19 posts tagged “moo”
I found a nice link with good info about different chocolates and their toxicity to a normal dog (meaning the dog isn't especially sensitive to the compound in chocolate):
I found this because Moo decided to grab the remnants of my peanut M&M's that I had here on my desk. I am so out of it with this darn cold that I forgot to grab them and put them up out of reach when I got up to take the pooches out for a potty walk. Needless to say, when I got back inside with Sadie, Moo had finished off the bag.
She (so far) seems to have a pretty ironclad stomach when it comes to the things she gets into...I hope that holds true for the stupid chocolate. We'll see. At least I am home all week, except for later tonight, but Neil will be here so she won't be alone.
Also, I discovered on that website link that there is an Animal Poison Control Hotline phone number. Apparently there is a small service fee for using it, but what a good thing to have around - especially when you own a lab who will eat anything and everything!
It is another gorgeous, sunny yet cold winter day here. However, I noticed this morning that there is a winter storm watch for my county...apparently they are expecting snow storms to come through tomorrow. Crazy! Usually we don't get our frozen precipitation until much later in the winter. Guess I should go look for my boots just in case.
Work is still work. This week is my last real review of the year. YAY! I am doing a site inspection locally here after Christmas, but I don't have to talk to anyone to do it, so that is kind of nice.
Moo stayed with Neil this week while I was gone and was mostly a good girl! At Neil's she has to sleep in her crate because his house is not Moo-proofed...so there she usually really freaks out in the middle of the night. Our solution was to move her crate to the garage (it is a finished, insulated garage...plenty warm and protected for her). This seems to have worked. He told me she barked a little right at first, but then settled down and he didn't hear her all night. And there were no accidents in the morning. She did get into the food bag and chew up one of her zip lock bags that I pack her food in. Luckily, there was no food in it.
For whatever reason, she still gets up in the middle of the night to go outside. I've been trying to work with her on this by giving her a really long potty walk before bed and then insisting on her going to lay back down when she does wake me up/ignoring her when she is just being whiny. My concern is that the couple times that she has listened and has gone to lay back fown, she has also gotten sick. I am not sure what is up with that - maybe she has an upset tummy from her antibiotics (it has only happened after her surgery)? And I know if she REALLY has to go, she lets me know by grunting and getting up on the bed if she has to to get me up...so now I don't really know what to do. Some nights she hasn't woken me up and there have been no problems. Last night I don't know if she tried (I never heard her), but this morning there were three barf spots in the living room. *sigh* Thankfully, I haven't cleaned the carpets yet. That is on the agenda for Saturday. I guess I will just keep trying to get her to sleep through the night and will continue to clean up barf as needed.
Bonnie's new trick is to sneak out the front door when it is opened and then dash around the house to come in the back door. I am guessing she wants to go outside, but also doesn't really want to be left out. LOL However, I am learning that if you chase her then she keeps going and doesn't come back in for awhile. Bad kitty.
I have been being better about washing my face at night and in the mornings and using lotion on it...my skin is starting to look pretty darn good again. I like it.
Now I am working on getting my geeky games reloaded onto my computer...I had to repartitiion the hard drive to make room for one of them. I am SUCH a dork.
Next week I will be headed to New Orleans. I am trying to get excited, or at least happy about going. I am really. right now I feel a nice cold settling in so that isn't helping my mood.
Moo's knee is healing really well...at least the incision is! And she seems to be feeling pretty chipper, so that makes me happy. Sadie is her usual playful, happy self too.
Now I am going to go see about some lunch...
As I mentioned (I think) in a previous entry, I stitched up the torn seam on a toy monkey that had been given to Moo when she was a brand new puppy and then gave it back to the dogs to play with. Sadie immediately latched on to it - she LOVES stuffed toys. She likes to find the squeaker inside and then rip it out...in the process, completely unstuffing the toy. This time, though, she was happy just tossing it around.
Moo would try to sneak in and grab it whenever she thought she could, but Sadie would just take it right back. Then Sadie needed to go outside to go potty...when we got back inside I found Moo in her crate:
She had her monkey with her. As Neil captioned this photo: 'Awww...wuv the munkee!'
