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Favorite Foods

Oh dear. What do you think we should do? Should we tell him?

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So New Guy, what kinds of foods do you like? Ooh...my name is Murphy by the way....I LOVE chicken. And Tofu. tofu is the best.

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There is another food I remember from Before. I've smelled it when we're around other humans, but mom hasn't let me have any. I really loved it. What was it called? Pizza, I think.

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Do you think if I am a really good boy that she would let me have it again? ??

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Um, yeah. Sure. Yup, just keep being a good boy, and maybe mom will let you have pizza. Maybe we'll all get pizza.

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Poor little Murphy – as if life hadn’t handed him enough challenges – suffered such extreme malnutrition when he was trapped in the hoarders’ house that he now has heart damage. When I took him for his first vet visit and handed over the paperwork from the rescue, the vet asked where the rest of it was. What? This is what they gave me. The vet said that Murphy’s heart damage was pretty severe and that the rescue had to have known. She was upset that they withheld the information and let me adopt a sick dog without realizing it. I would have still adopted him, but at least I would have known more about what sort of future he might have and what his medical costs might be.

On top of heart disease, Murphy also has high blood pressure. (“How do they know he has high blood pressure?” you may ask. Turns out the answer is “itty bitty blood pressure cuff”.) He’s not on blood pressure medication, but I do have to make sure he doesn’t eat foods with salt. Sadly that means no pizza for Murphy. I can tell he’s had it in the past and really, really, really wants more, but I can’t let him have it. Instead he gets dried beets with his dinner which is supposed to help with blood pressure. I wish I could do even more for my little guy. It brings me so much joy to watch him smile and get the zoomies……but then he coughs.

The same company that makes Life Gold that I gave Geordie for his cancer also makes a supplement to help pets with heart issues. I started Murphy on that, but I can’t tell if it has made a difference. We don’t have a follow-up visit with the vet until late summer, so it will be a while before we get feedback

Please? Please may I have some pizza? I’ve been such a good boy.

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Oil painting of Westie puppy.

For more information on having a portrait of your beloved pet done, please visit the Pet Portrait page at my site, L Bowman Studios. There you will find suggestions on choosing source photos and guidelines for pricing.

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Murphy’s Tale Goes On

So, would you like eto go for a walk or something? If it's all the same to you, I'd prefer to stay indoors.

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Oh that's right. You spent your whole life in a cage. You probably don't feel comfortable outside. Actually, I didn't live my whole life in that cage. The rescue thought I did, and that's what they told mom.

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You didn't? Then where did you live? At first, I lived in a really nice house like you have.

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My mpmmy was an older lady, and I'm pretty sure I remember a kitty cat at our house. I used to have a bed of my own, but at night I woiuld sleep in the big bed and snuggle under the covers with our mom.

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Sh used to hold my treats between her index finger and thumb as she handed them to me.

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Since mommy was older, I didn't get out much. Still, life was happy until that one fateful day....

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Oh no! What happened? I don't know for sure because nobody tells the pets, but one day mommy wasn't there anymore. People put us furs in cages and took us away. I ended up at the hoarder's house. I don't know where the others went.

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Is that where your tail got hurt? Did they break your tail? Nah, I'm OK. It's just that my tail is pretty long. When I was confined, I sat on it too much and made it bend kind of funny.

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Dang, this guy makes me feel like the most spoiled dog in the world. I hate to say it, but even i am starting to like him.

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At first, I just thought this was a cute picture, but when I looked at it closer, I could see that Murphy was lost in thought. I know he remembers his first family. I feel so bad that he misses them. All I can do is surround him with love and make sure that he builds tons of happy memories from now on.

I remember….

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Murphy’s Tale

Hey New Guy, why are you so skinny? Are you sick or something? He's not really that skinny, it's just that next to you everyone seems small.

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Oof!

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I actually look much better now. The last family I lived with nearly starved me to death.

