Somehow, someone (probably Chez) managed to open up a closed cabinet, climb up a shelf and knock a bottle of chewable Rimadyl to floor. Then someone had to pry open (or chew off) the cap. What talented dogs I have; what teamwork.

Chez was not feeling well the next morning. He was unable to complete a full walk and he looked “stumbly,” and vomited a couple of times. Greg dropped him off at the vet. Chez got fluids, activated charcoal, blood tests, and a fancy bandana tied around his neck. He was very perky when I brought him home. The vet said he had a high red cell (paxil ?) blood count, but kidney levels were normal.

This morning he wasn’t as perky. I gave him subcutaneous fluids and managed to get a little blood from his arm, which I brought to the vet. His protein level is a little low, so back to the vet tomorrow for some more blood work. Right now he’s on sucralfate and famotidine, and the doc just added Prilosec to the mix.

Since Frankie’s death, the chair has gotten little use. The house is also a lot quieter without Frankie and Chez yelling at each other all of the time. Chez must be in the acceptance phase of coping with death because he’s not looking for Frankie anymore.

Nikki: Right before the KC epidemic Nikki cut her foot on something. It was sliced open badly– not something that I could fix. She went to the vet and received several stitches in her paw pad. Healing time was estimated at 10 days and she was to wear a bootie and take cephalexin for an antibiotic.  Nikki appeared to be depressed that she couldn’t run with the team– at least this is what we thought because she wasn’t eating much and moped about. Then the KC came and she plummeted further into the doggie dumples. It’s been around four weeks of picking at food or not eating. I brought her to the vet today and she’s lost around 6 pounds since her visit to the vet four weeks ago. Doc felt a loopy intestine, so she’s scheduled for a barium test tomorrow. Possible obstructed bowel.

Chez: Last week I noticed a hole in Chez’s neck when I got home from work. There were drops of blood on the floor and his wound was actively bleeding. It was a regular puncture wound, but in a unique location. After speaking with a vet, I cleaned the wound and attempted to staple it closed. Stapling a dog by yourself is doable, but stapling a dog’s neck is tough. I placed one in a good spot and the other wasn’t very good– one end of the staple was in the skin and the other in the hole of the wound. I left it because he didn’t want me fussing with it. He too was put on cephalexin.

Magic: Around the time I noticed Chez’s wound, I also noticed a small puncture wound in Magic’s tush. I shaved part of it and cleaned it out. I put him on cephalexin because he tends to get infections.

Roo: Yesterday while we were saddling up the gang to go for a run, I noticed Roo’s back foot was bleeding.  We brought her inside to defrost the frozen iceberg of blood and saw her toenail was torn and instead of pointing vertical (like a normal toenail should) it was horizontal (pretty cool looking actually!). She must have caught it on the fence. She went to the vet today to have the toenail removed. The doc called me at work to check and see if she could cut her other toenails. I said “Yes!” Her toenails were pretty long and she was on the list for clipping– but I hadn’t gotten to it yet. It’s kinda embarrassing when your vet notes that your dog’s toenails are gnarly.

King Neptune: Neppy went to the vet today because of his on/off eating. His bloodwork was mostly normal, except for his pancreatic levels. We’re sending his medical files from one vet to the other, so the vet can examine his previous blood levels. Stay tuned.

Storm: This one isn’t vet related, but spring related. Now that it’s getting lighter out and late in the winter season, the moose are out and about. Storm decided to chase one this morning.

Ilana finally got Spot into a portable cat kennel and sped off to the vet. Spot was not very responsive, and seemed to have a broken back. She called me from the car, and I met her at the vet. Spot’s back wasn’t broken, but she had severe internal trauma and the vet recommended we euthanize her immediately. So, we did.

Spot was about 12 years old, and had lived with us since North Carolina. We knew she was in danger with so many dogs in the house, but did not have any good placement options for her. It was a sad day, to see pet dogs turn to their primal instincts.

Today, around 2am I was awakened by an overwhelming smell of poop. My first thought was that Buckwheat must have pooped on his bed made of old blankets which is located right next to our bed. I turned on the light to find that Buckwheat wasn’t in the room. Chez was sleeping on Buckwheat’s bed.

