Goodbye, vet

No, he hasn't died and I haven't mysteriously developed an immunity to all diseases that would permit me to never have to go there again. But he is retiring. This makes mommy sad because she really liked that vet and says he was great with me, even though his clinic was not the cheapest around. Now we have to find a new vet. A few people have recommended this place nearby, so we're going to go check it out when I need my shots which isn't until January.

I really liked that vet and, in the first few months I was with mommy, I saw him a lot, which kinda made her grumble about how expensive I was, but hey, it wasn't my fault. First off, I needed a second round of vaccines after getting my first ones at the SPCA where I was waiting for mommy to find me and take me home. Also, I wasn't fixed yet, but they did that at the SPCA clinic. But before I went in for my second shots, I was hit by a car.

I've vaguely mentioned this incident before. It happened about a week after I had come to live with mommy. My aunty had some friends over and one of them, who despite having a dog herself isn't all that careful, left the upstairs door open while she was going to put her shoes on (we live on the second floor and all shoes get left in the stairway, not in the house) and her father was standing in the downstairs door. Aunty said to be careful, not to let me out, but the guy just moved out of the way and I was free! Then the friend left without even bothering to see if aunty managed to catch me or anything. We live on a busy street and a car was pulling up to the stop. Luckily it wasn't going fast and I just fell down and scraped some fur off my eyebrow. It looked very manly, if I do say so myself. Aunty was panicked, of course, and I was packed off and brought to that vet for the first time. He was very nice to me and complimented me on how calm I was in the waiting room, lying sprawled on the floor waiting for someone to pet me. The friend who let me out never called to see how I was despite another friend who was there calling her and telling her I got hit. Humans.

Anyway, after that I had to go for my shots, then again because I stopped eating for three days and I was tummy-sick for a bit. that was all in the space of a few months, so I saw the vet a lot. He always took good care of me as did the nice techs, so it makes me sad that he's now retired.

I know that the Army of Four love their vets, but a lot of doggies out there hate the vet. Who else out there loves their vet?

My vacation

Hello, all, I am back!

Friday night, granddaddy was nice enough to drive mommy and I up to Rawdon to go visit my harem member and her family. And cat. Anyway, there were so many cool smells around there! Apparently they've been having deer problems, so it was hoped that I'd scare the deer away. I was a bit upset that mommy put be on my 9 meter (30 foot for my american friends) chain, but the yard wasn't fenced and was quite near a road so mommy wasn't taking any chances. What this meant, though, is that I couldn't follow her everywhere! This made me very sad and I cried a little. What can I say, I've already been abandoned twice, so I was a little nervous that mommy was going to leave me too. I calmed down after a bit, though.

Mommy and my harem member took me berry picking with them. They had to spray some stinky stuff to keep bugs away called citronella in my ears and on by belly because the bugs just loved me. I also got a bit of a sunburn on my nose, which makes mommy giggle because the white part of my snout near my nose is mexican pink (the horror), but she's promised that next time, I get to wear sunscreen. I'm not sure how I feel about that, though. Have any of you other dogs, particularly you huskies, gotten sunburn?

I really wanted to play with the cat, but the cat didn't like me at all. Already, that cat hates mommy with a passion, so it was not a fun weekend for the cat. She was glaring accusingly at her humans all weekend. Especially since I kind of took over her bed, since my harem member's bed is a futon on the floor. I got to cuddle with mommy all night. She was a little less amused when I woke her up wanting to eat at 5:30 AM, though. She's easier to harass when she's on the floor, hee hee hee.

The car ride back was ok. I usually am not all that fond of car rides and I was a bit carsick on the way up, but since we were giving my harem member a lift to the city, I got mommy all to myself in the back seat. She cuddled and petted me all the way, so I was really happy. There were these two weird guys while we were stuck in traffic who were doing all kinds of silly things like getting up and running around outside the car, pretending to push their car, coming and asking granddaddy for his "girlfriend's" phone number nevermind that she's MY harem member and 40 years younger than him and not his girlfriend... The humans were all laughing their heads off. I was a bit suspicious. I don't like strange guys hitting on my harem members. At least they didn't try and steal my mommy cuddles. I would have had to pull a Meeshka and claw them. I did that to a guy mommy brought home, once. Stupid boy...