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What do you mean "last family"? How can you have more than one family? Not all dogs are lucky enough to live their whole lives in one home.

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What happened? Well, there were over a hundred of us in this house.....

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How is that even possible? Where did you sleep? Did you all pile on the Big Bed?

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No, most of us were put in kennels and forgotten. Some were chained outside in the bitter cold to freeze. Inside, our kennels were stacked from the floor to the ceiling. They couldn't reach most of us, so we had to sit in our own waste day after day as we starved.

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I was so homesick. I missed my mom and cried and cried until I ran out of tears.

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Just when most of us had given up hope, strangers with trucks and vans and cars came. They took our captors away, then started hauling the kennels out. They didn'tknow our names, so they called us by whatever number we were as they pulled us out.

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How could someone not like this guy? He's so sweet? I don't like this guy. He's too sweet.

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Am I too sweet?

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Cute, funny, stubborn....always the smartest one in the room.  If you have a Scottie dog, you can't help but love them.  Their shaggy black coats and bright sparkling eyes always bring a smile to your face.

This white cotton hankie has a handsome black Scottie dog painstakingly hand painted in one corner. Around the puppy's neck is a red ribbon tied in a festive bow.  He - or she - is ready to accompany you on all your adventures, tucked neatly away in a pocket or purse.

Perfect for cold season, allergy season, or for the Scottie dog lover in your life, these hand painted hankies send wishes for good health to whoever use them.

This Hand Painted Scottie Dog Handkerchief, and other fine gifts, are available from my shop at L Bowman Studios.
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How Can I Be Conflicted?

How can I be conflicted about getting a new dog? What does it say about me as a person – as a dog mom – that I haven’t already brought home a little beast?

Without the schedule restrictions of a fur family, I have been able to work more, and I really enjoy it. (But what do I do with all the money I earn? I put it in a fund toward adopting a pup.). When I cook, I cry because there is no one at my feet hoovering up my crumbs. On the other hand, it has been really wonderful sleeping through the night without being awakened by insane barking. 

So many of my friends tell of stopping to adopt a pup on the way home from having to let one go. So what’s wrong with me?

What’s wrong with you? Where shall I start?

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Ringing In The New Year

So is that temporary or permanent? TBD.

Oh what fun it is to still/again have Bell’s Palsy! 

I talked to two doctors. The first thought that I may not have cleared the Lyme’s disease that originally caused the Bell’s Palsy and that I needed more antibiotics. The second thought that I already cleared Lyme’s but am having lingering neurological effects from it (and I could be this way forever.) My original doctor only gave me a two week supply of antibiotics whereas the usual treatment for neurological Lyme’s is three weeks. To make sure I don’t have bacteria lingering inside me they gave me another three week course of antibiotics. Yay. Now I get to have an upset stomach and a fuzzy head for the rest of January.

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No I’m not mocking you. Why?

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Dream Our World

In Dream Our World, go with Bitey and Toby on a journey to the Museum of the Imagination where they view the world of art from a canine perspective and enjoy a day of unsupervised fun!

Dream Our World and other fine gifts are available from my shop at L Bowman Studios.

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Borrowed Time

Toby had another one of his incidents, and family was bitten. I was told, “This dog needs to be put down.” Had it not been the weekend, Toby would likely be gone already. While I absolutely do not want to hurt my puppy, I find it difficult to justify working so hard to keep him with me.

Thinking that it might be my last hours with my boy, I wanted to spend every moment with him. I fed him everything good I had in the fridge. We played his favorite game – Tennis Balls. I took him for as many walks as he wanted. Toby made it harder on me by repeatedly telling me, “I love you. I love you.” (Having a talking dog is not always a good thing.). When I took him out to pee, he insisted on bringing his stuffed dragon with us. When he went to his kennel, he took his stuffed tiger with him and made his bed like he did when he was a tiny puppy organizing the polka-dotted blanket his breeder sent home with him. I cried so much, so hard, thinking of all the ways I had failed my boy I’m surprised I didn’t collapse into dust from dehydration.

