JackieMaya

Just wanted to add that I let my kids chew on empty Diet Coke cartons. It's their favorite inside toy! They don't swallow any of it. They just rip it up.

Today, I took Maya to the vet so she could get her heartworm blood test, and I put her new Halti on (which I like a lot better than the Gentle Leader). Maya was very excited to be out with mommy by herself, so she was very exhuberant, yet behaved. Another dog gave out a bark, and Maya barked, so I pulled up on her Halti and she stopped. This crabby old lady was at the front desk, and she gave me the dirtiest look! I could tell she was thinking that I had this wild dog who had to have a muzzle on. I tell you, Maya is SOOO well-behaved with the Halti on! She's such a happy, friendly girl that she wants to say hi to all the people and dogs she meets, but of course I can't let her do that, and with the Halti, all she needs is a very mild correction with it and she's the perfect happy, wiggly doggie. I told Maya today was International Maya Day, so we went to Petsmart and walked around the whole store, and visited with the employees there, got Maya a Booda Bone and some dog food and treats. She was so happy! By the way, Maya weighed 85 pounds! She's gained 12 pounds since her last vet visit last fall! Holy Moly! So I switched her from large breed food to [u][b]light [/b][/u]large breed food, and bought all light treats. I think maybe I've been a little too generous with the treats. :oops:

Pooh Bear is having his hip surgery on Thursday, May 12. I'll drop him off in the morning and pick him up Friday morning. I'm definitely going to take Friday off work. I'm trying to figure out if I'll need to take more time off, or if he should just be lying around in his crate most of the time the first week. I'm going to call the vet tomorrow and ask him some more questions about after-care. The Wednesday after Pooh Bear's surgery is my horse's very first horse show, so I'll be taking 2 or 3 days off for that. I wonder if I should just take that whole week off after the surgery. And I wonder if I should get him one of those chain link kennels for when he goes outside. I'm afraid that Jackie and Maya will want to play with him like they normally do, and he won't be ready for that. Okay, I'm just thinking out loud here. I'm going to call the vet and see what he says. What have you guys done with your dogs afterward who have had this surgery done? Who was it, Horsefeathers? I have a good memory, but it's real short.

Isn't it funny how some dogs will think that something as innocent as a scale is so scary? When I had Pooh Bear get on the scale, he got right on it and sat down for a minute, then rolled over so we could scratch his tummy. LOL

Pumpkin: That is so funny! I hate when I see parents of either animals or kids who don't make their kids/animals behave. So many are just oblivious as to what their kid/animal is doing, although they're bugging the crap out of everyone else! My animals (both dogs and horse) are very spoiled, but they are all very well-behaved. I might have to use a stern voice once in a while, but I never have to yell. They know that I'm the alpha and that what I say goes, but they also know that I love them more than anything! There are lots of people who think that discipline equals getting mean or hitting or screaming. NOT!

I also agree with AllAmericanPup. If you can't afford the adoption fee, then you can't afford to get a dog. I adopted Maya for $100, and that night I had to take her to the emergency vet clinic for a severe allergic reaction, which cost me anoather $150 or so. And then last spring, she got real sick from eating something from the gutter that the lawn guys left, and I had a $400 emergency vet bill. So she ended up being an expensive rescue dog, but that's okay with me! She's worth it! And the rescue shelter I adopted Pooh Bear (and the girls too) from is paying for his hip surgery. But if they wouldn't have done that, I would have found a way. You always have to expect the unexpected with animals.

Your puppy really needs to get to the vet right away. Can you see if your vet can bill you for the blood work, or take payments? Or can you borrow the money from someone else for the blood work if the vet won't bill you?

I'm so sorry to hear that Penny is ill. Please let us know what the vet says. Crossing fingers and paws for a good diagnosis.

If you haven't taken your puppy to the vet, I would recommend doing so as soon as possible. I've never had a dog with seizures, so can't help you there.

Like HF said, please keep us updated on how Jesse is doing! He pulled on a lot of heartstrings here on Dogo!

When Jackie was listed on Petfinder, she was listed as a Golden Retriever mix, but who knows what breeds she really is? They guessed Golden Retriever/German Shepherd/Collie, which looks to be a pretty good guess, but nobody really knows. With her color, they could have listed her as a German Shepherd mix, and then she would be in a whole different category. It is very sad to see the sheer numbers of dogs on Petfinder. I'm happy to say that I saved three of them. My city doesn't allow more than 3 dogs per household (without being a kennel), so I'm safe now. LOL

Pooh Bear's collar is working great! He'll give out one bark and then stop. It basically distracts him and takes his mind off what he was barking at. It was about $100, but it's well worth it to keep him from barking and keeep my neighbors happy!

It's a very expensive diet, and not for someone who just needs to lose 10 or 20 pounds. It's the Optifast diet, which is a medically-supervised liquid diet. I drink 5 Optifast chocolate drinks and eat an ounce of soynuts per day, and I'll be doing this for about 5 months! It's definitely not a diet for everybody! And it costs $3,000. And by the way, I lost another 1-1/2 pounds, so that's 3 pounds this week: a total of 13 pounds since April 14!

A friend of mine had Afghans that were allergic to wheat and had to get them wheat-free dog food.

