Drop and Freeze.

Gretchen and I overslept today. Dolly was exceptionally anxious to get out of her crate to potty. It was noon and she is usually out by seven AM. So I pulled her out quick and Gretchen started helping me prep her. As soon as Dolly saw that we were both working on her and doing it quickly her anxiety level dropped. it was like AH-H-H, I know I can make it now. Even though we were very late she still absoulutely refused to potty in her crate.

We continue to learn things about her. Gretchen and I were talking about how she adapts to being handled by different people. There is one behavior she is doing for both of us. If anything goes wrong Dolly will drop to the ground and freeze. By wrong I mean when one of us slips on the ice or trips on something. Gretchen has fallen a couple of times. She was not hurt but I do wish this ice and snow would go away. That is not to be. We have a major winter storm heading our way. One forecast had 12 inches of snow for Jefferson City MO but they have since dropped it back to six. We will get an inch of ice instead. I'll take the snow please.

A Flying Leap

One of the strictest instructions we got from the vet was not to let Dolly run, jump, or leap.  The chances of her re-braking her Pelvis is quite high if we allow her to do that. This afternoon I had her in my lap on the recliner with the footrest extended.  She walked to the end of the footrest as if she was wanting to go outside to potty. Usually she just stands there waiting for me to get her halter. This time she made a flying leap into her crate. Fortunately she had a soft landing plus all of the shock was to her front legs. I'll have to watch her closer now. I knew it would be quite a job to keep a dachshund from jumping and leaping because that is what they love to do.

We keep having trouble with other dogs when we take her out on the leash. One of her puppy buddies accidentally hurt her a few days ago. After she got back in the house she stayed much quieter than usual in her crate for the rest of the day. Almost like it was brought home to her that she cannot do what she used to do. There is also this pit bull mix around that looks slightly like a Hyena. Seeing a human with a dog on a leash stirs up hatred in him. He has not bitten yet. He is a stray that somebody dumped here. Dogs like that do not last long in this town. Someday he will come across somebody that it does not bother to shoot dogs.

I had Dolly out a day or so ago when her puppy friend came up to us. I call him puppy but he is a two year old. He is scared of me. I like him because he always listens to me when I tell him NO. I did not know if he was going to try to play with Dolly and hurt her again. I just stood there and talked to him very gentle like. He still does not like that we have Dolly on a leash but he does not know what to do about it. I was actually able to pet him this time. I don't recall him ever letting me touch him before even though I have fed him and he plays with Dolly.

It's been warm here the past couple of days and a lot of the snow has melted off. They say we have a major winter storm coming in two days. Right now they are calling for ice. YUK. I'll take the snow please.

Something in Common

Dolly and I have something in common.  We both hate the month of January. It might be tolerable if the temperature was at least seasonal but it has not been this winter. 

She Had a Good Day Today

For the first time in several days she got a good long car ride. We have been snowed in and my son finally got the driveway cleaned out. Usually some thoughtful neighbor will clean it out for us and then go on without saying a word but it did not happen this time. When I was able I cleaned out a few driveways myself in the same manner.

She is acting more like her old self while riding. She likes to look out the windshield or the side windows. We pulled up to a couple of different drive thru windows and she had to come over to my side to see what kind of smells were there and to get some attention from the person in the window. She just loves it when that person gives her a little attention.

I even let her ride on my left knee for a short period of time. She really likes that. My knee is high enough that she can see out the side window. Sometimes she will crane her head around to look out the windshield. While I was sitting waiting for my son i rolled the window down and let her stand there. She likes watching people go by. Occasionally a stranger will stop by and talk to her. That makes her day too.

When we returned home she had a nice supper gave Gretchen some lovin' and curled up in her crate to go to sleep. She seems a little aggravated with me. Probably because I am not allowing her to jump and run like she used to. We have another month or two to go of limited activity.

She's Bored

She is certainly tired of her routine and I can't say as I blame her. On the bright side of things if she was dumb she would not be bored.

When I let her out of the cage I am starting to get this sense that she's tired of being caught before she gets out the door. Sometimes she will move back slightly to prevent me from catching her right away. Other times she will stand in the door and wave her left paw at me. Like she's saying "Ah come on, let me go just once please."

She was restless earlier on. Gretchen took her outside and she would not potty. Once back in she continued to be restless. After a while Gretchen took her out yet again. This time she let her bust through the snow. This seemed to work as she pottied a lot. Her path that Gretchen had shoveled out for her was obliterated by my son when he shoveled out the entire driveway. She liked that path and I guess she felt that a new one had to be made by her.