Any time anyone (human or critter) would even seem to be coming toward the crate, she would pick up the monkey so it couldn't be taken away:
She kept a very close eye on everyone...even the kitties! It was hilarious! At one point I lured her out of her crate with a treat, except she had monkey with her. You could SEE the wheels spinning in her head. Once she figured out that she would have to put monkey down to take the treat she simply turned around and went back into her crate. Moo...the queen of all that is food and yummy...turned down a treat. That must be some kinda special monkey!!
She stayed in her crate, with her monkey, all night. She wouldn't even come sleep on the bed with me like she normally does. I told her she could bring her monkey, but I think she thought it was a trick.
Eventually, the next day, Sadie got ahold of the monkey again and this time applied her usual tactics - she tore one of his ears off and started to pull out stuffing. So, now monkey is back up on the shelf, awaiting more stitching up before I give him back to Moo. I suppose eventually he will get unstuffed, but not just yet. :)
Moo is home. YAY!
She is looking rather pitiful and is very glassy-eyed from the pain meds and probably still a bit from the anesthesia. The vet said that when they got in there, her cruciate was "gone". They use a new procedure now - instead of a figure 8 wrapping with fishing line (OK that is an over-simplification of it, but is generally what was done), they now use a sheath that is crimped at the top and bottom basically wrapping the joint to keep it stable (I am envisioning shrink tubing - anyone who has messed with electronics and wiring knows what I am talking about).
The vet also said he's started using surgical staples instead of stitches when closing up the incision - his claim was that his wrists are giving out on him and this is quicker and easier. Poor guy! He is SO great with the dogs, but he gets SO nervous when talking with people. He had finally gotten past most of that with me because I had been in there almost weekly last year with Moo's ear problems...I think maybe having Neil with me this morning made him nervous again. Hehe! Neil is very intimidating looking if you don't know him.
He also told us about new advances in what they know about pain and how it works - what they now know is that anesthesia affects the consciousness, but that the pain pathways were still active for patients under anesthesia, so though you weren't aware of the pain on a conscious level, you were still feeling it. Now, after the anesthesia, they inject a local pain killer into the joint before beginning surgery. They also use a systemic painkiller throughout the process.
This all has gotten me researching glucosamine and chondroitin formulas again. He highly recommends the one they sell there (at $54/120 tablets)...but after some digging, I think for long-term maintenance, my Costco ones for $30/300 tablets is better all around. My two main concerns being that the vet pills have 400mg of flaxseed oil in them. While that is a good source of omega fatty acids, animals (including humans) do not process it as well as omegas derived from fish oils. Also, the vet pills have sucrose in them. While I am sure it is a negligible amount (it is the second to last ingredient), it is still there and is unnecessary. It also has a ton of MSM and no chondroitin. And the research I have found on MSM is very inconclusive as to any benefits and little is known about its long term effects or side-effects. So anyway - I will give her the week's worth that the vet provided to us with her antibiotics and pain meds (Rimadyl) and then we will switch back to her regular ones with added salmon oil (which runs me about $17/month for both dogs).
SADIE is being such a good big sister - Moo went to lay down and made a loud groan/whine (she was laying on her sore leg, silly dog) and Sadie came racing into the room to check on her. The cats have been circling and are very wary of her - I think she smells funny and they know something isn't quite right. Mostly now she is resting under the desk here with me. She's moving slow, but is getting around OK when she needs to. Her poor leg is all shaved and looks funny but, I think she will be just fine. We go back in about 10 days to have the staples removed and to let the vet have a quick peek at the incision to make sure it is looking good.
I got to go home for Thanksgiving this year (unexpectedly)...it was a whirlwind trip, but I am SO glad I got to go. Monday was spent traveling for the most part and working in the afternoon. Then Monday night my mom and sister came up to meet me for dinner (I stayed up north because it would have been insanely silly to try to fight rush-hour traffic both ways since I had to be back up there Tuesday morning). Then Tuesday, I actually got done with the work stuff early which was great because it meant more time with my sister and nephew.
