A Healthy Dog is a Happy Dog

I'm aware that I've been remiss in my duties lately - looking at the calendar, I realize that I haven't put anything up here in three weeks! That is really just completely unacceptable. However, I regret to inform you that this is because I have been somewhat under the weather recently. Apparently, getting old has its disadvantages.

I haven't been feeling well for several days now, and my tummy is occasionally upset with me. I have lots of grumblings and rumblings down in my gut, and trust me, it's not flattering. Sometimes I burp, usually in somebody's face if I can, to see if they can diagnose what's going on inside me. Sometimes, the burps are very sneaky, and creep out the other end. I tend to ignore those - especially the smelly ones. My humans hide their noses when this happens, like they're ashamed. Not of me, of course. So when I don't feel well, I usually keep my distance from food. My humans try to get me interested, adding rice (which I usually like), chicken broth (which I really like!), and/or Parmesan cheese (which I got hooked on last winter - boy is that stuff tasty!). However, there are times when you just don't feel like eating. My humans tend to get very worried when this happens, and I try to tell them not to be so hard on themselves. At the same time, I try to explain what's going on, but they never seem to understand.

So the end result of all of this is that I'm headed to The Vet later today, to get checked out and hopefully cured of this stomach bug-virus-disease-thing that's got ahold of me. We'll just have to wait and see - keep your claws crossed for me!

Oh, and here is your quote for the day, with a fair amount of truth in it too, I might add:

"I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult." ~Rita Rudner

How'd that get there?

So when I first came to Minnesota, it was fall. September, I think. Maybe late August? It was a while ago, and it was still nice and warm, I remember that much. Anyways, on my various jaunts around town I began to notice that everyone was marking very high on all of the trees. Could it be that many of the dogs in the midwest were freakishly tall? Needless to say, I was slightly confused. Being a tall dog myself, it wasn't all that difficult to match what I was sniffing, but some of those spots were just uncomfortable, if not downright impossible to hit!
Fall gradually became winter, and I began to realize that there weren't marauding gangs of gangly-legged dogs wandering the streets, harassing passers-by and showing off their stilt-walking prowess. No no no, nothing nearly so elaborate. Instead I discovered that the wonderfulness that is Snow! (see my earlier post) piled up around the bases of the trees, thus adding several inches (or more!) to everyone. Mystery solved!
However, due to the ever-changing nature of Snow, I have found that it gradually loses some of it's fluffiness, and becomes more icy. (Unlike myself, who is always fluffy, and never becomes icy, unless you're mean to me. But I digress.) Which is fine, I like ice. It tastes good. Wets the whistle, and all that. By the way, I can't whistle.... Somebody needs to get on that, pronto!

So, as I said, mystery solved. There are no vicious gangs of freakishly tall dogs wandering around the Twin Cities, so you can sleep easy tonight. But keep an eye out - they might be reading this blog and get ideas. Oh, and one more thing - always pee on the upwind side of the pole. Otherwise it gets messy.

Well, that's all for now. Here is your quote, well said by some guy I've never met.
"In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semihuman. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog." - Edward Hoagland