This post is very late because I have been busy chasing after our new puppy all day. Welcome, Coraline!
Isn’t she adorable?! She’s about 14 weeks old and we rescued her through Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue. They’re an amazing group and the same place through which I rescued both Brodie and Logan.
She’s been showing her BT characteristics (crazy energy, plenty of farts, and general flail-y-ness) and settling in with us. She definitely loves to play with toys.
She also loves to nap! When we were signing the paperwork at her foster home, she jumped up in Karl’s lap and went from manic licking of his face to totally asleep in no time at all. Karl’s lap has since become one of her favorite places (just like Brodie).
When she’s sleeping, she turns into a wet noodle – she doesn’t care what position she’s in. But when she starts to slip, she notices a little bit.
At first Brodie was pretty apprehensive about her, but they’re really warming up to each other. There’s been a lot of sniffing, of course.
We got her some new toys, so that she’ll have some that aren’t already Brodie’s. This nyla went over well!
Fair warning: be prepared for a ridiculous amount of anerable puppy photos.
This morning we are heading over to the west side of the state to meet and hopefully adopt a playmate for Brodie. It’s a puppy! We weren’t expecting a puppy, since we adopt dogs through Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue and there are many more older dogs than puppies, but we’re really excited about her. We also think that a puppy may be just the right kind of companion for Brodie. Fingers crossed!
Thanks to atrphoto for CC licensing this hilarious photo.
I was really hoping that I would have pics of a new dog to post today, but our meeting with a potential adoptee yesterday did not go too well.
It was a little weird, since we were meeting at the foster home which was in downtown Chicago. I’m not accustomed to having a dog with me in a big city environment and it felt odd. When we arrived, the potential adoptee barked his head off at Brodie when he first saw him, which set Brodie’s nerves jangling more than they already were due to the traffic and city noises. Brod’s a hyper dog any day, and with nerves, I’m sure he was just way overstimulated. When they were doing the meet-and-sniff, Brodie showed his nerves and fear by snapping at the other dog (did not hurt him physically at all), and the other dog got totally dramatic and acted as if he were terrified of Brodie. I’ve never seen a dog do that – all the other dogs Brodie has ever interacted with in my presence have all been like, “oh yeah?” and stood their ground. The other dog also tried to hump Brodie at one point, which I don’t think helped, and Brodie kept snapping at the other guy whenever they’d get to sniffing each other out. They didn’t have a yard, so it was all pretty awkward – I’m used to introducing dogs in a place where we can let them off-leash so they can run around and be whatever distance from each other suits them while they get used to each other. We couldn’t let them off-leash in the courtyard entryway to her condo, so we ended up in her condo itself, sitting on the floor in the hallway. Nothing about it felt right. In the end, the other dog kept doing a very dramatic hiding-behind-the-humans thing, and giving Brodie a look out of the side of his eyes, the kind of look a popular kid gives a kid with visibly not-trendy clothes. Ugh. After an hour or so, we gave up on either of them changing their mentality about each other and left. It was a long day of driving and pretty emotionally exhausting.
I’m sure that we’ll find a dog with a better temperament who gets along well with Brodie, but it’s frustrating to have invested a whole day and $100 in gas money to come away only having stressed Brodie (and the other dog) out.
In the meantime, here’s another dog who lives in our house: KK Slider.
Have I mentioned that I’m anxiously awaiting the Animal Crossing game for the 3DS?
Today we had to let Logan go. She was experiencing more difficulties related to her liver cancer, and we decided that it was time for her to go before it got any worse. It was really, really hard, and right now we’re back at home lavishing attention on Brodie, who seems slightly confused but not averse to all the love.
Here’s to Logan, who was an awesome dog.
Logan‘s been having a rough time of it lately. She’s about 16 and over the past few years she developed canine Cushing’s, which means that her adrenal gland produces an excess of cortisol. She has luckily not suffered from many of the negative side effects of the condition, for which we’re quite grateful. In the past few months, though, her appearance has really changed and you can see the Cushing’s showing itself in what we call her Logansaurus Rex backbone. Most recently she was diagnosed with liver cancer. It’s pretty advanced and any treatments we might pursue would cause her a lot of stress and pain, and would be unlikely to have much impact, so we’ve decided to let her be.
We’re seeing some signs that the cancer is affecting her, but she isn’t really bothered by them, so we’re trying not to worry about them. She’s definitely not in any pain (she’s always been vocal about expressing even minor discomfort). When she had the x-ray and ultrasound that confirmed her cancer, her liver was three or more times as big as it should be, so along with the Cushing’s, that means that her torso appears to be huge compared to her back end. She’s still eating well and enjoying bellyrubs, though. Even though her liver is ostensibly squishing all her other internal bits, she doesn’t seem to notice. She also has what K refers to as Dogsheimer’s – she’ll zone out just standing around for increasing lengths of time. She’s also started to show another symptom of Cushing’s, hind end weakness, over the last week or so. She isn’t confident enough to get up the stairs on her own, though going down the stairs she’s fine. Despite that, though, she is pretty spry and comes around begging for petting just like she always has. She adores the uber-stinky liver treats we’ve been giving her (vet’s orders) for the past few months. She can smell their disgustingness from the next room and still comes running when it’s treat time.
She is such a great dog! We’re so happy that she’s hanging on and hanging out with us for a while longer. I highly recommend the Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue, through which I got her back at the beginning of the aughts.
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