After that it was a blur of staying at my mom's and sister's houses, playing with my nephew, shopping for last minute fixings and hanging out with the rest of the family. My sister and I (and respective partners) all went in on getting my mom a new TV since hers is finally dying. Since I won't be home for Christmas we decided to give it to her on Thursday...it was awesome. :) We found a nice 32" at Costco for a fantastic deal.
We had dinner at my sisters with Mom and Nick's family all there. It was so fun to get to see Nick's mom and dad with Caleb. His dad was grinning ear to ear the entire evening! (He's a very serious sort of fella normally.) Traditional menu of turkey, stuffing, and cranberries. There were also carrots, green beans, asparagus, potatoes (mashed and scalloped), and a green salad. For desert, Nick's mom brought pecan pie and a berry pie. I don't do the pecan pie, but the berry pie was tasty.
Caleb has changed SO much in the past few months...he is smiling now, can sit up (mostly) on his own...he at least holds his head up now...and he is SO alert. He looks at whomever it talking in the room, will follow your finger if you point at something, etc. His eyes are the EXACT same color as my sister's - gorgeous steel grey-blue, but otherwise he looks mostly like his dad. I have tons of photos to sort through so those will be coming later. He is also starting to teeth! Poor guy. Amy went to wipe up some drool and he just started screaming. We think maybe she rubbed against his gums which hurt. However, he is easy to soothe and calmed right down once we got his cold teething ring to him.
Travel this time of year sucks...especially when having a 2+ hour layover in Dallas. But it was all well worth it. Now I am back home and today has been (and will continue to be) spent cleaning and doing laundry. Moo has an upset stomach (was up barfing all night), so later I have to go out and buy more carpet cleaner. I think maybe the kennel gave them special Thanksgiving treats - there were bits of bone in the barf. I am going to talk to them when I drop her off for my overnight trip this coming week and remind them that she doesn't get treats (other than do biscuits).
This coming Thursday morning she is going in for her knee surgery. I am still unsure whether or not I will be making the Christmas trip to New Orleans...but really, after being away this week, Moo being relatively fresh out of surgery, and with upcoming work travel, I am not too bummed about it. With next year being Neil's year with Chloe which means a big, chaotic family Christmas, I am really OK with staying home and having a quiet Christmas by myself this year (which I had been under the impression was the plan all along - the staying home for a quiet Christmas part - until the trip got dropped on me). Traveling and staying in a place other than my own house and bed instantly removes the "quiet" part of anything for me even if there is no additional family involved. Dealing with airlines and packing and hauling dogs to and from the kennel and then having to come home and do laundry from the trip, clean the house from having two bored cats cooped up in it, etc. There is nothing restful or quiet about any of that. *sigh*
Speaking of cleaning - time to get back to cleaning out the fridge. Some lettuce went bad and stank up the whole thing...which got me scrubbing. Once that is done it will be time to vacuum and scrub floors and then bathrooms. Whhheeee! Oh, and more laundry, of course.
Just when things seem to be on a financial up-swing. I've got savings again. Bills are paid on-time without sweating whether I would have the cash to do so. Heck, I've even been able to spend a little on some extras for myself again.
And now this. Exactly what I feared in my gut. Moo tore her ACL. The way she's been holding her leg and the funky way it makes her hip feel, I was really hoping it was just a dislocated hip. But nooooo, of course not.
This all stems back to a tumble she took by running full speed out to the end of her leash. I blame myself really, if I had just taken her out myself that evening, it probably wouldn't have happened because I know she does that when the neighbor dogs are out.
Of course, this comes right at the holidays. I am going to have to see about canceling my trip to New Orleans...I need to keep her at home and not at the kennel as much as I can for the next month or so. Assuming I can work out the financing for the surgery, I will try scheduling it for a week from Thursday.
Luckily, I think January should (hopefully) be full of local branches for me to review so I won't be gone overnight much. Again, I hope.
