Can I catch a break ?!?!

As some of you know, I spent my vacation in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area last week.  Although it was fun to see a new town and get out of Seattle for a few days, I missed my little Spuzz ball while I was gone.  It was his first trip to a kennel.  I knew there was a possibility he could get stressed out being away from home, in a new and strange environment, but it never really crossed my mind that he might actually catch something while he was there.  Enter kennel cough.  Ugh.

Remember a year or so back when I had the great idea of starting a new, recurring blog segment called "You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?"  a la Peter Griffin from Family Guy?  And it lasted, uh, like, oh, one post (not surprising, sometimes I have a difficult time with follow through in my personal life, especially with the blog). Well, I'd like to change this blog post title to the aforementioned grinding of gears.  Seriously!!  Can I catch a break on the sick animal front here folks?  Thank you, my 5 readers, for sticking with me this last year because it has been a tough one as far as my pets are concerned, and I've written about it in depth.  I thought I was done with that part of my life for awhile.  I thought I was done with vet visits other than the annual check up and vaccination schedule.  Nope, I had to go on vacation and send my sweet lil' Spuzz to the hoosegow*, leaving him alone in a warehouse full of barking dogs.  Leaving him alone to contemplate his fate.  "Where did she go?", "Is she coming back?", "Is this my new home?", "Why can't I get some goddamn shut-eye in this frickin' joint!?!", "Quit coughing on me Baxter!", and "No I will not make-out with you Maddie!"  Pretty soon the stress wore his lil' immune system down and he caught kennel cough.

So anyway, I'm a little irritated, to say the least.  I know, I know, things in life could be a lot worse, I understand this.  But sick animals have been my reality for the past year and I'm ready to put it behind me.  Don't get me wrong, Spuzz could have caught kennel cough anywhere (groomers, dog park, greeting another dog, etc.), but it just so happens that he started showing signs of it literally the day after he came home from the kennel.  Coincidence?  Not really.  And I feel terrible that he is not feeling well.  We were up at 3am this morning to him coughing so hard he was gagging then eventually throwing up.  He couldn't breathe without wheezing.  He looked so incredibly miserable.  His usual appetite was gone.  So I decided to take him to the emergency vet at 6:30am because I didn't want to wait any longer for my scheduled vet appointment at 10am.  I know, paranoid animal lover over here.  Well, I didn't know for sure he had kennel cough, that was just what was suspected.  And when your dog is wheezing, vomiting, and looks like shit?  That's when the emergency vet is a good idea.

We were home by 10:30am with a confirmation of kennel cough.  He doesn't have a temperature, his lungs sound great, and his oxygen saturation levels are where they are supposed to be.  Meaning he is breathing fine, and getting enough oxygen circulated to all his wee vital organs.  I was sent home with some antibiotics in case it is bacterial, and some cough suppressants so he can get some rest.  He fell asleep immediately when we got home for an hour or so, and did me a solid by eating an entire can of his wet food.  Yay!!  I was worried he wasn't going to eat and it would be difficult for me to give him his pills.  After the struggle I had giving Frank his pills this past year, I am not ready for another pill battle with Spuzzers.

So send some positive vibes Spuzz's way, okay?  He could really use it.  And I could also use some positive vibe-age.  I'll quit being cranky about the whole thing soon.  As soon as he's close to being back to normal, I'll forget what my heart felt like as I looked at his miserable little post-coughing-fit-and-vomit-wheezing like a 90 year old man with emphysema-face.  Keeping my fingers crossed that he is on the mend, and he'll be back to his cheerful self in a week or so.
*did not know hoosegow was spelled that way, thought it was like hoozkow, learn something new every day!             

Spuzz got a buzz....cut!!!

It will be three weeks tomorrow since Spuzz wiggled his way into my life, and my heart.  When I first got him he was a little timid, but let me tell you, over the last few weeks he has made himself perfectly at home!  He's a bit spoiled.....he has three new dog beds and they all happen to be in the living room.  The were all purchased separately and meant for different areas of the house, but he has dragged them all into the living room and he can be seen on any one of them throughout the day.  He has no shortage of chew toys, as he LOVES to chew and play.  With an emphasis on chew.  But if he has chew toy options he seems to leave the furniture alone.  Although I'm on a mission tomorrow to find a new clothes hamper.  He has fallen in love with chewing the wooden knobs at the bottom of the cheapy old IKEA hamper I've had since college.  I figure it is about time for a new hamper, plus I don't want his widdle mouth to get all splintered up. 

Handsome boy!!

Last Wednesday Spuzz had his first grooming adventure!!  Look!!  You can actually see his face!!  He apparently passed his first grooming with flying colors.  The lady that groomed him said he did a great job and that he was a really sweet dog.  He is a really sweet dog, I can vouche for that.  He's sweet and playful, and wiggles all over the place with excitement when I come home from work.  We are working *really* hard on getting him potty trained, and I think he's getting the swing of things.  Lots of baby talk in this house at the moment.  Lots of praise and pets and treats when he relieves himself outside, which is almost all the time now.  I've gotten on a walk / play schedule with him that has him going potty outside a couple times a day.  I had to rearrange a couple items in the house though -- I moved Frank's litter box into the kitchen (Spuzz had a few misfires on the rug that I keep under the litter box) in an effort to prevent accidents on the wood floor in the office.  Also totally took away the rug at the front door -- he seemed to like using that as his own personal pee-pee pad.  Since removing those two rug temptations, he has been really great about peeing outside.  Fingers crossed he continues to relieve himself outside!!


Such a gorgeous day at the beach!!

This past weekend was so beautiful, Spuzz and I made a trip down to the beach and the dog park at Golden Gardens.  The dog park has a "small dog" area, but at the time I went early Sunday morning, there were no small dogs in that area, but there were a bunch of small and big dogs in the main area.  I decided to go in to the main area with him and see how he reacted.  Let's just say he wanted to be a spectator that day :)  I set him down on the ground and immediately a happy big dog came over to say hi and Spuzz curled up into a little ball and wedged himself against the fence.  I think he was a bit overwhelmed with all the activity.  So I decided to pick him up and walk over to a bench where we could sit and just watch all the dogs.  I think he liked that just fine!  Maybe next time there will be some small dogs in the small dog side that we can meet.

Spuzz spectating

Spuzz loved the beach though!!  We didn't actually go on the beach, as apparently dogs aren't allowed on public beaches in Seattle, but we did walk around the non-beach area of Golden Gardens.  We found another bench to serve as our home base for people and animal watching.  Lots of other dogs, and a few geese.  We could also hear the sea lions barking which was pretty cool.  They were hanging out on a huge buoy a bit off shore.  Spuzz was pretty interested in the sea lion noise.  After our dog park / Golden Gardens adventure we went home and he took a well-deserved nap.  One tuckered out lil' dog!! 

Here are a couple other shots I took while at the park:

As you can tell, I'm still enjoying the ShakeIt app, but recently I have branched out with Instagram which is a new favorite!