As a side note, Buckwheat is around 112 years old and has been losing bowel control. He often leaves a present and doesn’t even know it.

Back to the story…

I went into the office room to see if the Buckster left me a present. Nope, it didn’t smell like shit in there. I went back to the bedroom in search of the cause of the foul smell.  I around looked for a frozen poopsicle that someone may have brought in through the dog door. I didn’t see anything. The smell was truly overpowering. I though maybe Bruno was having bad gas, and sniffed his bum. Nope. It wasn’t Bruno. Neptune’s tumbly had been growling, so I sniffed his bum. Yuk. Neptune smelled like shit. But wait, I looked at the bed and there was a brown turd sleeping next to me. Geez. Gross. Nasty. Barf. How could this happen?? Neptune wouldn’t shit in the bed? Would he? How come I didn’t smell it until now? Where did it come from. Help. I’m sleeping next to crap.

Okay. I got a hold of myself and began to clean up. I pushed all of the dogs off of the bed, pulled the sheets off, brought the nasty ones outside, and put new sheets and blankets on the bed. I walked by the office room to find that in all of the excitement, Buckwheat left me a warm present. I cleaned this up and was ready to get back into bed, but it occurred to me that both Neptune and I were sleeping on a turd. I began to sniff Neptune, and sure enough, he smelled like shit. I escorted him into the bathroom and began to clean the parts that smelled bad. It wasn’t working. I put him in the shower. At first he was whining, but then realized that he was going to get to take a shower with me, so he didn’t mind. I washed the both of us and then used the hair dryer to dry Neptune off because I didn’t want a wet dog to jump into bed.

By now it was 2:30am and I felt compelled to call Greg, who was in Texas, and tell him the news. He didn’t seem to mind being woken up at 5:30am to hear about shit in the bed. It’s not the first time we’ve been woken up do to some type of excretion.

We all went back to sleep. But the question remains, who shat in the bed? The suspects are Neptune, Bruno, Scully, Chez, Sam, Chester, Sugar, Buckwheat, and Ilana. We were all in the bed at sometime during the night.

• Sugar was sleeping just outside of the bedroom– in a location where she normally doesn’t hang out. Could she have been in the bed just before I went to sleep?
• Earlier in the evening, there was a turd in the hallway, which I suspect was from Buckwheat. It wasn’t a full turd though. Could Buckwheat have been in the bed, shat in the bed, and then leave additional stuff in the hall? But why didn’t I smell the shit when I first got into bed?
• Chester was in bed, right before I climbed in, and Scully was in be right before Chester.
• Sam and Bruno were in there usual spots, curled up on top of me.
• Chez was on Buckwheat’s bed, but could have been on the bed earlier in the evening.
• Neptune was sleeping right next to me.
• Ilana sometimes dreams that she has to take a dump. Could she have shat in the bed while dreaming about taking a dump?

Who do you think shat in the bed? You can take the poll on the right of this page to voice your opinion.

This method was working for a while, until Rocket’s tail was bitten (either by Chez– who likes to bite tushies, or Chevy).  I think it was Chez. I didn’t know Rocket’s tail had been bit until Heather came over and said, “Hey, that dog’s tail looks broken.” I looked at his tail and he was starting to get an infection lower down close to the tail tip– where he was bit. We cleaned it up and took him to the vet. He should be okay.

The next victim was Dutchess, who has multiple health problems. I broke up a fight between Dutchess and Spike. Dutchess ended up with many holes on her head, neck, ear, and paw. Actually, the puncture wounds aren’t really that bad. What’s bad is the breast cancer. Greg brought her to the vet today for a spay appointment. The vet just called to let me know that Dutchess has several mammary tumors. She took a chest exray and the results were inconclusive– they show two small nodules, but the vet isn’t sure if the cancer spread or if it’s scaring from something else.  She said that she wouldn’t make life/death decisions based on the exrays. So, we are going to have the cancer removed and have her spayed. Poor girl.

So, I’m all sad about this event, because not being able to walk is a terrible sign and death is usally the outcome. But Chez, Chez is not sad. Chez decided to sleep on Wild’s bed in the living room, and then again on her bed in the Bedroom. Does he know something is up?