For some reason my family thought it odd that I would mourn for the loss of my awful puppy. “But he’s terrible; you should get rid of him”. (True.) “Everyone’s afraid of him”. (I know.) “You could always get a new dog.” (It took me two years to find him! How likely is it that another dog would suddenly plop into my lap?).

In the evening, I took Toby to the church grounds. Even though God is everywhere, it is easier to think of Him hanging around there. I just stood with Toby and prayed the only prayer I could think of: “Help my boy. Help my boy. “

Monday morning I called the vet to discuss what happened and what she thought my options might be. I asked what she would do if he were her dog. Knowing tha Toby has a cyst that won’t heal and how pain reactive he is, she suggeted we go ahead and try surgery to excise the cyst. Perhaps removing the pain from his life might allow him to calm down enough to be able to train with him. She said the choice was mine, though, whether I wanted to destroy him or not.

Toby’s surgery is scheduled for Tuesday. I don’t know how I am going to make it through his recovery since he is so pain reactive. The vet recommended a basket muzzle that allows him to eat and drink. I have been looking into them, but I feel overwhelmed by the different choices and how you need to train your dog to wear one. There isn’t time to get Toby used to one before his surgery. If I put one on him, how long could I keep it on him? How long would he allow it to be on before he figured out how to take it off? I am trying to picture Toby with a cone, it is seems equally dangerous. (Well, for me, anyway.).

While I don’t know how this is going to work out, I am trusting that God will provide what we need at each step. For right now, I am grateful for the two additional days I’ve had with my little boy.

Cairn terrier stands over slain toy

I know he’s scary and dangerous, but this is how I see him with my heart.

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Morning

What a glorious morning. I am so well rested that it feels like I've slept for days.

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What the heck's wrong with you guys?

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Yes, we’ve had another of “those” times. Toby was in pain without me realizing it, and the slightest brush against his fur turned him into Mr. Hyde.

Toby’s anger is explosive in these instances. He bites and thrashes and growls ferociously. In this state, he doesn’t recognize me. He doesn’t recognize his name. He doesn’t respond to commands. Normal Toby is adept at disentangling his paw from his leash, but Hyde Toby can’t reason that out. He just gets angrier and angrier until he lashes out and attacks the leash. As quickly as I could, I put Toby in his kennel and kept him there until I could take him to the vet in the morning.

It appears that what set Toby off was the cyst on his back. Of the two he started with, one healed nicely while the other lingered. The doctor drained and flushed the cyst again and sent us home with antibiotics, pain medication and Trazodone. I gave Toby the Trazodone for a few days but worried about him taking it for a prolonged period. He is very unsteady on his feet, and I swear I can hear him mumble “The colors…. the colors…” as he waves his paw in front of his nose.

I gave Toby sleepy pills for several days. When I finally stopped, it was as if he were a puppy again. He bounced around and played with toys. He asked to go outside, and when I took him he ran around with the zoomies for half an hour. When we came in, I could tell he still had energy to burn, so we went back out in the dark and played with tennis balls until he was so tired that I worried that he might hurt himself.

Thankfully my normal Toby seems to be back to inhabiting this terrier body. I don’t know who the monster was that had control for those four days, but I wish he would never come back. I’ve seen his face before. He is the one who controls the sleepwalking.

I talked to the vet about trying anti-anxiety medication on Toby. She said that Trazodone is for anxiety, but I didn’t like the way it affected him. She then suggested Gabapentin since it helps with both anxiety and pain. What Toby really needs, though, is an animal behaviorist to observe him and treat with both training and possibly medication.

Selfishly I wish that someone would watch my Toby and tell me, “Oh yes, he is a broken puppy. It’s not your fault he behaves this way”, but I doubt that will happen. Somehow, without meaning to, I have screwed up this little dog and made a dangerous mess of him.

I hope my little boy can survive my stupidity.

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I may survive you, but will you survive me?

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