Soooo D-Pressed!

I haven't posted on Brutus's blog for so many days, but honestly, it's because he's been depressed. It's hard to have "fun" things to write about when he spends most of his day in his crate. As anyone who has read this blog knows, Brutus hates his crate, AND, it's downstairs, which he has never liked either. It has been so weird not having my big guy tripping me every time I turn around.

We had our week at the lake after the kids went home after Christmas, and I thought he would be so excited. He did have some fun outside with Don. Thankfully it had snowed, so he got to be outside while Don was cleaning out the driveway, and Don is extremely good about taking him for walks at the lake too, but it was freezing outside. The temperature was usually close to zero, so even the walks had to be short and sweet. Brutus just moped. I have wondered if he is sick, but I've gone through the check list and nothing is really standing out.

My biggest concern with Brute is ear infections. He has never had one (since we adopted him), but labs are very susceptible to ear infections because they have those big droopy ears that trap moisture in their ear canal. In the summer I was cleaning his ears any and every day that he went in the water, so he was pretty safe, but in the winter he only gets bathed every two to three weeks, so I don't think of it as often. I realize that he isn't jumping in the lake, but what he is doing is head dives in to the snow. He does this every time he goes outside, so I should be more careful. I give him a good head massage a couple times a day to keep him comfortable with me touching his ears and mouth, and I smell his ears when I do this, and they don't have any odor. I cleaned them today, and there wasn't any debris in them when I wiped them out after massaging them with cleaner soaked cotton balls in them. He has been scratching at his ears a little bit, but not obsessively. Mainly just when he wakes up. The other symptom he has shown is not wanting to eat his kibble, but I am bad about giving him healthy people food, so I guess that could be my fault. What can I say, the dog loves broccoli and rice and chicken, which does lead me to one funny story.

Last night Don had to go back to his office for a meeting, and when he came home he surprised me with a Culver's concrete mixer. They come with these little domes over them that have a hole in the top for the spoon. I was on the bed on my computer, as usual, and Don came in and handed it to me, and Brutus had his big old tongue down the hole in that little dome cover before I could even figure out what Don had handed me! He was so excited. I guess that I had forgotten how happy Brutus would get when we would go to the Dairy Queen in the summer for his doggy sundaes. I managed to get him off of my cup and I did put a little in a bowl for him. The boy was in heaven.

If you have any ideas why Brutus could be acting so depressed, I'm open for suggestions. I'm trying at all costs to avoid taking him to the vet because it's always a big scary ordeal for him AND the vet, but if he doesn't cheer up pretty soon I think I'm going to have to.