Endings and Beginnings

The last part of May, Casey, my little 11 year old dachshund who had recovered from paralysis when he was 4, started having problems. At first it appeared to be another bout of paralsysis. He was unable to walk and seemed depressed. I treated him for pain and crated him. In a few days he seemed to improve but then started having digestion issues. It was a roller coaster month as he would improve then decline. After several trips to the vet, Xrays and bloodtests, a mass was found affecting his stomach, pancreas and esophagus. He also had a lot of air pockets in his body cavity. Options were limited. The doctor didn't think he'd survive surgery as he was getting weaker every day. Finally, I made the decision to end his suffering.

I miss him so much. I cried for days and found that my bedroom is a very empty place. I would talk to him out of habit then realize he wasn't there. Feel for him in his usual sleeping spots in the bed, and more than once I dropped a crumb or something and called him to get it before realizing he was gone. It was such a gaping hole.

I realized that I had not been without a dachshund since I was 12 years old. There has always been a furry little warm pup in my bed. I knew what I had to do. I started dachshund shopping.

I found a puppy at Petland, but then after considering that Petland buys most of it's dogs from puppy mills I changed my mind. I went on line and monitored the newspapers and ad magazines until finally finding my new puppy.

She doesn't have a name yet. She is a beautiful black and tan, long haired dachshund. She's very sweet and mellow. She hugs your neck the way my old Dachshund, Morty, used to (also my mother's dachshund, Beaver, used to be a neck hugger). She has very kind intelligent eyes and is adorable when she bounces around and plays. VERY clumsey still, even at 11 weeks. She does the Ooooze thing on the bed, where she lays down and pushes with her back legs to move around. That's just adorable.

The breeder is Midget's Minnies and she states that to her knowledge, none of her dogs have ever had any spinal issues and tend to live to 15 and older. She seems like a very responcible breeder who only breeds her dogs a few years and then puts them up for adoption as pets while they are still young (6 and under) or she retires them in her household as pets. She had several pets there to prove it. Her puppies go pretty fast apparently.

June Bugs

What a great month for Cody this has been so far. He expanded his horizons to strange new worlds. So far this month we've been to Little Manatee River State Park and Duette Preserve "Headwaters" in addition to GW Griffin Park. His gait is more consistant with every ride.

At Little Manatee River State Park, he encountered alot of water logged trails and had to trudge through black water, filled ruts, green water and flooded grass fields. Once he got his first good boy he went LOOKING for water to walk through so he could hear "Good boy" again. He's such a suck up.

He also went down close quarter trails for the first time. Up until now it has been roads, wide trails and open fields. He was jumpy at first when the vegetation brushed his side and belly, but he quickly adjusted and again, after finding out it would get him a "Good boy", he went looking for opportunities to go "off trail".

We went over logs, around snags, through deep dirt and sand, mucky mud, palmetto stumps and shell roads. He handled it very well.

Peg and I joined Myakka River Riders Saddle Club and took our first ride with a large group at Duette Headwaters. Cody was very excited and ansy at first. While waiting for the others to finish saddling and mounting up, I had to take him off to the side and do a few circles until he finally stood. After the first 15 minutes of the ride, he had calmed down and was moving out nicely.

He's doing fantastic with his gaits. Slowly but surely he's becoming consistant coming out of the dog walk into the flat walk and even into the running walk. I'm so proud of him.

The bugs are really coming out as the trails are heating up. It was muggy like a sauna and flies and gnats and mosquitos were looking to gnaw on us.

Stampede!

Today Bo ran me over. Not like "oops" stepped on me. But like flat mowed me down.

I was leading him out to the pasture this morning and paused at the gate to shoo the goats away. The gate was slightly open with me on the inside and Bo on the outside. I had a leadrope around his neck. Just as I started to turn away from him to shoo goats, he charged through the partially open gate. His shoulder went into me, knocking me down and he leapt over me. His back hoof (might have been cannon) struck me... (cough) right in the butt.

Now it might have been funny if it hadn't been so painful or terrifying. I mean, I was sure I was going to be stomped. But the impact sent me tumbling over and over. I landed in a heap, covered in sand and in big time pain.

Luckily it didn't aggravate my neck SOMEhow (got a couple of bad discs). But I have a huge long ridge on my butt.

I think he's trying to kill me.