The spay date came. Little Fecks (another nickname by one of my besties, Alison) seemed to sail through like a champ. The vet said it was "text book" perfect. WHY DO THEY SAY THAT????? Seriously folks, anyone that has a clue how my life rolls knows that this story is going nowhere good...The statement by the vet would be known to people in the story writing business as "foreshadowing"
The first few days were fine. Her incision was looking good. Actually it was looking "textbook". She slept a lot the first few days (hey wouldn't you if someone yanked an adult-sized Babymaker out of you? Textbook or no, this is a big ordeal!). By day four she would have little bouts of whiny-ness. She was also hoarding all of the stuffed toys into a pile and guarding them from the other dogs like they were her babies. She would carry as many as she could fit in her mouth at one time around the house. I must admit, it was adorable, but I was also concerned by her atypical behavior.
While I have worked in a lot of vet clinics and had LOTS of dogs, many were boys (snip snip and off you go, little man!) or girls that were spayed as pups, so I was not sure what was going on with our girl. The next morning , we woke up and she was whining and frantic. I though "Oh my god!!! Shes in pain!!!" I had a work meeting, so Gary stayed home and took her do the vet. He wasn't sure what was going on. As with most dogs, they always look really sick until the guy in the white coat comes around...then they make you look like an idiot! Dr. B. looked at her incision area : Textbook. Temperature : Normal. Palpation of the abdomen: Normal. When he put her on the floor, she was hunching a bit, so he x-rayed her abdomen, just to be sure: Normal. Fecks went home with some antibiotics (just in case) and some pain pills (just in case)...but by that evening, what was going on with Fecks became very evident: the nesting, the toy-babies, the whining, aggression towards any dog that came near the toy-babies...Fecks was having a pretty mild pseudo-pregnancy (the only thing she wasn't doing was milking). Not to point any fingers, but I guess her dopey mom didn't properly estimate 6 weeks post her heat cycle to schedule the spay and the hormones made the little girl think she was having babies! Jeesh, sorry girl! My bad!
Freckles Arrival
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Home, home on the range!
I decided that it was time for Freckles (also now know as Freckie Macfee, the Freckinator and Frecks Magee) to go the the farm and meet some Non-Beagles. This was a rather interesting day. I tried to plan things out (although, in the end, one must recognize that things of this nature often become calamity even with the best of planning). I packed up the car with towels and put adjusted my Handy Dandy Doggie Hammock in the back seat. I brought extra water bottles and some training treats (Ha! Training! Yeah, right!!!). I also decided to bring Cooper with us because, in the worst of situations, Cooper is an unflappably good guy. Around our house, he is considered to be doggie valium. At the very least, he is a sort of Doggie Buddah.
I scooped up Frecks Magee (No snickering- it was almost St. Patricks day when we named her that!)and Coopee Buddah and piled them in the back of the car and off we went. One does not really understand the error in their planning until one is powering down the road in a manual transmission car with one little beagle whining and peeing all over the Handy Dandy Doggie Hammock and another, larger, less than zen like beagle trying to climb on your head to escape the peeing and whining...Anyway, things finally settled down and we made it to the barn. Throwing training treats over my shoulder as people do with the lucky pinch of salt turned out the be a very helpful maneuver.
We got out of the car and the dogs acted like they had arrived in Heaven. Although Cooper has been to the barn many times before, he is pretty easy to please and the smell of horse pooh put him is a very Zen frame of mind. We rounded the corner to find the resident pet goats. There are about 10 of them, varying in shape, color, size and degree of obesity/aging decrepitude. Frecks was amazed by these odd, waddling beasts. She didn't seem to know weather to make friends or run away, so she did a little of both. Oddly, when she met my horses, she went right up and kissed them on the nose- it was all very cute. Coopee Buddah was becoming one with the goat and horse pooh- so he really wasn't assisting Frecks much on her spiritual journey. I guess I could've left him at home!
At some point, my friend Laura's dog, Bravo came in (he apparently decided to cut his portion of the trail ride short and high-tailed it back to the barn!). Frecks and Coop were enthralled. Bravo is a very large (70 lbs?) English Fox Hound. He had the good sense to want to hang out with the fox hunters rather than chase down the foxes in the hunt field, so he was promptly retired and got to come live with Laura...Smart dog! If you didn't know, fox hounds basically look like giant beagles. This particular fox hound looks like a giant Cooper, a fact which did not appear to be lost on my two little hounds. They were like long lost buddies. I corralled the Three Amigos into a stall so that they would not frolic off together into Parts Unknown.
My friend Laura showed up and thanked me profusely for corralling her galloping galute. Everyone in the barn cooed over the three silly hounds playing in the fresh bedding. It was all quite cute.