Once back in she settled down in my lap for a nice long nap. I eventually put her back n the crate. She came out long enough to eat supper and then wanted back in. When she was out she was determined to climb up my chest a be my pillow for awhile. So I let her do it but I had my hands close by so that she would not fall. She was very happy and settled in for a short nap.

Snow Tunnels

We have had about one foot of snow in the last day or so. Officially it's nine inches but here locally I think we've had a bit of river effect snow. A storm cell will feed off the moisture from the river and drop more snow in a small area near the river. This does not happen nearly as often as people would think but the snow is too deep for a Dachshund to walk in.

During a normal snow Dolly would bark to be let out, make a short trip into the snow, do her business, and then immediately bark to be let back in. She would then hibernate most of the day until it was time to potty or go bark at intruders. That is not how it worked this time.

When the snow first started we took her on a potty run. The temperature was not too bad and the snow had an energizing effect on her. She did not want to come back in, she wanted Gretchen to stay outside with her and let her play in the snow. When they finally got back in Gretchen had snow in her hair. She has black hair with very little gray in it and the snow had a nice effect. I told her she looked like Mrs. Santa Claus. Once back in the house Dolly was awake most of the night scratching at the door of her crate wanting to go outside.

The next morning she was more hyper than usual wanting to go out desperately. By this time we had all the snow we were going to get. So we took her out. She did not have to go as badly as she was letting on like. This is the deepest snow she has dealt with in her short life. She did not like the fact that she could not see over the snow. What she had to do was tunnel through it to get to her potty spot. Of course Gretchen was not too impressed with the snow either. After a bit of tunneling Dolly was more than ready to come back inside and sleep.

While Dolly was sleeping Gretchen and I went out to see what we could do about the snow. I had to knock snow off the satellite dish to get it working again. I have a device I rigged up a long time ago to knock the snow off. It is far from perfect but so far it has worked. While I was doing that Gretchen was shoveling a snow path for Dolly. It's a short path but it goes in a circle in the driveway. I also used the shovel for a minute or so to get rid of a small patch of very slick snow off the carport . I was very aggravated that my back only allowed me to do it for a few minutes. In my younger years I loved shoveling snow and would not allow Gretchen to do it.

Dolly did not want to go out. She waited until she was desperate before she signaled to me that she needed out and even then she acted like she really did not want to. Once out everything was OK. Gretchen led her around the circle and once her potty business was done she started her strutting routine. She did attempt to go off path and tunnel but she immediately went back to the path.

This morning it was the same story. Yes she wanted out but not with the urgency she normally shows. Once out she did a large amount of potty and then proceeded to strut. When she struts it almost looks as if she is smiling. We did try to tunnel again but was easily led back to the path. Once back in the house she stayed in my lap for a long time but then she signaled that she wanted back in the crate. That's where she is right now and she is sound asleep.

Dr Ann McHugh Lionsgate Pet Hospital Overland Park Kansas

Dr. McHugh Called me today to check on Dolly again. It's been almost 4 weeks since Dolly had her accident and Dr. McHugh's office is 170 miles away. The chances that I would become a regular customer of hers is slim but she has called several times in these past weeks to check on Dolly anyway. If I lived close enough I would be taking all of my critters to her because she is one of the best Veterinarians I have ever met.

One thing I remember best about the conversation was when I told her that she did not see Dolly at her best as she was hurting. Dr told me " I know that but I saw Dolly at her bravest and she is a very brave little dog." I did not think of that until she mentioned it.

I do remember how well they treated Dolly there. You could not move her without hurting her. Dr's staff went out to my truck and brought her in without hurting her at all. Now that I think about it I do not remember her yelping out in pain when they were doing X-rays and such. I cannot imagine how they managed to do that but they did.

I also remember sitting out in the waiting room and several of her customers telling me that I had brought Dolly to the best vet in Kansas City. I think the term "Customers" is the wrong one but I'll just call them that until I can think of a better term. I want to call them patients but they aren't.

The people at the Vet School Clinic were very happy with Dr McHugh's X-Rays. They only did one more. I am glad she sent them with me.

Ouch

I say ouch very frequently and far more than I like to. How it relates to this post will be explained a bit later.

Dolly had an off day yesterday. Restless in the morning and slept way too much in the afternoon. She wanted out of her crate just before dark and signaled that she needed to potty. It was more like a false alarm as she hardly did anything.

Gretchen went to bed early. Dolly wanted out to go potty again. Rather than wake her up I took her out around 10:30 PM. I was concerned about snow and ice but much of the snow had melted yesterday and it was still warm at that time of night. Her trip outside was a false alarm. She clearly did not like it that I had taken her out instead of Gretchen. She wandered about aimlessly and stopped frequently to see what I was going to do. Trying to manipulate a belly sling, a leash, and i cane is something I do not do well. At one point I tried carrying the cane but Dolly mistook it  as me wanting to hit her with it. She dropped to the ground and cowed like she was expecting a blow. I've never even said "Git" to her let alone hit her. Gentle words accomplish far more. I picked her up and brought her back in.

