Tuesday, September 29, 2009

My Monthly Diary Entry for September

September has been full of hikes hikes hikes hikes. Mommy and I decided to see if we could make up for all our missed hikes for June and July and maybe even possibly manage to do 100 miles before the end of November (our county is having a 100 mile challenge which would have been nothing for us if I hadn't broken my back). Anyway we did 50 miles in September so I think we are going to make the 100 since I only have 37 miles left to go and two months to do them in. Keep your paws crossed for me!

I took lots of photos on my hikes until the MerlinCam fried its little brains. Mommy wrote the company where we got the MerlinCam from to ask if others have complained about this (or if the swim it took a few months ago finally did it in), but they didn't answer. Now Mommy has to decide if she is going to buy me another camera. Maybe I'll get a new one for Christmas.

Other than hiking, Mommy and I have been taking it easy in September. I get to go get cookies from the feed store guys and take normal walks again, although Mommy decided that a 6 mile morning walk followed by a 6 mile afternoon hike and then a 3 mile morning walk and a 5 mile afternoon hike in one weekend is a bit much for me these days even if they weren't pre back injury. So we are now going to not do long morning walks if we are planning long afternoon hikes and if we take a long morning walk, we will take a short afternoon hike.

Speaking of back injuries, Benji the terrier down the street's mom hurt her back and she can't walk Benji anymore so Kachina's family has been walking him, but the injury is taking much longer to heal than they expected and they can't walk him as much as they were so last night, after Mommy and I took our walk Mommy went off without me and then, while I was watching out the front window what did I see? Mommy walking Benji down our street!!!! I was highly offended. Benji is mean to me and tries to bite me and always barks at me when he sees me and Mommy is walking him and not me?!! I glared at them as they passed the house and then again as they passed going back to Benji's house. When Mommy came in I sniffed her and stuck to her like glue. She couldn't go into the next room without me following her right at her side. When she went to sit on the couch I sat on her. At bedtime I lay on top of her. She is not going to cheat on me again!

Finally, today Mommy and I were taking our morning walk when the sheriff's K-9 cop car drove by us. The German shepherd dog in the back THREW himself at the metal bars on his window barking, scratching, growling and threatening to eat me! I got all upset and barked back at him and kept looking over my shoulder for him for the rest of the walk home. Mommy said he is going to have to go back to the trainer for a refresher course, but I think he was just a big stupid bully. Anyway, about an hour after we got home I started to feel sick. I drooled and paced and wanted to sit on Mommy. Mommy gave me a 1/2 a Pepsid, but it didn't help so she called the vet. The vet said she thought my ulcer was acting up again and the scary dog could very well have been what set it off. She told Mommy to give me Carafate again. When I saw the Carafate syringe I decided I wanted to go out, but it didn't help. Mommy caught me and I had to take the icky stuff. Now I have to take it again for three days and my Pepsid is back up to 10 mg twice a day from the 5 mg twice a day we were down to (and we were about to cut me down to 5 mg once a day too!) Stupid GSD!! Mommy thinks she should bill the sheriff's office for my meds.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Early Morning Monsters

I can't believe in my last pupdate that I forgot to tell you all about the early morning MONSTERS that Mommy and I had encounters with while on vacation. It was in our second week at Grandma and Grandpa's house, after Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred had left. We were woken up one morning around 4 a.m. by a tussle and growling outside our window. Now, the house is kind of weird and even though our room is on the second floor of the house our windows are at ground level so it was like the growling was happening right in our room! I'm smart and I sleep on top of the covers, unlike silly Mommy who insists on sleeping under them, so I was able to leap right up and run to the window and BARK!BARK!BARK! at the monsters before Mommy could even get on her feet. Mommy went to the window with me and looked outside but couldn't see anything. I thought we should go out and chase the monsters since it was around full moon time and very bright outside, but Mommy said no, they could wait until sunlight. When we got up in the morning I wanted to go out right away so we did. I led Mommy to where the fight had been and I sniffed and sniffed while Mommy checked out the footprints. Mommy and I concluded that a fox and a raccoon had been fighting over something yummy outside our window. I tracked the fox to a hole that was dug by a tree and Mommy bet me that the fox had taken the yummy thing and burried it there and then gotten it later. When we went for our real walk we found a whole bunch of hawk feathers and so we think the yummy thing had been a hawk that the fox had got when it swooped down on something small like a squirrel in the full moon light. Mommy and I figured that was the end of the monsters since the hawk was probably all eaten up by that afternoon, but we were WRONG!

