Random Updates

After much coming and going of our family members in the past few weeks, it's comforting to have everyone under one roof again. With the new school year nipping at our heels, I'm hoping we'll all have a chance to catch our breath in these final weeks of summer vacation.

As for Cabana, she has been enjoying our cool summer. Temps have barely topped 80 degrees here--but I am sure we're in for a sweltering September and October. Below, Cabana found a softball in the grass last week, thankfully one that was not being currently used by softball players (she has been known to steal a ball in play a few times, much to my horror!).

The ball is way too big to fit comfortably in Cabana's mouth.

But it serves its purpose, since keepaway is the name of Cabana's favorite game. Keepaway is much more exciting to her than boring old fetch.


I feel like I don't get back to subjects of past posts, so I thought I'd give a few brief updates today.

Vizsla incident - Cabana seems pretty much back to normal after the scare with the Vizsla a few weeks ago. After being fairly convinced that Cabana had not been hurt but was barking/reacting for other reasons, about a week later, I found a dried scab maybe an inch long, on Cabana's side. I don't know why I hadn't been able to see the cut before, and by that time, it had healed completely. But it answered some questions I'd had. So she had been hurt, not badly, but maybe enough to make her flinch when being towel dried.

Shopping with Cabana - I appreciated everyone's input about taking dogs shopping. Overall, it seemed that blog readers are cautious about taking their pet dogs to stores, which is probably wise. One question that was raised was why we would want to take our dogs to stores. For me, the answer is that I still consider Cabana to be in training. I hope to get her into a therapy dog or reading buddy program--so the exposure and experience of being around strangers is important to me. In fact, I just turned in the paperwork for the Paws for Healing/Paws for Reading program. We will start class at the end of October!

Health issues - Several months ago, Cabana had some funny bumps on her paws. We thought they might be histiocytomas, which are benign tumors that are fairly common in the GDB population. They went away in a couple weeks and never caused any pain or further incident. I took Cabana to the vet last week for a routine check-up, and the doctor said Cabana looked great. I asked him about her weight (54.5 pounds) because I am now always paranoid that she's too plump. He said that her current weight is fine, but that she should not be allowed to get any bigger. Sigh. I try to be so careful about how much food/treats she gets, so I guess I will have to keep on being careful. I wish I could let her eat as much as she'd like! Must be a vicarious desire. I have more to say about food/treats, but since it's a mouthful, I'll save it for my next post.