Goodbye Poseidon

I know Po hasn't updated his blog in quite some time, so I doubt he has any readers left. Poseidon departed for the bridge at 5:30pm on December 19, 2010.

Much had happened with his health over the past two years. Last October he had a seizure in the middle of the night and was rushed to the emergency vet. He was still seizing when we got there. He was put on valium, and was pretty out of it. He'd had some issues with his liver, so the first thing they did once the seizing was under control was to ultrasound his liver. They also did a spinal tap and an MRI. The final diagnosis was "Old dog vestibular disease" which is basically vertigo. He didn't eat or walk for 2 weeks and dropped a lot of weight but he ended up being fine in the long run, if a little bit uncoordinated.

Over the past few months he's shown signs of losing his sight and hearing, and being more and more uncoordinated. He'd trip over little things. He started showing signs of cognitive dysfunction (the MRI at the E-vet also showed brain atrophy). He'd stand in the corner of a room and just look lost. Standing and walking got harder. The evening of the 18th he wasn't able to stand up at all and the decision was made to send him to the bridge the next day.

It was a good run old boy, there never was a better dog.

Poseidon

(1993? - December 19, 2010)

My spa day

Mama said I was all grody because I had ground in dog park dirt/grit, and dried blood all over me from when I was attacked. So she decided that I needed a "spa day." Now, I wasn't sure what a spa day was, or if it was a good or bad thing, so I happily jumped in the car when Mama took me out there.

Well, we went to the PetSmart place and I gots to say hi to my favorite cashier, Miss Wilma, and she gave me cookies and said my head looks soooooo much better. I was all happy that the car wasn't taking me to the vet again, I didn't even care when we walked into the grooming salon. I got to say hi to all the groomer peoples too (I'm so adored), and then Mama took me in back and put me in a crate! Can you believe it??! It was a big crate, but it was still a crate! Then Mama left me there! I was appalled!

Shortly after Mama left, Miss Bonnie came and got me out of the crate (whew) and then she brushed me out. I loved that, brushing feels soooo good. Then the horrible part came: she took me over to the tub area and put these drops in my eyes and then started giving me a bath! A bath! Ahhhhhhh! The shampoo part would have felt great if I weren't soaking wet. She also put something called conditioner on me to make me all soft and stuff.

Then Miss Bonnie took me out to the big area with the tables and stuff and used the drier to blow out all of my precious undercoat. Again, the brushing felt great, but I don't like being wet! She cleaned my ears too, and I can't say I care for that a whole lot either. It just feels all ticklish to have stuff in my ears. All the other groomer peoples came over to give me lovins and kisses, and Miss Wilma came in to love on me too. I loves Miss Wilma, and she cried so hard when she saw me with my stitches after I got attacked.

Anyways, they brushed my teeths too and clipped my nails. Then Mama came to get me and they sprayed something that Mama said smelled like pumpkin pie (whatever that is) on me and we went home. Mama said my scar on my head and neck looks lots better now that everything is clean.

Miss Bonnie says that next time I come that she wants to do me again. She said I'm the easiest dog to bathe ever, cuz I just stand there and am a good boy. If I could say human words I'd tell her that I'm only so still cuz I'm absolutely horrified at being wet. Oh the shame!

Here's some pictures Mama took when we got home:

See how much better my head looks? It's still a little tender, but it's lots better!

I got attacked!

First of all, I'm A-OK now, but here's what happened:
Mama took me to the dog park almost a month ago (it'll be exactly 4 weeks this coming Tuesday). There was only two other dogs there besides me. I was over by the water spigot thingy mindin my own business, when this giant galumph of a dog named "Happy" attacked me for no reason that me, Mama, or the other lady could figure out. He had me on my back, and I was screamin and screamin tryin to get away. The lady got him offa me, and I stood there just screamin, and Mama took one look at me and said we're goin to the vet right now.
Mama took these pictures while we was waitin at the vet's office:

The vet lady looked at the wound on the top of my head and wanted to take Xrays cuz she thought that the other dog had actually punctured the top of my skull! After some Xrays she said that it wasn't fractured, but the muscles there were "shredded." She also said that she could fit 3 fingers in the wound on my neck, and that I was one lucky doggy because if "Happy" had bitten me one inch over in either direction that I wouldn't have walked out of there. She said he almost got my jugular. She said this doggy meant to kill me.