A couple nights later around 4 a.m. again I woke Mommy up and said I had to go potty. Since I had gone to bed that night around 6 p.m. Mommy believed me and got up to go out with me. We went out in the backyard and I wanted to go down to the lake. Since it was still a full moonish night and everything was very bright Mommy said okay. We were part way down the hill when we heard rocks clunk clunking by the water. Mommy whispered, "I wonder if there is a deer down there somewhere." and we went down to look. Before we got down to the dock I started smelling MONSTER by the boathouse. I sniffed and sniffed and ran around and Mommy didn't realize it was a monster I smelled so she whispered, "Enough sniffing, the deer is gone. Let's go out on the dock and look at the water in the moonlight." Then she stepped out onto the dock and THE MONSTER GROWLED AT HER FROM UNDER THE DOCK!!!! You should have seen Mommy flying backwards up the stairs from the dock!! It was very funny. I started barking and barking and Mommy tossed a stick down by the dock and a big fat raccoon came tearing out from under the dock and ran down the beach. Mommy laughed and said, "Well, there's our monster." and then we went out on the dock to look at the water in the moonlight and then we went back to bed. That morning we could see that the raccoon had been sitting under the dock turning over the rocks on the beach looking for crawdads.

I'm not convinced that monsters and raccoons are the same thing since the raccoons at home just run up trees and don't growl at us. I think monsters disguise themselves as raccoons up in Wisconsin.

Friday, September 11, 2009

My Monthly Diary Entry for August

Okay, okay, I know it is loooong past August, but Mommy and I were busy being on vacation at the end of August so I didn't have time to update my blog then.

Well, first off, at the end of last month I decided to eat a whole dead sparrow and then I stole and ate a slice of pizza the next day and the day after that I didn't feel so good. I clung to Mommy and she noticed that I had a blood smell so I had to go back on Carafate for three days. YUCK!! My tummy felt better though and I didn't throw up blood so Mommy caught the problem fast enough. The vet has told Mommy that she has to be sure that she has three days worth of Carafate on hand for me at all times.

This month I officially turned 9! I got a new toy, but no treats because I was still on restrictions from my ulcers. So, I decided to make my own treat late that night by eating the cover off of a softball that I found on one of my walks. I managed to keep the cover down for two days, but finally threw it up looking totally untouched. Mommy said at least there was no blood with the cover so I didn't have to go back on to the dreaded Carafate. I also ate a dead thing, but it didn't set off my ulcers so we are hoping that that means they are fully healed.

My restrictions on walks came off this month which is good so I have been able to add a little bit more to each walk and hike each week. I am up to 4 1/2 miles at a time now and am much happier. I will admit that I walk about 3 1/2 miles feeling great and then really feel tired and slow down for the last mile, but it is better than only being able to do one week. Mommy and I were hoping to do a 100 mile challenge that the forest preserves are doing, but we don't think we will make it at the rate we are going. Of all the years to break my back...

The best thing about the restrictions being off is that I was allowed to go up to Wisconsin with Mommy for a two week vacation. Now, we haven't told anyone this, but Mommy was trying to buy some land in Wisconsin when I hurt myself and it really looked like she was going to get it, but the deal fell through three weeks before closing, so no land for us. So Mommy's planned two week working vacation became a two week relaxing vacation for us. I was happy with that. I got to chase chipmunks, swim, take boat rides,

On my boat ride

hike

Hiking

and relax in the sun.

Sunning

Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred came to visit us on our vacation too so I got to have fun with them as well (although I wasn't allowed to play tug with Uncle Fred because Mommy felt that was going to be way too hard on my back). We also got to visit Mommy's friend Bob and I got to meet two of his kids, Manya and Mark and I saw Mark's hairless dogs, but I didn't get to say hi to them because Mark was trying to get going to a wedding. I would have liked to sniff those hairless dogs tho. Do they smell the same as dogs with hair?

When we got back from vacation I was really tired and I slept and slept. Mommy wanted to take me for a hike two days after we got back and I was happy to go, but I fell asleep in the car while we were sitting waiting for a train to pass.

Also FINALLY my restrictions on getting food from the feed store guys have been removed so I got to go visit them when we got home from vacation and get a treat. We are all very happy about that!