Of little dogs and big shakes

Darby appears to be on the mend, as I mentioned on Facebook over the weekend. Though I continue to have concerns that at some point a surgical intervention will be needed to deal with his knee issues, it looks like that time may be later, rather than sooner. The meds we got from his doctor seem to be doing the trick and he’s back to being his noisy, happy little self, for which I am grateful.

I wanted to share this info over the weekend, but to be honest with you, with all of the destruction and sorrow currently taking place in Japan, it felt almost disrespectful to be rejoicing over a floppy little white dog’s leg feeling better. Like many of you, my weekend was filled with checking on news about the status of Japan following the host of disasters they continue to face as I type this post. My heart goes out to everyone there, human and animal alike, as they come to grips with the magnitude of the disaster.

In the face of situations like the one in Japan, I am perpetually grateful to see the public will rise to the occasion, providing whatever help they can to the victims of disasters. We were able to help Dog Bless You reach 100,000 “likes” before the weekend was out, which will generate a $200,000 donation from the Annenberg Foundation for disaster relief in Japan. The organization World Vets is currently mobilizing to go to Japan to assist in relief efforts for pets and animals injured or displaced during the earthquake and tsunami. In addition, search and rescue teams from California have been deployed to Japan to search for survivors. If you have a couple of dollars to spare these groups can certainly use your support.

Paws crossed that Mother Nature settles down long enough for the people of Japan to catch their breath and get on the path to recovery.

And the verdict is...

Puppy Darby.

To those of you who were kind enough to extend warm wishes and drop me messages of concern, thank you so much. I truly appreciate it.

Darby was doing a fair bit better on Monday, so I decided not to jam up the vet’s phone at the crack of dawn and instead left a little space for one of the dozen or so folks who would undoubtedly be calling as well. We ended up heading over to the veterinary office on Tuesday morning for his visit.

The tentative diagnosis from the doctor is that he may have a tear in his ACL (which I doubt) and his kneecap is loose (which I don’t doubt) , which, if you’ve been around a while, is pretty much the exact same diagnosis we got last year at this time. Due to the level of Darby’s anxiety (which sounds much nicer than “spazziness”), he will need to be sedated and have x-rays taken to confirm.  The doctor also gave us pain meds so we can take some time to see if it stabilizes on its own with a little time and rest.

So, although we’re a bit bummed that we may have to wander this particular path again with the Doodlebug, we take care of our own and we’ll do what’s necessary to see to his care. Today I just thank the great dog in the sky that dogs only have two knees.

And I promise a nicer story coming up soon.

The sad tale of the damaged Doodle

Yesterday was such a beautiful day down here in the south end of California's Central Valley. Following our completed Saturday rounds, the spouse and I settled in the backyard to enjoy the late afternoon sun, the air and the critters. Weather like this draws the cats out, as it's warm enough to comfortably rest their aging frames in the sunny spot of their choice.

Darby was busy being his Doodlebug self, zipping around after the birds who dared to light on the lawn, barking at the neighbor dog to try and draw him to the fence line and coming back our way repeatedly so we could egg him on to his next adventure.

Then came Bob, the neighborhood cat who, judging by his frame, is pretty well fed by someone but doesn't seem to ever get indoors, as we find him hanging around at all hours of the day and night. Given the frequency with which he bounces over to visit us (when Darby's safely indoors, as Bob is a bright boy), we're of the mind that he may be angling for an upgrade from family friend to family member, but I digress.

Bob rarely comes into the yard when Darby's outdoors, but every once in a while the dogs on the other side of the fences seem far more menacing than Doodlebug so he takes his chances. Other times we may pop outside without being aware that Bob's in the yard, so Darby gets a romp. We never knowingly let Doodle out when Bob or Brindle (the other stray) are crossing through the yard unless they are well, well out of reach. It's not that Darby would do anything to hurt them, because he absolutely wouldn't, but because we have no reason to terrorize a couple of cats who don't cause us any grief.

Darby saw Bob and it was game on. The Doodlebug did a couple of figure eights trying to cover every inch of turf where Bob might have left a scent-print, head high and tail as high and tight as it gets. Little dude was having the time of his life, right until he wasn't.

