A 1.5 hour walk to & around beach this AM. A 30 minute neighborhood jaunt this afternoon. And then an evening trip to Mavericks for much off-leash fun and play with other doggies till almost dark.
Now I have 2 huskies happily sound asleep.
They like Mom’s new schedule :)
I’m in the kitchen making breakfast for the huskies while Angelus stares at me (im)patiently. I hear BAM, BAM and paw scurrying. Run into living room as Storm is chasing a clearly disoriented bee around the room. He (the bee) finally hits the floor and Storm grabs it. NO!!! Both huskies have done this before and you end up with a swollen-lipped and/or tongued husky that you have to tweeze the stinger out of – no fun!
He drops it and the bee is flailing and buzzing so he grabs it again. NO! I yell again. Meanwhile Angelus, who had come in to see what the ruckus was, see/hears/smells the bee and says “Outta here” and goes and sits by the stairs. He and I have the bee-fear ever since we were viciously attacked by a a paramilitary bee hive and stung a bunch of times. So I am fighting my feeling of “run to the other room” too.
The bee is now under a chair where Storm is trying to get it but then stops each time I say NO. But then the bee moves and Storm is like “Come on!”
So I grab the cover off a shoe box my husband left in the living room and cover the bee. Try to show Storm – see bee is gone. Move along, move along, nothing to see here…
Run in the kitchen, grab a big cup and then slide the box top off and put the cup over the bee, a piece of paper under the bee and toss him over the side of the deck. Of course, the entire time imagining him as a cartoon Disney bee and him falling and so get sad. But then decide it was him or the huskies. I had to protect the huskies.
Storm just looked at me said “Really Mom? YOU had to protect ME from the bee? That’s the story we’re going with?”
Took Stormy to the vet today. It was for a blood test after his last visit where he tested slightly anemic. He’s slightly anemic because he isn’t eating well. And he’s probably not eating so well because his medication was upsetting his tummy. Sigh.
So after I ran a little “test” myself (stopped all medication for 2 full days) and seeing Storm much happier and eating and then once back on his medicine going back to not eating as much, I talked to his doctor today. Was actually just a tech appointment today for a blood test but hung out and waited for the doc who wanted to see us. After waiitng there for awhile and then being moved into a private room so “the doctor can speak to you”, you get very stressed. And let’s just say that sitting in the waiting room comparing cancer meds with other doggie and kitty moms kinda sucks and creates stress.
But really she just wanted my details on what was going on with Stormy. She also said let’s let his tummy heal. No medication except his Cushing’s meds, which he has been taking without incident for a couple years, and some OTC Pepcid AC.
I was supposed to give him one of chemo meds tonight. But the doc agreed and we are stopping them for now. Good news is that he gobbled most of his dinner tonight! And then came over to me when I was eating dinner and wanted some of mine! Which he hasn’t done in a long while. So I got some cheese and doled it out to the boys. Angelus of course always wants more people food so he was pretty happy :)
And for the first time in a about a month, I feel a bit less stressed about Storm, his eating and his meds and feel like my “no medicine for 48 hours” test might have been what we needed. Weird how stress actually can physically manifest itself. Actually feel a bit less “tight” or “wound up” tonight.
So paws crossed. But the Stormy puppy needs to be happy. And eating. :)
This morning I was reading the packaging of the “topper” I recently started giving to Angelus (Stormy is still too picky) with his regular dry dog food. It’s called Stella & Chewy’s (and no I did not buy it because I think Chewbacca makes it.) Basically they are a healthy doggie MRE. I break up a half of one and put it over Angelus’ dry food instead of adding a bit of wet food. He gets bored of the same food every day – wouldn’t you? So I switch up the “topper”.
It’s freeze-dried food “Natural with added vitamins and minerals”, “Made with raw, wild Alaskan salmon and raw, naturally raised beef plus fruits and vegetables” and “No grain, added hormones or antibiotics, artificial preservatives, sugar, salt or coloring”. We are trying the Surf n Turf now. And will then move on to other flavors if he keeps liking it.
I, on the other hand, didn’t eat breakfast (never do unless a Sunday mimosa brunch!) and am now eating a Lean Cuisine frozen lunch that contains so many things that I can’t pronounce, it’s best I don’t know what it actually is. Oh…and don’t forget just a touch of sodium.
Hmmm. I clearly take much better care of the buds than myself! Eh…that’s OK, they are waaaay cuter :)
Fun, if cold and wet, SUMMER August morning. Sigh….coastal summers kinda blow. But the huskies aren’t hot and then we get a gorgeous September – November so oh well. But I usually start getting really annoyed by the weather around now until it’s over (usually mid-late August.)
