Heart Like a Dog

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

When Chocolate Attacks

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My niece came down on Friday to demonstrate some Pampered Chef products for me and some friends. (If you need any PC, the party is open ’til Friday. You can order HERE.)

Because my niece and great-nephew live in New Hampshire, they spent the night with me. Yesterday morning Esther and I were having coffee, and Delilah was all over Esther.

Long-time readers will recall, Delilah does not take as easily to people as Sampson does. In fact, most people she’ll tolerate a stroke or two, then walk away. Unlike the Mayor of Boulder Crest who has only ever met one person he didn’t like.

Anyway….Esther and I were talking and Delilah was doing this.

I really think if she could have figured out out to get up there, she would have climbed in Esther’s lap.

Later in the afternoon, Esther and I had moved into the living room. First Esther was sitting on the floor, and once again, Delilah was all up in the her biz. When Esther moved to the Daddy’s chair, Delilah upped the ante. She was so close to climbing into the chair with Esther, and she could have, because the Daddy LET’s her in his lap, in that chair!

Well, what’s a Mama to do?

I called her over to me, and this is how I spent the next half hour or so.

Naturally, I smiled, because who wouldn’t smile with a Lab’s head on their shoulder?

You make me smile (or laugh.) The sweet, funny, loving things dogs do that make us laugh  or smile.

What did your pet do that made you laugh or smile this week?

Canine Arrhythmia – Part 2

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Last week, when I was looking through the blog for a resource to link to another post.  I read through some posts from a couple of years ago, and it made me really sad when I realized I use to be super funny.

I wonder if it has to do with my stint where I had trouble posting, or more along the aging of my dogs, and me not finding any of it amusing?

When you blog about aging dogs that have joint problems, vision problems, adrenal growths and heart issues, I guess you lose your funny.

During a routine exam, Delilah was diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia. It was severe enough to send us to the cardiologist for an ultrasound and echocardiogram of her heart.

At the first visit, the cardiologist discovered a shadow in the tricuspid valve of Delilah’s heart. She strongly felt it wasn’t a heart tumor, just the design of Delilah’s heart. But the only way to know, was to bring her back in 45 (or so) days. The belief was, if it was a tumor, it would have changed within that time period. In the meantime, she put her on some heart medication, and wanted to use a Holter monitor to get a good idea of what the arrhythmia was doing over a 24-hour period.

Yesterday was the ’45’ day follow up. I put that in quotes, because truthfully, it was more like 53 days, due to scheduling.

The first part of the exam is what I call….triage. The vet tech takes Delilah’s blood pressure, weighs her, listens to her heart and takes her temperature. Since Delilah never learned to hold a thermometer under her tongue, the temperature is taken rectally. Like many of us, sticking something up that area of her anatomy, makes Delilah want to poop. Thankfully, once the mean ole thermometer had been removed, Delilah ceased squatting, making both the vet tech and myself breathe a sigh of relief.

Delilah getting her blood pressure cuff on. You’re welcome it’s not her temperature being taken.

When the vet tech asked how Delilah had been, I had to inform her, Delilah has missed two major deadlines in the last week. I say deadlines, but they are more like highlights to Delilah’s day.

The first thing that happened was 9:00 pm came and went, and Delilah slept through it. She only got up when she heard me open the freezer door to get snack.

The second event, also happened within the last week. Most mornings, Sampson and I get up, and Delilah gets up, checks things out and goes back to bed. By the time Sampson and I get back from our walk, Delilah is at the door waiting. But one morning, she wasn’t. She was still in bed.

It’s hard to determine if it’s related to the arrhythmia or not. I mean, we’ve been in the midst of a heatwave (no-one wants to move), Delilah is 12 1/2, she started a new medication for her heart. How do you know if it’s related to any these changes?

When the cardiologist listened to her heart, she said something didn’t sound right, and got her right up on the table. I asked if I should be freaking out, and she told me, “What’s the point of freaking out, if you don’t know why you’re freaking out.”

I said, “You don’t know me, I can freak out over anything.” 🙂

At least she’s honest. **Deep dog sigh**

The good news is, the shadowy part of Delilah’s heart, hasn’t changed. The Dr. said she could measure it, but we both agreed, if it was a heart tumor, it would have grown significantly since the last ultrasound.

The bad news is, the arrhythmia is still going fairly strong. So the 3/4’s of a tablet of Sotalol that Delilah has been getting twice per day, has been increased to a full tablet, twice per day. The Holter is still recommended, but she’d like to get the arrhythmia under control with medication, before putting on the Holter, as it should give us a better idea of what might be going on.

Naturally, I expressed my frustration. You know, I want it fixed, and I want it fixed NOW.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m ever so grateful to have ruled out the dilated cardiomyopathy as well as the tumor, but I want to know WHAT is causing it.

The cardiologist confessed, that 80% of the time, they never find the cause of an arrhythmia.

I’m thinking, maybe I should have been a cardiologist, or a weather person, they only get the weather right 20% of the time too. 🙂

Cat People…Is This Normal?

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Our encounters with off-leash dogs, e-fence dogs, and DADO’s are the stuff legends are made of. Okay, maybe that’s just in my mind, but some days, I feel like a God damn gladiator maneuvering my neighborhood with my dogs.

Last Friday we had an encounter with a neighborhood cat, and when I started looking through my dash board, for a post to reference this particular cat, I realized, we’ve also had a fair share of cat encounters as well.

One in particular is the cat two houses up. His name is Simba. You may recall him. When he was just a tiny kitten, he stalked my dogs on one of their walks.

Then there was the time Delilah treed him. **Side note, I recently found out from that neighbor that she paid someone $50 to get the cat out of the tree. I thought he came down on his own. Oops.

Delilah likes chasing cats

.

Simba is a born hunter. Honestly, I see this cat catching all kinds of small rodents. I even saw him with a squirrel once. The dang thing was bigger than he was, but there he was dragging it home.

Simba is a typical cat. Curious. Apparently being treed didn’t stick with him, because about two months ago, I walked outside and found him on the roof of my mother’s car, attempting to jump onto my small porch. You know, the one with the sliding door I keep open for the dogs in nice weather?

Go ahead, I’ll give you a minute to picture what would happen if Simba managed to make it onto the porch, and continue inside to the house.

Anyway, about that cat. He’s pretty bold. I mean, I know cats are supposed to be independent and all, but I thought there was a cat gene, that told cats to stay clear of dogs. If there is, Simba is missing this cat gene.

I was walking Delilah. Due to her Endothelial Decompensation, she doesn’t see as well as she used to. I can’t say with certainty, but based on my observations, I suspect she sees shadows. Because of this, she tends to walk a lot with the curb of the road on one side of her. She still wanders off onto grass, etc…but there have been many a time when she’s walked right into a small branch or stick in the road.

So there we were, walking up the street, when I see Simba getting ready to cross the street about 75 feet in front of us. Delilah was sniffing so I said, “Go Simba, go. Cross the street.”

What did the damn cat do? He sat right the fuck down, right there on the side of the road, and he stared at me.

Siriusly.

Delilah usually crosses to the Simba side of the street, (we walk against traffic), but I managed to keep her from crossing, and we passed the damn cat without her noticing. I kept my eye on that little shit, because I think he was really considering a challenge.

Don’t throw down the gauntlet to Delilah, Simba, you just might find yourself up another tree.

We’ve had cats in our house before, and the cats have always tried to be friendlier to the dogs, than the dogs are to them, but I was totally surprised that Simba didn’t seem to have any fear of Delilah.

So please, those of you with cats….is this normal cat behavior?

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