Duke goes home

Duke was getting pretty comfortable around here, and we were getting pretty comfortable with him, but it was time for him to have a home of his own and that happened today. He's a nice dog, we will miss him, but he's got a great home. We had his spot filled, over filled really, before he left when I brought home Champ yesterday. One in and one out keeps our number steady at 10, for now anyway.

Oh, and I am happy to report that he went to his new home with his weight on the upswing and producing solid stool.

Duke's new sister was very happy to have him.

New, large tennis balls were waiting for him and he
took to them very quickly.

Champ

Champ arrived today as my new Green Dog Unleashed foster. He came from a cat rescue group, the Madison-Greene Humane Society, as a result of an usual string of circumstances. I couldn't recount it all if I tried, but thank you to the Madison-Greene Humane Society for rescuing him, vetting them, neutering him, and for the entropion surgery to fix his eyes.

Let's get this nasty bit of business out of the way:

Entropion is an abnormality of the eyelids in which the eyelid "rolls" inward. This inward rolling often causes the hair on the surface of the eyelid to rub against the cornea (outer part of the eyeball) resulting in pain, corneal ulcers or corneal erosions.

It's been fixed and his eyes have healed up, they just need some fur to grow back on his face to look completely normal.

Champ is about 18 months old and he weighed 105 when he was recently neutered. He must have felt miserable until his eyes were fixed, but he's ready to enjoy life now. He seems like a sweet and friendly rottweiler. I gave him his own space in a kennel today to observe all the other dogs, but in the evening I introduced him to Max with no problem. He wags that little tail as hard as he can to let you know he's happy.

He's got an extra wide tongue.

No issues meeting Max.

He was fine in the kennel today, but was happy to get into
the dog yard and stretch his legs and check out everything. 

We had a rainbow with no rain after Champ arrived, that's got to be a good sign.

There's nothing quite like that rottweiler smile.

He mostly ignored Max, which is smart.

We are Samantha

"If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons." - James Thurber

I went into town on Thursday afternoon, mostly on rather mundane errands like recycling and grocery shopping. After hitting the recycling center and a stop at Southern States, I stopped by my vet's office to pick up Samantha's cremains. I was glad to get her back home where she will join many others in our dining room columbarium. 


I had already shed many tears over Samantha's death so this was not the hardest part of the process. That had come after she was euthanized. The process itself is peaceful. The hardest part, for me, was walking out of that room without her, leaving her behind. I had kissed her goodbye, covered her with a blanket, and took her collar with me, but walking out that door without her was hard. 

I had spent the rest of that afternoon driving around, shopping and crying intermittently, not at the same time, but trying to compose my thoughts about her. I came home that evening and wrote a blog post about her as I often do. I wrote it, gathered and edited pictures, posted it to the blog, and went to bed with an empty dog bed on the floor next to me. 

I was gratified to see so many responses, comments, and reactions to that post because she was just a dog, and a very ordinary dog at that. I loved her and knew her well, but not many other people did. It got me thinking, what's the impact of one ordinary life, be it canine or human? What's the importance, the meaning of such a life, much like my own? 


The fear of nothingness kindles a desire to leave a mark, to make a lasting impression. It's probably what drives procreation, at least in part, the thought that I may not change the world, but perhaps someone down the line will do so. It's probably also what drives people to amass great wealth far beyond any reasonable wants, needs, or desires.  It's what motivates people to emblazon everything they own with their name in large gold letters. I'm not going to do any of those things and aside from procreation, 99.9% of us will not. Most of us are Samanthas. 

Samantha wasn't troubled by this, no dog is. It may be because they don't understand it, or they may have a better understanding than we do. Perhaps the meaning of life isn't in what's left behind, but what we do while we are here. Do you help people or exploit them? Do you share your bed with another dog who needs a space to rest? Speaking of which, a new boy arrives tomorrow.

Play date - Duke and Felix

Duke had a play date with Felix this evening. It was late in the day because it had been one of those days. But the dogs ran, had fun, and seemed to enjoy each other's company.

Getting re-acquainted, it didn't take long.

Felix doesn't look like a small dog,
except next to Duke.

I'd love to tell you that Duke was enjoying the flowers, but
actually he pissed on them. Of course, who's to say that isn't
his way of enjoying them?

Play time!

Duke and Jack meetings

Jack is friendly with people but it's hard to get his
attention away from his stick and the water tank.

Jack had a visit from prospective adopters on Wednesday and Duke and I visited one of his prospects that day as well.

This is Duke in the car. He laid down,
didn't get in my face or try to come up
front, and didn't get sick and get into a
bag of food that was laying in back.

Duke playing ball with the resident black lab.

Jack wasn't willing to give up his stick but he did like
the attention.

This is Duke's natural habitat, laying between several
people, giving everyone an opportunity to pet him.

Maya has something to say if I spent too much
time and attention on Duke. 

Jack's people saw the real dog,
wet with stick.

A sore paw

When the boy dogs around here get into a fight with each other over something stupid, I usually walk away and let them end it themselves. There's always a lot of noise and it sounds like they are killing each other, but it's rare that anyone has even a scratch on them and it soon ends when they realize that I don't care and am not going to get involved. If they can still walk and aren't losing a dangerous amount of blood, I tell them to walk it off and get on with it. 

Maya isn't bad at the vet, but she was very
nervous.

However, if one of my girls has a sore paw, a cough, or just isn't feel well, we can't get to the vet fast enough. We noticed on Sunday that Maya was limping a bit, definitely favoring her right front leg, and she was licking her foot like it hurt. We both looked but didn't see any obvious cause, so a trip to the emergency vet didn't seem necessary. Monday morning I called the vet and we went in to have a professional look at it and not see any obvious cause. No puncture, nothing broken, just a pad that she had licked till it was red. Possibly an allergy, like a hot spot, it's hard to say what started it.

Sticking close to daddy always helps.

I got some stuff for it, but mostly I need to keep her from licking it so it can heal up. Everyone knows my track record for keeping Maya from doing something she wants to do, but we are trying, and in the meantime it's a great excuse not to be out hiking in this hot, humid weather. 

Once we were out of the exam room and she
knew we were leaving, she relaxed again.

A prescription of bed rest was not unwelcome.