a99kitten's Musings

I had to take my huskies to the vet today. They needed more Heartguard and they were due for their every 3-year heartworm test. So before the vet would sell me more, I had to bring them in for their test. But they said go ahead and save the office visit fee and bring them during them the Tuesday evening shot clinic. Nice…save $45ish times 2 dogs. Sold!

So I left work at 6:45ish for the 7:00pm – 8:00pm shot clinic. Pulled into parking lot and saw a line of 10 dogs/customers in line. Funny thing I first noticed…all the guys had the little dogs and the women had the bigger dogs. I smiled.

My error – when I got dressed this morning I was not thinking of the vet visit.  I dressed for work in jeans, cashmere sweater and 4.5″ heels. At 5:00pm when I took the buds out for their potty break before dinner, I realized the error of my ways…as I almost slid down the hillside by my office.

So I got in line to check the buds in at the vet. Once checked in, you wait in line to be called in, pay for your services and then be seen. I was waiting in line when the pit bull family pulled up. Stereotypical. Whatever. Yet annoying at the same time.  But I never blame the dogs. Also..to the girl in this family…you don’t know what ‘hydrid’ or ‘altered’ means?  You look to be about 25-28 yrs old – buy a dictionary.

But Angelus was attacked by a pitbull as a puppy and he simply does not forget.  Anyone that says dogs have little to no memory is an idiot. Angelus knows when a pitbull is anywhere around and remembers that he doesn’t trust them. When he was a puppy he was attacked at the dogpark by a male pitbull – the only reason he was ok is tht he is SO dang fluffy, the dog couldn’t lock onto his neck before he got pulled off by me and the pitbull owner. That was one of the scariest few minutes of my life as I felt SO helpless as I was just physically unable to drag the dog off. Now I (theoretically) know what to do.

Angelus also had to defend his little brother Storm when he was a puppy. We were at a SuperBowl party and people could bring their dogs. One of the dogs there was a pitbull/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix.  Storm was a tiny puppy. He walked past the food tables and the other dog freaked and attacked Storm. Angelus responded by jumping on the dog. Ended up putting a hole in his (puppy attacking dog) head and he was bleeding. I didn’t like to see that but he (other dog) attacked my puppy. And his big brother defended him. End of story.

Another more recent incident was where a a guy had his pitbull off-leash on the street by our house and he came running at me/us. Angelus jumped in front of me, and bit the butt/tail of the dog as he came running at us. Made the dog turn tail and run away. Angelus defended us. Nothing more to say about that.

So anyway, this couple walked up with their obviously very strong dog pulling them. She was in a harness and the woman was walking her. It was quite obvious in the first minute that she was not in control. At all.  Once I realized it was a girl, I knew Angelus would be fine. He is ok with female pit bulls.  My biggest issue was the glaring fact that the woman had no physical control over her dog. At all. I don’t get why people can’t learn this. It’s actually not that hard. And when you have a dog that is stronger than you, you need to pay even more attention to this. Annoys me to no end as people will end up blaming the dog when it’s a doggie parent issue. Same thing with unruly children.

But then I really noticed that all the people there with big dogs (by now, 1 guy with a giant lab came) had no physical control over their dogs. And their dogs were pulling, barking, growling, etc. Basically = being doggies.  But the thing is, this isn’t the dog park. And there were people with tiny dogs there that were obviously a little stressed. Plus I didn’t want my dogs to topple me over in my ill-thought-out shoes…

BUT, my dogs were just sitting there. Or laying down. They were being very well-mannered which I appreciated a lot at this point since between my shoes and the craziness of the other dogs, was totally expecting something to happen that involved me getting knocked down :)  I have nothing to say but awesome compliments about my dogs’ behavior. But the pitbull (sweet but crazeee), pitbull puppy (x3), Golden Retriever and Lab, (oh yeah that tiny poodle was a spaz!) well…they were all very sweet but…:)

But the staff were, as always, extremely friendly, efficient and quick once with them. I found them when I lived in San Bruno years and years ago, and my cat was sick on a Sunday and needed a vet when mine was closed. Found them, brought Jack in and I have been a client ever since.  They offer a shot clinic every Tuesday between 7pm-8pm. This is very helpful and cost efficient for puppies!! And for all dogs really. Plus the doctors there are not the “give them meds and send them on thier way” type of doctors. I appreciate this.The buds’ main doctor is Dr. Cucaro and they love her. Angelus doesn’t like just anyone…and he really likes her :)

If you live anywhere nearby, I highly reccomend the Linda Mar Veterinary Hospital:

http://www.lindamarvet.com/

Tonight I found out that huskies (and german shepherds) have flat/small veins so it is harder to draw blood. But they were both very brave :)

Oh, and since we didn’t get out of there until 8:30pm, and the buddies were so good about their blood drawings and the other doggy craziness, I took them to McDonald’s to get them their favorite after-vet treat…a 6 piece Chicken McNuggets that they (grugdingly) share.  :)

I was at the beach this morning with Angelus (Storm looked outside, said “sun is shining” and opted for cooler, lazier time at home.)  The tide was coming in but still somewhat low-ish so you could walk out by the break wall fairly far.  This is one of my favorite places to take the buds when it is low-tide as I can let them off-leash if no one is around (usually only early mornings.)  They are huskies so I don’t let them off leash in non-fenced areas.  They really are good at listening to me 98% of the time but that 2% is what I worry about.

But I feel safe here as we are far from any traffic and they run towards the ocean. And since they are not swimmers, there really is only so far they can go :) And then they can chase each other, birds, look for crabs, dig in the sand and play hide-and-seek with the seals!