I gave up trying to get some sleep at 3:00 AM. I went out to the living room to watch a little TV and here Dolly thinks it's morning and time to get up. So I take her out of the cage and try holding her in my lap. She has to potty. I'm not very impressed by that but I took her out anyway.  Not wanting to scare her I left my cane on the carport. I have a problem working the belly sling anyway. At that point I began to even doubt my ability to walk and chew gum at the same time without messing up.

We walk. Dolly is giving me those concerned looks of hers. maybe she thinks I can't walk and chew gum too. Within a short period of time she finds the spot that is just right and does her business. By that time my blasted back stiffened up and i uttered the word "Ouch" a couple of times. Dolly immediately dropped to the ground and refused to go further. She's looking up at me with that concerned look again. I picked her up and took her back inside. Once in the recliner she put her front paws on my chest and began to lick my face. Once finished she curled up in my lap and went to sleep. I let her stay there until I stiffened up again. I put her back in the crate where she is sleeping now.

I tried sleeping in the recliner but had no luck. While I was trying to do that I got to thinking and all at once realized that the word "Ouch" is in Dolly's vocabulary. I was remembering the incident where one of the cats scratched me, I said "Ouch !" and within seconds I had one very angry Dachshund come charging out of the bedroom barking and growling because someone or something had hurt "her" human.

I believe she cut her trip short because I said ouch. The refusal to walk further was her way of trying to get me to go back inside.  She's done a similar but different routine in the past, trying to get me to go inside if she thinks we have been out too long. Typical of an intelligent dog the routine is a bit different each time. I get aggravated by our circumstances but then I remember that had we all been paying more attention a few weeks ago this entire situation would not be necessary.

Earlier today I read in a Australian newspaper that their tree huggers down there are ranting on pet owners. They claim people should not own pets because they damage the environment and contribute to global warming. Down there they call these people "Warmists".  The Warmist's claim that one dog puts out as much pollution as two Toyota Landcruisers.  Yes they hate SUV's as passionately as our own American Warmists do. I am very pro-environment myself but I doubt the claims about Global Warming. Yes our winters are warmer than they used to be but I believe it is part of a natural cycle. I see the Warmists as just another form of communisim.

I am surprised that our own sensationalist news media did not report this so-called crisis. I think they did not because it would anger too many pet owners and possibly turn them against the green movement. If they ban pet ownership they will have to pry my Dolly from my cold dead fingers.

Every Day is Different

A couple of days ago Dolly was very restless. She wanted out of her crate and did not know what she wanted to do once she was out except to try to go back to her pre-accident routine. The next day she slept almost all day. She's basically doing the same thing today except now she's sleeping in her crate with the door open. I only leave it open when I am setting right there with her.

Why the change in behavior? Two days ago it was sunny and warm. The last two days have been cloudy, warm, but cloudy. I'm thinking that sunny weather makes her want to go out and stay out. When she was well you could tell what kind of weather we had by how long she wanted to stay out.

There may be some good come out of this. When we have her out walking she gets a little scared when cars go by. I hope she stays scared but only time will tell. I think we may have some changes in store for when she is well again. Nighttime trips outside will be on the leash. That might also go for any time we let her out to potty and we won't be staying outside ourselves.

We have little trouble with the potty walk now. Only one false alarm. She seems to understand that if we take her out she had better go potty. We finally did get the belly sling from Foster and Smith. We almost sent it back. Had there not been some red tape involved I would have. Once I got it home and looked at it we decided to keep it anyway because it is better than our current system.

5:30 PM Edit. I'm starting to wonder if something is wrong. She's been in there almost all day. I have left the crate door open a lot of the day but she does not even want out to potty. I'll get her out a little later and try to work with her to see if anything is wrong.

Never Brag or even Sound like You are Bragging.

In my case something always happens to prove me wrong.

I'd thought we had gotten Dolly's potty signals down pretty well. I even told Gretchen that I had gotten pretty good at knowing when she needed to go out. Then along came today. I missed calling it right one time and almost missed on another. A reader might wonder why I am concerned about missing one time out of five and an almost miss. That is because Gretchen is the one taking her outside not me. Zero false alarms is my goal. If I was the one taking her out it would not matter.

She's been restless today. I think she is feeling better and wants to go back to her normal pre-accident routine. I also believe she is bored. I tried to give her one of those bones to chew on but she will have nothing to do with it even though it is peanut butter flavored.

