Lliving with Pets: Pet-Related Injuries

Last night my dog gave me a black eye.

Today I have to go to a meeting with Very Important Clients, Builders, and Contractors and makeup is not going to cover this baby up.

I can't tell you how glad I am that we've all been working together for more than 18 months, so, hopefully they will not think that I'm an abused spouse.

Nope, I'm just a short woman who played fetch with a tall, bouncy dog, and who got clobbered when she glanced away for a moment.

Life with pets - it's not easy.
So, anyone else sustain a pet-related injury that they would like to share? Come on, please make me feel a little better about this one!

Fido Friday: Jack

A little Jackie-boy in the foreground, a reclining Dane and a Deco vanity in the background - what else do you need for a Friday?!

And the rare-er Smilin' Jack in warmer weather.

Happy Fido Friday!

Happy Weekend!

Ophelia and Jack, in their usual lounging positions

Christmas in August - sorta

Well, it involves mistletoe at least, but not in the usual way.

While I was doing other chores in the back yard last night, Miss Ophelia found a few hefty twigs of storm blown mistletoe, of all things, and decided that it looked like a fun chew toy. I eventually glanced over to see what she was doing, shrieked, and promptly took her treasure away.

I had a sneaking suspicion that this isn't the kind of plant a pet ought to be nibbling. A quick trip to the internet revealed that mistletoe is indeed considered toxic to pets. The berries are the worst part of the plant, but pretty much the whole thing can cause a variety of horrible traumas, or death, if consumed in enough quantity. HERE is some info. And more HERE.

Interestingly, there is also some data HERE from tests done to study the anti-cancer properties European Mistletoe.

Fortunately, Ophelia is a 110 lb. Great Dane, so the after the folks at Poison Control and the county Emergency Vet got over the fact that some fool was calling with a mistletoe question in freakin' August, they all agreed that her actual risk probably wasn't too terrible given her body weight. The toxic affects are horrible, though, so They also agreed that there was no point in taking chances, and that a purge was needed ASAP. Bring on the hydrogen peroxide!

Lucky for me, my friend and neighbor, Louis, was game to help wrangle a very squirmy, very big dog while I dumped the appropriate, vet-recommended amount of hydrogen peroxide down her gullet. The peroxide did the trick, spectacularly. Fortunately, all traces of mistletoe were expelled, and Oph seems to be in fine shape.

In case you're wondering where in the hell the mistletoe came from....Our neighbor has a very large oak tree that has lots of this parasitic plant growing in the canopy. I think that the combo of drought, followed by some very windy summer storms knocked the plant right out of the tree - and into my yard.

So, how was your Sunday night?!

The Dog Days of Summer?

After a beautiful month of weather in May, we've been hit hard with real summer temps (hello mid-90's and high humidity) for the last week or so. As a result, my attention span has dwindled to that of a two year old, so it's looking like blog topics may be real lazy for a little while. With that in mind, I've taken some inspiration from SillyMonkey's blog, by raiding my photo archives for dog antics. We've had plenty of misbehaving dog stories over the years, even if only a small portion of them have actually been captured by a camera.

We have a fig tree in the back yard, and it didn't take Ophelia and Jack long to figure out that they really like the taste of figs. Between them and the birds, Smithy and I don't actually get to eat many figs ourselves! Here's Jack's impression of a giraffe:

Jack actually has a long and notorious career as a troublemaker, and one of his less-flattering-but-printable nicknames has been Anxiety Boy. He's had separation anxiety problems in the past that medication and re-training only put a slight dent in. (He's also fear-aggressive with new dogs, but that's a story for another day.) So, in the wake of his anxiety and stress, there were many, many times that I came home to scenes like this. This is an old picture of Jack and the late, great Blue, my first Great Dane, in (an old incarnation of) my kitchen. Frankly, there were a lot of days that I just didn't want to come home.


Yes, that's a homemade dog gate that Smithy constructed in order to keep Miss Blue confined, but it looks a little like Shawshank in the pic!

Here's the beginning of the devastation to the kitchen floor:

(Yes, we've tried crating, medication, and several trainers and behaviorists...)

Then there are the harder-to-capture dog moments, often tying in with behavior and body language. For all her statuesque grandeur, Blue could be quite the alpha bitch bully to the other dogs. We all -eventually- learned how to manage a multi-dog household, especially one containing 'she who must rule the world'.

And we managed to have a good time...

(black and white photos by Louis Cahill, see link to the right)

Even though I could do without a lot of the dog-related drama, I would hate to live without a dog!

Ophelia and Loropetalum

A happy Ophelia, posing near the blooming Loropetalum.

dots and sunbeams

An intro to the Great Dame's resident Dane, Miss Ophelia....

I was bored out of my mind late one weekend afternoon recently, so I started fiddling with the camera. I was trying to get some decent photos of some of my art deco furniture, so that I could post on the blog. The charming Ophie is never far from my side, so she got in on the act.
So, here we have a study in black and white patches, a red polka dot rug, and golden sunbeams.