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Oct-12-2005 14:27

Yesterday morning at 6am, Texan, Woody, Zech, (our Yorkshire Terriers), & I, got up to get ready to leave for Katy, TX, to see our Pain Control Specialist, when Woodrow & Zechariah started coughing none stop. I became frantic because we had to go see our doctor, & couldn't take them to their doctor until we got back. So, to help stop the coughing I gave them small doses of Tussen DM, a cough formula. I gave this until we got back & rushed them straight to the Vet, at which time Woody was coughing continuously & having tremors. I was afraid Woody's trachea would collapse because a dog bit him on the neck years ago & damaged it. After the doctor checked them from head to toe, his prognosis was Bronchitis. Bronchitis has an incubation period from 5 to 10 days, then when symptoms are noticed, there's a harsh dry cough, aggravated by activity or excitement, sneezing, plus mucous in the throat that keeps one coughing & gagging, in an attempt to clear it, as well as a temperature. Neither of our boys had a temp or was sneezing. By getting treated right away this prevented the infection from elevating into a secondary bacterial infection or pneumonia. He had to give Woody a narcotic cough suppressant shot, to help him relax & stop coughing. He also prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug & anti-antibodic pills for the infection. He said to keep them dry & warm, but not too hot, plus rest for seven days. Said we should see a difference by tomorrow, which we have, thank goodness! Today, Woodrow has coughed when excited, or when he wants something to eat, so in order to keep him calm I had to give him a small dose of Benadryl, & yet he's still been whining & barking to go see his friend Sunny, who lives across the street. All day long Zech & Woody have went back & forth to the sliding glass doors, looking outside to let us know they want to see their little friend. Everyday they are use to going over to see Sunny &, in fact, my spouse carries them over there two or three times daily to see him, & when they don't get to go, they let us know about it..lol. Sunny's Mom sa

Oct-12-2005 21:50

Yes, we used to call Aurora "The Roar" for short. In fact, we have nick names for all out pets. Multiple nick names. My husband is quite the manly guy out in the world, but no one knows that secretly at home he merrily wanders around the house making up songs about the dogs.

Bella....what story to tell about her? Well, we got her for company for Charlie, since he likes other dogs he sees out on walks so much. Little did we know that he would not like sharing us with another dogo so much, or that Bella would take over. She's definitely born into a higher doggie caste than Charlie, and she lets him know it. And he's old enough and tired enough now that he doesn't want to play with her all the time. So then we got Joey, who was just old enough to be house trained and just young enough that we thought he'd still want to play with Bella a lot. Well, turns out he's NOT housetrained, despite the information we got at the shelter, so we are constantly cleaning up after him and will be investing in new flooring because of him :( Bella, meanwhile, went through a furniture chewing stage for a mere couple of weeks last spring. She never chewed furniture before or since, but in that brief period of time she basically destroyed the couch and the ottoman.

And while Bella and Joe DO play, no one can play enough for Bella. I used to take her to agility classes, which she loved, and even they weren't really enough for her. I think she'd be happiest as a sled dog, but she has worn paths all around the yard. She runs around like crazy, doing a perimeter patrol.

Joe, the littlest of them all, is the most territorial. He growls at anyone who tries to get in bed after he is in it, for example, whether it be a dog or a person. He even growls if he is sleeping and you talk about him. In fact, it's gotten so that if you use a certain tone of voice so that he even /thinks/ you are talking about him, he'll grumble about it. He's definitely a grumbler!

Oct-12-2005 21:59

Bella is very smart, which is part of the trouble. It takes a lot of playing to wear her out, and she wants it to stimulate her mind as well. This is why agility was so great for her; she was always learning.

There's a little pond in our yard - strictly ornamental, hardly larger than a bathtub. It's covered with little green water plants, so it looks like the ground to the dogs. Each of them has had an experience of running right into the pond in order to learn that the ground stops there. Both Joe and Charlie learned not to go in, and all they do is drink from it. Bella also learned not to go in. But then one day, my husband was out cleaning the filter for the fountain. Bella was around while he did this. The next day, he asks me, "Did you take all that stuff out of the pond?" No...

Well, Bella apparently learned through that one observation that the pond was for taking things out of! She took out the filter, the pump, the tubes, the huge rocks which were weighing everything down, all of it. And what a fun game it was! She would take it all out. We would put it all in. She would take it all out...

We realized we had better unplug the motor to the pump, in case she chewed up the wire. We didn't want her to get electrocuted. And it was a good thing we did, because a couple of days later I came home to find everything pulled out of the pond again, except there was no pump attached to the power cord anymore. When I went in the house, I saw that Bella had dragged her prize into the living room, a cordless pump. Needless to say, we have a plain pond now, with no fountain...

Now she regularly patrols the pond for frogs and comes into the house dripping with the water plants. At those moments, we call her "Swamp Thing."

She also likes to open packages, so we have to post a sign for delivery people to leave boxes outside the fence. She opened a box of books for me one time, and they were readers for my class....

Oct-12-2005 22:00

...so my students asked me how come there were little holes on the binding of their books, and I didn't want to tell them...

Oct-13-2005 06:51

LOL!!! cute stories Moonshh! I really enjoyed reading them! It definitely is true, that we revolve ourselves around our animals. We think we run the roost, but I think it is our lil furry friends who run the household lol :)

Oct-13-2005 14:06

First off, a big "THANK YOU," Colonel Shanty, for help jump starting this thread. I read your stories aloud to texan and we laughed about Whiskey bringing the critters in the yard. I could just see it..lol. Someday Jayjay will do something that surprises you, then you can share it here with us.