It's funny to work with her when she is really anxious to go out. You bring out the halter and she will stick her head through the first loop she see's. Then we stand still long enough for me to loop the  strap around her legs. This morning I was trying to tie a knot in the belly sling when she stuck her nose up to it and started rooting. I don't know if she was trying to help or trying to tell me to hurry up. I think may be both.

I am also thinking now that she may be trying to delay pottying when we take her out in order to get to stay outside longer. I would not mind if it was me taking her out. Once this snow and ice clears off it will be me and I will be giving her some nice long outdoor excursions.

I really don't know why I am complaining. Most of the time she has been a very good and very cooperative dog. Even when shes bad she is funny. Usually when she is disobedient  it is done in an intelligent manner. When I do get mad at her she will give me one of those long sad looks of hers and my anger melts.

Dolly does not know the meaning of the word "Git". I have never had to say it to her. If I am doing some kind of work or carrying something she always stays out of my way. Almost always that is. I have stepped on her paw a time or two. I always remember this one cat we had. She was smart for a cat but she always had this thing about being underfoot when you were carrying a heavy bulky item. She'd get in front of you and only move a few inches when you yelled "Git" at her. You'd try moving her with your foot without dropping whatever you were carrying but your foot would never connect with her and you could still not see her. What happened then was you would step on her tail or foot. At the first indication this was going to happen kitty would emit what I call the "Death Shriek". The best thing i can compare it to would be like a Greyhound bus running over a cat's tail. This sound would make even a certified cat hater jump. I imagine it must have been a funny sight to see me jumping around like someone having a seizure and carrying a heavy bulky item without dropping it. This was the same cat who would always go into a state of ecstasy whenever she saw me installing the window air conditioners each summer.

Yes folks even intelligent critters can cause you trouble. All in all I would much rather deal with the problems caused by an intelligent critter.








 

Some Early Morning Thoughts

I woke up an hour ago after a night where again I got little sleep. My pain meds tend to do that. I go to the living room, barely get settled in, and Dolly starts wanting out of her crate. I take her out and she is full of energy. She would not settle down.

I was thinking it was another false alarm. I thought she'd just woke up and wanted to do her old routine of going outside, barking, and then come right back in. I hate asking Gretchen to take her out. She'd just woke up too. We are both old and if an accident happens we don't heal fast and we'd be less able to take care of Dolly. You can't expect even a smart dog like Dolly to know that.

Yes I could tell my son to do it. But Gretchen and I have had far more experience in dealing with injured people and critters. More so with people and we have our own set routine with Dolly.  I was also thinking that if nothing else Dolly was going to expect me to sit and hold her all day long. I don't mind.....most of the time.....but I really can't  do that. I was thinking that I was going to have to make her get used to staying in the crate when she did not want to.

Gretchen took her out. It was no false alarm. There was no long potty ritual. She had barely got away from the carport when BOOM number one happened. She went like the energizer bunny. A few feet further on and number two happened almost like number one. Then Dolly wanted back inside even though her dog buddies showed up to check on her.  Once back inside I took a towel and dried her off.

She had settled down. I was still expecting another long day of holding her. Instead she stood up , looked at her crate, and then looked at me while wagging her tail. I was surprised she was wanting to go back in her crate. She was happy when I put her cone back on and went in the crate with no problem. Once in she settled right down and immediately went to sleep.

So my early morning fears appear to have been unfounded. Our dog continues to surprise me. No two days are entirely alike but they still have some of the same routines. Our love for our dog continues to deepen. I've often wondered if she somehow senses that me and my wife cannot do the things that normal younger people can. I do know that she knows my routine better than I do.

A Late morning Post

I overslept this morning. I go out into the living room to find our Doxie making noise inside of her crate. I pull the covers back and see a bright eyed girl puppy looking back at me. Her tail is wagging so hard that the whole crate is shaking. She definitely wants out. So I get settled in and let her out.

She was so happy to see both of us. She wants to go outside too but she also wants to give us some attention first. After she gave me my attention she waited patiently for Gretchen to come back. Once Gretchen comes back she gives her a lot of attention but after she sat down Dolly strted her I want outside routine. I put her back in the crate. She's doing her whine and grunt routine now.

The problem is us old folks bodies don't wake up as fast as hers and it is very cold outside. We are supposed to get between 3 and 6 inches of snow today.  We need at least one cup of coffee before we can do anything. It is hard on me to set here drinking a cup of coffee while little girl pup is sitting in her cage looking at me with a pleading desperate look in her eyes.

