My Monthly Diary Entry for July

Well, if you look below you will see that this was a very eventful month. For those of you not used to blog formats, the older stuff is on the bottom, so if you want to read about all my trauma this month, read from the bottom up. Anyway, to sum up the month. Mommy had planned for us to go up to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Wisconsin for the Fourth of July because she got a three day weekend because of the 4th being on a Saturday and she also had some business to take care of up there. Then we were thinking we might go to Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred's place last weekend and Mommy had taken some time off for that. She never even got to ask Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred if a visit would be okay because of me falling and breaking the vertebra in my back and then having the bad meds reaction and throwing up blood. Luckily I made it through all that even though I had to spend two nights at the emergency vet's. Mommy says that my vet bills cost a fortune and I am not to do such a thing ever again. I don't plan on it, but you don't know about those evil bunnies.

So, I got no fireworks show and no visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the Fourth of July because the vet said we couldn't travel up there because the closest emergency vet was 100 miles away and I had to be much closer to an emergency vet just in case. So we stayed home and I took medications and felt sick and Mommy talked Grandma and Grandpa into taking care of some of the business. I had my check from my regular vet (see below) and while Mommy was pleased with how well I was doing, I was not pleased with the restrictions she had given me. No swimming until AUGUST??!! Only two 1 mile walks a day??!! No treats from the feed store guys??!! No visits to the feed store guys anyway because they are more than a mile from the house??!! This was not good. Mommy and I had arguments on many walks because I wanted to go into town and she said no. Finally we reached a compromise that once a week I can walk into town and Mommy can mail letters and I can see the feed store guys and NOT get a treat...grrrr...but then I don't get a second walk that day. This is working out okay and I like being pet by the feed store guys even if they won't give me treats. The vet says that stairs are no and that wouldn't be a problem at our house because we only have basement stairs and I don't go down there very often unless I want to paint. Well, since my food is limited to one small dog plain milkbone a day now I decided I wanted to paint so that I could get treats. Therefore, I ran downstairs into the basement when Mommy went down to take the laundry out of the washer and tried to get her to let me paint, but she said no. Then, when she was carrying the wet laundry upstairs to hang on the line, I tried to run up the stairs ahead of her and my back end gave out and I fell. Mommy dropped the basket of laundry and caught me so she has her priorities straight. I was a bit sore after that and Mommy limited my walks down to one 1 mile walk for a few days, which made me mad, but by this weekend my back was feeling better.

The vet did say that if my tummy was better and my back was healing I could go to Grandma and Grandpa's house, but I couldn't go to Auntie Naomi's house because they have stairs and I would also want to hike and walk up at Auntie Naomi's house, but might be better and Grandma and Grandpa's. So, my back was feeling good and I'm still on high doses of Pepcid, but I took my heartworm meds and didn't have a setback and I'm not eating yucky rice anymore so Mommy decided I was well enough to go up to Grandma and Grandpa's house last weekend. The drive seemed very long and I was rather sore when we got there, but I forgot about my sore back when I spotted the chipmunks. Mommy had thought with my sore back I might restrict myself, but I didn't and I kept charging the windows and running back and forth and pulling the leash out of her hand to chase the chipmunks in the wood pile and stuff. She also had no idea that I would get on the dock and suddenly jump off the shallow end trying to catch the fishies. I NEVER JUMP OFF THE DOCK!! I also tried to jump back on the dock, but that didn't work so well and she had to pull me up on it. She had only planned to be up there for two days, but then said since I acted so stupid on my first day we'd stay an extra day because I'd already done the damage. Mommy got her business done and we spent our second day just sleeping on the dock and Mommy took me for a 1 mile hike on my favorite trail up there. I wanted to go farther, but she said no. We camped out on the great room floor with our sleeping bags, which I didn't like the first night because I wanted to go upstairs and sleep on the bed, but stairs are still no.

