Horseplay

Maya can hold her own when playing rough
with Patton in spite of the size difference.

Their favorite place to play is indoors,
preferably under my feet.

I thought we had big dogs until Patton came along.  He makes everyone else around here seem small.  It's ironic then that our little girl, Maya, is his most active playmate.  They are about the same age but the similarity ends there.  He must be at least three times her size, but she must be at least three dogs in one, so they are actually very evenly matched.  It's rough and tumble but very friendly play, the only danger is to innocent by-standers.






Gigi curls up into a nice tight ball when she lays
on the bed.  Patton sprawls.  He does NOT have
bed privileges, and that is not going to change.

Gigi had been laying on the big dog
bed in my office.  Patton plopped
himself down and then she wanted
me to make him move.  I did so.



Maya and Patton in the dog yard this evening.

When Patton runs into you it feels like being tackled.
They nearly took me down this evening.



Between his size and his color, he is easy to spot in the pasture even after dark.

A local hero

Chilly is an English Bulldog mix who was adopted by a local woman from the Fluvanna SPCA.  Heidi Parker is a Facebook friend, an animal lover, and she has fostered for Animal Connections.  Heidi was home alone one day and fell asleep, having a severe allergic reaction.  Chilly sensed that something was terribly wrong and she managed to awaken Heidi just in time to call 911 for assistance.  Chilly's actions that day brought fame and little fortune to Fluvanna County.  Chilly was honored as the HSUS Dog of Valor for 2013.  They had an award ceremony this morning at the Fluvanna County Library. 



Chilly received a sterling silver tag.

Chilly was great, very photogenic and charming.  The Fluvanna SPCA will receive 500 pounds of dog food and a $5,000 grant for medical expenses for the dogs in their care.  All the local dog people were there, it was a nice event. 

Zachary is doing better today.  His temp is down and he's moving about a lot more, obviously feeling less pain although he's still favoring that one leg.  That will be a slow healing process, but at least he's more comfortable now and that makes me feel better. 




Chilly, Heidi, and the HSUS representative



This was given to the Fluvanna SPCA along with
500 pounds of dog food and a $5,000 grant.

Heidi was given this crystal sculpture made to resemble Chilly.

Doctor day

Zachary in the van on the way to the vet

Zachary and me, waiting

Monday was doctor day for both Zachary and me.  I had to carry Zachary upstairs last night and downstairs this morning.  He was extremely stiff and sore this morning and was bearing no weight on his back left leg.   I took him outside this morning and he didn't move, didn't pee, didn't do anything.  He hobbled back in and laid down on the carpet in the front room, stretched out, immobile, obviously in pain.  We had stopped giving him Carprofen as an anti-inflammatory on Friday and he was clearly feeling the effects today.  He wasn't moving so he wasn't drinking either, and he showed no interest in food.  I gave him his pain pills and called the vet, making arrangements to drop him off before I went to my own doctor's appointment.

A couple hours elapsed before I left and by that time the pain pills (tramadol) had kicked in and at least he had moved himself around, he got up when I asked him to, and hobbled out to the van, though I had to lift him in.  I dropped him off with instructions to make him better and then went to see my own doctor, thinking it would much more convenient if we both saw the same vet. 

My weight was down and my blood pressure was down.  I've lost 24 pounds since I started, constituting 10% of my body weight.  That's the magic number that he had said would probably make my blood work all return to normal.  I expressed frustration that my weight loss seems to have slowed or stalled, and he said that at this point I should be happy to be dropping 2-3 pounds per month.  All I know is that I need to lose another 10 at least to be able to wear all the pants I had bought a couple years ago. 

I went back to the vet's office to collect Zach.  He was glad to see me and seemed perkier, having gotten another bag of fluids under his skin.  He has a temperature with no obvious explanation.  He may have a torn cruciate ligament in his left knee.  More xrays did not show any signs of a tumor on the bone at least.  I got him home and started him on the new anti-inflammatory drug, Previcox, plus some antacids in a spoonful of peanut butter.  He will get another pain med this evening and then hopefully will feel like eating.  He looks better and he made his way over to the water bowl a couple of times for a drink. 

The Return of a Dog Called Horse

His name isn't really Horse, it's Patton, but we call him Horse for obvious reasons.  It doesn't matter what we call him anyway because he's deaf as a post.  He's back here for a while as a foster for some socialization and playtime, and the chance to meet at least a couple new people.  He's fine with all our dogs, even Daphne who hadn't met him before.  Vince isn't crazy about him, but Vince isn't crazy about anything that might disrupt his routine.

Trooper and Patton, doing the dance

Patton's attempted "dominance" is really just
an attempt to provoke play.  Trooper mounted
and humped him thoroughly to set things right.

This is Gigi's "We are not amused" look.
He's just too much of a dog for her taste.

I think that Patton and Maya will become good
playmates in spite of the size difference.

She will figure out that he's big and clumsy and
will use her small size and agility to good advantage.

Back to the vet

Zachary, in the lobby at the vet's office

I think it had been at least a week, maybe almost two, since I had been to the vet.  That can throw the universe off balance if it goes on too long, so today Zachary restored order with another vet run.  He hasn't been eating well, he's been having increasing difficulty getting around it seems, and is reluctant to do the stairs, both going up and coming down.  This morning when Clay got up, Zachary didn't get up with him.  That's a first for him and was a definite sign that we needed to go to the vet. 