But this morning it was just me and Angelus. And then 2 older ladies came by. They looked to be in their late 50s – early 60s and were wearing very similar, plain outfits with their hair in buns. At first I thought Amish. But then one took out a digital camera to take a picture of Angelus so that scratched Amish off the list. Mennonite? Conservative Mormon? Orthodox Jew?  No clue. But they were dressed far too similarly in very simple, plain (think Little House on the Prairie) outfits to not be something that didn’t condone dressing like a beach bum or in a Juicy tracksuit:)

The other way I could tell they were not from around here – they were so in awe of the ocean. And the rock wall. And the birds. They were looking at a starfish like it was a freshly-landed alien. They asked me if I was going to grab it. I answered ‘No – he’s fine where he is since the tide was coming up.’ They were in such awe of this thing. And it made me realize – we take so many things for granted in our daily life. I know I do. I live there so I see it every day. And I know it’s awesome. But to feel as excited about it as these 2 ladies obviously were – no, I don’t.  To be as thoroughly over-joyed as they were – no, I’m not usually.

So I need to start taking a little more time to appreciate the beauty of where I live and visit.  Because the sheer happiness and joy it obviously brought these 2 ladies was pretty darn cool :)

Got home after work and an after-work hike around 8:30pm. My huskies have been at home all day by themselves. I have come to the conclusion that I have more separation anxiety than they do as I missed them all day long and ditched an after-hike dinner to rush home and see them. Certainly more than my older dog, Angelus, who I know loves me to death but also is pretty husky-like and likes to stay a cool customer :) (Although he did run up, ears back, tail wagging with kisses when I got home :) ) The feeling of all that love coming at you when you walk in the door is pretty darn awesome :)

Angelus is, was and always will be, my guy. On his first night with us, first night away from his doggy mom and siblings, I slept on the floor with him in the kitchen (he was 7 wks old  – not potty trained yet.) That first weekend we picked him up, I was sick but I stayed with him the entire time – hanging out in the yard, walking him, sleeping by him.  He is my bud.  But he was not prone to hugging and skooshing – I had to break him down by constant hugging :) Now he’s like ‘fiiiiinnne…..as long as no one is looking.’ Unless it’s the pre-walk/breakfast morning time – then he is a huge love bug (or if you have chicken in your hand!)

My younger guy (by 1.5 yrs) is Storm. Hoth Stormtrooper officially with the AKC :) He loves his momma.  I guess it wouldn’t be far off the mark to call him a momma’s boy. He cannot let me out of his sight for very long. He follows me room to room at home if he notices I’ve been gone from where he is after a short while. And he waits for me by the door if I leave him at home.  I love the fact that he loves me so much but want to make sure he still has fun and is happy even if I’m not there! But I don’t think he truly does/is…

When he was a puppy he was supposed to be my husband’s dog (in hindsight this was like allowing your kid to get a pet ;) ) He wanted a puppy who loved him as much as Angelus loved me. I told him that with pets, they respond to who cares for them the most. Since I took care of Angelus 99.9% of the time, of course he loved me more (he better!!) To be fair to husband, he did start the puppy process by caring for Storm all of the time. He fed him, walked him, took him to work. I was not allowed to carry him to bed (I carried Angelus down to bed every night until I simply could not physically – he weighed like 60lbs!), feed him, skoosh or hug him. He was husband’s puppy!

Then Stormy got hurt. He crashed into a Rottweiler at the dog park and got up limping. He shook it off but then over the next week, he started limping more and more. His knee was never the same.  It would pop out (called luxating patella) and back in. So we found the best surgeon and got him his surgery. The first weekend was going to be tough as we have 2 flights of stairs in the house and Storm needed to be carried or at least helped using the doggie sling to go potty. And then hung out with to monitor, etc.  He got his surgery on Thursday and we picked him up from the hospital on Friday morning. He hung out in my office with me that Friday.

On Saturday morning my husband said he was going for a “quick surf” at Ocean Beach and then would be home to help with Storm. I asked him not go.  He said he “had to” – was “really good surf”.  Fine….(this is girl code for’ it’s not fine but I’m not going to argue about it’ – men should really learn that.)

About an hour or hour and a half after he left I get a call…he hurt his knee surfing, had to be helped from the water and could barely walk/drive home. And stairs were going to be hard, needed to go to a doctor, etc. Nice.   He wasn’t eaten by a shark so I felt justified in being more annoyed by the fact that I asked you not to go and you ignored me and now you were hurt just enough to be a pain in the a**.

Sure enough. He hobbled in. Doctor would tell him to stay off his leg. Possibly needed physical therapy, blah, blah….Of course, this also meant that he couldn’t help me with Storm.  Like carry the 50lb dog up and down the stairs or in and our of my car…for the next 6 weeks or something.

So I took care of Storm from that day on. He came with me and Angelus to work now. Stayed with us in my office. I took them for walks by myself. He became my dog. I cared for him when he was hurt.  He knew it. Very simple in the dog world.

I know he loves his Dad. But he can’t live without, or stand being apart from, his Mom. These guys mean the world to me. They make every day a good day. :)

You can follow their exploits on twitter: @mr_angelus and @stormdevil

Or on dogster:

http://www.dogster.com/dogs/114743

http://www.dogster.com/dogs/114778

This is Storm with his cast on and a pic of Angelus & Storm together (they don’t do THAT often!)

Storm with his cast

Storm & Angelus