Oct-13-2005 14:29

Makensie, I really enjoyed reading about Turbo again. Each time I see your replies on the message boards, I always think about Turbo. Back when you shared about him and said you wanted a poem written to remember him by, I tried for days to write one, but could never complete it like I wanted. I felt someone else held the key in writing for you the perfect poem, so I put it aside, but I've never forgotten. I'm so sorry about your loss, but one day you'll meet again in Heaven. I know Turbo's passing hurts everyday and always will. I too have lost several throughout the years and I know how it feels & I think of them all still. Again, thanks for sharing about all your babies.

Moonshh, there's nothing I love more than reading about animals, watching them on television, or hearing someone share about their babies. I never tire of watching the "Animal Channel," on TV, and nothing upsets me more than seeing or hearing about people abusing them. Anyway, I really enjoyed reading about your children, and that's just what they are to me...children. The stories you shared were so cute & all that "Swamp Thing," done was so funny, hehe! I read it aloud to texan and he was laughing too. Yelp, animals are smarter than some peple give them credit for. In fact, they can be very intelligent.

Texan just said he'll be sharing about some of his animals later. He's had horses, Mexican Burrows, birds, monkeys, dogs, cats, and you name..lol. Oh, I'm sure I've not heard about some of them, but I know he's owned plenty of neat babies.

Oct-13-2005 14:51

Oh, Moonshh, it would have been so funny if you could have caught"The Swamp Thing/Bella," on tape and mailed it to "Amercia's Funniest Video's," ha!. I believe you'd win first prize..hehe.

Oct-13-2005 20:43

We've always had pets.
Rabbits, dogs, budgies, canaries, goats, cats, a mexican walking fish, guinea pigs, a variety of hens, horses and stick insects.

We had a big rottwieler when my sister was a baby and only just crawling. One day, Mum was just chillin' when she heard an intense growling. Abbie was no where to be seen. So, she walks into the hallway. Dan was backed up against the wall with his hind legs trying to scramble at the wall as my baby sister, Abbie was trying to tug the dog biscuit from his mouth and growling at him!
I don't think it was just because she was teething either... she ate the catfood all the time too.

Another time our uncle was housesitting for us...and vacumned up Abbie's yellow canary. So, being that one yellow canary looks like another and that he had time to replace the yellow canary with another yellow canary, he replaced it. With an orange canary.

We used to swiiming down at the river after school. At one stage, the chickens, Billy (angora goat) and George (ugly goat), Mouse (who was a cat) and Tor (dog) would come down to the river with us.

Another time when Sam was about 13.. got up one night horrified. He went to Mum, "Mum... I think I've wet the bed!" It was only Mouse having kittens in his bed.

Oct-13-2005 20:55

As for animals in the bed... well.

I saw a mouse in my older sister's room. I told her and she thought I was joking. We ended up having a BIG fight.

My sweet revenge came about 2 in the morning with the terrified screams of my sister because there was a mouse in her bed.

When I left home, it wasn't long before I missed having animals in the house. So, I decided to get a cat. I wanted a little grey kitten and so when there was an advertisement in the paper for grey and white kittens, I was off. There's was this cutest little grey kitten but as I was playing with her, a little grey and white furball curled up on my lap, started purring and fell asleep. I fell in love so we got him. Jools was soooo affectionate. He hated being left alone and would cry.. so right from the start he ended up sleeping with us. His idea of heaven- curled up betwen warm bodies. So, anyhoo, we broke up and Jools seemed to take this rather presonally... he wanted to share his bed with two people, not just me!
He started sneaking throught the neighbour's catdoor. They'd wake up only to find Jools nestled between them!

Jools is now living at my Mum and Dad's and while he's pretty much got Dad twisted around his little paw, he's still working on the whole "How to wheedle my way into the bedroom" scheme.

Oct-13-2005 23:36

Another Bella story, which actually happened whilst I was chatting with some of my old Underground companions and possibly even sleuthing.

Bella, who is a skilled huntress (She can even catch birds and snakes!), was barking outside with her "I've got some prey trapped here" bark. And I was merrily chatting away online.

And then I realized that the barking was coming from the living room, and I wasn't sure when it had come inside. Remembering how Bella had recently presented me with a small dead mouselike rodent, I assumed she had a mouse trapped behind the easy chair.

So, I moved the chair and came face to face with a HUGE possum! I went crazy! I was expecting to see a small living creature, but nothing like this! I ran around screaming, then went and typed to my sleuth friends for advice. The possum was, of course, "playing possum." After I calmed down a little I realized I had the repository of all human knowledge at my fingertips (the internet), and that surely I could find some advice on how to get this possum -this great big huge monster possum - out of my house.

I learned a lot, but in the end I isolated the dogs and waited for my husband to get home. Various tactics I tried by myself just did not work, no matter how well-researched.

The final solution was to put on our fireplace gloves, cover the possum with an upside-down laundry basket, and scoot him out the door under it. We haven't seen any possums in our yard since, so he must have warned all the ones in the area that we weren't worth messing with.

But I am still amazed that Bella brought that creature in through the dog door. And she's probably still mad at me for taking her special "prize" away...