Gretchen went ahead and took her out before we adequately woke up. That would have taken another hour or more because I am hurting worse than usual this morning. She took her out while my lazy butt stayed inside. I did prep Dolly for the trip out. I removed the cone and put her harness on. She got excited when she saw the harness and tried to help me put it on her. She did this by trying to stick her head in the loop. It's really more like rooting her head through the loop.

It turned out that all she wanted was to go outside. It is highly likely that once out she got too excited to use the potty. We will try again in an hour or so. What happened was her dog friends showed up. She has not seen them for a week or so and she was wanting to play. This happened at the end of our walk yesterday too. One of her buddies appeared. He is a dog that is smarter than he acts. He was very curious about the harness and belly sling on Dolly. She in turn had forgotten about all that and was wanting to play with her friend.

This morning a bunch of her buddies showed up and I am doing this from Gretchen's description. Dolly was really excited and tried to get away. These town dogs have never seen a dog in a halter and on a leash much less one in a belly sling. These are the same dogs who last summer encountered a toddler wandering around town lost and half naked. They knew something was wrong but they did not know what to do about it. So they stayed with the little boy. When adults showed up they seemed to be satisfied and calmly wandered off. I think they were protecting him.

This morning they were like "What is that human doing to our friend?"  Gretchen told them to get away but they would not leave. They hung around looking at her suspiciously. One dog she'd never seen before started barking at her. Perhaps they felt they needed to protect Dolly. I hope that's what it was. Perhaps once she gets better if she gets attacked by another dog they will jummp in and defend her. I saw this once before years ago with a different group of dogs.


It was in 1997 right after my first knee surgery. I was off work and I'd been told to exercise my knee with short walks. My lab Sparky usually went with me. The neighborhood dogs would see us and join in. When I first started doing this the dogs would come out and raise hell with me. I would stand there and talk to them in a calm tone of voice then invite them to come along with me. They'd look at me then look at the other dogs and it was like "Oh this looks like fun!". They would then join the group and I would try to make it fun for them. Occasionally a new dog would come out and attack one of the group. I would scold them until they stopped. I'd do my talking in a calm tone of voice and soon they would go into the "This looks like fun" routine and join the group with no trouble.


If another human would stop by and talk to me during these walks the dogs would all stop and start looking suspiciously at them. I felt very protected. One day a dog came out and attacked one of the smallest dogs of the bunch. It was a severe attack that no amount of scolding would have stopped. i was trying to come up with a way of breaking it up when I looked up and saw Sparky running to the fight. His hind end seemed to be moving independently of his front end. He looked like a runaway log truck coming down a mountain road. I was very concerned at the time because I thought he was going to join in the fight by helping the aggressor dog.

In any dog fight I had ever seen in the past, once one dog is down the others join in and maul the one that is down friend or not.  Sparky jumped the aggressor dog much to my amazement. Sparky tried killing the aggressor dog. The other dogs came to his aid. The fight ended in a Mexican stand-off. No one was injured. I scolded the aggressor dog. He went into a submissive stance. I knew that dog because when I would be out bar b Q ing he'd stop in to tell me hi.

I have gotten off track here.WhenDolly came in she was happy. She settled into my arm and went to sleep. After a bit she signaled that she wanted back in the crate. I put her cone thing back on and gretchen put her back in. If anything funny happens today I will edit this post.

Things are getting back to normal.

We get her signals right today on the potty breaks. We also removed her cone collar before we took her out. We also let her walk a distance which is part of the potty ritual.

Not really too much to say tonight. She took her meds,ate and slept. She did spend a good portion of time in my lap.  I was gone for awhile and she was happy when I got back. She's afraid she's going to miss something if she is not with me.

She actually did manage to be my pillow today. It felt mighty nice. I had my hands on her to prevent her from falling or jumping.

I missed a day or so but that does not mean nothing happened.

Take last night for example. I was late going to bed plus I had trouble going to sleep.  sortly after going to sleep I start dreaming. It starts out with me driving across a rather complicated bridge over a major river. Then the dream morphs into Dolly being in pain,yelping loudly and I can't do anything about it.  I wake up immediately, look at my watch and see that it's only been about an hour and a half since I went to bed.  I get to thinking about Dolly and I can't go back to sleep. I want to get up and just hold and hug her for a long time. It was very late so I tried to go back to sleep but could not for a long time.

Of course the fact that I was dreaming about her my have been due to the fact she poo'd in my lap about two hours before I went to bed. Her signals for potty are the same as the ones for when she just wants out of the crate for a little while. The poo event was even funny believe it or not. I saw her raise that tail and I yelled for Gretchen to bring me something to catch the mess with. It was far too late to make a break for outside. As soon as I yelled for Gretchen, Dolly tried to hold back the poo. As soon as Gretchen put an old newspaper on my leg Dolly let loose.

