Isa's Story

Mostly we’re cruising along, Isa and I. We split a rotisserie chicken for Thanksgiving dinner which left enough for a sandwich for me and several days worth of treasure hunt treasure for her. Getting us out for an adventure over the long weekend was less than successful. On the other hand I got a ton done around the house. But we did go for a short walk. Might have been longer but I was not dressed appropriately for the wind/weather which suddenly decided it was, in fact, winter.

You can see her top coat has still not grown back. Craziness!

In the car – as always, there seems to be some question regarding my sanity.

And for Sally, a very blurry picture of the steak presented on the occasion of her four-month and one week ampuversary. At least my sanity is not being called into question here.

We’re still going round and round with her elbow. It’s better for a day or two and then not so much so I put together an elbow protector for her, a thing of beauty. I tried to take a picture but it’s black fabric on black fur so problematic. Also problematic is someone’s ability to undo velcro in less than ten seconds. I thought I’d won, bypassing the velcro with safety pins. But no! I got up this morning and she had somehow undone (as in opened and removed) the safety pin and pulled the whole thing off. Moving on to Plan Q now, whatever that is. But when we can keep it on, the owie is so much better!

In the interests of paranoia, we’ve got a vet appointment next Monday. I’m reasonably certain her back is starting to bother her again, causing a certain amount of wobble. I think you can see it in the video. And she’s parsing out her breakfast some/most mornings, not clearing her bowl until mid/late morning – absolutely unheard of. Not to mention this weird cough/choke noise on occasion, mostly at night. That one has me intermittently freaked out, not to mention frequently startling me out of a sound sleep. Hopefully I can record it so I won’t have to attempt an imitation for the vet. Smart phones have to be good for something.

I’ll report in post-vet although “they” have been making me actually work at work, thereby radically cutting into my Tripawds time. The nerve of some people!!

I hope all of you and yours are well. Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Hugs!

To tell you the very best part! I got to go to Disneyland!* I haven’t been in forever and ever** and it’s the Best. Place. Ever. I got to play with lots and lots of other dogs all day, it was forever and wonderful. And all the humans paid me so much attention ’cause they said I’m so special. Okay, there was one puppy that was really annoying but I could ignore her mostly, even if she was barking really loud at me. It was so, so  much fun, I was so so happy. Mom looked like she was maybe going to cry when she picked me up but that doesn’t make any sense at all. Anyway, mom said I get to go back and play again on “payday” whatever that is. Hooray!!

Notes from mom:

*Really and truly called daycare.

** Not since before her surgery.

Was Saturday. Sadly, no portrait was taken for the occasion. Isa was having tummy trouble (okay IBD. one of these days I’ll bore you all with her “prequel” year of medical trauma/drama) due to the stress of mom busting around all weekend moving furniture and carting DIY debris from the backyard through the house in the wheelbarrow, among other unacceptable behaviors. And I can’t believe it’s been four months – so fast and in other ways so slow. The slow part may well have been those first six weeks when we were having trouble catching a break.

Marking her four-month ampuversary I have admitted defeat, admitted she will almost certainly not make it up the stairs on her own again (they are steep and there are a lot of them) so I moved the mattress and box springs downstairs. My back is already happier. Mostly the move was because I missed having her on the bed with me for cuddles and Saturday morning rasseling. I built a step for her so she can get up when she wants (aesthetics were not a factor). She has zero idea what or how to cope with the step, in spite of me personally demonstrating technique at 3:30 in the morning. We’ll work on it some more tonight with treats (again) and see if the light bulb sparks. If not, I’ll move the box springs back upstairs this weekend. If she can’t figure out how to get up on just the mattress, even if it is a big ol’ pillow-top, I have no clue what we’ll do.