But anyway, apart from the sunburn and the fact that mommy only gave me one of the blueberries that they picked and none of the pie they made with the berries, I had a great weekend.

Thunder and vacation

Hello one and all! I'm back after mommy's hijacking of my blog to write about my cousin Gaia. But I'm not back for long! Apparently, I'm going on vacation with mommy this weekend. We're going up to a place called Rawdon to visit a harem member of mine, pick berries and generally have fun in the country. I'm so excited! I'll get to be outside ALL DAY and there'll be lots of new smells and things to see, and people to pet me... I'm a happy husky. See my happy husky smile?

Actually, that picture was taken last week, after a big thunder storm. It thundered a lot, last week, which made me a bit nervous that the sky would fall or that something big would come and hurt mommy. Or me. Now generally I'm not a nervous husky and mommy says that I'm nowhere near as bad as Aslan the golden in the pictures of mommy's post, but I like having company when it's booming really bad. And I like having a nice den to hide in. Since I don't have a crate to hide in, I go hide behind the big chair in the r living room (where I'm technically not allowed to go, but even granny who's the one who tries to impose that rule lets me in if I don't lie down on her rug) or in a closet somewhere. And I whine at mommy to make it stop. She mostly ignores me, which makes tells me that it's noteally a big deal, but I still like my den. The picture on the left was taken while it was still booming. I was not amused that Mommy decided to photograph me instead of make it stop booming, but humans are weird. On the picture you can kinda see my under the fur freckles. My skin is all dotty like that everywhere, but it's most noticeable on my snout.

Mommy says that I'm a brave dog, even if I hide in a den during storms. She says that the golden who raised her and taught her how to do good begging puppy-dog eyes was the worst when it came to thunder. She remembers a time when they were in the Eastern Townships for the summer and there was a huge storm every day. She was about 8 or so and, she says, not all that brave. One night, it was booming really, really badly and she got scared and tried to climb into granny's bed. Granny was half asleep and thought that mommy was Aslan and pushed mommy out of bed! Mommy was really not amused and she ended up in her own bed, with Aslan who was shaking so hard that the bed was rattling, clinging to each other for dear life. Hehehehehe. Makes me feel really brave. Silly Golden and silly mommy. She told me that story to make me feel better during the storm. See how well it worked? Mommy says that there are few things cuter than a husky smile.

I will write more when I come back from my country adventure! I'll tell you if I catch any bunnies. Or raccoons. Or anything like that...

Louka

In memoram, Gaia (Louka's mommy writing)

I didn't know that even after a year, it would be so hard for me to write this. I didn't know that after a year, it would still hurt like this. It's not as bad as it was, of course, but I still miss our loyal girl who was with us for 11 rock and rolling years.

From the first you showed strong will and character. I remember when we picked you out, one of ten in your litter, the only one of the five girls who took interest in the ball we showed you. I remember when we brought you home and you met Aslan, our golden retriever and your best friend. I can still see the concerned look on his face as you took over his bed, his toys and his life. Not that he really minded. He loved you as much as you loved him.

Mom says that she never raised a pup as difficult as you: you tore up the sofa, ate the phone jack off of the wall, tore your leash out of our hands and teased us running around the neighbourhood, climbed onto the desk to get at the paper in the printer because getting into the garbage was too easy, jumping or knocking down gates meant to keep you in... You were a holy terror. But it didn't matter, because you were our holy terror and your little pranks just made you more endearing. After the fact, of course.


