasting along on 'quiet life mode'........ when I told Barb she just laughed and laughed.... she kindly explained that Rox must have been hungry, as it was lunch time after all..... ha ha.......

Barb checked with a vet who said to not make her vomit because the leg bones could be problematic coming back up. We are to watch for vomiting, belly distention, bloody diarrhea... maybe take her in on Friday for an x-ray...

Bob just loaded her in the car for a long walk in the woods..... hopefully she will not be sick in his car like last time (that was a huge lot of fun..... blech) and that if she is sick it will be deep in the woods and the bones won't cause problems going back out.

One has to think Rox learned her lesson last time - the guts were obviously too rich for her, causing her to toss that huge glop of guts. Maybe she decided to sample the leg this time hoping it would be more palatable.

Honestly, the whole thing turns my stomach. She's a Baby Girl with a Dark Side. She's a subdivision dog with a fenced back yard, a Queen of Suburbia. How can these animal kingdom instincts play out in our back yard?! And how in the world can an 8 inch tall dog with 4 inch long legs catch rabbits?!

And she couldn't have been really hungry, we'd just had lunch and she'd finished off a plate of steamed veggies.

We had to smile when she was finally inside and finished with the cleaning of the face, lips, beard and whiskers, she let out the most melodious song. Bob was telling her what a good dog she is and she just sang and sang - clearly she was proud of her catch.

Gotta love her. Although she ain't kissin' me for a long, long time........ sorry babe.

Patiently Waiting For Spring

The snow is melting and Rox sits patiently waiting for more warm weather....

Math Test

Poor Rox failed her math test today.

Bob went out in the way back to check on roof snow on northern roof. Rox, of course, thought she was invited.

Rox is 9 inches tall at the shoulder. The snow is about 21 inches deep. If I hadn't seen her go after him, I'd never had known where she was. Not even her tail showed. I imagine she was pretty surprised!

The story ends well. I hollered and pointed. Bob trudged over and lifted her out. He carried her back to the patio where is is shoveled.

Miss Silly Girl wouldn't come in, just stood there on the patio staring at Bob and thinking of ways she could meet up with Daddy in the Deep Snow.

We know she's smart because she didn't try it a second time!

How Can I Refuse?

The weather here has been brutally cold for the past 8 weeks. Temps ranging from -14 degrees to a warm of 10 degrees. Bob won't take Rox out for walks unless it's at least 10 degrees so she has been "severely deprived" (her words).

On the rare occasions when the temp and depth of snow has allowed, they go out for short periods. Rox's shaggy feet gather snow dingles and ice balls. When it hurts she stops and raises her paw. Bob picks her up, takes of his glove and digs out the ice ball. A couple of licky kisses and off they go again.

But returning home is a real show... she comes in the door with a white, ice-ball beard, snow dingles decorating all her feet and her entire underbelly, and uncomfortable ice balls in her toes.

Oh, I should say here that Bob always gets up before me. I'm a Life-Long Late Sleeper and not ashamed to admit it.

Anyhoo, one morning I happened to get up early (before they came back from their walk) and I was horrified to see her condition when she walked in!

Immediately I wrapped her in a bath towel, sat in front of the heat vent and started picking ice balls out from between her toes. By the time I got all the snow dingles and ice balls off her, she was sleeping in my arms, wrapped burrito style.

I held her feet to my skin to warm them and rocked her until she felt warm enough to wake up again and demand her post-walk treat.

See where I'm going here?....

Now, every morning, Bob lifts her off the bed and she runs around to my side and talks to me until I get up too. Ra-roo, ark ark, wah-oooooo......... She won't go downstairs until I'm up and going down as well!

Sometimes it's hard to believe that animals can be so smart - but she continues to train us. I often wonder if she thinks we are slow learners.

Walk, Quilt and Spaghetti Dinner

Today I finished a quilt for Roxie. Only took me 4 years to put the final touches on it.... I asked Bob and Rox to show it; Bob is camera shy and Rox is playing Peek-a-Boo.

She likes it - is laying right on top of it as I type. Won't get under it.

Today it was warm enough for Bob to take her to the park for a walk. For the last three weeks we've had sub-zero weather and hellacious snows which ruled out walks for safety reasons. Rox didn't like it! It was devastating to have to explain to her she wasn't getting a walk. I think she understood, she just didn't accept it!

So today it was 28 degrees with no wind and they headed out to the park. Rox was psyched! Bob says she ran the whole way, darting back and forth on the paths, running from one scent to the next. Usually she will amble part of the way, stopping to look around and leisurely smelling the flowers. Not today... she was just wild with pent-up energy. She LOVES her walks!

And the final high note for the day: we just finished a TASTY, TASTY spaghetti dinner. Full of carbs and wheat, but hey! It tasted divine....

Baby Girl is sleeping, Bob is watching TV and I....... well, I'm going to hijack the TV remote. Wish me luck....

Eats and Blows, 2009

One eats snow, the other blows snow....

Yes, this is last year's picture, but I could have taken it yesterday! Once again this year, Old Man Winter has gifted us with more snow than we deserve... For some reason, Roxie loves it. Bob tries to avoid long walks in low temps but Little Missy just insists.

Rox's paws are heavily covered in shaggy hair/fur... she rolls for me to pick out the snow balls from between her toes, then snuggles until everything warms up....

And then!? Why, treats, of course!

Sweet Dreams Pillow

After her walk in 10 degree weather, and a warming blanket on mom's lap, she retires to the front room. Her comfy bed apparently isn't enough; she moved the pillow into position herself and zonked out in the warm sunny room.

Life is good.

Happy New Year

We are planning a very quiet New Year's Day today. Quilting, a little house pick-up, some football on TV, turkey and scalloped potatoes for dinner....... we're feeling very contented and lazy today. I hope that doesn't mean we're going to be lazy the whole year!

Rox is sleeping in her red chair, under her quilt; well, really, they are all her quilts... sigh...... the weather is cold and snowy and we have the fireplace roaring....

One big change for us this upcoming year is our plan to move to Colorado. We lived there 30 years ago before moving to Michigan, and we loved, loved, loved the open spaces and clean air....

And that is one of the issues we are facing, that we lived here for 30 years....... 30 years of memories, 30 years of clutter, 30 years of wear and tear on the house....... am I looking forward to this move? Well, yes and no!

It seems so profoundly overwhelming and I don't want it to be. So I am doing what all the experts say to do, breaking everything down into small steps. When I was younger, I could do anything. I want to still have that drive, that energy....... I just need to work myself up to it I guess. But it really did come so easily 30 years ago....

And what about Roxie? I'm sure she'll be fine, but with her we have another criteria for house hunting. We need to find a house that has all WE want PLUS one that has good walking trails and parks for Rox. Sort of like needing to be in a good school district when you have kids.... can you imagine the realtor when I tell her our list of wants and then say, "oh and we need trails and parks close by for Roxie, that's a deal-breaker..." Well, it will give her something to talk about at her weekly meetings, I guess!

And so today, while Roxie Girl sleeps, we are going to be getting rid of more clutter so we can move to a place with good trails and parks.........