My Monthly Diary for July, 2011

This was a crazy month! First off, Mommy has been shopping around for a lifting harness for me to help me up and down stairs and stuff. She couldn't find the one she wanted so she decided to make me one. She didn't want to have to make the vest part from scratch so I got to go to a place called Bass Pro Shops to try on hunting vests. I was very good in the store trying on the vests so Mommy took me to a part of the store where they have GREAT BIG FISH in a tank! There was also a person in the tank cleaning it. I found it all very interesting. I was disappointed however when the check out people did not have bones. What kind of check out people don't have bones? Anyway, we got home with the vest and Mommy put it on me to figure out how to attach the lifting straps. That is when I realized that she expected me to actually WEAR the dorky vest she had me trying on!

Dorky vest

Well I pouted so much she gave up and decided to return the hunting vest and make a new vest from scratch.

Then we had the Big Storm which I wrote about in a previous post. Then Mommy and I took the Dumbest Vacation EVER, which I also wrote about already. Then Mommy made me the lifting harness and the day she finished it she got an e-mail from someone who sent her a link for a harness they liked. It wasn't the harness Mommy was looking for, but the one above it on the website was!! Mommy called the company and got advice about fitting me for it and ordered it that day.

Mommy felt so bad about the Dumbest Vacation Ever that she took me for a really short REAL vacation to Wisconsin. We went up on a Saturday morning and came home on a Sunday night. Mommy had hoped it would be cooler up there than at home, but it wasn't, but at least we had a nice lake to swim in. When we got there I ran down to the dock and was shocked to discover that the peddle boat was not out in the water! I stood on the dock and stared at the empty spot and whined. Mommy said, "Nobody put the boat in, and it takes two people to drop in, so we can't do the boat this time." Then she opened the boathouse door to get the cushy things I like to lie on on the dock and there was the peddle boat! I ran up to it and looked at it, then looked at Mommy, then looked at it, then back at Mommy, then I whined, then I sighed and lay down by it. Mommy said, "Fine, fine! I'll try to MacGyver it in for you." and then she went and got a garden cart and some rope and managed to get the boat out of the boathouse and into the lake by herself! I knew she could do it! I got four rides in two days so it was well worth it. We tried out the lifting harness Mommy had made for me and it worked well, but Mommy thought the one she had bought would be better, but it hadn't arrived by that weekend. Besides boating I got to swim and look for fish and take a short trail hike that I like to a hidden lake where I get to swim. It was a good short vacation.

A couple days after we got back the new harness arrived. Mommy said this was a very good thing because she could use it to get me down into our basement when the weather got to the 100s during the day. I didn't mind being in the basement, but I really resented that she put the baby gate up at the bottom of the stairs like I was an irresponsible puppy or something! She said she did it because she didn't want me to try to go up the stairs by myself and wind up falling down them while she was gone, but I still think it was demeaning. We've slept on the porch almost every night during July because it was so hot and Mommy spent a few days down in the basement with me cleaning it up because it was the coolest place in the house.

Then last weekend Mommy said we were going to take another dumb vacation, but if I was very good I might get a pet fish! So, Mommy put the empty ice chests into the car and we drove down to Grandma and Grandpa's house. There had been a really big rain storm the night before so we had to take a strange route down there because some of the roads we would normally drive were flooded and closed. The strange route ended up taking us by the pet store where Mommy was going to get me the fish, so I didn't really have to be a good boy, because we stopped there FIRST and got my new fish friend. He is a betta and we named him Pelles. (Pelles is the Welsh name for The Fisher King in the King Arthur stories for those of you not up on your Welsh Arthurian legends) Mommy took me into the pet store and I checked out all the other fish in the tanks while Mommy read the instructions for the "Betta Buffet" Mommy picked out a bowl for the fish and the gravel and then I chose a plastic plant and a plastic dinosaur to put in the bowl. The instructions said you got two plastic toys, but I was only interested in the dinosaur, so Mommy picked a plastic skull. Then Mommy held the cups of betta fish down for me to see and I decided I liked Pelles best. He was unusual looking as all the other fish were blue or red or purple, but he is white with red and blue on him.