The two beagles slept like logs the whole ride home.
Laboratory retiree checklist:
Car ride: check
strange dog: check
goats: check
horses: check
Way to go Freckles! She's getting more acclimated every day...now if only she would stop peeing on my Pergo!
I scooped up Frecks Magee (No snickering- it was almost St. Patricks day when we named her that!)and Coopee Buddah and piled them in the back of the car and off we went. One does not really understand the error in their planning until one is powering down the road in a manual transmission car with one little beagle whining and peeing all over the Handy Dandy Doggie Hammock and another, larger, less than zen like beagle trying to climb on your head to escape the peeing and whining...Anyway, things finally settled down and we made it to the barn. Throwing training treats over my shoulder as people do with the lucky pinch of salt turned out the be a very helpful maneuver.
We got out of the car and the dogs acted like they had arrived in Heaven. Although Cooper has been to the barn many times before, he is pretty easy to please and the smell of horse pooh put him is a very Zen frame of mind. We rounded the corner to find the resident pet goats. There are about 10 of them, varying in shape, color, size and degree of obesity/aging decrepitude. Frecks was amazed by these odd, waddling beasts. She didn't seem to know weather to make friends or run away, so she did a little of both. Oddly, when she met my horses, she went right up and kissed them on the nose- it was all very cute. Coopee Buddah was becoming one with the goat and horse pooh- so he really wasn't assisting Frecks much on her spiritual journey. I guess I could've left him at home!
At some point, my friend Laura's dog, Bravo came in (he apparently decided to cut his portion of the trail ride short and high-tailed it back to the barn!). Frecks and Coop were enthralled. Bravo is a very large (70 lbs?) English Fox Hound. He had the good sense to want to hang out with the fox hunters rather than chase down the foxes in the hunt field, so he was promptly retired and got to come live with Laura...Smart dog! If you didn't know, fox hounds basically look like giant beagles. This particular fox hound looks like a giant Cooper, a fact which did not appear to be lost on my two little hounds. They were like long lost buddies. I corralled the Three Amigos into a stall so that they would not frolic off together into Parts Unknown.
My friend Laura showed up and thanked me profusely for corralling her galloping galute. Everyone in the barn cooed over the three silly hounds playing in the fresh bedding. It was all quite cute.
The two beagles slept like logs the whole ride home.
Laboratory retiree checklist:
Car ride: check
strange dog: check
goats: check
horses: check
Way to go Freckles! She's getting more acclimated every day...now if only she would stop peeing on my Pergo!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Time flies!
Boy- I had EVERY intention of blogging about little Frecky (yes, we call her Frecky now. Also Frecky Wecky, FrecksMagee, the Freckinator...) every week, then all of this life-type stuff started happening and I flaked.
It looks like I'm going to be having major back surgery in June. In order to make the decision about this surgery, I had to make about 4 trips down to Philadelphia from Upper West Jabip New Jersey. Oh, I guess I didn't mention that we put a bid in on a farm as well. Our current house is not quite finished yet, but the farm was too great to pass on.
So once again...AWAY WE GOOOO!!!!! For financial reasons, the horses will have to come home right away if we get this farm...which will likely occur around the time of my back surgery...AND we will be carrying 2 mortgages for a while. I think Gary and I have mental problems. Do normal people operate like this? Anyway, the above is my reasoning for neglecting my Freckles blog, but NO MORE! I am back and I promise to be posting away on our little heroine, Freckles.
She is a sassy little thing! Fe loves her now because Freckles is the only one with the courage to steal toys from her. Housebreaking is coming slowly, but it's coming. She LOVES stuffed toys and she is the only dog in the house that will take a toy outside and bring it back in with her. Basically, she thinks retirement is GREAT!
It looks like I'm going to be having major back surgery in June. In order to make the decision about this surgery, I had to make about 4 trips down to Philadelphia from Upper West Jabip New Jersey. Oh, I guess I didn't mention that we put a bid in on a farm as well. Our current house is not quite finished yet, but the farm was too great to pass on.
So once again...AWAY WE GOOOO!!!!! For financial reasons, the horses will have to come home right away if we get this farm...which will likely occur around the time of my back surgery...AND we will be carrying 2 mortgages for a while. I think Gary and I have mental problems. Do normal people operate like this? Anyway, the above is my reasoning for neglecting my Freckles blog, but NO MORE! I am back and I promise to be posting away on our little heroine, Freckles.
She is a sassy little thing! Fe loves her now because Freckles is the only one with the courage to steal toys from her. Housebreaking is coming slowly, but it's coming. She LOVES stuffed toys and she is the only dog in the house that will take a toy outside and bring it back in with her. Basically, she thinks retirement is GREAT!
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