When we drove home yesterday I slept the whole way. I had trouble getting out of the car when we got home and this morning I tried to poop without squatting (which doesn't work very well). My back is very sore, and Mommy hopes I didn't overdo it too much. I had a little tummy trouble this morning, but we are hoping that that is only because I had stolen a bit of Mommy's dinner last night and not something more serious. I think with a couple days' rest I will feel better. Keep those paws crossed that things keep healing.

Okay, Maybe I Went Too Far

I'm mad that I'm not allowed to walk, so to show Mommy how I felt I refused to poop for 42 hours. I finally had to give in last night. Deciding this wasn't the best plan I changed it this morning to refusing to PEE. Seemed like a great plan. Don't pee in the backyard, Mommy has to walk me. Sure enough it worked. After a half hour of Mommy getting eaten by skeeters in the backyard while repeating, "Go pee. Go pee." over and over again Mommy gave up and took me for a three house walk. I peed on a neighbor's wall and then bad Mommy made me walk home. Guess what Mommy, I didn't pee as much as I would on a normal walk so there! I said when we got home. Mommy left the house anyway. When Mommy got home she had a not so good surprise for her. A HUGE pile of poop. Five puddles of the runs and my diningroom bed soaked through with pee, pee on the floor and pee on the wall. Boy was she MAD!! She said the pooping she could take because I have trouble with anti-inflamitories so she wasn't surprised the Deramaxx gave me stomach trouble and she could blame it for that, but the lake of pee had no excuse. I was a BADDOGSHAMEONYOU! Now she won't cuddle me because of the pee and I'm only getting rice for dinner because of the poop. Perhaps my grand plan was not so grand after all.

Those Evil, Evil Bunnies

Well, I may be blogging a lot more for the next two months and it is all those evil bunnies' fault. See, Mommy and I were taking our morning walk and I spotted one of those evil bunnies hiding in the bushes. I dove in and tried to get him, but he got away. While trying to get out of the spiny bushes I got tangled up and fell out backwards, landing on my hips on the pavement. I shook it off and tried to go after the bunny, but to no avail. Mommy and I walked home and I was feeling a little sore, but not terrible, so I went to bed. Well, as the day wore on I started feeling worse and worse until by four p.m. I was in great pain. I screamed and cried at Mommy and told her I needed to see the vet NOW!! So, of course, all the vets were closed except the emergency vet, but Mommy took me there. The vet tried to feel my back and legs and I YIPED when he touched them. He told Mommy I needed an x-ray so they hauled me in back and drugged me up and x-rayed me. When he came back to Mommy he told her that I had fractured my vertebra right in front of my hips. It was a hairline fracture, but it was probably what was causing me all the trouble. Then he pointed out the top of the vertebra and said that it looked like I had chipped the same one some time in the past. Mommy is thinking that maybe that was from the previous evil bunny episode, or when I fell out of the tree trying to eat the feral cat.

Don't know if you can see it, but the red arrows are pointing to the hairline fracture. The circled tip on the left is normal, the one on the right is the previous fracture.

Anyway, the only thing the vet could do for me was give Mommy some meds to give me and tell us that I have to stay quiet for FOUR TO SIX WEEKS!!! No walks! No running! No jumping on the furniture! No doing anything except lying around being bored out of my skull. Neither Mommy nor I are very happy about this. Evil, evil bunnies you cost Mommy a lot of money, me a lot of pain, and have ruined my summer. Mommy is hoping my real vet will tell her that I can go swimming in a couple weeks. Keep your paws crossed because if I have to do a whole summer of no exercise I am going to go CRAZY and I will take Mommy down with me.

By the way, don't let anyone tell you that being stoned is fun. Those drugs they gave me to "chill me out" for the x-ray left me very disoriented. All I wanted to do is lie on the porch and sleep. Whenever I woke up I became afraid and cried for Mommy and she had to come sit with me for about 15 minutes until I fell asleep again.