Pooh Bear was kind of a bubble butt when I got him. He definitely needed to lose weight (which he has). His former foster mom couldn't figure out why he was so chubby, and then she found out that he had been eating the cat's food as well as his own food! Now he only gets his own food, which I measure very carefully, a few treats, and LOTS of exercise!

[quote]hate to change the subject, did you start your liquid diet yet? [/quote] The liquid diet is going great! I lost 10 pounds my first week, and 1-1/2 pounds so far this week (and I have 2 more days to go). And I haven't even been perfect on the diet yet! I need to :drinking: more water and had to give up the bars (because I ate all the bars for the week in one day) and switch to soynuts.

The two holes in the picture I posted above are now connected, and it looks like a scaled down version of the Grand Canyon! I'll take a picture of it tomorrow. I'll try to get some pictures of the excavators in action too (which shouldn't be hard to do). Even Jackie is digging away!

[color=blue][size=7]Happy Birthday you little cutie pie![/size][/color]

Pooh Bear has been barking at the birds and squirrels a lot lately, and he kind of gets mommy-deaf when he sees them. And since one of my neighbors obviously doesn't like dogs, especially when they bark, I got him a citronella spray collar just like big sis Maya wears. Maya's is red and Pooh Bear's is blue. I put it on him and let him out with the girls. He started playing with Jackie and barked at her, and he got sprayed. It was SOO funny! He immediately turned around to the right, turned around to the left, looked down at the ground, looked back at his tail, trying to figure out where the spray came from. Then he rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled. But he didn't bark after that! So hopefully this will take care of the barking problem. Maya wears hers all the time when she's out in the yard now, and so will Pooh Bear. Jackie isn't a barker, so she doesn't need one. Once in a while Jackie will give out one bark to get one of the dogs to play, and either she, or usually the dog wearing the collar, gets sprayed. And if Jackie does bark, she'll stop right away when I tell her to.

I would quit smoking now, but I don't want to be giving up food (literally) AND smoking at the same time. I want to succeed at both the weight loss and quitting smoking.

I have a big dirt area (where I was eventually planning on putting in a patio) where the kids REALLY like to dig. Since they've been digging there, they haven't been digging anywhere else. The hole is proboably big enough for Pooh Bear to lie down in now! Do any of you give your dogs a designated digging spot? I'm thinking that I might let them go ahead and dig there. That can be their "sand box." Does that sound like a good idea or a stupid idea? Here are the holes a few days ago (with Jackie there so you can see the size of the holes). They're a lot bigger now. [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0VwAhA0AaiHgU8Y5MeJW*jYOjJMhd05KysmICfJt6kaABVY8t7h7iErChoPRMv!0PexEN!kFkUapcFrJIKoZKdV6Kc7vyUr0YqqzBIbcfCTYKITKKy*PZ3zOPQv!7oX3W/Canon%200061.jpg?dc=4675519744307490182[/img]

Pooh Bear is scheduled for FHO surgery on May 12. I'll bring him in in the morning and he'll stay overnight, and I'll pick him up the next day after 10:00. I just know I'm going to be an absolute wreck! I'm going to have to clear out the area by the back door downstairs (which I never use) so that I can take him outside without him having to go up the stairs (unless they tell me to have him go up stairs). I have exercise equipment back there now, so I'll just have to move it around so that we can get out the back door. With the FHO surgery, they want the dog to get lots of exercise after surgery, so maybe they'll want him to do stairs, but probably not at first. And I like the idea of saving the money I would have spent on cigarettes and donating it to the shelter I adopted my kids from. I'll probably quit smoking around September. I should be about done with my liquid diet by then.

I got a message from the rescue shelter's director, and she said that the surgeon (who she said is the best orthopedic doctor in the midwest) recommended the head and neck excision surgery (FHO) for Pooh Bear, and the shelter will pay for the surgery and that I can go ahead and schedule the surgery. So tomorrow I'm going to call their vet clinic (where Pooh Bear got x-rayed the last time) and schedule his surgery. GULP! I'm very nervous about the surgery, and I'm going to feel so bad for Pooh Bear, because I know he'll be in pain after the surgery. With this surgery, the dogs are supposed to get lots of exercise afterwards, so the aftercare will be a lot easier for a young, active dog like Pooh Bear. But I'm sure he'll be sore, and I'll feel bad making him move around if he doesn't want to. :( The rescue shelter director also thanked me for wanting to keep Pooh Bear through all of this. I suppose a lot of people would have sent him back because he's "defective." Returning Pooh Bear never even entered my mind! It's good I didn't quit smoking yet, because I'll need them when he gets his surgery!

Today, Pooh Bear learned how to howl at sirens from Jackie! It was so darn cute! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, but I'm sure I'll get plenty of opportunities for howling pics. They both kept feeding off each other, so the more one would howl, the more the other one would. Pooh Bear threw his head back just like big sis Jackie taught him to. Maya still only howls at the tornado sirens.

Yippee! That's wonderful news! I'll bet you're all so happy that Jesse is home! Go ahead and dress up his food; he deserves it. Maybe if you put yummy stuff (doggie gravy, peanut butter, etc.) on the bottom of his food bowl, and then put his food on top of it, he'll want to eat. And if he doesn't eat right away, the food won't get soggy. Great news!