When we first got to Mavericks we didn’t see any other dogs. Uh-oh – too early? But then 2 ladies came with their dog but he was a ball dog – dang. The huskies do not understand ball or stick dogs. They say CHASE ME!!! Why chase a stupid ball or stick?? Angelus chases the dog as they chase their object but then if the dog doesn’t engage after a couple tries, he is done trying. Storm doesn’t even try. He used to chase balls a few times and then would sit down and shred it. So I didn’t want him to steal other dog’s toys! But he was *usually* pretty good about that.
I tried getting them to walk down the beach but neither really had any interest. I think they wanted to stay by the beach entrance so they wouldn’t miss any new dogs coming in. Then we saw a group of people and dogs that we knew from past visits to Mavericks come around the cliff from the other side/beach. And then they decided it was OK to go down there and check it out. It was the Scottish Deerhound, a couple other spazzy dogs and then Grommet the boxer.
Ohmygosh – Stormy and Grommet were playing and playing and playing. They were having such a good time. And me without my iPhone today to video it :( Stoopid Mom. Grommet’s Mom was telling me how Grommet had a tussle with a really large husky awhile back so he is usually pretty skittish around huskies but he was doing great with my guys, especially Stormy (Angelus was mostly mixing it up with the other dogs.)
Storm and Grommet were tearing around, chasing each other and then other dogs would start in the chase too. I get a little stressed because I don’t want Stormy to get take out accidentally since the other dogs all outweigh him by a lot. But everyone did a great job of not taking each other (or us 2-legged creatures) out.
When it was time for Grommet to leave and his Mom leashed him up, Stormy wanted to follow them out. It was so sad – Stormy got so bummed his friend had to leave. After that, Stormy wasn’t so interested in staying. What a goober. He was probably kind of tired too after all that running and playing. So after a few attempts at walking further down the beach and only a couple small dogs coming in, that the huskies had no interest in playing with, I said who wants to go? Storm turned around like “Let’s Go!” and he led the march back to the car. And when I say march – I mean it. The kid could out-march a battalion :) Angelus likes to dawdle on the way back. Sniff, pee, sniff, pee. Storm – he marches. Focus. Stay on target! He would have made a great X-Wing pilot :)
I love watching them have fun. They are the best boys.
It’s #mobweek on AMC. They are showing The Godfather right now. It’s clear I will get less done today. A lot of running around during commercial breaks!
The Godfather series is in that select group that I will watch a gazillion times and just leave on whenever they are playing even though I have the DVDs. And Godfather part one is on my favorite movies of all time list. Love Michael. And yes, I will still leave Godfather part 3 on even though it’s not in the same league. Still has Michael Corleone and I think Andy Garcia and George Hamilton are fantastic in it too.
Goodfellas, Scarface and Casino are great. But The Godfather is the crown jewel of mob movies. Period. But later when they play Goodfellas, I will probably leave that on too :) But they are playing tons of good movies all week. I should record the entire week! I hope they do this annually like Shark Week! :)
When I imagine my trip to Italy that I WILL take some day, I imagine being able to walk around a lot in the sunshine in sundresses to little towns and get food and wine like Michael does with his bodyguards. I kinda doubt it’s really like that (simple and quiet) anymore but who knows. Maybe? This would also allow the caloric intake to be justified!
AMC is running mob tidbits with the commercials. Henry Hill, other relatives of old mobsters, crime reporters, former detectives, etc. Hysterically, Rudy Giuliani is hosting AMC’s Mob Week. I assume he won’t be running for any office again?
One of the bits showed the Cosa Nostra org chart – very clearly lays out Boss and then Underboss. Storm says “See!!! I am the Underboss!!! I’ve always said that!!! Angelus is the boss and I’m the Underboss and all the other dogs on the beach or in the dogpark need to respect our chain of command!!! We are the Siberian fluffy mob! Mom, let’s get that org chart and hang it up!!” He totally just said all that to me…
:)
He came in and stared at me. This meant “give me dinner!” So I went and made the huskies their dinners and gave them to them. Angelus started eating his right away. Storm sniffed his. I told him that he had to eat it or no after dinner treat and I walked away.
I went back and checked on them and Angelus had finished his. Storm still had not touched his. So I gave Angelus his after dinner cookie as Storm watched.
About 5 minutes later, Storm ran up the family room where I was watching TV. He stared at me again. I asked him if he ate his dinner yet. He didn’t answer so I went and checked. He ran down and followed me. Nope – dinner still untouched. I looked at him and told you need to eat your dinner or no cookie. Then I went back upstairs.
