Puppy Love

It has been such a fun weekend. We had our "Christmas" with the kiddos a week early. Nick and Ashley both had troubles with scheduling a visit during the week of the 25th, so we just moved our gathering up by a week. Nick was able to bring his girlfriend Liz along for the whole visit this year, which was awesome. She is such a love, and such a perfect match for Nick. It's been so much fun to see them together.

Andrew's girlfriend Amber was able to join us on Friday and Saturday evening. She was scheduled to work this weekend so she had to come to the party a little late, but she was nice enough to let her dog Mabel come over and play with Brutus for the weekend while she was at work. Needless to say, Brutus is exhausted!! Every once in a while he would jump up on our bed to hide from Mabel (because she's very well trained and won't jump up on our bed) and he knows it. lol! They spent the weekend playing tug of war, wrestling, kissing, snuggling, and running around like crazy! I'm thinking he will sleep for a good two days! Ahhhhh...........puppy love.

Here's a little slide show of their play date.


http://s935.photobucket.com/albums/ad196/PetersonSheri/?albumview=slideshow

The Dreaded Cone Of Shame

When Brutus woke up today, the sore on his foot looked even worse than it did yesterday. It was still swollen about the same amount, but one side of it was kind of white and oozy. Sorry for the gross word in there, but there was just no nice way to say it. It was definitely time to head to the doggy doctor. Ugh. :(

On a happy note, Andrew came home last night for a dentist appointment that he had today. Brutus adores Andrew, to the point that he actually slept downstairs in his crate last night to keep an eye on him. Brutus hates it downstairs. He'll typically only go down there to go outside to go to the bathroom, or if Don is down there with food. If there is food involved, as soon as it is swallowed, he's right back up those stairs. I will never know what happened to him in a basement that makes him so afraid, but our basement is warm and cozy, and it just doesn't matter. Even today, Andrew got all kinds of love and "pats". At one point Andrew was sitting on the bed doing some stuff on the laptop. Our oldest cat Princess jumped up to say "hello" to him, and Brutus about fell apart. All of a sudden he was rolling over on his back trying to get Andrew's attention, and tapping his leg. When that wasn't getting his attention away from Princess, the head in the lap had to take place. Finally Brutus had had it. He stood up and sneezed really loud at Princess. Problem solved. Life was as it should be again.....in Brutus land.

Anyway, I digress. So, as always, I call the clinic to schedule Brutus's appointment, and give the girl at the desk fair warning that Brutus may throw a bit of a "fuss". In my mind I'm thinking that if anyone touches that back foot, he'll take their head off, but I didn't want to go quite that far with my honesty. For all of you dog owners out there, you'll love what came out of the receptionist's mouth next. "Well, maybe we should just muzzle him before we even take him back to the room". That's right. Let's go in to this with a positive attitude. In her defense, I'm the one always reminding them that they may need to be prepared for a bit of trouble. Maybe I should just stop, although, it's right on the computer screen that Brutus is a "vicious dog". More like a big fraidy cat.

I am at the point in getting over the flu that when I am standing up for more than an hour, I break out in a sweat. Yes, it's been ten days. No, I have no idea why I am such a wimp when it comes to this. I have my physical tomorrow, and may ask for euthanasia. Anyway, I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to handle Brutus alone, so Don came home to help. Thank goodness!! He literally had to pick him up just to get him in the room, and Brutus weighs 90 lbs. Not an easy task. We managed to get through the Vet Tech's interview without a muzzle, and even the doctor's eyeball exam of the foot. Things were going pretty well. Unfortunately, the foot was going to require a cortisone shot, and very close to the wound. I muzzled Brutus and held his leg while Don held Brutus. The doctor put the shot in gently, but as quickly as he could. He actually got almost the whole shot in, which should help to calm down the inflammation a lot. Brutus also has to take two weeks of antibiotics for the underlying infection, and wear the cone on his head when we aren't watching him close to keep him from licking. He has another appointment in two weeks to see if we need to repeat the shot and continue with the antibiotics. The lump on his foot was pretty big.

My heart felt thanks goes out to Cori Mason, a girl who I have watched grow up and become an amazing Veterinary Assistant. She gave me great advice to follow in the interim until the time came for me to take Brutus in to the doctor. I just wish Cori didn't live eight hours away!! Any vet clinic that has her is very lucky.

So, that is Brutus's update. I also want to thank Amber, Andrew's girlfriend, for the cute little "Cone of Shame" clip from the movie "Up". It's so sad, but it certainly made me laugh a little. I will share it below. Have a happy everyone!!

Someone Needs Their Tongue Tied!

My Brutus Boy is such a nervous Nelly! It just breaks my heart. His nervous habit of choice is licking, and it isn't like he chooses to lick my floors and clean them up, or clean his whole body. No, my boy licks one spot on his body, over and over and over until he literally just can't lick it anymore.

This time it started with Don leaving to go deer hunting. As silly as this sounds, Brutus is very much a two parent dog. When dad doesn't come home between 4:00 and 5:00 (which is when Brutus starts sitting at the top of the stairs waiting for him) there is obviously a big reason to get nervous and start to worry. He gets a very sad face, and will pace around for a while. When he finally gives up and comes to bed, he lets out several big sighs and lays his head down on his paws and looks at me like he's saying "where's my dad, and how can you possibly just be laying there like that"?

To add insult to injury, I went to my mom's for Thanksgiving. I was only gone for the day, but since I would be gone the whole day, and Brutus couldn't come with, I had to kennel him. The kennel we take him to is great, and he's been there before, so it isn't like we're just dropping him off some place that he's never been. Actually, I had taken him in there a couple days prior to his drop off day just to say "hello" and get a belly rub and a treat to ease the stress of drop off day. But, he's used to getting a good ten hours of sleep a night on a king size bed in total peace and quiet, and at the kennel I'm sure there were dogs that cried all night for their families. Also, his kennel is located inside of PetSmart, and the store itself is closed on holidays, so I had to drop him off the night before Thanksgiving, and pick him up the day after, which meant two nights away from home. So now we have dad gone, and staying at a kennel. Double stress!!

Don came home from Thanksgiving and picked Brutus up from the kennel, which was like Christmas, but two days later I am hit by a Mac truck that happens to be carrying the flu in it, and honestly, I'm still not recovered, so he hasn't had a walk from me in quite a few days. So not good! He's used to getting walked close to every day, if for no other reason just to mark all of his territories. That's important boy stuff!! Now we're up to triple stress!!!

Now throw in Don taking him to the lake last weekend. Honestly, he was doing the right thing because Brutus LOVES being at the lake, but Don had plans on Friday night and Saturday night, so you guessed it, Brutus was home alone. Lick lick lick.

So this is where we are today. Fair warning, it isn't pretty. It's hard to tell, but this is his hind paw. He was very fussed up about me even taking a picture of it, as I'm sure it's very sore. I've been trying to put antibiotic cream on it, and a few times I've put a sock over it, but since he's licking it all the time, I'm sure the antibiotic cream isn't doing a whole lot of good. You can probably all imagine how long the sock stays on! I contacted our family friend Cori who is a veterinary assistant, and she thinks we can "lick" this thing at home. Pun totally intended. Somehow, I need to distract him long enough for the antibiotic cream to soak in. She also suggested getting one of those cone collar things to put around his head if he won't leave it alone. That would be great fun! Honestly, I can see a couple of the cats taking great advantage of that one!! Funniest home videos, here we come.

So, keep your fingers crossed, or paws crossed. Whatever works. A trip to the vet to look at something that "hurts" would definitely mean sedation for Brutus, or death for the vet. :(  We'll keep you posted.