I was going to be pitching in with my sister on a new TV for my mom (her's is rapidly dying) and of course, m nephew was going to be getting some cool stuff. But, it looks like all that is down the proverbial drain. Some people buy houses that are money pits...I seem to acquire dogs that do that. Don't get me wrong, I love them both dearly, but really. This is ridiculous - Moo isn't even 2 and a half yet.
There were other things I wanted to save the rest of my newly found money for...for instance, the possibility of a trip to Africa this next year. But that is all also down the drain. I guess the only good part is that I can use the value of my Christmas trip ticket toward a trip home later in 2010.
And I still need to get an electrician out here...but that doesn't seem like it is going to ever happen either. I really just want to go crawl under a rock and cry. But I need to get my house clean (so I can leave it again) and get myself packed for Monday.
Oh yeah, and I am still waiting for Neil to finally get home - he got stuck overnight in Cincinnati due to airline fail. Their first flight out today was supposed to be at 8:55am...now they are sitting on the tarmac waiting for a 9:41am takeoff time. (I don't know if this is Delta fail or if this is due to the FAA fail with their computer outage. Either way...it sucks.) The most awesome part of all that is last I checked, Delta's website showed the flight arriving here at 9:59am (even leaving at 8:55am, the arrival was scheduled for 10:40am). So who knows what is going on there. I am just glad I have a 2 hour layover in Dallas on Monday. Apparently, I am going to need it if things are still going this way. Though, I am flying American which should help (a little).
Since I was a slacker last night...I will now finish the remaining words for this meme!
Pets? What pets? Ohhhhh I think you mean my kids!
Seriously, that is what my pets are to me...they are family. I can't imagine my life without them. I grew up with cats (and a few hamsters) - before my sister was born, our cat Dukie was my best friend (according to mom anyway, I was only 2!). There were a couple years in there, right around the time I moved east, that I didn't have any cats. I can't tell you how empty the house seemed even with Sadie around. Cats snuggle like nothing else can. They are always around without always being _right there_. They don't need a ton of work, and their personalities amuse me to no end! I have NEVER had two cats even remotely alike.
I am still devastated that my boys have gone missing. My head is always full of the what-ifs...'what-if I had just made them stay inside' is the most recurring one. But, then I remind myself that Mr M and Bandit never did acclimate to being indoor-only kitties. And no matter how much I loved them, I could not have them destroying my house with cat urine. Clyde, is the hardest to reconcile in my head. He was OK being inside, though he was also the one to make a mad dash for the door whenever it opened. And I tell myself that it wouldn't have been fair to keep him inside while the other boys got to go out. It has helped a little seeing the snake on the patio - if nothing else, it has offered some closure. I know I am not a "bad" kitty mommy...but it is hard not to feel like it when they all disappear in such a short time-span. And even after all the heartache, if another stray showed up on my doorstep, I would not turn it away. Even if I couldn't get it to acclimate to being indoors. This time, though, the other cats still have to stay inside.
To help fill the void, and to keep Bonnie company while I am away on business and the dogs are not at home, I adopted OP. It was a little bit of an adjustment, but now he is right at home here. And he is a snuggler! He now shows up in my bed around 2am each night and purrs...and is usually still purring when my alarm goes off around 6. He likes to get right up next to me, but thankfully, seems to have no interest in sleeping on my head. Bonnie is the aloof one...she has her moments of absolute NEED. Love me now! But mostly she is content to simply hang out in whatever room we are in. Usually you can find her curled up sleeping in a corner.
My mom was never a 'dog person', so we never had a dog when I was a kid. I got Sadie as a "present" from an old boyfriend (just before he dumped me...nice, huh?) She was a pound puppy and around 4 months old when I got her. I did everything wrong that you possibly could when it came to raising her, but in the end, I lucked out. She is the sweetest, most neurotic, gentle dog I've ever met. By neurotic, I mean quirky - for instance, she sleeps under the bed whenever I leave the house. Yup! She can actually get herself under a bed! She will put on the biggest show ever, when we get ready to leave the house...including chattering her teeth. She won't go outside to potty if it is raining out. She doesn't like it if it is too hot out. But, everyone who has ever met her adores her...including my non-dog person mom.