About 2 minutes later Storm ran back upstairs and started at me again. This time standing closer to me so I could really see his stare up close and personal. I asked him if he ate his dinner yet. Still no answer from him so down I went to check…and he ran right behind me. Yay – this time about 2/3 of his dinner was done (most importantly the part with his medicine in it.) So I told Storm to follow me. And he ran right behind me to the kitchen. And then grabbed his cookie and ran outside.
That’s how cute he is. :)
Stormy had me worried a bit. He’s been fussy with his food/eating over the past couple weeks which is not a good thing. He gets his medicine in his food so he has to eat. So I decided to try just giving him chicken with no dog food. Ate it right up. Very excited about it too. So then I gradually gave him less chicken and more dry food (they both get some chicken or tuna in every meal) to get him back on his regular diet.
Then he started getting fussy again. So I tried more chicken again and he didn’t want that. Wha?? So I made some ground turkey. Ate it right up. Then I mixed that in with his food and he ate it. But then the following day ate a bit less. Then he ate some of the turkey but no nuggets. So then I scooped the turkey out and put it in a separate bowl and he ate all of turkey. But still no nuggets. So I gave him extra turkey to make sure he was getting enough to eat.
Meanwhile, Angelus thinks it is great to sneak in and get all the extra food, nuggets or meat, that Stormy leaves lying around.
I used all the turkey that I made for their dinner last night so I made them some chicken this AM. Storm ate a little but then left it. So I scooped the chicken out into a different bowl and gave him that. He didn’t want. But then he went and ate all of the dog food nuggets in his main bowl. No chicken, just nuggets.
OK, who has trained who here?
I watched a movie tonight that made me sad. For silly reasons I guess. It was The Switch with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. Jason B is being an uncle/dad to Jennifer A’s kid (but he really is the actual dad but he hasn’t told her yet…you need to watch.) Anyway, she calls while out of town and he has to go and pick up the kids from school and de-louse the kid. That made me remember when my brother was living out here in CA with me (he was 10 I think) and his school (private so small enough to panic all of the parents quickly!) had an outbreak of lice. So I brought him home after buying everything in the store to delouse and washed his hair with the special shampoo and comb and washed everything single thing we owned in the house. And we laughed about how stupid it was (but I was paranoid!) He didn’t have lice so yay – it worked. I guess I would be a decent Mom even to little humans. Sometimes.
But anyway, I got sad. Remembering. Weird trigger that’s for sure.
Then all of a sudden I heard the huskies barking. Loudly. They don’t do that often. I had taken my boot off to watch the movie and as soon as I heard the barks I jumped up and hopped to the window to see them. They weren’t up front. Crap. I remembered that I have the back door open which means back yard. That meant they were out back. Which means they likely saw skunks. NO! I cannot deal with deskunking a dog by myself on 1 good leg! Or worse – them getting a critter (raccoon, cat, etc.)
I hopped to the stairs, slid down them on my butt, hopped to the back deck and then outside. They were on the lower back deck looking and barking at something. I called and called them. They were not listening. This means critter. I hopped down to the lower deck and corralled them. By the time I started to hop back up stairs with them my ankle was hurting a LOT. As well as my right leg, knee and arms from the hopping. Uh-oh. I need the good leg! I finally got up to the sofa. Rested a bit. Pressed start on my 2nd movie and cursed the little rat bastards. Angelus did end up with a bite/scratch on his nose. I didn’t see it right away but when I brought him in for sleepy time, I saw a spot on his nose from a distance. Then saw it was blood when he got closer. Sigh. Cleaned it with antibiotic wash. He seems fine and likely annoyed he didn’t get revenge on the critter that did that to him. But I’ll stress about it until it heals. *grumblsnarfgrrfracknberry*
But I wasn’t sad anymore. Tired. In a pretty decent amount of pain. Annoyed. But not sad.
They are pretty crafty little guys. :)
I gave the huskies dingo bones tonight. Angelus took his to the front yard and Storm just sat in the kitchen with his. Then I went upstairs but could watch him walking around trying to figure out a place to stash it.
It’s funny because Angelus is usually the treat hider. He moves his treats around quite a bit. He can remember hidden treats from weeks and months back. So those that dogs have no real memory have obviously just never had a dog.
And now that Storm’s Cushings is under control and he is no longer feels like he is starving every second of the day, he has taken to hiding his larger treats sometimes. I watched him take it to the billiards room but then pick it up, take it out on the upstairs deck but then pick it up and bring it back in and now he put it on his bed in the living room and is trying to “bury it” with his nose/move the bed around.
The buds are so this guy:
I love this ad :)