He was happy to see Clay there when
we walked in.

The blood work was mostly normal.  He wouldn't give up a urine sample so we need to collect that this weekend.  He's got a low grade fever and was slightly dehydrated.  And his skin infection is back, or never really went away. 

We know from the xrays that he's got severe arthritis and we need to get him on an anti-inflammatory that he can tolerate and that works.  Before we can start that, however, he has to be off the carprofen he's been taking for a few days.  We'll give him tramadol for the pain in the meantime and Cipro for the staph infection on his skin. 


The waiting is NOT the worst part as
far as Zachary is concerned.

I called Clay as we were heading to town and he met us there, which was a nice surprise for Zachary.  Zach trusts me when he's scared or nervous, but he always feels better when Clay's around.

Clay went back to work and Zach and I
waited for the test results.

Progress

Maya playing with Patton.  He harassed her and I

enjoyed every minute of it on Trooper's behalf.

To remain stagnant is to die, you've got to keep moving forward.  Sorry conservatives, but that's the way it is.  "Leave it to Beaver" was fine in it's day, but it's day is done. 

There's been a lot of progress around here in recent weeks--home improvement progress.  I've taken down all the old kennels except the one we call the canopy kennel behind the shed, the kennel that was just recently re-built following the damage from the derecho a year ago.  Sparky is in that one now; all the other kennels are gone.  The only one I'm planning to rebuild right now is the one adjacent to the puppy shed (where Bremo was born and where Sparky had been living until recently). 

Justin has been doing a lot of the things that I can't or won't do around here and I've been doing some others.  There's not a lot of show at this point even though a lot has been done.  Suffice it to say that a lot of rotten wood has been replaced, things have been moved, rebuilt, and improved upon.  I'm catching up on a lot of what realtors call "deferred maintenance."




New dog house in the dog yard,

moved from the kennel that had housed Nero

(after being thoroughly disinfected).

Notice the new light on the shed, there's also a gable

vent and fan on the opposite end of this shed, the doors

have been repaired and the window is about to be.





My fostering model going forward is one or two at a time, not 6, 8, 10, or more.  The old kennels really needed to be demolished and rebuilt, so this will enforce my new limits.  And I'm really enjoying having time to myself and time with Clay on the weekends, to work around the house, or do something different.  I'm still not able to do nothing and probably never will be, that's not the way of progress. 

Dog news:  Daphne is coming on Thursday to stay again while her mom is out of town.  Maya and I went to visit Patton.  I found and blocked Maya's most recently escape route and she's stayed in the dog yard for the last couple of days.  I know she's still plotting, but so am I. 



The "puppy shed" where Bremo was born,

with a new coat of primer, paint to follow.

This will be Sparky's re-built kennel with re-built dog house

moved from the old kennel complex.  There will be two

canopies and some other stuff to climb on.




This was the site of the big, three-kennel complex. It is gone and will not be back.

I've used the kennel panels to try to keep Maya confined to the dog yard.

I still have a few kennel panels to remove but they are

overgrown with Virginia creeper and poison ivy that I have sprayed.

Somewhere on this blog is a "before" shot of this area, but I don't have time to search for it.

Sunday float

An interesting rock formation that looks like a cave with
the water at this level.

Herons are somewhat accommodating when it comes to
photos, they at least give you a chance.  The bald eagles
are much tougher.  They sit up in trees and I usually spot
them as they take off just as I pass them.  I'm never fast
enough with the camera.

I had a four day weekend, which was great, and I had planned to do at least a couple float trips down the Rivanna with my canoe.  The river had other plans.  I drove down to the boat ramp at Palmyra on Wednesday evening to scope it out for a possible float on Thursday.  The water was high, very muddy, and looking rather violent.  There was an obvious upstream current caused by the old bridge piling near the boat ramp.  That was enough to tell me that I didn't want to deal with it.  We had a few days with little or no rain and the river began to settle.  I checked again Saturday evening and it looked great, so I headed out none too early on Sunday morning. 

The water wasn't completely clear but it no longer appeared muddy.  The water level was high enough that most of the rocks were mostly covered, but there were still a few places I had to pick a route through some rapids.  The current was fairly strong and I paddled a fair amount, making the trip in about 2.5 hours.  Not record time, but not a completely lazy, beer guzzling, fest of sloth either.  At my starting point, there were three kayakers who were waiting on two others to arrive so I got off ahead of them.  I never saw them again, or anyone else on the river for that matter, so I had it all pretty much to myself.

I saw the normal and expected wildlife: deer, bald eagles, lots turtles, and Great Blue Herons.  I had plenty of time and the river was good so I should have tried the next section of the river, from Palmyra down to Columbia but I didn't think of that until we were at the Crofton boat ramp at Rt 600 where I put in.  Maybe next time. 

Dog news:  Maya stayed put in the dog yard for a few days, but as I suspected she was just plotting.  The last couple days she has managed to slip out without me seeing how she did it.  I found one spot, a burrow under the fence, and blocked it up.  I think I found her next spot and have it secured now too.  We will see.  Smart money is on her to find another way out.  She reminds more and more of Molly all the time.  Very independent. 




One of my heron friends in flight.



Herons are pretty predictable too.  They sit and look for fish
where the water is shallow, usually where the river bed has
a shelf.  It's tough to photograph there because I need my
hands on the paddle to get through the rapids.