AN UPDATE AND SOME PHOTOS

A lot of stuff has been happening here lately, and a lot of it is about us dogs and cats.  So I figured I had better tell you everything, and that way you won't be left in the dark.

Barry already wrote about how he ate some pieces of a blanket and had to spend two whole days getting IV fluids.  He's all better now, but he has to take antibiotics, and also Mom is supposed to soak his kibble and make it all soggy before he eats it.  She has to do this for a week or so.

Meanwhile, Nicky had some bloodwork done last week to find out why he is so grumpy and maybe also why he has diarrhea all the time.  When the test results came back from the lab, it turned out that the numbers that have to do with Nicky's liver were really high.  So now Dr. Griswold is going to try to discover what is making those number be so high.  She talked to a special doctor called an internist, and that doctor said to start by testing for leptospirosis, so that is what the lab is doing with the leftover blood from Nicky's first tests.  Mom was shocked to learn that the test for leptospirosis costs $129, which she had to pay for at the same time she was paying for all of Barry's x-rays and IV fluids and stuff, so after she paid for everything, she felt really broke.

Another test that Nicky is maybe going to have is a test of his poop to see if he has any unusual parasites that aren't tested for in the regular poop tests.  And he also might have an ultrasound to find out if his liver is bigger than it is supposed to be or if it has some kind of growth in it that is not supposed to be there.  Oh, and Nicky also needs to have his teeth cleaned again, and his gums are all red-looking, so that might be what is making his liver blood values high.

Well, as if all that liver stuff weren't enough, Nicky fell down and skinned up both of his back legs pretty bad on Friday.  And the way it happened was that Mom took him to Dr. Griswold's office to check the scratch on his eyeball, which he got the week before, and Dr. Griswold said it was pretty much all healed up. Then when Mom was trying to get Nicky back in the car to bring him home, he didn't want to go in there, so she was trying to get him in by lifting up his front end and then boosting his back end up.  This trick has worked pretty well in the past, but this time, somehow Nicky slipped and he fell down and scraped his hind legs on the parking lot and landed on his back.

This was a $15 tube of eye ointment for Nicky
that got chewed up somehow.  Mom thinks I did it,
but I'm not talking until I have a lawyer present! 

Mom didn't know if she could still even get him into the car, but she tried again, and finally he went in there.  Then she drove home, and after that, she realized that his legs were bleeding because greyhounds have really thin skin, so all you have to do is just barely touch them and they start bleeding.  Luckily, Mom has experience bandaging greyhound legs, including Nicky's, so she bandaged him up with some nice yellow vetwrap.  The bandages look very pretty and festive, and now we call our greyhound Mr. Nicky Yellowstockings.






Nicky still sort of lets me sleep with him, but a lot of times he growls at me, so I go find someplace else to sleep.  Mom has been putting a nice, cushy little dogbed out for me to sleep on, except that yesterday morning while Mom was feeding the cats, I ripped the bed open and started pulling out the stuffing.  I had lots of fun doing this, but Mom was Really Annoyed because she had only just mended the bed last week on her new sewing machine, but this time I tore it up so cleverly that Mom did not think it could be mended again.  So she threw it in the trash.

Okay, well, that's all the news about us dogs.  I guess I will tell you a little bit about the kittens, while I'm at it.  They are very lively and crazy, and they get into everything.  They have knocked over several of Mom's plants, which did not make Mom happy.  Also they are always trying to get into the refrigerator whenever Mom opens the door, because they have figured out that their food comes out of the refrigerator.

A few days ago, they also climbed into the dishwasher, but that was mainly because Mom let them so that she could take a picture.  I think it's totally unfair that the kittens get four meals a day, and we dogs only get two.  Even Jacen gets three meals, and the big cats only get two.  When I complained to Mom about it, she said that the kittens are little, and they need to eat more often.  Also she said that life is not fair, and I should get used to it.

Well anyway, yesterday the three little kittens went to the shelter with Mom, and they got their first vaccinations.  Also they got more de-worming, even though they are not having diarrhea anymore.  And guess what!  On December 19, they are all going to get spayed or neutered, so after that they can be adopted, and somebody else will have to put up with them!