You always had so much energy. You were the ideal hiking companion. I remember our summers in Tadoussac when mom would take off with you and Aslan and we wouldn't see any of you for hours. You were so funny, carrying sticks twice your length around in your mouth, whining when the logs you had grabbed were too heavy, but never, ever giving up. You were the stubbornest, toughest girl I've ever known.

You were also an amazing water dog and retriever! You'd fetch anything, sticks, balls, us... Swimming was always interesting with you there to "rescue" us. You'd never tire, even when you were old and long days of rescuing would leave you limping. Your love of your ball ensured that even though at 9 or 10 you were the oldest dog in the dogrun, you were also the fastest. No one could ever catch you, if you didn't want to be caught.


I think that that's why your death came as such a shock. The suddenness of your illness and the amount of energy you had right until the end despite partial blindness and slight arthritis fooled us all into thinking that you were indestructible. Maybe if we hadn't thought that, we would have called the vet sooner. You had us all fooled, there, hiding your pain until the end, chasing skunks even though you must have been in more pain than I can imagine. It wasn't until that last day that we really saw how sick you were. I'm sorry, puppy, for not seeing that sooner. I'm sorry for not noticing that you were hurting, or realizing that with your symptoms, I should call the vet immediately. I try to tell myself that it wouldn't have done any good, but there's always that little bit of doubt in my mind that won't leave me alone.

I'm sorry, too, that we didn't offer you a better life. You were never really meant for the city, especially after Aslan died. You were always too afraid of everything and everyone, you would have been better somewhere bigger with less scary stimuli, especially in your older years when you were going blind. Maybe it was selfish of us never to let you move to the country with a better family, but we could never have let go of our baby girl. Even when you died, it was hard to let go. You don't know how many sleepless nights I spent hoping that it was all a terrible nightmare and that my darling little girl would come back. I read everything I could get my hands on about parvo and memorized the list of symptoms that you should automatically call the vet about. I couldn't believe that you were gone and that I'd never see you again. I still miss you, sometimes, especially when I see a pretty lab go by.

I want to thank you, though, because I'm sure that you're the one who made sure that I found your cousin Louka at just the right time. It was pure chance that brought us into the SPCA that day, looking to meet another dog. I didn't even see him next to the dobermann that was jumping out at me barking angrily. But you whispered into your mommy's ear, didn't you? You told her to go get me, that he was the one. You would never have accepted another canine companion apart from Aslan in life, but I think that you chose your successor wisely. He will never replace you, baby girl, but I love him with all my heart and I thank you for bringing him to me.

It's been a year and we still love you, Gaia, I hope that you'll always know that and that when we finally cross the rainbow bridge ourselves, you'll be there, tail wagging to greet us.

I love you always,
Your Antique.

Training my humans

Really, these humans are bad at their commands. Well, not all of them. I've trained them to listen to "pet me", "Feed me" and "take me out", but I still really need to work on their "stay". It was bad enough that mommy left for 6 WHOLE WEEKS to that tibet place with Granddaddy, but now Aunty is gone to a place called "fur-ants" or "fur-ance" or something like that and I have no clue when she'll be home! And now Granny's bringing up suitcases from the basement too and mommy's saying that all my harem are on vacation except for one who's already started classes so she can't come visit me! Those humans! Oh it's alright for them to do the whole "sit", "stay" thing to me, but will they ever listen? Noooooo. At least mommy's promised me that we're going to go visit the harem member who's still in the country weekend after next. She was visiting this weekend, but we didn't do much. When we go visit her, it'll be more fun. She lives in the country about 1 1/2 drive up north where it actually gets cold at night (hallelujah) and mommy got me a nice 30-foot chain so that I don't run into the street and get hit by a car. Not that I would do this, of course. That first time was a total accident... It'll be strange going up there. It's right around where my first home was. Mommy knows this because I had a vet tag from a town near where my harem member lives. I'm looking forward to it, though.

Anyway, I'll post pictures of my country weekend when I have them!

A question: how hot is it where all of you dogs are and how are you coping with the heat?

Until next time,
Louka