Maggie is so damn cute. She loves to hop up and sit in the window (in her bed) when I’m on the computer. (Of course, sometimes it gets tiring, as she wants up, then down, then up, then down, ad infinitum.) But this morning she hopped up, curled up in her bed, and is SNORING to beat the band. If only you could hear her!
Too bad I have to get up and finish getting ready for work—as soon as she hears me, she will get up as well. But then it’s one more potty break and then she gets crated!
So we noticed this weekend (while we were at a friend’s house) that every so often, she was limping—holding her back right paw off the ground. We thought maybe she somehow injured it while playing with their dog, but the next time we looked at her, she was fine—running around and playing with no problems.
We forgot about it until yesterday afternoon, when the limp was REALLY pronounced and she was hopping on three legs. We propped her up on the couch and inspected her entire leg and paw, gently touching every inch, waiting to see if she would wince or whimper (or anything to let us know that was the spot). Nothing.
Her skin looks fine, her pads look fine, her nails look fine, her ‘knuckles’ (are they knuckles in dogs?) were fine—there were no cuts, bumps, or anything that would confirm something might hurt. We inspected between her toes/pads thinking she might have a picker or something in there, but we didn’t see anything. We let her up and she was running around with no issues—the limp was gone.
This continued throughout the night—limping one minute and fine the next. I let her out of the crate this morning and she was fine. I turn around and she’s limping again. I inspected her again—and nothing.We thought maybe she broke a nail tip or something, as she’s started this new jumping thing (when she’s outside and wants to come in, she jumps about 3-4′ in the air against the sliding glass door). But you would think if she broke something, it would be painful all the time, or at the very least, when we touched the affected area. But there’s nothing.
Well…one trip to the vet and, ladies and gentlemen, we have a Luxating Patella.
In some dogs, because of malformation or trauma, the ridges forming the patellar groove are not prominent, and a too-shallow groove is created. In a dog with shallow grooves, the patella will luxate (jump out of the groove) sideways, especially toward the inside. This causes the leg to ‘lock up’ with the foot held off the ground.
In other words, a messed up kneecap and tendons. The vet popped it in and out a few times, and each time he popped it out, she cringed…then he popped it back in and it was fine. Poor girl.
We’re supposed to keep her from jumping and from using the stairs. That’s going to be fun, as she’s crated upstairs but obviously needs to go out…and typicallly has free reign of the house (and LOVES flying up and down the stairs). She is crated during the day (8-5) and I asked if we shouldn’t keep her crated more, but the vet said no, not if you can help it. He said running is fine—just no jumping or stairs. The vet also said that it really shouldn’t be a painful issue, so not to worry too much about her—she just looks really pathetic when she’s limping.
If it gets worse (or doesn’t get better), there are two surgical options—one which cuts the bone in order to keep the tendon in place and one which stiches the tendon together to make it tighter. Here’s hoping we don’t need either.
I have always been a cat person at heart, but ever since my dad had Golden Retrievers I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for them as well. When Tom wanted to get a dog, we both agreed that a golden would be great—except for all the hair! After all, we have four cats that shed—we didn’t really want a dog that shed that much. So, we ended up with Maggie…and she’s perfect.
But I digress.
Our friends Tom and Karen have a lab/boxer mix that Maggie just LOVES to play with. We often take her over for a play date, and they’ve also babysat Maggie twice now when we had to leave town. Well, this past weekend it was our turn to babysit Venus at our house.
We have just one word to say: WOW.
Where to begin?
Those two had SO much fun and played SO hard that, other than putting them in the crate to sleep at night, the first time they took a nap was Saturday at 3! Unfortunately, it only lasted until 3:30 when Tom opened the garage door and they both woke up and started playing again. And I should mention that Maggie generally is a pest—she is constantly bugging Venus, either by biting her legs, trying to bite her tongue, or just generally pawing at her to get her attention (in short, a true little sister). Venus is very good with her and takes all that she dishes out, although a few times she tried to get away by laying between me and Tom. (We also put Maggie in her crate once when Venus seemed to be getting annoyed.) They are just so totally cute to watch…
These interlocking rings are the best!! Venus actually had them and Maggie loved them so much we bought her a set of her own…just in time for Venus to come over and play! For awhile Sunday afternoon, they were racing around the living room, down the hall, downstairs, then back upstairs, around the ottoman, then back down the hall…repeat ad nauseum. If Venus wasn’t on Maggie’s heels, Maggie would stop, turn around with the rings hanging from her mouth, and wait for Venus to follow…which she inevitably did!
