My poor puppy has had a rough few days… we noticed when we got home from our trip that he had a bit of an “upset tummy”. After several nights of midnight wakeups to go outside, we finally decided we needed to go into the vet. Turns out the poor little guy just has some sort of stomach bug. He’s lost five pounds, which on a 65 pound dog is quite a bit! Thankfully, the antibiotics and bland diet seem to be working – yesterday was his first day back on regular puppy chow and I’m happy to report there are no rumbling tummies in our house!
Yesterday my mom came up to help me get Shadow to the vet (Mike was at work). I was hoping that he would get his cone taken off… to be really honest, it’s driving just about everyone in the house crazy! Poor dog hasn’t figured out yet that his head is bigger, so in addition to be drugged out of his mind, he is running into just about everything.
The good news is that they took the drain out and it looks like it’s starting to heal up. The bad news is that he has a bunch of stitches and until those can come out, he has to be supervised and wear the cone of shame. Sooo… we have 6 more days. Thankfully, my parents are coming to help this weekend (we have the Willie Nelson concert) and next Monday – Wednesday. Then, Mike and I will take his stitches out… that should be fun.
Life in the Blankenheim household sure has been… well, eventful, in the last 24 hours. Yesterday Shadow jumped while Mike was opening the gate to his pen and got his paw stuck. That caused him to land funny, and he came down right on top of the latch. He limped away from it and I checked his paws. He seemed like he walked it off, so we headed out for a few hours for lunch with some friends. When we got back, he was limping even more. He let out these squeaks of pain on the stairs and I knew something was wrong. I had him lay down, and that’s when I noticed the almost 2 inch gash under his arm.
We immediately tossed him in the car and headed down to the emergency vet in Sacramento. The poor little guy was very clearly in pain… he just sat there (not even wagging his tail) when the vet came in and checked him out. He very clearly had a puncture wound. They did a chest x-ray to make sure that he hadn’t penetrated his chest cavity (he didn’t, thank goodness), then sedated him and put in a drain since it was so big – the vet said it was about 2.5 inches deep! They stitched some of the muscle together (think of getting stabbed between your armpit and chest muscles) and sent us home with a sleepy dog, antibiotics, pain pills, and a hefty bill. The rest of the night was awful – I slept downstairs with him and he was completely in pain and out of it. I think I finally fell asleep around 4am with the lights on because something about the dark freaked him out.
He has to wear the cone of shame so that he doesn’t rip the drain out… and is completely doped up. It is so hard to see him hurting (you can definitely tell when the pain meds wear off) and he hates the cone (although he’s tolerant of it). We go back in on Wednesday to have the drain evaluated and hopefully removed.
Lately Shadow has been a little snuggle bug… and I’m happy to snuggle with him! But, the minute Daddy gets home, he wants nothing to do with me! I keep trying to remind him who actually rescued him, but apparently the person who gives him the most biscuits wins! Happy Thursday!
I know it’s not Saturday, but I got this really cute picture of Shadow this morning and thought I’d share. He’s been such a good puppy the last couple of weeks with Mike being gone. He’s used to a lot of attention and Mike normally does a lot of “rough” playing with him that I don’t do. Top that off with the fact that all weekend it’s been really smokey here so I’ve kept him inside and you’ve got a lot of built up lab energy. He has been breaking the rules and snuggling in bed with me at night… shhh…. don’t tell Mike!
Inquisitive Shadow
Ok, so I may have said “the B word” to get him to look at the camera (biscuit). Don’t worry, I followed up with one for him. It makes me sad to see how grey he’s getting… a reminder that time passes for us all I guess. He’s also got more of the fatty tumors that labs apparently get… I’ve been told by the vet that they’re pretty normal and that they don’t like to do anything to them unless they bother the dog.
Living in the foothills has it benefits – we have land, few neighbors, lots of cool critters. Well, today I had my first run in with a snake without Mike. I have plenty of run-ins with lizards all the time and my first thought is generally “Whew, thank goodness that wasn’t a snake”.
Shadow & The Snake
I knew right away it wasn’t a rattle snake, so I ran inside to get my camera so that I could share with you folks. And, I knew once I got inside I would get super confused when I started Googling. Fortunately, a squirrel made a noise and Shadow ran off to chase it, so I was able to poke at the snake with a long pole. Unfortunately, that sucker turned and took off back into Shadow’s pen (not sure if it came from there to begin with). For once is his short little life, Shadow actually listened to me and came to me instead of chasing the snake. Maybe I actually sounded authoritative.
As it turns out, this is a California Striped Racer. They are known for their speed, their daytime activity, and they sometimes eat rattlesnakes. I’m kinda glad I grabbed the pole rather than the shovel I was thinking about.
These pictures are from a few weeks back when we had about five or six inches of snow on our property. The first, of Shadow running, makes me laugh. I somehow caught him in full flight with his ears flopping around. I love it. The second is a picture of his paw print in the snow. He’s such a great dog and it’s always so much fun to see him running around like that!
Today we decided that since a decent storm went through this week we’d give snowshoeing another try. At the last minute I told Mike that I wanted to take Shadow along with us. The only snow that he’s really ever seen is the couple of inches we get once or twice a year. I thought it’d be fun for him to come out and hike around a bit. We had the best time! I’m so proud of him… he hiked along with Mark, Mike, and I like he’s been doing it for years. He did get a little tired at the end, but figured out that if he walked in Mark’s tracks, it was a lot less work.
The weather was beautiful – it actually started snowing on the drive up, stopped for the beginning of the hike and then started again right at the end. We ended up hiking 3.24 miles in a couple of hours (there was some pretty good uphill chunks this week).
Shadow & I In The SnowRunning In The Snow
We are both pooped. It was a great hike and if we had our way both of us would still be napping. I can’t wait to take him on another grand adventure!
Today I decided to make Shadow do a little photo shoot outside… in his element. I actually got a couple good ones (anyone who has taken pictures of dogs knows you have to take like fifty pictures to get one good one). He was tooling around his pen and decided to try to hide behind this bush. It gave me a chance to play around with manual focus because my camera really wanted to focus in on the leaves.
Down The Road I Go 