February 2002

2/2/02

A Day at the Park

We took Rosie for her second trip to Point Isabel today. She was there for two hours, and played all the time. She went in the Bay, waded in mud puddles, and played with lots of other dogs. There were many compliments on her even temperment and lovely form. I told her to suck them up now because when she's not a puppy any more people won't give her so much love.

2/4/02

Rosie gets sick

Our usually perky puppy spent the day feeling unwell. When liquid starts coming from the pup's butt at 2am, you get a bit worried. Figuring it was something nasty she ate at the park, We decided to watch and see if she got better miraculously. If not, I would take her into the vet first thing Tuesday.

Unfortunately, she did not get better. Soft poops turned into liquid poops turned into frothy nasty things at 3AM. Uncharacteristically, she was up three times during the night with an urgent need to use the yard, and by morning the yard told an unhappy story. We were suddenly very popular with big black flies.

Rosie and I prepare for the big day

Rosie and I pose for the camera

2/5/02

Rosie tries to sleep it off

This morning, after a suitable stool sample had been obtained, I packed her off to the vet's office. Dr. Grandrath saw nothing untoward in the stool (apart from its texture, of course), and the Parvo test came up negative (though it's possibly it's a false negative, there are few symptoms of Parvo: no fever, no bloody stool, no vomiting; just diarrhea and lethargy). The doctor agreed with my initial thought that this was probably caused by Rosie eating something gross at Ohlone Park on Friday. She gave us antibiotics and a recipe for mild food to rest Rosie's tummy. This means skipping puppy class this week, unfortunately, but Rosie's feeling so down that she'd have an awful time, anyway.

We're also going to wait to make sure she's not got Parvo before bringing her into a group of puppies with varying levels of innoculation.

For dinner, Rosie had a nice little homemade slurry of rice, tinned chicken breast, and cottage cheese (with REAL! LIVE! BACTERIA! -- it said so on the label).

(Recipe: make 3 cups of plain white rice. Mix in one can chicken breast and two large spoonfuls of cottage cheese. Feed in small doses throughout the day.)

Although the tinned chicken made the whole house smell something awful, and brought the cats to yowl around my feet in delight, Rosie seemed to take to the new food just fine, but then again she hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast, so she wasn't too picky. I followed some advice off the web and gave her a portion of an Imodium tablet, which had little effect; she still jumped up at 3am and asked to go out and have a liquidy, white poop.

2/6/02

Sleepy girl

Under the influence of not much to eat, a sick tummy, and antibiotics, Rosie slept most of the day. The diarrhea changed overnight into constipation (due to the Imodium? Possibly, but then again you try eating nothing but 12 cups of white rice and get back to me on how regular you feel) so she just didn't feel like pooping. The lack of need to poop meant she got some quality sleeping in, which she really needed after a couple sleepless nights with tummy cramps and the trots.

Around 9PM, we started worrying about when she would next poop. Current betting is that 3AM is the magic hour.

2/7/02

We have poop!

At 6:30AM, with accompanying loud squirty noises. The dog startled herself. Fresh slurry was mixed up with a smaller portion of Imodium (no need to tempt fate), the dog was fed, and back to bed she went.

2/9/02

Well doggie

On Friday afternoon, Rosie started feeling much better. So when Staurday dawned bright and clear, we took her back to Point Isabel, friend Charlotte in tow. Rosie ran all over the place, discovered the joy of dashing through mud puddles, but was wary of the bay. By the time we started back to the car, she was coated head to tow in sand and mud, so we stopped for a quick rinse at the hoses.

Rosie licks chicken and rice from the spoon

2/10/02

High Energy

Rosie was really feeling great today, as we worked her more onto her regular food and finished the antibiotics given by the doctor. Her poops are coming more normally, now, and she's back on three meals a day.

After lunch, we played a bit in the yard.

2/11/02

Ouch!

This morning Rosie got her last set of shots and her rabies certificate. We picked up some heartworm pills and flea treatments, too. She weighed in at 25 lbs. She was 23 when we went in last Tuesday.

I had the day off work, so the dog and I went out to Point Isabel after lunch. Right off the bat, Rosie got bit on the ear by a Jack Russell, and bled all over the place. She cried a bit, but then I carried her all the way back to the car and that made her pretty happy.

Damn, but that dog is getting heavy.

After a bit of calming down and cleaning up (her blood got all over me), we headed back out and Rosie spent a good half hour running in and out of the water.

2/13/02

Office visit

This morning, Rosie took a brief trip to meet the legendary Roscoe, King of Windriver. They bounced all over the estuary walkway, and then Rosie slipped and twisted her ankle and had to be on-leash and walk slowly the rest of the way. The dog just seems to get hurt a lot. After our walk, I put Rosie back in the car and went for lunch. When I came back, she was curled in a little ball, fast asleep.

When we got home, I hid dog food around the yard for her to find. This was a pretty good game, but it was cold and rainy, so we went inside and Rosie lay down for a good nap.

In the evening, we went to the pet store and bought Rosie some more treats, a new chewie rope (to wet and freeze for her teething gums), and a big-girl leash. She's much easier to handle with the new leash. After the store, we went to the dog park, where Rosie played multiple games of fetch (no sign of trouble from the ankle, fortunately). She was completely worn out when we left. And muddy, of course.

2/19/02

Model pupil

We went to puppy class today, and Rosie learned how to heel. It took her all of about two seconds to figure it out. Before class we went out to Point Isabel and Rosie got to run around and let off a bunch of energy. Because there's no more work to go to, I've been taking her to the park every day, which has been good for both of us.

2/23/02

Attack of the Shiba Inu

Elaine came with Rosie and me to the park today, and we were having a jolly old time until the very end, when Rosie went up to a Shiba Inu. He barked at her once, she backed off, then when she came up again he lunged and went for her neck. She started screaming, other dogs came running, and I panicked. I completely forgot how to break up a dog fight. The Shiba Inu's owner was hitting her dog on the head with a water bottle.

After this went on for way too long, Rosie got away. I scooped her up, and she was whimpering, so I ran her away from the melee. The Shiba's owner leashed her dog and left without giving me her phone number, that jerk. Elaine and I checked Rosie from head to toe, and she showed a slight favouring of one paw, but there was no broken skin. Several people came over to see how she was, but she was still very scared. We walked very very slowly back to the car.

2/26/02

Graduate

Tonight was Rosie's graduation from Puppy Basic class. We did a really fun exercise where we passed our puppies around the room and let other people handle them, making them do sits and downs and so forth. Rosie soon learned that everybody else has treats, too, not just me, and this made her a bit of a brat for the rest of class. She also pooped on the floor of the classroom, which was not very nice. Then it was time for graduation. She had to go up in front of the class and do a special trick. Hers was doing a down on verbal command, which none of the other dogs can do yet. She heeled the whole way to the front, too. That's my food-motivated dog.

2/28/02

Splashy

Today, Rosie discovered that the Bay is Fun. We were down at the beach at Point Isabel, and the tide was about halfway out. The waves were small, there were lots of tide pools forming, and she was hopping up and down in the water just splashing and having fun.

She's still very nervous playing with other dogs, but the positive experiences are starting to override the fear from the Shiba.

Rosie and her pine cone toy