Unfortunately, Maggie was sooooo sad when Venus went home. She spent the first 10 minutes looking for her (looking in the room where her crate had been, looking in the other rooms, looking out the window) and then grabbed their favorite play toy (the two interlocked rings) and crashed on the couch, looking the most sad and dejected I’ve ever seen her:
Poooooor little Maggie. Seeing her that sad and pathetic almost made US cry! Of course, we’d love to get another Boston Terrier, but six animals??? Egads.
All that aside, Venus is a handful. Tom would know how much she weighs, but I can barely keep hold of her, and if she wants to come inside there’s really no stopping her (I don’t know how Karen does it). And big dogs slobber. A lot. And maybe Venus is just messier than other dogs, but when she drinks, she manages to drip all over the floor as she walks away. I about broke my neck one time as I walked across the kitchen floor, hit a puddle of water, and my feet slipped out from under me and I came crashing down onto the tile. And this was just after I had dried of the floor two minutes before.
We love Venus and welcome her back…but babysitting her has definitely (DEFINITELY!) taught us that we are small dog people…
Maggie is our new shadow (and actually has been for some time). She can be laying/sleeping/resting peacefully in her window seat or on the couch or in our bed, and unless she’s SLEEPING and dead to the world, she gets up and follows us if we leave the room. It’s cute, of course, but when you can tell she’s tired and wants to sleep, it’s sort of pathetic looking (with those tired little eyes trotting after you) so we end up putting her in her crate if we’re busy about the house, just so she can sit still for a bit. (Most times she falls right asleep and other times she just sits there and looks at you. If that’s the case, we let her out again.)
This morning she surprised me…usually you have to tell her to get in her crate when it’s time to leave for work… but after she ate her breakfast and did her business this morning, she ran upstairs and went right into her crate! Without me telling her to! Wow! So I took advantage and locked her in. She’s already sleeping again…and soooo cute!!
Yes, I cheated on my diet for three days, but it was a vacation weekend you know? But how the $%*@ did I gain 14# in one week? That is insane. I know my weight fluctuates anyway, but there is no way in hell I gained 14#. I have never ever gained 14# in one week IN MY LIFE.
And Tom? He took Maggie in for a vet appointment at 7:15 this morning. Except that, oh, they meant 7:15 *PM* and never once #%$&@# mentioned that fact. How the hell were we supposed to know they were open this one day until 8pm? That’s not their normal schedule, ever, and 7:15am made a lot more sense than 7:15pm. So Tom waited, in the parking lot, from 7am-8am until they got there, only to have their attitude be “Oh.” No apology or anything.
After being here three years, we finally decided to go to the beach (other than to take out-of-state visitors there to show them the ocean)! We went with a friend of ours (Jen) and her daughter (Isabelle)…and we took Maggie! We had a great time—Jen was thrilled because she actually got to swim (while either Tom or I watched Isabelle), Maggie had fun snarfing in the sand and playing in the water (plus, as a bonus, she got really tuckered out so she slept really well last night), and we all enjoyed an absolutely picture-perfect day with the most perfect weather (I think it may have been 85 at the most). The only downsides are that I lost my sunglasses (I’ve always worn them in the water, but a big wave caught me off guard) and we all got a little red. But, we had a good enough time that we definitely want to go back again!!
So we were sitting at the table eating breakfast with Beth (a friend of a friend who spent the night at our house because we got home from the bar quite late) when Tom happens to look out the window and sees Maggie running across the street chasing a cat!
He said “There goes Maggie!” and we both froze for an instant before we jumped into action. I thought he ran out to get her, but he ran out the back so I think he went to see how she got loose (off her chain), and Beth and I ran out the front door to get the dog. I ran onto the porch and yelled her name and she was such a good girl—she came flying back across the street at top speed and right into my arms.
But oh my god, we were so scared! Our poor little baby!
When Tom came in, he said her collar was not latched (I had assumed she pulled it off over her head) but apparently when he put her collar on in the morning, in his morning-after-drinking stupor, he didn’t latch it fully…so when she saw the cat and took off, the collar popped and off she went!