There was no magic sound, no yelp, whine or whimper. He just stopped in the back corner where he nearly always stops at the end of his runs to make his last bark-howl of victory, only there was no sound of triumph issuing forth. Just the sight of him limping, or more accurately, hobbling back to the patio.

Frak.

Eleven months to the day after his knee surgery, the Doodle appears to be broken once again, the pain emanating from his body posture matched by our own pain and sadness at seeing him suffering. We brought him in and kept him as comfortable as he'd let us, hoping against hope that it was something strained, rather than damaged.

No such luck. This morning he was every bit as bad as last night.


(For those of you playing at home, that is not the leg that was operated on last year. It's the other one.)

Shortly after taking that sad little video, which is not great but might be worth having the vet look at for perspective, I dug out a spare Rimadyl we had from his surgery and gave it to Darby, hoping it might ease his discomfort. It appears to have helped a bit, as he seems to have gone from horrible, awful pain to just really uncomfortable.

We'll be calling the vet first thing in the morning, paws crossed that it's not as bad as it seems.

Picture Day!

Yesterday morning was a wholly unplanned "picture day" for the Doodle and me. While playing on Facebook last weekend, I commented on a Fido Friendly post and was subsequently asked for a photo to include with my post for publication. Granted, it's a tiny little comment, nothing nearly as awesome as the According to Gus spread, but it may very well be the only time Darby and I are ever in a magazine, so it's exciting enough for us.

The only hitch in this piece of fun was my utter lack of a decent photo of the two of us. I have hundreds of photos of Darby --- happy Darby, sleeping Darby, wet Darby, playing Darby, puppy Darby --- but nearly none of the two of us together. Ugh. I hate having photos taken of me, but if I want our little one inch by one inch piece of photographic immortality, looks like I'm going to have to suck it up and smile for the camera.

We got up yesterday morning and had my husband snap off a few pics of the two of us before I headed to work. I drove off with a bit of trepidation, since whatever was stored on the camera card was what I had to live with, having promised to send the photo directly.

Turns out my spouse grabbed what may be one of my very favorite "me and Doodle" shots. Darby is about as cute as I think I'll ever get on film and I managed to not look like a complete dork, which is harder than it sounds. See for yourself.

He looks so grown-up!

We're on the Hop again this weekend!

How do you follow the bouncing blogs?

Chalk this up to another discussion topic for the group. Though perhaps not as interesting as the one about the "midnight howler", I'm hoping the comments will render some interesting perspectives.

I recently realized that I have about six ways to follow blogs I am interested in: I can add them to my Google blog feed; follow them on Facebook, Twitter or through Networked Blogs; subscribe through email; or subscribe through an RSS feed. Or any combination thereof.

Amazingly enough, I use every method listed above to try and keep up with everyone, some with much greater success than others. In the beginning, I was certain that using the Google feed would be the easiest way to stay on top of everything, but I was dead wrong. I need to be signed in to access my blog feed, which is awesomely easy when I wish to write something or reply to comments I get, but since I don't have the brainpower to post something every day, I'm not signing in and thus, not seeing new posts on my Blogger feed.

It turns out that my two favorite methods of following blogs are the two I thought I would dislike the most: Facebook and email. Being an unrepentant Facebook junkie means I always see new posts from fellow bloggers, since I'm one of those people who check FB more than once a day. Plus, I've noticed that a few other bloggers utilize Facebook in the manner I do, sharing articles of interest and brief insights that may not be worthy of a post of their own, but are still worth passing on to like-minded people.

Email subscriptions have turned out to be quite handy as well, as they let me go back and read posts when I have time to do so, without having to dig through a slew of other items to relocate them. I can easily sort my email by author or date and dig in when there's time to read and respond if I so desire.

All of which leaves me curious as to what your favorite methods are for following the blogs you choose to follow. Have you found one method better than another? Is there another way that you organize your favorite blogs for maximum reading pleasure that I left out? Some incredible method that I haven't named, but should know about? Inquiring minds want to know...