Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

No-One Calls My Dog A Behemoth!

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Kari from Hound Girl had a post this morning entitled, “Breaking up with your vet.”  I started writing my comment and realized I had an entire post.

Once upon a time, I broke up with my vet.  Here’s how it happened.

We used the same vet for Sampson that we had used with our previous dog, Roxanne.

After Delilah joined our pack I had a bad experience with our vet.  Delilah went into heat three months after joining us.  I was stunned as the rescue group had presented her as having been spayed.

We discussed with the vet when is the best time to spay Delilah and decided to wait a couple of months after she had finished her cycle.

We were in the process of buying our current house and scheduled it so Delilah would be fixed and come home to the new house.

The day of the closing dawned and as much as it pained me, I couldn’t give Delilah any breakfast.  I was very worried about how this would affect her, since she is such a food hound, but she survived it.  I dropped her off at the vet and then Sampson off at daycare and headed back to the house to pack up our bedroom.

In short fashion the vet’s office called saying Delilah’s urine test came back indicating a urinary tract infection and they couldn’t do the surgery.

Could I come and get her.

I couldn’t.  I literally was in the middle of moving.  In retrospect there was probably something I could have done, but in that moment I couldn’t think.

After lots of yelling on my part, I finally convinced them to give her some food and water, Hubby picked her up on his way to the new house after the closing and we rescheduled the surgery for after she’d completed her round of antibiotics.

We scheduled the surgery for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  We knew the vet’s office would keep her overnight and we would be home with her for the next four days.

I remember being upset with the vet for not letting her come home the day of the surgery, the vet said she had to stay quiet so as not to tear her stitches.  I asked if someone was staying with her and they said no.   At this point I felt she would be better off with me, who would stay with her throughout the night and even share a bed with her.  But they said no.

I swear upon all that is holy that what I’m about to write is the God’s Honest Truth.  When the vet called me after the surgery she said she had to cut Delilah “from stem to stern” that there was a lot of fat in there because she’d apparently had a litter of puppies and she called her a “behemoth.”

Her poor belly. She ended up with the stitches irritating her and slightly infected.

I don’t know how you feel about this, personally I can call my dog anything I want, but NO-ONE, especially a vet calls my dog a behemoth.  I don’t care if my dog is 50 pounds overweight, YOU don’t get to call her names.

When we went for the follow-up visit the vet said to her vet tech, “This was my spay from hell.”

OMFG are you kidding me?

I didn’t say anything, I was too stunned.  But I did make sure to have the vet squeeze Delilah’s glands and Delilah let her know emphatically that she was out of line in doing so.  The vet commented on how hard Delilah was squeezing her back-end around the vet’s finger.  I can almost guarantee she was channeling my anger.

A short time later, Sampson had an appointment with the owner of the practice and I brought my concern of the unprofessional vet to his attention.

It was a while ago and I can’t remember what he said, but it didn’t appease me.  So I switched vets.

I love my current vet.  She is holistic, she answers any questions I have and is very honest with me about what vaccines she feels the dogs should have.  I have recommended her to anyone who has asked and will continue to do so.

When Delilah was having her episodes, they were very open to anything and everything and had no problem consulting with outside vets at my request.

If they hadn’t been open to alternative treatments Delilah would more than likely be on medication for epilepsy right now.

You’d change Dr.’s if you weren’t satisfied with yours, right?  Don’t be afraid to change vets if you aren’t happy with the care you are getting for your pet.

Just Be The Dog.

WTF Wednesday

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I’ve been limited this week in the WTF’s that crossed my path.

I thought I wasn’t going to have a thing to write about until yesterday morning when 2BrownDawgs started her post off like this:

“This past weekend while we were driving down the Interstate we saw something crazy.  A pickup truck was pulling a 5th wheel trailer and tied toward the front of the bed of the pickup was a Golden Retriever.  The poor thing was sort of stuffed to the side of the hitch.  We couldn’t get over how terribly unsafe the whole thing looked.  Should that hitch give way, bye-bye Golden Retriever.”