It was at that point I made another error by saying to Gretchen that she was done. Gretchen takes the paper and goes off in the kitchen. Dolly has this worried expression on her face. Then the tail comes up again. It looked to me like she just could not help it.  Again Dolly tried to wait until Gretchen got there before she let loose again. Note that I said tried.  Once she was finished she acted as if she was totally embarrassed. She would not look at me and settled into my arm as if totally exhausted. It was not until I put her in the crate that I found that not all of the mess made it onto the paper. Oh well, that's what washing machines are for.

She did pee in the crate yesterday. We were late waking up. We had her outside 4 times that day and twice today with no results. I am thinking that she still wants to do her long potty ritual before doing anything out there. She will have to adapt to the new routine. I should be very angry but I am not. After all it's we humans fault that this situation is as it is to begin with. Had we done our jobs we would not have to do this.

I left the house today for the first time in several days. I went into town to but food for us and Dolly because we have snow coming in the next day or two.  I bought Dolly some dog insulated dog boots. They were expensive but I justified the expense in my mind by reminding myself that we have already spent quite a bit of money on vet services for her and I can't have her getting sick on me from not being used to the cold. She hates cold anyway. In the past when she put her feet in snow she would cry out in pain. That however was a very cold day and it was the first time she ever saw snow. She's been out in it since then for short periods of time but she will only stay out if there are other dogs out there.

I was in town longer than I intended. When I got back Dolly was happy to see me and started doing her happy grunt along with biting at the cage door. She was even happier when we took her out and took the cone thing off. I got my ears licked for the first time in a long time. I suppose I have gone back to being her puppy who needs groomed. Since she came home she was not giving me much attention but seemed to be saving it for Gretchen. That was OK by me as long as it helps her get better. Gretchen gives her food,water, and meds.

When I was going through the checkout the lady there appeared to be about 50 years old. I was telling her about Dolly and buying her the boots. The lady says " It sounds to me like you have a spoiled dog." I thought "What the hell." so I explained about her surgery and why I needed the boots.  She says "Yeah, I did not know they had all this stuff for animals until I came to work here." I was thinking "What kind of backwater area did she grow up in?"  I must note that the lady was friendly the whole time. I figure that she must be one of those folks who do not exactly know how to make conversation with people. I also know that when I was younger I made my own share of gaffs so I just wrote it off and let it go. Still though you'd think she'd have learned by now and i honestly hope she does not make too many more errors like that while working in a pet store. She looked like she really needed the job.

We just made another potty run without results during the process of writing this. After we got back inside she sat in my lap but then gave me the signal that she wanted back in "Her" crate. We gave her some meds and she asleep now. We will try tomorrow to cut back on the pain meds. I don't think she needs them as much as she did and I think she is becoming tolerant of them.

She's still my little Schatzi.  I'm crazy in love with that dog. I missed having her with me in the van.

My Schatzi

Shatzi is a German word that has several meanings; Sweetie, Sweetheart, and Little Treasure.

In this home I have two Schatzies. Big Schatzi and little Schatzi.  Gretchen, my wife, is big Schatzi, Dolly our Dachshund is little Schatzi.  With Gretchen I have always called her sweetie or sweetheart. We have been married almost 30 years. So I guess Dolly will have to settle for little treasure. Gretchen and I are of German ancestry and Dolly's breed originated in Germany. Dolly acts more German than me and my wife do.

Last night Dolly was acting like a little Schatzi. I was in the recliner when she decided to walk up my chest and curl around my neck like she used to do. She wanted to be my pillow again. I don't know if I have said this before but a Dachshund pillow is incredibly comfortable. It's like having a pillow that loves you. She did not do this all the time. She mostly did it on days when my arthritis was at it's worst and it helped me. It was as if she sensed I needed her. I did not allow her to be my pillow last night for fear of hurting her. I may have to stop it completely because she has a tendency to jump off the top of my recliner.

She went all day yesterday without going potty. We had her out 4 times. She's gone all day today without potty. We had her out at 4:30 AM , Once later in the morning, and I took her out for an extended trip  this afternoon. I did it by myself as I wanted to see if I could pull it off. Walking with a cane with her on a leash, while using a towel as a belly sling. I sat on a bench with her in my arms and she gave no indication of wanting to get down to potty. We set there about 20 minutes and then I let her walk on the leash for about 50 feet. She wanted to do more but i'm not pushing it. While I had her out my little Schatzi kept giving me those little looks of gratitude.