Now we have to see about getting a fence.
This is what she does to all her toys—completely chews out the eyes and nose. We have to watch closely, because she will chew up the little pieces and end up swallowing them…plus, once she chews off the plastic bits, she will start pulling at the stuffing. This is the third dead monkey in six months.
This is what she did when we left her on her own all day—before we crated her full time. We would push her crate up against the guest bathroom so she could piddle or poo in there (and not in her crate). Well, she LOVES being in the tub, so over the course of a few days, she ruined everything in there. Of course, we didn’t notice it all at once because she hid things (her brush) and the curtain was closed.
You will notice:
So I’m sitting at my computer (as usual) and I see a little girl walking down the street (maybe 4 years old). I hear her yell to her brother (who is farther down the street): “Don’t you want to stop and pet the little dog Maggie?” Her brother yelled back: “Maggie isn’t out right now!”
Everyone loves her—but the kids, especially. Every time she’s out (we often put her on a leash off the back porch) she gets visitors. Sometimes, they’ll come and play with her for like 20-30 minutes! If we take her for a walk, we’re sure to get stopped if the kids are out. One night, we had like four kids over here playing with her.
It’s strange to be known because of our dog… but it is cute!
So she’s been scratching and digging practically since we brought her home. We felt bad for her, but didn’t think all that much about it.
Well, it started to get worse, and the vet recommended we wash all her bedding in dye-free/scent-free detergent (no fabric softener, either!) plus we changed her food to the ultra-expensive all-natural made-from-meat-and-veggies food. And she still itched and scratched herself RAW.
We took her back to the vet and he said it’s probably a food allergy—she’s most likely allergic to chicken! Hoo boy, there’s chicken in her treats, her bones, and of course the Ultra-Expensive Natural Food we just bought 30# of. Plus, he said she can’t have any toys for at least two weeks! He also wants to rule out germs or bacteria as the source (i.e. her saliva on the toys).
So in addition to the poor baby being scratched raw and going through ANOTHER food change (now we’re on an expensive lamb and rice formula)…she has no toys to play with! Which means she drives us nuts and is attacking Boots with more ferocity than ever! She does seem to be itching less, though, so it’s all worth it.
She has never really chewed anything (cords, furniture, shoes, etc.) so we’ve been very lucky. We also do NOT give her anything human-related to chew on (old shoes, toys shaped like shoes, etc.) so imagine our surprise when, after not having seen her for 15 or so minutes, we went looking and……she had a shoe of mine in her mouth! And it was a brand new shoe! Just bought yesterday.
GRRRRRRRR. Bad dog.
The shoes are still wearable, but they’re definitely chewed on. I guess it’s fate’s way of telling me I shouldn’t have bought a new pair of shoes yesterday, eh?
So after she chewed on my shoe earlier today, I put it back in the box and put the top on the box. Yes, I should have actually put the box away, but we’ve been busy around the house all day, plus we took Maggie over to play with Venus (Tom and Karen’s dog). We’ve been continuously busy since we got home from the play date…and just now took a break. Tom went into our bedroom and called out to me “What did you do with your shoes?”
What?
I went in the bedroom and my shoe—the same one she had been chewing on earlier—was OUT OF THE BOX and across the room. That damn kid! She remembered where it was and fished it out of the closed box!! She happened to be in the hallway outside the bedroom when we noticed it, so I took the shoe, held it in her face, and said NO very loudly. She cowered immediately and ran down the stairs—she KNOWS she did something wrong. Then we called her back, hugged her, gave her a treat, but her ears were still back.
Damn dog. If she weren’t so cute and totally adorable, I would be upset with her for longer.
No, we didn’t actually get another cat. But look at our dog…she just about qualifies as a cat! Here you can see where we found her when we went looking—after we hadn’t seen her or heard her for awhile—all splayed out on our bed in the sunshine! She also LOVES cat beds, cat toys (she plays with them more than the cats do), and she LOVES to cuddle with you. Today we actually took her to PetSmart to get “the works” (shampoo, conditioner, trimmed nails, cleaned ears, brushed teeth) and she smells SO good and is SO clean we don’t want to let her outside to play!
