Legalectric

Alan tells me there are no photos of our cats on Legalectric!  How can that be?  Here’s Maggie (the tortise) and Thor (white with grey) the day we got them, just after their much needed bath.  That was November 1 or so, the neighbors were moving and had all these kittens… I’d met their mother when she came over to our 100-mile garage sale and spent the day hanging out with us:

I’d put food out for her on the deck, put out a basket for her to lounge in, and wanted to bring her in to be spayed, because she was “living” in their little storage shed, but I couldn’t take that on then.  Drat, because maybe four months later, there were kittens running around.  Then they had to move, and had all these kittens, then it was down to two, and I saw one on one of the city’s fb pages, recognized the houses in the background, went over with a cat carrier.  They stayed in Summer’s HUGE dog crate for 2 weeks as they and the dog adjusted:

Next thing you know, Little Sadie has two new friends:

And then phone had “catastrophic failure” and there went all the photos!  … sigh… yes, CATastrophic, off into the interwebs.  Disaster… cute photos gone. Oh well, plenty more around.

Today, Alan was scratching Little Sadie’s neck, and found a lump.  We corralled her, dumped her over, and did an inspection, and it was a slightly engorged tick.  Got all of it out rather easily.

But isn’t this a bit early?  YES!!  Another climate change impact.  Turns out the tick season here usually starts in May.  Not long ago, it was June 13:

Tick season starts full throttle in Minnesota

All of you with dogs, time to start fighting those ticks, starting with a head to tail inspection, right NOW!

It’s hard to be a dog.  Summer’s having a rough time, not emissions compliant, and most days, she can’t walk after sunset, some days, it’s earlier.  Yesterday we took her to the chiropractor again, Moe Body Works on Lyndale, Dr. Moses Smith.  I HIGHLY recommend her.  The problem is that Summer is getting older and losing it, she’s 13.5 and that’s an OLD shep. Hundreds of years old.  She was adjusted head to tail, and I heard some loud cracks.  She did trot out, which is good, but she’s just not doing well, and her body is not working and there’s just not much to do for her — she’s on pee pills, getting adjusted, her tumor is gone thanks to Summer herself, but her belly is rounded with fluid, her legs are working less and less, she’s pretty much deaf, and her eyes are going.  She still gets really worked up about her food and water, and yes, she is smiling almost all the time — that is a major criteria of dog happiness.  Lately she’s spending most nights in her jail, which she doesn’t like, but she can’t do stairs late in the day.  We’d gotten out the sling and are using that now and then, she needed it yesterday to get out and pee.  This morning she was able to get herself up, with some trouble and some help, and she got out the door, but left a trail of poops.  Today the baby gate gets installed at the bottom of the stairs so she stays downstairs, which she isn’t going to like because she spends her day at my feet under the desk.  And it’s worse for me than it is for her, it’s hard to see her decline.

And then Kady, the cruise control middle dog, had a mishap and yanked her toenail out, most but not all the way, and it hurt like hell, she was hopping around in the grass, anywhere where the toenail would touch (hard floors, cement, that was OK, just limping), and bleeding all over, little toe prints:

So after the chiro in Minneapolis, then we headed down to Kenyon Vet Clinic, where she got the Michael Jackson propofol treatment and got her toenail yanked.  She was out for a while, and had that cross-eyed smiley utterly wasted look for a while.  Kady Kate’s not moonwalking today, back to normal.

Dogs took all day yesterday!

And our Little Sadie is just fine, whew!

Summer is doing so well, she’s got the “going outside” thing down, has learned “sit” and “wait” and is working on “down” (on command, she spends a lot of time in “down” naturally), and is working things out with Kady.  Right now, all three are surrounding my chair, black and tan office rug, even Sadie, who usually spends the day upstairs with Alan.

Three dogs take a lot of time, especially if they’re not on the same schedule.  Here they are today, in sync!  Summer’s first walk on a Gentle Leader, she’s a lot peppier than we expected, and she’ll be doing some walking in her old age.  What a relief!!!

Noooooo, we know it’s spring, but on Sunday, we’re going to Wisconsin to meet, and likely bring home, our new adopted doggy, a 12 y.o.  GSD named Summer.  She needs a retirement home, and that’s something we’re good at.  What struck me about her is she’s Kenya’s twin, that perky smile, bright eyes (even if they can’t see) and this dear dog has 4 legs that work.

She doesn’t eat cats, and in case you didn’t notice, she’s a big’un, 120 pounds, WOW, that’s bigger than Krie the Big Galoot!  She has some health issues, but nothing we can’t handle, and with her good attitude, she should fit right in with Kady and Little Sadie.

Who can resist a smile like that?