I Scream, You Scream...

Growing up, my family celebrated just about anything with a trip to Baskin' Robbins. Big things like birthdays and holidays. Small things like all As on report cards and band concerts. Ice cream was an important part of my family's traditions. It's hard to find a Baskin' Robbins these days and when you do they don't usually have my favorite flavor - chocolate fudge. I'm sure it has some sort of super sugar in it that makes it so chocolaty good so it's been banned or something. Kev and I recently enjoyed frozen treats at Menchie's, which is a new-fangled frozen yogurt place in town. It's good, but it's no chocolate fudge.

Doggie ice cream is a staple at our house. It's not ice cream, so I call them freezies. I use the small GladWare containers - I have no idea what they are actually intended for because they are too small to store anything of value in them - and mix up plain, low-fat yogurt and their daily dose of glucosamine and MSM, then throw it in the freezer. It's a great 3 p.m snack for the girls and it is good for them. Sometimes I mix in a banana, peanut butter, apple, or whatever it might be tasty, but they like the standard offering best.

Roxy demonstrates her exceptional licking skills. She's the worst at chewing on the containers as she tries to pop the whole freezie out of the container so she can chew it instead of licking it. She's like one of those weird people who bite into their frozen treats. She's getting better at enjoying her freezie the old fashioned way without me correcting her. Leave it to Roxy to be the only dog in the universe that needs training on how to lick something.

One Tough Bitch

Getting old stinks. Your knees, ankels, shoulder, hips - just pick a body part and at some point over the age of 30 it will fail you based on how you treated it when you were younger. I was a dancer and believe me, my knees remember this even if the rest of my body doesn't. 

Dog bodies are no different. It's hard to watch my girls age, slow down, hobble a little more. I don't know about their life before me, other than the number of races they ran. I know what racing kennels look like, turn out frequency and feeding habits of life is like at the track, so I can assume what daily life was like. What I have no idea about is what they were like as puppies and to be honest with you, I really never wondered about it until a couple of weeks ago.

Seka has progressively become more and more weak in her back legs over the past year. The trembling, the shaking and the lack of stamina is apparent to me. This doesn't mean she doesn't want to do things. She loves going places. She enjoys our READing Paws visits and our therapy dog work. On warm days, she's happy to lay in the sun and play with her squeaky toy in the afternoons. But after a spill in the backyard on February 5, I took her into the vet for x-rays. 

They knocked her out for a good set of hip, spine and leg x-rays to make sure nothing was broken or out of place and to confirm a muscle strain. X-rays confirmed no breaks - well no new breaks. Despite the many x-rays we've taken over the years, including those when she had her toe amputated, obviously didn't include a hip x-ray in that particular view. Because if they were taken, we'd seen a long time ago that she had a break in her hip that happened when she was approximately 6 to 8 months old based on where the fracture healed in the growth plate (I know, right?). 

Of course I had no idea of this injury. Seka ran four races. Seka lure coursed. Seka retrieved a ball as many times as we threw it. A hip fracture at six months old would have prevented all of this, right? 

According to the ortho surgeon at Auburn University, Seka is one tough bitch. I'm guessing that's a clinical diagnosis. 

Between Dr. Hottie and Dr. Smarty (the ortho surgeon at AU) we've been presented with two options: femoral head ostectomy (FHO) surgery or adequan injections. The FHO sounds scary to me and let's face it, it's a surgery done on lots of other breeds, but rarely on greyhounds. Seka's x-rays are out for additional opinions with Dr. Gillette at AU and Dr. Couto and team at OSU. She's feeling much better by increasing her Rimadyl, but I know we can't do that forever. 

Seka's being true to her official AU diagnosis - she's one tough bitch. Now to figure out how to be like my dog as we decide what to do next.

Goldilocks

There has been an ongoing challenge in our living room lately between Seka and Sam. Both are sunshine girls. Some days they bake themselves in front of our living room window all day. While there's plenty of room for a 65 lb dog and a 13 lb cat in the afternoon sun spots, it seems like there's an unwritten rule that they cannot share them.

Seka was like the third little bear today with someone sleeping on her bed. Sam thinks that Seka's bed in the sun spot is just right.

May the Force Be With Roo

I will save my excitement for the Super Bowl until after Sunday when the Patriots (fingers crossed) are officially in the game. Until then, many companies are sneaking previews of some of their Super Bowl commercials on You Tube. Today, I saw VW's, The Bark Side. 

Being an owner of two dogs who really don't bark - not even group roos - the barking was a bit annoying to me. But please wait until the end for the cherry on top!

I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what this has to do with VW, other than they probably paid out the nose for Star Wars rights three years ago and have to use it even if they don't want to. And I will admit that I didn't catch on that they were barking the Stormtrooper Theme until the video was playing in the background as I typed this post. But that last little bark at the end and the schnauzer dressed like an Ewok totally makes this worth the one minute watch.

Unwrapping Fun

I had a friend tell me that she would not be wrapping gifts for her one year old child this Christmas. In her words, "It is a waste of time, money and energy because they can't unwrap it anyway. Wrapping gifts for a one year old baby is like wrapping a gift for your dogs." Well, I guess she has never met Roxy.

Happy New Year to everyone! May 2012 bring you lots of gifts to tear into!

Random Days of Christmas: Day 14

Day 14: You Need a New Sofa When...

The greyhounds prefer to rearrange the cushions so they are actually being eaten by them.

Random Days of Christmas: Day 13

Day 13: Reindog

Seka is a certified therapy dog. Most of the time we go to the nursing home alone, but we've recently become active with a local therapy dog group in Dublin - which is about an hour away from us. When Seka was younger she loved going to the nursing home and didn't really like visiting with kids. As she has aged, she doesn't like the nursing home so much and prefers to hang with the youngsters. Maybe she thinks I'm going to leave her at the old folks home. Or maybe it's because kids are sticky and taste better than nursing home food.

We were a part of Santa and his reindogs visits this year and of course, Seka made the best reindeer of all. In fact, maybe a little too good. A few of the residents thought she was a real reindeer.

These antlers were given to us years ago and she wears them like a champ for about 30 minutes. The bell collar - not so much. I do have to admit, from far away she looks rather real.

Happy Holidays to each of you!!!