I think she’ll get better, perhaps just a sprain. I wonder what Chez thinks.

Jan 18, 2008– Just an update: Wild is back to her normal self!

• Levi is recovering nicely.
• Chez is a little better, I don’t think he has a brain lesion– even though that’s what the vet suspects. I know I’m not a vet, but it just seems that his breathing/eating problem is an airway thing. Maybe allergies. He has to get some bloodwork done.
• Bandit and Wild both have lumps…we have appointments to bring them into the vet.
• Chester is hopefully tapeworm free– we dewormed the entire yard with Panacur. He needs to get his urine checked to see if he still has a UIT (urinary tract infection). I think he’s better because he no longer has a 105.8 fever!
• Spot the cat is FAT! I wish she had her own floor instead of her own room. If she had her own floor, she’d get more exercise. She has a vet appointment for a check-up, and because she’s loosing hair.
• Dudley is really really clueless– more so than usual. He’s been peeing in the house, on his bed, and didn’t want to go for walkies tonight :(

Now comes the crazy part. I was jogging up CHSR and saw a lady on the side of the road. I asked if she was okay and it turned out she was guarding a momma and her 4 pups. Another concerned citizen was walking up to Anne’s house to see if they were her dogs. He was going to take the dogs to the pound since he couldn’t find the owner. I said, “Oh, don’t take them to the pound. My husband will kill me, but I can hold onto them until we find the owner.”

We loaded up the pups in his truck and drove back .5 miles to my house. We put them in the pen and I went out for a jog. When I got to .4 miles from my house I saw a box on the side of the road. The box contained a blanket, bone, and dish. I knew that the dogs were abandoned.

I ran up Bote St. to see if I could find the woman who was gaurding the dogs on the road– she told me she lived on Bote. I didn’t find the woman, but I found another pup. The pup was crouched up against a garage of a nice woman’s house. I didn’t think the pup was related to my pups because it was brown and seemed bigger. The woman said she was going to ask the neighbors if it was theirs, and if she couldn’t find the owner then bring it to the pound. I left, and continued on my jog.

When I got home I examined the pups and decided that the other pup was definately part of the litter. Today I left a note at the woman’s house. Hopefully she didn’t bring the pup to the pound. I want to bring the pup back because I think it’s too early to be away from it’s mom.

So now I have 5 new dogs. I’m hoping that some people from work will adopt them.

Vet update:

Levi had a huge sarcoma removed.

Chez has his mystery illness. Plus he got a hotspot, so both Chez and Levi are wearing helmets (e-collars). The Docs’ think the Chez has a c2-c3 lesion, which is affecting his respiratory drive and causing uneven pupils. This sucks. Chez is a really great dog– and started out as a great lead dog.

Chester had a 105.8 fever– very high. He has a urinary tract infection and is in the dumples.

Simba (or someone) has tapeworm. We bought a big tub of Panacur (which is good for lions, tigers, pumas, jaguars, cheetahs, panthers, leopards, grizzly bears, black bears, and my favorite pet– polar bears ) and will worm all of the stinkypups.

During the same week Wild and Chez were sick, Monkey and Pumpkin attacked Nutok. I brought Nutok & Monkey to the vet. Nutok needed stitches and meds. Although Monkey had a gouged eyelid and hole in her head– she was okay, so no stitches for Monkey. Pumpkin ended up with an injured paw that we noticed several weeks later. I’m hoping this won’t affect her ability to run this year.

A week later Munkin (Monkey and Pumpkin) attacked Storm. Storm didn’t go to the vet, but we gave her lots of antibiotics and cleaned her wound. She’s back to her loving self.

Yesterday we brought Simba to the vet because he wasn’t eating and was vomiting. Turned out that he needed surgery because he swallowed a piece of rope. We don’t know how much his little vet trip costs yet since he’s at the vet tonight– but I’m sure it’s $$$.

Hopefully things will calm down– but the weather is getting cooler out the the StinkyPups are getting a little crazy. I’ve been out a couple of times on the 4-wheeler for very short training runs. The summer has slipped away and I still haven’t taught my leaders to gee/haw and line-out. I’m sure it will be a fun filled winter!