Mommy’s Tick

Help, I have a tick! It's the worst pain in the entire world! She's doomed!
Don't worry. I'll save you!
That's not what happened. Who is the world going to believe? You or me?

Well, it was my turn to get a tick this week. I foolishly laid down in the grass to stretch my back, and one of those blood-thirsty little suckers got me. Toby said he was glad I finally knew what it felt like to be snacked on by a bug and that I should have much more sympathy for him and that I should give him more Milk Bones to make up for all the suffering he has gone through and the Milk Bone compensation is retroactive to Geordie’s lifetime and it extends to other animals that have ticks too. In other words, many more Milk Bones.

Many, many more Milk Bone

Dig in the Garden

Mom! Mom! Can we go dig in the garden? I'm sorry guys, but I've already started planting. You won't be able to dig out there for a while.
Oh whoa is us! We are the saddest puppies in the whole world! That's not how you spell "woe". Be quiet. We're upset. We never get to have any fun. At all. Ever!
Hey wait, what are you two doing with my shoes? Don't worry about it.

She’s a fool if she thinks she is going to keep me from my dirt!

This is the latest I’ve ever been putting in the garden, but Toby doesn’t appreciate the extra digging time he had. All he sees is that fence between where he is and where he wants to be. Poor evil beastie. He is in for several weeks of disappointment…well, till the beans come in.

Terrier looking up at basket of green beans.

What can I say? I am a sucker for green beans.

Cake

Hooray! Mommy gave me a cake!

What if I put some peanut butter on it?
I'll take it!

Monday brought the most incredible news. Toby’s groomer said he was a good boy! He was such a good boy that she didn’t even charge me a “Dangerous Animal” fee. Everyone decided that with Toby’s weight loss, his calming medicine worked more effectively.

To be honest, I would rather be fat and feisty.

(Yes Toby did get a treat for being a good boy, but only a small one.)

The Scan

They want to do a CAT scan of my brain to see if they find anything. I hope they find a brain! I hope they find a cat!

On Friday, I finally got to go to a doctor to get a referral to see (ha ha) an ophthalmologist. I figured while I was there, I would ask the doctor about a few other things like the dizzy spells I had in February. I mentioned that I had already updated my glasses and thought that maybe I needed to see an ENT?

No, given my cluster of seemingly unrelated symptoms, I was told that it sounds like I have something wrong with my brain, not my ears. The doctor immediately wrote out an order for me to have a CT scan. I asked her if by “wrong with my brain”, she meant tumor or disease, and she said that it seemed that a tumor was unlikely. What I described sounds like MS. Well, that was certainly not what I was expecting when I set out to get some Restasis that morning.

I went home and did some reading about MS, and it does sound like what I have been going through. I had always thought that MS was a terribly awful disease, but from the article I read it seems that if you take medication for it, you can lead a pretty normal life.

Toby has his next grooming session tomorrow, but as soon as we are done, I have a list of doctor appointments and tests that I need to schedule. While it sucks to have a disease, it would be nice if treatment could help me feel better. I want to be healthy enough to spoil my Toby as much as I can.

I could have told you there was something wrong with your brain without the scan.

Toby and the Minion

So what happened to Toby? It seems like he hasn’t been around much. Is he OK?

Yes! Toby is doing great. He is his usual funny self and has turned out to be a very good helper in the garden. The problem has been his dopey mom.

This was me today, doing some gardening.

I am still struggling with eye issues. In an effort to combat extreme dryness, I have taken to wearing swim goggles whenever I go outside. While goggles do make it soooo much more comfortable to blink, I feel beyond dorky wearing them. I had to laugh when I realized that both Toby and one of the little pups I’ve been watching get excited when they see me put my goggles on because it means they might be going for a walk.

I may love you, mom, but I am still going to hide my face in shame whenever we go out.

The good news is that things have been moving along behind the scenes. Soon I should be able to start scheduling appointments with eye doctors to hopefully get back to normal. Then Toby can have more adventures. Yippee!

At Toby’s most recent vet visit, he put on such a show with his talking that the staff there recorded him and put him on the company FaceBook page. My little monster is on his way to being a star!

What do you mean “on my way”? I am already a star!

Hey 19

For the first time ever, one of my pups came in at the right at the right weight during his annual physical. Yippee!

Hooray! Can we celebrate with chocolate cake?

I had asked Grandma and Grandpa to take Toby to his visit for me, so they got to hear all of the praise for his new, healthy weight. (Hopefully it will inspire them to not sneak him goodies.) The vet also said that she is seeing no evidence of the knee issues that had been bothering Toby. All good news. 😊

Grumpy Toby

I was sitting on my beanbag chair (OK, pile of dirty laundry) when Toby barged into the bedroom and started harrumphing. Snort this, stomp that. “Mom, get off of the laundry.” Whatever. I moved aside so my obviously upset puppy could go to bed.

A few minutes later I walked out of the room and was greeted by this:

Evidently Toby had wanted to go outside to play. He got discouraged when I didn’t notice him trying to bring me my boot and his leash, so he threw himself in the laundry.

Cairn terrier fast asleep in the dirty laundry.

If you’re not going to pay attention to me, I’m going to bed.

That's great, sweetie. You're so helpful. Now we just haveto work on your timing.

This wasn’t the first time the boot/leash things happened.

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Join Bitey and Toby in more puppy fun in Dream Our World. Inside, the boys discover the world of art from a canine perspective and enjoy a day of unsupervised fun.

Dream Our World

Dream Our World is available from my shop at L Bowman Studios.

Love Train

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Watch where you're going you little runt! There ain't no stoppin' the Love Train, baby!

This used to happen a lot when the boys were together. Toby would ride his peppermint backward around the room until he inevitably ran into sleeping Geordie’s face. I would say, “And a good time was had by all” but Geordie would probably bite me.

For all the romantics like Toby out there, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Toby, do you have something you want to tell me? No.

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Oil painting of Westie puppy.

Forgot to get your sweetest something for Valentine’s Day? Then order a custom pet portrait from my shop! Tell your loved one that you ordered it weeks ago, and it will still be a little while before the paint dries. He or she will be so happy with the results that they won’t mind the wait.

L Bowman Studios

Belated Happy Barkday, Toby

Toby’s barkday was at the end of last month, but thanks to me getting sick and then the car breaking, I wasn’t able to get him any presents. This week, G & G took pity on my little boy and brought him a fresh bag of tennis balls. The down side is that now he wants to play all day every day. The up side is he he is working off some of those holiday pounds.

Get that camera out of my face and throw the ball already!

Puppy dressed as ferocious hockey player.
Wow, you're pretty good at blocking thos tennis balls. When I grow up, I want to bMario Lemieux!
Bu Mario Lemieux isn't a goalie. Then I wanna be Wayne Gretzky!
Gretzky isn't a goalie either. Geez, where have you been learning about hockey? Mommy!!

To Toby, the game is to either catch the ball or touch it with his mouth. Then it is considered out of play.

Tennis balls with fuzz handles that a puppy has chewed from their covers.

The first thing Toby does when he gets a new ball is chew a fuzz handle into it.

Like most places, it is snowy and barely in the teens here. Toby doesn’t mind going out because he has a nice pet human to warm his paws when they get cold. If the pet human tries to thaw her paws on a warm puppy tummy, though, all heck breaks loose. Toby’s pet human is grateful for the tennis ball game so they don’t have to freeze as much.

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Care to find out what Bitey and Toby have been up to? Then check out Dream Our World! Inside, the boys view the world of art from a canine perspective and enjoy a day of unsupervised fun.

Dream Our World

Dream Our World is available at my shop at L Bowman Studios.