Happy Birthday, my little man. I hope you had a good time celebrating your birthday with Jesus in person/in canine!
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After Three Days – Frankenpuppy Pupdate
This was my little Stinky Monster waiting for food when we got home from the vet. All he wanted was something to eat, but I wasn’t supposed to give him anything for three hours.
They were three very long hours.
There is still some dried blood on his fur, but for only three days, I think he is healing nicely.
Toby was only supposed to go outside to go to the bathroom for two weeks, but he is having none of that. He is insisting on several walks a day.
I’m happy we had a sunny day so he could watch some “Dog TV”.
For the first two days, my boy was cranky, but now he seems to be feeling better.* He has even been playing with his toys again. I am grateful for these good times and hope we work things out so we can have many more.
*Right after I wrote this, he attacked me again. Looks like we have a lot of work still in front of us.
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Come see what Toby and Geordie like to do when they’re not recovering from surgery! Dream Our World is available from my shop at L Bowman Studios. Inside they view the world of art from a canine perspective and enjoy a day of unsupervised fun.
Dream Our World would make a great holiday gift!
The Tail
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There once was a male
Who had a little tail
Right in the middle of his forehead.
When he was good, it wagged very very hard
And when he was bad, it wagged harder.
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So, which end do I sniff?
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A Christmas Poem
Thanks to computers and Fed Ex and all
I sure don’t miss going out to the mall
To be jostled and bulldozed and hit in the head.
I’d rather stay home and just shop from my bed.
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I don’t care how my presents get here as long as they get here.
Found Money
All year I have been saving the reward points that come with my credit card. I was hoping to consider those points Found Money spend them on a luxury – something I wanted but didn’t need. Last week I saw this decoration and thought, “I could give Christmas Puppy a family!! The cost is almost exactly the value of my points!”
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To his dismay, Christmas Puppy will have to continue being single, though, since in reality I will be putting those points toward Toby’s upcoming surgery.
I think Christmas Puppy would be have been more appreciative of my gift.
Of course he would be. I don’t want to have surgery!
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Do you have a kitty who likes to sit near the window? Consider commissioning a custom oil painting of your purrecious pet to capture that special moment.
Information about ordering, sizes and pricing are available here at L Bowman Studios.
Morning
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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?
Run, Toby, Run
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Toby and I had a misadventure a couple of weeks ago. While on a walk, two large dogs woofed at Toby and scared him so badly that he bolted. He pulled me hard enough to knock me down and flip me over. I was stunned, and it took a few seconds for me to be able to move. In that time my little stinker pulled the leash off my wrist and ran away.
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I landed hard on both hands and both knees. My knees were torn and bruised even through my clothes. This was one hand after cleaning out the abrasions. (I left a nice trail of blood along the way home.)
Unlike the last time I fell, kind people stopped to check on me while others went after Toby. He was so scared that he was over a quarter of a mile away – heading home as fast as his little terrier legs could carry him – before someone caught him.
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I wasn’t scared. I was just being prudent.
Very rapidly.
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Toby has always been a scaredy boy, but he was calmer and more willing to try new things when Geordie was with him. Human children may have security blankets, but Toby had a Security Geordie. I wonder sometimes if he might not be such an emotional mess if he still had a canine buddy.
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Come see how much braver Toby is when he is with this big brother Geordie as they visit the Museum of the Imagination. In Dream Our World they view the world of art from a canine perspective while enjoying a day of unsupervised fun.
Dream Our World and other fine gifts are available from my shop at L Bowman Studios.
The Anniversary
Today is Geordie’s Heaven birthday. Does it seem like just yesterday that he went Home, or was it forever ago? I can’t remember. – Toby
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Perhaps this quilt is for you? Information about size and pricing as well as details of construction are available here at L Bowman Studios.
Teach the little ones who they are and that they are loved.
Sweet Potatoes
Finally my garden yields some interesting food.
When I dug this up, I couldn’t believe how the potatoes had curled around each other. When I tried to separate them, I found that this is not a cluster but a single potato. It weighs nearly 3 lbs. Toby and I are going to have to be very hungry when we cook this monster (presuming we can find a pot big enough, that is.)
At least these potatoes had the courage to be individuals.
This one hopes to be curly fries.
It seemed that every potato wanted to get in on the 80s “permed” look.
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Despite Toby’s enthusiasm for digging, I didn’t trust him to help with the potatoes.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m a big help.
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It feels wrong to write silly posts about sweet potatoes when our friends in the Middle East are suffering so horribly. Know that our thoughts and prayers are with you. Someday soon I hope we can laugh and talk about things of no consequence again.
Why Do People…
Why do people keep telling me I’m not much to look at, but I’m awfully fun to dance with?
The Adventures of Bitey Dog 