Tuesday Topics #43 - Itchy Paws

Over the past few months, I have noticed Cabana spending a lot more time licking her feet. We've been to the vet for other reasons, and he mentioned that her paw pads are really pink. I asked him if I should change her food, and he said he didn't think it was bad enough to warrant that. He said it could be caused by so many factors, like allergies to grass or pesticides, and that I should give her a bath with oatmeal soap, but that was about it for suggestions.

Still, it seems to be getting worse, so I've been looking online for answers. A lot of sites talk about mixing a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar into your dog's food. Not only is it supposed to be helpful for allergies, but it also aids in digestion, watery eye discharge, and helps keep fleas and ticks away.

So before I switch Cabana's food, I decided to give the apple cider vinegar a try. Cabana definitely notices it when I put it in her food. She eats much slower, seeming to be puzzled by the taste. I don't think she likes it, although she still licks up every single drop, so it can't be too distasteful. But I feel a little bad for her--I hate to put a damper on the two brightest spots in her day (mealtimes).

I've been giving Cabana the vinegar for about 3 days now, but she's still licking her paws a lot. Has anyone else tried this remedy with any success?

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Goodbye, Angie

Over the past several days, our 17-year old cat's condition began to deteriorate rapidly. Angie stopped eating, stopped drinking, and couldn't hold herself up anymore. Because my older daughter was planning to come home from college tomorrow to see Angie one more time, I tried to keep Angie alive for just a few more days, coaxing her to eat and drink, trying many different kinds of cat food, tuna, scrambled eggs, cheese, cream, kitty Ensure. But Angie wanted none of it.

I'd been putting Angie on one of Cabana's dog beds because she hasn't been able to get on or off the couch without help. Being low to the ground, I felt Angie had more freedom to move about if she wanted to. Because she enjoys laying in the sun, I'd put the dog bed in a sunny spot, then scoot it over every so often as the sun moved across the room.

On previous days, Angie spent most of the time sleeping, but yesterday, she seemed restless and unable to sleep. Every time I looked at her, she was in a different position on the cushion, and her eyes were open and glazed. I knew that she was uncomfortable, perhaps even in pain, although she never made a sound. I knew the day had come to put her down and that my daughter would understand we had to do what was best for Angie. I was grateful for a warm, sunny day so Angie could spend a little time outside on her last day.

Cabana seemed to sense something and spent some time keeping Angie company and watching over her. Or who knows, maybe she just wanted to lay in the sunshine, too. My hope has always been that Angie and Cabana would be snuggle buddies, and we got pretty close to that toward the end.

As we drove to the vet's office yesterday evening, I was grateful that we had the privilege and blessing of being able to make such a decision for our pet, and I hoped that we will be given the same opportunity with Cabana someday. To get to decide how your pet dies, painlessly and quickly, after a long and carefree life--what an honor that is. Of course, I am sad that we don't have Angie anymore and that my older daughter won't be able to see her when she comes home this weekend. The loss also seems to mark the end of both daughters' childhoods, since they'd had Angie almost their entire lives. That added significance makes the loss even stronger. But Angie's life ended with our final act of love toward her, and I find great comfort in that.

Rest in peace, lil' Ang. We will always remember you with love.

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Wordless Wednesday - A Puppy Made of Fleece

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After the Rains

Normally, winter is our rainy season, but until this past week, we've had a long dry spell. Then, since Thursday, we got smacked with about 6" of rain. At the park this morning, gophers who's homes must have been flooded were sluggishly coming out of their holes. Since the gophers weren't as spry as usual, two dogs (from the same panicked owner) caught the water-logged gophers and tried to eat them. We were able to keep the dogs from their rodent feast, although the rescue came too late for the gophers. (I tried to help catch the dogs during all the hub-bub; hence, no photos. The sacrifices I make for friendship.)

Thankfully, Cabana hasn't shown much interest in gophers, either for chasing or for eating. I honestly think Cabana would be a bit scared if she ever came upon a live gopher. Here, during a quiet lull after the excitement of the gophers, she waits against a cloudy sky for more dog pals to arrive.

And heeeeere's Chloe! Chloe is a 7-month-old lab/pit mix, and she's growing up to be one of the sweetest dogs ever. Everyone at the park adores this dog, especially me! She's just so appropriate in her behavior, it's really fun to watch her interact.

Cabana welcomes her with a chase and a bite on the ear. Ouch??

The rain has left behind huge puddles, or you might even call it a mini lake.

Cabana thinks it's her own personal swimming hole and loves to splash through the entire length of it.

Even though Chloe is part Lab, she doesn't seem as taken with getting in the water.