She's going to have to learn to potty while we watch.  She ate well this morning but would not drink much water, Probably less than 60cc's

She pulled a trick on us this morning

I missed posting yesterday, not because it was a bad day, it was actually rather good. She finally passed urine yesterday morning, and later that evening she was finally able to poo. She was proud of herself on the latter. Both times yesterday she signaled to me her intentions by chewing on the bars of the crate door.

So this morning when I got up and she started trying to get my attention and then chewed at the cage door, we took her out to do her business. There was no business to be done. She just wanted out of her crate. We gave her some attention, fed her, medicated her, and she was happy. Soon she started looking at her crate as if she wanted to go back so we put her back in. She curled up in the back of the crate and went to sleep.

She's more alert and acting more like her old self. I'll admit I was a bit aggravated at the false alarm but was happy too because that is more like her old self. I think she is becoming more tolerant to her pain medication. That happens, because that's how it has happened with me. You grow so tolerant  that you think the meds are not working.

Last night's poo run was rather funny. Once she was done it was almost like she was smiling and you could see that she was happy by the look in her eyes. Happy and grateful at the same time. I need to capture those moments on a picture. This is what I like about her. All her emotions are expressed in her eyes and they are easy for me to read. The older I get the more I still learn about animals. I hope I never stop learning. I do best with an animal that is fairly intelligent. Dolly is the smartest dog I have owned and I have owned some smart ones. I had a German Shepherd that was almost as intelligent as her but he was so stubborn and bull headed that he was hard to teach sometimes.


I think some of her former owners thought she was dumb because she was hard to house break. To me she's proof that even a smart dog can be hard to train on some things. With her a soft easy voice and a gentle approach works wonders and I think that's what caused her to decide to be owned by us.


While I am on this subject I'd like to write about how one person may think a critter is dumb while another thinks the same animal is smart. I was talking to a custodian at work years ago. She was telling me about how dumb her cat was and how much she hated it. She somehow thought I was a cat hater. I guess in her little world everybody knows that all men are cat haters. At that time I owned a dozen cats but i did not tell her that. She was saying things like "Dat dum tat won't use his lidder bocks until I cwean id." Translation; the cat would not use his litter box until she got off her lazy ass to clean it. She went on to describe several other thing her cat was doing. I can't remember them all now but it was obvious to me that she had an intelligent cat on her hands but was too dumb herself to recognize it.


I decided that I wanted that cat. I love highly intelligent cats and it would have had a better home with me. I asked her if she wanted to get rid of it. She stated "Haw,haw, haw dat dum tat is dead now." Haw haw, dat tat tot it cud wun dawgs outta de yaad an it wuz kilt ba uh pit boo." Translation; the cat was killed by a pit bull. It had ran numerous dogs out of the yard successfully until it met a pit bull.  Sometimes our custodians were not exactly the smartest or most energetic people you would ever meet. There was one who upon being fired stated to me " Bu I tot if ya wurked for da tate dey cud not fa ya???" translation; "But I thought if you worked fer the state government they cannot fire you."  I looked at her and said "In the past five years this place has fired more people than they have in their entire 150 year history." Unfortunately she could not get her head around that concept. In her little world if you worked for the govt. you could not be fired and that is the way it was always supposed to be.  I did not feel sorry for her. She'd been warned it was going to happen and had many chances to prevent it.

Another Day on the Road to Recovery

I'm starting to see the humor in situations again. Take Dolly's new crate for example. She appears to be thinking of it as 'Hers'. I'm not 100% sure on that right now but I have a feeling that when she gets better there will be hell to pay if some of our cats try taking it over. She might share it with Snickey whom she sort of likes even though she is a cat.

I find the whole idea of a dog thinking they own something as funny especially with our dachshund. I have not quite figured out exactly how that ownership applies to me. Anything she deems as hers is OK for me to touch or do anything with that I like. I think she does that because she sees me as one of her puppies. I'll explain that insane notion shortly. That concept is funny because she is a tiny dog and I am 6'6" and weigh 350 lbs.  I believe that she thinks of me as a pup because of her grooming routine. Before the accident she was always determined to lick my whole face. She paid special attention to my ears. Licking just one ear would not do. Once she finished with one she immediately went to the other. The same thing applied to my feet. She absolutely had to do both of them. Not only lick them but get between every toe.

She's had a quiet morning so far. She had her meds at 8 AM. Gretchen spent most of the night with her. I could not sleep so around 3:30 am I came out and sent Gretchen off to finish sleeping in our bed. As soon as she left dolly started whining a bit. Gretchen had her crate covered with the blanket. She could not hear her sleeping in the chair. So I talked to her and even sang to her a bit. She soon settled down. I was afraid her pain meds had worn off  but apparently they had not.