Pelles

The people in the pet store all commented on how I was the first dog they had ever seen who was interested in fish and Mommy told them that she was buying the fish for me. They laughed that she was buying me a pet. Then Mommy, Pelles and I drove down to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma didn't believe that I was interested in having a fish until Mommy put him up on the counter and then brought me into the house. I went straight to the counter to watch him swim around and Grandma had to admit that I liked my fish! Then Mommy left Pelles on the counter and went out to get an ice chest and when she came back in I was standing with my front feet on the counter and I had the lip of the fish bowl in my mouth and I was trying to lift it up so I could put it down on the ground. Mommy said that was VERY NO behavior and I needed to keep the fish on the counter. I don't see why, after all, he is MY fish. So, anyway, Mommy helped grandma pack up some dishes and sheets and towels and stuff and then she put a whole bunch of boxes in our car and then she went downstairs and filled our ice chest with all the food she had taken down there on the Dumbest Vacation Ever and then Pelles and I got in the car and we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's new house. Pelles went onto the counter in there and I had to sit in an empty back room by myself while Mommy and Grandma and Grandpa brought in three cars full of boxes. Then Mommy filled up her ice chests with all the food that she had left at THAT house and Pelles, Mommy and I headed home. At first Mommy put Pelles' bowl on one of the end tables, but then she decided the spot was too dark and secluded so she brought up the table that my birdies used to live on and put Pelles bowl on that. That night I stole Pelles food and tried to open it, but Mommy caught me and told me THAT was NO too. I didn't know pet ownership came with so many rules. I love watching him swim and I check on him each morning and whenever I come in from my walks.

Pelles on the end table

Finally this month Mommy and I went to visit Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred at their place in Door County, Wisconsin. I was very upset when Mommy took Pelles out of the house and didn't come back with him, but she said he couldn't come on this vacation and Benji's mom was going to babysit him. Even without Pelles I had a great time at Auntie Naomi's house. The night we got there Mommy put on my new lifting harness and we went to something called a "campground" to visit with Auntie Naomi's daughter and her boyfriend and his parents. I'm not sure what a campground is exactly, but it seems that the people build a fire and then sit around it and eat and drink and talk. I napped for most of it. Mommy says I'm not the camping type of dog which is why we've never done it, and I was happy to get back to Auntie Naomi's house and go to bed. The next morning we went to a place called Cave Point County Park that I had been to the first time we went up there to visit. Mommy remembered that I liked it a lot and she wanted me to get to go there again. It was great. We walked a little bit down a trail and then Mommy used my lifting harness to get me down on a rocky slab where I could play in the water and people could admire me. It was very crowded so there were a lot of people there to admire me.

Are there fish out there?

Then we went back up to the trail (Mommy used the lifting harness to help me back up the rocks) and we walked a bit further down the trail to see what the shore looked like from there. I wore my lifting harness as my walking harness so that Mommy could help me if we got to an obstruction that I couldn't cross on my own. There were a bunch of fallen trees on the trail so the humans were slow, but I got around all of them on my own.

Hurry up!

Eventually we got to a bit of rocky beach where there weren't a lot of people and I wanted to go back down to the water so Mommy said okay and helped me down with my harness. I wanted to go down to that section of beach because there was a HUGE pile of dead alewives on it. Alewives are little invasive herrings and they die off in big bunches when the lake gets really hot really fast and then they wash up on the shore. Well, Mommy got as far as saying, "Don't..." when I dove into the pile and started to roll and roll. It was heavenly!

Alewives!
(You can see my lifting harness really well in this shot)

Mommy didn't think it was great though so she went back to the trail and gave Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred her stuff and then we waded into the lake and Mommy tried to rinse as much of the dead fish stink off me as she could. Mostly what she managed to do though was get the dead fish stink on her. After that we went back to the car and we drove to the Pamida with all the windows open for some reason. Mommy bought shampoo and laundry soap and we went back to Auntie Naomi's house, but I wasn't allowed in. Instead Mommy and I got in our car and we drove down to the beach by Auntie Naomi's house and went in the water there. The shore was really mucky and Mommy lost her shoes in the muck and had to get them out and then rinse them off in the lake before putting them back on. I was really rather tired for yet another swim and so I didn't want to go back in, but Mommy said I had to and we waded into some water up to my belly and then Mommy pulled out the bottle of shampoo and the swim turned into a BATH!!! That was very mean. Then Mommy washed my harness and we got back in the car and went back to Auntie Naomi's house where Mommy changed into her pjs and put all her clothes and our towels into the washer. Everyone had lunch on the porch since Mommy was still too smelly to be allowed in the house and after lunch Mommy took a shower. (Mommy had planned to shower first, but Auntie Naomi was hungry so they ate first).

Mean Mommy washed off all my fish stink!

I was very tired that night so I stayed home ALL ALONE for the first time at Auntie Naomi's house while Mommy and Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred went out to eat with the people we visited at the campground. I was a good boy and didn't even throw up or anything.

The next day Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred took us to see the cabin where they used to stay before they moved up there and then we took a Feed the Fish tour. Feed the Fish is a movie that your humans may have seen. It stars Tony Shalhoub, who grew up in the area, and it was filmed all around there. They showed us the places where major scenes took place and then the little green shack that Tony Shalhoub owns and in the movie looks like it is in the woods, but is really by the lake. We got out of the car so we could walk by his property and I made sure to pee on it.