Then there is Marly-Moo. The Moo-dog. She got her name from an old song about a prostitue - Lili Marlene...which then got shortened to Marly. The nickname Moo came at around 9 months old when she was growing faster than any dog alive. It has since become what we call her because EVERY person who asks what her name is, then asks if she was named after the dog from the book/movie Marley and Me. I get tired of explaining that no, she was not.
Before I moved, I also had fish - a couple bettas and a 75 gallon African cichlid aquarium. They fascinated me. Who knew fish had individual personalities? They were amazing to watch (which I used to spend hours doing). I have thought about rebuilding the aquarium here, but I don't really have a place in the house to put it and the work it took to maintain it takes more time and energy than I have these days. There are photos of my fish here.
Last but not least are my wild pets - deer, birds, possums, and all other manner of critters that live in my yard and in the woods behind it. Even the freakin' copperhead I couldn't bring myself to kill. (OK, I admit, there was no way on Earth I was going to open the back door with it right there, but still...) Slowly but surely I am building a little bird sanctuary in the yard. And the deer, though I don't do anything outright to help them, they help themselves to the tasty greenery in the yard...and I am sure as soon as I get a garden growing, I will be sharing that too!
I have always loved animals and will never understand people who can harm and abuse them in any way. And yes, someday, I probably will be that crazy cat lady who lives at the end of the street that all the kids talk about!
Next up:
~photography
~marriage
Last night while I was cooking dinner (at the most inopportune moment, of course) the dogs started going berserk at the back window. It freaked me out because it was the scary barking and growling they do when strangers come to the door (they bark at anyone who comes to the door, but seem to recognize some people now).
I dropped what I was doing and came to see this:
This pretty young deer and a couple adult deer had come right up into the yard to check things out. The one adult female seemed to be this ones mother and stayed close and was acting very protective. The other adult (I think it was also female) seemed to be more of just a general look-out.
After they headed back down the hill I went outside to check them out in the clearing and found that there was actually another adult with them who had not come all the way up into the yard. I never did get a good look though - I am wondering if it was the young buck I had seen a few nights ago down there.
Later in the evening Neil took Moo out for her potty walk and she was all sorts of agitated looking for them (I think she might think they are big dogs...I don't really know, but what I do know is that she does NOT want them in her yard. LOL) When the neighbor dog started barking at her, she took of running toward him. When she hit the end of her leash, she took a major tumble across the yard. I heard her yelping and went out to see what was up. She held her back leg up for awhile, did a lot of whining and yipping, but today she seems to be just fine. Mostly I think she scared herself and probable bruised her leg in the process. (She is know for being a big baby...if Sadie or even one of the cats plays too rough she yips and cries.)
In other news - OP has also been limping around a bit, though it doesn't seem to be slowing him down at all. I think maybe he missed the shelf where I put Bonnie's soft food one evening. I only think this because I saw him almost miss the other evening and managed to catch him. I am going to have to start putting Bonnie's canned food in the cat room too, it seems, in order to keep the silly guy from hurting himself. I did poke around at him and nothing seems to be broken. I will give him a few days and if it doesn't improve, I guess he will get to meet the vet.
Just random comments, thoughts, and notes here.