Mama and Daddy came to pick me up at the vet at 8pm (I had been there since noon), and Mama started cryin when she saw me. I hurt so bad, I didn't even want Daddy to pick me up to put me in the back of the Jeep. Every time he tried to pick me up, I laid down on the pavement. Mama had to hold me up by my waist so Daddy could lift me up.
Mama took these pictures of me when we got home:

The tube thing in my neck is a drain, it was removed two days later. I'm tellin ya, I hurt bad! I was on Tramadol for the pain, and it made me sleepy, but when I was awake I was whimpering and crying. I couldn't eat no solid food, so Mama gave me canned food everyday for a week with my antibiotic and pain pills mixed in. I was at the vet almost every day for that first week, because Mama and Daddy had to go to work and they didn't want to leave me home alone.
After a week I started getting itchy and I had to wear the dreaded cone. My hair also started to grow back (Mama still called me Frankendog though):

My stitches came out a little more than a week ago, and the scab on my head has come off now. The scab on my neck came out when they took the stitches out. I'm doing great now, and I still loves everydoggy out there (including the mean ones). Excuse my gooky head, Mama had been putting something called Neosporin on my scabs, and it melted all over my head. The lady that owns "Happy" has offered to pay for all of my vet bills too. Mama says I'm still handsome! The vet says I'll probably have a permanent furrow on my head because of the way she had to close the head wound, but that it shouldn't be visible once my fur grows back.

Here I am last week, out enjoying the sunshine!

Almost a year? Say it ain't so!

I kept meanin to get on here and update this thing, but I was either sleepin or Mama was busy and wouldn't let me on.

Anyways, it's been a busy year. First, I had a biopsy on a lump in my ear:

The biopsy came back negative, it's just a harmless tumor of some sort. Mama said we're gonna get it removed when I gets my teeths cleaned.

Then we went to the anniversary party for the store I gets my dog food from. Miss Kim and Mr. CJ are some of my very favorite humans. They always gives me good stuff. Mama got two boring books that day, and I scored some yummy goodies. Here I am with my stash:

One of my neighbors got a little white Sibe puppy just like me! Her name is Nikita, and she's almost 12 weeks old now. That poor man has no clue what he's gettin into, he doesn't even have a crate! Needless to say she's drivin him nuts trying to housetrain her. He has been warned.

I gots to meet her and we had fun, but Mama wouldn't really let me play with her as much as I wanted, on account on the stitches I had at the time (which will be explained in the next post).

I'm gonna post up another entry, since Mama says that the next one needs to be on it's own.

It's been a while......

Yeah, I know I haven't been around in a long time. It's Mama's fault. You see, she went and got this job thing because Daddy says she needs to get out more. So she got a job at the local Petsmart. It's kind of nice because she brings me all sorts of things like toys and yummy treats, but she won't let me blog unsupervised. She said there's tons of mean predator type people who'd love to take advantage of me. What so wrong with predators? I'm a predator! I guess I must be thinking of a different type.

You guys remember me talking about Max, the husky puppy that lives by me? Well, we haven't seen him for at least 6 months now. When Mama talked to the human, it was pretty obvious that he didn't know anything about us Huskies. Mama thinks they "got rid of him." Poor Max! We did see the man with some scraggly rat looking dog recently. Ugh!

Hey, check this out. Isn't this the biggest bully stick you've ever seen??! That's right, 30 inches of yummy bully! Don't I look downright ecstatic? I gotta admit, it's taking me forever to eat it though. It's been about a month since Mama brought it home and I have probably 3/4 of it left. I'm just not a power chewer. Part of the problem is that I need my teeth worked on. Mama took me to the vet today to make an appointment for my teeth. The vet says I'll have to go nite-nite for them to do it, and then I'll need antibiotics. He was checking me all over, and when he got to my bladder I couldn't help it. It just hurt so bad I yelped! Then he checked a few more times to make sure, and then he told my Mama that he needs to do a "urinalysis." I've never had one of those before, I wonder what it is? I guess I'll find out tomorrow, cuz Mama said something about stealing some of my urine. What's she mean by that? I need all my urine to leave pee-mail on the bushes and trees. She can't just go around stealing it!

