Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Smile – January 17, 2016

Wow, we all have some demanding dogs, don’t we? LOL The comments were delightful and so many of your dogs know how to elicit pets, just like my guy.

So there are manipulators.

Zoe from ZoePhee  likes her back scratched and will wrap herself around the recliner so the dog daddy can get the right spot, Merlin who moves til he gets your hand in just the right spot, and Jimmy who will slide his head under his dog mom’s hand.

The Demanders

Mo sticks his head under his mom’s chin, Cupcake who presses herself against her mom and would climb inside her mom if she could, and Angel Callie who used her front paws to move her mom and dad’s hands from her neck to her chest, and those huggable GBGV’s, Emma and Bailie (who doesn’t seem to want to let go.)

Of course, there’s the ‘Tappers’ like Sampson

Zaphod from Hailey and Zaphod, Angel Jeffie (Talking Dogs Blog), and Sheba (Wag N’ Woof Pets) who is not so much a tapper as she is a swatter!

The Cutie Patooties

These guys use the cute factor to get what they want. Puppies like Ethel (from Earl’s World) who rolls around and waves her paws in the air like she just don’t care and Sam from Tails Around the Ranch who is a heavy leaner and tail thumper.

And since Thursday’s post sort of followed-up Tuesday’s post, I’m going to do my best to wrap them both up together.

I’m a Wreck

So many of you had awesome suggestions. Praying was suggested by Ann Cluck,   Genevieve says embrace the fact that you will be a wreck, my sister says medicate yourself with valium,  Hailey and Zaphod‘s mom throws herself into her work,  Emma says keep busy, while playing with the other dog is what Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s mom does.

Jan K is like me, she can’t focus on anything.

This comment from Caren Gittleman made me laugh, “I stare at my phone and the clock every second and panic every time it rings (or if it doesn’t ring!)”

I always give them my cell phone number and my heart drops when I recognize the their number on the caller ID.

And So It Is – Barks and Bytes

Anyone who follows us on Facebook knows, the dental didn’t turn out as expected. My vet was extremely thorough doing pre-surgery tests and I’m so grateful she did, or I might be writing a totally different post right now.

Here’s the update…The blood work came back and showed nothing abnormal, if the urine comes back the same way, we will reschedule an ultrasound for a month or so and monitor Sampson’s heart.

Except…I was so excited to have a ‘normal’ morning with the dogs, I completely forgot about getting the urine sample. Hopefully I remembered it this morning, if not, there’s always next week.

Genevieve said, “So many of us have been there on those tear-filled walks, paralyzed-with-fear car rides, and unthinkable waits. And like you, I know that God is there, too – to be sure that we’re all OK no matter what the test results are.”

Paralyzing is a very good description. I was going about my every day tasks, but it was automatic, I had no real thought about what I was doing. And yes, I believe God is there looking out for us.

Emma said, “Katie has a level 1 heart murmur too, got the chest x-ray and all, but our vet says many dogs get it as they age. Remember if a dog ages roughly 7 yrs to our 1 yr, 2 months is a lot longer than just 2 months, so for that reason it seems more logical things change in just 2 months. We are monitoring Katie and she will get checked again in another month. If it gets worse, there are medications to help with it. Her case, is most likely just the beginnings of natural heart failure which isn’t good, but she is 13 1/2 and a large dog.”

I’m not sure I knew that about Katie, Emma. It is hard as our pets age and all we can do is the best we can.

You are absolutely right about the difference in aging too. I’ve been thinking about that a lot in the last year or so. It seems sometimes a dog is diagnosed with an illness and a short time later they pass. But if you look at the difference in aging, it makes me wonder… if a dog survives for six months, is that really 42 months? If so, then waiting to start treatment could be really detrimental.

Yes, it’s tough living inside my head.

Blueberry’s Human asked, “Does Sampson get to keep his tooth?”

Yes, as a matter of fact he does. If it starts bothering him, we will have to cross that bridge at that time.

Jan K said, “You’ve confirmed my belief that if I worry like crazy, and go through every worst case scenario in my head, it will be OK. I’ve said some of those begging prayers too, and my belief in God isn’t even that strong.
I sometimes wonder how I got through these things before I had the blog. Sure, family and friends are there for me…but they have their lives too and they can only do so much.

I have to agree with you. I do try and be positive and people will tell me to not think negatively, but it definitely seems like if I worry like crazy and imagine all the worse case scenarios, it usually turns out okay. Proof to me was that I dropped him off calmly thinking it was as simple and easy as his last cleaning and then I got punched in the gut.

As for the second part, family and friends are awesome, but I really do feel like the blogville community totally ‘gets it.’

And that’s it for me folks, thank you again. I don’t think I could have gotten through those hellish two days without you. 

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