I heard Tom yell my name from the kitchen and when I got there, he said “How often are you going to see that in your back yard?” Yes, folks, we had a rooster strolling through our yard. We have no idea where he came from, as there are no farms (that we know of, anyway) near us. He stayed for probably a half hour or so, just meandering around… and Maggie was going out of her mind! Of course, we were not going to let her out (even on a leash!) so we finally made her come upstairs with us…and even then, she found a way to watch him (out our bedroom window).
5:45am—I wake up because Boots is throwing up somewhere in the room. I can see it’s not on the bed so I’m not immediately worried.
5:46am—Debate getting up to find it and clean it up…or sleep until my alarm goes off in half an hour.
6:15am—Alarm goes off. (I normally sleep in until about 7:30 but I’m going to work early so I can get out early!)
6:30am—Drag myself out of bed. The dog is stirring and I need to take her out (normally Tom does this, but he had duty last night).
6:31am—Hope it’s not cold out, as I am in my robe and slippers. (Normally I’m showered and fully dressed when it’s my turn to take her out.)
6:35am—Feed Maggie and take her out. Not cold—yea! And she pees and poops—good girl!! (It’s so pathetic to be excited about this.)
6:37am—Make sure there’s food in the cats’ bowl for when I let them out (see 6:43am).
6:40am—Barricade Maggie upstairs (so she can’t sneak down and eat the cat food) while I take my shower and get ready. I feel safe doing this because she did pee and poop (otherwise, she’d be back in her crate).
6:41am—Step in Boots’ liquid frothy upchuck. Five large piles of dirty clothes on the floor (laundry tonight!) and she manages to vomit on the sliver of carpet between them.
6:43am—Let Fuzzy, Charlie, and Bella out of the living room (they get locked up at night). They barrel me over to get downstairs to their food.
6:55am—Exit shower and Maggie goes in to lick the water.
7:00am—Give Maggie some lovin’. I feel guilty because she was in the crate so long last night since Tom and I were both gone.
7:10am—Find something else to wear, as the pants I planned to wear were dirty.
7:12am—Dig out a pair of sandals, as it’s 62 degrees already—with a supposed high of 74.
7:15am—Fuzzy is whining at me—loudly—while sitting at the food bowl. There’s food there, so I’m not sure what his problem is. I think maybe he doesn’t like their new food (Boots needs special urinary tract health food so they’re all eating it because it can’t hurt) but he’s been eating it for a few days. So I put a second scoop of food in and…now he’s happy. Stupid cat.
7:17am—Make scrambled eggs for breakfast. Six of them. Ugh—I went to put a touch of milk in the first batch and it was, um, clumpy. EWWWWWWWWWWW!!! So those went down the sink and I made sure to use the fresh (unopened) heavy cream for the next batch (which ended up being REALLY yummy).
7:20am—Take Maggie out again while eggs are cooling. Just pee this time, but it’s okay since Tom will be home from duty around noon.
7:22am—Eat breakfast while keeping an eye on Maggie. It makes me nervous when she hasn’t pooped.
7:30am—Crate Maggie.
7:35am—Pack my lunch. While filling a jug with kool-aid, it overfills and spills into the sink. I thank my lucky stars it A) was in the sink and B) didn’t get on my white shirt. (Ironically, see 8:45am.)
7:50am—Arrive at work. Hmmm, boss isn’t here as she said she would be. That means I get to play instead of getting straight to work!
8:45am—While I am typing the 7:35 comment about the kool-aid, I take a moment to grab the kool-aid jug (with the cap on, mind you), and give it a quick tip upside down and back out of habit (to make sure it’s mixed—I hate it when stuff settles on the bottom), take the top off and…kool-aid splashes ALL over the desk. Obviously the cap held quite a bit of kool-aid after my quick tip. But, again, I thank my lucky stars because A) none got on the carpet and B) none got on my white shirt!
8:51am—The boss rolls in. Time to go to work!
So we put her to bed in her crate like we always do, probably around 10 or so. We were in the office with the main door shut to keep the cats in (so Boots can have free reign on the house—we’ve been having her sleep with us lately) and just now Tom heard some scratching on the door. We first thought it was a cat wanting to get out but it was louder than a cat would be so Tom went to the door and—SURPRISE!!—it was Maggie, who came bounding in with the energy of a puppy who just beat all the rules! What the—? How the—? She was zipped in—?
