Walking Without Maya

Maya is still wearing her cone and I'm going to try to keep it on her until Wednesday at least, so she's sort of out of the walking rotation for a while. She's not happy about that, I'm sure, but she's been pretty good about wearing the cone. She has learned to do the stairs with it and has even jumped up into bed. As I told her the first night when she complaining about hitting the cone on the stairs, "You're the smartest dog I've ever known, you can figure out how to manage stairs." Sure enough, she just lifted her head up and ran on up the stairs. She certainly wasn't going to be left behind. It hasn't really slowed her down, but I think it would be an unnecessary obstacle while hiking so she's taking a few days off.

Gigi was pretty in her pearls, jewels, and accessories,
but Serena is a different kind of Dane.
She looks good in leather.

Any time we lose a dog, or add one, adjustments have to be made and it seems weird for a while. With TJ's death there was no one scratching at the door to get us up early this morning. There was an empty spot in the bedroom that Max has willingly filled, but I'm not sure all the sleeping arrangements have been settled just yet, at least on that side of the room. It seems strange putting Maya out in the AC yard by herself; she and TJ always went out there together. I've tried getting Sparky to assume TJ's indoor eating location, but he still seems to prefer his spot on the front porch. I'm still wearing TJ's collar, but Serena wore it on our hike today, taking TJ's collar and spirit on a long, five-mile hike, which he hadn't been able to do in a long time. I think I'm going to get one for myself with an ID tag because I don't like to carry my wallet when hiking and I really should have some emergency information on me.

We were crossing a shallow stream that we've
crossed many times, but today Serena spotted
small fish in the water. She nearly pulled me
down when she jumped in and tried to grab them.

I kept Smokey indoors on Sunday morning instead of putting him in the dog yard to play stupid shepherd games all day. He needs to domesticate. He wouldn't come upstairs on his own and I didn't force it this morning, allowing him the freedom of the kitchen area with the door open to the AC yard. One time when I came down to re-fill my coffee I found my wallet on the floor with a few teeth marks in it, so I put him back in the crate for a while.

Smokey and Serena and I did a five mile hike on Sunday. It was a great day for it and we covered a lot of trail that was new to Serena and some that I hadn't been on in a while too. My next bonding moment with Smokey needs to be brushing him. He's blowing his coat and besides, it would be a good way for both of us to get comfortable with touch.

Back on shore after the fish incident.

Smokey with a non-fierce face.

Look at all that loose fur on Smokey. I scratched his butt at one
stop and pulled off a lot of it, so I think he'll enjoy the brushing.

Sunday's route was just over five miles. Serena
was pulling a lot today so my arms are as tired
as my legs. I think the dogs were tired too.

TJ, Moving On

I will always remember his smile.

This is the first picture I ever saw of TJ. It was taken shortly after being rescued by The HOWS Project. He was taken off a chain where he had lived for many years when his owner agreed to surrender him. He was riding in a car with the women who had saved him, no idea where he was going, and he didn't care. He was happy to be free, happy to be going. They didn't know where he was going either, but they were determined to save him. One of them reached me by phone and after a picture was sent and a short conversation it was decided that he was coming here.

He was a senior dog and still intact, so he wasn't the easiest dog to introduce to everyone, but he quickly made up his mind that this was his pack and he wanted a place in it. He did settle in, and he eventually stopped marking everything, but he always remained a bit difficult with new dogs. Well, he was always fine with females, but males were always challenged at the door, especially if they were still intact. Because he settled in here, and because he was a senior dog already, and because he was still a butt head, we decided to keep him. He seemed ok with that.

That was in February-March 2017. And he was ok for the next two years.
But over the past several months he's slowed down a lot. I stopped taking him on walks, even shorter ones. I did start letting him out to wander freely in the yard on his own. He wasn't interested in going anywhere and he enjoyed the new freedom to explore.

He's had some bad days when he doesn't eat, and he's been losing control of the rear end functions too, but TJ has kept going. After feeling bad for a day or two, he'd perk up again. Yesterday things took a big turn for the worse. He didn't eat and I wasn't sure he was going to make it upstairs last night, but he did. He didn't have a good night, however, and after going outside he stayed in the kitchen for a while. Saturday morning he was looking really weak, really uncomfortable. He usually lays right behind my chair. Today he couldn't find a place to be comfortable and he finally just came up to me with a look in his eyes that told me it was time.

