Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Knothead….Day One Hundred, Forty Three

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Last year Sara and I noticed Sampson had some bumps on his head, when I felt them with my fingers they felt like scabs. At first we thought it was from rough playing with the other daycare dogs; but then Sara observed Sampson sniffing the floor and said, it looks like hives to me, I bet he stuck his head under a bush and had a reaction to it.Chet and I noticed the bumps again. We noticed it first by a large scab he had on one side of his head. We noticed it about 5 days ago; at first we only noticed the one bump. We watched it every day and put Neosporin on it, but yesterday when I got home Chet said, “Have you looked at his head?”

The scab is visible, but the knot is not.

I had looked at it in the morning, but I looked again and he had the one scab, and then a big knot slightly off to the side of it. Upon closer inspection it looked to me like a clump of fur that was matted with blood. I took a wet cloth and held it to the lump, rubbed it gently and pulled it away. Sure enough, it had blood on it. Chet really wanted Sampson to see the vet to be sure it wasn’t anything too serious, so we made an appointment for this afternoon.
 
The vet took one look at his head and said, “Let me get the clippers.”

Shaving the head.

They shaved my baby’s head!  My poor boy!  What the vet found under the fur was a number of scabs a couple of which were infected.  So now he is on Prednisone and antibiotic. There must be something in our yard that blooms or grows in the spring and when he touches the plant or bush with his head, he gets an allergic reaction to it.  So once he comes off the medications, we will put him on Benadryl and monitor him.  In the meantime, I’ll be looking for a hat that he can wear when he goes outside. He may look a bit silly with a hat on his head, but he won’t look any sillier than he looks now, with a big, scabby, bald patch on his head.

Poor Handsome Boy.

The good boy got a strawberry shake for the ride home.

Trials and Tribulations…Day One Hundred and Forty Two

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 Chet joined us late on our walk last night.  Since I knew he was coming, I was on the watch for him. 
 

“Who’s that?”  I said to Sampson and Delilah, while pointing with my finger to the general area where I could see Chet approaching.

Naturally, the dogs got all excited even though they had not yet seen him (I had the advantage of being at a slightly higher elevation.)  They picked up their pace; head and tails up, eyes alert looking, searching.  Sampson saw Chet first and high-tailed it directly to Daddy; Delilah was slightly slower in spotting him, but once she had  him in her sites, she was full-out running; and this dog is fast!  She beat Sampson by about 15 to 20 seconds.  I on the other hand was much slower in re-joining the pack, but once I had we had an interesting conversation.

Chet: “Do you know what I saw in her, right then when they were running to me?”

I’m clueless and not really sure where the conversation is going but willing to participate to see where this takes us; “What?” 

Oh lord, the suspense was killing me.  “A retriever.”

“Oh my GOD, really imagine that, I had no idea that my Labrador RETRIEVER looked like a retriever! ” (The inner bitch inside of me said.)

The rational me, the one who actually has control of my mouth said, “What do you mean?”

While I mentally shushed  the inner bitch, he went on to explain to me how he saw a field trial dog in the way Delilah was running.  Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. 

He’s right (I won’t say of course because it’s not like he’s right ALL the time,) when Delilah runs her nose is to the ground and she zigs and zags as she runs, it seems like she is constantly looking for something and Lord help us when she finds it.

Monday night she saw a squirrel in the woods and that was it.  She was gone, no amount of coaxing, pleading, yelling, even “yum yum” while I fed Sampson Roast Beef would bring her back.

Tuesday night, she took off in the same spot; Sampson and I walked away.  When she caught up to us, I leashed her and kept her with me for the rest of the walk.

Last night, I didn’t give her the opportunity.  As soon as we got close to the spot, I called her to me and leashed her until we were well past it; then I let her off leash.

My point is from our observations she needs a purpose when she is on the trail and we as her caregivers are required to provide that for her,  trouble is I don’t know what she needs or how to go about getting it for her.

I've thought about dock diving.

Guilty Dogs and Jealous Owners…Day One Hundred and Forty One

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Have you seen the video about the guilty dog and the cat treats?  I admit the video pissed me off slightly and probably for a couple of reasons.  The major one being, after the guy puts this dog through an incredible guilt trip over something that took place probably about five minutes after he left the house, he sends the dog to the “penalty box.”   More than likely from the looks of where the dog was heading, the penalty box is probably a bedroom, but it still made me mad the dog was punished well after the fact.

I tried to replicate the video with Delilah, but she would have none of it.  Instead she insisted I document her “Faux Paw” with still photos.

Delilah’s Faux Paw
 

Then to further thwart me in my attempts to garner public attention for our cause, she refused to make faces for the camera.  She insisted the faces made by the dog in the video were unflattering and that she was too pretty to present herself in that manner.  The most I could get her to agree to was a picture of her looking contritely at her alleged Faux Paw; only after I assured her that she did not look fat in the photo.

Are you sure I don't look fat?

The second reason (if I’m being completely honest and I must be) is that I am jealous.  Jealous that some things just seem to come naturally and easily to some people, while here I sit plugging away on the social media circuit trying to garner attention for my dogs and my book.  Now that’s a judgment on my part, because how do I know this guy hasn’t been trying; and has finally succeeded?

If you know me at all, this is an incredibly difficult thing for me to admit, because I generally try to be a person who 1) is supportive of other people and their successes and 2) does not judge others.  For me to admit I have a flaw such as jealousy is pretty big.  Personally, I don’t care to feel this way, but I’m not sure how to change it.

Perhaps what I need to do is to turn my thoughts internally; to look at what I term a success.  You’re reading this blog by your own choice, right? 

Shouldn’t that be considered a success on my part?

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