But you can see her labbiness in her love of carrying big sticks. And so proud of it!

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Fancy Schmancy Dog Treats

Cabana has been the lucky recipient of several very interesting dog treats lately. Today, in honor of her good buddy Bodhi's 2nd birthday, Cabana got a birthday pupcake, made with Embark dog food.

Embark is a very high-quality, grain free dog food. I had never heard of it before, so I looked it up online. At over $80 for a 10-pound bag, I'd say that pupcake is a pretty darn fancy schmancy treat. No wonder Bodhi always has so much energy!
Cabana got to eat half of her pupcake today. She'll get the other half as part of her breakfast tomorrow.

Yesterday, I got a visit from a woman who had purchased one of my cork purses a while back. Her cat peed on her purse strap, so she asked if I could replace it for her. Of course, I was more than happy to, at no charge. In return, she brought me this assortment of exotic dog treats. Wow, I had never seen nor heard of most of these items! Sweet potato jerky, dehydrated turkey hearts, freeze dried bison--everything all natural, holistic, free range, no hormones or antibiotics, all of that.

Yes, Cabana is a lucky little girl--and will be for many days, because I'm doling these treats out a bit at a time. Today, she got to have a sweet potato jerky.

Can't a dog just eat in peace? Sorry, Cabana, there's a price to be paid for everything.

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Tuesday Topics #42 - A Cabana Clone?

A couple nights ago, I was so warm and toasty on the couch, snuggled in blankets, with our cat Angie sleeping on my lap and Cabana laying next to me. Not wanting to get up, I mindlessly flipped through the channels on the TV and came across a show on TLC called "I Cloned My Pet". It followed the stories of 3 people who had lost their beloved dogs and were in such mourning that they almost couldn't go on with their lives. For a $50,000 price tag, a company in South Korea could create exact duplicates of their dogs. I sat enraptured through the end of the program, waiting to see if they indeed got identical dogs to the ones they had lost.

The answer was yes! Of course, the delivered dogs were still puppies, so it's hard to know if their temperaments would be exact matches through adulthood. But even down to one white toe on one of the dogs, they physically matched their originals, and each person was extremely pleased with the results.

Out of curiosity, I decided to look up the Korean cloning company's website, Sooam.com. Those Koreans are a crafty bunch. ;) The information on their site absolutely boggled my mind. It's amazing what they are capable of doing, although in my opinion, supremely controversial. Above is a photo of yellow lab Lancelot, the first commercially cloned dog in the US, produced by Sooam. In the video on their site, it says this Florida couple paid $155,000 for the clone, making the current $50,000 seem like a bargain.

Would I ever clone Cabana? Heck no, I'm much too much of a cheapskate to shell out that kind of money. Plus, Guide Dogs didn't deem Cabana breeder-worthy or even guide dog-worthy, for that matter. Sure, Cabana is a fabulous dog, and I adore her, but I don't know whether the world really needs more Cabanas. She's one-in-a-million, and I think we should just keep it that way. But that does raise an interesting question about working dogs. There were a number of examples of cloned dogs on the Sooam website, many of which were excellent working dogs. I wonder if service dog organizations should change from breeding to cloning--it seems like it would raise their success rate, right?

Would you clone your pet? What if cloning only cost $1,000, rather than $50,000? Would that make a difference in your response? Do you think it would be amazing...or a bit creepy, to have a beloved pet come back to life as a clone?

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Golden Days for Angie

Our cat Angie is almost 17-years old. We got her from the Marin Humane Society when she was 2. Our daughters were 2 and 4 at the time, so they barely remember life without Angie.

In the first year or two after bringing Angie home, she would disappear for days at a time. She was an aloof cat, and living with preschoolers, gentle though they tried to be, may not have been her first choice. Once, she was gone for about two months! Of course, on the day I decided I might as well pack away her food bowl and litter box, she came sauntering up the sidewalk. But she came home gimpy. Apparently, she had broken her front leg sometime during her long absence. When I took her to the vet, he said that the leg had already healed in that position, so he would have to re-break it, then set it, but it might not be any better than it was now. So we left it alone, and Angie has never seemed to suffer from it. She could still run and jump, but if you look at her straight on as she approaches, you can see the left forward leg is a bit wonky.

A couple months ago, I switched Angie to Blue Buffalo cat food. She LOVED it and seemed to eat much more heartily (she also started drinking out of Cabana's water dish on a regular basis). She has always been a skinny thing, even though she free feeds. But suddenly, she started getting fat. We all thought it was funny that little Angie had eaten herself into the shape of a beach ball.