I also suspect her of being something of a faker when it comes to stairs. We have three steps up to the garage – when we go somewhere in the car, she insists I help her up and she barely helps. My dad was visiting a couple of weeks ago and when I came home from work one day, no dog greeted me. You can all imagine how that felt. My dad was working out back: “Dad, where’s my dog?” “Inside the house.” “No, no dog inside. What did you do with my dog?” He shrugged and went back to what he was doing. I didn’t panic although my heartrate may have increased a teensy tiny bit. I do believe Tripawd moms and dads have the paranoia thing in spades and I have to admit to not being recovered emotionally from the Week from Hell this past summer. I doubt I ever will. I went back inside for a more focused search. Like it is remotely possible to miss seeing her, tiny beast that she is and the house simply not that big. I finally checked the garage and that was where she was hiding/stuck – she went in to check things out and couldn’t get back out due to door swing. Stinker clearly got up those stairs just fine all by herself. Faker I tell you!

Her elbow is still mucky, intermittently abraded and I believe driving her bonkers. Being a less than stellar tripawd mom, I am only now, however many weeks later, trying to find an elbow protector that I’m willing to afford (doesn’t exist) or a DIY alternative that strikes me as doable, durable and Isa-proof. I found one alternative in an old tripawds forum and a couple on Pinterest but nothing thus far has leaped off the screen at me screaming that it’s an ideal solution. If I come up with something workable I will of course share. Y’all might hear the party from wherever you are anyway.

So there’s Isa’s current status. We are keepin’ on although the winter dark is a bummer. At least a nice long Thanksgiving weekend is coming up with ample time for an adventure!

I hope everyone is doing well – hugs and big slobbery dog kisses to all!

It was not what anyone would call an early start but it was an absolutely perfect day both for a road trip and for playing in the river. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do the two-hour drive to our favorite spot, there are plenty of excellent spots between  here and there. In the end it was so pretty I just kept driving – there are far worse things. And I am calling this a major victory in the “be more dog” category. My to-do list generally reigns supreme over my weekends.

So here are a couple of videos:

I went a little nuts with the video – I tried to restrain myself with what I posted and at least they’re short.

Oh that water was so, so cold! My feet hurt standing in it but eventually acclimated, give or take. Any idea I entertained of going for a swim myself disappeared quickly. Instantly. I’m not that tough.

A beautiful young GSD (quad) stopped by for a swim too. His human threw rocks for him to swim after … I stifled an inclination to smack the guy up-side his head. Isa watched for a while and started to swim to the splashes but lost interest when she saw there was nothing floating to bring back. It’s all about the successful return, whether ball or stick.

Isa had enough sense to get out when she got too cold. At the end of our stay, we just sat on the beach, side by side, and watched the water. Well, I watched the water. She insisted that since I was clearly not doing anything productive, I could scratch the important spots. She laid her head on my shoulder once or twice, buried her head under my chin. We sat that way until I realized she was shivering, poor thing. The wind had picked up and soaking wet was sub-optimum. So we loaded into the car and dried her off. Out of the wind, she was fine.

In Sally’s honor, we stopped for ice cream, then headed home. So close, so close to home and the tire went. I was able to get us to the shoulder, fortunately there was a shoulder, and call for help. I elected long ago to play the girl card and not change tires. Isa loved it, the cars whizzing by at a million miles an hour. Scares the daylights out of me. The only time she noticed anything going on was when the guy jacked the car up. She turned around at the movement but that was it. Never, ever, stopped smiling. She’s much better adjusted than I am but we knew that.

She was definitely sore on Sunday, grateful for some massage, and still very tired having missed nearly all of her Saturday naps. Sunday, while she got caught up on her naps, I went to the tire place and bought a new tire. Evidently the dead tire came off the rim in two pieces. I did a good job on that one!

So there you have it – a near-perfect dog day at the river.

Taking our cue from Meg-a-Star, a three-month ampuversary portrait was in order:

Our neighbors stopped by to say hello and got sucked into helping. This picture is damn near miraculous. We’re both looking at the camera, a certain party is NOT wiggling and it’s a decent picture of me. Who knew any of that was possible?

This is a nice one of her Halloween costume:

and this shows how we’re still waiting for her top coat to grow in:

gotta love that ruler-straight line!

All’s going well here (thank dog!) Happy Halloween!