My Monthly Diary for April, 2012

If you remember, last month was unusually warm, April on the other hand was unusually cold!  What is wrong with you Mother Nature?  We did have a spectacular full moon early in the month.  It was like someone was shining their headlights into our living room. It was so cool that I woke Mommy up so she could see it.  She didn't seem to appreciate that though.  We had some thunderstorms this month too.  I had to be sure to wake Mommy up for those as well so that she could help me put my shirt on.  One of the storms was so big that I was scared even when I was wearing clothes, which you would think was impossible, but I guess isn't. I was on Tramadol for one storm and I didn't care about the thunder at all.  Mommy got an evil look on her face when she saw that.  Even though the weather has been strange Mommy and I did get some hikes in and Mommy planted her vegetable garden.  I helped dig some of the garden, and I planted a stuffed animal and a tennis ball like I do each year in hopes of growing a toy vine.  They never seem to sprout and I'm beginning to think we must live in the wrong zone.

We had a sad, sad day here early in the month.  Pelles, my fish, was found belly up on the morning of the 5th.  We don't know what happened.  He was his normal self the night before, having fun doing rapid laps around his bowl and flashing at his reflection when Mommy set up his mirror, so we were totally unprepared for this.  Mommy read that betta fish only live 2 to 3 years at most and that most of the fish you get at pet stores are already about a year old, so he may just have died of old age.  Poor Pelles.

We also found out this month that my little shihtzpoo friend Harley, who is 16 years old, has terminal mouth cancer.  This is extra sad for Mommy because that is what my predecessor, Boo, died of.  Mommy talked to Harley's daddy for a long time about the disease and how it progresses and what she and her vet learned and she gave him Boo's cancer diet (at his request) and also suggested that he might want to contact our vet, because, as far as we know, Boo is the only dog in the area to ever live one year with the cancer.  Life expectancy with mouth cancer is less than four months for most dogs.  We hope Harley gets at least as long as Boo.

We had a really strange thing happen on one of our walks this month.  Mommy and I were one block north of the center of town and Mommy was waiting for a lady to get control of her dogs who were in her yard off leash before we passed when we spotted a wild turkey.  He was just strolling across the street!  Mommy's conversation with the lady went something like this:

Mommy: Can you hold your dogs while we pass?
Lady: They are friendly.
Mommy: Mine isn't.  I'd hate to have them come up to say hi and have him...TURKEY!!
Lady: What?
Mommy pointing: A wild turkey is walking across the street!
Lady: That is the funniest thing I've ever seen!

Anyway, the turkey finally crossed the road and the woman held her dogs and we continued our walk.  When we got to the turkey he was standing by a pick up truck like he was trying to figure out how to open the door.  Mommy pointed him out to me and the turkey turned and looked at us like, "What? You've never seen a turkey before?" and then he strolled away from the truck into a backyard.  We spotted him the next morning hanging out by the senior apartments, but we haven't seen him since.

Another funny thing that happened on one of our morning walks was that I found a baby snapping turtle.  It was just sitting in the middle of the road quite far from the lake.  We have snapping turtles up here, but Mommy thinks it was way too early for him to have hatched and gotten lost on his way to the water, so we suspect he was a pet shop dump.  He was very dry and sad looking so Mommy picked him up and put him in a poop bag and we carried him to one of the public access points on the lake.  Mommy put him down by the water and he ran to it and dove in, but it was very windy that day and he got slammed around by the waves so Mommy wound up wading into the water and catching him again.  We carried him in the poop bag again to a more sheltered access point and Mommy let him go and this time when he dove into the water he was able to swim to a leaf covered shallow spot and hide.  He may or may not make it, but we hope he grows big enough to bite the toes of unsuspecting children.

Another funny thing that has happened on a walk and a hike is that we have run into my V-E-T!!  The first time she drove up to the feed store loading dock as I was getting my cookie (I pretended not to know her) and the second time she came riding up the trail we were on on a tiny horse!  Mommy says she isn't sure if the horse qualified as a pony, but it sure looked like it could have.  There is something wrong about seeing your vet when you are off having fun.

Mommy got sick this month.  She came home early one day and went to bed.  I like when she does this because it is fun to have her to snuggle with.  The next day she woke up with a fever and cough and no voice so, after my morning walk (there is NO excuse for not taking me for a morning walk) Mommy went back to bed and we slept all day again.  The next day, same thing!  Now, by this point it isn't so much fun having Mommy home.  I mean, if you are going to be home this much we should be doing something fun like hiking.  So I kept bringing Mommy toys to try to get her to get up and play with me, but she wouldn't do it.  Finally she said, "Well, I guess I can be sick in lawn chair instead of sick in bed." and we went out in the backyard.  Mommy brought her camera outside and took some pictures of me and a red admiral butterfly.  I don't know if you have had a red admiral invasion where you are, but we sure have.  They are everywhere en masse.  Mommy posted one of the photos of me as our first Wordless Wednesday and you can see it in the previous post.  Here is another of me and one of a red admiral with his wings closed:

After Mommy got better she took the bed frame apart and put it in storage in the basement.  Our box spring and mattress are now sitting on the floor.  She also got a rug like you would put in front entryway and put it in front of the couch.  Mommy did this because she noticed how much trouble I have been having getting up on the bed and the other day my hind end slid out from under me when I was trying to climb up on the couch and I walked around on three legs for about a half hour and had to take a Tramadol.  Mommy wants me to be able to sleep on the comfy furniture without risking getting hurt again, which is funny when you consider that when I came to live with her she told me on the first day, "Dogs are NOT going to be allowed on the furniture in this house anymore.  You have your own beds and you are to sleep on them ONLY."  I was sleeping on the bed with her within the month, and about a week after getting run of the house the couch was covered with a sheet.  Silly Mommy thinking she could make rules like that.