You can't see the green shack but my right hind foot is kind of pointing to it.

Mommy says we are lucky Tony Shalhoub wasn't there or we might have seen this:
After the shack we drove by a barn that in the movie looks like it is right on the lake, but it is actually in the woods! Those movie people are weird.

After the tour we had lunch and then we packed up and headed home. On the way we stopped at a point that is 1/2 way between the equator and the North Pole.

If I'm half way to the North Pole, why is it so hot?

Then at one point on the drive Mommy stopped the car and we sat and sat and then the road lifted up right in front of us!

Some people got out of their cars to look

Then the road went back down and we could drive on it again. Mommy says it was a drawbridge and it opened up to let this boat go by:

After that I pretty much slept the whole rest of the way home. Vacations are tiring and this month has been exhausting.

My Monthly Diary for August

This month Mommy and I went up to Wisconsin for vacation. We were supposed to go the last week of August, but there was a misunderstanding with Grandma and Grandpa so Mommy had to change our vacation the the week before the last week of August. It ended up that we got the better week though because we had great weather and the next week it got cold and rained. I had a great time. I chased squirrels and chipmunks and fish and frogs. I took a couple of hikes and I swam for my ducky. I also got to go for peddleboat rides which is one of my favorite things to do. I did fall up the stairs one day and had to be on pain killers and muscle relaxers for a night and then a few days later I fell down a hill and went back on the meds for two nights and one day. The falling down the hill part was Mommy's fault. It was mid day and I was napping in the boathouse while Mommy was reading in the shade of the boat house. She went for a swim and she spotted a nice colorful big rock. Every summer she puts a new pretty rock on my predecessor Boo's grave so she got that rock and climbed up the hill to his grave. I woke up and realized I didn't know where Mommy was so I sniffed around and discovered she had gone up the hill. I climbed up the hill, but when I got to the top she wasn't there. I couldn't figure out where I was or where Mommy was (some trees had fallen down and Mommy had to walk in circles to find Boo's grave which made tracking hard). Mommy had gone down the less steep side of the hill instead of the very steep way she had gone up and when she got back down to the boathouse she was worried that I wasn't there. She whistled for me and I did my worry whine-bark so she whistled again and I was so excited to discover that she was down at the boathouse again that RAN down the steep side of the hill. I got about 1/2 way down when I caught my front foot on a root and I stumbled down the rest of the way. I was very sad and sore and had to do nothing for the whole next day. It was very windy and choppy that day so it wasn't so bad to not get to swim and ride in the boat. Mommy told me that if it wasn't windy the next day she would take me for a peddleboat ride first thing after our morning walk the next day. The next day it was WINDIER than the day before but after we took our walk I ran straight down to the boat and wagged and wagged. Mommy said, "I said if it WASN'T windy." but I refused to listen and Mommy gave in and took me for a 2 hour ride. It took us 1 1/2 hours for Mommy to peddle us across the lake and then 1/2 an hour for us to float back with just the waves and wind propelling us and Mommy not peddling at all! It was lots of fun and I slept for three days when we got home.

Also this month Mommy and I took some hikes in the forest preserves by our house. She noticed that I hike at about half the speed I did two years ago, so we have to plan our hiking times much more carefully so we are sure to be home before dark. It is still fun though.

We got new renter neighbors this month. The trash that were living next to us for the past few years got kicked out in December and it took the owners SIX MONTHS to make the house habitable again. They had to buy all new appliances and carpets and stuff as well. The new people seem nice enough and the good thing is that they have a girl cocker spaniel! I haven't met her yet, but she has looked out at me through the window and I have seen her from my porch when she has been in her yard. The last time I saw her it was about 9 at night and I ran to Mommy and barked at her trying to get her to let me go say hi. She said no we would wait and meet her during the day. I decided that I needed to be really impressive for her so on my next walk I rolled in a big pile of fox poop. It was wonderful! I was covered in orange poop from above my right eye to the middle of my back and I smelled soooo good. I knew the cocker spaniel would be impressed, but when we got home Mommy tied me to the fence and gave me a dreaded BATH!! I ended up smelling like cherries! It was awful! How could she do such a thing to me. The new doggy would think I was some kind of wimp. Luckily for me we have not spotted her since then so I have had time to get a more normal dog smell on me again, but I sure wish I could have met her when I smelled like fox poop.

Finally this month I suddenly had trouble standing up a couple Sundays ago and I couldn't squat to poop and I didn't want to walk far. Mommy called the chiropractor and got me an appointment for the next Saturday. I was a sore boy for a week, but after the chiropractic adjustment I felt so much better that I was jumping on the bed and being silly by bedtime. The vet said I had somehow gotten my hips all crooked. I don't know how I did it, but it sure felt good when it was undone.

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.

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.