I called the vet and we drove to town. He wouldn't let me lift him into the van, too much pride or too much pain, probably both. He did use a ramp that had been given to me and I was very glad to have it. He did manage to lay down on the blankets in the back for the ride to town. He was nearly 14 years old and he had managed to stay well right up to the end. The end was easy and peaceful and it relieved his suffering, so there's a lot to celebrate and be happy about. Maybe it's just the pollen and the music that have teamed up to cause my tears to fall, but mostly I miss TJ. He wasn't the cuddly type, he wasn't always lovable, but he was more than worth the effort.

I took these pictures one day last week when TJ was feeling pretty good. He was outside
on a beautiful day where the sun worked its magic on his fur.

I saw this collage of HOWS photos
on the equipment shed/concession
stand at the baseball fields at
Pleasant Grove. It surprised me, but
I was glad to see it.

This little framed photo was on display
at the vet's office, given to them by
HOWS as a thank you for helping
with the dogs they rescue.

I'll wear TJ's collar until his cremains are returned,
then I'll put the collar with the urn in our columbarium.

TJ always had a smile.

Two girls, two days, two vets

Thursday was Serena's follow up vet appointment. It was all good news. Since the problem went away with antibiotic treatment, it seems that she had an infection in her shoulder joint. The vet said that septic joints are rare, he sees maybe two of them a year. Moreover, hers had no apparent cause. He called it, and this is a technical term, "a fluke." He reiterated what he had told me before, that infections in joints may take months of antibiotic treat to completely resolve. We decided to continue the antibiotic for another month anyway, although he said that he felt no swelling in the joint now.

I can't help but believe it's related to the injury she sustained that brought on the limping, although that isn't something that should have resulted in an infection. It's a mystery, but I don't really care about the cause as long as it's resolved.

Serena was scared at the vet, but nothing terrible happened other than taking her temperature, so I hope she will remember that vet visits aren't always dreadful. The only part she really didn't like and didn't cooperate with was being taken away from me so he could walk her and observe her movement.

She tipped the scales at 113 pounds yesterday. When we got home, we went out for an afternoon walk with Maya.

Friday I took Maya into the vet for a surgery to remove that growth just below the inside corner of her left eye. I have never seen my little girl so scared. Her legs, her entire body was visibly shaking when we went in. She absolutely didn't want to be taken away from me and the feeling was pretty mutual. I picked her up at the end of the day, cone and all, and she was happy to see me. We'll have the results of the biopsy sometime next week most likely. The site of the surgery looks good, hardly even noticeable that anything was done.

I have a feeling I'm going to have a cone bumping into my leg pretty constantly for the next five days or so, along with regular requests to remove the damn thing. I can't see hiking with her with the cone on, so that's going to mean activity restriction that she won't like either.

Learning to Dog

While I was in Kansas, Clay was feeding Smokey twice a day. He was still in Sparky's old kennel and shed by himself and Clay told me that Smokey was beginning to come up to him, jump up on him, wanting attention.

That told me he was ready to move on to the next step. Also, he started getting destructive in the shed, just out of boredom, pulling stuff down that he could reach, that sort of thing, but not really chewing anything up.

So I started moving him to the dog yard during the day with Max and Theo, and sometimes Trooper. For the past week or so I've been bringing him into the house at night, to a crate in the kitchen. He loves the crate, but he was still barking ferociously at any dog that walked by. He was fine in the dog yard during the day, but Max and Theo play that barking game between them, and that was just feeding the behavior I don't want in Smokey.

Today I decided to keep Smokey indoors during the day. He followed the other dogs upstairs without too much urging and just hung out with us in the office during the day. He didn't take up residence in any of the open crates, but instead just laid under my desk or on the floor nearby. He came up to me for petting and attention. He needed more encouragement to go back down the stairs, but I think he will learn it quickly enough.

I took Maya and Smokey out for a walk around noon. He did less barking in the crate in the van than in the past, particularly on the way home. We had a good walk. Later in the afternoon I took out Smokey again, this time with Serena. He should be a tired dog tonight. It wasn't a perfect day, behavior-wise, but I saw enough improvement and progress to feel encouraged.

Maya has spotted or heard something in
the bushes here. Check out her tail. It's
curved in at least three directions but it
ends up pointing straight up.

Smokey stopping for a drink in
a shallow stream.

I do like the looks he was giving me today.

Serena spotted her first deer today. Smokey didn't seem them but got excited anyway.