DOG FOOD: Nature's Variety is a pain in the ass to find around here - I sure wish the dogs did as well on some other (easier to find brand). That said, I have begun ordering it from petfooddirect.com I have had issues with not being able to get the carealotpets.com pages to load, or the page is so slow I don't have time to wait (I am usually ordering when I am on the road and working). Also, PFD's prices are lower (just marginally, though) and their shipping costs less...it isn't by much, but on a tight budget, every little bit counts. I am sure there are a couple pet stores in the city that carry the food and manage to keep it in stock, but I am not willing to drive all over town to get it. And now that I have found a steady supplier, I need to really track how long a bag lasts (I think from last time I timed it, I remember it being exactly 4 weeks) so I can get signed up for their auto-ship schedule. I really wish Petco could carry it...I am quite impressed with their new well-pet/whole foods sort of section. It was a smart move for a large chain store to make. I know it hurts the smaller, locally owned family stores but to be honest, I haven't really found one here that I feel compelled to support. The one I was trying to support never manages to keep food (of any brand from what I can tell) in-stock on a regular basis and aside from the guy who owns it, the other folks working in there are obviously just doing so as a favor and don't care about the store or the customers. If I had had a 2 Feet 4 Paws to go to, then there would be no question about where I would get my food! :)
CAT FOOD: Spoiled little OP has created a spoiled little Bonnie (though, it is something I have been meaning to do for her for awhile now, so no big deal). OP gets part of a can of soft food every day. So of course, Bonnie smelled the tasty (stinky) stuff and decided she wanted some too! The disturbing part is that she got sick from the first stuff - that's when I actually read the ingredients. ACK! I just want to throw the diclaimer in that I have always been told by very conscientious vets, animal rescues, and even the crazy cat lady whom we adopted OP from that with the canned stuff it doesn't really matter since mostly they should get it for the added water (most indoor cats don't drink enough water). So, I bough Friskies...because it is middle of the road in price and is what my family has always given our cats in the past. I had never read the ingredient label on it though...it is nasty! I had some 3oz cans of Wellness from a promotion they had awhile back...buy kibble get free canned food.
I am also going to switch the cats over to Wellness kibble. Bonnie has never had a problem with any of the foods I've fed her and it will be easier to be able to just buy it at Petco where I know it will be in stock when I need it. And it will partner nicely with their canned food. Heh. And I am not overly impressed with the Felidae that OP is currently weaning off of. He has gorgeous fur, but it should be much softer. With the introduction of the NV (which I still have a bunch of and will finish up before the switch to Wellness) he seems to be improving. Of course, I imagine some of the dryness is also from the stress of moving to a new house...I still can't get over that process and how spastic the lady was about it. I was talking to my mom last night and she made the comment that it sounded like the lady didn't really know anything at all about cats or their personalities...and it made me remember how the lady told us that she treated her cats like dogs. I told my mom that I think she is right.
Anyway, all the critters seem to be doing well. OP is getting braver by the day - he still isn't too fond of Moo, and I can't blame him. She runs at him and chases him whenever she gets the chance. When she is sleeping he will come out, but he always keeps a close eye on her. LOL I did catch him rubbing up on Sadie last night. Except for the occasional lunge (which I think she purely does to make the kitties 'flinch') she is very good about being gentle with him. She is still curious about it, but much less pushy about it than she was at first. And lastly, Bonnie seems to be bonding with him. I caught them chasing and playing in the 'cat room' last night. YAY! That was the whole reason we adopted him in the first place!
I totally forgot to publicly spam that it was Moo's birthday last week. Her birthday was somewhat overshadowed with the arrival of OP (same day - July 28).
Moo was two last week. She is getting to be so grown up...now if we could just stop with the whining and the eating toilet paper, things would be really fantastic! Maybe she is whining because her birthday present won't come and play with her.
At any rate, she is growing up SO fast...I have to keep reminding myself that she is still so young. Sadie took so much longer to settle down, though I imagine a lot of that has to do with mistakes I made in raising Sadie.
Tomorrow they both are going to Neil's for the night while I am in OH. Now that Moo is a little older, we are going to try things out there again. We have also wised up to the wonderful usefulness of the cheap baby-gate. If we can get the office and the laundry room closed off then the rest of the house is actually pretty Moo friendly. The laundry room does have a door, but it is also where his kitties' litter box is...thus it needs to stay cat-accessible. The office simply doesn't have any secure storage for paperwork and things and is Moo heaven when it comes to stuff to get into. And there are no doors there...but the gates should solve that problem too!
If all goes well, then she may be spending some more time over at his house while I am out of town. To accommodate schedules and such, I might change my travel days to wed-thurs rather than earlier in the week. We'll see how things go.
I also think the day and night of no dogs will be good for OP. He can explore the house without getting molested and hopefully feel more at home. Once we overcome that hurdle, I think the dogs will be easier to adjust to. I am just guessing of course...time will tell.
So, after all that rambling, mostly I just wanted to say:
Happy birthday, Moo!!!