Of course, there was a trail of shredded toilet paper and other bathroom refuse leading to our bedroom. That damn dog somehow managed to UNZIP her crate enough so that she could get out. We’re not quite sure how since the zippers are on the outside…but best we can figure is that she just kept jumping and jumping at it and managed to get it to slide down a fraction at a time. We were so amazed and stupified that we couldn’t help but laugh and not be mad. Needless to say the zipper is now locked down with a caribiner.
We normally hide the toilet paper so this can’t happen, but we had guests over this weekend…and forgot about it until we came home Monday night!
After dinner tonight, Maggie was underfoot (as usual) so Tom sat down to play with her. Within mere seconds, Boots (who is also usually underfoot in the kitchen) was up on his lap as well. They both got lovin’ scritchins until the other cats started to wander in and Boots got anxious and jumped off (they still don’t get along AT ALL). But for a few minutes, she was in pure heaven!
Maggie is three months old today!! She has been growing like a weed—I swear she has doubled in size since we brought her home! She hasn’t quite doubled in weight yet, although she’s trying—she sneaks downstairs to eat the cats’ food quite a bit (the stinker!). We’re STILL working on potty training—just when we start to think she has it down, she’ll pee right outside the paper or we find poop somewhere! Grrrrrrrr. I know, the joys of owning a puppy. But she’s so totally adorable that it makes up for it—and to watch her play with her toys just brings a smile to your face! We are VERY glad we got her…
This is one one of my most favorite pictures ever!
Well, things are getting better. Boots still doesn’t get along well with the other cats, but there’s much less fighting and hissing and chasing. Best of all…Boots gets along smashingly with the dog!! They play and wrestle and fight and tumble…and we even found them sleeping together (pics to come soon—they’re still on the camera)!!! So, we feel much better now that she has someone to play with—we were feeling bad because the other cats were shunning her. She still rarely comes upstairs and has yet to sleep with us (since her first night) but things ARE getting better!
The strangest thing happened yesterday, however. The little girl who used to own her came to visit (and bring her vet paperwork) and it was obvious Boots/Elizabeth remembered her because she did something to her she’s NEVER done to us… pounce and attack! The little girl was just standing there and you could see Boots crouch down, get into pounce mode, then literally rush and LEAP at the girl, making it about to her stomach,wrapping her arms around the girl. (Of course, with no claws she couldn’t hold on or do any damage, but boy, was it a sight to behold!) We thought it might just be an odd occurrence, but Boots did it about five times while she was there! And she said Boots/Elizabeth used to do that to her ALL the time!
Of course, Maggie is as cute as ever! She’s still potty training—she had a few accidents when we took her to Roger & Ursula’s (to let her play with their puppy, Scrappy) but I assume that’s to be expected since it was a strange place. But for the most part she’s good—although we still watch her like a hawk. She sleeps a lot—she’s always in one of our laps—and she will even nap with us (cute pics to come of that, as well). We’re almost to the point of leaving her in her crate during the day, instead of leaving her in the bathroom (which she HATES). We just don’t want her to piddle in her crate and create bad habits.
Our small kitchen is even smaller now, what with all the animals underfoot—and there’s ALWAYS someone underfoot (although it’s mostly Boots or Maggie). Maggie likes the kitchen because that’s where the cats’ food is, and she eats their crumbs…and their actual food when we’re not paying attention or when we forget to move it. She’s sneaky that way.
So, overall, things are going well and we’re one big happy family!
So I was in charge of putting Maggie in the bathroom when I left for work. This is not a big deal, but it does entail wedging a large piece of wood precisely inside the door frame and then hooking it to the door frame with bungee cords. (We had a baby gate, but she learned to climb over it within four days.) So we get home from work and there’s poop on the entryway floor. Hmmm. How could that be? Cat poop? Nope, dog poop (we could tell because there were carrots in it—one of her chew treats). How did that happen? When did she do that? So we go upstairs and the dog is not in the bathroom…and the piece of wood was moved enough where she could get out!
Turns out that I didn’t place the wood quite precisely enough and she got her paws in and moved it! Oh, imagine the fun she had once she got out… but ironically, somehow she had gotten herself locked in our bathroom! So, we have no idea how long she was free before she got herself caught! We joked that the cats probably got tired of her chasing them and they corralled her and locked her in!