Right now we have the blanket pulled back to where she can see me sitting in the recliner. Being able to see one of us in the recliner seems to have a calming effect on her. Sometime soon I will have to go outside to get things done. I will sit here as long as I have to so long as it is helping her but I still have things I need to do. She will think that she needs to be with me regardless of how she feels.

2:30 PM edit. We took her out to do her business but nothing happened. Will try later. had her out of the cage in my lap for about an hour. Took the cone off and allowed her to groom herself. She had a good appetite and took water too. She settled down in my lap and went to sleep. I took a good nap too. gretchen was watching both of us otherwise I would not have napped. Her stitches look good. She was attempting to stretch her left back leg out like she always used to do and did have some success.  She got a little restless and started looking at her crate again. We put her back in and she seemed happy to be there.

I set up an appointment for Wed Jan 12th at 1:30 PM to have her stitches removed at MUSVM.

She is Still a good dog.

Even sick shes a good dog. She refuses to pee and poo in her crate or even in the house at all. We took her outside again today both me and Gretchen. As soon as we sat her down on the ground she let loose with urine. She was hurting a bit so we did not keep her out long enough to poo but she has not had much food in the past week.

We got her back inside, took the cone thing off, and let her stay in my lap for awhile. She took advantage of the cone collar being gone by grooming herself. Then she settled with her head in the crook of my arm for a long nap. We sat that way for maybe 30 to 45 minutes. Then she got a little restless. She started looking longingly at her crate. We put the collar back on and put her in. She was fully cooperative.

She did hurt a little from her bad hip while in my lap. I don't know what I did to make her hurt. She never offered to bite me but the pain was not that severe.

I may be way off base here but I think she knows the collar and the crate are helping her. Once back in the crate she moved to the back and went to sleep. I think she likes her new home within a home. I don't know how all this is going to play out in the future. I hope she gets well enough that she can do all the things she used to do but from my own experience I know that will be a long time in the future or it may not fully happen at all.

Her presence in my lap had a calming effect on both of us. I needed to use the bathroom but would have sat there until i was about to burst. Even with my very minor distress I still felt like taking a nap. She also seems content if she can see me setting in my chair.

She has also been giving Gretchen more loving attention than I. It's like she's trying to make up for the biting incidents. Again I am probably way off base there.

When I first wrote this I was on low battery. My Magsafe adapter has the same problem that many others have. It's the weakest part of a Mac Book and fails frequently. I was having problems with this one and was putting off purchasing another because they cost $80. I found a place called magsafeadapter.com that is selling them for as low as $29.  they get by with that price because they only sell the part that fails and not the whole device that Apple wants you to buy. I put this here because I always like to find a bargain.

Back to Dolly. We have set her med times at 8AM, 4PM,and 12 midnight. A little bit of peanut butter goes a long way towards getting her to take her meds. We save giving her peanut butter for med times. She loves it but you can't make it a frequent item on the diet.


Even sick and hurting Dolly is the best dog I have ever known.

Adjusting

Yes today was a day of adjustment. Puppy Dolly apparently thinks that since she is home everything is normal. She wants to go outside and bark. She wants to move freely about the house. She definitely wants her cone collar removed. We have removed it for a few minutes at a time under careful supervision. She immediately proceeds to groom herself. Fortunately she is staying away from the stitches.

Another problem is that she is unwilling to pee and poo in her crate. I took a brak at this point in the writing of this. We needed to remove her from her crate for water, food, meds, and hopefully to poo. She was not satisfied with being in my lap. She never really was when she was healthy. She had to be at the top of my recliner functioning as my pillow. The only time she was down in my lap was when she was wanting to lick my face. My face and ears were handier from the top of my recliner.

She was shivering and panting in my lap. We were trying to encourage her to piddle on the pad I had on my lap. She would have none of that business. To her proper Dachshund behavior is to go outside to use the potty. Everything has to be in order. After all we are talking about a dog here who rather than use the floor to potty, once pulled out a trash bag to do her business on when we overslept. She hides her most intelligent actions away from human eyes. Don't expect her to do it in front of anybody.

So Gretchen found a leash and even though it was dark outside took her out to do her business. We were all concerned that we might hurt her or she would hurt herself. Fortunately nothing happened except for Pee Pee. She brought her back in and put her in my lap. She was shivering less but I was using a blanket to wrap her up in. She ate a tiny amount, drank a small amount of water, and took her meds. She still wanted down to explore but we put her back in her crate again. We have an old house woth a lot of drafts so we covered her crate with a blanket to block the cold air.

I had intended my blog here to be a lighthearted account of the daily antics of my miniature dachshund. I don't normally put my feelings out on the net like this as I am usually a very private person. If my posts help prevent even one pet owner to go through what my family and our dog is going through then it is worth it.