At least the vet peoples gave me lots of cookies, so I forgave them for poking and prodding me.

I mentioned before that Mama worked at Petsmart and that I got perks from it. Check this out!It's me! Well, not really. He's probably my cousin 8x removed or something. But isn't he cute? Mama took me to the store on her day off just to buy him. I guess she was buying him for herself. She was stupid and squeaked it though. All things that squeak are mine, even though I don't really play. If I'm all energetic from coming in from outside in the cold then I'll play if Mama squeaks the stuffy and tosses him. I like to keep my toys hidden behind the dining room table though. They're just safer there.

Here I am attacking my stuffy:
















And here I am taking him to his safe spot behind the dining room table:














And then here's some pictures that Mama took last week when we were outside. I had just woken up, so I had to get some good stretching in first. Then we were off.














Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this. I got new food! I used to eat Wellness, but Mama went food shopping at the new store that just opened up ( DogGone Natural) and she got me a grainless kibble. She got me a bag of Orijen, which I really really like, and some Innova Evo 95% beef and 95% duck canned food. It's good good stuff! Yum yum! Mama was really really pleased with the store, as was I. The lady gave me all sorts of yummy homemade cookies, and she even packed a bunch in a doggy bag for me. She told me "Shhh pretty boy, we'll keep this between you and me." Mama says they have a very limited selection, but what they have is really good. Evo, Orijen, Timberwolf Organics, California Natural, Merrick, and Canidae. They also have premade raw. It didn't feel like a store at all! It had a coffee shop vibe according to Mama. I myself have never been to a coffee shop so I'll just have to take her word. Mama hopes that this store is a success because the only other stores that sell the good foods also sell puppies which leaves Mama in a huge moral quandry. Plus this store is the only one that sells Orijen in our area. There's only 3 stores in Virginny that sell it, so if they closed then we couldn't buy it anymore.

I'll try to post some more tomorrow after I find out what this whole "urinalysis" thing is all about.

I feel pretty! Oh so pretty!

Yeah yeah, I know I'm a boy and am not supposed to be "pretty" but who cares! People are always telling me what a "pretty girl" I am, and I'm secure in my masculinity so I can be pretty if I wanna!


Just a few days ago a little girl came up to me and asked my Mama what my name was. Then she said I looked like a girl (HMPH!). Mama said I was definitely a boy, and the little girl retorted with "I say he looks like a pretty little girl." Silly child!

Just when you think you've heard it all, someone comes up with a real doozy. Someone actually asked if I was a Great Pyrenees! Can you believe it?! I couldn't, and neither could my Mama. I mean come on.....usually I'm mistaken for a German Shepherd and that's bad enough. I look nothing like a shepherd dang it! A Pyr is even farther away. I only weigh 55 pounds, my ears stand up, and I've got much shorter hair than any Pyr I've ever met.

Daddy and Mama have left me all by myself a lot the past few weeks and I'm none too pleased about it. Daddy's Daddy was here for a week 2 weeks ago and they spent almost everyday in DC doing the touristy thing with Daddy's Daddy (my GrandDaddy?). That's okay though, it gave me lots of time to sleep and dream of bunny killin. Then a few days ago Daddy and Mama went away again to go watch fireworks in DC. They were going to take me with them, but they decided to take the train instead of drive so I couldn't come. I'm pretty miffed about that since Mama said there was lots of other dogs there, and I really would have liked to woo at them. Daddy said that next year they'll probably drive and I can go.The pictures I've posted on this entry are shots that Daddy took of me on the Fourth of July while he was testing out his new tripod. I think they turned out really good, I look like a model! Mama got a new camera too, so she'll probably be taking lots of pictures and videos of me. She didn't do many videos before because her old camera didn't take videos with sound. What's the point of that?

Thievery!

Now just how do I get all of my fluff out of this thing? Anybody got any plans?



Yes, I know my humans have been lazy about putting their winter clothing in the closet where it belongs. Mama is scatterbrained.