But a few other signals told us that things weren't going so well in Angie's body and that her big tummy was not funny ha-ha but funny in a bad way. I took her to the vet last Monday, and he confirmed that her organs were shutting down. Her tummy was bloated with fluids, due to her poorly functioning kidney and liver. By palpating her abdomen, he said he could feel tumors growing there, most likely cancerous.

Angie has lived through a lot. Both my daughters considered Angie their "best friend" when they were little. After 3 years, Angie has come to accept Cabana as her good friend (perhaps best friend would be an exaggeration). The photo above was taken shortly after Cabana came to us as a curious puppy, and the photo below was shot this past year. Angie has endured our foster dogs, mostly by making herself scarce during their stays. For years, she kept our house rodent-free, leaving us her spoils of battle in the yard.

Old age and sickness have actually made Angie much more affectionate. Previously, she only tolerated my company. Now, she eagerly sits on my lap when I sit down to watch TV. It's nice, albeit selfish, that I'm able to enjoy her more during these last days and months than I have in all her previous years combined.

Last week, the vet said it wasn't Angie's time to go yet. He said her heart sounded good, and as long as she will eat and drink, we should keep her comfortable and happy. She isn't in any pain, thank goodness. Every day, I watch her eat a few teaspoons of her soft canned food (she can't chew dry kibble anymore), then she goes outside to sit in the garden for a few hours. I know she appreciates the warmth of the sunshine, and I wonder if she enjoys the flowers. One day soon, we'll be saying goodbye, but until then, I'll feed her whatever she'll eat, let her sit wherever she wants, and be thankful that she's with us one more day.

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Back to Rescue

I haven't been volunteering at the city shelter for a long time now, and honestly, I don't think I will be going back there anytime soon. There was a lot of ugliness happening, and I'm not ready for more drama. But this weekend, when my friend Sue asked me to help with some new shepherd mixes at Big Dog Rescue, I couldn't turn her down. I'm such a sucker for shepherd mixes.

We think these dogs are German shepherd/Anatolian mixes. These big girls, brought in together and possibly related, didn't know a thing, but they were as sweet as could be. I could not for the life of me get the short-haired one to sit. She simply would not be lured--but that just means I need to go back and work on it with her some more.

This fluffy one is named Mocha. That blonde long-haired coat--gorgeous!

We were told both girls were aggressive toward little dogs. Hard to say for sure with the fence in between, but Mocha didn't seem too bothered by little Maddy.

This gorgeous white shepherd mix was fearful, preferring the safety of her little house. But I heard she got adopted a couple days ago--hooray! She deserves a terrific home, and I know she will warm up to be a fabulous companion.

And this lucky dog is getting adopted by someone in Sue's family! That's one of the perks of helping at a dog rescue--you get first pick!

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Mango Minster - Cabana the Working Stiff

For the first time, Cabana and I have decided to participate in Mango Minster. Being extremely slow on the uptake, it has taken me about 3 years to figure out that Mango Minster is a dog blog show and contest, put on by the Mango Momma, based on the Westminster Dog Show. As Mango himself would say, "Duh!"

I have entered Cabana in the Working Stiffs category. After all, she may have flunked out as a guide dog, but she still works hard for her keep! Over the holidays, Cabana was invaluable as a babysitter, or more specifically, a young boy sitter. My nephews, ages 8 and 5, came for a visit, and Cabana was in stellar working form, which will undoubtedly lead to inevitable questions from the boys about why can't get their own dog back home in Louisiana. Sorry, but that's what happens when you come to the home of the greatest working stiff dog in the world.

Here, Cabana lets the boys practice reading to her. Her previous experience as a certified therapy dog/reading buddy came in handy. See how intently Cabana checks for accuracy? Or maybe she's having a staring contest with the Angry Bird on my nephew's shirt.

Always one to set a good example, Cabana shows the boys how to pose for a photo. They copy her, down to the paws! Now if only Cabana could teach them how to eat their vegetables....

Playing follow the leader, Cabana makes sure to steer the boys down the straight and narrow path. Exercise and routine are sacrosanct, and house guests are no reason for skipping a morning walk, especially when the standard dog rule also applies here--namely, a tired boy is a good boy.

If dog tummies make good pillows, cousin tummies must make good pillows, too. As with most things in our house, Cabana is at the center of the fun. With a single move, she can recapture the attention from all those bleepity techno gadgets, like iPhones, iPads, Nintendos and xBoxes. Cabana holds her own against them all--and that's got to be the toughest job there is! Any creature that can accomplish that deserves a prize, wouldn't you agree?

Hope you'll wish us luck in the contest. Or better yet, why not enter, too? I hear there are going to be some great prizes!

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