Say it with me.  What the fuck?

I would have thought in this day and age people would have the common sense to not stick a dog in the back of a pick-up truck!  The poor dog was probably terrified to start with and then add in the safety factor!

I was reminded of a story that happened a few years back.  Hubby and I were at our local warehouse club, it was winter and it was raining.  A cold New England winter rain.

I don’t know about where YOU live, but here when it rains for some strange reason people can’t walk/run/skip to their cars with their groceries.  They need to send someone (usually the husband) to get the car while the delicate ones wait under the store’s awning.    Now that I think about it, I might have been doing the same thing.  LOL

This man pulls up to get his wife and two children and he has a big, shaggy dog in the back of his pick-up truck.

I about lost my shit.

I very politely asked him if he would be moving the dog to the cab of the truck and he said no.

Game on.

I told him the dog should not be riding in the back of the pickup and he said he had no room in the truck with the two kids.

As nicely as I could, I told him to put the kids in the back of the pick-up at which point his wife chimed in stating they would if they could get away with it.

Nice.   I don’t know who I felt more sorry for, the kids or the dog.

The last thing I remember them saying to me was they could have left the dog at home by himself, locked in the basement like other people would, instead of bringing the dog with them.

I’m not sure but if I was the dog, I probably would have chosen the basement.

Sometimes I really think people should need to take a common sense test before they are allowed to try and raise anything.

Be The Dog

I love that saying, “Be The Dog.”  As I’m sure you can tell because I’ve used it in about 3 or 4 posts.

Mazzie’s assistant, Tanya said, “Awesome new mantra that couldn’t be more true. Great name for a book, product line, the list is endless…. get a logo and trademark the name now!!!!”

I got wicked excited.  So I checked the trademark office and it’s already been trademarked, which is why I’ve added JUST to Be The Dog, but I’m not even sure I can do that.

On the chance that I can’t do that, I need a new slogan and that’s where you come in.

First of all does anyone know if I can add JUST to Be The Dog?

Here are some of the slogans I’ve thought of, bear in mind I want the slogan to be motivating:

JUST Be the Dog

Believe In The Dog

Live Life Like The Dog

Trust The Dog

I Am The Dog

Who’s The Dog

What Would The Dog Do?

Of course I’m open to any and all suggestions, so let me have it!

Easy, Inexpensive, Healthy and Tasty Tuesday

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Have you ever bought your dog the cheese or peanut butter stuffed bones?

We bought a lot of them for Sampson when he was a puppy and going through his teething periods.  As he got larger the bones did as well.  Consequently I have at least six of them lying around the house.

Sometimes the dogs will play or chew on them, most notably Delilah when it is time to go to bed.  I kid you not, I caught her standing with her feet on my dresser in the middle of the night trying to get her bone. 🙂

Even though Sampson and Delilah get a healthy stuffed Kong for a treat at night, I am still trying to help them each lose a few pounds.  The dilemma being what to give them for a treat with a lower amount of calories.

I decided I’ll use these bones and stuff them with something tasty!

I start off in the morning with two bones about the same size and stuff about a tablespoon or so of pumpkin in one end and stick the bone in the freezer.

When I get home at night I take the bone out and fill it 3/4 or so with non-fat vanana (vanilla/banana) yogurt.

I frost the end with more pumpkin.

And stick a piece of fruit (in this case pineapple) in the end.

I stand the two bones on the frozen end so the yogurt and the freshly added pumpkin settle a bit and stick them in the freezer for about 3 hours.

Sampson who is usually coaxed from his spot on the couch to get his treat, jumped up, ran into the bedroom and jumped on the bed in anticipation of his treat.

It’s easy, inexpensive, healthy and above all tasty.  This is the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop hosted by Kol’s Notes and Sugar the Golden Retriever.  You can get your linky code at either of their pages.

Delilah doesn’t care that the bone is longer than her tongue, she works and works at it until she gets all the goodness out.

You too can get everything you want out of life, Just Be The Dog.

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